The Instrumentum Laboris for the forthcoming Amazon synod has been released, and here are some excerpts from the document, which was edited by Cardinal Blopipe (pronounced, “Blo-pee-pay”), the special nuncio to the Amazon jungle.
We expect to see many future synods named after rivers, including the Mississippi Synod, the Yangtze Synod, and – most heretical of all – the Rhine Synod, at which the German bishops will be instructed to “wash away all the old teachings”. Amazonis Laetitia
As always, the Catholic Church is guided by her faith in the Mother Earth Goddess, and her attendant Spirits, of which we mention Viracocha, Quetzalcoatl, Bergoglio, Maradiaga, etc. It has naturally been discovered that doctrine has evolved since the boring old 1st Century, and along the following lines. “Peace be with you!”
Marriage of priests. Following detailed researches into Church customs, it has been agreed that priests shall be allowed to marry, but none should have more than six wives. Coincidentally, this brings us into line with best practice in the Church of England, whose founder also had six wives; thus it may be regarded as an ecumenical gesture.
Human sacrifices.This is a theological grey area, but very important, and so we have relegated the new doctrine to an ambiguous footnote on page 94. It is generally agreed that human sacrifices are at best an optional form of the liturgy (like the “sign of peace” but less offensive), and we expect the German bishops to take a lead here. Provided that “discernment” and “accompaniment” are stressed, who are we to judge? The Spirit of Vat-Inca II.Women priests and deacons.Traditionally the Catholic Church has said that it is impossible to ordain women to holy orders (see the encyclical Retro in Cocinatorium (“Get back in the kitchen”).) However, there is evidence (thank you, Fr Martin!) that in fact three of the twelve apostles were women, and one was not at all sure, and we haven’t even mentioned the view that Mary Magdalene founded the Church. So it is definitely a grey area, and if it’s one thing the Church is here for, it is to provide Jobs for the Boys (and Girls!) So we will mumble ambiguously about this one for a few months until suddenly everyone notices that lots of the priests are in fact female.
Liturgical blowpipes. Here we are stressing the traditional Christian line that firing poisoned darts at your neighbour (tipped with the venom of the serpent Blasus Cupichus) during Mass is considered to be bad manners; still, some bishops may choose to allow the custom. The priest, on the other hand, may fire suitably blessed blowpipes at unruly members of the congregation, although like the Extraordinary Form Mass, this is something we do not really encourage. Cardinal Blopipe practices his rituals.Dubia, Filial Corrections, Rude letters from theologians, etc. These will be ignored, as usual, except that if we find out where you live, you may suddenly disappear. Understood?
Enliven your faith in the Eucharist today by meditating with this verse by Thomas Aquinas:
Not to sight, or taste, or touch be credit. Hearing only do we trust secure; I believe, for God the Son has said it — Word of truth that ever shall endure.
Seeing, touching, tasting are in Thee deceived: How says trusty hearing? That shall be believed; What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do; Truth Himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.
Sight, touch, and taste in Thee are each deceived; The ear alone most safely is believed: I believe all the Son of God has spoken, Than Truth’s own word there is no truer token.
When friends told me in college that they believed that the Eucharist at Mass is not bread anymore but really Jesus Christ, truly present, I didn’t understand them.
“You mean you believe the bread recalls Christ at his Last Supper, right?” I said.
No, they said. They didn’t believe there was any bread there at all, after the consecration. There was just Jesus. He only looked like bread.
Once I understood what they were saying, I thought they were crazy. In all my years attending the Catholic church, I had never been taught anything of the kind.
So first, they had to convince me the Church actually believes this.
Today, the Catechism exists, and it makes this doctrine very clear. But there was no Catechism back then — and so no simple way to find out if you were hearing real Church doctrine or someone’s peculiar ideas.
I think they looked it up in Ludwig Ott’s book to prove it to me. Whatever they did, I begrudgingly believed that the “Real Presence” was a real thing.
Stuff we Catholics did made more sense after that — genuflecting before getting into the pew, the priests cleaning the sacred vessels, and the many rules governing who can receive Communion.
Once I was convinced that the Real Presence was a real doctrine, however, I still thought it was crazy. Why would God want to take on the appearance of bread? Why would he want to be eaten?
Bob Dylan helped me understand.
After losing my faith in high school, I only became open to Christianity again because of Bob Dylan. I had bought all of his albums, and loved them all — even the Christian ones.
In the title song from his album Saved, Dylan concisely summed up his Protestant beliefs this way: “I was blinded by the devil / Born already ruined / Stone-cold dead / As I stepped out of the womb / By His grace I have been touched / By His word I have been healed / By His hand I’ve been delivered / By His Spirit I’ve been sealed / I’ve been saved / By the blood of the Lamb.”
And then he repeated it: “Saved, by the blood of the Lamb.”
I bought what he said — to a point. I saw how Dylan could be “born already ruined.” We are all connected by blood to Adam, and so his decision to align himself with sin defined me just as one grandfather’s move from Kansas to Arizona and the other grandfather’s move from El Salvador to Mexico.
But how could Jesus’ blood get from Palestine two millennia ago to save Bob Dylan, or me, today?
It does so spiritually, the Protestants believe. But I couldn’t believe in that. God did things in a much more natural way than that in every other instance I knew of. If God wanted the blood of Jesus to reverse what I had inherited from the blood of Adam, I thought, that blood had to actually be in me.
