Volume VII/Issue 8/November 2022

Christian Doctor Investigated for Praying With Patients Reaches Settlement With NHS England

A Christian doctor, who was at risk of losing his medical license for offering to pray with and provide spiritual care to his patients, has reached a settlement with NHS England after agreeing to attend one course on “professional boundaries”with no admittance of wrongdoing. Dr. Richard Scott, 62, a general practitioner at the Bethesda Medical Center in Margate, Kent, England, “has been vindicated” following a “four-year campaign” threatening his livelihood, said the UK-based group Christian Concern, whose legal arm, the Christian Legal Centre, supported his case. At the Ashford Tribunal Hearing Center in Kent, NHS England lawyers agreed that Scott is free to offer to pray for and with patients if he does so within agreed General Medical Council guidance.… “Dr. Scott maintains that he has always offered prayer and spiritual support within GMC guidance and that complaints against him have been consistently engineered by secular groups and anonymous complainants,” Christian Concern said.

DOJ Asked to Censor Truth About “Gender Surgery” for Children

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) are demanding that the Department of Justice investigate and arrest anyone who opposes administering harmful puberty blockers to children and performing surgical mutilations on them. The three organizations sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland insisting that statements not affirming that a child’s “gender identity” can be changed must be censored. The organizations insist that “disinformation” regarding “evidence based gender-affirming healthcare” must be blocked and people who spread it should be prosecuted for inciting threats, intimidation and violence against medical professionals.… The three organizations are also calling on Big Tech companies Twitter, Tik Tok and Meta “to do more to prevent coordinated campaigns of disinformation.”… “Our organizations are dedicated to the health and well-being of all children and adolescents.…” However, the idea that children can change their gender, whether through puberty blockers, chemical castration or any other means, is not only delusional but medical fraud. Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D., president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, wrote, “Sex ‘reassignment’ doesn’t work. It’s impossible to ‘reassign’ someone’s sex physically and attempting to do so doesn’t produce good outcomes psychosocially.” Dr. Paul McHugh, the university distinguished service professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, wrote, “Transgendered men do not become women, nor do transgendered women become men. All…become feminized men or masculinized women, counterfeits or impersonators of the sex with which they ‘identify.’ In that lies their problematic future.”… The letter from the AAP, AMA and CHA seems timely as the profitable “gender business” only increases. In fact, Dr. Michael Biggs, Professor of Sociology at the University of Oxford, states that the once-niche practice of “sex change” procedures has become “grossly overpopularized” as the result of positive media coverage. Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Medical violence against children must stop.These so-called medical professionals are profiting from the mutilation of children and they are more concerned about those dollars than the health and welfare of young people.”

Chinese Christians Hunted Internationally by Communist Regime

Throughout its history, but with renewed vigor in recent years, the atheistic communist Chinese regime has sought to crush or at the very least control Christianity within Chinese borders. Christianity is regarded by the communist leadership as a foreign threat to its control and well-being—one that Mao Zedong endeavored to eliminate altogether. Although Chinese Christians of all denominations have routinely been subject to harassment, torture, detentions and executions inside China’s border, the CCP has recently taken more brazenly to hounding those who have fled abroad.… Registered churches are required to display images of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping and communist propaganda alongside or in lieu of religious images. Homilies are censored. Surveillance cameras installed on altars record all church happenings. Additionally, to ensure state atheism takes, people under the age of 18 are barred from participating in religious ceremonies.

California Legalizes Human Composting

Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 351 into law on September 18, enabling Californians to turn human beings into plant food. What previously would have constituted improper disposal of human remains under the law and qualified as a crime, will soon be a permissible practice for approved and regulated “reduction chamber manufacturers.” Human composting is also legal in Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Vermont. Accordingly, rather than having a human body entombed or cremated…a corpse can be broken down into soil, which then can be utilized by the deceased’s family or donated to conservation land.

California Passes Bill to Strip Custody From Parents of Minors Seeking Trans Surgeries

On August 31, the California State Senate passed a bill that would allow courts in California to take custody of minors from out of state who come to the Golden State seeking gender transition surgeries and cross-sex hormones, even if these actions go against the wishes of the minors’ parents. Legal experts and children’s advocates warn that the measure, which awaits Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D) signature to become law, is almost certainly unconstitutional, would cause severe harm to the health and well being of children and would egregiously violate parental custody rights. The bill, known as SB 107, was put forward by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and was passed with “overwhelming Democratic support.”… However, the American College of Pediatricians has pointed out that 85 percent of minors who suffer from gender confusion have their feelings resolved by adulthood and studies show that undergoing gender transition surgeries and using puberty blocking hormones can lead to increased depression and suicide.

