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Current Events, Everything Else, Perspective, Political

Incarceration rate lower for immigrants

From the San Francisco Chronicle: Study: Incarceration rate lower for immigrants

Immigrants in California are far less likely to land in prison than their U.S.-born counterparts, a finding that defies the perception that immigration and crime are connected, according to a study released Monday.

Foreign-born residents make up 35 percent of the state’s overall population, but only 17 percent of the adult prison population, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, which conducted the research.

Noncitizen men from Mexico between the ages of 18 and 40, which the study indicated were more likely to be in the country illegally, were eight times less likely to be in a “correctional setting,” the study found.

The study did not address the visa status of those included among the foreign-born, which would include citizens and noncitizens, including those in the country legally and illegally.

Nonetheless, these results have implications for the current debates over immigration policy, said Kristin Butcher, co-author of the report.

“Our research indicates that limiting immigration, requiring higher educational levels to obtain visas or spending more money to increase penalties against criminal immigrants will have little impact on public safety,” Butcher said in a statement.

While immigrants often have lower levels of education and higher poverty rates, which are normally associated with higher crimes rates, other factors are probably contributing to the underrepresentation among the foreign-born in state prisons…

The story doesn’t mention it, but I would venture to state that immigrants are representative the societies they come from, i.e., family oriented, hard working, and with a strong religious and moral code founded in the Catholic faith. They are here for the purpose of improving the lives of their families – the collective whole of their lives. Going to prison defeats that purpose.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, Political

Chaldean archbishop kidnapped

From Reuters via the Gulf News: Gunmen kidnap Iraqi Chaldean Catholic archbishop

Mosul, Iraq: Gunmen kidnapped the Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Mosul on Friday in the northern Iraqi city and killed his driver and two guards, police said.

In Rome, Pope Benedict deplored the kidnapping of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho as a “despicable” crime and urged the gunmen to free the prelate.

Provincial police spokesman Brigadier-General Khaled Abdul Sattar said Rahho was kidnapped in the al-Nour district in eastern Mosul when he left a church.

“Gunmen opened fire on the car, killed the other three and kidnapped the archbishop,” he said.

…

An assistant to Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, the Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad and spiritual leader of Iraq’s Catholics, said they had heard that three people were killed and they did not know the fate of the Rahho.

Chaldeans belong to a branch of the Roman Catholic Church that practises an ancient Eastern rite. Most of its members are in Iraq and Syria, and they form the biggest Christian community in Iraq.

The Vatican issued a statement in Rome saying the pope was saddened by “this new despicable act” which it called a premeditated criminal act.

“The Holy Father asks the universal Church to join in his fervent prayer so that reason and humanity prevails in the kidnappers and Monsignor Rahho is returned to his flock soon,” the statement said.

A number of Christian clergy have been kidnapped or killed, and churches bombed in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Last June, gunmen killed Catholic priest Ragheed Aziz Kani and three assistants in Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, after stopping his car near a church in the eastern part of the ethnically and religiously mixed city.

The assailants dragged out the priest and his assistants and shot them dead in an attack that was condemned by Pope Benedict…

This sort of thing didn’t happen under Saddam Hussein. Now, the persecution of Christians is a regular occurrence. This under the U.S. backed government of Iraq. That’s the U.S. government run by a man who calls himself a Christian.

Of course, as I’ve said here before, Evangelicals like Mr. Bush believe Catholics aren’t Christians at all. To Mr. Bush the murder of these people is just one more step along the route to the Armageddon. Hurray for Israel, hurray for death, hurray for the second coming. My will be done.

Thankfully, real Christians of every sort have the assurance that only the Father knows the time, and that Mr. Bush’s idea of control does not affect God in any way (other than the sorrow He must feel at the deaths that Mr. Bush has inflicted).

May God return the Archbishop safely and may the perpetual light shine upon those who were murdered. Amen.

Christian Witness, Perspective

They will know we are Christians…

Received the following through my Christian Newswire newsfeed: Pope Chooses ‘Political Correctness’ Over Christ

“In a very disturbing acquiescence to “political correctness,” the Pope Benedict XVI has chosen the approval of non- Christians and unbelievers over the truth of Christ,” said Dr. Gary L. Cass, Chairman and CEO of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. “Because Christians are commanded by Christ to demonstrate love, they must pray for conversion non-Christians which Christians believe are lost. Christians single out the Jews for prayer out of a genuine concern for their souls.”