And that’s when I got it.
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life with in you,” Jesus said, “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”
He scared people with that kind of talk, reports John— but he meant it.
The apostles must have been relieved when they realized the role bread and wine would play in this ingestion of blood. St. Paul described it a couple decades after the Last Supper, in about the year 53.
That was it. You were saved by the blood of Jesus directly — not spiritually. Even Bob Dylan seemed to acknowledge it later in his career, when, after leaving his Christian sect, he sang, “I never could learn to drink that blood and call it wine.”
Scriptures filled out the picture for me. One in particular.
Lots of Scriptures suddenly take on new life, when you see that God is preparing the way for the Eucharist: Melchizedek’s bread and wine, the Manna in the desert, the Passover Lamb and the multiplication of the loaves.
But one made the most sense to me for the first time: The supper at Emmaus. In the story, Jesus meets two of his disciples after his death. They don’t recognize him until he breaks bread — then he disappears.
That never sounded real to me. Again, I didn’t like spiritualizing Jesus. He did earthy miracles, with water and spit and mud. He didn’t do magician’s tricks like vanishing into thin air.
But I was willing to admit he would do something odd like that if he was trying to communicate something earthy. But what was he trying to communicate?
The Eucharist makes it clear: I am no longer with you in this form (my body) but in this form (bread).
If she is elected president, Senator Amy Klobuchar vows to change US policy by executive order, and not “wait for a bunch of congressional hearings.”
“After four years of Donald Trump,” declared Senator Amy Klobuchar in a statement on Tuesday, “a new president can’t wait for a bunch of congressional hearings to act.” To that end, the Minnesota Democrat, who hopes to become the new president in January 2021, issued a 16-page list of all the “concrete steps she will take in her first 100 days” if she is elected to the White House.
Some of Klobuchar’s promises are wholly conventional (“Visit our troops”) or matters of routine management (“Reduce State Department vacancies”). A few are about as noteworthy as calling water wet (“Fill judicial vacancies”).
Many, however, would represent real shifts in US policy. Klobuchar’s pledges include the immediate importation of prescription drugs, a boost in the hourly minimum wage for federal contractors to $15, an end to the trade embargo on Cuba, the addition of transgender identity as a protected civil rights category, and a return to the Iran nuclear deal.
Those aren’t modest adjustments; they would significantly change the way the federal government currently operates. Obviously that’s Klobuchar’s objective — and for many voters, the undoing of President Trump’s work can’t begin soon enough.
But do Americans really want their government to operate on the basis of unilateral presidential decrees? When Klobuchar dismisses any thought of waiting “for a bunch of congressional hearings” before upending the government’s priorities and principles, what she is really dismissing is the constitutional order, which puts Congress, not the president, in charge of changing US law.
There is nothing ambiguous about Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution. “All legislative powers,” it begins, “shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.” All — not just the ones a president isn’t too impatient to wait for. Yet Congress is almost an afterthought in Klobuchar’s approach.The senator from Minnesota is far from alone. Most of the leading Democratic presidential candidates are vowing to bypass Congress and use executive orders to get what they want.
Senator Elizabeth Warren says that on her first day as president, she’ll order a “total moratorium” on new fossil fuel leases, closing the door to drilling for energy offshore and on public lands.
And Kamala Harris threatens an ultimatum: If members of Congress don’t “get their act together” and pass new gun-control laws within 100 days of her inauguration, she warns, she will impose the restrictions without them.This tide of executive unilateralism rises with each incoming president.
George W. Bush authorized the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including waterboarding and other practices widely considered torture, notwithstanding the prohibition of torture under longstanding US law and treaty.
Barack Obama insisted many times that he had no authority on his own to waive the deportation of youthful undocumented immigrants — but then did so anyway by executive order in 2012.
After Congress refused to fund a massive wall on the Mexican border, Trump declared that a national emergency empowered him to spend the money just the same.For every such high-profile example of a president making law by edict, many more occur out of the spotlight. Increasingly, the vast powers of the federal bureaucracy are deployed not as Congress directs through legislation, but as presidents command through executive order.
One of the first priorities of each incoming president now is to sign a slew of new directives countermanding the old ones. Before Trump entered the White House, he excoriated his predecessor for “constantly issuing executive orders that are major power grabs.” That hasn’t stopped him from spending the last 30 months engaged in power grabs of his own.
It won’t stop his successor from going even further.Like every recent president, Donald Trump has used unilateral orders to change federal policy. He issued four such orders during his first week in the White House.This is not a partisan complaint. Democrats and Republicans are equal offenders.
Presidents are growing more and more autocratic, and that should alarm all Americans, whatever their political leanings. “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground,” Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1788. Could even he have imagined, though, just how much liberty Americans would eventually yield? Or just how much power they would allow presidents to amass?There was a time when even the most dominant presidents took it for granted that they could not simply act without regard to Congress.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln had no choice but to move unilaterally, since the nation was under attack and Congress was out of session. But as soon as legislators returned to Washington, he took pains to secure congressional legitimacy for his actions. The same was true of Franklin Roosevelt. “Even through the World Wars and Depression,” writes Bruce Cannon Gibney in The Nonsense Factory , his sweeping new study of America’s legal system, “FDR accomplished most of his work through Congress . . . returning time and again to Congress and voters for support.”
