extreme Catholic 

"A patient who recently sought health care services at a ***health care center died yesterday at a hospital in Pleasanton," said Dian Harrison, chief executive officer and president of *** Golden Gate. "The cause of death is unknown at this time. . . . We extend our deepest sympathy to the family. We wish them strength and support in this tough time."

Why blog this story from the San Francisco Chronicle?

Pregnant teen's death under investigation East Bay woman had taken RU-486, according to father

The girl did not disclose the pregnancy to her father. She died in agony.

"The doctor told me that she hadn't aborted all of the fetus, and she had fragments left in her, and she had a massive systemic infection and went into septic shock."

*** is Planned Parenthood International

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:57 AM   Permalink  

Sanitation workers Friday found the body of a newborn baby inside their garbage truck.

The discovery was made around 9 a.m. in Harlem.

Police said the little girl still had its umbilical cord attached. The medical examiner will now determine the cause of death as police try and find the baby's mother. Real video link

I continue to post these stories, because the death of children like this at the hands of their mothers is a crime that cries out to heaven. I see a direct connection between the unrelenting promotion of abortion in New York City with the evil sort of empowerment for mothers to kill their unwanted children by any means necessary.

Even if this mother is caught or turns herself in, there will be no punishment. The reporter of this story for NY1 was struck by the side mirror of a passing van.

NY1 Reporter Injured In Harlem Car Accident

The thoughts of NY1 staffers are with long-time NY1 reporter Rebecca Spitz, who is in critical condition following a car accident Friday afternoon.

Spitz, the station's Manhattan reporter, is recovering at St. Luke's Hospital after she was struck by a van on 120th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem.

Spitz was waiting to cross the street when she was hit and knocked to the ground.

She was rushed to the hospital with multiple skull fractures and minor brain swelling.

Spitz, who joined NY1 as an intern in 1993, was in Harlem covering a story at the time she was hit.

The driver has not been charged in the accident.

St. Thomas the Apostle, a recently closed Catholic Church, is on 118th Street and St. Nicholas Ave.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:34 AM   Permalink  

The subject of the persecution of Christians came up in Mark Shea's blog. I agree with the consensus there that there was no persecution of Christians by the Romans during the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius. The first great persecution occurred under Nero. The history of the is not disputed: there was a fire in Rome and whether or not Nero started it, the Christians were blamed.

In the excellent sociological survey The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark puts the world population of Christians at 1,500 in 50 AD.

The burning of Rome was 64 AD and the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD are transforming events. The immediate impact of the loss of the temple was greater as Jews became official enemies of the Roman Empire while Christians remained tolerated. Jewish persecution of Christians was abated.

Christians seemed to be more of a nuisance to the pagans -- like the Hare Krishna's in our day than a subversive anarchistic or theocratic movement like militant Islam today.

I don't believe it was inevitable that there would be a bloody persecution of Christians by the Romans. The "deification" of the Roman Emperors could have very easily been accommodated by an earlier appearance of the Dark Ages creation, the Divine Right of Kings. The prime examples of this being Constantine and Charlemagne -- rulers not only by conquest but by divine appointment.

Early Christians prayed not for Rome to be conquered by an alien Christian king, but for the conversion of all of Rome by the mercy of God, and, of course, this is what happened.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:03 AM   Permalink  

An interview with Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyo (Congregation for the Clergy) has appeared in National Review Online

In my opinion, one of the great achievements of this film is to have shown so effectively both the horror of sin and selfishness, and the redeeming power of love. Seeing this film provokes love and compassion. It makes the viewer want to love more, to forgive, to be good and strong no matter what, just as Christ did even in the face of such terrible suffering.

The viewer is drawn into a powerful experience of God's strong yet gentle love, of his overflowing mercy. It is my belief that if we could understand what Jesus Christ did for us and we could follow his example of love and forgiveness, there would not be hatred or violence in the world. This film will help to make that possible.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 6:28 PM   Permalink  

He says in an exclusive interview with Our Sunday Visitor (no link available) that many critics and the most particularly, the Jewish Anti-Defamation League were silent when The Last Temptation of Christ was released.

Here was a film that really insulted and stereotyped Jews as well as having no connection to the Jesus of the Gospels and the Jesus of History. Medved asked the ADL to join with the Christians protesting LTOC, but they were not interested.

As Scott Hahn says it's not Mel that they are after -- it's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:01 AM   Permalink  

The Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Phillip Wilson, has joined his Anglican counterpart Ian George in moving to protect the sanctity of the church confessional.

The comments come after South Australian Independent MP Nick Xenophon introduced a bill in State Parliament yesterday seeking to force priests to disclose admissions of paedophilia in the confessional box to police.

But Archbishop Wilson says he is bound by the priesthood.

"Our tradition and our history is very clear that you can't tell anybody anything that you hear in the confessional at all," he said.

