Today's first reading at Holy Mass is taken from Isaiah 11: 1-10:
"On that day, a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips. Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together,with a little child to guide them. The cow and the bear shall be neighbors, together their young shall rest; the lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair. There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD, as water covers the sea. On that day, the root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, the Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious."
This prophecy from Isaiah speaks of a time when Jesus will return to establish His Kingdom on earth, a Kingdom where truth, justice and righteousness will reign. And how can we prepare for this glorious Kingdom on earth? St. Paul provides us with the way:
"I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. For by the grace given to me I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than one ought to think, but to think soberly, each according to the measure of faith that God has apportioned. For as in one body we have many parts, and all the parts do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them: if prophecy, in proportion to the faith; if ministry, in ministering; if one is a teacher, in teaching; if one exhorts, in exhortation; if one contributes, in generosity; if one is over others, with diligence; if one does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor. Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the holy ones, exercise hospitality. Bless those who persecute (you), bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not be wise in your own estimation. Do not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all. If possible, on your part, live at peace with all. Beloved, do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." Rather, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head." Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good." (Romans 12: 2-21).
St. Paul exhorts us to try to live at peace with all and to practice hospitality toward all. Sadly, there are those whose idea of "hospitality" does not include all but only those persons who march in lockstep with their own ideology. Such a "hospitality" is offered at Keene State College and its Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies, a "hospitality" which attempts to demonize opposition to homosexuality as a form of mental illness: "homophobia." A "hospitality" which levels false allegations against the Catholic Church of having entertained "traditional forms of anti-Semitism" in her teachings. A spurious allegation which has been totally refuted here: http://lasalettejourney.blogspot.com/2007/12/call-for-apology.html. A "hospitality" which makes excuses for the following anti-Catholic quotation which was posted at SBC Watch:
“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government”, and, “In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.” “May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.."
When a woman named Ellen Wironken objected to this truly reprehensible quotation, an individual named Peter Majoy*, who appears to have some sort of connection with Keene State's Cohen Center, responded by writing, "I can understand how you feel given what I am assuming to be your faith place within the conservative-liberal interpretive spectrum of Roman Catholicism. To that extent, I have no problem offering an apology to you for the feelings the Jefferson quote triggered within you. On the other hand, and for many reasons, I don’t share your assessment of the quote..."
And why is this? Mrs. Wironken objected to this quotation being cited at the SBC Watch Blog [which is featured prominently at the Cohen Center Blog and has been featured in an article published in the Keene State College student newspaper The Equinox] because it adds nothing positive to charitable discussion and in no way contributes to an authentic hospitality. Priest-ridden people? Is the priesthood a disease? The priest has been hostile to liberty? He is always in alliance with the despot? Monkish ignorance and superstition? What is it about Mrs. Wironken's assessment of that horrendous quotation that Mr. Majoy doesn't agree with? Perhaps he would be so kind as to be a tad bit more specific?
Are Keene State College and the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies really interested in an authentic hospitality? It would seem not. Rather, it would appear that those associated with these entities are more interested in sowing the seeds of division, disunity and discord when it comes to practicing hospitality toward Catholics.
What a shame.
* Mr. Peter Majoy has left a comment at the Cohen Center Blog which is critical of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights:
Dear Readers,
Reference to The Catholic League has been made in the context of claims that anti-catholic bigotry has been practiced by the Cohen Center, SBCWatch, and certain individuals. Please go to the following web site to read information about The Catholic League: http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/6/4/104521/2225
Thanks.
Pete Majoy
Source: http://keeneweb.org/cohencenter
The link provided by Mr. Peter Majoy takes one to a website belonging to a group calling itself Talk to Action. This organization has a statement of purpose:
"Statement of Purpose
Talk to Action is a platform for reporting on, learning about, and analyzing and discussing the religious right -- and what to do about it.
There is an editorial framework for this site than that is different than you will find on other major blog sites, so please read this carefully: We are pro-religious equality and pro-separation of church and state. We are prochoice, and we support gay and lesbian civil rights -- including marriage equality. Therefore, debates about the validity of abortion and gay rights are off topic."
Now we can see what is driving Mr. Majoy, an individual closely associated with the Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Keene State College. It also helps to explain the organization's use of the word "homophobia." Apparently the Cohen Center is using the Holocaust to advance a political agenda which is at odds with Catholic moral teaching. Why else would Mr. Majoy recommend a link to an organization promoting abortion, homosexuality and even same-sex "marriage"?