Today’s presidents and would-be presidents, by contrast, make no secret of their intention to sidestep Congress. We can keep letting them get away with it. But an ever-more-overbearing presidency is not a recipe for American happiness. If that isn’t clear yet, just wait.
(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe).– ## —
Meditation for July& August 2019 The Council of Trent Catechism on The Lord’s Prayer The Sixth Petition“And lead us not into temptation”
To our great horror and sorrow, Pope Francis has issued a new translation of the sixth petition of the Lord’s prayer, which has been already been recently adopted by the Italian and French Episcopal Conferences. The traditional translation, “lead us not into temptation” has been retranslated by the current occupant of the Chair of Saint Peter to “do not allow us to fall into temptation.”The following (abbreviated) instruction on the meaning and implications of the traditional translation of the sixth petition, “Lead us not into Temptation” is taken from The Catechism of the Council of Trent edited under Saint Charles Borromeo and published by the decree of Pope Saint Pius X. The translation is by John A. McHugh, O.P. and Charles J. Callan, O.P. A complete electronic version is available thanks to the Catholic Society at: http://www.catholicsociety.com/documents/Catechism_of_the_Council%20of_Trent.pdf. THE SIXTH PETITION OF THE LORD’S PRAYER : “And lead us not into temptation.” We are said to be led into temptation when we yield to temptations. Now this happens in two ways. First, we are led into temptation when, yielding to suggestion, we rush into that evil to which some one tempts us. No one is thus led into temptation by God; for to no one is God the author of sin, nay, He hates all who work iniquity; and accordingly we also read in St. James: Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted of God; for God is not a tempter of evils. Secondly, we are said to be led into temptation by him who, although he himself does not tempt us nor cooperate in tempting us, yet is said to tempt because he does not prevent us from being tempted or from being overcome by temptations when he is able to prevent these things. In this manner God, indeed, suffers the good and the pious to be tempted, but does not leave them unsupported by His grace. Sometimes, however, we fall, being left to ourselves by the just and secret judgment of God, in punishment of our sins. God is also said to lead us into temptation when we abuse, to our destruction, His blessings, which He has given us as a means of salvation; when, like the prodigal son, we squander our Father’s substance, living riotously and yielding to our evil desires. In such a case we can say what the Apostle has said of the law: The commandment that was ordained to life, the same was found to be unto death to me. Of this an opportune example is Jerusalem, as we learn from Ezekiel. God had so enriched that city with every sort of embellishment, that He said of it by the mouth of the Prophet: Thou wast perfect through my beauty, which I had put upon thee. Yet Jerusalem, favored with such an abundance of divine gifts, was so far from showing gratitude to God, from whom she had received and was still receiving so many favors, was so far from making use of those heavenly gifts for the attainment of her own happiness, the end for which she had received them, that having cast away the hope and idea of deriving spiritual profit from them, she, most ungrateful to God her Father, was content to enjoy her present abundance with a luxury and riotousness which Ezekiel describes at considerable length in the same chapter. Wherefore those whom God permits to convert into instruments of vice the abundant opportunities of virtuous deeds which He has afforded them, are equally ungrateful to Him. 350 But we ought carefully to notice a certain usage of Sacred Scripture, which sometimes denotes the permission of God in words which, if taken literally, would imply a positive act on the part of God. Thus in Exodus we read: I will harden the heart of Pharaoh; and in Isaias: Blind the heart of this people; and the Apostle to the Romans writes: God delivered them up to shameful affections, and to a reprobate sense. In these and other similar passages we are to understand, not at all any positive act on the part of God, but His permission only. Objects of the Sixth PetitionWhat We Do Not Pray ForThese observations having been premised, it will not be difficult to understand the object for which we pray in this Petition. We do not ask to be totally exempt from temptation, for human life is one continued temptation. This, however, is useful and advantageous to man. Temptation teaches us to know ourselves, that is, our own weakness, and to humble ourselves under the powerful hand of God; and by fighting manfully, we expect to receive a never-fading crown of glory. For he that striveth for the mastery is not crowned, except he strive lawfully. Blessed is the man, says St. James, that endureth temptation; for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love him. If we are sometimes hard pressed by the temptation of the enemy, it will also cheer us to reflect, that we have a high priest to help us, who can have compassion on our infirmities, having been tempted himself in all things. What We Pray For In This PetitionWhat, then, do we pray for in this Petition ? We pray that the divine assistance may not forsake us, lest having been deceived, or worsted, we should yield to temptation; and that the grace of God may be at hand to succor us when our strength fails, to refresh and invigorate us in our trials. We should, therefore, implore the divine assistance, in general, against all temptations, and especially when assailed by any particular temptation. This we find to have been the conduct of David, under almost every species of temptation. Against lying, he prays in these words: Take not thou the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; against covetousness: Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness; and against the vanities of this life and the allurements of concupiscence, he prays thus: Turn away my eyes, that they may not behold vanity. We pray, therefore, that we yield not to evil desires, and be not wearied in enduring temptation; that we deviate not from the way of the Lord; that in adversity, as in prosperity, we preserve equanimity and fortitude; and that God may never deprive us of His protection. Finally, we pray that God may crush Satan beneath our feet. 351 Dispositions which should Accompany this PetitionThe pastor ought next to admonish the faithful concerning the chief thoughts and reflections that should accompany this prayer Distrust Of Self And Confidence In GodIt will, then, be found most efficacious, when offering this Petition that, remembering our weakness, we distrust our own strength; and that, placing all our hopes of safety in