Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome Vol. XX: Death Penalty Edition.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • August 5, 2018 • Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome; Pro-Life Issues

 

John Zmi­rak, who denies Catholic social teach­ing, is wor­ried that Pope Fran­cis is “fal­si­fy­ing Catholic teach­ing.” Ray­mond P.W. Arroyo can bare­ly hide his insin­u­a­tion and his calum­ny that Pope Francis’s change to the Cat­e­chism was some­how meant to dis­tract atten­tion from the sex abuse scan­dal (despite the pope hav­ing said the same thing last year). Then, the chron­i­cal­ly con­fused Phil Lawler decides that, because he is con­fused, “the [whole] world [must also be] full of con­fu­sion.” Steve Sko­jec, how­ev­er, is not con­fused. He’s cer­tain that the pope is a heretic. And if Sko­jec’s cer­tain, who dare ques­tion it?

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Kwasniewski, Fr. Murray, Death Site News promote falsehoods on capital punishment.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • August 4, 2018 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; False Report; Pro-Life Issues

 

Fr. Mur­ray is mys­ti­fied: On Ray­mond P.W. Arroy­o’s anti-Fran­cis pro­pa­gan­da show The World Over, he says he has no idea why the pope would think the death penal­ty vio­lates the dig­ni­ty of the human per­son. Pos­si­bly Pope Fran­cis might think so because Pope St. John Paul II had already said it him­self. It’s in Evan­geli­um Vitae. Per­haps Mur­ray has read it; though, I begin to won­der whether he mere­ly skimmed it for the parts about abor­tion. What­ev­er the case might be, JP2 explains to us why God pro­tect­ed Cain from the death penal­ty.

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On death penalty, Roma locuta est, causa finita est.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • August 2, 2018 • Apologetics; Exegesis; Pro-Life Issues

 

Nat­u­ral­ly, the usu­al sus­pects are scream­ing: CRISIS!!! Phil Lawler, worst known for his recent book call­ing the pope a “lost shep­herd,” bemoans “anoth­er dose of con­fu­sion.” (If some­one finds a Lawler arti­cle about the pope in which he doesn’t claim to be “con­fused,” let me know.) “Once again,” Mr. Lawler writes, “Pope Fran­cis has giv­en the world rea­son to believe that the teach­ings of the Catholic Church can and will change.” As though he has nev­er heard of New­man and new wine can be forced into old wine­skins, by gee by gosh by gum.

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Let’s watch as St. John Paul II “kitchen sinks” pro-life.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • July 15, 2018 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Church Social Teaching; Pro-Life Issues

 

Recent­ly Leila “Bub­bles” Miller, a Catholic writer with a cer­tain fol­low­ing, plained, yet again, about what she calls the “kitchen sink­ing” of the term “pro-life.” She wor­ries — giv­en the exis­tence of that pesky New Pro Life Movement—that the term must now include every­thing, I mean every­thing, even the wery kitchen sink. Because prop­er san­i­ta­tion is some­how not a pro-life issue. Imag­ine this. Her post was in response to an arti­cle at the right-wing Catholic Vote, by Eric Sam­mons, enti­tled “Why I’m Through Being Pro-Life.” In it he bewails the New Pro Life Move­ment.

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Pope Francis contradicts Benedict XVI and John Paul II on abortion? Fake (Site) News!

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • April 11, 2018 • False Report; Pope Francis; Pro-Life Issues

 

I tell you again: Give no cre­dence to Fake Site News. Nev­er give them cre­dence, but par­tic­u­lar­ly give them no cre­dence when they are bash­ing the pope. Nev­er give them cre­dence when they are bash­ing the pope, but par­tic­u­lar­ly give them no cre­dence when the author is John-Hen­ry West­en. A look at his absurd attempt, here, to claim that Pope Fran­cis some­how con­tra­dicts Bene­dict XVI and John Paul II on abor­tion, gives us one more exam­ple why. But first let us go to Gaudete et Exsul­tate and read the words of Pope Fran­cis about the equal sacred­ness of all human life.

