Pro-RH Bill's ugly heads

Pro-RH Bill created not one but THREE FB pages against the group "I Oppose the RH Bill".

The administrators of the group then grabbed the photos of people whop are active in the discussion against the RH Bill and painted it with obscenities that do not even deserve space in this blog.

Obviously, you know where the RH Bill is heading to, right?

From the three groups, this is the page that has the obscene and vandalized photos of anti-RH Bill advocates.

I Oppose the RH Reproductive Health BILL Sucks

Go to the page and report it to the FB Administrators as these groups are against the policy of FB.

Click report page at the bottom left corner.

The Norbertines

I was sent these beautiful videos about the Norbertines.  The official name of the Order is the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré or Premonstratentians or Norbertines after their founder, St. Norbert.

The Wikipedia article gives a good background of the Order.

As the old saying goes,pictures  are worth more than a thousand words.  Imagine this one... moving photos!

St. Michael's Abbey Vignette Teaser from St. Michael's Abbey on Vimeo.

Vignette of the Norbertine Life at St. Michael's Abbey from St. Michael's Abbey on Vimeo.

Saint Quote: Sin, a forgotten thing?

"They live in sin because they think not of death."

St. Alphonsus Ligouri

Unless you have the end in mind, you would not mind whatever you do with your life.

You can either look at artificial birth control as a right or an occasion for sin.

RH supporters are pro-choice right?

Now...CHOOSE!

The minions are ranting!

Hey, I am not the only one who rants!


Thanks to TPC readers for sending me the link.

Dean Bocobo, who commented on a recent post I made about Forbes magazine and the Church's stand on population management, commented in a post of Celdran about that post.  He wrote that I am anonymous.  I won't be if you take up my challenge.

Dean you call me names in Celdran's FB wall post.  That's some Christian forbearance you showed there, eh mate?   Funny thing that i used those italicized words since you were the first one to use those words when you commented on my Forbes post.  And, you might forget, freedom of expression...my own blog...commenting on a media man's article.  Don't lecture me on this.  I am a media man.

Me living in another time?  Pardon me Dean, but the Catholic Faith knows no time.  It is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  The Church's stand on abortion and artificial birth control will remain the same and the clergy and the laity will not be silenced.  And 50 years or even a hundred years from now, you'll still hear the same so-called "medieval" rants of Catholics like me.

And he rants that my digital image of the Divine Mercy giving his blessing is "probably an idolatrous, obscenely gesturing GIF anime of Jesus Christ. You'll only get him EXCOMMUNICATED for it. THEN he'll really be in agony. Naah this is just some raving, ranting Catholic dude, is Pinoy Catholic."

A blessing Christ is idolatrous?  Obscene?  Getting excommunicated in return?

Obviously, you are not Catholic and you have no idea what that image is all about.  What is more obscene?  My animated image of Christ giving his blessing or Carlos in the Manila Cathedral?


TPC readers...what do you think?

And no my dear Dean.  That would not get me excommunicated.  FYI, I have bishops and priests reading my blog.  They'll tell me when I would get a canonical censure or an excommunication for what I post.  Your a dean, aren't you?  Go research those.

One of those who answered Celdran's post has this to say:  "freedom of expression. learn to take as you give :D"  Kudos to Jemy.  

Isn't it ironic that the lot of you who fight for human rights can't handle criticism well and result to name calling and even acting as if you know anything about Church disciplinary laws.  It is a if you want to silence me with your insults.  Give and take.  Carlos rants, you rant, I rant.  Fair?

By the way, your guesses are all wrong about who I am.  ENGK!

No such thing as a 4th Gen KofC.  Obviously, you read my profile.  Good.  You are reading.

In case you did not know... 

I am just right around the block where Carlos makes his tours.   I know he knows the place.

And yes, I see him most of the time.

Christmas in Asia

A brother Sir Knight, SK Frank Quadrino of John Paul II Council # 8372 also in New Haven, CT, the birthplace of the Order of the Knights of Columbus, sent me an interesting link about the "Christmas in Asia" exhibition in the Knights of Columbus museum.  

