Canadians: Pro-life Petition

If you are Canadian, please sign this petition. I also ask for everyone to please spread the news of this petition. Here's the email that I received.

I have created a petition to ask the Catholic Bishops of Ontario to remind politicians and voters of their duties toward unborn children, and to ask that Catholic public officials who speak against the faith be sanctioned.

http://www.gopetition.com/signatures.php?petid=12292

Please email this to any Canadian who might be susceptible of signing it. I am trying to get the first few signatories to be Catholics from Ontario, but I am taking signatures from all Canadians. I strongly prefer that the signatories be Canadians only, but I won't delete non-Canadians if they happen to show up.

There's also a French version.

Please spread the word!

I think we need 10 000 signatures to be credible. I want to get some signatures first before publicizing it on my blog and other places. I've had a situation where the petition had just started and my opponents laughed at the small number of signatures, so it's better to wait until there are a good number of signatures before publicizing it on the net.

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The Solenmity of the Ascension of the Lord

Today is Ascension Thursday, forty days after Easter when we celebrate Our Lord's Ascension. Today is a Solemnity and a Holy Day of Obligation in some parts of the world. See my post from last year for more information on the Ascension.

Image Source: Ascension by Garofalo

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Rogation Day Procession

Antiphon Ps. 43,26.- Arise, Lord, help us and redeem us for Thy honour's sake. Ps. O God, the tale has come to our ears: have not our fathers told it? V. Glory.

Today is the 3rd and final day of the Minor Rogation. These are days of prayer and fasting for repentance as well as for a good harvest. Today is also the Vigil of the Ascension since it is the final of the three Minor Rogation days.

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Canadian Physicians for Life Call for CMA Lobbying to Ensure Conscience Protection for Doctors

From LifeSiteNews:

Canadian pro-life doctors are asking for support in defending their right to refuse to perform or refer for abortions, after an action last week by US-based abortion activists seeking to force all Canadian doctors to participate in abortion.

The National Abortion Federation, which represents US abortionists as well as Canadian physicians, sent a letter to the Canadian Medical Association last week demanding that the CMA’s conscientious objector policy be altered to prevent physicians from refusing to carry out abortions or refer patients to abortion providers. The CMA’s current policy protects the religious and moral convictions of doctors by allowing them to opt out of providing any abortion-related service.

...

“If you, as a member of the Canadian pro-life public, are concerned about the pressure that is currently being put on pro-life doctors to participate directly or indirectly in an abortion, please consider writing to Dr. Blackmer and to the president of CMA, Dr. Colin McMillan, the president-elect, Dr. Brian Day, and the editor-in-chief of the CMAJ, Dr. Paul Hebert, THANKING them for upholding and clarifying the CMA's abortion policy, while politely asking that the protections for doctors with respect to freedom of conscience be strengthened.”

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Amantissimi Redemptoris

"Nothing is greater or holier than the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass, in which the body and blood of Christ are offered to God for the salvation of all. Holy Mother the Church has always been careful and diligent in order that the Mass be celebrated by priests with clean and pure hearts. It should be celebrated with the proper splendor of sacred ceremonies and rites so that the greatness of this mystery will shine forth all the more even from external appearances. This will also arouse the faithful to the contemplation of divine things hidden in such an admirable and venerable sacrifice. And with like solicitude and devotion, the same most holy Mother has never ceased to urge, exhort, and influence her faithful sons to frequently attend this divine sacrifice with due piety, veneration and devotion. She teaches that they must at all cost be present at it on all holy days of obligation, with their minds and eyes religiously intent on that from which the divine mercy and an abundance of all good things might be acquired." (Bl. Pius IX AMANTISSIMI REDEMPTORIS).

Image Source: FSSP

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Pope Benedict XVI's words on Native Americans to CELAM

In recent days following Pope Benedict XVI's appearance in Aparecida, Brazil the Fifth General Conference of Latin-American Bishops, there has been criticism for the Holy Father's statements. Particularly, the Holy Father has been criticised for his words on the evangelization of Native Peoples:

...what did the acceptance of the Christian faith mean for the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean? For them, it meant knowing and welcoming Christ, the unknown God whom their ancestors were seeking, without realizing it, in their rich religious traditions. Christ is the Saviour for whom they were silently longing. It also meant that they received, in the waters of Baptism, the divine life that made them children of God by adoption; moreover, they received the Holy Spirit who came to make their cultures fruitful, purifying them and developing the numerous seeds that the incarnate Word had planted in them, thereby guiding them along the paths of the Gospel. In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbian cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture. Authentic cultures are not closed in upon themselves, nor are they set in stone at a particular point in history, but they are open, or better still, they are seeking an encounter with other cultures, hoping to reach universality through encounter and dialogue with other ways of life and with elements that can lead to a new synthesis, in which the diversity of expressions is always respected as well as the diversity of their particular cultural embodiment.

He has been sharply criticized for his statements from the heresy-plagued Indigenous Missionary Council. Father Paulo Suess told the Reuters news service that the Pope’s statement “was wrong and indefensible.” See Rorate Caeli for additional details.

As the blogger at Hallowedground stated with the above image, "Somebody should have told this Priest."

Photo Source: Father John J. Brown, first full-blooded Blackfoot Indian to become a priest of the Roman Catholic church, 1948

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Cause for Beatification of Pius XII Advances

The Cause of the Beatification of Pope Pius XII has advanced. Pius XII led the Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958 and immediately beforehand he was the Secretary of State for the Vatican. Pius XII saved thousands of lives during the Holocaust and was a leader for the Catholic Church. I am extremely glad to see his Cause for Beatification advancing.

Members of the Congregation for Saints' Causes met May 8 to consider the cause of Pope Pius XII and apparently voted to recommend that Pope Benedict XVI formally declare him venerable. Passionist Father Ciro Benedettini, vice director of the Vatican press office, confirmed the congregation had met, but since the result of the vote still had to be presented to the pope he would not say May 9 what the result was. However, Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel, who has spent years officially shepherding the cause through its various stages, told Catholic News Service May 11 that the vote was "unanimous and totally positive." 

Source: Catholic News Service

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Audio Chant: Regina Coeli

Remember to pray the Regina Caeli instead of the Angelus during Easter Season (i.e. Pascaltide). The Easter Season begins on Easter Sunday and lasts until the end of the Octave of Pentecost; as a result, it is 56 total days in length.

By listening to this video and following along, it is easy to memorize the Regina Caeli in Latin.

REGINA, caeli, lætare, alleluia:

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia,

Resurrexit sicut dixit, alleluia.

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

V. Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, alleluia,

R. Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia.

Oremus

Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi, mundum laetificare dignatus es: praesta, quaesumus; ut, per eius Genetricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

English Translation:

O Queen of heaven rejoice! alleluia:
For He whom thou didst merit to bear, alleluia,
Hath arisen as he said, alleluia.
Pray for us to God, alleluia.

V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. Because the Lord is truly risen, alleluia.

Let us pray

O God, who gave joy to the world through the resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; grant, we beseech Thee, that through His Mother, the Virgin Mary we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

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ABC: Video on Tridentine Mass

ABC Boston has a great 6.5 minute video on the Tridentine Latin Mass. I highly recommend it for viewing. There are some great scenes of the TLM from Kansas City and Holy Trinity German Church in Boston.

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Special Intention

If you could, I would like to ask my readers to please say a prayer for a special intention of mine.

Thank you.

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