Victoria Provost left yet another comment at the Cohen Center Blog expressing her fears about "theocracy." As if the Catholic Church would like to control American society under some sort of tyrannical rule.
ReplyDeleteLike there's any danger of theocracy in our society. You can't even put up a Christmas tree in public or pray in the public schools without incurring the wrath of (and litigation from) the ACLU.
Sure, there's a real danger of theocracy. Of course, there is no danger from what Pope Benedict XVI rightly referred to as the "Dictatorship of Relativism."
Of course not.
By coming out against the Catholic League, Mr. Majoy has fully revealed his anti-Catholicism. Why would he have a problem with the Catholic League and not the ADL?
ReplyDeleteBetty Grondin Jose wrote a comment at the Cohen Center Blog which I have responded to:
ReplyDelete"Betty Grondin Jose wrote, "I...intended to bring up a truth about the Catholic community that I grew up with, because I believe there is no right to claim holy ground from this community or any other."
And what is this "truth" which Betty brought up? In a previous post she wrote, "My Catholic upbringing was visited by tragedy when the clergy abuse surfaced and I learned my mother was a victom, by her own devoutly Catholic father, and one of my childhood priests was also discovered to be a perpetrator. Stating this fact could be heard as anti Catholic by some, and I have to admit, there is some lingering anger from me for this severe hurt my family endured, but there is no intention to malign the whole body of the Catholic Church. That would be contrary to some very solid personal beliefs."
If there is no intention to malign the "whole body of the Catholic Church," then why does she now write, "I..intended to bring up a truth about the Catholic COMMUNITY that I grew up with, because I believe there is no right to claim holy ground from this community or any other"?
As Paul Melanson has shown so well at La Salette Journey, the Church as person is without sin because She is the Body of Christ. She is not responsible for the sins of her individual members. When Catholics sin they do so by betraying the Church. Usually because they have been influenced by the zeitgeist.
Betty Grondin-Jose says that (on her part): "there is no intention to malign the whole body of the Catholic Church. That would be contrary to some very solid personal beliefs." But then she refers to "a truth about the Catholic COMMUNITY that I grew up with." And what is that truth Betty? That there are sinners in the Catholic Church? Does that come as a surprise to you? There are sinners within the Jewish community as well. Does that fact imply that the tenets of Judaism are somehow flawed or that the entire Jewish community is responsible for the faults of a few?
I'm very sorry that your mother was hurt by those who professed to be Catholic Betty. But THEIR sins are just that: THEIR sins."
Paul, thanks for showing us what I've suspected for a little while now: the Cohen Center and Keene State are politicizing the Holocaust to promote anti-Catholicism, abortion, homosexuality, and same-sex "marriage." This is why the Cohen Center refers to any opposition to homosexuality as "homophobia" and why Mrs. Provost has also used the term.
ReplyDeleteThey are involved in a truly cynical and hateful business: using the murder of innocent Jewish people to foster anti-Catholicism and to advance a political agenda.
These people should be ashamed.
Margaret & Roger, I agree. The nature of the comments at the blog for the Cohen Center speaks for itself. But Pete Majoy's endorsement of Talk to Action tells the rest of the story. The real question for me is this: why is Victoria Provost allied with people who are pushing an abortion and homosexuality agenda if she is really "a practicing Catholic" as she has stated herself?
ReplyDeleteAll is not as it seems is it? Is she telling people that she is a practicing Catholic the better to promote an anti-Catholic agenda?
All very legitimate questions. Let's see if she comes out publically to identify herself with the Church's teachings regarding homosexuality and abortion. Let's see if she will publically repudiate the false idea that the Church has been guilty of "doctrinal error."
If she doesn't, then we know where she stands on these issues don't we?
At Keene State, homosexual agitprop and fear-inducing talk of "theocracy" [the Church isn't trying to take over American democracy - or any other] is "okay" but there is no talk of how homosexual activists want to enforce their agenda on Christians, Jews, Muslims and all people who are opposed to homosexual acts and the legalization of homosexual "marriage."
ReplyDeleteRead here to see how some homosexual activists - and a police sergeant (talk about chilling) slandered Catholic activist Larry Cirignano.
Although the people of Massachusetts have said time and again that they don't want same-sex "marriage" crammed down their throats, the SJC has decided to ignore the will of the citizens of Massachusetts and to impose Judicial tyranny.
For some reason the link I tried to include in my previous post didn't take. Here it is:
ReplyDeletehttp://dtf-jayg.blogspot.com/2007/12/end-game-silence-moral-based-dissent.html
Read how homosexual activists slandered Larry Cirignano and how a police sergeant also lied about him.
