PASTORE'S CORNER

Pastore’s Corner
The website – cinops be gone – Monday, November 17, 2008
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This week, I would like to share with you three important news items that we need to pray for and react to wisely, following the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
First, as you know, our Bishops had their fall General Assembly Meeting last week in Baltimore. Cardinal Francis George, his opening address, stated very clearly about working for the common good:

“The Church comes and always and everywhere with the memory, the conviction, that the Eternal Word of God became man, took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, nine months before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. This truth is celebrated in our liturgy because it is branded into our spirit … The common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice.”

One of the Bishops strongest positions is against abortion. They vowed in forcefully confront President-elect Obama and his administration over its support for abortion rights: “The church and religious freedom might be under attack in the new presidential administration.” As faithful citizens and true disciples of Jesus, we need to be totally united with our bishops in this battle against abortion, especially in our country, not simply through prayers, penance and sacrifices, but also with our own united voice defending our innocent and powerless brothers and sisters in their mothers’ wombs.

Second, last week, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, the president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, in responding to an announcement on Sunday from Obama’s team saying that the future president would reverse the policy of George Bush and to give the go-ahead to the embryonic stem-cell research, warned the President-elect Obama that it is unethical to give a green light to embryonic stem-cell research: “Noting that human dignity is an end in itself, and not a means that can be manipulated. One person can never be used as means for another … It is not possible to kill one human being to save another.” United with Rome, we must stand firm in this fight against “embryonic stem-cell research” in our Country.

Third, Proposition 8 was passed in favor of the teaching of the Church, our Christian value of a sacred, traditional family and marriage – between a man and a woman only -, instituted by God. The opponents in favor of same-sex marriage have been stirring up all kinds of lawsuits, protests, demonstrations and threats to society and our Christian foundation about the sacredness of marriage. We need more prayers, penance and sacrifices, holding firm to our position and if needed to stand up together with the Church and all God-fearing people of good will, who respect the natural law of marriage (between a man and a woman only), to fight against this “atheistic abomination”/evil of same-sex union/marriage. May God help us! May the Blessed Virgin Mary, all the saints, especially St. Paul in this Pauline Jubilee Year, and all the angels help us! May God bless you all!
Your servant/brother in Christ,
Fr. M.

George H. Kubeck.
P.S. “The courage to recognize truth and the joy we take in it are fundamental marks of the Christian Faith…. human beings need truth. The world needs truth.” Pope Benedict XVI.