Great video!

This video lasts only four minutes and fifty-four seconds. Someone really smart at the Marriage Project was able to compress the profound issues and arguments about same-sex marriage into this clear, compelling, and easy to understand presentation.

What I Witnessed During the Irish Referendum

hile the result of the referendum is a terrible disaster for Ireland and the whole world, I would like to report on what I saw during the campaign to legalize same-sex “marriage” on the Emerald Isle.

Actively involved in Irish Society for Christian Civilisation, I spent the weeks before the referendum campaigning in defence of traditional marriage. I was witness to the strong-arm tactics and other irregularities that marked the referendum.
On the YES side what I saw was:
-the entire apparatus of the State, including bodies that by their nature should be neutral, such as the police and the Referendum Commission (established specifically to provide neutral information about referenda);

-all the political parties;

-97% of the members of the parliament and senate (less opposition than Putin gets in Russia);

-at least 95% of the money spent campaigning on the issue (most of the money on the pro-SS side appears to have come from Atlantic Philanthropies, a “charity” founded by Irish-American leftist billionaire, Chuck Feeney; also all the State bodies supporting the referendum are State funded. Both Foreign funding and State funding are illegal in an Irish referendum);

-at least 95% of celebrity endorsements, including an ex-president of Ireland (who is supposed to remain silent on political issues) as well as film stars, musicians, sports stars, etc.;

-support (amounting to economic blackmail) from big business (Google, Twitter, ebay, among others);

-75% of print media (some media sources claim that it was as high as 98%);

-The Children and Family Relationships Act, April 2015, dealing with adoption and surrogacy, is legislation that was introduced (and rushed through parliament) with the explicit intention of disqualifying adoption and surrogacy as arguments in the referendum debate;

-a referendum on reducing the age of eligibility of candidates for the presidency was held on the same day for no apparent reason other than to attract to the polling stations the young demographic most likely to vote yes to SS “marriage”;

-the 60,000 Irish living overseas and eligible to vote were being offered to have their fare home subsidised by pro-SSM groups so that they could vote; and

-a company (Hailo) that processes 90% of taxi fares in Dublin offered a €15 reduction on fares to polling stations for voters who would be voting YES.
The Role of the Hierarchy and Clergy

continues:
http://www.tfp.org/tfp-home/news-commentary/what-i-witnessed-during-the-irish-referendum.html

Cardinal calls for saint-like love in defence of marriage

9 March 2015: A prominent Cardinal of the Catholic Church has called for Catholics to imitate the Christian martyrs in defence of marriage and human life.

His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke made the call this past weekend in addresses for Voice of the Family http://voiceofthefamily.info/ and the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) www.spuc.org.uk in Chester and Southport, north-west England.

On Friday evening in Chester there was standing-room only as the Cardinal spoke on the theme “Remaining in the Truth of Christ on Holy Matrimony” [full text: Cardinal Burke Chester 20150306]. Bishop Mark Davies, Catholic bishop of Shrewsbury was present, as were many priests, journalists and families who had travelled from all over the UK. Cardinal Burke said: “Today, for example, we sadly find the need to speak about ‘traditional’ marriage, as if there were another kind of marriage. There is only one kind of marriage as God has given it to us from the Creation and as Christ has redeemed it by His saving Passion and Death.”

continues:

http://voiceofthefamily.info/wordpress/?p=768

Shock: UK mom abandons disabled daughter, keeps healthy son after twin surrogacy

A UK woman who is the biological mother of twins born from a surrogate mom, has allegedly abandoned one of the children because she was born with a severe muscular condition, while taking the girl’s healthy sibling home with her.

The surrogate mother, also from the UK — referred to as “Jenny” to protect her identity — revealed to The Sun the phone conversation that took place between herself and the biological mother over the fate of the disabled girl.

