No idea if this guy's Catholic or not...
but I think he's beginning to see that Pope Paul VI was a prophet when he wrote Humanae Vitae. (WARNING: SOME OF THE LINKED ARTICLE IS A BIT COARSE.)
Thanks to Relapsed Catholic for the link.

A thank you
to Mr. Mooney for his kind post here.

Two notes for those devoted to the Venerable Newman...
Mr. Serafin reminds us all that today is the anniversary of the publication of Tract 90 ... the public 'beginning of the end' of Newman's life as an Anglican.
Also, I have just received word that Mr. Gerard Tracey, who worked with the archives at the Birmingham Oratory for many years, has gone to his reward. I'm sure that prayers for the repose of his soul would be welcome.

Something is tempting me to call him "Fr. White Hand"...
but apparently his name is actually Fr. Thomas Quinlan. The combination of half-baked theological opinions and what seems to be truly breathtaking arrogance is appalling. This priest needs prayer immediately !

A laita se !
A bishop with backbone ! Please keep him in prayer !
Here is a link to the homily mentioned.

The statement by Russ Lopez is utterly pathetic. If bishops aren't supposed to tell people how to practice the Faith, what the heck are they for ?

Amy Welborn nails it
with her post on the way pro-life folks are expected to behave, as opposed to abortion supporters. (Direct link not working correctly, so some scrolling may be necessary)
Here's the beginning.
Over the past week, we’ve been advised time and time again that “both sides” need to approach the issue of abortion with reason, calm and as little emotion as possible.
Translation:Pro-lifers, shut up.
For you see, it’s okay for pro-choice advocates (See? I can do it? Only once, though, I think…) to throw around selective statistics, present false accounts of history and mischaracterize and stereotype their opponents, but let a prolifer say the words “baby” or “kill” and let the clucking begin.......

Added some links
I changed one of my categories to "Catholic and Pro-life Sites", and added the following links: National Right to Life , Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, Catholics United for Life, Birthright International, Mom's House, The Birth Site , and The Hunger Site . Special thanks to Mark Shea for the last two links.

Neat little article
from Catholic Exchange.

I get more and more grateful
for the little corner of the world where I am blessed to be able to attend Mass, when I read about stuff like this .

The Feast of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop, Patron Saint of Writers
is today. There is information on him here. It is possible, though perhaps unlikely, that this great saint met St. Philip Neri at one point. It is certain that he knew Blessed Juvenal Ancina, C.O. , one of St. Philip's followers.
Also, when Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O., was made a Cardinal, he chose as the motto for his coat-of-arms a phrase coined by St. Francis de Sales: cor ad cor loquitur. "Heart speaks to heart."

Blogger is being tempermental...
When I try to add some pro-life links to my template, it shuts down. Ah, well. I'll try again tommrow.....

I'm shocked that they are shocked... (Warning: Rant ahead !)
Over at Blogs4God, there's was a big debate over the mock-"Planned Parenthood" posters posted here. While I can understand the people who find the posters painful for personal reasons, and the ones who think connecting the topic of abortion with even sarcastic humor is a mistake, there are some reactions I just cannot understand. Like this one. Now what exactly is the problem with attacking anti-life laws and supporting mothers in crisis pregnancies ? Yeah, the rhetoric can get ugly. It's nowhere near as ugly as the simple fact that babies are being legally ripped limb from limb all over the world.

I forgot to mention this
One good thing did happen on yesterday's date... on January 22, 1991, the Servant of God John Henry Newman, C.O. was declared Venerable .

Day of Mourning
Thirty years ago, on this date, the members of the Supreme Court of the United States (with several honorable exceptions) legalized the slaughter of children in the womb from conception to birth. (Actually, this license stretches slightly beyond the beginning of separation from the mother. A child may be taken from the womb feet first, with the head remaining inside the mother, his/her skull may be punctured with surgical scissors, and his/her brain may be sucked out, without the law saying anything about such an utter monstrosity.)
This anniversary of horror is being remembered with sorrow all over the Catholic Blogosphere , and it certainly should be . Our nation is stained with innocent blood. Kyrie, eleison.

Upon the Infant Martyrs
by Richard Crashaw (1613-1649)

To see both mingled in one flood,
The mothers' milk, the children's blood,
Makes me doubt if heaven will gather
Roses hence, or lilies rather.


At the Pittsburgh Oratory, besides mourning the loss of the butchered children, we are also mourning with one of our own in his personal loss. Fr. Bryan's father passed away early this morning. Prayers for the repose of his soul and the comfort of his family in their loss would be a great help.

Now this is just dandy...
Up in Canada, eight Anglican parishes are in trouble with their bishop. Why ? Because they hold to the traditional Christian teaching on sexual perversion.
Yet another illustration of Neuhaus's Law... where orthodoxy is optional, sooner or later orthodoxy will be proscribed.....

The Feast of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr
is today. One can find information on her here. There are also posts on her at A Catholic Point of View, Dappled Things , Catholic Light, and The New Gasparian.

"Take that holy child, the blessed St. Agnes, who, at the age of thirteen, resolved to die rather than deny the faith, and stood enveloped in an atmosphere of purity, and diffused around her a heavenly influence, in the very home of evil spirits into which the heathen brought her; or consider the angelical Aloysius, of whom it hardly is left upon record that he committed even a venial sin; or St. Agatha, St. Juliana, St. Rose, St. Casimir, or St. Stanislas, to whom the very notion of any unbecoming imagination had been as death; well, there is not one of these seraphic souls but might have been a degraded, loathsome leper, except for God's grace, an outcast from his kind; not one but might, or rather would, have lived the life of a brute creature, and died the death of a reprobate, and lain down in hell eternally in the devil's arms, had not God put a new heart and a new spirit within him, and made him what he could not make himself." - Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O. "Men, not Angels, the Priests of the Gospel", Discourses to Mixed Congregations

No blogging tommorow
The library will be closed, which means I will have no computer access....sigh...

Music at noon Mass
Processional Hymn: "The Church's One Foundation"
Offertory: "Cantate Domino"- Giuseppe Pitoni (1657-1743)
Communion: "Jesu, Dulcis Memoria" - Tomas Luis da Vittoria (1548-1611)
Recessional Hymn: "Rejoice, the Lord is King"
Unfortunately, Heinz Chapel will be closed for two-and-a-half weeks, beginning this afternoon, while the Univesity has part of the floor replaced. The Sunday Mass will have to be temporarily transferred to an auditorium in a building across the street. Our choir director decided that we will not be singing until we get back into Heinz Chapel.