Volume VII/Issue 6/September 2022

Churches’ Freedom Affirmed Again by Federal Court
The freedom of churches and other religious organizations to make employment decisions based on their beliefs has again gained support in the federal court system.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago dismissed July 28 a former guidance counselor’s lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and a Catholic high school. Roncalli High School had refused to renew Lynn Starkey’s contract after she admitted being in a same-sex marriage....

In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court ruled the “ministerial exception” based on the First Amendment’s religion clauses protects the right of the archdiocese
and the school to decide who will fulfill their religious mission. The First Amendment prohibits government establishment of religion and guarantees the free exercise of religion.

Biden’s Executive Order Takes Aim at Pro-Life Pregnancy Resource Centers

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on [July 8] to “expand access to abortion care, including medication abortion.” The executive action signaled the president plans to take aim at pro-life pregnancy resource centers and offer free legal protection to the abortion industry. The federal government will now officially “promote access to critical reproductive healthcare services, including abortion,” the order states. “Doing so is essential to justice, equality and our health, safety and progress as a [n]ation.”… Under the executive order: 1. The Biden administration will attempt to recruit lawyers who will sue pro-life states.… 2. The federal government may take action against pro-life pregnancy resource centers for fraud.… 3. The federal government will protect abortion facilities from prolife advocates.…4. The government will reduce reporting about the complications of medication abortions.… 5. The federal government will initiate a pro-abortion campaign.… 6. The executive order establishes an interagency task force and demands the HHS Secretary report what steps it has taken within 30 days

Christian Student Stoned, Burned by Islamic Radicals

The Gatestone Institute reported that in Nigeria in May “a Muslim mob beat, stoned and then burned the body of Deborah Emmanuel, a Christian college student who earlier had refused the sexual advances of a Muslim man. He retaliated by loudly proclaiming that she had blasphemed Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.” Such horrific violence against Christians…is so commonplace in Nigeria that attacks continue to appear in persecution-related news feeds but are seldom officially investigated.

Burger King Donating Up to $250K to LGBT Group in Swipe at Chick-fil-A

Burger King, one of the largest…global fast-food companies, sent out a tweet…announcing…“the #ChKing says LGBTQ+ rights!” The tweet, which is now pinned to the Burger King Twitter account, referred to the Ch’King, the restaurant chain’s newly created chicken sandwich. “During #pridemonth (even on Sundays) your chicken sandwich craving can do good! We are making a donation * to @HRC for every Ch’King sold!” Burger King will donate 30 cents to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT activist group in the United States, for every Ch’King sold between June 3 and June 30. The fast-food chain will donate up to $250,000 to HRC, a goal that can be reached with the sale of 625,000 chicken sandwiches. The reference to Sundays in the tweet is seen as a veiled swipe at Chick-fil-A, another major fast-food chain that, unlike nearly all of its primary competitors, does not open on Sundays because of the religious beliefs of the restaurant chain’s founders. Steve Cortes, a Newsmax host…took issue with Burger King’s jab at Chick-fil-A for closing on Sundays: “This corporation makes it clear it mocks Christians (and other religious people) and doesn’t want our business.”… More than 400 major companies have signed onto the Human Rights Campaign’s Business Coalition for the Equality Act, a coalition of companies that have publicly declared their support for the Equality Act. Although Burger King has made its support for LGBT activism quite clear over the years, it is not a member of HRC’s Business Coalition for the Equality Act.  

The Funny Pharmacy

The Pope Speaks: Pope Pius XI

Ingravescentibus Malis

On the Holy Rosary, excerpted from the encyclical of Pope Pius XI, promulgated on September 29, 1937

Though such great and numerous evils hang over us, and others still greater are to be feared for the future, we must not lose heart nor let the confident hope that rests solely on God become fainter. He who "made the nations of the earth for health" (Cf. Wisdom i, 14) without doubt will not let those perish whom He has redeemed with His Precious Blood, nor will He abandon His Church. But rather, as We said in the beginning, shall We beseech God through the mediation of the Blessed Virgin, so acceptable to Him, since, to use the words of St. Bernard: "Such is the will of God, who has wished that we should have all things through Mary." (Sermon on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.)