the divine goodness and relying on the divine protection, we encounter the greatest dangers with undaunted courage, calling to mind particularly the many persons, animated with such hope and resolution, who were delivered by God from the very jaws of Satan. When Joseph was assailed by the criminal solicitations of a wicked woman, did not God rescue him from the imminent danger, and exalt him to the highest degree of glory? Did He not preserve Susanna, when beset by the ministers of Satan, and on the point of being made the victim of an iniquitous sentence? Nor is this surprising; for her heart, says the Scripture, trusted in the Lord. How exalted the praise, how great the glory of Job, who triumphed over the world, the flesh and the devil ! There are on record many similar examples to which the pastor should refer, in order to exhort with earnestness his pious hearers to this hope and confidence. Remembrance Of The Victory Of Christ And His SaintsThe faithful should also reflect who is their leader against the temptations of the enemy; namely, Christ the Lord, who was victorious in the same combat. He overcame the devil; He is that stronger man who, coming upon the strong armed man, overcame him, deprived him of his arms, and stripped him of his spoils. Of Christ’s victory over the world, we read in St. John: Have confidence: I have overcome the world; and in the Apocalypse, He is called the conquering lion; and it is. said of Him that He went forth conquering that He might conquer, because by His victory He has given power to others to conquer.’ The Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews abounds with the victories of holy men, who by faith conquered kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions, etc. While we read of such achievements, we should also take into account the victories which are every day won by men eminent for faith, hope and charity, in their interior and exterior conflicts with the demons, — victories so numerous and so signal, that, were we spectators of them, we should deem no event of more frequent occurrence, none of more glorious issue. It was with reference to such defeats of the enemies that St. John wrote: I write unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.’ WatchfulnessSatan, however, is overcome not by indolence, sleep, wine, reveling, or lust; but by prayer, labor, watching, fasting, continence and chastity. Watch ye and pray, that ye enter not into temptation, as we have already said, is the admonition of our Lord. They who make use of these weapons in the conflict put the enemy to flight; for the devil flees from those who resist him. 352 The Author of victory over TemptationBut from the consideration of these victories achieved by holy men which we have mentioned, let no one indulge feelings of self-complacency, nor flatter himself that, by his own single unassisted exertions, he is able to withstand the temptations and hostile assaults of the demons. This is not within the power of human nature, nor within the capacity of human frailty. The strength by which we lay prostrate the satellites of Satan comes from God, who maketh our arms as a bow of brass; by whose aid the bow of the mighty is overcome, and the weak are girt with strength; who giveth us the protection of salvation, whose right hand upholdeth us: who teacheth our hands to war, and our fingers to battle. Hence to God alone must thanks be given for victory, since it is only through His guidance and help that we are able to conquer. This the Apostle did; for he said: Thanks to God, who hath given us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. The voice from heaven, mentioned in the Apocalypse, also proclaims God to be the author of our victories: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ; because the accuser of our brethren is cast forth; and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.” The same book declares that the victory obtained over the world and the flesh belongs to Christ the Lord, when it says: They shall fight with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. But enough has now been said on the cause and the manner of conquering (temptation). The Rewards of Victories over temptationWhen these things have been explained, the pastor should instruct the faithful concerning the crowns prepared by God, and the eternal and superabundant rewards reserved for those who conquer. He should quote from the Apocalypse the following divine promises: He that shall overcome shall not be hurt by the second death; and in another place: He that shall overcome, shall thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. A little after, our divine Lord Himself thus addresses John: He that shall overcome, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God: and he shall go out no more: and again: To him that shall overcome, I win give to sit with me in my throne; as I also have overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne. Finally, having unveiled the glory of the Saints, and the never ending bliss which they shall enjoy in heaven, He adds, He that shall overcome shall possess these things. Action Line for July and August 2019Whether or not Pope Francis will impose his (mis)translated version of the sixth petition of the Our Fatheron the universal church is not known. But there can be no question that his actions will cause great confusion in Catholic pews not only in Novus Ordo parishes, but in Traditional parishes as well. Confusion is of Satan. Let us do our part to thwart his efforts. We are therefore asking all League members to give the widest circulation to the above instruction from the Catechism of the Council of Trent to every Catholic priest and layman you know. The Catechism is in the public domain, so copyright is not an issue. However, the source and credits should be included in any transmission as we have done in this study guide as a common curtesy.
It doesn’t look like much but, subject to a vote this week, the red-light district along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, New York, will become the scene for the next phase of the political insurrection being led by the Democrats’ congressional superstar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
It’s here, on any given night, that the city’s LGBT sex workers ply their trade. It’s a notoriously insecure and problematic line of work, and none more so than for immigrant transsexual sex workers, thanks to elevated levels of police harassment, lack of access to the system of bail bonds, and the threat of roundups by the Immigration Customs Enforcement agency.
These workers’ rights are being championed by Tiffany Cabán, a queer Latina woman running for Queens district attorney in a vote on Tuesday – and when Ocasio-Cortez enthusiastically endorsed her campaign two weeks ago, it helped propel Cabán’s marginal candidacy to centre-stage, and with it the issue of legalising sex work in the city.