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A reply to Patrick Tomlinson and his reputed stumper of a riddle for pro-lifers.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • October 25, 2017 • Pro-Life Issues

 

A sci­ence fic­tion author named Patrick S. Tom­lin­son has a ques­tion that, if we are to believe the hype, “baf­fles abor­tion foes.” What is this stumper of a ques­tion? you ask. Here it is: Would you save one thou­sand embryos or one child in a fire? Real­ly? That’s it? This is the ques­tion that’s sup­posed to con­found us? This is the ques­tion that gets Raw Sto­ry in a heat of excite­ment and Mr. Tom­lin­son many new fol­low­ers on Twit­ter? Please. The ques­tion is a cliché. You prob­a­bly heard some­thing very much like it in high school.

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Ultramontanism and a supposed conflict between Pope Francis & Pius XII on capital punishment.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • October 15, 2017 • Moral Theology; Pope Francis; Pro-Life Issues

 

Joseph Shaw of the Latin Mass Soci­ety, who is all wrought up about “Ultra­mon­tanism” and killing peo­ple, cites what he thinks are con­flict­ing state­ments between Pope Pius XII and Pope Fran­cis. Here is Pius XII: “Even when it is a ques­tion of the exe­cu­tion of a con­demned man, the State does not dis­pose of the individual’s right to life. In this case it is reserved to the pub­lic pow­er to deprive the con­demned per­son of the enjoy­ment of life in expi­a­tion of his crime when, by his crime, he has already dis­posed him­self of his right to live.” That’s sup­posed to con­tra­dict Pope Fran­cis some­how.

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Fake Site News accuses New Pro Life Movement of “liberal boilerplate.”

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • September 16, 2017 • Church Social Teaching; False Report; Pro-Life Issues

 

In a shame­less piece of char­ac­ter assas­si­na­tion against Rebec­ca Brat­ten Weiss, Fake Site News made the aston­ish­ing claim that the goals of the New Pro Life Move­ment are no more than “lib­er­al boil­er­plate.” In fact, every one of them comes from the Mag­is­te­r­i­al teach­ing of the Church. Has Fake Site not read the Com­pendi­um of the Social Doc­trine of the Church? Evan­geli­um Vitae? Lauda­to Si? The Church’s teach­ing on just war? The very Cat­e­chism? Maybe they should get on that, rather than writ­ing sin­ful hit pieces against good and decent Catholics like Rebec­ca Brat­ten Weiss.

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Dissenting Catholic Dick Durbin tells Dems not to dissent on abortion.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • April 24, 2017 • Politics; Pro-Life Issues

 

The hypocrisy of Sen. Dick Durbin knows no bounds. He is a Catholic who pub­licly dis­sents from his Church on abor­tion. And yet he has no dif­fi­cul­ty in telling fel­low Democ­rats that if they are pro-life, they have no place in the par­ty. So as Durbin sees it, you have a high­er oblig­a­tion to your polit­i­cal par­ty than you do to your Church. You should obey men rather than God. For­tu­nate­ly, Durbin’s bish­op has invoked Canon 915 and for­bid­den him Holy Com­mu­nion. This should also be the case with Pelosi, Biden, Ker­ry, and Kaine. It won’t, but it should.

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Where is the baby now? Fr. Frank Pavone’s words are inconsistent.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 14, 2016 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Church Scandals; Politics; Pro-Life Issues

 

First, Fr. Frank Pavone said that the abort­ed baby he used as a prop in his pro­pa­gan­da film for Mr. Trump was “entrust­ed to us by a pathol­o­gist for bur­ial.” “We have had a funer­al,” he said on Face­book. Then, when the Nation­al Catholic Reporter fol­lowed up with this self­less man of God, Pavone said, “Oh, I’ve returned it to a Protes­tant pas­tor for bur­ial.” Now he says the funer­al direc­tor gave it to a Protes­tant pas­tor, who con­tact­ed Priests for Life and loaned them the corpse, but expect­ed it back for bur­ial. This poor baby keeps get­ting tossed around like a foot­ball.