“I remember her saying to me, “She’d be a f****** dribbling cabbage! Who would want to adopt her? No one would want to adopt a disabled child,’” she said.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/mother-rejects-disabled-daughter-keeps-healthy-son-after-twin-surrogacy?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=4b87682af8-LifeSiteNews_com_Intl_Headlines_06_19_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0caba610ac-4b87682af8-326196022

SEXUAL LEFT SHOCKED BY ORGANIZED PRO-LIFERS IN EUROPE

Left-wing and mainstream media are slowly catching on there’s something happening in Europe, with a rapidly growing conservative movement that looks an awful lot like the same movement in America.

This was true exponentially for BuzzFeed’s Lester Feder, who was hired last year to cover the global LGBT movement. Rather quickly Feder discovered a highly organized global coalition of conservatives working in opposition to the sexual left.

For his 3,000-word take-out on the rise of the “European religious right,” Feder began:

“On a hot Friday in late June, the walls of a 15th-century marble palace in a secluded corner of the Vatican were lit up with the face of Breitbart News Chairman Steve Bannon.”

After opening a Breitbart London bureau a few months ago, and after hosting five hours of live radio from the Vatican around the Canonization of John Paul II and John XXIII, it made sense that Bannon would be invited by conference organizer Benjamin Harnwell, an old hand at the European Parliament, founder of the Dignitatus Humanae Institute and self-described European Tea Partier.

continues: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/08/11/Sexual-Left-Shocked-by-Organized-Pro-Lifers-in-Europe/

Ugandan government shrugs off aid cuts over anti-homosexual law

Yes! A government that believes the gospel message “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet suffers the loss of his soul'”

Uganda has shrugged off foreign aid cuts and international criticism of its tough new anti-gay law, saying it could do without Western aid.

 

“The West can keep their ‘aid’ to Uganda over homos, we shall still develop without it,” government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said in a message on Twitter.

Hours later the World Bank stalled a $90 million loan planned to help Uganda strengthen its health care system.

“We have postponed the project for further review to ensure that the development objectives would not be adversely affected by the enactment of this new law,” a spokesman for the global poverty lender said.

 

The World Bank move follows action by Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway to freeze or change aid programmes for Uganda and blunt criticism from the 

United States and Sweden after President Yoweri Museveni signed off Mondayon one of the world’s toughest anti-gay laws.

 

http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2014/02/28/ugandan-government-shrugs-aid-cuts-anti-gay-law/

 

Saint Damian Denounces the Homosexual Lobby

Source: Nobility and Traditional Analogous Elites at:

http://nobility.org/2014/02/20/st-peter-damian-nobility/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NobilityAndAnalogousTraditionalElites+%28Nobility+and+Analogous+Traditional+Elites%29

St. Peter Damian

Doctor of the Church, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, born at Ravenna “five years after the death of the Emperor Otto III,” 1007; died at Faenza, 21 Feb., 1072.

He was the youngest of a large family. His parents were noble, but poor. At his birth an elder brother protested against this new charge on the resources of the family with such effect that his mother refused to suckle him and the babe nearly died. A family retainer, however, fed the starving child and by example and reproaches recalled his mother to her duty.

Left an orphan in early years, he was at first adopted by an elder brother, who ill-treated and under-fed him while employing him as a swineherd. The child showed signs of great piety and of remarkable intellectual gifts, and after some years of this servitude another brother, who was archpriest at Ravenna, had pity on him and took him away to be educated. This brother was called Damian and it was generally accepted that St. Peter added this name to his own in grateful recognition of his brother’s kindness. He made rapid progress in his studies, first at Ravenna, then at Faenza, finally at the University of Parma, and when about twenty-five years old was already a famous teacher at Parma and Ravenna. But, though even then much given to fasting and to other mortifications, he could not endure the scandals and distractions of university life and decided (about 1035) to retire from the world. While meditating on his resolution he encountered two hermits of Fonte-Avellana, was charmed with their spirituality and detachment, and desired to join them. Encouraged by them Peter, after a forty days’ retreat in a small cell, left his friends secretly and made his way to the hermitage of Fonte-Avellana. Here he was received, and, to his surprise, clothed at once with the monastic habit.

