What Is “Liberal Traditionalism”?

Within liberalism there are various streams of thought which compete over the use of the term “liberal” and may propose very different policies, but they are generally united by their support for a number of principles, including freedom of thought and speech, limitations on the power of governments, the rule of law, an individual’s right to private property, free markets, and a transparent system of government. {Source}

Traditionalism is that branch of Western conservative thought that is characterized by an adherence to the principles of prescription, custom, social order, hierarchy, faith, the natural family, ordered liberty, and tradition. {Source}

Hear Lex on Radio Interview!

Dear friends:

For those interested, I will be discussing my latest article on RenewAmerica.us, “Obama’s Pope: How the Catholic Church Brought Abortion to America”, with Paul Lamon on his radio show, “My New Dawn”, at 6PM this evening.

You can catch it live through that website, or listen to the archived version at the same. Especially if you are a reader of the blog, feel free to call in and ask questions or share your thoughts.

How the Catholic Church Brought Abortion to America

From RenewAmerica.us:

How the Catholic Church Brought Abortion to America

by Eric Giunta and Eugene Cunningham

The Church’s enemies accuse of her of birthing, aiding, or abetting nearly every social evil that has afflicted the planet: slavery, anti-scientism, Nazism, Fascism, the Holocaust — you name it!

Will historians a hundred years from now accuse the Catholic Church of being equally “silent” with regard to America’s abortion holocaust, in word and especially in deed? It’s not as crazy as it sounds. What follows is an excerpt from an imaginary monograph: Obama’s Pope: How Mother Church Gave Birth to Abortion, by Anne T. Kathlik, to be published in the year C.E. 2100.

“Of course, the Roman Catholic Church of the last century brought America abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, human cloning, embryo-destructive stem cell harvesting, and all manner of Frankenstein-esque evils. The cup of evidence overfloweth.

“The typical American Catholic of the late 20th century voted for openly pro-abortion candidates — most of whom were themselves Catholics in good standing with their Church — time and again, and without any compunction.

“The litany of Catholic politicians who were fervently pro-abortion is endless: Joe Biden, Mario Cuomo, Christopher Dodd, Ted Kennedy (in fact, the entire Kennedy dynasty), Barbara Mikulski, Patty Murray, Patrick Leahy, and Mary Landrieu were just a few of the names in an endless catalogue, all of whom were continually elected and re-elected, in overwhelming numbers, by their Catholic constituents.

“As already noted, all these lawmakers were completely in good standing with their Church, and especially with the Vatican. A handful of bishops, an insignificant percentage, suggested that they ought to refrain from taking Communion at Mass, but most of the episcopal hierarchy decided not to impose any such sanction. A bishop might occasionally express his personal disagreement with the pro-abortion politician, but he felt no need to impose his personal views on the lawmaker. The view of the typical American bishop, and even of the reigning Popes, was essentially that of the pro-abortion politician: these bishops and Popes were personally opposed to a pro-abortion voting record, but their actions indicated that they believed a Catholic could in good conscience vote for and promote abortion and remain in unimpaired Christian fellowship.

“And their flocks got the message.

“The Catholic Church sent its high school students, by their thousands, to the “coronation” of America’s most pro-abortion President. Tens of millions of Catholics celebrated with equal fervor and ecstasy, side-by-side with secularists, making no distinction whatsoever between those “marked with the sign of faith” and those who militated against the culture of life.

“‘As Catholics we rejoice at Obama’s election,’ was what one Archbishop wrote in his weekly column in November of 2008.

“The late 20th century Catholic had abortions at the same rate as all others in America, and voted pro-abortion in the same proportions. No distinction was made between those “called out of the world,” those merely in the world, and those of it.

“President Barack Obama was awarded, by the Catholic Church, a platform and an honorary degree at the nation’s most prestigious Catholic university. A minority of bishops feebly published letters of protest, again expressing their personal opposition to the award, but the university in question, Notre Dame, received no sanction whatsoever. Before, during, and after the award, it remained a Catholic university in full communion with the Catholic Church, operated by a religious order of the same Church. Notre Dame’s bishop condemned the invite with his words, but with his actions showed that he did not consider Notre Dame’s actions to be so grave as to compromise its Catholic identity. He could have told Notre Dame to stop representing itself as a Church-sanctioned institution, but chose not to. He was ‘personally opposed, but . . .’