Among the various supplications with which we successfully appeal to the Virgin Mother of God, the Holy Rosary without doubt occupies a special and distinct place. This prayer, which some call the Psalter of the Virgin or Breviary of the Gospel and of Christian life, was described and recommended by Our Predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII, with these vigorous passages: "Very admirable is this crown interwoven with the angelic salutation which is interposed in the Sunday prayer, and unites with it the obligation of interior meditation. It is an excellent manner of prayer . . . and very useful for the attainment of immortal life" (Acta Leonis, 1898, Vol. XVIII, pp. 154, 155).

And this can well be deduced from the very flowers that form this mystic garland. What prayers in fact can be found more adaptable and holy? This first is that which our Divine Redeemer Himself pronounced when His disciples asked Him: "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke xi, 1); a very holy supplication which both offers us the way - as far as it is possible for us - to render glory to God, and also takes into account all the necessities of our body and soul. How can the Eternal Father, when prayed to with the very words of His Son, refuse to come to our aid?

The other prayer is the Angelic Salutation, which begins with the eulogies of the Archangel Gabriel and of St. Elizabeth, and ends with that very pious supplication by which we beg the help of the Blessed Virgin now and at the hour of our death. To these invocations, said aloud, is added the contemplation of the sacred mysteries, through which they place, as it were, under our eyes the joys, sorrows and triumphs of Jesus Christ and of His Mother, so that we receive relief and comfort in our sorrows. Following those most holy examples, we ascend to the happiness of the heavenly country by steps of ever higher virtue.

This practice of piety, Venerable Brethren, admirably diffused by St. Dominic, not without the heavenly suggestion and inspiration of the Virgin Mother of God, is without doubt easy for all, even for the ignorant and the simple. But those wander from the path of truth who consider this devotion merely an annoying formula repeated with monotonous singsong intonation, and refuse it as good only for children and silly women!

In this regard, it is to be noted that both piety and love, though always renewing the same words, do not always repeat the same thing but always express something new issuing from the intimate sentiment of devotion. And besides, this mode of prayer has the perfume of evangelic simplicity and requires humility of spirit; and, if we disdain humility, as the Divine Redeemer teaches, it will be impossible for us to enter the heavenly kingdom: "Amen, I say to you, unless you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. xviii, 3).

Nevertheless, if men in our century, with its derisive pride, refuse the Holy Rosary, there is an innumerable multitude of holy men of every age and every condition who have always held it dear. They have recited it with great devotion, and in every moment they have used it as a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight, to preserve the integrity of life, to acquire virtue more easily, and in a word to attain real peace among men.

Nor are there lacking men famous as to doctrine and wisdom who, although intensely occupied in scientific study and researches, never even for a day fail to pray fervently on bended knee, before the image of the Virgin, in this most pious form. Thus kings and princes, however burdened with most urgent occupations and affairs, made it their duty to recite the Rosary.

From it, the young will draw fresh energy with which to control the rebellious tendencies to evil and to preserve intact the stainless purity of the soul; also in it, the old will again find repose, relief and peace from their anxious cares. To those who devote themselves to Catholic Action may it be a spur to impel them to a more fervent and active work of apostolate; and to all those who suffer in any way, especially the dying, may it bring comfort and increase the hope of eternal happiness.

The fathers and mothers of families particularly must give an example to their children, especially when, at sunset, they gather together after the day's work, within the domestic walls, and recite the Holy Rosary on bended knees before the image of the Virgin, together fusing voice, faith and sentiment. This is a beautiful and salutary custom, from which certainly there cannot but be derived tranquillity and abundance of heavenly gifts for the household.