The Catholic Church has announced that the Pope Benedict XVI will rewrite the Good Friday prayer to remove what some have claimed are negative references to Jews. The prayer reads, “Almighty and everlasting God, you do not refuse your mercy even to the Jews; hear the prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people so that they may acknowledge the light of your truth, which is Christ, and be delivered from their darkness.”

The references to the “blindness” and “darkness” of the Jews are to be stricken from the prayer because of the efforts of people like Abraham Foxman and organizations like the Jewish Anti-Defamation League.

“Christians have always believed that Jesus is the only Savior of mankind and the true Light of the world,” said Cass. “To not believe in Christ is to not see Him as the Savior and therefore to be spiritually blind. If you do not live in the light of Christ, you therefore live in spiritual darkness. This is biblical Christian truth, even if it is “politically incorrect.” ”

“The temerity of some Jews to demand that a prayer for the conversion of the Jews be stricken from the prayers of the church is astonishing,” said Cass. “For two thousand years Israeli Jews have renounced Christ and Christians. Jewish teachers have belittled Christ and Christians in the most strident terms in their sacred writings, the Talmud. I do not see these same Jews demanding anti-Christian texts be removed from their Talmud…”

A few thoughts on this. I think that this statement is lacking in mercy – and Christian charity. While I fully acknowledge that no other faith group can direct Christian prayer, I am perfectly willing to allow the Bishop of Rome to speak on the matter – to understand where he is coming from. Charity demands that we listen to our brother and think before rushing to condemnation.

It is also interesting that this group, which has made nary a statement about Catholicism or the Roman Catholic Church (per a search of their site using their search box – criteria included: ‘Catholic, Catholicism, Rome, bishop, and diocese), would choose this particular issue on which to opine. Further, I do not think that the roots of the organization lend themselves to ventures in Catholic liturgical criticism.

On the issue of the prayer itself – the Roman Church will pray what it prays, and it has that right. The Bishop of Rome, in the Roman Church’s understanding, has full, immediate, and universal jurisdiction, so he can rewrite things and he can use his office to make them stick (as long as they are not heretical). Does this surprise anyone anymore.

On this issue of language, it does evolve – especially in the sense of its common usage and understanding. Meanings change over the years. The same can be said of the term blindness. Do we want to take the time to help people understand the metaphorical and varied intellectual meanings of the word blindness – or do we want to be clear?

You could even make a technical argument by stating that blindness is an inability to see, something that is not true for the human heart. Do we as Christians believe that God created hearts that are unable to find Him? Not at all! So are the Jewish people spiritually blind? I think not. I do not think anyone is. If we fully acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the way, truth, and life – we must rely on God’s grace in moving hearts.

Perspective, PNCC

Ya think?

From CNA: Communion in hand should be revised, Vatican official says

Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith, Secretary of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Cult and Discipline of the Sacraments has said that the policy of giving Communion in the hand should be revised.

Receiving Holy Communion in the hand “produces a growing weakening of a devout attitude toward the Most Holy Sacrament,” wrote Archbishop Ranjith in the preface of a book from the Auxiliary Bishop of Kazakhstan, Bishop Athanasius Schneider.

The book’s title, printed by the Vatican Editing house, is —Dominus Est: Meditations of a Bishop from Central Asia on the Sacred Eucharist.”

Archbishop Ranjith says in the preface that the Eucharist should be received “with reverence and an attitude of devout adoration,” and claims that the practice of receiving Communion in the hand “was introduced in some places in an abusive and hurried manner.”

The Archbishop also highlights that the Second Vatican Council never promoted or legitimated such practice.

—I believe it is time to evaluate and reconsider such a practice, and if necessary, abandon it all together,” Ranjith concludes.

That and the whole idea of “Extraordinary ‘Ministers'” should be done away withThankfully the PNCC has neither. The Holy Eucharist may only be received on the tongue from a deacon, priest, or bishop. In the PNCC the Holy Eucharist is distributed under both forms by intinction..

