Over the course of the past week, two people (Bob and Michelle) have asked me, “Whatever happened to Saint Christopher”? This is a common question and many people think that he is no longer a Saint. How about those old medals or statues that used to be in every Catholic’s car… Do you have to get rid of them?

According to The Catholicism Answer Book by Fr. John Trigilio & Fr. Ken Brighenti (a great book recommended on the Catholic Truth’s Reading list), Saint Christopher is still a Saint! After Vatican II, the Church’s liturgical calendar was revised. To make room for local saints, some saints were removed from the universal calendar for a number of reasons. One reason that saints are on the Church’s calendar is so that people may be able to imitate their lives. In the case of Saint Christopher, there isn’t very much known about his life and he was therefore a logical candidate to be removed from the universal calendar. In the early years of the Church, the canonization process was less strict than today and some saints were canonized without many details of their lives being known. Since Saint Christopher was infallibly canonized by the Church, however, he remains a saint. Furthermore, he’s still the patron saint of travelers.

Today we got listed on Cath.com, one of the largest Catholic Search Engines on the Internet. They provide links to Catholic websites around the world … now including us!

Here’s a link to our entry :
http://cath.com/index.php?cmd=17&link_id=11172&cat_id=189

Thank you, Jesus!

This is what we’re up against…We need to stand up and refuse to be “bullied” by those who want to continue to murder the unborn!

Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life Receives Post-Election Death Threat
Commentary by Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director, Priests for Life

WASHINGTON, November 11, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – I received the following message on my blog (http://www.priestsforlife.org/blog ) the day after the elections:

?IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR FATHER FRANK PAVONE
?I am predicting that there will be more anti-abortion terror because of this election. I AM ALSO PREDICTING THAT THIS TIME IT WILL BE ANSWERED IN KIND BY PRO-CHOICE COUNTERTERRORISTS, who will mount similar terrorist attacks against well-known right-to-lifers. FATHER FRANK will be a natural target for pro-choice counterterrorists. ?I therefore advise you, Fr Frank, if you read that there has been another abortion-clinic shooting or bombing, get out of town immediately. Take a vacation abroad. Go visit the Vatican. If there is another act of anti-abortion terror, your life will not be safe in the USA.
?Good luck.?

Some other pro-life leaders received a similar message, and it has been reported to law enforcement. Pro-abortion extremists call the pro-life movement “violent.” Yet it’s the most peaceful movement of social reform in our nation’s history. In fact, the most confrontational aspect of our movement, Operation Rescue, brought about over 70,000 arrests from 1987 to 1994, yet not a single one of them was for violent activity. We also know that any time a movement is as big as ours, there will be a handful of people – disconnected from the movement – who embrace violence as a tactic. The same was true of the civil rights movement and the abolitionist movement. But of no movement is it more true than the pro-abortion movement. It’s just that the public doesn’t know of their fanatical violence. It starts in the womb, of course – the very action they promote as a “right” is in fact violence. “Typically, the skull is brought out in fragments rather than as a unified piece,” abortionist Martin Haskell testified in court in 1999 regarding the legal “D and E” abortion procedure.
And their violence extends beyond the womb. Just visit http://www.prochoiceviolence.com to see that our movement has been able to document 8519 acts of violence (and counting) by the other side. Pro-abortion fanatics have attacked pro-life demonstrators, have kidnapped women to force them to abort, have murdered born babies, and much more.
So for the visitor to my blog to send that message just reinforces the truth about the “abortion-rights” fanatics. Violence is their way of life.

But why blame Obama? Of course, he is the most pro-abortion person elected to the Presidency. Perhaps they’re thinking back to President Clinton, whose attempts to stop peaceful intervention coincided with the killing of some abortionists. Or perhaps they’re thinking of President Kennedy’s assertion, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

But we already have a peaceful revolution – and not only is it possible, it’s growing! As long as I have anything to say about it, there won’t be any “anti-abortion terror.” Instead, there will be peaceful vigil, 24-hours a day, around abortion centers. That both stops abortions and stops the killing of abortionists.

I spoke with my friend Marty Rotella last night and was excited to learn that he’s currently in the studio working on his next CD. Those of us who enjoy his music are anxiously awaiting this next project. For anyone who is not familiar with his work, Marty is a Grammy-nominated Contemporary Christian recording artist. What makes him “extra special” is that he is also a devout Catholic, which is somewhat unusual for the Christian recording industry. If you’d like to give your spiritual life a boost and treat yourself to some uplifting music, check out his website at http://www.martyrotella.com/ to learn more about his ministry or order CDs. You won’t be sorry!

On this rainy day in New Jersey, a quote from St. Teresa of Avila seems appropriate:

“There is no such thing as bad weather. All weather is good because it is God’s”.

Ouch! I guess that’s why it’s a good idea to look to the Saints for inspiration. They seem to see the bigger picture. Wherever you are today, enjoy the weather that God has provided for you.