The Funny Pharmacy

The Pope Speaks: Pope Leo XIII

Mirae Caritatis - On the Holy Eucharist

Excerpted from the encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, Mirae Caritatis (1902)

If anyone will diligently examine into the causes of the evils of our day, he will find that they arise from this, that as charity towards God has grown cold, the mutual charity of men among themselves has likewise cooled. Men have forgotten that they are children of God and brethren in Jesus Christ; they care for nothing except their own individual interests; the interests and the rights of others they not only make light of, but often attack and invade. Hence frequent disturbances and strifes between class and class: arrogance, oppression, fraud on the part of the more powerful: misery, envy, and turbulence among the poor. These are evils for which it is in vain to seek a remedy in legislation, in threats of penalties to be incurred, or in any other device of merely human prudence. Our chief care and endeavour ought to be, according to the admonitions which We have more than once given at considerable length, to secure the union of classes in a mutual interchange of dutiful services, a union which, having its origin in God, shall issue in deeds that reflect the true spirit of Jesus Christ and a genuine charity. This charity Christ brought into the world, with it He would have all hearts on fire. For it alone is capable of affording to soul and body alike, even in this life, a foretaste of blessedness; since it restrains man’s inordinate self-love, and puts a check on avarice, which “is the root of all evil” (1 Tim. vi., 10). And whereas it is right to uphold all the claims of justice as between the various classes of society, nevertheless it is only with the efficacious aid of charity, which tempers justice, that the “equality” which St. Paul commended (2 Cor. viii., 14), and which is so salutary for human society, can be established and maintained. This then is what Christ intended when he instituted this Venerable Sacrament, namely, by awakening charity towards God to promote mutual charity among men. For the latter, as is plain, is by its very nature rooted in the former, and springs from it by a kind of spontaneous growth. Nor is it possible that there should be any lack of charity among men, or rather it must needs be enkindled and flourish, if men would but ponder well the charity which Christ has shown in this Sacrament. For in it He has not only given a splendid manifestation of His power and wisdom, but “has in a manner poured out the riches of His divine love towards men” (Conc. Trid., Sess. XIII., De Euch. c. ii.). Having before our eyes this noble example set us by Christ, Who bestows on us all that He has assuredly we ought to love and help one another to the utmost, being daily more closely united by the strong bond of brotherhood. Add to this that the outward and visible elements of this Sacrament supply a singularly appropriate stimulus to union. On this topic St. Cyprian writes: “In a word the Lord’s sacrifice symbolises the oneness of heart, guaranteed by a persevering and inviolable charity, which should prevail among Christians. For when our Lord calls His Body bread, a substance which is kneaded together out of many grains, He indicates that we His people, whom He sustains, are bound together in close union; and when He speaks of His Blood as wine, in which the juice pressed from many clusters of grapes is mingled in one fluid, He likewise indicates that we His flock are by the commingling of a multitude of persons made one” (Ep. 96 ad Magnum n. 5 (al.6)). In like manner the angelic Doctor, adopting the sentiments of St. Augustine (Tract. xxxvi., in Joan nn. 13, 17), writes: “Our Lord has bequeathed to us His Body and Blood under the form of substances in which a multitude of things have been reduced to unity, for one of them, namely bread, consisting as it does of many grains is yet one, and the other, that is to say wine, has its unity of being from the confluent juice of many grapes; and therefore St. Augustine elsewhere says: ‘O Sacrament of mercy, O sign of unity, O bond of charity!’ ” (Summ. Theol. P. III., q. Ixxix., a. 1. . All of which is confirmed by the declaration of the Council of Trent that Christ left the Eucharist in His Church “as a symbol of that unity and charity whereby He would have all Christians mutully joined and united. . . a symbol of that one body of which He is Himself the head, and to which He would have us, as members attached by the closest bonds of faith, hope, and charity” (Conc. Trid., Sess. XIII., De Euchar., c. ii.). The same idea had been expressed by St. Paul when he wrote: “For we, being many, are one bread, one body, all we who partake of the one bread” (I Cor. x., 17). Very beautiful and joyful too is the spectacle of Christian brotherhood and social equality which is afforded when men of all conditions, gentle and simple, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, gather round the holy altar, all sharing alike in this heavenly banquet. And if in the records of the Church it is deservedly reckoned to the special credit of its first ages that “the multitude of the believers had but one heart and one soul” (Acts iv., 32), there can be no shadow of doubt that this immense blessing was due to their frequent meetings at the Divine table; for we find it recorded of them: “They were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles and in the communion of the breaking of bread” (Acts ii., 42).