Monastery di Fonte Avellana

Both as novice and as professed religious his fervour was remarkable and led him to such extremes of penance that, for a time, his health was affected. He occupied his convalescence with a thorough study of Holy Scripture and, on his recovery, was appointed to lecture to his fellow-monks. At the request of Guy of Pomposa and other heads of neighbouring monasteries, for two or three years he lectured to their subjects also, and (about 1042) wrote the life of St. Romuald for the monks of Pietrapertosa. Soon after his return to Fonte-Avellana he was appointed economus of the house by the prior, who also pointed him out as his successor. This, in fact, he became in 1043, and he remained prior of Fonte-Avellana till his death. His priorate was characterized by a wise moderation of the rule, as well as by the foundation of subject-hermitages at San Severino, Gamugno, Acerata, Murciana, San Salvatore, Sitria, and Ocri. It was remarkable, too, for the introduction of the regular use of the discipline, a penitential exercise which he induced the great abbey of Monte Cassino to imitate. there was much opposition outside his own circle to this practice, but Peter’s persistent advocacy ensured its acceptance to such an extent that he was obliged later to moderate the imprudent zeal of some of his own hermits. another innovation was that of the daily siesta, to make up for the fatigue of the night office. During his tenure of the priorate a cloister was built, silver chalices and a silver processional cross were purchased, and many books added to the library.

Although living in the seclusion of the cloister, Peter Damian watched closely the fortunes of the Church, and like his friend Hildebrand, the future Gregory VII, he strove for her purification in those deplorable times. In 1045 when Benedict IX resigned the supreme pontificate into the hands of the archpriest John Gratian (Gregory VI), Peter hailed the change with joy and wrote to the pope, urging him to deal with the scandals of the church in Italy, especially with the evil bishops of Pesaro, of Citta di Castello, and of Fano. He was present in Rome when Clement II crowned Henry III and his wife Agnes, and he also attended a synod held at the Lateran in the first days of 1047, in which decrees were passed against simony. After this he returned to his hermitage. Pope St. Leo IX was solemnly enthroned at Rome, 12 Feb., 1049, to succeed Damasus II, and about two years later Peter published his terrible treatise on the vices of the clergy, the “Liber Gomorrhianus”, dedicating it to the pope. It caused a great stir and aroused not a little enmity against its author. Even the pope, who had at first praised the work, was persuaded that it was exaggerated and his coldness drew from Damian a vigorous letter of protest.

Liber Gomorrhianus

Meanwhile the question arose as to the validity of the ordinations of simoniacal clerics. The prior of Fonte-Avellana was appealed to and wrote (about 1053) a treatise, the “Liber Gratissimus”, in favour of their validity, a work which, though much combatted at the time, was potent in deciding the question in their favour before the end of the twelfth century. In June, 1055, during the pontificate of Victor II, Damian attended a synod held at Florence, where simony and clerical incontinence were once more condemned. About two years later he fell ill at Fonte-Avellana and nearly died, but suddenly, after seven weeks of pain, recovered, as he believed, through a miracle.

During his illness the pope died, and Frederic, abbot of Monte Cassino, was elected as Stephen X. In the autumn of 1057, Stephen X determined to create Damian a cardinal. For a long time he resisted the offer, but was finally forced, under threat of excommunication, to accept, and was consecrated Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia on 30 Nov., 1057. In addition he was appointed administrator of the Diocese of Gubbio. The new cardinal was impressed with the great responsibilities of his office and wrote a stirring letter to his brother-cardinals, exhorting them to shine by their example before all. Four months later Pope Stephen died at Florence and the Church was once more distracted by schism. The Cardinal of Ostia was vigorous in his opposition to the antipope Benedict X, but force was on the side of the intruder and Damian retired to Fonte-Avallana.

