This is cute, and.....

...and I don't know what else to say about it.

Preliminary Report: The Teachers are Learning

To kick off my reporting on the Cleveland Diocese “Faithful Citizenship” forum I will call your attention to the following paragraph from the LifeNews.com page on the topic.

As CRTL [Cleveland Right to Life] informed LifeNews, the Catholic Church’s directive to give pro-life issues  primary importance in voting decisions was deliberately confused and downplayed. Attendees’ questions aimed at clarifying this teaching were ignored and one presenter even walked out of more than one meeting to signify he would not tolerate dissension on this pro-life point. Despite huge concerns from the Catholic bishops, discussion of the attack on religious liberty was virtually non-existent at the meeting.

I have to say that the presenters at St. Clarence definitely worked hard so that these claims could not be made as credibly about tonight's presentation. Abortion and pro-life issues were mentioned frequently and not always followed by mentioning poverty or other issues. The seriousness and prominence of pro-life issues was manifested to almost an exaggerated degree [I'll explain exactly what I mean by that later.] The HHS Mandate was mentioned frequently and a prayer for religious freedom was passed out. The phrase "Intrinsic Evil" was frequently used with reference to abortion, the Final Judgement was mentioned as well as sins of omission, and official church documents were quoted fairly regularly.

Well, that's the "good news" side of my report. I say in the headline "The Teachers are Learning", and at least they are trying to learn.

I'm thinking about blogging a series of posts on my reflections on what was said tonight and what was not said about the forming consciences and participation in public life. I don't know how many I'll do. I've avoided doing this kind of thing in the past, but now I almost feel compelled to do this. So I'll save the "bad news" for those posts. I haven't changed my mind from my earlier thought that this whole approach to the issue needs to be scrapped.

I'll say one last thing before I retire: if there was an award for true "faithful citizenship", I nominate Molly Smith, head of Cleveland Right to Life. She is forcing clarifications and improvements and that's a start. A much-needed start.

I'll be at St. Clarence tonight at the Sister Mary McCormick presentation

Here are the  remaining events, per the Cleveland Diocese's page on the topic.

Thursday, September 27, 2012, 7:00 p.m. - St. Clarence Parish (Special Presentation on Conscience Formation by Sister Mary McCormick, OSU and not a panel presentation) 30106 Lorain Road, North Olmsted, OH.

Thursday, October 11, 2012, 7:00 p.m. - St. Mary Parish, 250 Kraft Street, Berea, OH.

The Bishop's secretary did call me back with this information. I was glad I called, not just because I learned that they had been inundated with calls on this matter, but it helped give me insight on how the Diocese reacts to pro-life activism. Many of the Catholic Pro-lifers I've encountered simply say these folks are pro-abortion. I don't claim to know that, and it's classic overstatement (a tendency for which Catholic conservatives always need to be wary), however the fact is that they simply aren't too exercised about the travesty of abortion. This might be due to their own over-reaction to certain extreme aspects of the pro-life movement, both perceived and actual.

And that's what I'm guessing I'll detect more than any blatant heretical material in the presentation at St. Clarence tonight. Maybe there will be balance and proportionality in the discussion, and maybe the speaker will demonstrate wisdom, insight and relevance. We will just have to wait and see.

It's time for Faithful Catholics to throw the "Faithful Citizenship" mess in the garbage

I'm a bit behind on this, but I really wanted to report on this entire "Faithful Citizenship" fiasco.There are all kinds of Democrat activists running this show; Karen Leith, and Patrick O'Bryan from Catholic Charities are two names that come up in the list of the usual suspects. I don't know how involved the Bishop is in this travesty. You can call his office at 216-696-6525, ext 2030, and voice your concerns.

I just called to find out if there are any more meetings. I heard a rumor that there is one more meeting tonight at St. Clarence Church in North Olmsted at 7pm. Supposedly the Bishop's secretary is going to call me back if there is a meeting--we'll see if she does.

Here's the email from Cleveland Right to Life which I received two days ago:
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Tuesday - September 25th 2012

Further to our press release yesterday about a series of "Faithful Citizenship" forums orchestrated by the Cleveland Diocese and intended to help Catholics understand the issues in the upcoming election, we have more evidence that they are being led by people who have strong ties to the Democrat Party. This is a problem! 