An interesting tidbit, SK Frank's wife is a Filipina who hails from Manga in Tagbilaran City.  Married for six years, God blessed their marriage with a 5 year old son.  Brother Frank is a member of Fourth Degree Member of the John Barry Assembly 97 also of New Haven.  He is also a Faithful Captain of his Assembly and a Past Deputy Grand Knight of his Council. 


His wife is very supportive in all his KofC work.  They are also active in their own parish.  In fact, she is assisting Asian Christmas" theme that is currently under construction at the K of C Museum here in New Haven and lots of native Pinoy Christmas displays all from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.  Top that!

The exhibition will run from November 19, 2010 to February 13, 2011.  Hey, the same length of time that Pinoys celebrate Christmas.  Ha!

Here is the write-up for the exhibition:

The sixth annual Christmas crèche exhibition at the Knights of Columbus Museum includes more than 100 crèches (or Nativities Scenes) from 22 Asian countries. The crèches come from the Holy Land in the Middle East and across the continent to Japan on the Pacific Rim. Many of the countries have only a small population of Christians, in contrast to the Philippines which is the third largest Catholic nation in the world. Also included are original Holy Family paintings and prints from Japan, China and Korea. Some styles are uniquely Asian while others follow European techniques and craftsmanship. Several detailed crèches were created by a one-of-a-kind Christian Woodworking Work Shop in China. The exhibition’s crèches and paintings are on loan from seven collections, including the Maryknoll Missionaries in China. Visitors to Christmas in Asia will also enjoy the Mother Teresa: Life Spirituality and Message exhibition, which will continue to April 3, 2011. The Museum’s 10th annual Christmas Tree Festival will open Dec. 1, 2010 and run concurrently with Christmas in Asia.

 To read more about the museum, click this link.

For those who can visit the museum, please do drop an email.  I would love to hear from my brother Sir Knights.

I am hoping that this one be brought here to our country.

And make sure, Humpty Dumpty isn't around to make a killing out of this!  I am sure we will be there to kick him out.

By the way, it's the 4th week, and as expected, he is still too chicken to fight for against church meddling in politics, but this time in an INC temple and a Muslim mosque.  Chicken joy!

I do not want to end this post with a bitter after taste.  So...

Huzzah for Brother Frank and his wife!  A truly Columbian family!

Vivat Jesus. 

GULP Exam: Spot the not in Manila

I posted this photo yesterday and I intentionally did not point out what was wrong in this photo.

So spot the not folks!

Forbes goes down the drain

Here is an idiotic article from Gordon Chang of Forbes Magazine

***

Thank you, Mari Lim, for suggesting Carlos Celdran as a name we need to know in 2011. [A name we should not mention!  We should say He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!]  The multi-talented, much-accomplished [Wah?  You just knew the guy and he accomplished a lot?  Really? Is this the standard of Forbes magazine?] activist in the Philippines deserves book-length treatment, [Civil and Canon Law books that is.  Hah!]  but this posting will have to do for the moment.

Want to find Mr. Celdran? Head to Intramuros, the 16th century section of Manila, where he conducts popular walking tours. As he guides you through the walled city, he passes out condoms and birth control pills to the poor. Contraception is one of Celdran’s passions. [You don't want to wonder why...]

And he is certainly passionate. In September, for instance, he was jailed for a flamboyant act that rocked the nation. Clad in a black coat and top hat like that worn [sic] by Philippine national hero Jose Rizal, he stormed into Manila Cathedral during a mass. Then Celdran shouted anti-Church slogans in English and his native Tagalog while holding up a placard emblazoned with “Damaso,” a reference to a reviled friar in a Rizal novel.

And why did Celdran do that? He has been conducting a long-standing campaign against the Catholic Church to stop it from blocking family-planning legislation in the Philippine Congress. [campaign?  during his tours.  ok got it.  I have to redefine the syntax of the word "campaign" according to Chang.] So far, threats of excommunication have persuaded legislators from approving a comprehensive reproductive health bill, which would fund contraception programs. The Church favors abstinence as a method of birth control. [What a load of bull.  Not just that but natural methods only!]