Over the past week, parts of the national Democratic political establishment, as represented by presidential contenders Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, followed the Bronx congresswoman’s lead in backing the 31-year-old public defender.
The New York Times followed suit, arguing in an editorial that Cabán was the Democrat best poised to become “one of a growing number of prosecutors to show what can be done without infringing on civil liberties, criminalising black and Hispanic Americans and mistaking punishment for the only form of justice”.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has shown her fellow Democrats that local issues can quickly become national political ones.Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Reuters
In making the endorsement, the paper went against New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, and the rest of the Democratic establishment, writing that their candidate – the borough’s president, Melinda Katz – “has no experience as a prosecutor nor long commitment to criminal justice reform”.
While the choice of DA in a New York borough with a population of two and half million might seem like a marginal issue, the race is a significant marker in the effort by progressives vying to pull the Democratic party to the left ahead of next year’s presidential election. Moreover, it’s a test of the star power of Ocasio-Cortez and her cohorts in the Democratic Socialists of America.
“AOC”, having seen off Amazon’s plans to build a new headquarters in nearby Long Island City, continues her provocations. Last week she accused the Trump administration of running “concentration camps” on the southern border. “The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalised practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing and we need to do something about it,” she posted on Instagram.
But under her tutelage, Democrats are learning that seemingly marginal issues, in this case the rights of immigrant transsexual sex workers, can be re-fashioned as a mainstream political issue, in this case in the service of criminal justice reform.
The endorsement, Cabán told the Observer last week at a noisy rally for trans sex workers rights, showed that her candidacy was a continuation of Ocasio-Cortez’s grassroots movement. “Her endorsement was great because when you talk about not having a million dollars in the bank, you talk about doing this person-to-person, door-to-door, and that amplifies the message of a candidate like me. People are excited about what we stand for.”
In keeping with AOC’s campaign, Cabán’s immediate opponents are not Republicans but the Democratic establishment. In Cabán’s case, she hopes to fill the district attorney position held for 28 years by Richard Brown, who died earlier this year aged 86. If Cabán wins on Tuesday, it will show that Ocasio-Cortez’s revolution has maintained its potency, says Daniel Altschuler at the pro-immigration campaign group Make The Road. “Tiffany, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is a movement candidate. She’s using her campaign as a vehicle to lift the work and demands of grassroots social organisations.”
The post of Queens DA is potentially a springboard to becoming Manhattan DA, then to joining New York’s Southern District judicial circuit, which is currently spearheading investigations into the Trump Organisation, and a position on a federal bench and, perhaps, the supreme court.
Melinda Katz remains the preferred DA candidate for many in the Democratic party establishment.Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP
Meanwhile, local criminal justice issues are pressing, none more so than in the case of transsexual sex workers who, supporters of decriminalisation argue, face arrest in disproportionate numbers and suffering long periods in detention because they are unable to access the system of cash bail bonds.
Bianey Garcia-D la O – a transgender campaigner for LGBT justice who was kidnapped and forced into sex work at 16 by a man who threatened to “call immigration” if she objected – was held for 19 months in Rikers Island prison because she could not raise a $25,000 bail bond. “We are people of colour and also without money for bail, so we end up in Rikers,” she said. But the injustice doesn’t start there, she added. “The cops treat us like we are nothing. They don’t pick up straight girls. They don’t care. They just laugh at us.”
Cabán, Garcia-D la O said, was “the only candidate supporting the most vulnerable members of our community and the only one that understands our issues”.
Those issues were tragically highlighted two weeks ago when Layleen Polanco, a 27-year-old African-Latina trans woman, was found dead in solitary confinement on Rikers Island.
The timing of her death – just as the city gears up to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising – could hardly be a more poignant reminder that some in the LGBT community have yet to benefit from the successes of the gay rights movement.
Polanco, also known as Layleen Xtravaganza, was arrested on 13 April. She was being held on $500 bail for a low-level prostitution-related offence, in addition to a low-level drugs charge. Her cause of death has not yet been determined.
Polanco’s death highlights three discriminatory aspects of the legal system, according to Decrim NY, a group campaigning for the decriminalisation of sex work: “She was criminalised for sex work. She was held on $500 bail for misdemeanour charges. And she was placed in solitary confinement.”
David Shanies, a lawyer representing Polanco’s mother and estate, has accused the city of failing to protect her and “trying to sweep her death under the rug.”
According to LGBT campaign group the Anti-Violence Project, 68% of LGBT homicide victims are transgender or gender-nonconforming, while analysis by the National Transgender Discrimination Survey found 40% of black and 33%of Latino- and Latina-identified trans respondents had participated in the sex trade.
In broad terms, Shanies told the Observer, Polanco’s death exemplifies the discrimination facing transgender people. “The plight of the transgender community extends to all aspects of life, but nowhere is this more pronounced than in the criminal justice system.”
At the rally, where around 75 trans sex workers came out in support, Cabán said that, as DA, she would not ask for cash bail for any charges and would not prosecute sex workers or their customers. She is also in favour of closing down Rikers Island. In sum, her proposals mark a significant departure from decades-old polices that have led to record levels of incarceration.
“We’ve been punching public health issues through our criminal justice system and they don’t belong in the system, especially when we’re talking about communities that have been historically marginalised,” Cabán told the Observer.