“The reader will note that, despite the publicity of this scandalous invite, the Pope in Rome raised not a finger, not a cough, in support of the unborn. Oh yes, the occasional morally platitudinous remark, but the actions of the Holy See spoke much louder than her words. France’s pro-abortion, thrice-married President, Nicolas Sarkozy, was named an honorary canon of the Lateran Basilica, the mother-church of Catholic Christendom. The Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, published three articles, within two weeks’ time, praising the policies and the philosophical orientation of President Barack Obama. The second of these even compared him to Joshua, the Biblical successor to Moses, the Great Prophet and Lawgiver.

“One Vatican archbishop, an American, threw a bone to ultraconservative fringe Catholic pro-lifers at the national prayer breakfast. This archbishop was head of the Apostolic Signatura, and did not indicate that any action was forthcoming against Notre Dame or the continuous run of Catholic pro-abortion politicians.

“Of course everyone knows the work done by very many Catholics, acting independently of their Church, to save the unborn and fight against the legalization of abortion. These Catholics wrote letters and signed petitions, begging their pastors to enforce the doctrine and discipline they were paid to teach. But to no avail. Their pleas fell on deaf ears, both from their local bishops, but especially from Rome. These independent Catholics, from Norma McCorvey and Randal Terry to Priests for Life and Lambs of Christ, deserve the heartfelt praise of all successive generations.

“Meanwhile, the silence and inaction from the ‘official’ Church was all the more damning. From his window, the man now known as Obama’s Pope could have put an end to the travesty of official (express or tacit) Catholic-sanctioned culture-of-death liberalism. He chose silence.”

Eric Giunta is a Juris Doctor Candidate at Florida State University College of Law, where he serves as President of that school’s chapter of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He has written for LifeSiteNews and the Florida Chapter of the Church Music Association of America, and maintains a blog, “Confessions of a Liberal Traditionalist,” at lexetlibertas.wordpress.com.

Eugene Cunningham, is a former educator at two schools of the Miami Archdiocese. He is active in serving and promoting the Tridentine Mass in that diocese, and in the local pro-life movement.

Miami Archdiocese Sponsors Concert by Gay Men’s Chorus

by LexEtLibertas

February 27, 2009, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Yet another of the Miami Archdiocese’s parishes is flaunting its disregard for orthodox Christian moral teaching by hosting a concert this evening by the Miami Gay Men’s Chorus.

The concert (titled Serenade), the Chorus’s debut performance of 2009, is being held at Saint Patrick Catholic Church in Miami Beach on Friday, February 27. LifeSiteNews contacted both the parish and the Archdiocese of Miami’s Communications Office; no official comment was forthcoming as of press time.

This is not the first time an institution under the auspices of the Archdiocese has given a platform to the Miami Gay Men’s Chorus. In May of 2008, Holy Cross Hospital (in Fort Lauderdale) co-sponsored a senior-citizens talent show with the Chorus.

Catholic teaching clearly distinguishes homosexuality from the so-called “gay lifestyle”. The former is considered a psychological disorder, the latter promotes freely chosen sexual behavior that is considered seriously sinful by the Church.

The Miami Archdiocese is said to be no stranger to scandal and wide-spread theological dissent. Two of the Archdiocese’s parishes, Saint Anthony and Saint Maurice, are listed as “Gay-Friendly” in a directory published by the Conference of Catholic Lesbians (CCL).

LifeSiteNews has previously reported on theological dissent sponsored by the Archdiocese’s two universities. Just this past Monday, February 24, Saint Thomas University’s School of Theology Ministry featured a guest-lecture by “ecospiritualist” Sr. Miriam Therese MacGillis, a Dominican nun who promotes goddess-worship. In 2007, LifeSiteNews reported Barry University’s granting a theology award to another notorious goddess-worshipping feminist Dominican nun, Sr. Elizabeth Johnson. Both universities are also categorized as “Gay-Friendly” by the CCL.

To express concerns to the Archdiocese of Miami contact:

Archbishop John C. Favalora
9401 Biscayne Boulevard
Miami Shores, FL 33138
Phone: (305) 757-6241
Fax: (305) 754-1797
mragosta@theadom.org and information@theadom.org

Sign the Petition to Withhold Communion

This from WorldNetDaily:

A Catholic website is launching a petition that targets Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling on church leaders to discipline them by withholding communion because they “not only disregard the Church’s teachings … but actively and publicly promote policies and legislation that undermines, opposes and contradicts the church.”