Monastery Ossiach – Celling-painting: Virgin Mary is appearing to Cardinal Petrus Damiani – Painter: Josef Ferdinand Fromiller

About the end of the year 1059 Peter was sent as legate to Milan by Nicholas II. The Church at Milan had been, for some time, the prey of simony and incontinence. So bad was the state of things, that benefices were openly bought and sold and the clergy publicly “married” the women they lived with. But the faithful of Milan, led by St. Ariald the Deacon and St. Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, strove hard to remedy these evils. At length the contest between the two parties became so bitter that an appeal was made to the Holy See to decide the matter. Nicholas II sent Damian and the Bishop of Lucca as his legates. But now the party of the irregular clerics took alarm and raised the cry that Rome had no authority over Milan. At once Peter took action. Boldly confronting the rioters in the cathedral, he proved to them the authority of the Holy See with such effect that all parties submitted to his decision. He exacted first a solemn oath from the archbishop and all his clergy that for the future no preferment should be paid for; then, imposing a penance on all who had been guilty, he re-instated in their benefices all who undertook to live continently. This prudent decision was attacked by some of the rigourists at Rome, but was not reversed. Unfortunately, on the death of Nicholas II, the same disputes broke out; nor were they finally settled till after the martyrdom of St. Ariald in 1066. Meanwhile Peter was in vain pleading to be released from the cares of his office. Neither Nicholas II nor Hildebrand would consent to spare him.

The body of St. Peter Damian at the Cathedral of Faenza.

In July, 1061, the pope died and once more a schism ensued. Damian used all his powers to persuade the antipope Cadalous to withdraw, but to no purpose. Finally Hanno, the Regent of Germany, summoned a council at Augsburg at which a long argument by St. Peter Damian was read and greatly contributed to the decision in favour of Alexander II. In 1063 the pope held a synod at Rome, at which Damian was appointed legate to settle the dispute between the Abbey of Cluny and the Bishop of Mâcon. He proceeded to France, summoned a council at Chalon-sur-Saône, proved the justice of the contentions of Cluny, settled other questions at issue in the Church of France, and returned in the autumn to Fonte-Avellana. While he was in France the antipope Cadalous had again become active in his attempts to gain Rome, and Damian brought upon himself a sharp reproof from Alexander and Hildebrand for twice imprudently appealing to the royal power to judge the case anew. In 1067 the cardinal was sent to Florence to settle the dispute between the bishop and the monks of Vallombrosa, who accused the former of simony. His efforts, however, were not successful, largely because he misjudged the case and threw the weight of his authority on the side of the bishop. The matter was not settled till the following year by the pope in person. In 1069 Damian went as the pope’s legate to Germany to prevent King Henry from repudiating his wife Bertha. This task he accomplished at a council at Frankfort and returned to Fonte-Avellana, were he was left in peace for two years.

Early in 1072 he was sent to Ravenna to reconcile its inhabitants to the Holy See, they having been excommunicated for supporting their archbishop in his adhesion to the schism of Cadalous. On his return thence he was seized with fever near Faenza. He lay ill for a week at the monastery of Santa Maria degl’Angeli, now Santa Maria Vecchia. On the night preceding the feast of the Chair of St. Peter at Antioch, he ordered the office of the feast to be recited and at the end of the Lauds he died. He was at once buried in the monastery church, lest others should claim his relics. Six times has his body been translated, each time to a more splendid resting-place. It now lies in a chapel dedicated to the saint in the cathedral of Faenza in 1898. No formal canonization ever took place, but his cultas has existed since his death at Faenza, at Fonte-Avellana, at Monte Cassino, and at Cluny. In 1823 Leo XII extended his feast (23 Feb.) to the whole Church and pronounced him a Doctor of the Church. The saint is represented in art as a cardinal bearing a discipline in his hand; also sometimes he is depicted as a pilgrim holding a papal Bull, to signify his many legations.