Her candidacy, she said, represented “a clean break from the status quo. So I understand that people who are resistant to change might be a little bit nervous.”Topics
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on “Her candidacy, she said, represented “a clean break from the status quo. So I understand that people who are resistant to change might be a little bit nervous.” Yes, it certainly makes me nervous, I thank God that I live in Texas and not New York !!!!!!!!
Pro-Francis Barron like all Semi-Heretical Bishops Spouts “Eloquent Ambiguity”; & a Prayer Request
Bishop Robert Barron like all apparent semi-heretics uses ambiguity as a cloak for “their real sentiment.”
The Francis teaching that the death penalty is “inadmissible” which appears to be contrary to Scriptures and the reformable teachings of the Catholic Church is called by Barron “eloquent ambiguity.”
In the time of the Arian crisis those with forked tongues who spoke of “eloquent ambiguity” like this bishop were called Semi-Arians or semi-heretics.
St. Athanasius said Semi-Arians, that is semi-heretics, were accomplices and Arians in disguise trying to promote “the Arian madness” through ambiguous statements designed to have “an orthodox and a heretical interpretation.” (The Great Athanasius, page 136 and Bad Shepherds, page 27)
Athanasius said:
“They disguise their real sentiment, and then make use of the language of Scripture… as a bait for the ignorant, that they may inveigle them into their own wickedness.” (The Great Athanasius: An Introduction into his Life and Works, page 136)
Early Church expert Rod Bennett writing of the Arian crisis said:
“[T]he number of episcopal sees that can be shown to have remained in orthodox [Catholic] hands throughout the crisis can be counted on the fingers of one hand.” Bad Shepherds, page 29)
As far as I can see in our world today it is very much like the time of the Arian crisis. We only have one bishop who is Athanasius-like: Bishop René Gracida.
Can I ask all the Catholic Monitor readers to pray for a specific intention?
I contacted a good well known priest who says he knows a Cardinal who is supportive of Bishop Gracida’s efforts to have cardinals investigate the validity of Benedict XVI’s resignation and the conclave that elected Francis.
The priest told me by email that he forwarded my email to the Cardinal.
Can you pray that this Cardinal be given the grace to join Bishop Gracida in calling for a investigation?
Pray an Our Father now for that Cardinal to receive the grace to become another Athanasius with Bishop Gracida. Please keep this intention in your prayers at Mass and in your rosaries.Fred Martinez at 8:44 PM
Jacques Pantaléon was an unlikely candidate for the papacy, being neither a cardinal nor Italian, since he was the son of a French cobbler. Nonetheless he became Pope Urban IV after having acquitted himself well as Patriarch of Jerusalem. His attentions also involved him in concerns from Constantinople to Germany and Denmark.
Two months before his death in 1264, he commissioned Saint Thomas Aquinas to write hymns for a new feast honoring the Eucharistic Presence of Christ. There used to be many hymnodic “Sequences,” but over the years they were trimmed down to Easter and Pentecost and, later, Corpus Christi. Although Aquinas had written so sublimely about the Real Presence, Urban wanted song more than prose. Thus we have Pange Lingua, Tantum Ergo, Panis Angelicus, and O Salutaris Hostia.
As they have endured nearly nine centuries so far, they are likely to outlast the musical kitsch that guitar-strumming grey heads of a dying Woodstock generation persist in thinking are the heraldic sounds of a New Age. Unlike the works of those more recent composers, whose absent Latin and poor English only serve to express a low Eucharistic theology, the classical hymnody of Aquinas can best be sung in the original and, if sung in translation, needs translators who are accomplished Latinists and masters of English.
Two Anglican converts of the nineteenth century, Edward Caswall and Gerard Manley Hopkins, qualified for that. The ineffable mystery of the Blessed Sacrament will always be prey to minds smaller than the Doctors of the Church, as they try to reduce mystery to mere human puzzle whose pieces can be arranged according to limited human intelligence. Even in Pope Urban’s age, which by many standards of architecture and scholarship was golden, confusion about the Real Presence in the Mass was spreading.
One priest, Father Peter of Prague, while en route to Rome was granted what the Church considers a miracle: blood emanating from the Host. Pope Urban was in nearby Orvieto and sent delegates to inspect the phenomenon. The Feast of Corpus Christi soon followed.
At the last Supper, our Lord did not subject his apostles to a lecture on how he could give them his Body to eat and Blood to drink. He simply commanded, “Do this.” This is not to deny the vocation of theologians ever since to describe the Heavenly Banquet, but the best of them have known the difference between apprehending and comprehending. “Faith for all defects supplying, Where the feeble senses fail.”
A Baptist hymn writer in the nineteenth century, Robert Lowry, would certainly have been a bit uncomfortable in the presence of the Dominican master Thomas Aquinas, but one suspects that the Angelic Doctor would have fully empathized with the confidence of Lowry’s hymn:The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,A fountain ever springing;All things are mine since I am his—How can I keep from singing?
