What does it mean to be Catholic? A simple question, but not all that easy to answer. Yet, in the context of a pastoral letter to Rep. Patrick Kennedy regarding his public support for abortion in opposition to Catholic teaching, Bishop Tobin answered the question with clarity and brevity.

Bishop Tobin tells us:

“Well, in simple terms – and here I refer only to those more visible, structural elements of Church membership – being a Catholic means that you’re part of a faith community that possesses a clearly defined authority and doctrine, obligations and expectations. It means that you believe and accept the teachings of the Church, especially on essential matters of faith and morals; that you belong to a local Catholic community, a parish; that you attend Mass on Sundays and receive the sacraments regularly; that you support the Church, personally, publicly, spiritually and financially.”

Finally, we have a clear message from one of our Lord’s Bishops on the scandal caused by Catholic politicians who publicly support abortion. Bishop Tobin has told Rep. Patrick Kennedy not to present himself for communion.

Bishop Tobin is doing his job; he is protecting the sanctity of the Eucharist, affirming the Church’s opposition to abortion and also being a true pastor to Rep. Kennedy, by making sure that he does not receive the Eucharist in an unworthy state.

Tobin’s letter to Patrick Kennedy in early November is a clear, firm pastoral letter from a Bishop who tells the truth like it is.  We praise our Lord for Bishop Tobin and his vigorous defense of our Catholic faith.

And on a larger level, he is heading off scandal before it does its deadly work, by making sure that wavering Catholics understand that one is NOT in communion with the Catholic Church, when dissenting against the Church’s teaching on abortion.

Let’s pray that this incident is a spiritual and moral wake-up call for Rep. Kennedy, and that he repents and comes back to Holy Mother Church, who always waits patiently for stray sons and daughters to return.

Most Americans learned in high school that England’s King Henry VIII started his own church – when the one he was in (the Catholic Church) – refused to annul his marriage to Catherine.  Not one for humility, the King made himself head of the new “English Church” which is now known as the Anglican Communion or the Episcopal Church in the U.S.

King Henry went ahead with his unlawful divorce, got himself excommunicated and became heretic number one during this time of great of cultural and religious upheaval in Europe.

This forced cleavage of the English people from the Roman Catholic Church, and communion with the Bishop of Rome is a sad one, that seems so complete that it’s hard to imagine that Protestant England had once been a pious and solid arm of Catholic Europe for centuries.

Geoffrey Moorhouse in his book, “A Pilgrimage of Grace,” describes pre-reformation England this way:

“Christian devotion was at its most concentrated and its most expressive in the parish church and its rituals. It was unthinkable that anyone should enter a church without dipping fingers in a stoup of holy water by the door and crossing themselves, then genuflecting as they saw the altar. “

The recent announcement that Pope Benedict has created special structures for Anglicans to enter into full communion with the Catholic is monumental news. As one Anglican Bishop recently put it: “The Anglican experiment is now over.”

It’s also worth pointing out that this wasn’t the Pope trying to “expand the empire,” but a response to repeated and sincere attempts by traditional Anglicans, who could no longer remain in a Church bent upon deconstructing Christian beliefs: ordaining women as  priests, “blessing” homosexual sex partners and the ordination of an openly gay man as bishop was the final straw for these Christian men and women.

To put it his way: without the rock of St. Peter and his teaching authority, it’s going to become increasingly hard for Christian denominations to withstand the onslaught of a sick, ne0-pagan culture bent on destroying the traditional understanding of marriage, family life and sexual morality.

Yet Christians should take great hope that the Pope – the Pope of Christian Unity – is here to welcome  home Christians who thirst for the Church that Jesus Christ founded on the rock of St. Peter – the one that “even the gates of hell” will not overcome!

Even back in the 1960s, the Church acknowledged the special ties the Anglican communion retains to Catholic traditions…The Second Vatican Council wrote:

“As a result (of the Reformation), many communions, national or confessional, were separated from the Roman See. Among those in which Catholic traditions and institutions in part continue to exist, the Anglican communion occupies a special place.”