When very frequently We receive newly married couples in audience and address paternal words to them, We give them rosaries, We recommend these to them earnestly, and We exhort them, citing Our own example, not to let even one day pass without saying the Rosary, no matter how burdened they may be with many cares and labors.

For these reasons, Venerable Brethren, We have thought fit earnestly to exhort you, and through you, all the Faithful, to carry out this pious practice. Nor do We doubt that you, listening, with your usual response to Our paternal invitation will bring about abundant fruits once more.

Given at Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, on the 29th day of the month of September, on the Feast of the Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel, in the year 1937, the sixteenth of Our Pontificate.

St. Francis de Sales' Introduction to the Devout Life

All the children of Israel went forth from the land of Egypt, but not all went forth heartily, and so, when wandering in the desert, some of them sighed after the leeks and onions,--the fleshpots of Egypt. Even so there are penitents who forsake sin, yet without forsaking their sinful affections; that is to say, they intend to sin no more, but it goes sorely against them to abstain from the pleasures of sin;--they formally renounce and forsake sinful acts, but they turn back many a fond lingering look to what they have left, like Lot's wife as she fled from Sodom. They are like a sick man who abstains from eating melon when the doctor says it would kill him, but who all the while longs for it, talks about it, bargains when he may have it, would at least like just to sniff the perfume, and thinks those who are free to eat of it very fortunate. And so these weak cowardly penitents abstain awhile from sin, but reluctantly;-- they would fain be able to sin without incurring damnation;--they talk with a lingering taste of their sinful deeds, and envy those who are yet indulging in the like. Thus a man who has meditated some revenge gives it up in confession, but soon after he is to be found talking about the quarrel, averring that but for the fear of God he would do this or that; complaining that it is hard to keep the Divine rule of forgiveness; would to God it were lawful to avenge one's self! Who can fail to see that even if this poor man is not actually committing sin, he is altogether bound with the affections thereof, and although he may have come out of Egypt, he yet hungers after it, and longs for the leeks and onions he was wont to feed upon there! It is the same with the woman who, though she has given up her life of sin, yet takes delight in being sought after and admired. Alas! of a truth, all such are in great peril.

Be sure, my child, that if you seek to lead a devout life, you must not merely forsake sin; but you must further cleanse your heart from all affections pertaining to sin; for, to say nothing of the danger of a relapse, these wretched affections will perpetually enfeeble your mind, and clog it, so that you will be unable to be diligent, ready and frequent in good works, wherein nevertheless lies the very essence of all true devotion. Souls which, in spite of having forsaken sin, yet retain such likings and longings, remind us of those persons who, without being actually ill, are pale and sickly, languid in all they do, eating without appetite, sleeping without refreshment, laughing without mirth, dragging themselves about rather than walking briskly. Such souls as I have described lose all the grace of their good deeds, which are probably few and feeble, through their spiritual languor.

Saints from East and West

September 21 - Saint Quadratus Of The Seventy.

The Holy Disciple from the Seventy, Quadratus, preached the Word of God at Athens and at Magnezia (the eastern peninsula of Thessaly), and was bishop of Athens. He converted many pagans to the true faith in Christ the Saviour.

In the year 126 the Disciple Quadratus wrote an Apologia in defence of Christianity. Presented by him to the emperor Adrian (117-138), the Apologia thus affected the persecution of Christians, since the emperor issued a decree prescribing not to convict anyone without proof. This Apologia was known in the fourth century to the historian Eusebius. At the present time only part of this Apologia is known, quoted by Eusebius: "The deeds of our Saviour were always witnessed, because they were true. The healings by Him and the raisings-up from the dead were visible not only when they were healed and raised up, but always. They lived not only during the existence of the Saviour upon the earth, but they remained alive sufficiently long also after His departure; some indeed have survived to our present time."