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Narsarsuaq Airport was built in 1941, a time when planes required much shorter runways to come to complete stops. Now that we’re flying much bigger jets, much faster all over the globe, the danger’s increased at Narsarsuaq in Greenland. Not that professional pilots are incapable of landing on the airstrip. Plenty of them do, with estimates of around 25,000 people flying into and out of Narsarsuaq annually, which speaks volumes about the talents of the pilots landing there. Narsarsuaq is also the only international airport in Greenland, which means there literally aren’t any other options in the country. But, to us, that lack of other options makes the fjords and water surrounding the airport all the more daunting. We’ll either land on the airstrip or in the fjords. Statistically it’s the airstrip, but paranoia still has us suspicious of the other option.
I RAN ACROSS THIS SLIDE SHOW TODAY AND IT BROUGHT BACK A MEMORY I FEEL COMPELLED TO SHARE.
In December, 1943 I had just finished training with nine other airmen in Avon Park, Florida as a crew for B-17 bombers.
We traveled by train to Savannah, Georgia where we were given a brand new B-17G bomber and ordered to fly the airplane to England where we would join the 8th Air Force.
In the first week of January we took off and landed for refueling in Bangor, Maine. A blizzard grounded us at the airport in Bangor for two days when we were finally able to take off.
Another blizzard forced us to land in Labrador were we spend another two days waiting for the weather to clear.
Finally we took off and flew to Bluie West One Airport (now known as Narsarsuaq Airport in Greenland). The approach to the airport was up a fiord. As we neared the airport we found a large iceberg in the water at the end of the only runway. I thank God that we had a pilot who was a former tank captain in the regular Army and so he managed to fly almost touching the iceberg before he made a sharp righthand turn and immediately touched down on the very short runway which sloped up from the waters edge at a 10 degree slope. I consider it a ‘miracle’ landing.
The next morning we took-off down the sloping runway with the iceberg still sitting in the fiord at the end of the runway. We prayed as the bomber gained momentum down the down-sloping runway racing toward the iceberg. At the very last moment the pilot (who was a former tank commander) pulled up on the yoke of the bomber and we cleared the top of the iceberg by a matter of a few feet. It was another ‘miracle.’
God is good!!!!!!!!
We continued on to Iceland and then after a few more days grounded there by a blizzard, we flew to Scotland. On that last flight the temperature inside the bomber was minus 50 degrees, needless to say, even with heavy flight suits we were COLD!!!
Manual Vaccum Aspiration MVA is used to abort a child from 6 weeks to 12 weeks of age. This handheld syringe works by creating its own vacuum/suction. MVAs are used and reused millions of times a year around the world. The major problem with the MVA is that it has a very weak vacuum. This means that the child is ripped apart slowly.
Uterine Currette One side of the loop is sharp for cutting the child apart. The other side scrapes the uterus to remove the placenta.
Syringe with Spinal Needle This abortion instrument’s uses include injecting saltwater into the uterus. The baby swallows and breathes the poison. The cause of the death is congestion, hemorrhage and shock. The mother goes into premature labor about a day later and delivers a dead child. The other use is to inject the chemicals (digoxin, potassium chloride, etc.) into the heart of the baby. In both uses, these harsh chemicals soften the child’s corpse, making it easier to rip apart and remove.
Forceps This abortion tool is used to crush, grasp, and pull the child’s body apart.
Embryotomy Scissors This instrument is used to cut off the head, arms and legs.
Van Huevel’s Destructive Forceps with Chainsaw For dividing the crown of the baby from crown to base. The Lollini This perforator was used to perform a craniotomy on the baby as the preliminary process in collapsing the skull, which would allow subsequent extraction.
Tire-tete This abortion intrument’s purpose was to hold the baby’s head with the spiked ends. Once the head was held, a long thin probe was pushed deep into the skull like a sword. The instrument held the baby’s head, so once it was cut off, it would not float around in the uterus.
Cranioclast This abortion instrument was used to crush the baby’s skull so as to allow the extraction.
Tire-Tete Extractor This abortion instrument works by pushing the spike into the child’s head. Once it is inside, the button is pushed. When it flattens, you can pull the child out.
Embryotome This abortion instrument was used to cut off the baby’s head, legs and arms.
Smellie’s Double Crochet This abortion tool was used to grab and rip the baby out.
Jacquemier’s Decapitator This abortion instrument was used to decapitate the child.
Levret’s Head Extractor This abortion instrument’s only function was to take out the child’s decapitated head.
Decapitator This abortion instrument was used to stab into the baby. The handles would be squeezed, which would then open the blades. You can imagine the rest of it.
Mauriceau’s Head Extractor Jacob Fried’s Steel Dagger This abortion instrument has a long knife blade that is pushed deep into the baby’s head. It has a blade adjustment and a shield to protect the uterus.
TracHellorHecktor Destructive Hook The folded hooks are positioned around the back of the neck and the handles turn apart 180 degrees causing the cervical spine to fracture.
Luer Cranial Perforator This abortion instrument was used to drill a hole in the baby’s head to collapse the skull for extraction.
Pullhead This abortion instrument was used to capture the baby’s head once it was cut off.
Braun’s Cranial Perforator This abortion instrument was used to bore a hole in the baby’s skull to allow easier extraction.
Destructive Instruments Top abortion instrument was used to scoop out the brain. Middle abortion instrument is a double hook. Bottom abortion instrument is a single hook.
Tarnier’s Basiotribe This abortion instrument was used for perforating and crushing the baby’s head.
Blot’s Cranial Perforators These abortion instruments were designed to be pushed into the baby’s skull and opened, cutting it into pieces.