I know of what I speak because in my R.C. days, back in Buffalo, I was one. Our parish had 3-4 priests at any one time and 20+ “Extraordinary ‘Ministers.'” The priests sat back and let the EM’s do the work – and there were no huge crowds at any one Mass. Beyond that, whenever I attend a R.C. Church (family funerals, other occasions) I sit back and am amazed at what I see during the distribution of the Holy Eucharist.

The most recent example was a woman with a walker. She could not possibly let go of the walker with both hands so as to follow protocol.

As I recall the protocolSee this Catholic Answers article., you are supposed to hold the right hand under the left. The ‘minister’ is to place the Eucharist into the cup of the left hand which is supported by the right. Then you are to take a step or two to the side, take the Eucharist up with the right hand, place it in your mouth – while facing forward, not on the ‘run.’ After consuming the Eucharist you proceed back to your seat.

As she could not do that, she let go of the walker with the right hand. The ‘minister’ placed the Eucharist there. Then she brought her hand up to her mouth and literally ‘hoovered’ the Eucharist into her mouth. I almost fell over.

In the U.S. the extraordinary is the ordinary. It is merely a subterfuge for, as Catholic Church Conservation would call, stealth priestesses and other abuses. The Young Fogey has mentioned that clown masses are a thing of the distant past – and perhaps so. What they’ve been replaced with makes those look absolutely Tridentine (check out the photos at CathCon and marvel at the inventiveness of it all).

If people have to “wait” and few extra seconds for the Eucharist – so what. Seek forgiveness, approach with joy and expectation, and most of all build up the desire within yourself. After all, you are approaching God.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, Political,

Ah, to live in a free country…

From the BBC: Academic sentenced over Ataturk

A Turkish court has handed down a 15-month suspended jail term to an academic found guilty of insulting the state’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Professor Atilla Yayla said the trial highlighted the limits on free speech and academic debate in Turkey.

His crime was to suggest in academic discussion that the early Turkish republic was not as progressive as portrayed in official books…

I suppose the same could happen in the U.S. as we slide merrily along in our adulation of cultic figures. Insult President Bush, his administration, Brittany Spears, Israel, the war on terror ™ any other “sacred” visage you may well find yourself before the courts. But of course faith is an open target – especially Jesus.

Just the way things should be in truth.

Unless faith stands counter to the world it is prone to act in subservience to itI would cite acquiescence to government mandates on reproductive “health” services by Catholic hospitals or caving to other government mandates by Catholic Charities agencies as a symptoms of such a problem. What amazes me is the annual ritual in my state capital involving Catholic Bishops who demand government money for Catholic schools. And you want the government telling you what to teach … why?. We may well be hated by the world – and if we are we are probably close to spot-on. That’s what witness brings. It is something faithful Christians are called to do in ways big and small.

Government is not the friend or protector of religion, especially the radical witness of faith in Jesus Christ. Those who think it is are sadly mistaken. While we are blessed by freedom in the United States – or at a minimum a faí§ade of freedom, that does not mean that we can be lazy in our faith. Freedom is not a license to relax in our witness. It is an opportunity to speak the truth. Let’s use that freedom wisely. Let’s use our freedom like the wise servants used their talents.

`Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’ — Matthew 25:21 (RSV)

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, , ,

On my son’s 9th birthday

We took my son out for dinner tonight – to his favorite diner. He wanted a root beer float with chocolate ice cream – dad taught him that one.

A conversation in the car on the way:

Son and daughter: “Do you know that there are people who don’t believe in heaven?”
Dad: “Yeah, that’s sad, because they think that when they die – well that’s it.”
Son and daughter: “They think they’re just dead.”
Dad: “That’s right – they think their life it over, they have no hope.”
Son: “That’s why we need to have pastors, to go and teach people about heaven, to tell them the truth, to make them believe and have hope.”

A great gift – insight and zeal for souls. We didn’t have to buy that gift – it came by the grace of God.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Media, Perspective, PNCC, ,

Praying for those who have not faith

There is much consternation out there over several issues that have come to the fore, seemingly simultaneously.

As I look through these events I continually ask myself – what do we as Catholics believe, what is our foundation, and why does any of this worldly stuff matter to us.