The petition is being promoted by Pewsitter.com, which explained is it not only the right of Catholic church members to call for the discipline, it is their responsibility.

Pelosi, who has described herself as an ardent Catholic, consistently has adopted pro-abortion positions on legislation. She is scheduled in coming days to visit Pope Benedict XVI.

The nationwide “Withholding Communion” petition’s goal “is to gather at least one million petitions for presentation to the U.S. bishops and the Vatican,” website spokesman Jeff Jones said today.

Explained the website, “The basis for withholding communion is Canon 915, which stipulates that those ‘obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.’”

I encourage all my Catholic readership to sign the petition, which can be accessed here. As Christian humanists, we have every right to expect our elected Catholic leadership to not only be intellectually consistent themselves, but to defend the institutional integrity of our church. Thanks be to God, we in the United States do not live under a theocracy. No one has to be Catholic. Membership in the church is strictly voluntary, and those who should know better but obstinately, and publicly, persist in grave sin should respectfully recuse themselves from activities their fellow coreligionists believe to be sacrilegious.

Miami’s Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Dormition

Light of the East—in South Florida

Miami’s Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Dormition

Part I in a Series

By LexEtLibertas

If there is one cultural indicator which most vividly illustrates the decline and decadence of modern Catholicism, it is by far the degeneration of the Roman liturgy from the late 1960s. It is this writer’s conviction that each of the crises besetting the modern church (theological dissent, the sexual depravity of the clergy, the aloof indifference of the episcopate, smug clericalism, the failure of nominally Catholic peoples to effectively resist the inroads of the culture of death into their public institutions) can all be summarized thusly: Catholics have lost the sense of the sacred.

And this quintessential Catholic sensibility is uniquely concretized in the worship the Church offers to the Supreme Deity. The Church’s splendid liturgical patrimony, alongside the Lives of her saints, is perhaps her principal non-rational apologetic: the invisible splendor of her truths finds visible expression in her solemn administration of her sacraments, her performance of which have inspired those great artistic monuments which are so treasured by all humanity, even the non-believer.

And yet, since 1969, the Church has practically abandoned this patrimony, to the extent that the average worshipper’s experience at a Catholic church bears little resemblance to the historic Christian conception of liturgy, as Catholic ceremonial today has about as much solemnity as a children’s reenactment of a Sesame Street episode.

The tragic flaw of modern Catholic liturgy is its discontinuity not only with its own Catholic predecessors, but even with the traditions of other Christian churches (Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian, High Protestant) and even non-Christian religions, whose own ceremonial speaks to that sense of the sacred, that yearning for the transcendent, which so characterizes the human spirit, and whose dearth is all the more absent at the local Catholic parish. It is, too, this writer’s conviction that modern Catholic liturgical praxis is for these reasons fatally detrimental to both ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. In terms of raw aesthetic, the sacral orientation of a Hindu temple has far more affinity with the Catholic tradition than does the typical celebration of the Novus Ordo Missae.

And Florida has been no exception to these trends: indeed, the state has, in so many ways, over the years exemplified everything banal, heterodox, and otherwise pernicious about the so-called “Spirit of Vatican II.” But this generalization ought not to take away from all the good that has come out of the Catholic Church in Florida , and, liturgically-speaking, Catholics in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties have been singularly indebted to the work of several Eastern Catholic parishes which have humbly preserved the liturgical heritage unapologetically abdicated by the local Roman-rite establishment.

And outstanding among these parishes is Miami ’s Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Dormition.

We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendour or beauty anywhere upon earth. We cannot describe it to you: only this we know, that God dwells there among men, and that their service surpasses the worship of all other places. For we cannot forget that beauty.

Thus spake the emissaries of Saint Vladimir of Kiev , when they witnessed the Divine Liturgy at Constantinople ’s Hagia Sophia in the 10^th century. The experience is said to have been the deciding factor in the conversion of the people of Kieven Rus from paganism to Byzantine Catholic Christianity.

