Sunday Snippets: Catholic Carnival

What did you post about this week? Stop by the weekly Catholic Carnival and share what you've been blogging. Be sure to visit RAnn at This, That and the Other Thing and check out some posts from other bloggers participating in Sunday Snippets this week.  You're invited to share a blog post or two from last week. Here are my contributions for this week:

Of Food, Family & Faith
Catholic Hospitals Pressured To Perform Abortions
Psychology of the Devil
Our Cherished Right, Our Solemn Duty

Of Food, Family & Faith

This post was originally written for my Food Blog, Cucina Nanette. I feel that the spirituality in it should be shared on my Catholic Blog. I hope you enjoy the post as well as the recipe. N

http://cucinananette.blogspot.com/   The post is entitled Of Food, Family & Faith. I share my feelings on being the Aunt of 4 Law Enforcement Agents and how it affects my life and those in my family. I touch on my experience as a New Yorker during the 9/11 tragedy. And how prayer and food fit together to give comfort to body and soul. My Food Blog is mainly about friends and family. God is an important factor and He is mentioned whenever I can include Him and or when/where it is appropriate. Other food posts, I think my Catholic/Christian friends may enjoy are:  Meatloaf  Made In America, A Plate of Homemade Memories, Made By Nonna's Hands, Indian Cuisine: A Feast For the Senses, Lent: Simple Meals of Self-Denial, & A Pie Fit For "The" King.
So, sit back with a cup of coffee and enjoy the memories I write about. There's a "print-friendly" button at the end of each recipe/story. My motto for my food blog is, Remember To Make Memories At The Table.  Enjoy and God Bless!

Catholic Hospitals Pressured To Perform Abortions!

ACLU Pressures Catholic Hospitals To Do Abortions

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has sent a letter to the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services claiming that Catholic hospitals nationwide are refusing to do supposedly life-saving abortions, saying “emergency reproductive health care” includes abortions.

Catholic norms allow physicians to treat a life-threatening condition even if it indirectly causes an abortion, but does not permit direct abortion.

The Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty said in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services that ACLU is misinterpreting the Emergency Medical Treatment Act, a law which initially was designed to protect the conscience rights of health care workers, and that ACLU’s claim overturns 25 years of case law. “The ACLU has no business radically re-defining the meaning of ‘emergency health care,’” the legal group asserted.

The Beckett Fund letter stated they would sue if HHS tried to force religiously-affiliated hospitals to do abortions against the conscientious objections of their doctors and nurses. The letter stressed that ever since the Roe v Wade. decision legalized unlimited abortions, the conscience of medical professionals has been protected.

“Forcing religious hospitals to perform abortions not only undermines this nation’s integral commitment to conscience rights, it violates the numerous federal laws that recognize and protect those rights,” the Beckett Fund letter stated.

The Beckett Fund also pointed out that “forcing Catholic or other religiously-affiliated hospitals to perform abortions will only result in nationwide closures, thereby reducing access to health care for everyone.” Moreover, this “would constitute a large step backwards for religious freedom and would turn this nation’s foundational commitment to conscience rights on its head,” the group added.

Beckett Fund President Kevin Hasson offered to represent pro-bono any religious hospital threatened because of their conscientious objection to abortion.

Tom Brejcha, president of the Thomas More Society, called on Catholics to provide “an enlightened, invigorated and sustained response” to the ACLU challenge.

Find this article and other Pro-Life News at: National Right To Life Committee (Choose Life Newspaper)

The Psychology of the Devil

Catholic Writers Explain How Satan Thinks

Using Sacred Scripture and other sources, certain aspects of the psychology of Satan and his wicked Angels can be understood.
Although the devils have differences among themselves, they are alike in their desire to do evil and in their fallen nature. That is why, whatever is said about Satan, their chief, also applies to all devils.

'Lucifer' by Gustave Dore for Milton's 'Paradise Lost'

A perverted will
The devils are pure spirits, since they are Angels. They do not have the weaknesses of men. From this, we understand why their revolt against God is permanent, immutable, eternal. Their will became perverted and fixed in evil after they abandoned the Highest Good as their objective. As a consequence, the devils do not wish anything but evil in all their voluntary acts and, even when they appear to do good (as, for example, when they restore someone's health, give riches, or teach something), it is only as a means to cause more evil, leading the person to final perdition, which is their ultimate wish for all men.
Since God created them good, their nature continues good in itself. However, their will became perverted. Instead of striving for the end for which they were created – the service and the glory of God – they do exactly the contrary. They do everything to impede God's glory. Since they cannot reach Him directly, they act upon God's creatures, within the limits He allows.

