What's the #1 thing we must do to save our nation? (It's not what you might think ...)

The recent election was an eye-opener.

Many Catholics thought that if we all worked hard and did our part in the political process, then we'd be able to win the key political fights needed to turn our country around. And yet ...

-		We saw pro-abortion candidates elected to office after office.
-		We saw homosexual "marriage" actually passed by the voters in some states.
-		We saw promising pro-life candidates flame out through self-inflicted wounds.
-		And, through it all, we saw the sinister threat to our religious liberty grow ever stronger.

These alarming results made one thing crystal clear ...

There aren't enough of us!

The truth is that, right now, there aren't enough informed, faithful Catholics engaged in the political process.

Sure, there are lots of Catholics. It's well known that "the Catholic vote" tends to determine who wins or loses an election.

The problem is that so many Catholics are disengaged ... don't recognize the dangers to our country ... don't take them seriously ... or — worst of all — are actively working to promote evil.

That means there is one thing that we urgently must do ...

We've got to start changing minds!

It's as simple as that. We need more informed, faithful Catholics working to save our nation, and that means we need to start changing minds.

And not just about political issues — because politics is not at the core of our faith.

We need to get people engaged with the Catholic faith itself — to learn it, to love it, to live it — and the rest will follow. And we need your help!

What's wrong with the world?

As Cardinal Dolan told the U.S. bishops at their recent meeting:

"The premier answer to the question 'What's wrong with the world?' is not politics, the economy, secularism, sectarianism, globalization or global warming — none of these, as significant as they are. As Chesterton wrote, the answer to the question 'What's wrong with the world?' is just two words ... 'I am.'"

We have to change on the personal level, one individual at a time — which is the way the Church has always grown.

It's important that we not give up on our nation. We need to fight as hard as we ever have to deal with the many problems we face.

And we need to work hard to help catechize people about the Catholic faith, because that is the ultimate key ...

The Truth will set us free

We live in an age of secularism and relativism, when so many cynically ask, "What is truth?"

But as Catholics, we have the Truth. We have Jesus Christ Himself, and it's time we redouble our efforts to share Him with others.

That's why Pope Benedict XVI recently called bishops from all over the world together to energize the Church for a wave of New Evangelization.

This urgent task will require all of us — bishops, priests, deacons, religious and laity.

That means ...

We all have to do our part!

Online and in print, the National Catholic Register is at the forefront of this effort.

The New Evangelization is what we're all about — drawing from the riches of the Church's teachings and applying them to our complex, changing world.

We provide a faithful Catholic perspective that is totally absent from the mainstream media.

We tell people what the Church teaches and how it can make a difference, both in their lives and in the life of our nation.

But we can't do it alone ...

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Contraception and the Presidential Debate between Obama and Romney

Posted by Dr. Taylor Marshall 

My wife and I watched the Presidential debate last night. I was very discouraged about two things in particular. First, I was again shocked how President Obama so confidently touts his endorsement and support of Planned Parenthood as a major "asset" to his political platform. The same was seen last week with VP Joe Biden using scare tactics that Romney/Ryan would take away "womens' rights."

This reveals that President Obama and his administration are not merely tolerant of abortion, but promoters of this great evil calling to Heaven for vengeance. This is not a surprise. Still, it is sad to see that the political climate has become this dark.

Second, all my initial excitement about Romney was deflated by his defense of contraception in the second half of the debate. Also, his claim that he "believes in God" rang hollow for me as a Catholic and a theologian since it is publicly known that the Mormon doctrine of God is radically different from that held by historic Christianity. Mormons are polytheistic in conviction but henotheist in worship. Philosophically and theologically, this is a disaster. It is a reminder that Romney is not a Christian, but rather a heretic. I haven't done the research, but my guess is that Romney would be the first unbaptized President in our nation's history. Scary to think about.

So at the end of the night, you are confronted with two men who are ultimately mistaken in their most fundamental principles. Of course, Romney is the lesser of two evils on account of liberty for the Catholic Church and government funded contraception and abortion.

Still, it's not satisfying.

It leaves me longing for Heaven. 