In a country where 80.9% of the population is Catholic, the prospect of eternal damnation is a powerful threat. [See where this crappy article is heading?  He now draws the line between one's faith and how one runs his family.  HEY GORDON!  They cannot be separated!  We are both Filipino Citizens and Catholic Christians!  Deal with it!] Thanks in large part to the Church, the Philippines is the 12th most populous country in the world, with an estimated 99.9 million people as of the middle of this year. In thirty years, there will be 140 million Filipinos.  [I have heard this accusation about the Church being guilty of overpopulating the country.  Has this guy even been to a slum in Manila or to a village in Mindanao?  Because I have been and they are a mix of religions.  Some call themselves Catholics but don't go to Mass.  Go to Mindanao and the family with the most children are either tribal Filipinos who are not Catholics and Muslims Filipino families.  So where this nut got his facts is a mystery to me.]

That’s way too many according to the United Nations and the World Bank. Both these institutions have backed strict population-control measures in the Philippines so that the nation can meet the 2015 Millennium Development Goals. “We’re being left behind by our Southeast Asian neighbors because our population has been growing faster than our economy,” Benjamin de Leon told Reuters. [Ahhh.  The Carrot on a Stick project!  You want money!  Use contraceptives which you can buy using THE MONEY WE LENT YOU!]

The family planning advocate is right. The Philippines has the highest fertility rate in the region, a whopping 3.23 births per female. Only Laos is close.

East Asia is becoming a demographic disaster zone. Japan, the fastest shrinking country in the world, has been getting smaller since 2005. It now has a population of 126.8 million. In less than a century, there will be only 45 million Japanese. In the countryside, whole villages are disappearing at this moment as the elderly die off and the young head to the cities. Japan’s fertility rate is an abysmal 1.20 (a nation will have a stable population if its rate is 2.1).

Other countries are following Japan into a demographic sinkhole. South Korea has a fertility rate of 1.22—and Singapore’s is a catastrophic 1.10. Population giant China claims a fertility rate of 1.2. In fifteen years, and perhaps as few as ten, its population will peak and then rapidly fall off.

It will take a long time for the Philippines to shrink. But, Mari Lim, you’re right that we need to keep our eye on the famous Carlos Celdran. If he gets his way, his country will stop growing at its roaring pace, joining the trend in a region that will soon get smaller.

Demography may not be destiny, but it does, as Nicholas Eberstadt notes, set the limit of what is possible. For Asia, the horizons will narrow as its leading societies shrivel.

Demography, the “relentless maker and breaker of civilizations,” is the next big trend in Asia to watch.

***

Hey, Gordon!  Wake up call!

The Malthusian Theory is a...T-H-E-O-R-Y!

And get this...It has been debunked by Simon Kuznets.  And OH Gordon!  He won a Nobel for THAT work!

Don't throw your trash in our backyard!  Back off from our lives, Gordon!

***

Here are more articles debunking what these maniacs are purporting as Bible truths in population control.

FYI.  Dona Consolacion was so happy when Forbes wrote about him.  Was it really about the advocacy or about him?

Ehhhh, you know the answer.

Apostolic Exhortation: Verbum Domini

MST will surely be ranting like hell!

GULP Exam Answer: Where to preach

God's Undercover Liturgical Police (GULP) is getting good at this!  Apart from the overlay preaching stole over the chasuble, the point here is the priest giving his homily/sermon NOT in the ambo/pulpit.

Can you not see how inspired the people at the back are?  Aren't they cute.  Yup, I wrote that to be sarcastically funny, if there is a term.

Getting back, the pulpit was made for a purpose.

Before the liturgical brouhaha ushered in by Vatican II, pulpits were richly decorated and were elevated.  Often they can be seen in the middle of the church.  And ALL readings and sermons were done THERE, except for the case when a bishop is presiding.

Like this not well known bishop who has a thing for classic vestments:

Here he is again up close in St. Peter's with a portable chair.

Here he is when he visited a Lutheran Church.