And Miami ’s Church of the Dormition is very much emblematic of Byzantine-Slavic liturgy at its very best. The 10:15 Sunday service is celebrated in Old Church Slavonic, and its choir is of the highest musical caliber, exhibiting the entire range of Slavic melody and tonality, from bass to soprano. The musical repertoire is just the perfect balance between Byzantine chant and Slavic polyphony, of a kind most Catholics will go their entire lives never having heard, save perhaps on compact disc or the movies of Eisenstein or Tarkovsky.

The entire liturgy is in Slavonic, and the priest’s sermon in Ukrainian. However, there are translations of the “Ordinary” in the pew books, and the propers are translated in the weekly church bulletin. The new priest, Father Matthew D. Schroeder, even types out his sermons in English, placing them next to the local bulletins in the back of the church, so visitors can follow along. And Father Schroeder’s preaching is just as beautiful and orthodox as his church’s liturgy.

Rest assured if you visit: this church is Catholic. Although one would not know it, so authentically Ukrainian, so authentically Orthodox is this entire parish, from the art and architecture, to the liturgy itself, which frequently beseeches God’s blessing for “all orthodox Christians”. Church of the Dormition serves, I believe, a potentially important ecumenical function, demonstrating as it does that full communion with the Church of Rome takes nothing away from all that is good, true, and beautiful in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

There is a 9:00 Liturgy in English, but in this writer’s experience from past years (before the pastorship of Father Shroeder), this was often rather Latinized, no incense was burned, and much of it was said, rather than sung. The church’s principal liturgy is at 10:15, and Catholics genuinely interested in experiencing the Slavic liturgy on its own terms, and patronizing liturgical renewal, are encouraged to attend that service.

For more information:

Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Dormition

39 NW 57th Court

Miami, FL , 33126

(305) 262-4192

http://www.uccm.us

Statewide Gregorian Chant Conference in Florida

Well, gang, not all is lost in the Floridian Catholic Church! In the midst of the prevailing apostasy, there are several lights shining in the darkness.

I encourage all of my readers to “vote with their feet” by patronizing (with time and money) worthy liturgical endeavors wherever they find them. Not only is it our Christian duty to see to it that the Deity is offered worship worthy of his sublime transcendence, but non-Christians themselves have a vested secular interest in preserving classical Christian liturgy. For these liturgies are living cultural artifacts, living reminders of an important component of the intellectual and artistic patrimony of Western civilization.

Nothing has inspired such sublime art and architecture as the Catholic Mass, and it’s a veritable crime against the human patrimony when priests abuse or otherwise banalize It, as in fact the vast majority of them do.

Nor are my sentiments in this regard contrived or disingenuous. I would remind my readers that just a few years ago, “Halloween coalitions” of conservative Catholics, secular humanists, and everyone in between signed several public manifestos around the world begging Pope Benedict XVI to liberalize the celebration of the Tridentine (Traditional Latin) Mass, and these same intellectuals enthusastically greeted this liberalization when it was finally granted in 2007 (going into effect on 14 September of that year).

So, without further ado, I present this press release from Musica Sacra Florida:

The Florida Chapter of the Church Music Association of America is happy to announce:

Musica Sacra Florida – www.musicasacra.com/florida

Gregorian Chant Workshop
Sponsored by the Florida Chapter of the Church Music Association of America
in conjunction with the
Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences
at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale
Friday, March 6th – Saturday, March 7th, 2009

Detailed scheduled and brochure

This two-day workshop will present both beginning and advanced musicians with rehearsals and lectures that will enrich their knowledge of Gregorian chant and its use in the Roman Catholic liturgy.

Led by a faculty of chant specialists from around the state, attendees will learn more about the history of Gregorian chant and its role in the liturgy as well as experience the chant in the context of both the Divine Office and the Mass. Beginning chanters will be introduced to the basics of notation and rhythm according to the Solesmes method. Experienced chanters will learn new repertoire and advance their understanding of rhythmic and interpretive nuance. Resources and practical methods for the cultivation of Gregorian chant in the life of the parish will also be discussed.

This workshop is ideal for choir members, parish music directors, music students, teachers, parents, seminarians and anyone who is interested in learning about the heritage of sacred music within the Roman Catholic Church.

Registration fees are $35 and include the price of instructional materials and instruction. Participants are responsible for all their meals and housing during the conference. Payment is due upon arrival at the conference.