One last comment. This morning in my spiritual reading, my eyes randomly fell on the following Psalm:

Nolite confidere in principibus, in filiis hominum, in quibus non est salus. (Ps 146 2-3)

"Put not your trust in princes. In the children of men, in whom there is no salvation." (Ps 146 2-3)

God made my smile and he reminded me of the truth of our tough situation. The lesson is that prayer and praise will undo the snares of the devil much more than a President, be he baptized by Rev. Jeremiah Wright or baptized in the Mormon "Church."

Christ the King, have mercy on us.

Our Lady of Victory, pray for us.

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What King Henry VIII can teach us about the HHS-Bishops Controversy

Posted by Dr. Taylor Marshall 

Here in America, there is a growing awareness that our government at the federal level is seeking to dislodge  the last remnants the Catholic Church's influence by means of federal regulation of medical care. Most recently the Health and Human Services (HHS) controversy has revealed that the government is hitting the American bishops where it hurts most: the moral issues of contraception and abortion.

The HHS controversy is frequently hailed as a "religious liberty" crisis, but it's more profound than that. The Obama administration knows that American Catholics by and large do not submit to the Catholic teaching regarding contraception. This is the weak underbelly of American Catholicism and the powers at large have honed in on this sad reality.

This is not the first time that the government has exploited sexual sins to foster confusion, anger, heresy, and worst of all, schism. King Henry VIII of England also attempted to break the influence of the Catholic Church in his nation. Like the current administration, Henry VIII began by restricting the activity of the clergy. First, Henry VIII pressed the bishops into a compromise, next he made it illegal for tithes and ecclesiastical judgments to leave England - for example annulments and controversies over succession and wills could not be referred to Rome any longer. While not officially creating a schism at this point, Henry VIII practically separated the bishops of England from Rome.

The next step was for Henry VIII to request the title "Protector and Supreme Head of the English Church." Although compromised, the bishops rightly refused and Bishop Saint John Fisher led the charge. Then Henry VIII asked for the title, "Protector and Supreme Head of the English Church - quantum per legem Dei licet - so far as the law of God permits." The "so far as the law of God permits" addition alleviated the consciences of the bishops. The bullied bishops submitted in 1531 and against the wishes of the Pope granted the title to Henry VIII. The clarification "so far as the law of God permits" was, of course, quickly forgotten.

Four years later all the bishops except for Saint John Fisher capitulated. Saint John Fisher and Saint Thomas More's heads were on pikes over the the river. Mother Church lost England...

What can we learn? Civil persecution starts slow and subtle. It's built on small, tiny compromises. The bishops in the time of King Henry VIII were neither malicious nor fools. Almost all to a man had studied at either Cambridge or Oxford. The Chancellor was a genius, revered diplomat, and a saint. England at this time was renowned throughout Europe for its devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pilgrimages, daily Mass attendance, church buildings were at a high, according to historians.

What happened? The king wanted something and he would stop at nothing. He worked slowly and perseveringly. Henry VIII did not attack the Church outright. He waited year after year.

This HHS controversy in America is not really about religious liberty. They want us to think that. The HHS mandate is the beginning of many subtle attacks against the Catholic Church in America. The HHS mandate is designed to remove the Catholic Church from the public realm of medicine (and hence medical ethics) and eventually divide the Church over "reproductive rights" or "contraception."

Something similar may likely happen in the realm of education in the coming years - perhaps a mandate that Catholic schools must submit to a "lifestyle diversity agreement" in order to retain their accreditation and ability to receive government loans. Catholic colleges are another huge weak spot in the landscape of Catholic America. You can be sure that the devil has plans there, too.

What do we do about it? We must be humble about everything. "God resists the proud" (Jas 4:6). God resists the proud even when they are magisterial Catholics who attend daily Mass and tithe. Pride comes before the fall. If we our proud, God will resist us even when we are right.

We must pray for our bishops. They are already uniting against the threat. They need prayers. We have no idea as to the difficulty and stress they are under. We cannot complain or judge. Again, we must be like their humble children. We can piously aid them and pray for them. That is what Christ expects from us. 

We pray the Rosary daily. Most of all, we try to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Saint John Vianney once said, "All good works taken together cannot equal the value of one Holy Mass, because they are the works of men, but the Mass is the work of God."