We thank God for the special grace of being alive to witness a partial healing of the tragic rupture that occurred approximately 450 years ago.

Pay careful attention to what’s happening in Washington D.C. with the Catholic Church and the D.C. City Council right now. This is a case where a perfect storm of liberal political fundamentalism and anti-Catholic sentiment have coalesced over the issue of recognizing gay marriage in the District.

Also, follow how the anti-Catholic media are consistently telling us that the Church “is making threats” or “getting involved in politics” because of its resistance to the city’s pressure. Nonsense.  The reality is this: if Catholic Charities in D.C. is forced to help gay “couples” adopt children or to pay marriage benefits to gay “married” employees, the Catholic Church — as a matter of conscience — must cut ties to the city.

So who will suffer in D.C. if the City Council decides to force the falsity of gay marriage on Washington? The homeless and the poor, of course,  who are overwhelming served by the Catholic Church in D.C. Once again, we see that liberals claim to be “for the poor,” but ultimately they are more interested in liberal orthodoxy (the normalization of sodomy is a real passion) than anything else.

Our great cyber priest, Fr. Z., commented on a Washington Post article on gay marriage and the Church in D.C., he wrote:

“This seems to be the scenario.The Archdiocese is presently doing its part to help homeless people. The City is going to press the Archdiocese to do things which are morally repugnant and contrary both to Scripture and the natural law. So, standing there with its hands open in both directions, waiting to help the poor, it would actually be the CITY which would cut off funds to help the Archdiocese, because the Archdiocese refuses to condone sodomy. Get that? The City would suspend the funds. Therefore the liberals, to pressure the Church to violate the interior logic of Christianity, say that the Church wants to “harm” the poor.”

The spirit of abortion is the spirit of evil. Those who choose abortion are often deceived by the evil one and his minions. Death and lies is what Satan wishes for God’s children. Not sure what to do? Pray, of course, but also support the work of Fr. Tom Euteneuer and his Catholic pro-life organization known as Human Life International.

Give them a few bucks. They are in the forefront of confronting this evil all over the world…And Fr. Euteneur is a charitable, yet no hold’s barred defender of orthodox Catholic teaching. To listen to him, is to see a bit of St. Michael the Archangel showing through, which may have a bit to do with Fr. Tom’s background as a Marine as well (not to mention that he is also an exorcist).

To see a bit of Fr. Euteneuer in action, watch this clip of him speaking to Sean Hannity, who calls himself Catholic, yet dissents from the Church’s teaching on birth control:

Let’s get right to the heart of the matter: Rep. Patrick Kennedy recently threw the Catholic Bishops under the bus for their opposition to abortion in the health care bill. Congressman Kennedy, sadly, has a lot of family members like this, and perhaps we need to call them out for what they are – heretics.

Heresy? heretics? What’s that? Too strong you say? Isn’t that just Middle Age mumbo jumbo? No it isn’t.

Here is how the Catechism defines heresy (this was written during John Paul II’s pontificate).

2089…”Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same…”

Let’s see…Rep. Patrick Kennedy is a baptized Catholic…who like many of the Kennedys (Don’t get me started on Kathleen Kennedy Townsend), continues to deny truths of the Catholic faith (the evil of abortion for example) in an obstinate and public way…Hummm.

Maybe it’s time for tough love with these Kennedys and their abortion support…They are part of our Catholic family, yet they continue to create scandal and lead others to doubt the truths of the Catholic faith…We need them to be called out as heretics and  ex-communicated. Not because we want to “punish them,” but because they need a spiritual wake-up call, and there is still time to repent.

Let’s applaud Bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode Island who called Kennedy out for his comments, and is demanding an apology…The time is ending when Catholics will put up with lies, deceit and heresy from our brothers and sisters n the Mystical Body of Christ…We will love them, but as Pope Benedict recently reminded us, love must always be tied to the truth.

Once more, gay activists in Washington D.C. have held a large public rally with the goal of normalizing homosexual sexual activity in America, and to push for laws that will effectively downgrade the special place of marriage in our civilization.