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How long has Fr. Frank Pavone had that fetus?

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 11, 2016 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Church Scandals; Politics; Pro-Life Issues

 

A dead baby VERY SIMILAR to this one was put on pub­lic dis­play in Char­lotte before the 2012 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion. When asked what hap­pened to the baby’s remains after the “event,” which fea­tured the baby in an open cas­ket on the side­walk out­side a Catholic church … Fr. Pavone would not say any­thing oth­er than that he has a memo­r­i­al to the unborn in New York that his min­istry man­ages. The rea­son I note the sim­i­lar­i­ty … is that the bruis­ing and dis­col­oration are due to the effects of a saline abor­tion. …

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But will Fr. Frank Pavone take instruction from his bishop?

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 10, 2016 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Church Scandals; Politics; Pro-Life Issues

 

In a veiled swipe at this blog, Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life petu­lant­ly stat­ed that he would “not take instruc­tion” from those who say (which I did) that his cute lit­tle stunt of turn­ing a fetus into a polit­i­cal prop for Don­ald Trump was a “sac­ri­lege.” We laity need to learn our place. How­ev­er, Fr. Pavone’s bish­op, the Most Rev. Patrick Zurek, has issued a state­ment of his own on this mat­ter, and I won­der whether Fr. Pavone will wish to “take instruc­tion” from him. Zurek’s words were stronger than mine. He called Fr. Pavone’s actions a “des­e­cra­tion of the altar.”

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The evil of abortion does not justify Fr. Frank Pavone.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 8, 2016 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Politics; Pro-Life Issues

 

Fr. Pavone, when you used the naked, burned, uncov­ered body of an abort­ed child, when you placed that child on a Catholic altar which is reserved to the cel­e­bra­tion of the Mass, and when you filmed a video so that peo­ple would vote for Mr. Trump, you did not  treat that child, made in the image of God, whose worth is beyond mea­sure, with “respect and char­i­ty.” If you claim you did, you do no hon­or to the Holy Spir­it. You do no hon­or to turn a tem­ple of the Holy Spir­it into a polit­i­cal prop. Who­ev­er does so com­mits a crime as great as abor­tion itself.

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After sick political stunt, Fr. Pavone’s faculties should be suspended.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 7, 2016 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Church Scandals; Pro-Life Issues

 

I am going to be, excuse the pun, frank: What Fr. Pavone did was a sac­ri­lege. It is a vio­la­tion of canon law, which states that the altar is con­se­crat­ed for one pur­pose and one pur­pose only. It is con­se­crat­ed for the Holy Sac­ri­fice of the Mass, not so that a dead child can be placed there as part of a polit­i­cal stunt to lob­by for a favored pres­i­den­tial can­di­date. More than that, what Fr. Pavone did is the oppo­site of pro-life. Being pro-life is about respect­ing the dig­ni­ty of the human per­son. It is the antithe­sis of respect for the dig­ni­ty of the human per­son to use a dead child as a polit­i­cal prop.

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Yes, Virginia, Catholics can say abortion should be legal.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • September 7, 2016 • Politics; Pro-Life Issues

 

I sym­pa­thize with Fr. Malone’s main con­cern, which was the pres­ence of pro­test­ers as Sen. Kaine arrived for Mass on August 28. One of them held a sign that said that he and Mrs. Clin­ton are “a match made in Hell.” Anoth­er held a sign cit­ing canon 915. These love­ly peo­ple would be bet­ter advised to go inside, kneel, pray, and attend to their own wor­thi­ness to receive the Eucharist. If they have con­cerns about canon 915, or about Sen. Kaine, they should write his bish­op. Engag­ing in self-right­eous street the­ater does no one any good, includ­ing the pro-life move­ment.

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