Of course our foundation – our rock – is Jesus Christ, true God, true man, the second person in the Holy Trinity. Acknowledging that, everything else becomes rather secondary. Politics – bleh. The media – huh? Sports celebrities, talking heads, pundits, actors – who they?

If that is our faith, and I am certain it is, I propose a new tactic in dealing with the idiosyncrasies of the worldly, the worldly that surround, and may indeed, outnumber us. That tactic is prayer and silence.

I will start with a few recent hot button issues.

ESPN controversy

It appears that some commentator as ESPN wishes to have intercourse with Jesus. A person by the name of Dana Jacobson went off on an anti-Christian tirade at a recent ESPN function honoring ESPN Radio personalities Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic. The vulgar speech has raised the ire of various defense and anti-defamation leagues. All the callings on the carpet, chest beating, call for apologies, and subsequent apologies do not really amount to too much. If a professional person can do something of this caliber – without thinking twice before speaking – well I am sorry for her.

Rather than react, I propose that we pray, and bear these insults in Holy silence. That tongue biting we do is our penance for the times we ourselves have spoken callously of others. In addition it is the kind of sacrifice – the kind of silence – that brings results.

Clergy bless abortion clinic

In my neck of the woods — LifeSite News reports: Pro-Abortion Clergy Bless New York Abortion Business as “Sacred Ground”

…a group of pro-abortion clergy in Schenectady held a ceremony at a local abortion business to bless it and call it “sacred ground.” Religious officials who are pro-life call the ceremony sacrilegious by blessing a place that kills the life God creates.

Rev. Larry Phillips of Schenectady’s Emmanuel-Friedens Church dedicated the ground, according to a report in the Albany Times Union.

…

Another minister prayed for safety for the abortion business and a local rabbi blew a shofar to dedicate the building as an honorable place in the community.

My gut reaction is that this is horrible. A good dressing down of the Rev. Phillips and the others involved? Outrage? Scathing criticism? Rather, prayer and Holy silence.

Jews, and Muslims, and Hindus, oh my

The Western Confucian (thanks to the Young Fogey for the link) discusses the rage of the Hebrews. Good points in the quid-pro-quo sense. This, along with events like the Episcopal Bishop of Los Angeles’ apology to the Hindus (thanks again Fogey) are issues best left to God – and beyond the value of discussion.

In the PNCC we certainly pray for the conversion of all who do not believe in Christ or for that matter believe in God at all. That includes a pretty large chunk on the world. Our neighbors in the Hindu Temple – yep, them. The Jews at Chabad House in Colonie – yep. The Muslims in Albany – yes. The Mormons in Latham – them too. Unitarians, agnostics, atheists, and anyone else who does not believe in God as He revealed Himself – One and Trinitarian.

Better yet, on Holy Saturday, after the Third Exhortation we pray:

Lord God,
You are an immovable power
and an eternal Light.
Look graciously on this mystery,
which is Your whole Church,
and the vehicle of our salvation,
with unceasing direction and sufficient assistance.
May the whole world witness
that You raise up the humble,
and make old things new.
May all humanity come to know
that all things return to their pristine existence
through Jesus Christ, Your Son…

…and after the Fourth we pray:

Almighty Eternal God,
in Jesus Christ You showed us
the best example to follow.
Grant that all nations of the world
will unite in Him with love for You…

In these, and all the prayers of the Holy Church, we acknowledge God as He is – and we really do not think anyone else has a clue or insight that can beat God’s self revelation. They may well be on the road to salvation – and they are well within God’s merciful hands – something we in the PNCC acknowledge in our Confession of Faith:

I BELIEVE that all peoples as children of one Father, God, are equal in themselves; that privileges arising from differences in rank, from possession of immense riches or from differences of faith, sex and race, are a great wrong, for they are a violation of the rights of man which he possess by his nature and the dignity of his divine origin, and are a barrier to the purposeful development of man.

…and

I BELIEVE in immortality and everlasting happiness in eternity in union with God of all people, races and ages, because I believe in the Divine power of love, mercy and justice and for nothing else do I yearn, but that it may be to me according to my faith.

But still, we do not deny our faith, or refuse to offer them our prayers, our Holy silence, and our wish that they come to Christ – because doing so is Christian charity.