This event took place in view of the Capital building, and with many of the speakers using choice quotes and references to the founding fathers, the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

One can only wonder what men like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and George Washington would have thought about men and women who – not only proclaim “pride” in their sexual immorality – but then expect the Unites States of America to make laws that validate immoral acts such as sodomy as some kind of treasured “right,” as well as the dubious so-called hate crimes bill.

And while it’s true that the founding fathers were not all religious men in the strictest sense, to a man they made it clear that Judeo-Christian morality was the stabilizing force in this new country with no King, state-approved religious denomination or dominant ethnic group to unite citizens.

The idea that the public square in America would eventually be stripped of all references to God’s blessings, his Scripture, his Commandments or his binding moral truths – would have been unthinkable to these men.

How can it be that his nation, which was started and lived in by men and women who recognized God’s laws and gave much thanksgiving to their creator for his many blessings, now has citizens who expect that God’s laws on marriage be trampled upon, and that sexual license be enshrined as some kind of “right?”

No civilization has ever survived for long without a unifying set of moral values; if we as a society continue to insist that sodomy between two men is a “marriage,” we are truly entering a time of rapid cultural nihilism.

I found two rather sharp Catholic reactions to President Obama being awarded Nobel Peace Prize…This very same prize that Mother Teresa did win for her service to the poor of India, and that Pope John Paul II didn’t win for his two decades of actual peacemaking around the world.

Human Life International President Fr. Tom Euteneuer has this to say regarding the exclusion of JP II during his life:

“Pope John Paul II was not granted the Peace Prize in 24 years of peace-making around the world because the leftists on the Nobel Committee obviously don’t give this Prize for actual results of peace.”

And then Fr. Z weighed in:

“So they give him the Noble Peace Prize so that he might do something in the future?

Let’s review:

POTUS called for the abandonment of nuclear weapons…. like that’s going to happen.

He expanded American diplomacy…. read “we’re sorry were us”, as we bow to a Saudi king.

He replaced Pres. Bush’s unilateralism with multilateralism.   Though Pres. Bush had, what, 43 nations involved in Iraq and Pres. Obama can get … who?… to help in Afghanistan?

Old Scandinavian hippies want to encourage Pres. Obama… so they give him an atta boy. “

While reading “Friends of God” by St. Jose Maria Escriva – the founder of Opus Dei – I was struck by a passage he relates regarding Christians and their daily work before God.

St. Escriva liked to take young people to an old Cathedral (presumably somewhere in Spain), and in doing so, he’d take them up   through the scaffolding of the Church, and then go to the very top to view the artistry on the Church’s ceiling, which is not visible to church-goers  below.

The young people were always stunned to see such intricate designs that were entirely invisible below. And it was with this example, that this great Saint of work demonstrated what it means to work for God – to offer our work directly to him, without concern for the world’s judgement or approbation.

Today there will be a funeral Mass in Boston for Sen. Ted Kennedy. The Mass is an opportunity for the faithful to pray for the soul of Mr. Kennedy – period. It’s a shame that President Obama (or anyone for that matter) will be giving a eulogy in clear violation of what the Catholic Church states regarding that practice at a funeral Mass.

As the American Papist blog points out, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal states:

382. “At the Funeral Mass there should, as a rule, be a short homily, but never a eulogy of any kind.”

We certainly hope that Mr. Kennedy was reconciled to the Church during his final hours – and we know that our Lord is Merciful – yet it still seems unacceptable that President Obama, like at Notre Dame, will be speaking at the very heart and center of a Catholic event.

And the fault lies not with President Obama accepting: for what politician wouldn’t take advantage of such high-profile opportunities to present himself and his ideas? But with Catholics who allow this to happen. This is an in-house matter and President Obama should not:

1. Have been given an honorary degree by a Catholic institution because of Mr. Obama has a pro-abortion voting record
2. Be allowed to give a eulogy at Mr. Kennedy’s funeral Mass because nobody is supposed to eulogize anyone at a Catholic funeral Mass

We pray for the soul of Mr. Kennedy today, but we are concerned about the scandal that may occur today as Church rules are not followed, and  a host of pro-abortion Catholic politicians possibly present themselves for communion.