|
 Rev.
Thomas J. Euteneuer The announcement of a brand new baby
girl for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes reached the ears of the fawning
media last Tuesday, but I just can't celebrate with them. It was
not the baby who made me feel out of sorts—you know that a
pro-life priest loves all babies! It's her parents' wretched example
that irks me. While so many others will be congratulating the happy
couple on their new (out of wedlock) baby, I will be praying for
their souls.
For those who don't know, both Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are former
Catholics who have totally abandoned their Catholic faith, upbringing
and education by joining Scientology which is hardly more than a
weird New Age cult. Katie's departure from Catholicism is, well,
shocking and repugnant given that she was allotted the best Catholic
education money can buy. She is also on record as saying that she
intended to remain a virgin until marriage, but Cruise blew that
one out of the water like the good top gunner that he is. Doctrinal
aberrations and moral degeneration usually go together. And needless
to say, the Cruises do not plan to baptize their baby.
Although the term apostasy is not used much these days, Catholics
who "convert" to Scientology are prime candidates for
the label. Case in point, the Cruises shed their Christian faith
and replaced it with Dianetics, and as Tom's pseudo-evangelistic
interviews with Parade magazine, The Today Show, Oprah and others
has made clear, not a vestige of the old time religion remains.
The Catholic Catechism defines apostasy as "the total repudiation
of the Christian faith" and with it heresy as "the obstinate
post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with
divine and catholic faith" (n. 2089). Yes, the Cruises fit
the bill.
However, Cruise and Holmes are not unique in their repudiation
of the Catholic Faith. They fit a disturbing genre that faithful
Catholics should not just gloss over as typical of Hollywood sell-outs.
So many "Catholics" in public life have either completely
rejected the faith or are living in irreconcilable, scandalous conflict
with it, and we shouldn't be silent about this lest our silence
be interpreted as consent.
Political apostates like Ted Kennedy and John Kerry repudiate the
faith daily while pretending to embrace it. Pop star anti-role-models
like Bruce Springsteen hardly make an effort to justify their irregular
marriages while Brooke Shields evangelizes the culture about in
vitro fertilization apparently without the slightest notion that
her Church condemns the practice utterly. Media compromisers like
Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Chris Matthews take only those doses
of the faith that leave their politics or their bloated opinions
undisturbed. And Madonna—well, she just blasphemes the faith.
What more is there to say?
When I was growing up my dad never hesitated to point out such "Catholics"
and make it abundantly clear to his family that people like the
Cruises and their ilk were reprehensible examples of Catholics in
public life. He always let me know that the faith deserved better.
In other words, I regularly heard the witness of a good Catholic
man defining for me what "Catholic" really means and of
course what it manifestly does not mean.
Faithful Catholics have to relentlessly expose apostasy, heresy
and any other compromises of our faith to the younger generations
so that the inordinate influence of the high profile apostates doesn't
hasten the death of faith in kids—or worse—the death
of their souls.
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International
Website: http://www.hli.org
Source:
Spirit & Life
"The words I spoke to you are spirit
and life." (Jn 6:63)
Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 1, Number 12 | Friday, April 21, 2006
|
|
|
| |
| LIVES
OF THE SAINTS |
MARCH 1
St. Felix II
St Felix II, the pope is an ancestor of the future Pope St. Gregory the Great who lived from 540 to 604. 
MARCH 2
Blessed Charles the Good
Count Charles of Flanders, was called "the good" by the people of his kingdom. They named him for what they found him to truly be.
MARCH 3
Blessed Katharine Drexel
Blessed Katharine was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 26, 1858. Katharine's mother died when she was a baby.
MARCH 4
St. Casimir
St. Casimir was born in 1458, son of Casimir IV, king of Poland. Casimir was one of thirteen children.
MARCH 5
St. John Joseph of the Cross
St. John Joseph of the Cross was born in southern Italy on the feast of the Assumption, 1654. He was a young noble, but he dressed like a poor man.
MARCH 6
St. Colette
St. Nicolette was named in honor of St. Nicholas of Myra. She was born in 1380. Her loving parents nicknamed her Colette from the time she was a baby.
MARCH 7
St. Perpetua and St. Felicity
St. Perpetua and St. Felicity lived in Carthage, North Africa, in the third century. It was the time of the fierce persecution of Christians by Emperor Septimus Severus.