We truly do believe in God. We believe that He offers all that we need. As such the vices of the world cannot harm us. Our responses to provocations and the ways of the worldly must be borne of complete charity – which is love – and that love finds its fulfillment in our prayer, our sacrifice, and most particularly the ultimate prayer – the Holy Mass.

The fact is that prayer and Holy silence will actually accomplish more than our words, protests, and blogging will ever accomplish. They are proactive in the sense of calling down grace. They place us in the experience of the Divine interlude. It is the music of the place that is between heaven and earth. It is where we stand in the breech, bringing the world to God and God to the world. Couple our prayer and Holy silence with some fasting and works of charity – and most of all love toward these sad folks – folks who are angry, hate-filled, resentful, misguided, and ultimately apart from those whom they disparage – and we will be doing the work of God.

A family member recently noted that Christians pray for the faithful. She wondered why we do not pray for those without faith – because they need the prayers. She is right. Both the faithful and the faithless need prayer – in equal amounts. The faithful so that they remain true. The faithless so that they are brought to God’s self revelation in accordance with God’s timing and God’s grace.

If we love rather than react with rage it is not capitulation. Silence is not acquiescence. Prayer is not useless. We must remind ourselves – do not volunteer yourself onto someone else’s stage, and if you are dragged there – He will give you the words. We must act on the eternal stage and bear a witness to truth that is beyond time and place. Surely we are to speak the truth, but on our stage – and on the terms set down by the Heavenly Father.

Those who hate cannot be won by argument or voices raised in protest. Only the grace of God can change their hearts. For this we pray. Lord have mercy on us. Amen.

Perspective, Political,

LDI supports Huckabee – while holding its nose at ethnic cleansing?

Received this via my Christian Newswire news feed: Catholics and Protestants Urged to Come Together to Back Huckabee:

“Governor Mike Huckabee is the only candidate for President we can support with confidence,” said Douglas R. Scott, Jr., president of Life Decisions International (LDI). “I urge my Protestant brothers and sisters to join me in doing all they can to advance Mike Huckabee’s campaign.”

“We need to back a candidate who has a consistent record of supporting traditional values,” said Thomas C. Strobhar, chairman of LDI. “Mike Huckabee is that kind of candidate. I urge my Catholic brothers and sisters to join me in doing all they can to advance Mike Huckabee’s campaign.”

…

“I believe it is the responsibility of every pro-life/pro- family American to support a candidate that wholeheartedly supports life–without apology and without compromise,” Scott said. “While the only person I agree with on every issue is me, Mike Huckabee comes pretty close. And since his positions are faith-based, one can be sure he will not sell out the Pro-Life Movement the very lives of preborn children.”

“Pro-lifers have been used and abused by too many candidates that claim to be pro-life only at opportune times,” Strobhar said. “Mike Huckabee is not worried which way the political wind blows. He’s the real deal.”

“I am thrilled that there is a candidate I can enthusiastically endorse rather than holding my nose and supporting the ‘lesser of two evils’,” Scott said. “Mike Huckabee deeply and personally cares about these issues. He is the kind of candidate pro- family Democrats, Republicans and independents can support. The choice is clear; Mike Huckabee should be the next President of the United States.”

…

Life Decisions International (LDI) is dedicated to challenging the Culture of Death…

So I wonder if they support Mr. Huckabee’s idea of deporting all Palestinians (I guess that includes Christian Palestinians) out of Israel for points unknown in other “Arab lands.” In common terms that’s called ethnic cleansing (thanks to the Young Fogey for pointing to this).

I’m not feeling all that confident in a man who supports ethnic cleansing, deportations (and the deaths that sure accompany that sort of thing – people aren’t going voluntarily), and a continuing war in the Middle East involving our soldiers; a place we should never have gone and which we must leave forthwith.

Mr. Scott, you still have to hold your nose. The stench of death is still there – only its coming from the Middle East.

Current Events, Perspective, Political,

For all conspiracy theorists, and President Bush

Yes, the unthinkable has happened. The Islamofacists ™ have struck again, this time focusing their dastardly evils upon Hollywood and the music industry.

Yes, my fellow Americans – Britney Spears saga is a direct attack by people from the dark recesses of Islamofacist ™ land.