Many times we fall into the bad habit of criticizing our priests and bishops. Sometimes we even allow ourselves to forget the fact that without them, there would be no Eucharist! Here is a great prayer for priests by the late Cardinal Cushing. Please join us in praying it daily for those men who sacrifice so much for the sake of our salvation.

Prayer For Priests
O Almighty Eternal God our Father, look upon the face of your Son, and for love of Him Who is the Eternal High Priest, have pity on your priests. Remember, O most compassionate God, that they are but weak and frail Human beings. Stir up in them the grace of their vocation which is in them by the imposition of the Bishop’s hands. Keep them ever close to You, lest the enemy prevail against them, so that they may never do anything in the slightest degree unworthy of their sublime vocation.

O Jesus, our Eternal High Priest, I pray for your faithful and fervent priests; for your priests laboring at home, or abroad in distant mission fields; for your tempted priests; for your young priests; for your dying priests; and for the souls of your priests in Purgatory.

But above all, I commend to You the priests dearest to me; the priest who baptized me; the priests who absolved me from my sins; the priests at whose Masses I assist; the priests who give me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion; the priests who taught and instructed me or helped and encouraged me; all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way. O Jesus, keep them all close to Your heart, and bless them abundantly in time and eternity. Amen.

-Richard Cardinal Cushing

It looks like the Obama administration’s pro-abortion policies are getting the attention of the U.S. Bishops. We need to see more of this. It is simply unacceptable that Obama, with his complete pro-abortion position got 54% of the Catholic vote! The “sheep” need to receive guidance from their “shepherds”.

Catholic Bishops Vow to Confront Obama Administration Over Abortion – (AP) Tuesday, November 11, 2008

BALTIMORE — The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops vowed Tuesday to forcefully confront the Obama administration over its support for abortion rights, saying the church and religious freedom could be under attack in the new presidential administration. In an impassioned discussion on Catholics in public life, several bishops said they would accept no compromise on abortion policy. Many condemned Catholics who had argued it was morally acceptable to back President-elect Obama because he pledged to reduce abortion rates. And several prelates promised to call out Catholic policy makers on their failures to follow church teaching.

Bishop Joseph Martino of Scranton, Pa., singled out Vice President-elect Biden, a Catholic, Scranton native who supports abortion rights. “I cannot have a vice president-elect coming to Scranton to say he’s learned his values there when those values are utterly against the teachings of the Catholic Church,” Martino said. The Obama-Biden press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Diocese of Kansas City in Kansas said politicians “can’t check your principles at the door of the legislature.” Naumann has said repeatedly that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic Democrat who supports abortion rights, should stop taking Holy Communion until she changes her stance. “They cannot call themselves Catholic when they violate such a core belief as the dignity of the unborn,” Naumann said Tuesday.
The discussion occurred on the same day the bishops approved a new “Blessing of a Child in the Womb.” The prayer seeks a healthy pregnancy for the mother and makes a plea that “our civic rulers” perform their duties “while respecting the gift of human life.” Chicago Cardinal Francis George, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is preparing a statement during the bishops’ fall meeting that will press Obama on abortion.
The bishops suggested that the final document include the message that “aggressively pro-abortion policies” would be viewed “as an attack on the church.”

Along with their theological opposition to the procedure, church leaders say they worry that any expansion in abortion rights could require Catholic hospitals to perform abortions or lose federal funding. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Chicago said the hospitals would close rather than comply. During the campaign, many prelates had spoken out on abortion more boldly than they had in 2004, telling Catholic politicians and voters that the issue should be the most important consideration in setting policy and deciding which candidate to back. Yet, according to exit polls, 54 percent of Catholics chose Obama, who is Protestant. The new bishops’ statement is meant to drive home the point in a way that cannot be misconstrued. “We have a very important thing to say. I think we should say it clearly and with a punch,” said New York Cardinal Edward Egan.

But some bishops said church leaders should take care with the tone of the statement. Bishops differ on whether Catholic lawmakers should refrain from receiving Communion if they diverge from central church beliefs. Each bishop sets policy in his own diocese. “We must act and be perceived as acting as caring pastors and faithful teachers,” said Bishop Blase Cupich of Rapid City, S.D. But Dr. Patrick Whelan, a pediatrician and president of Catholic Democrats, said angry statements from church leaders were counterproductive and would only alienate Catholics. “We’re calling on the bishops to move away from the more vicious language,” Whelan said. He said the church needs to act “in a more creative, constructive way,” to end abortion. Catholics United was among the groups that argued in direct mail and TV ads during the campaign that taking the “pro-life” position means more than opposing abortion rights. Chris Korzen, the group’s executive director, said, “we honestly want to move past the deadlock” on abortion. He said church leaders were making that task harder. “What are the bishops going to do now?” Korzen said. “`They have burned a lot of bridges with the Democrats and the new administration.”

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