There are no specific liturgical law that specifies where a priest must preach.  The General Instruction of the Roman Missal for the Mass of Paul VI says and I quote:

136. The priest, standing at the chair or at the ambo itself or, when appropriate, in another
suitable place, gives the homily. When the homily is completed, a period of silence may be
observed.

The Ambo
309. The dignity of the word of God requires that the church have a place that is suitable for
the proclamation of the word and toward which the attention of the whole congregation of the
faithful naturally turns during the Liturgy of the Word.

It is appropriate that this place be ordinarily a stationary ambo and not simply a movable lectern.

The ambo must be located in keeping with the design of each church in such a way that the
ordained ministers and lectors may be clearly seen and heard by the faithful.

From the ambo only the readings, the responsorial Psalm, and the Easter Proclamation (Exsultet)
are to be proclaimed; it may be used also for giving the homily and for announcing the intentions
of the Prayer of the Faithful. The dignity of the ambo requires that only a minister of the word should go up to it.

So from what we have read, all directions point towards the priest using the Ambo aka Pulpit because that is where the Word of God is read and preached and the Homily aka Sermon is PART of the Liturgy of the Word.  The dignity of preaching in the ambo is...how should I put it...dignified?

Once a priest or a deacon decides to preach walking around the church or the sanctuary, it gives the impression that he is Oprah on Chasuble!  The sanctuary becomes his stage, as opposed to God's dwelling.  The sense of the holy is lost as we see not a religious worship but an pseudo-Evangelical Fellowship service.

Probably one of the "wrongs" of facing the priest to the people.  Making priests talented entertainers rather than offerers of God's Sacrifice.


Here are classic examples of pulpits in the Philippines:

San Ignacio, Intramuros, Manila, destroyed by American bombs during the liberation of Manila
(Ateneo Alumni wanted to recreate the old church in all her glory.  But our faithful Jesuits wanted nothing of it.)

Her is one in the Manila Cathedral-Basilica.

You can see the massive and elevated pulpit at the right of the sanctuary.  The cathedra is on the left and right in front of it is the other pulpit.

Here is another shot.

You can see Cardinal Rosales, preaching on the other pulpit while you can see the pulpit at the back. He is leading the Mass of Sts. Peter and Paul aka Pope's Day.

There is a practical reason for pulpits.

There were no microphones before so it would make sense if the sermon is delivered from an elevated position so the priest can shout his heart out and be heard in the entire nave of the church.  This is also the reason for choir lofts.  By the way, does your church even have one?


The attitude of priests doing what they want with the liturgy is a symptom of a problem we call Priestly Narcissism.  There is a beautiful article about this which you can read here.  Priests hungry for attention and acclamation...no wonder we have lots on TV right now.  I know for a fact that most of these priests and even a bishop, would not even stay long in their own parish, ministry or diocese.  They spend more time OUTSIDE of their assignments and more with moonlighting, especially those that get the most attention and most enve...Ooops!

There is wisdom behind what Holy Mother Church did for thousands of years of worshipping the Lord.  And you have liturgists, telling all of us "The Church was wrong all these years  What I suggest is right."


and we have..TaDa!

REVEREND SHOWMAN! Deal or No Deal?

Excuse me.  I need my barf bag.

GULP Exam: What is wrong in this photo?

Over population = Poverty ....NOT!

An article by Ernesto R. Gonzales, Ph.D. of the Social Researcher Institute, University of Santo Tomas and Concurrently Chair, Economics, National Research Council of the Philippines.

This article appeared in the Pro-Life Philippines website.



***

The belief that population growth is the primary reason for poverty is a great fallacy. In fact, it has long been proven to be fallacious.

This belief was first espoused by Prof. Robert Malthus (University of Cambridge, 1785) but was proven false by Prof. Simon Kuznets one hundred seventy three years later. For disproving the fallacy, Kuznets was awarded the Noble Prize in Economics, in 1971.

This Principle of Malthus, that population grows geometrically while production grows arithmetically, became the basic assumptions in his Theory on the Iron Law of Wages which he posited was the primary reason behind poverty in Europe at the start of the Industrial Revolution.

