Thanks to O'Reilly for a fair interview with Bishop Tobin.

O'Reilly interviewed Bishop Tobin this evening on Fox concerning the Kennedy issue. It was a huge improvement over Chris "The Screwball" Matthews last evening. Aside from O'Reilly not getting the difference between abortion and the death penalty, he conducted a decent interview. He also allowed the bishop to clarify his position with the Kennedy situation. I feel a little better about this now.

Watch the interview below.



I will be away over the next few days for the Thanksgiving holiday. I wish everyone a blessed Thanksgiving!

Chris Matthews is an Idiot. The Bishop Needs to Play Hardball!

Chris Matthews is a real loser folks. How Bishop Tobin put up with his crap on TV is beyond me. Watch the videos below. It is the interview that was done on Chris Matthew's Hardball show today. It should be called Chris Matthews Screwball show. It is utterly clear that Matthews had no intention of giving the bishop an honest interview. Like usual, the liberal media played the emotional card on the abortion issue. Matthews asked the bishop three times if the bishop would pass a law to stop abortion. Matthews could not stomach the bishop's answer. The bishop spoke twice claiming that he would outlaw abortion because it is in fact murder. Then Matthews went crazy trying to pin the bishop as to what punishment the bishop would uphold for those who break the law.

Unfortunately the bishop kind of danced around the penalty issue. Obviously the punishment would be different depending on who the person is. For example, how about we put the doctors in jail who perform the abortions? Matthews kept trying to defend Kennedy by trying to force the bishop into a corner regarding criminal laws and the penalties for breaking the criminal laws, rather than bringing up Kennedy's profession of the Catholic faith. For starters, Kennedy is a professing Catholic who is clearly going against Catholic morality. No one is forcing Kennedy into being a Catholic. If Kennedy isn't going to follow the religion he professes then in my opinion, he can leave. Nothing would make me happier than to see Kennedy officially leave the Church if he is not going to uphold her teaching and her faith. After all, Kennedy is a public heretic who has separated himself from the Church, and he is only hurting himself by receiving Holy Communion in a state of mortal sin. The bishop is only trying to help him repent and return to the Church. We know that in this case a bishop doesn't even have to officially excommunicate Kennedy, because an obstinate post-baptismal denial of some element of the faith such as the support of abortion, brings upon the dissenter an automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication. Of course the bishop can bring a formal excommunication if he so chooses. None of that was discussed in the interview.

Chris Matthews is also a confused, twisted idiot. What really made my blood boil is when Matthews quoted Jesus in defense of legalized abortion, when he brought up the Scripture passage about rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's! (Matthew 22:21) Matthews will have to answer for going on national TV and claiming that Jesus would support legalized abortion. What a wretched tool of hell this man is in twisting Scripture to turn Jesus into an advocate for legal abortion. You can almost see the sulfur coming out of Matthews' nostrils as he attacked the bishop. The arrogance of Matthews stinks to high heaven and it frankly makes me sick. I never could have stomached that on national TV.

I applaud the bishop for remaining calm, yet it seems to me that the bishop was kind of blindsided by this screwball. I also applaud Bishop Tobin in his efforts to uphold Catholic morality. Since Kennedy has made this whole issue public, I would love nothing more than to see an official excommunication of him from the bishop. These Kennedy's have used the Church for the last 50 or so years, yet they refuse to live the Catholic faith and they all constantly go against her moral teachings. During Ted's funeral they arrogantly commandeered the pulpit of the church for his funeral. Now in their gratitude they are publicly spitting on the face of the Christ. The Devil dances for joy when he sees such arrogance and pride. I hope the bishop will be able to go on another program better prepared next time. Forgive me for my long rant here, but this just makes me sick to my stomach.

Update: It looks like Bishop Tobin will be on the O'Reilly factor tonight. (11/24/09) Hopefully the Bishop will be prepared to answer the tough questions. If you are interested here is a good article about the interview from Catholic Online.

New Podcast Sermon: Fr. James Fryar FSSP- Feast of Christ the King 2009

I have another Podcast installment. This sermon is from Father James Fryar FSSP, while he was on his mission this year in California. He delivers a sermon on a historic occasion for the Latin Mass on the Feast of Christ the King. If you want to subscribe to the Catholic Champion Podcast, go to the ITunes store and search for Catholic Champion in the top right search box. We now have improved sound quality! Enjoy!