Davis’ Guarded Crochet This abortion instrument was used for obtaining a firm grasp of the baby’s head. The heavy crochet has 3 sharp teeth and was applied to the outside and inside of the cranium.
Blot’s Cephalotribe This abortion instrument was used to crush and flatten the baby’s head.
British Decapitator This abortion instrument has a serrated edge so cutting the baby’s head off would be easier.
Vicarelli’s Trephine Cranial Perforator This abortion instrument was screwed into the baby’s head, causing it to collapse for an easier extraction.
A.R. Simpson’s Basilysts These abortion instruments were screwed into the baby’s head. Once inside the head, the handle was pushed down allowing a sharp knife to come out and cut the skull into pieces.
Guarded Hook and Crochet This abortion instrument was used to pull out the baby. Usually, it only took out a little at a time. It also guarded against rupturing the uterus.
Dr. Bedford’s Double Crochets This abortion tool was designed to hook into the baby without ripping into the uterus. It is believed that this abortion instrument was used to turn the baby around in the uterus. It works by inserting the acorn-like device deep into the baby’s mouth. The baby swallows it. After some time, it goes down to the stomach. When the cord is pulled, sharp spikes stab into the baby’s belly. The baby can then be forced around and down, making the abortion easier to perform.
Levret’s Tire-Tete for removing a decapitated head L.J. Hubert’s Transforator The olive-shaped end is screwed into the baby’s skull and the hinged blade is passed over the baby’s head causing it to split.
Tire-Tete These abortion instruments were used to grasp the inside and the outside of the baby’s head by stabbing one end of the instrument into the cranium. The teeth would grab into the skull allowing for extraction.
A.R. Simpson’s Improved Basilyst The basilyst was used for the perforation of the baby’s skull. It was screwed in and then the handles pulled down, splitting the head.
Decapitator This abortion instrument was used to cut off the baby’s head.
Cranial Perforator This abortion instrument was used by stabbing the sharp edge into the baby’s head and then cutting it apart with the built-in scissors.
Perforator This abortion tool has a long spike that comes out and goes deep into the baby’s cranium.
Bergamini Perforator This abortion instrument screws into the child’s head, allowing for an easier extraction.
Braun’s Cranioclast This abortion instrument was applied to the baby’s head and then twisted, causing portions of the skull to rip off.
Braun’s Trephine Cranial Perforators These abortion instruments were used to bore a hole in the baby’s head, allowing an easy collapse for extraction.
Conquest Cranioclast This abortion instrument has large teeth to grip and crush the baby’s head.
Cephalotribe with chain and ratchet This abortion instrument was used to crush and flattn the baby’s head.
Spear Perforator This abortion instrument was used to stab into the baby’s head.
Braxton & Hick’s Cephalotribe This abortion instrument was used for crushing the baby’s skull.
Abortion Set Simpson’s Impreoved Cranioclast The purpose of this abortion instrument was to get a better grip of the baby’s head before crushing it.
Holmes’ Perforators These abortion instruments were involved in the extraction of the baby by collapsing the skull. The joint mechanism allowed the point to be opened within the skull.
Leisnisch Kiewisch Cranial Perforators There were hundreds of designs. They were used to stab into the baby’s head, tearing it into pieces.
DecapitatorBlot’s Cephalotribe This abortion instrument was used to crush and flatten the baby’s head.
Cranioclast For gripping and crushing.
Auvard’s BasiotribeCrochetWide-edged Crochet Used to crush.
Embryotomy Forceps This abortion instrument was used to take out body parts.
estructive Hooks After breaking off the baby’s skull with a perforator, the crochet is inserted into the cranium and pulled.
Smellie’s Double Crochet Used to grab and rip the baby out.
Guarded Crochet This abortion instrument was used to grip and pull.Decapitators Dubois’ Embryotomy Decapitating Scissors These abortion instruments were used to cut off the head, arms and legs.
Destructive Hook This abortion instrument was twisted to snap the baby’s neck.
Cranial Perforator This abortion instrument was used to bore a hole in the child’s head, allowing an easy collapse for extraction.
Thomas Serrated Edge Scoop This abortion instrument was used to remove body parts of the baby. Vectus with Destructive Attachments Modified Crochet Once this abortion instrument is close to the baby’s neck, you turn the wheel on the handle. It would curl around the neck; then you could twist it, causing the neck to break. Cranial Perforator This abortion instrument was used to bore a hole in the child’s head, allowing an easy collapse for extraction.
Craniotomy Forceps This abortion instrument was used to grab and pull out pieces of the baby’s skull after a craniotomy. CranioclastRibemont’s Embryotome with Chainsaw This abortion instrument was used to dismember and/or decapitate the baby.
Mauriceau’s Head Extractor Vaginal Speculum This instrument opens the vagina and is used to aid in abortion. This abortion instrument was jammed in the baby’s skull and twisted causing it to turn into a T. Then, a decapitator was used allowing the baby’s head to be extracted. Uterine Dilator Sea-Tangle Tents This tool, used for dilating the cervix, were used for abortions.
Osiander’s Amniotone Abortion tonics date back to ancient times, and were common throughout the centuries. This cruel death by poisoning made the child suffer for weeks. Abortion instruments were used because the abortion tonics failed most of the time.
ABYSSUS ABYSSUM INVOCAT / DEEP CALLS TO DEEP 
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