However, Simon Kuznets was able to validate scientifically that Malthus was all wrong because economic growth is fastest during the time that the population growth was highest. This was validated in Europe during the 100 years industrialization of the European continent. Prof. Yamamoto of Japan, held the same conviction also, based on his observation that the economic growth in Japan was the highest during the 1970’s. He was referring to the dramatic economic takeover of Japan in the World Market for cars and electronic products during the last three decades of the 20th Century. The main reason for this correlation between population growth and economic growth is simple – there was an increase in the demand pool in the population that grew. There were more buyers for products made, so naturally production grew and employment grew, and poverty was eradicated.

The natural and expected result in the equation however did not happen in the Philippines, because purchasing power was removed from the population that grew. People could not buy because they had no money; and they had no money because they had no jobs or income earnings. [Because of corruption!] The earnings that could easily have gone on to the people through industry were siphoned off by payments to a ballooning international and domestic debt, by tremendous tax cuts and tax holidays being given to foreign investments prejudicial to the internal economic growth of the country and most of all by the shameful and rampant corruption in the government. Instead of the people earning, it is the government official and a select few who were making all the money.  [Isn't too obvious?  Ask Lagman if he'll cut his pork barrel.]

Against this perspective, we therefore present our inevitable conviction that the proposed measure to limit family size to only 2 children is a useless exercise in demagoguery and an admission of failure. [This was written during that debate of 2 child policy.] It is convenient for politicians to attack population when they are out of remedies for the country’s extreme poverty due to their unabated graft and corruption and because they are not willing to plug the leakage of income to only a select few. [If you are incompetent, blame others.  Blame the Church.  Way to go!] Poverty is the result of the connivance between government and the oligarchy to keep the ordinary Filipino out of the growth and expansion of the Philippine economy. [I can see a few faces and names in my mind.  But I know there are a lot.] Consider that there is no clear and sincere economic policy formulated in this country to lighten the load of ordinary Filipinos. Today, the national economy of this sovereign country is no longer ours anymore. We have already lost our middle income group. People are poor because our leaders prefer them to be ignorant and poor; because as ignorant and poor, they can easily be manipulated to vote for those corrupt politicians whose main ambition is solely to enrich themselves at the expense of the people.  [Has anyone noticed who got elected in the last national elections?  Has anyone noticed how our president ran his election?]

Sad facts to ponder are that today, almost half of the population are entrapped in poverty that is not of their own making and are experiencing literal hunger and deprivation of human rights. [And these agents of death are fighting for the right to information and access to abortifacients!]

While we agree that prudence must be employed to determine the right size of the family for everyone, we are grievously concerned that some of our lawmakers are dangerously treading on moral grounds which are no longer the safe purview of economics. Life is never an area that can be manipulated by people, let alone politicians. This is not their turf. Let the one who creates life determine how it should be dispensed. [Life is none of our business!  Just like in the liturgy.  It's outside our turf!]

***

So?

Lagman?

Dare!

Give up your pork barrel.

YOU PORK!

The Christian Martyrs of Iraq

Warning: Graphic video



I won't be surprised if they will be canonized in the future.

Remember!

They were murdered even though they are Arab, Iraqi.

The murderers are also Arab and Iraqi. But they are jihadists, radicals following dogma against the infidels. Not even the children in the Cathedral were spared.

And they struck at the most opportune time, when the Syrian Catholics were praying, at Mass.

I remember a fat obnoxious guy doing somewhat like that.

If ever this thing happens to a pro-abortion activist, a gay man, a pro-RH bill advocate, a pro-women ordination...

Imagine the uproar of the mainstream media like Hell's Bible.

Have you heard any strong condemnation from the Western media? Nope. Nada. Zilch.

They have to be politically correct when condemning the jihadists.

But read, listen and watch how they condemn the Church for Her opposition to same sex marriage, contraceptives, abortion, etc.

And the Church is the baddie.

We are not in the catacombs anymore know my brothers and sisters. But the persecution is much brutal. You don't know who your real enemies are.