St. Francis de Sales' Introduction to the Devout Life

Preparation.

1. Place yourself in the Presence of God.
2. Ask Him to inspire your heart.

Considerations.

1. Consider that but a few years since you were not born into the world, and your soul was as yet non-existent. Where wert thou then, O my soul? the world was already old, and yet of thee there was no sign. 

2. God brought you out of this nothingness, in order to make you what you are, not because He had any need of you, but solely out of His Goodness.

3. Consider the being which God has given you; for it is the foremost being of this visible world, adapted to live eternally, and to be perfectly united to God’s Divine Majesty.

Affections and Resolutions.

1. Humble yourself utterly before God, saying with the Psalmist, O Lord, I am nothing in respect of Thee—what am I, that Thou shouldst remember me? O my soul, thou wert yet lost in that abyss of nothingness, if God had not called thee forth, and what of thee in such a case?

2. Give God thanks. O Great and Good Creator, what do I not owe Thee, Who didst take me from out that nothingness, by Thy Mercy to make me what I am? How can I ever do enough worthily to praise Thy Holy Name, and render due thanks to Thy Goodness?

3. Confess your own shame. But alas, O my Creator, so far from uniting myself to Thee by a loving service, I have rebelled against Thee through my unruly affections, departing from Thee, and giving myself up to sin, and ignoring Thy Goodness, as though Thou hadst not created me. 

4. Prostrate thyself before God. O my soul, know that the Lord He is thy God, it is He that hath made thee, and not thou thyself. O God, I am the work of Thy Hands; henceforth I will not seek to rest in myself, who am nought. Wherein hast thou to glory, who art but dust and ashes? how canst thou, a very nothing, exalt thyself? In order to my own humiliation, I will do such and such a thing,—I will endure such contempt:—I will alter my ways and henceforth follow my Creator, and realise that I am honoured by His calling me to the being He has given; I will employ it solely to obey His Will, by means of the teaching He has given me, of which I will inquire more through my spiritual Father.

Conclusion.

1. Thank God. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and praise His Holy Name with all thy being, because His Goodness called me forth from nothingness, and His Mercy created me.

2. Offer. O my God, I offer Thee with all my heart the being Thou hast given me, I dedicate and consecrate it to Thee.

3. Pray. O God, strengthen me in these affections and resolutions. Dear Lord, I commend me, and all those I love, to Thy neverfailing Mercy. Our Father, etc.

At the end of your meditation linger a while, and gather, so to say, a little spiritual bouquet from the thoughts you have dwelt upon, the sweet perfume whereof may refresh you through the day.

Saints from East and West

November 6 - Saint Barlaam of Khutyn, Abbot

Saint Barlaam was born into a wealthy family at Novgorod and was christened Alexis. On the death of his parents he sold his property, giving away much to the poor, and went to live as a solitary at a place called Khutyn on the banks of the river Volga. In solitude the Monk Varlaam led a strict life, making unceasing prayer and keeping very strict fast. He was a zealous ascetic in his tasks -- he himself felled timber in the forest, chopped firewood and tilled the soil, fulfilling the words of Holy Scripture: "If any shalt not work, neither shalt he eat" (2 Thess. 3: 10). The fame of his virtues in tIme brought companions to him. Instructing those that came, the Monk Barlaam said: "My children, be observant against all unrighteousness, and neither envy nor slander. Refrain from anger, and give not money over for usury. Beware to judge unjustly. Do not swear falsely giving an oath, but rather fulfill it. Be not indulgent to the bodily appetites. Always be meek and bear all things with love. This virtue is the beginning and root of all good."

His wooden chapel was rebuilt in stone, and dedicated in honour of the Transfiguration. Pilgrims and other visitors flocked to the new monastery, among them the Duke Yaroslav, who became its benefactor. The Lord sent down upon the monk, for his service to others, the gifts of wonderworking and perspicacity.

St Barlaam did not live long after the final establishment of this community. Having provided for its continuance and upkeep, he nominated the monk Antony to succeed him, saying: "My beloved brother! God's blessing doth rest upon this monastery. And now into thine hand I transfer this monastery. Watch over and take concern for it. I do expire to the King of Heaven. But be not confused over this: while yet in the body I do leave you, still in spirit I shalt be with you always".