Pre-registration is required.
Deadline: Friday, February 27th, 2009

Contact Information :
Jennifer Donelson
(954) 262-7610 or jd1120 -at- nsu.nova.edu

Faculty:
Susan Treacy – Ave Maria University, Ave Maria, FL
Michael O’Connor – Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, FL
Mary Jane Ballou – St. Augustine Schola Cantorae, St. Augustine, FL
Jennifer Donelson – Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL

“Gay-Friendly” Miami Archdiocese Features Goddess-Worshipping Nun at Diocesan University

Just days after the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI has ordered an apostolic visitation of all non-contemplative women’s religious orders in the United States, a notorious Catholic dissenter, known for her promotion of goddess-worship and “eco-spirituality,” is scheduled to speak at the Miami Archdiocese’s Saint Thomas University.

Sr. Miriam Therese MacGillis, O.P will be presenting a lecture, “Cosmology, Faith, & Sustainability,” at Saint Thomas, on 24 February.

Many lay Catholics have documented Sister Miriam’s dissent from official Catholic doctrine. Sister Miriam is an active proponent of so-called “eco-spirituality,” a quasi-pantheistic religious movement recently chronicled in some detail in Sarah McFarland Taylor’s book Green Sisters: A Spiritual Ecology. Taylor, an Episcopallian sympathetic to the eco-spiritual movement, has chronicled this heterodox belief system, and her exposition features Sister Miriam MacGillis and the community she co-founded, Genesis Farm. Pioneered by dissenter Fr. Thomas Berry, eco-spirituality seeks to counteract a perceived hyper-anthropocentrism (man-centeredness) of the traditional Judeo-Christian creation narrative. According to “Christian” eco-spiritualists, all of creation forms a cosmic unity, and man (male and female) is not at its pinnacle. The entire universe is the “body of God,” and eco-spiritual religious sisters’ worship routine is permeated with non-Catholic religious rites which invoke God and the Earth under various feminist invocations, and otherwise mimic Catholic sacraments and devotions like the Eucharist and the Stations of the Cross, with their distinctly Christian content completely extirpated and replaced with devotions to Mother Earth.

Sister Miriam, who does not wear a religious habit, has been affiliated with Call to Action, long-considered the “mother” of dissenting Catholic organizations. Call to Action endorses divorce and remarriage, homosexualism, abortion, contraception, the complete democratization of the Catholic church’s, hierarchy and doctrine, and moral and theological relativism. The Vatican has censured Call to Action, and its members have been excommunicated in at least one US Catholic diocese.

The website of Sister Miriam’s Genesis Farm features virtually no mention of Jesus Christ or Christianity, and its Links page features the website of the pro-abortion Women’s Environment & Development Organization.

Sister Miriam’s upcoming lecture is featured on the website of Saint Thomas University, and is also advertised in the latest pastoral bulletin issued by the Miami Archdiocese to all it’s priests.

Saint Thomas University and the Miami Archdiocese are not new to scandal and wide-spread theological dissent, both of which have been chronicled in some detail by popular Catholic columnist Matt Abbott. Saint Thomas University, along with Miami’s Catholic Barry University, is listed as “Gay-Friendly” in a directory published by the Conference of Catholic Lesbians; the same organization lists two of the Miami Archdiocese’s parishes, Saint Anthony and Saint Maurice, as “gay-friendly”.

In 2007, LifeSiteNews reported Barry University’s awarding of a theology award to another notorious goddess-worshipping feminist Dominican nun. That award was also advertised by the Miami Archdiocese in a pastoral bulletin.

Further Reading:

“Our Pantheistic Sisters”

“US Dominican nun brings the ‘New Cosmology’ to New Zealand”

Miami Archdiocese Lauding Genocide

Dear readers:

I’ve posted before on the shenanigans of the Miami Archdiocese before, and sure enough it’s up to its old tricks again.

Below I reproduce, in its entirety, an email-newsletter from Monsignor Edward Pace High School, a Catholic school of the Miami Archdiocese. I wish to call your attention to the following paragraph:

Senior Gregory Blanco has been chosen as one of the Archdiocese of Miami official 2009 Presidential Inauguration blogger.  The blog will be called “Witness to History”. Gregory along with 20 other students will be traveling to Washington DC for the inauguration of President elect Barack Obama. He will be blogging his experiences for “Let’s Talk”, the Archdioceses of Miami’s official blog on its website www.miamiarch.org. Congratulations!