Now, having ties to the Democrat Party in and of itself is not the problem (this is America). Rather the problem is the bias of the forums due to the political leanings of the forum leaders. Here we have the leaders of the Cleveland Diocesan Social Action Office, employed and paid by the Diocese and under the direction of the Bishop's Office, hosting a "Faithful Citizenship" forum series while at the same time being openly and strongly aligned with the Democrat Party. The outcome of this forum leadership is that the "Faithful Catholic Citizen" in attendance is leaving with at best a muddled understanding of Catholic Teaching and how it applies to the issues in play during this election. But even worse, many are coming away from these forums with the impression that there is no moral hierarchy (the absolute antitheses of Catholic Teaching) and that the Truths enumerated by our Founding Fathers are no longer relevant.

One would expect the Diocese to be non-partisan; but these forums have at least the appearance of a Diocesan endorsement of the Democrat position on the issues.

Herewith some background on just two of the forum leaders namely Karen Leith, and Patrick O'Bryan. As we have previously noted, Leith has publically identified herself on FaceBook as a supporter of Obama and is also a past board member of a dissident Catholic organization called Future Church. And O'Bryan was trained in Chicago by none other than the Industrial Areas Foundation, (IAF); an organization that has the distinction of being the first community organizing group founded by Saul Alinsky. But why should we be concerned about the IAF and Saul Alinsky? Well the IAF has never deviated from its roots that include strong ties to the far left and the Democrat Party and their training still embraces methods as laid out by Saul Alinsky in his book, "Rules for Radicals". This is the same book that is dedicated to Lucifer. Hmmm .... Strange place to go for the Truth as taught by the Church!

Here are some of the groups and organizations that the leaders of these forums are associated with and/or have referenced in their presentations:

Catholics For a Greater Cleveland Congregation: On their website the GCC openly declares that they are:"part of the Industrial Areas Foundation, the nation's first and largest network of multi-faith coalitions, and we draw on their seven decades of experience winning tough battles across the nation." Remember that in 2008 ACORN which is also "part of the Industrial Areas Foundation" was doing the work now tasked to GCC in Cleveland, so one has to wonder if "elections" are the "tough battles" the GCC is referencing.

FutureChurch:The Cleveland Catholic Diocese has disavowed this group as being "not consistent with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church"

Call to Action:  

• FutureChurch is the Cleveland chapter of Call to Action
• Call to Action's members were officially excommunicated by Bishop Bruskewitz of Nebraska, a decision affirmed by the Vatican in November of 2006 with this statement: "The judgment of the Holy See is that the activities of Call to Action in the course of these years are in contrast with the Catholic faith due to views and positions held which are unacceptable from a doctrinal and disciplinary standpoint. Thus to be a member of this association or to support it is irreconcilable with a coherent living of the Catholic faith" (emphasis added).
• Call to Action supports "Catholics for a Free Choice" which the US Bishops have said is an arm of the abortion industry
• Supports Gay Marriage
• Call to Action is closely aligned with NETWORK

NETWORK: This Lobby group played a significant role in the passage of ObamaCare and has been identified by the Catholic Church as NOT representing the Catholic Church teachings. Consider these facts:

• Sr. Simone Campbell, Executive Director is a regular speaker for the Cleveland Social Action Office.
• Network wrote the now famous "nuns letter" that was instrumental to the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
• Network currently has a "Nuns on the Bus" national tour to oppose the Paul Ryan Budget. Public Relations for "Nuns on the Bus" was supplied by "Faith in Public Life" which is funded by billionaire Democrat supporter George Soros.
• Campbell spoke at the 2012 Democrat National Convention and in 2008 gave the Benediction.
• NETWORK is a partner of "Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good" of whom Archbishop Caput said in 2008: Groups friendly to the Democrat Party such as "Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good have done a disservice to the Church, confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching, undermined the progress prolifers have made, and provided an excuse for some Catholics to abandon the abortion issue instead of fighting within their parties and at the ballot box to protect the unborn."