He died on November 6, 1193. His burying-place was the scene of miracles, and his relics were solemnly enshrined in 1452.

The life of Saint Barlaam of Khutyn was written by a Serbian monk named Pachomius; in the Russian Catholic use of the Byzantine Rite he is commemorated at the preparation of the holy gifts.

 November 22 - Saint Cecilia

For over a thousand years Saint Cecilia has been one of the most greatly venerated of the maiden martyrs of the early Church and is one of those named in the canon of the Mass. Her "acta" state that she was a patrician girl of Rome and that she was brought up a Christian. She wore a coarse garment beneath the clothes of her rank, fasted from food several days a week, and determined to remain a maiden for the love of God. But her father had other views, and gave her in marriage to a young patrician named Valerian. On the day of the marriage, amid the music and rejoicing of the guests, Cecilia sat apart, singing to God in her heart and praying for help in her predicament. When they retired to their room, she took her courage in both hands and said to her husband gently, "I have a secret to tell you. You must know that I have an angel of God watching over me. If you touch me in the way of marriage he will be angry and you will suffer; but if you respect my maidenhood he will love you as he loves me." "Show me this angel," Valerian replied. "If he be of God, I will refrain as you wish." And Cecilia said, "If you believe in the living and one true God and receive the water of baptism, then you shall see the angel." Valerian agreed and was sent to find Bishop Urban among the poor near the third milestone of the Appian Way. He was received with joy and there appeared a venerable old man bearing a writing: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, above all, and in us all." "Do you believe this?" Valerian was asked, and he assented and was baptized by Urban. Then he returned to Cecilia, and found standing by her side an angel, who put upon the head of each a chaplet of roses and lilies. Then appeared his brother, Tiburtius, and he, too, was offered a deathless crown if he would renounce his false gods. At first he was incredulous. "Who", he asked, "has returned from beyond the grave to tell us of this other life?" Cecilia talked long to him, until he was convinced by what she told him of Jesus, and he, too, was baptized and at once experienced many marvels.

From that time forth the two young men gave themselves up to good works. Because of their zeal in burying the bodies of martyrs they were both arrested. Almachius, the prefect before whom they were brought, began to cross-examine them. The answers he received from Tiburtius he set down as the ravings of a madman, and, turning to Valerian, he remarked that he hoped to hear more sense from him than from his crazy brother. Valerian replied that he and his brother were under the charge of one and the same physician, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who could impart to them His own wisdom. He then proceeded at some length to compare the joys of Heaven with those of earth, but Almachius told him to cease prating and to tell the court if he would sacrifice to the gods and go forth free. Tiburtius and Valerian both replied: "No, not to the gods, but to the one God to whom we offer sacrifice daily." The prefect asked whether Jupiter were the name of their god. "No, indeed", said Valerian. " Jupiter was a corrupt libertine and, according to the testimony of your own writers, a murderer as well as a criminal."

Valerian rejoiced when they were delivered over to be scourged, and cried out to the Christians present: "Roman citizens, do not let my sufferings frighten you away from the truth, but cling to the one holy God, and trample under your feet the idols of wood and stone which Almachius worships." Even then the prefect was disposed to allow them a respite in which to reconsider their refusal, but his assessor assured him that they would only use the time to distribute their possessions, thus preventing the state from confiscating their property. They were accordingly condemned to death and were beheaded in a place called Pagus Triopius, four miles from Rome. With them perished one of the officials, a man called Maximus, who had declared himself a Christian after witnessing their fortitude.

Cecilia gave burial to the three bodies, and then she in turn was called on to repudiate her faith. Instead she converted those who came to induce her to sacrifice; and when Pope Urban visited her at home he baptized over 400 persons there: one of them, Gordian, a man of rank, established a church in her house, which Urban later dedicated in her name. When she was eventually brought into court, Almachius argued with Cecilia at some length, and was not a little provoked by her attitude: she laughed in his face and tripped him up in his words. At length she was sentenced to be suffocated to death in the bathroom of her own house. But though the furnace was fed with seven times its normal amount of fuel, Cecilia remained for a day and a night without receiving any harm, and a soldier was sent to behead her. He struck at her neck three times, and then left her lying. She was not dead and lingered three days, during which the Christians flocked to her side and she formally made over her house to Urban and committed her household to his care. She was buried next to the papal crypt in the catacomb of St Callistus.