MARCH 8
St. John of God
St. John was born in Portugal on March 8, 1495. His parents were poor, but deeply Christian. John was a restless boy.
MARCH 9
St. Frances of Rome
St. Frances was born in 1384. Her parents were wealthy, but they taught Frances to be concerned about people and to live a good Christian life.
MARCH 10
St. Simplicius
St. Simplicius became pope in 468. Sometimes it seemed to him that he was all alone in trying to correct evils that were everywhere.
MARCH 11
St. Eulogius of Spain
St. Eulogius lived in the ninth century. His family was well-known and he received an excellent education. While he learned his lessons, he also learned from the good example of his teachers.
MARCH 12
St. Fina (Seraphina)
St. Fina was born in a little Italian town called San Geminiano. Her parents had once been well off, but misfortune had left them poor.
MARCH 13
St. Euphrasia
St. Euphrasia was born in the fifth century to deeply Christian parents. Her father, a relative of the emperor, died when she was a year old.
MARCH 14
St. Matilda
St. Matilda was born about 895, the daughter of a German count. When she was still quite young, her parents arranged her marriage to a nobleman named Henry.
MARCH 15
St. Zachary
St. Zachary was a Benedictine monk from Greece who lived in the eighth century. He became a cardinal and then pope.
MARCH 16
Blessed Torello
Blessed Torello was born in 1202, in Poppi, Italy. His life as a child in the village was ordinary and uneventful. But after his father's death.
MARCH 17
St. Patrick
St. Patrick was believed born in fifth-century Britain to Roman parents. When he was sixteen, he was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland.
MARCH 18
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
St. Cyril was born around 315 when a new phase was beginning for Christians. Before that date, the Church was persecuted by the emperors.
MARCH 19
St. Joseph
St. Joseph is a great saint. He was Jesus' foster-father and Mary's husband.
MARCH 20
St. Cuthbert
St. Cuthbert lived in England in the seventh century. He was a poor shepherd boy who loved to play games with his friends.
MARCH 21
St. Serapion
St. Serapion lived in Egypt in the fourth century. Those were exciting times for the Church and for St. Serapion.
MARCH 22
St. Deogratias
St. Deogratias was ordained bishop of the City of Carthage when it was taken over by barbarian armies in 439.
MARCH 23
St. Turibius of Mongrovejo
St. Turibius was born in 1538 in Leon, Spain. He became a university professor and then a famous judge.
MARCH 24
Blessed Didacus
Blessed Didacus Joseph was born on March 29, 1743, in Cadiz, Spain. He was baptized Joseph Francis.
MARCH 25
ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD
The time arrived for Jesus to come down from heaven. God sent the Archangel Gabriel to the town of Nazareth where Mary lived.
MARCH 26
St. Ludger
St. Ludger was born in northern Europe in the eighth century. After he had studied hard for many years, he was ordained a priest.
MARCH 27
St. John of Egypt
St. John was man who desired to be alone with God was to become one of the most famous hermits of his time.
MARCH 28
St. Tutilo
St. Tutilo lived in the late ninth and early tenth centuries. He was educated at the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Gall.
MARCH 29
St. Jonas and St. Barachisius
King Sapor of Persia reigned in the fourth century. He hated Christians and persecuted them cruelly. He destroyed their churches and monasteries.
MARCH 30
St. John Climacus
St. John was believed born in Palestine in the seventh century. He seems to have been a disciple of St. Gregory Nazianzen.
MARCH 31
Blessed Joan of Toulouse
In 1240, some Carmelite brothers from Palestine started a monastery in Toulouse, France.
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
PHOTO OF THE MONTH |
Tour
of the Relics of the Passion
(International Center
for Holy Relics)
www.HolyRelics.org
|
|
| |
| REFLECTIONS |
 “Jesus’
Baptism”
Why did Jesus, the sinless one sent from the Father in heaven,
submit himself to John’s baptism? John preached a
baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke
3:3). In this humble submission we see a foreshadowing of
the “baptism” of Jesus bloody death upon the
cross. Jesus’ baptism is the acceptance and the beginning
of his mission as God’s suffering Servant (Isaiah
52:13-15; 53:1-12). He allowed himself to be numbered among
sinners. Jesus submitted himself entirely to his Father’s
will. Out of love he consented to this baptism of death
for the remission of our sins. Do you know the joy of trust
and submission to God?
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