Now, I in no way mean to impugn this student, who is merely going along with the wiles of his instructors in tandem with the Archdiocesan intelligentsia.

Here’s my beef: As a Christan humanist I understand the moral obligation (rooted in natural law and divine precept) to respect our lawful heads of state, but it seems to me that the election of a men such as Obama-Biden should be greeted stoically, with prayer and penance, not jubilation. In these hard financial times, the Archdiocese could put to better use the money it is spending to send these 20 students to the inauguration of the nation’s most radically pro-infanticide, homosexualist presidential team.

Rather than lauding the inauguration of genocidal statesmen, I urge the Archdiocese to cancel this trip, and reallocate these funds toward nonpartisan activism on behalf of, and providing humanitarian aid to, the persecuted Christians and moderate Muslims of Darfur.

What follows is my source for this entry:

Check out our new website @ www.pacehs.com School News Congratulations to 11th graders Jackie Morales and Hedda Falcon. They participated in a county wide contest and have been chosen to show their art work in the children’s showcase at the Holtz Children’s Hospital Beaux Arts Festival of Art this January 10-11, 2009 at the Lowe Museum on the University of Miami campus. Here is the link for more information: http://www.beauxartsmiami.org/events/festival.html Senior Gregory Blanco has been chosen as one of the Archdiocese of Miami official 2009 Presidential Inauguration blogger.  The blog will be called “Witness to History”. Gregory along with 20 other students will be traveling to Washington DC for the inauguration of President elect Barack Obama. He will be blogging his experiences for “Let’s Talk”, the Archdioceses of Miami’s official blog on its website www.miamiarch.org. Congratulations! The Anime club, lead by senior Daniel Tapanes and moderated by Mr. Armando Mendive is working on building a Prayer Garden.  They need help from the Pace family. If you would like to make a donation to this wonderful addition to the Pace campus, please visit the website and make a donation online or contact pkunkel@pacehs.com. The Entrance Examination for incoming 9th graders will be held January 31, 2009 in the Hennessey Center.  Applications are available on the website. Sports The boys wrestling team record is 10-1.  The team won the Jacksonville invitational last weekend. Seniors Diddley Weche and Julian Martinez were recognized as outstanding wrestler of the tournament.  Julian Martinez, son of alumni Jackie Martinez Class of 1981 was awarded the Sportsmanship Award at the tournament. The boys’ varsity basketball team record is 11-3. They are ranked #1 in Dade County and in the State of Florida Division 4A. The girls’ varsity basketball team record is 10-5. They are ranked #4 in the County and #5 in the State. SAVE THE DATE for the boy’s varsity baseball team first game of the season.  Monday, February 9, 2009 7:00 pm Pace vs. Archbishop McCarthy here at Pace. For all of our sport schedules go to: www.viewmyschedule.com. We are listed as PACE. Are You Afraid of Computers? Let our Spartan Computer Institute help you get rid of that fear.  Join us in 2009 for the Microsoft Office Training Sessions starting in January.  If you or someone you know is interested in participating, please email Mr. Eduardo Flor at eflor@pacehs.com soon because space is limited. See you in the computer lab!

Petition Launched to See Obama’s Birth Certificate

URGENT!

Thousands of people are jumping aboard a petition that demands documentation of President-elect Barack Obama’s eligibility to hold the highest office in the U.S., not just assurances from party officials.

Already more than 100,000 petitioners have joined the effort coordinated by WorldNetDaily founder and editor Joseph Farah.

A report accompanying Farah’s petition explains the many questions raised about Obama’s eligibility, from an apparently fabricated “Certification of Live Birth” posted online to questions about what nation’s passport he used during to travel to Pakistan.

{Source: “Petitioners Tell President-Elect to Prove His Eligibility for Office”}

I’m not one for conspiracy theories, folks, but I encourage you to click the link above, do your own research, and sign this petition. President-elect Obama is not living up to his campaign promises of change in government accountability and transparency. McCain produced vindicating evidence when his own natural-born citizenship was questioned last year by the far-right and far-left. There’s no excuse for Obama not to do the same.