JustFaith: A discredited organization that is infiltrating the local diocesan churches with programs that are NOT supported by Catholic doctrine, such as liberation theology (rooted in Marxism), support for homosexual lifestyle, extreme pacificism and environmentalism. In addition the JustFaith program follows and is closely aligned with that followed by The PICO National Network, the Industrial Areas Foundation, The Gamaliel Foundation & Direct Action and Research Training (DART). These organizations are all members of members of the Alinskian (Industrial Areas Foundation) Network that we referenced above. Yes, the same organization whose founder dedicated his community organizing guidebook to Lucifer!

Justfaith is also a partner with NETWORK who lobbied extensively for the Affordable Care Act that has now resulted in 1^st Amendment violations against Religious Freedom with the Catholic Church as its first target.

JustFaith also in their Fall 2009 newsletter counseled readers to join the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) in working on women's issues. Well the IWPR has on their website their "Policy Update on Safe and Legal Abortion, 30 Years after Roe v. Wade".

And there is a lot more about JustFaith that should be of major concern to serious Catholics but we will leave that for a later eblast.

Evolutionary Christianity: A smorgasbord of New Age theology that has very little to do with Catholicism or a Biblical worldview.

The writing is pretty clearly up on the wall. The official Catholic Church has plainly stated they outright reject or have serious issue with the philosophies and goals of these groups and organizations. The Social Action Office of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese needs to clean house if they expect to be taken seriously by Catholics. The Cleveland Bishop should terminate the employment of anyone connected to these groups and revamp the current forums to reflect true Catholic beliefs that are rooted in Natural Law principals, Biblical moral absolutes and the principal of subsidiarity. There is no place in such forums for Moral Relativism, Humanism, Objectivism, Secularism and New Age Spiritualism. The current series has serious flaws because many of the presenters are twisting Catholic teachings to neatly fit the hymnal of the Democrat National Platform.

In 2008 Cleveland Area Catholics were given misleading counsel with respect to the issues in the election with the net result that most of the Catholic swing vote went to Barack Obama despite him being what Archbishop Caput called the "most committed 'abortion-rights' presidential candidate since the Roe v. Wade abortion decision in 1973." 

Correcting the on-going bias in the Social Action Office and Faithful Citizenship forums will not turn every Catholic vote but it will move the swing vote sufficiently to protect human life.  
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This reminds me of the CCHD debacle, but that was/is on the fund-raising side. This is obviously on the get-out-the-vote side of things and the target is Ohio Catholics.

I'm planning to go to any events I can to see them up close and report on them. I'll keep everyone posted on what I discover here. I usually try to be low key about this kind of thing, but I'm done. Obama and the left have to be defeated this November. I'll gladly stand up on Judgment Day and say "Yeah, I helped kicked these people out."

The Soul don't go for that...

Always brings a smile to my face.
I'll be seven-ty and groovin' to this, yo --
Potholes in my lawn, baby.

Obviously

Nolte has the cliff notes version. And juicing is the perfect word for it. Excerpt:

If you're going to believe the polls released from CBS/New York Times this morning -- you know, the polls the media's currently using to beat Romney senseless and to depress Republican enthusiasm, you have to believe that the turnout advantage for Democrats over Republicans will blow away every previous record and common sense.

It's that simple. Because these polls are not only telling us that Romney is losing OH, PA, and FL by insurmountable margins; these polls are also telling us that Democrat turnout is projected to blow away every modern record.

But these media polls don't headline what they're seeing as far as the Democrat turnout advantage because no one would believe it. In fact, no one believes Obama will match the D+7 nationwide advantage he enjoyed in 2008. And no one certainly believes he will surpass it.

Oh, except this non-stop litany of media polls being wielded like weapons by the corrupt media.

In other words, the story that the media is missing is that according to the polls, Democratic turnout is going to pretty much blow Republican turnout away in epic proportions.

Hugh Hewitt has been all over this on his show, and his interview with National Journal's Steven Shepard all but proves there is deliberate book-cooking going on.

Why are these pollsters oversampling? Because they are mediabots in the tank for Obama, and they want to show a much closer race because it works. It depresses GOP voter turnout and fundraising.

All the people I hear discussing politics who rely on the mainstream media for news are saying it's totally over. Obama is going to win a 40-plus-state landslide and wipe the floor with Romney the way Reagan did with Dukakis in '84.

I have to say that it amazes me that Obama continues to practically live in Ohio when he is supposedly up so far in the polls. My guess is that the Obama campaign's internal polling paints, shall we say, a more exciting picture.