His preaching aroused the hatred of unswayable pagans. One time an angry mob fell upon the disciple to pelt him with stones. Preserved by God, the Disciple Quadratus remained alive, and they threw him into prison, where he died from starvation. His holy body was buried in Magnezia.

September 18 - Saint Joseph of Cupertino

Joseph Desa was born June 17, 1603, at Cupertino, a small village between Brindisi and Otranto. His parents were poor and unfortunate. Joseph himself was born in a shed at the back of the house, because his father, a carpenter, was unable to pay his debts and the home was being sold up. His childhood was unhappy. His widowed mother looked on him as a nuisance and a burden, and treated him with great severity, and he developed an extreme absentmindedness and inertia. He would forget his meals, and when reminded of them say simply, "I forgot," and wander open-mouthed in an aimless way about the village so that he earned the nick-name of "Boccaperta," the gaper. He had a hot temper, which made him more unpopular, but was exemplary and even precocious in his religious duties. When the time came for him to try and earn his own living, Joseph was bound apprentice to a shoemaker, which trade he applied himself to for some time, but without any success.

When he was seventeen he presented himself to be received amongst the Conventual Franciscans, but they refused to have him. Then he went to the Capuchins, and they took him as a lay-brother; but after eight months he was dismissed as unequal to the duties of the order: his clumsiness and preoccupation made him an apparently impossible subject, for he dropped piles of plates and dishes on the refectory floor, forgot to do things he was told, and could not be trusted even to make up the kitchen fire. Joseph then turned for help to a wealthy uncle, who curtly refused to aid an obvious good-for-nothing, and the young man returned home in despair and misery. His mother was not at all pleased to see him on her hands again and used her influence with her brother, a Conventual Franciscan, to have him accepted by the friars of his order at Grottella as a servant. He was given a tertiary habit and put to work in the stables. Now a change seems to have come over Joseph; at any rate he was more successful in his duties, and his humility, his sweetness, his love of mortification and penance gained him so much regard that in 1625 it was resolved he should be admitted amongst the religious of the choir, that he might qualify himself for holy orders.

Joseph therefore began his novitiate, and his virtues rendered him an object of admiration; but his lack of progress in studies was also remarked. Try as he would, the extent of his human accomplishments was to read badly and to write worse. He had no gift of eloquence or for exposition, the one text on which he had something to say being, "Blessed is the womb that bore thee." When he came up for examination for the diaconate the bishop opened the gospels at random and his eye fell on that text: he asked Brother Joseph to expound it, which he did well. When it was a question of the priesthood, the first candidates were so satisfactory that the remainder, Joseph among them, were passed without examination.

From the time of his ordination St Joseph's life was one long succession of ecstasies, miracles of healing and supernatural happenings on a scale not paralleled in the reasonably authenticated life of any other saint. Anything that in any way could be particularly referred to God or the mysteries of religion was liable to ravish him from his senses and make him oblivious to what was going on around him; the absent-mindedness and abstraction of his childhood now had an end and a purpose clearly seen. Especially during Mass or the Divine Office he would be lifted off his feet in rapture. During the seventeen years he remained at Grottella over seventy occasions are recorded of his levitation, the most marvellous being when the friars were building a calvary. The middle cross of the group was thirty-six feet high and correspondingly heavy, defying the efforts of ten men to lift it. St Joseph is said to have "flown" seventy yards from the door of the house to the cross, picked it up in his arms as if it were a straw, and deposited it in its place. This staggering feat is not attested by an eye-witness, and, in common with most of his earlier marvels, was recorded only after his death, when plenty of time had elapsed in which events could be exaggerated and legends arise. But, whatever their exact nature and extent, the daily life of Saint Joseph was surrounded by such disturbing phenomena that for thirty-five years he was not allowed to celebrate Mass in public, to keep choir, to take his meals with his brethren, or to attend processions and other public functions.