CBS, in their Britney Was “Trembling” story reported:

Sheeraz Hasan … told Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen Tuesday that he’d spoken with Spears’ new beau, photographer Adnan Ghalib, as the media crush was unfolding Monday.

…

Hasan says Ghalib told him Spears was “really nervous” and “really panicking” when she was being mobbed by the media at the courthouse, and opted to skip the hearing and go to church, feeling she had, at that instant, “no one to turn to except God.”

That’s it, don’t you see? Look at the names – Hasan and Ghalib.

It is obviously al-Qaeda, umm al-Qaida, uh al-Qa’ida, you know – those guys. They have plotted and have succeeded in bringing down a great American dynasty, have damaged the reputation of the nations top performing artists, have inflicted harm on Hollywood and the music industry, and have diverted attention from the scandalous magnificent and righteous “war on terror ™”

A secret report from the Council on Foreign Relations and AIPAC notes that the plot was borne of the complete hatred the Islamofacists ™ have for our freedoms. AIPAC noted that they hate America’s young singers and dancers because they represent freedom. Their evils have nothing to do with American intervention in the Middle East or our support for the apartheid freedom loving State of Israel.

A reporter who questioned the AIPAC spokesman in regard to the lack of attacks on other “freedom loving” countries like Norway, Portugal, Ireland, and Switzerland was told that he was immature in his analysis.

The reporter was later detained and sent to an undisclosed tropical prison camp. No charges were filed but a Justice Department analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that the reporter had promoted terrorism against other “freedom loving” countries.

While some have posited a tie between Hasan, Ghalib, and the Saudi Royal Family, President Bush has decided to bomb and invade Costa Rica. His father, the former President Bush, came down with stomach upset after eating a meal there in 1997. The President noted that Ghalib has a vacation home in Costa Rica and that the Costa Rican government was supporting this plot. He urged all American to pray for Ms. Spears.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia

Dear Bishop

A New York State R.C. Bishop has decided to release all Polish priests from service in his diocese.

Many of those priests will have to return to Poland where there is a veritable glut of priests. A few have found postings in other R.C. Diocese in the United States.

I could go on and on with all the arguments normally posited about such matters: If there are priests available why close churches? You are always complaining about a lack of priests, why send some away? What’s wrong with Polish priests? Are Polish priests too beholden to tradition, such that they cannot fit in with the ethos in an American diocese? What’s up?

Rather than do so, I will play a little game. Let’s just say that the Holy Spirit were to send a letter to said Bishop. What might it sound like?

Dear Bishop,

Some years ago your brother bishops imposed hands on you and imbued you with My power. As you may recall, I provided you with the fullness of the Apostolic priesthood, my sevenfold gifts, and the authority to teach, shepherd, and govern in the local Church.

In addition to My gifts, I have touched the hearts of many men, and have attempted to fill them with zeal for souls. I have called many, but as you know, few have responded. Nevertheless, the Son has promised that I will remain with the Church, and that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against Her (cf. Matt. 16.18-19). That being the case, I have sent you sons who, while few in number, are filled with zeal for souls, and who have hearts filled with love for Our people.

I am edified by the fullness of trust you have exhibited in Our commitment to remain with the Church. You certainly have shown that you believe that We can do everything. That is faith!

Unfortunately, Our gifts can only be made present through your hands and your administration. We need you to proactively build up the Church with the gifts and the men you have been given.

It may seem wise, property values being what they are, to send off the sons I have given you, close churches, sell buildings, and do what is expedient for the present. You may even deem this a difficult but courageous choice. I urge you to reconsider, taking the long-term, eternal view into consideration.

Often times what is foolish in the eyes of men is wise in Our eyes (cf. Cor. 1:18-25). Please take your tremendous faith, and the gifts We have given you, and stand firm knowing that whatever may come, the Church will stand. That means that you, My son, are a rock. Grow the faith, build up Our Church, and have courage.

With all graces,

The Holy Spirit

P.S.: Please remain loyal to My son and your brother Bishop Benedict who is your lawful Patriarch.

In my personal opinion the R.C. Church needs as many hands as are available, especially if they are good and loyal to the Church. While some church closings are inevitable, retrenchment should not be an option. Find new and different ways to use the buildings. Most importantly put all hands on deck to minister and build up the Church.

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