Saints

"The way of the world is, to praise dead saints, and persecute living ones."

Bp. Wilton Gregory

Recently Bishop Wilton Gregory, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, sent a letter informing the accused priests of his diocese that they were not welcome at diocesan liturgies. The bishop wrote, "I have decided to exclude all priests on Administrative Leave[1] from all future diocesan sponsored events. This includes our annual Convocation, Clergy Assembly Days, retreats, ordinations, Holy Week Ceremonies, and Jubilee Celebrations." The bishop should be so firm with pro-choice "Catholic" politicians who continue to act contrary to the faith and show no remorse for their actions or amendment to change!

Ann Coulter

"You know what really irritates me about liberals? (Besides the fact that they're spineless little girls in pretty dresses who can't play rough because it musses up their hair...)"

Sanger

Margaret Sanger hated abortion and called abortionists "blood sucking men with M.D. after their names."

Clarence Thomas

In any event, Justice Thomas seemed a little sensitive to the sort of second-guessing that comes with the territory for those who sit on the Supreme Court.

“This job is easy for people who’ve never done it,” he said later. “What I have found in this job is they know more about it than I do, especially if they have the title ‘law professor.’ ”

Health insurance

Facts: The policy problem of the health uninsured isn't as large as election-year opportunists made it. Census reports that 254,000,000 (85% of all Americans) Americans have health insurance coverage. The number without insurance improved to 45.7 million people, or 15% of the population, from 47 million in 2006. About 54% of uninsured are aged 18 to 34, and many of them voluntarily choose to forgo health coverage.

Voters and gamers

Seventy-five percent of American "gamers" -- people who play video games -- are older than 18 and nevertheless are allowed to vote.

Progressive Protestants

A brilliant, old priest who assisted me in returning to my faith a few decades ago…told me that in his seminary studies they had a term for those individuals who agreed with 75-90% of what the Church teaches. In anticipation, I expected to learn some obscure term, probably in Greek or Latin, when he followed by saying, “Yeah, we call ‘em Protestants!”

Seat belts

After mandatory seat-belt laws were introduced in the United Kingdom, traffic fatalities surprisingly increased: “In the 23 months that followed the introduction of the U.K. seat-belt law, the number of deaths among pedestrians, cyclists, and unbelted rear seat passengers rose by 8%, 13% and 25% respectively,” due to faster and riskier driving.

Science instead of morality

The West is addicted to technology as a substitute for free will and moral effort. If you eat too much, you get gastric banding surgery. If you're depressed, you take Prozac. If you're a smoker, you wear nicotine patches.

Vocation

Neuhaus recounts a story, told by the renegade preacher Will ­Campbell, about a Southern Baptist pastor named Thad Garner. Despite his affable smile and trips to the Holy Land, he was not a model pastor. He privately admitted that he thought his whole ministry was a sham. Why, then, asked Campbell, do you go on with it? “Because I was called, you damn fool!” retorted his tormented friend.

Dulles theologian

Dulles had about the same time, in his capacity as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, made a memorable address on why many, if not most, academic Catholic theologians were no longer doing Catholic theology as he understood that task.

St. Francis

"Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace!
Where there is hatred let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy"
~Saint Francis of Assisi

Sidney Hook

"Tolerance always has limits — it cannot tolerate what is itself actively intolerant."

— Sidney Hook

AIDS in Uganda

Dr. Ciantia emphasized.

The opposition to these lessons “is really ideological,” he charged, pointing out that “we are facing smoking and alcoholism with strong primary behavior campaign[s] and seriously limiting personal choices (for a public and personal health benefit). But sexual behavior cannot be touched! This is real Western taboo.”

AIDS in Uganda

In 1991, Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni rejected “condom social marketing” and instead emphasized a behavioral change approach at an AIDS conference in Florence, Italy. He said, “…I have been emphasizing a return to our time-tested cultural practices, which emphasized fidelity and condemnation of pre-marital or extra-marital sex. Young people must be taught the virtues of abstinence, self control and postponement of pleasure and sometimes sacrifice...”

Hillary Clinton & M. Sanger

Now, I have to tell you that it was a great privilege when I was told that I would receive this award. I admire Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision. Another of my great friends, Ellen Chesler, is here, who wrote a magnificent biography of Margaret Sanger called "Woman of Valor". And when I think about what she did all those years ago in Brooklyn, taking on archetypes, taking on attitudes and accusations flowing from all directions, I am really in awe of her.