In 1653, for reasons which are not known, the Inquisition of Perugia was instructed to remove Saint Joseph from the care of his own order and put him in charge of Capuchins at a lonely friary among the hills of Pietrarossa, where he was to live in the strictest seclusion. "Have I got to go to prison then?" he asked, and departed at once - leaving his hat, his cloak, his breviary and his spectacles hehind him. To prison, in effect, he had gone. He was not allowed to leave the convent enclosure, to speak to anyone but the friars, to write or to receive letters; he was completely cut off from the world. Apart from wondering why he should be sundered from his fellow Conventuals and treated like a criminal, this life must have been particularly satisfactory to Saint Joseph. But soon his whereabouts was discovered and pilgrims flocked to the place; whereupon he was spirited away to lead the same sort of life with the Capuchins of Fossombrone. The rest of his life was spent like this. When in 1655 the chapter general of the Conventual Franciscans asked for the return of their saint to Assisi, Pope Alexander VI I replied that one Saint Francis at Assisi was enough, but in 1657 he was allowed to go to the Conventual house at Osimo. Here the seclusion was, however, even more strict, and only selected religious were allowed to visit him in his cell. But all this time, and till the end, supernatural manifestations were his daily portion: he was in effect deserted by man but God was ever more clearly with him. He fell sick on August 10, 1663, and knew that his end was at hand; five weeks later he died, at the age of sixty. He was canonized in 1767.

Advice You Can Bank On

A Catholic Perspective On Finances 

Be Fruitful and Multiply

Genesis 1:29 says, “And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind…”

In this age of rampant inflation, gas prices at an all-time high and general unease about our economy and where it might be going, we should be taking this passage quite seriously.

God has given us every seed; we just need to plant them.

Perhaps you garden a bit already, or perhaps you have never tried it or think you have a black thumb. Our Lord instructs us again in Luke 17:6, “And the Lord said: If you had faith like to a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this mulberry tree, Be thou rooted up, and be thou transplanted into the sea: and it would obey you.”

In this instruction, our faith (or lack thereof) is compared to that of a mustard seed. As we all know, mustard seeds are very small but grow into very large trees. We can accomplish much by starting small. Even if the space we have is small, we can put it to good use. And even if we have never gardened before, we can surely give it a try.

Gardening is an excellent way to curb the bottom line at the grocery store, and itself is a calling of mankind since our creation. God placed Adam in the garden to work it and take care of it. He then created Eve to help Adam. It seems only natural that we do the same.

Seeds are relatively inexpensive, and soil is a natural part (of most of our) habitats. Even in extreme urban living conditions there are solutions to creating a garden on a balcony, patio, or a kitchen counter. For the price of a little more than one head of lettuce, you could have many heads of lettuce. A recent price check for a pack of lettuce seeds at The Home Depot, for example, is $2.49. Iceberg lettuce at the grocery store is $1.99.

Perhaps our excuse is lack of time, or that we don’t know much about gardening. We are not called to make excuses, but to work. It is a gift from God that we see the good in our labor: And I have known that there was no better thing than to rejoice, and to do well in this life. For every man that eateth and drinketh, and seeth good of his labour, this is the gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13)

We, ourselves, have been off again and on again about gardening, but we’ve always enjoyed it. My husband recently made a space in the yard to plant seeds, and I took immediately to doing so. I go out in the morning and water and some have already sprouted. It’s exciting to watch.

The seed planting didn’t take much time itself, and watering is a good time to reflect on the day to come and to have a few minutes of peace before the day gets going. It’s a rare occurrence to be able to meditate on anything that may be on my mind, and truthfully, it’s welcome. For those of us that work from home or in an office setting without much time outside, or exercise in general, it’s perfect. It’s not so daunting that you’re exhausted afterwards, and in the end, your hard work will pay off. There is nothing to lose!

We haven’t set a goal for any type of offset amount between the garden and the grocery store, but as Genesis 1:28 says, “And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.”

Start small, and abundance will follow, even if it’s one mustard seed.

From the history of the papal elections, heresies and schism