"You can't even in your conversation refer to anything at all that might give away the identity of the person or the reality of what happened."

Sadly, this is only the start of several steps to suppress the Catholic Church. Perhaps this is over-reaching as the Seal of the Confessional has a long history and this can be easily seen as a head-on confrontation with the Church.

What's the practical purpose of this law anyway? Is there any indication that information the would be useful in a investigation of sexual abuse could only be obtained by revealing what said in confession?

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:04 PM   Permalink  

AP: Victims of Catholic Church-run institutions in Ireland sought

Thousands of victims of child abuse in Ireland's orphanages and workhouses who now live abroad don't know they qualify for hefty compensation payments from the Irish government, the leader of a survivors' group said Tuesday.

Tony Tracy is traveling to Boston and Chicago next week to lead a seminar by Right of Place, a group that provides housing, education and legal advice to former residents of Catholic Church-run institutions in Ireland.

The government has also been struggling to maintain an independent fact-finding probe into abuse in industrial schools and orphanages. The commission's chairwoman, Mary Laffoy, quit Sept. 3 and accused the government of sabotaging her four-year effort to gather evidence.

The final paragraph is interesting: Laffoy wanted to discover "what did the government know and when did it know it". The panel lost its "independence" when it moved inquiries from the rectory to government house.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:48 PM   Permalink  

Supporters of the bill said fears about censorship are groundless and that C-250 isn't meant to infringe on anyone's freedom of religion.

Yeah... I don't have to tell you. It's about legislating special rights for homosexuals.

CBC: MPs extend hate protection to gays

The code already made it illegal to incite hatred against an identifiable group based on colour, race, religion or ethnicity.

"The message that is sent out by the failure to include gay and lesbian people in hate propaganda legislation is that our lives aren't as valuable," said NDP MP Svend Robinson, author of the bill.

I'm not as valuable because I'm not in a protected group. I'm OK with that.

Relapsed Catholic has lots of details, including a confrontation with a Catholic peacefully protesting this law.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:47 PM   Permalink  

A defrocked Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to 12 years in prison Monday for exposing himself to three boys while serving as an elementary school counselor.

James Beine, 61, was found guilty in June of sexual misconduct involving children.

He was accused of exposing himself to third- and fourth-graders at a school in St. Louis during the 2000-01 school year.

In June, he was sentenced to four years and nine months in federal prison for possession of child pornography.

Beine was dismissed from the priesthood in 1977 over allegations of sexual abuse. In the mid-1990s, the St. Louis Archdiocese settled for $110,000 two lawsuits that alleged Beine molested boys more than three decades earlier.

He was a counselor at St. Louis-area elementary schools for more than a decade before his arrest.

Child pornography is the signal that something is very wrong.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:28 PM   Permalink  

Sinn Féin has condemned loyalist death threats against a priest in north Belfast.

Fr Dan Whyte received the threats due to his involvement in the Catholic blessing of the graves ceremony at a mixed-religion cemetery in the mainly Protestant Carnmoney area.

He has also spoken out against loyalist violence and sectarian graffiti in the area.

Sinn Féin has called for anyone with influence over loyalist paramilitaries to use it to remove the death threat.

It's not over in Ireland either.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:24 PM   Permalink  

Airplane passengers and an air marshal subdued and then duct-taped a man who was pacing the aisle and reading loudly from the Bible during a flight from Hawaii, police and witnesses said.

No one was injured, and the man was handed over to authorities after the plane landed at Los Angeles International Airport early Sunday, said Sgt. Carl Sansbury of the airport police.

Sansbury said he didn't know what prompted the outburst on the United Airlines flight from Honolulu. He said the FBI was investigating.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, could be charged with interfering with a flight crew, a federal offense, Sansbury said.

So, don't make fun of people who always seem to have duct tape in their possession.

Reading quietly from the Bible is OK. Especially when your plane has as a pilot somewho who's quoting from the Koran after breaking into the cockpit.

Reading loudly is not OK. Next time, "Hey hon [addressing the flight attendants] can I read from the 23rd Psalm here at the top of my voice without interfering with your handing out the vodka and scotch?

First Class passengers: They get a synchronized slide show during the reading.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 7:44 PM   Permalink  

Advice from Britney Spears on modesty in dress and attitude

"I'm not gonna come out on this record and show my crotch or anything," she says. "That's not me. I would never do anything like that. It's all in the way you do stuff, all in the way you carry things. in Rolling Stone.

Thankfully, many, many pictures have been taken of Britney Spears, and I knew that eventually I'd find a chaste one of her wearing a cross.

When I came across the pictures of her with a 10-foot long sepent, it reminded me of the bronze serpent from today's Mass (Numbers 21:4) and whatever did happen to the bronze sepent? Destroyed by King Hezekiah when the people began to worship it as in idol. (2 Kings 18)

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:14 PM   Permalink