Murderer and liar – cunning, false, deceiver
The Divine Redeemer summed up the diabolic psychology thus: "He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (Jo 8, 44).
The devil is a murderer and the father of lies, the liar par excellence, who hates truth, because truth leads to God: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jo 14, 5). Satan hates the Creator. When he rejected God, he renounced to truth and life forever. And it is by the lie that he spread death, spiritual death.
About Our Lord's statement that the devil is a murderer and a liar, Saint Augustine says: "We ask how come the devil became a murderer from the beginning and we reply that he killed the first man, not slaying him with a sword, or causing any other harm to his body, but he persuaded him to sin and thus, cast him out of the happiness of the earthly paradise".
And Father Maldonado, an erudite Jesuit exegete from the XVI Century, says on this same phrase – ‘For he is a liar and the father of lies' (Jo 8, 44): "Most authors believe this refers to Satan's words to Eve: ‘You shall be as God, knowing good and evil' (Gen. 3, 5); for he evidently lied with these words; that is, he added the lie to the act of (spiritual) murder, committing two crimes, at the same time… and we call the devil father of lies because he is the author and the inventor of the lie, in such a way that we can say that he gave birth to it".
When he tempts man, trying to take him away from God, he lies presenting a false image of reality, hiding his true feelings and enmeshing his victim in error, sophisms and deceit.
He is a cunning, false, deceiver.
"Satan is distinguished by his guile – writes Monsignor Cristiani. Guile is a deceitful scheme. The being that acts with guile has bad intentions. If he speaks, it is not to say the truth, but to deceive, to lead to falsehood. Satan is treacherous, false. One cannot trust him. He lacks equity, loyalty, frankness. He is erroneous, voluntarily obscure and dissimulative."

This article can be found on
America Needs Fatima (From Angels and Demons, by Luis Solimeo)

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Our Cherished Right, Our Solemn Duty

Election Day is less than one week away...Please vote on Tuesday, 2 November 2010!

 

article by the : Catholic Bishops of New York State

We Catholics are called to look at politics as we are called to look at everything – through the lens of our faith. While we are free to join any political party that we choose or none at all, we must be cautious when we vote not to be guided solely by party loyalty or by self interest. Rather, we should be guided in evaluating the important issues facing our state and nation by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of His Church.

Our national and state elected officials have profound influence on countless matters of great importance, such as the right to life, issues of war and peace, the education of children and how we treat the poor and vulnerable. We must look at all of these issues as we form our consciences in preparation for Election Day.

Unfortunately, it is the rare candidate who will agree with the Church on every issue. But as the U.S. Bishops’ most recent document Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship (www.faithfulcitizenship.org) makes clear, not every issue is of equal moral gravity. The inalienable right to life of every innocent human person outweighs other concerns where Catholics may use prudential judgment, such as how best to meet the needs of the poor or to increase access to health care for all.

The Right to Life is the right through which all others flow. To the extent candidates reject this fundamental right by supporting an objective evil, such as legal abortion, euthanasia or embryonic stem cell research, Catholics should consider them less acceptable for public office. As Faithful Citizenship teaches, “Those who knowingly, willingly, and directly support public policies or legislation that undermine fundamental moral principles cooperate with evil.”

These are complex times, so our task is not light. It is often difficult to get a good grasp on the positions of

incumbent congressional representatives and state legislators, not to mention their challengers. News accounts of positions are hard to come by, and voting records on important issues are often lacking. So the task of doing due diligence can be truly challenging. Yet our state is facing many critical issues which are of vital concern to faithful Catholics. Thus it is absolutely necessary for good citizens to take a careful look at every candidate and to vote accordingly for the better candidates. You can find all of the candidates for elected office at the New York State Catholic Conference Web site (www.nyscatholic.org).

Many of the most compelling moral issues of the day play out at the state level. Commonsense restrictions on abortion, whether or not to employ the death penalty, issues related to same-sex “marriage” and civil unions, parental rights in education, programs to serve the poor, access to health insurance – all of these debates occur in the halls of our state Capitol in Albany.

We set forth below potential questions for candidates on a variety of critical issues, and we urge you to learn where all the candidates for every office stand with each critical issue. This list is by no means exhaustive, but our hope is that it serves as a valuable tool in forming your consciences as you make your decisions in the voting booth as Catholic faithful citizens.

While we as the Bishops of New York State cannot and do not endorse candidates for office, we encourage you to properly form your conscience by reflecting on the moral and social teachings of our Church and we

strongly urge you to vote on Election Day. For when you vote, you are exercising your cherished right and your solemn duty as Americans and as Catholics.  Election Day....Tuesday, 2 November 2010

Sunday Snippets: Catholic Carnival

What did you post about this week? Stop by the weekly Catholic Carnival and share what you've been blogging. Be sure to visit RAnn at This, That and the Other Thing and check out some posts from other bloggers participating in Sunday Snippets this week.  You're invited to share a blog post or two from last week. Here are my contributions for this week:

St Luke: Feast Day October 18th
Chilean Miners: What Was On Their T-Shirts

Chilean Miners: What Was On Their T-Shirts?

Chilean Miners Give Honor & Glory To God!

Perhaps there is a chance for this world to be saved!!

GOD BLESS THEM!!!