A rather sad comment was left at the Keene Sentinel weblog from a woman named Ann. It would seem that there is a deep hatred being directed against Catholics who have a problem with the anti-Catholicism of the Cohen Center. My own commentary...
ReplyDelete"There is a comment from Ann in which she alleges that if one will,"just go to the Cohen Center's site and read the comments on the blog from the lasalette groupies and Paul himself," they will see that this entire issue is about Mr. Melanson. I find it insulting (and I'm sure others do as well) that we are classified as people who cannot think for ourselves and that we are somehow "groupies." And I should note that I visited the Cohen Center weblog just now and have seen absolutely no posts written by Mr. Melanson himself. Only a few in which he is quoted. There are several from Mr. Pete Majoy. And some have agreed with him. Does that make these people "groupies" of Mr. Majoy?
I cannot help but notice that Mr. Majoy still refuses to answer my rather simple, direct and honest questions pertaining to that horrid anti-Catholic quotation offered by Mr. Tom Matson and published by Mr. Russell Provost. Clearly Mr. Majoy has no intention to acknowledge my point that such a quotation adds nothing positive to the discussion at hand and reflects a lack of hospitality.
I just visted the SBC Watch weblog as well today. Since instituting new rules at that weblog, it appears that no one is leaving any comments. Wouldn't that suggest that most (if not all) of the previous comments were really coming from one person?
This whole issue is about the anti-Catholicism of the Cohen Center and the anti-Semitism of the SBC. You cannot condemn one and condone the other without coming across as a hypocrite."
Mr. Melanson, you wouldn't believe the new discussion thread at the Keene Sentinel Talkback. Here is my most recent comment...
ReplyDelete"It would seem that the facts of history are deemed "inconvenient" by those who have succumbed to Atheistic Humanism. But the fact remains (as cited in the previous article I posted), that, "a quick calculation reveals that atheist regimes killed ten thousand times more people in the space of a few decades than the Spanish Inquisition managed to kill over a period of more than two centuries." Atheism kills.
This discussion has everything to do with atheism. Keene State College and the Cohen Center for Anti-Catholic Propaganda are hell bent on silencing orthodox Catholics and are using the Holocaust as a political weapon against such Catholics. I am not a member of the SBC. What I am is an orthodox Catholic who finds it amusing that the Cohen Center for Anti-Catholic Propaganda couldn't answer Mr. Paul Melanson's questions and that Keene State College uses the word "homophobia" as a cheap tactic for silencing moral opposition to homosexuality.
Atheism not only leads to the killing of people in many cases, but it does everything in its power to kill real dialogue by attempting to control the conversation through semantic devices and propaganda. This is why those of us who oppose the atheistic program of murdering children through abortion are referred to as "anti-life" and those who promote these killings are referred to as "pro-choice." This makes it seem like those of us who oppose the murder of the unborn are somehow "un-American" and those who favor killing innocent children are somehow "patriots" who "love freedom" more than we do. Why not refer to us as "pro-life" and those who are pro-abortion as "anti-life"? The answer is obvious. Propaganda.
Keene State College and the Cohen Center for Anti-Catholic Propaganda have been exposed for what they are: bastions of atheism which flat out refuse to have anything resembling a real dialogue."
Stewart, you are correct about the number of people murdered by atheistic humanism in the 20th century. I just posted this at the Keene Sentinel weblog:
ReplyDelete""To the 100 million victims now numbered by The Black Book of Communism, Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty exemplifies the most striking religious witness to the evils of atheistic Communism. His strength and valor in opposing Communism should be honored and remembered as we now venerate St. Maximilian Kolbe and Blessed Edith Stein, Catholic saints of the of Nazi Holocaust." (http://vip.latnet.lv/LPRA/100MilVictims.htm).
Yet another website which documents the fact that Atheistic Humanism was responsible for the murders of 100 million (by conservative estimates) people.
6 million Jews were murdered during the Nazi Holocaust and 5 million "others" as well. This comes to some 11 million murdered by the atheistic/pagan Nazis. But this is nothing compared to the openly atheistic regimes (Communist) which, as Stewart has noted, "killed ten thousand times more people in the space of a few decades than the Spanish Inquisition managed to kill over a period of more than two centuries."
Why isn't the Cohen Center concerned about THOSE victims? Because this was a slaughter of Christians who opposed atheistic regimes. Apparently the Cohen Center and Keene State deem these killings "irrelevant.""