 

Acta SS. Boll., III, Feb. (Venice, 1736), 406-27; BIRON, St. Pierre Damien, 1007-72 (Paris, 1908); CAPECELATRO, Storia di San Pier Damiano (Rome, 1887); KLEINERMANNS, Der heilige Petrus Damiani (Steyl, 1882); LADERCHI, Vita S. Petri Damiani (3 vols., Rome, 1702); MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.B., S=E6c. VI, P. ii (Venice, 1733), 253-273; MARTIN, Saint L=E9on IX 1002-54 (Paris, 1904); MIGNE, Dictionnaire de Patrologie, V (Paris, 1864), 959-1000; P.L.., CXLIV, CXLV (Paris, 1867); MITTAREELLI ET COSTADONI, Annales Camaldulenses, II (Venice, 1756), 40-359; NEUKIRCH, Das Leben des Petrus Damiani=85bis zur=851059 (Göttingen, 1875); PF=DCLF, Damiani=92s Zwist mit Hildebrand in Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, XLI (1891), 281-307, 400-416, 508-525; ROTH, Der heilige Petrus Damiani, O.S.B., in Studien O.S.B., VII (1886), i, 110-134; ii, 357-374; iii, 43-66; iv, 321-336; VIII (1887), i, 56-64; ii, 210-216.

LESLIE A. ST. L. TOKE (Catholic Encyclopedia)

___________________________

200,000 march for marriage in Taiwan protesting proposed same-sex ‘marriage’ law

TAIPEI, Taiwan, December 2, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – About 200,000 people marched in front of Taiwan’s Presidential Office on Saturday, according to organizers or the march. The crowd was protesting a proposed law that would allow same-sex couples to ‘marry’ and adopt

“God created human beings as male and female. Only the union of a man and a woman can create the next generation, and the ability to create offspring is an important function of a family,” said 40-year-old Ann Huang, who joined the rally with her friends, reported Focus Taiwan.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/200000-march-for-marriage-in-taiwan-protesting-proposed-same-sex-marriage-l

‘Bombshell’ study: abortion increases breast cancer risk by forty-four percent

A new systematic review and meta-analysis of abortion and breast cancer (ABC link) in China was just published four days ago in the prestigious, peer-reviewed international cancer journal, Cancer Causes and Control.

In this meta-analysis (a study of studies, in which results from many studies are pooled), Dr. Yubei Huang et al. reported that, combining all 36 studies on the ABC link in China that have been published through 2012, the overall risk of developing breast cancer among women who had at least one induced abortion was significantly increased by 44%.

These results, said the authors, “were consistent with a previously published systematic review”. That review was the one I published in the British Medical Association’s epidemiology journal with colleagues from Penn State Medical Center in 1996, which study reported an overall significant 30% increased risk of breast cancer in worldwide studies.

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/12/02/bombshell-study-finds-44-increased-breast-cancer-risk-for-women-having-abortions/

‘Game changer’: study finds increased risk of breast cancer after abortion in Chinese women

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/game-changer-study-finds-increased-risk-of-breast-cancer-after-abortion-in

Beautiful Video of Twin Babies

Since this beautiful video of twins who continue to hold onto each other while being bathed was placed on YouTube there have been almost 10 million viewings.

 

The nurse who invented a bathing technique for newborns has commented on the video that has been seen by millions over the last week that features a parent washing newborn twins in a wash basin. The twin infants have their eyes closed and appear to be peacefully sleeping and enjoying the warm bathwater.

In the video, the twin babies finally begin to move and, when they do, they hold each other and snuggle closer.

The twins—a boy and a girl—were only a few days old when the video was shot last month at the maternity clinic where Sonia Rochel, a maternity nurse at the Clinique de la Muette in Paris, France, works.

“As the bathing video of the newborn twins shows, the babies are – just like in the womb – in an enclosed basin filled with water,” the Examiner’s Tina Burgess reported. “While keeping their noses and mouths above the water level, the newborn twins experience the gentle movement of water as an adult is carefully pouring the water over their foreheads and eyes. In addition to the flowing water, the newborn twins are also gently massaged and relaxing music is played.”

 

 

http://europeanlifenetwork.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/beautiful-video-of-twin-babies.html