Saint John Fisher, the nemesis of King Henry VIII, once shared with a Carthusian that he wished that he had not spent so much time writing theological works defending the Catholic Church, but had instead used that time for prayer. "Prayer would have done more good and was of more merit."

As lay people, our ingenuity won't accomplish much. Instead, humble prayers will break the snares of the devil.

Saint John Fisher and all holy martyrs, pray for us.

When is family planning anti-life?

By: Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas S. J.
Philippine Daily Inquirer

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I use the phrase family planning because it is a  phrase that covers a broad spectrum of ways of limiting the number of children. It can include abstention from sexual congress intended to beget children. It can include what are called natural methods of preventing conception. It can include artificial means of preventing conception. It also includes abortion. All these contribute to the reduction and regulation of the number of children that are brought into this world.

In the current debate brought about by the introduction of the Reproductive Health bill, the question of what is anti-life comes up. It is therefore important to be able to clarify what precisely is meant by being anti-life. In the current debate, the term anti-life is often used in the most pejorative way. It is used in the sense of being against existing life. Murder, in other words.

But it can also be understood to mean not being willing or not desiring to add more human life to the already crowded population. This would be the stance of a married couple who decide to abstain from the acts that bring about life. To a certain extent this is also the stance of a young man who chooses a celibate life not because he hates children, but out of a conviction that he can accomplish better what he feels he is called to do without the burden of raising children. Definitely I would not categorize such a person as being anti-life. People like him love life so much that they take it upon themselves to contribute in some or other ways to the improvement of the quality of life of those who are already born.

We come now to contraception. Is contraception anti-life in the sense of being directed at actual life? The phrase anti-life is an active and not a passive word. The word “anti” in compound word is an active word aimed at life. Thus we must ask when life begins, because before life begins it is beyond the reach of anti-life action.

When does life begin? For me, the starting point in dealing with this very specific question is what the Constitution says. It says that the state “shall protect the life of the unborn from conception.”  What this means, in the understanding of the men and women who wrote that Constitution, is that life begins at conception, that is, upon fertilization. Before fertilization there is no life.  This is also the view of the Philippine Medical Society, and this is the view of John Paul II. John Paul II said that life is so important that we should not do anything that will endanger it. We would be taking at least a very serious risk against life if we terminate development after fertilization.

What this means is that one who practices abstention is not anti-life. The celibate who gives up procreation for a higher calling is not anti-life.  The use of contraceptive devices that only prevent fertilization is not anti-life in the sense of being an act of murder. Abortion, in the sense of expulsion of the fertilized ovum at any time after fertilization is anti-life, and is an act of murder. If life of the unborn is terminated at a stage of viability the crime is infanticide. For that reason the Penal Code and also the proposed RH bill prohibit and penalize abortion and infanticide.

I have heard it loosely said that what are being marketed as contraception devices are in fact abortive devices. This is loose talk. If there are such abortive devices being marketed, they should be identified scientifically, not by gossip, and withdrawn from the market. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the responsibility of ensuring that no abortifacient drugs be marketed. I know of one drug which was withdrawn from the market after being proved before the FDA to be abortifacient. This was the subject of a thesis of a student of mine which she defended, as required for graduation from the Ateneo Law School, before a panel of professors.

Having said all this I must also put on my hat as a priest of the Catholic Church. I accept the teaching of the Catholic Church which prohibits not only abortion but also artificial contraception. Yet one might say that through this article I am in fact approving artificial contraception. I am not doing such a thing. Aside from being a Catholic priest in good standing, I am also a lawyer and teacher and student of Constitutional Law. What I am doing is to place all this in the context of our constitutionally mandated pluralistic society. Not all citizens of the Philippines are Catholics. Many of them therefore do not consider artificial contraception immoral or anti-life. The teaching of my Church is that I must respect the belief of other religions even if I do not agree with them. That is how Catholics and non-Catholics can live together in harmony. The alternative which, God forbid, is the restoration of the Inquisition.