Miami Archdiocese Gay Sex Scandals?!

Archbishop John Favalora of Miami needs to resign.

This today from the Palm Beach Post: “Ruling a Setback to Man’s Suit vs. Archdiocese of Miami”

The Miami Archdiocese is not new to sex scandals. According to its own website, since 1966 “the Archdiocese of Miami Insurance Programs have paid $26.1 million in settlement, legal and counseling costs associated with sexual misconduct allegations made by minors involving priests, laity and religious brothers and sisters.”

Thomas Francis of the Broward-Palm Beach New Times has written at least two extensive articles on the culture of the Archdiocese, and one particularly egregious pedophile-priest has had his abuse covered up and enabled by every bishop who has ever governed this Archdiocese, including the current incumbent, John Favalora:

“Lambs to Slaughter: Again and Again, Local Claims of Abuse Point to One Priest, the Rev. Neil Doherty, and the Catholic Archdiocese that Protected Him”

“Speak No Evil: When a Margate Priest Misbehaved, the Archdiocese Punished His Secretary”

And these do not appear to be isolated occurrences. Rather, they seem to be symptomatic of a wider homosexualist superculture which implicates most of the Archdiocese’s priests, and several in the top hierarchy of the church there.

A reader(s) has provided me with the following documented information which they attempted to publish in the appropriate Wikipedia entries, before vandals deleted it:

In 2004, a group of concerned lay Catholics of the Miami Archdiocese constituted themselves a lay “watchdog” organization, under the name Christifidelis. They were moved to do so by what they have alleged is a gay superculture running the archdiocese.

Attorney Sharon Bourassa, a member of Christifidelis, was counsel for The Rev. Andrew Dowgiert in a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese in May of 2005. Fr. Dowgiert, on loan from a Polish archdiocese and soon to be incardinated in Miami, alleged that he was “fired” from activie ministry in the Miami Archdiocese after whistle-blowing on homosexual activity by several pastors of the Archdiocese (particularly that of Fr. Anibal Morales of All Saints Parish [in Sunrise]).^[1][2][3][4]

In 2005 and 2006, Catholic columnist Matt C. Abbott (of RenewAmerica.us) published several articles tracing developments in what became known as the “Miami Vice” scandal. Bourassa claimed that several “straight” priests were feeding her information on a culture of sodomy and theological heterodoxy on the part of priests of the Miami Archdiocese. Among the allegations: 70 to 90 percent of the Archdiocese’s priests are sexually active gays; Archbishop Favalora and Catholic Charities of Miami owned several thousand shares in stock for a liquid aphrodisiac popularly sold in gay clubs and strip joints; at least 70 percent of the United States bishops are sexually active gays; many parish priests were misappropriating parish funds to live exorbitant lifestyles, and Archbishop Favalora and vicar-general Msgr. William J. Hennessey are in some way implicated in this superculture.^[5]

The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, on the grounds that it involved “separation of church and state” issues. The court refused to determine whether a religious employer wrongfully terminated the ministerial employment of an ordained cleric. In dismissing the case, the court made no determination on the veracity of the above allegations.

Two of the Miami Archdiocese’s parishes (Saints Anthony and Maurice, both in Fort Lauderdale) are publicly featured on the directory of the Conference for Catholic Lesbians as being “Gay-Friendly”; a complimentary directory lists both Archdicoesan universities, Barry and Saint Thomas, as “Gay-Friendly”.^[6][7]

There seem to be a lot of sick things going on in this Archdiocese. There is especially no excuse for why two of the Archdiocese’s parishes, and both of its universities, are operating in de facto schism by virtue of their affiliation with the (by Catholic standards) heretical “Conference for Catholic Lesbians” sect. Why don’t these four Archdiocesan institutions be honest with themselves and realign with the Episcopal Church? I just don’t get it . . .

My source tells me that two years ago Rome was sent an exhaustive report detailing and documenting all these allegations and more. One hopes Pope Benedict will soon be implementing his reforms in this Archdiocese. As a law student in the Blue Southeast, I can testify that the Miami Archdiocese is not exactly noted for its “dynamic orthodoxy.” The Catholic church in Florida is moribund, and keeping the old boys’ club in power isn’t doing anything to bolster the church’s credibility in the eyes of the faithful or the broader populace.