Why the Why?

badwolfcomplex:

janeite06:

thatothersmaybelovedmorethani:

1. Confirmation Saint
2. Favorite Saint
3. Favorite Marian Devotion (prayer, novena, etc)
4. Favorite Set of Mysteries
5. Favorite Bible Verse
6. Latin Mass or English Mass
7. Chapel Veils: Yes or No?
8. Favorite Feast Day
9. Favorite Angel
10. Favorite Priest
11. Favorite/Most Memorable Homily
12. Favorite Adoration Encounter
13. Catholic Music: Matt Maher style, Dan Schute Style, or chanting Gregorian Monks?
14. At this point, which vocation are you more called to: Religious life, Married life, or Celibacy?
15. Incense, yay or nay?
16. Funniest priest story
17. Favorite Saint Quote
18. Favorite Pope
19. Favorite famous Catholic (speaker, celeb, etc)
20. Favorite prayer
21. Favorite litany
22. Favorite novena
23. Patron Saint
24. Saint you most want to be like
25. One Tumblr Catholic you greatly admire. JUST. ONE.
26. Favorite anti-Catholic question
27. Best Catholic-related compliment ever received.
28. Who has helped you most become the Catholic you are today?
29. On a scale of atheist to daily Mass, family rosary, and 14 kids and counting, how Catholic is your family?
30. If you had to guess, how many rosaries would you say are in your room/house currently?

Oooh!  Neat variation on a theme.

What the heck. Ask away.

heartallonfire:

allforhisgreaterglory:

dreamsandcaffeine:

The Pope’s alarming message on American religious freedom

badwolfcomplex: 

Today the Bishop of Rome warns American bishops that their country is losing its status as a nation that honors and promotes freedom of religion. And sad to say, he is right.

When he delivered this unhappy message, in an address to a visiting group of American prelates, Pope Benedict was not telling his guests anything that they did not already know. On the contrary, he said that he was basing his remarks on what the American bishops had told him during their ad limina visits. And what had they told him?

• that the “Obamacare” plan will involve all American taxpayers in a process that subsidizes abortion;
• that Catholic adoption agencies have been forced out of business, because of their refusal to comply with orders to place children in the homes of homosexual couples;
• that a program administered by the US bishops’ conference to help victims of sexual trafficking has been stripped of federal funding because it does not provide for abortion services;
• that the Obama administration has refused to carry out its legal obligation to defend a law that safeguards the institution of marriage;
• and yet that the same administration has argued for the proposition—eventually rejected unanimously by the Supreme Court—that religious bodies should be subject to discrimination suits when they choose ministers according to standards a secular court finds unfair;
• that city clerks are told that they will lose their jobs if they do not certify the marriages of same-sex couples;
• that Catholic hospitals are being required to furnish abortifacient pills to women who report they have been raped;
• that Catholic schools are being required to provide contraceptives for students as part of their health-care coverage;
• that chaplains are being informed that they cannot preach about Biblical injunctions against sodomy;
• that Church-related institutions have been warned that if they advocate policies in line with their doctrines, they could lose their tax-exempt status;
• that doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other health-care providers are under mounting pressure to cooperate in a host of morally illicit operations.

Notice that this list includes only threats to religious freedom that spring directly from government policies. If we included all the ways in which religious institutions are adversely affected by the hostility of the media, the policies of large corporations, and the active opposition of powerful interest groups, it would be a much longer list.

The government is telling American Catholics in no uncertain terms that we do not have the right to our own moral principles, that we do not have the right to refuse to engage in practices which contradict those principles, and that state-sponsored Secularism is new and only “religious freedom” that will be “tolerated.”

How long before they force the closure of more Catholic hospitals and charity? Before they shut down Catholic media services? How much longer will we sit here and do nothing? 

Obama promised “change,” and here it is: all-out war on Catholic religious freedom in America. 

How far are we willing to go to stay true to Truth? What will we do when they silence us, bind us, force us to submit?

I’m honestly asking, because I really don’t know. What I do know is that if this trend continues, it is going to be very difficult to remain an authentically orthodox, practicing Catholic in the United States. Think about all the things, positions, conveniences, relationships, everything in our lives we might put in danger by putting Christ and His Church first in our lives. 

No, it’s not quite the end of the world just yet. I’m not saying that. But I do think we’re beginning to get a glimmer of what 21st century martyrdom is going to look like.

This should not sit well with anyone, regardless of their personal beliefs. Forcing Catholic institutions to do the same things as secular institutions is ridiculous and, as I see it, against the religious liberty that America was supposed to be founded on. Parents can choose to send their children to public schools, people can go to secular hospitals, and see a different clerk about same-sex marriage licenses. In the end, it’s not about us being “discriminatory” - it’s about the state telling religion what to do, and last time I checked, there was supposed to be a separation between them. If people are forced to defy their morals because of Obamacare and other fancy words our legislature decides to vomit onto the Constitution, then America cannot be called the land of the free, not anymore. 

I dread to see what happens if this trend continues. Heaven help us. 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us. I hate to say it, but persecution is coming.

I’m looking forward to the time when (if) I become a dad. :)

roxygen:

However, the fortunate shouldn’t have such a concept if they truly are fortunate.

Sometimes, it is good to understand that life is a temporary state that can be taken away from a person in mere seconds.

Yet I don’t think that its always the best thing to be aware of, or if it does a person any…