Vatican embarrassed by error-filled catechism book

April 14, 2011, 11:40am

Pope Benedict XVI delivers his message from his studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square, during his Angelus prayer, at the Vatican, Sunday, April 10, 2011. (AP)

VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican has again been embarrassed by a botched translation of its teachings, with the launch Wednesday of an error-plagued book that implies the Holy See approves of contraception and euthanasia.

The errors came to light during a Vatican press conference launching "Youcat: Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church," a youth-focused compilation of the thick volume of core church teachings. The book, a project of the Austrian, German and Swiss bishops' conferences, is to be given to young people attending this year's World Youth Day in Madrid.

The launch, though, focused heavily on translation and interpretation problems. The errors were so serious the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, immediately announced it was creating a working group to compile the errors and fix them.

The Vatican's problems began on the eve of the launch, when officials confirmed that Nuova Citta, the Italian-language publisher of "YouCat," had pulled Italian copies to fix an error concerning whether married couples could plan the size of their families.

Editions handed out Wednesday crossed out the erroneous passage and included a paper insert with the correct translation. But at the news conference, another problem in the Italian edition was highlighted in a section on euthanasia. Officials also admitted that French editions had been delayed because of errors in the translation from German about how Catholics should view other religions.

"As you can see, the German language isn't so easy for everyone," Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi conceded at the end of the press conference.

It was the second time in just a few months that a much-hyped book had mistranslated key church teachings. In November, the Vatican's publishing house misconstrued the pope's comments about condoms and AIDS, implying that condom use for prostitutes was justified in some cases.

The mistake, made in Italian editions from the original German, made international headlines since it indicated the church had softened its firm opposition to artificial contraception. The Vatican insisted Pope Benedict XVI was doing no such thing.

Lombardi referred to the condom "misunderstandings" Wednesday, saying "let's go ahead with the understanding that the new editions will, shall we say, be improved, and that it's important that they arrive in time for World Youth Day."

The Vatican opposes artificial contraception, holding that life begins at conception. The church does, however, approve of natural family planning, in which married couples chart the changes in a woman's menstrual cycle to determine when she might, or might not, conceive.

"YouCat" makes clear that the Catholic Church opposes condoms, the pill and other forms of artificial contraception.

The book is set out as a series of questions and answers with commentary. In the original German, one question concerns whether married couples can "regulate conception."

The answer reads: "Yes, a Christian married couple may and should be responsible in using the gift and privilege of transmitting life." References to natural family planning follow in the commentary.

In the Italian version, however, the original question was mistranslated to read rather whether married couples can "use contraceptive methods." The answer remained the same, an affirmative yes, implying that the Church was sanctioning contraception.

Another problem brought to the attention of organizers Wednesday concerned the offering of assistance to the dying.

The book distinguishes between "active euthanasia" and "passive euthanasia," explaining that "active euthanasia" isn't condoned by the church because it violates the commandment against killing others.

"In so-called passive euthanasia someone helps another person in the dying process and thereby obeys the commandment 'Love your neighbor,'" it says.

Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna who spearheaded the book effort, said the original German book did not use the term "euthanasia," but rather the less loaded word "Sterbehilfe," which can either refer to medically assisted suicide or hospice-type care for someone on their deathbed.

"Perhaps the word 'euthanasia' introduces an erroneous interpretation, but these are things that the Italians must study. In German the text is clear," he said.

Monsignor Rino Fisichella, an Italian who heads the Vatican's evangelization office, seemed genuinely aghast that the euthanasia terminology was used, saying such terms were no longer in use and shouldn't be because they create such misunderstandings.

"It's best to be most precise so as to not run into useless misunderstandings on such an important and delicate issue," he said.

Asked how such mistakes could have been included, Schoenborn noted that each translation had a high-ranking churchman designated to vouch for the accuracy of the contents.
While blaming translators for the errors, he named Venice patriarch Cardinal Angelo Scola as being responsible for the Italian translation — a remarkable public shaming of a fellow high-ranking cardinal.

"YouCat" was prepared in an initial 17 languages, but upwards of 30 languages are planned, including Chinese. About 50 young people, alongside a team of theologians and other experts, helped compile the book which is designed to distill the official catechism into a more easily understandable read for young people.

Benedict wrote a preface to the book and on the back cover he is quoted as exhorting: "Study this catechism! This is my heartfelt desire."

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