Pope St Paschal I (817-824) translated the relics of Saint Cecilia, together with those of Saints Valerian, Tiburtius and Maximus, to the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. In 1599 Cardinal Sfondrati in repairing this church reinterred the relics of the four martyrs, the body of Cecilia being then still incorrupt and complete. Also in 1599 the sculptor Maderna was allowed to see the body and made a life-size statue of what he had seen, naturalistic and very moving: "Not lying upon her back like a body in a tomb, but upon the right side, as a maiden in her bed, her knees drawn together, and seeming to be asleep." This statue is in the church of Saint Cecilia, under the altar contiguous to the place where the relics were reburied in a silver coffin; it bears the sculptor's inscription: "Behold the most holy virgin Cecilia, whom I myself saw lying incorrupt in her tomb. I have made for you in this marble an image of that saint in the very posture of her body."

Today perhaps St Cecilia is most generally known as the patron-saint of music and musicians. At her wedding, the acta tell us, while the musicians played, Cecilia sang to the Lord in her heart. In the later middle ages she was represented as actually playing the organ and singing aloud.

Advice You Can Bank On

A Catholic Perspective On Finances 

November 2022 – Being a Good Steward

I’d like to start this article with the Parable of the Talents, taken from Matthew 25:14-30, “For even as a man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his goods; And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to every one according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey. And he that had received the five talents, went his way, and traded with the same, and gained other five. And in like manner he that had received the two, gained other two. But he that had received the one, going his way digged into the earth, and hid his lord's money. But after a long time the lord of those servants came, and reckoned with them. And he that had received the five talents coming, brought other five talents, saying: Lord, thou didst deliver to me five talents, behold I have gained other five over and above. His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. And he also that had received the two talents came and said: Lord, thou deliveredst two talents to me: behold I have gained other two. His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. But he that had received the one talent, came and said: Lord, I know that thou art a hard man; thou reapest where thou hast not sown, and gatherest where thou hast not strewed. And being afraid I went and hid thy talent in the earth: behold here thou hast that which is thine. And his lord answering, said to him: Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed: Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury. Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents. For to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away. And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

We are called to be stewards of all things within our lives and to make what we can “according to our abilities”. And we are all aware that we will leave this world the same way we came in – naked and penniless. So, what then is that we amass or not while we have the time in this world?

As pointed out in the parable, he is cast out and all taken from him whom did not invest his talent. He who was given was also taken away although his ability was like that of the others. It is the same for us servants in this time as well.

We are called to make good use of our time, our money, our habits, and our abilities, even when some things seem to be out of our control. In all these areas we can reflect within ourselves and find an area that needs change. Someone close to me said recently, “Well, I’m not desperate yet”, when talking about personal finances. The thought of personal responsibility and that of being a good steward was the first that came to mind in our conversation as the parable describes.

We don’t want to be in a position where we are desperate, in any terms. We want to be prepared. In my conversation, it was an acknowledgement that things were heading in the direction of desperation, and even though they could see the writing on the wall, why wouldn’t they act before things took a turn for the worse? The reality is, that we all should.

We should all be prepared, for better or for worse. Typically, “for the better”, there doesn’t seem to be much needed preparation and we usually only think or speak of “for the worse”. Of course it makes sense that in the case of a job loss, or other unforeseen circumstance, we should be prepared by having some savings to fall back on, or a plan of what to do in case of…but rarely do we say what you should do in the event that you have a large windfall, an inheritance, or indeed, of a promotion with additional pay, and we should.

Most people when they receive a raise expend right up to their updated yearly amount. In other words, they had an income, for example, of $50,000 per year, received a raise to $75,000 per year, and now spend at $75,000 instead of maintaining at $50,000. Most of us increase our spending to match our income and this is as much of a problem as is the reverse situation of not having enough to cover our expenses at the lower end. It is common knowledge that most lottery winners become bankrupt, in fact, 70% of people who win the lottery file for bankruptcy.

On its face, spending hundreds of thousands or millions in a short time span seems absurd, but even in the case of a $25,000 salary increase, we live right up to our means. The servants in the parable were given a windfall, and although it was known that their master would return, they each chose what to do with their windfall. It is in this example we see that they didn’t live right up to their means.

Taking personal responsibility for our actions and our deeds, and of all our habits will help us to be prepared in all circumstances of better or worse. Even when things might be out of our hands, and we know not what tomorrow will bring for us, we can arm ourselves and know what steps we will take in either event. While we have the time, we should know what we plan to do in the event of a windfall, or in the event of a loss, and in that way, we need not worry about desperations or extremes. We will know that we were good stewards according to our abilities.