St. John Damascene and the Eucharist

We have all heard the bad arguments presented by Protestant apologist before. They come with every absurd argument they can to dismiss the Catholic teaching on the Eucharist as being the real Body and Blood of Our Lord. In fact there are some Protesters who claim that this teaching was invented in the high middle ages after the turn of the millennium. Here is yet another Church Father who lived in the 700s who clearly believed the teaching of the Catholic Church. His name was St. John Damascene, or better know as St. John of Damascus.He wrote an apologetic work called an Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. In it he describes the Eucharistic teaching very explicitly. I want to post the entire 13th chapter of Book four. The bold type is my emphasis on certain doctrines the Saint taught in the text. What is interesting is the way he sets up his argument. He really understands the two natures of Christ and how Christ makes Himself present in those two natures in the sacred mystery. This is one of many areas of theology that the Protesters have maliciously destroyed. The great Saint also understands the priesthood in the same way as Catholics and Orthodox do today. As we know, St. John was instrumental in fighting the iconoclastic heretics and was well known in the Church of his day.

Chapter 13. Concerning the holy and immaculate Mysteries of the Lord.

God Who is good and altogether good and more than good, Who is goodness throughout, by reason of the exceeding riches of His goodness did not suffer Himself, that is His nature, only to be good, with no other to participate therein, but because of this He made first the spiritual and heavenly powers: next the visible and sensible universe: next man with his spiritual and sentient nature. All things, therefore, which he made, share in His goodness in respect of their existence. For He Himself is existence to all, since all things that are, are in Him Romans 11:36, not only because it was He that brought them out of nothing into being, but because His energy preserves and maintains all that He made: and in special the living creatures. For both in that they exist and in that they enjoy life they share in His goodness. But in truth those of them that have reason have a still greater share in that, both because of what has been already said and also because of the very reason which they possess. For they are somehow more dearly akin to Him, even though He is incomparably higher than they.

Man, however, being endowed with reason and free will, received the power of continuous union with God through his own choice, if indeed he should abide in goodness, that is in obedience to his Maker. Since, however, he transgressed the command of his Creator and became liable to death and corruption, the Creator and Maker of our race, because of His bowels of compassion, took on our likeness, becoming man in all things but without sin, and was united to our nature. Hebrews 2:17 For since He bestowed on us His own image and His own spirit and we did not keep them safe, He took Himself a share in our poor and weak nature, in order that He might cleanse us and make us incorruptible, and establish us once more as partakers of His divinity.

For it was fitting that not only the first-fruits of our nature should partake in the higher good but every man who wished it, and that a second birth should take place and that the nourishment should be new and suitable to the birth and thus the measure of perfection be attained. Through His birth, that is, His incarnation, and baptism and passion and resurrection, He delivered our nature from the sin of our first parent and death and corruption, and became the first-fruits of the resurrection, and made Himself the way and image and pattern, in order that we, too, following in His footsteps, may become by adoption what He is Himself by nature Romans 7:17, sons and heirs of God and joint heirs with Him. He gave us therefore, as I said, a second birth in order that, just as we who are born of Adam are in his image and are the heirs of the curse and corruption, so also being born of Him we may be in His likeness and heirs of His incorruption and blessing and glory.

Now seeing that this Adam is spiritual, it was meet that both the birth and likewise the food should be spiritual too, but since we are of a double and compound nature, it is meet that both the birth should be double and likewise the food compound. We were therefore given a birth by water and Spirit: I mean, by the holy baptism : and the food is the very bread of life, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who came down from heaven. John 6:48 For when He was about to take on Himself a voluntary death for our sakes, on the night on which He gave Himself up, He laid a new covenant on His holy disciples and apostles, and through them on all who believe in Him. In the upper chamber, then, of holy and illustrious Sion, after He had eaten the ancient Passover with His disciples and had fulfilled the ancient covenant, He washed His disciples' feet in token of the holy baptism. Then having broken bread He gave it to them saying, Take, eat, this is My body broken for you for the remission of sins. Likewise also He took the cup of wine and water and gave it to them saying, Drink ye all of it: for this is My blood, the blood of the New Testament which is shed for you for the remission of sins. This do ye in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the death of the Son of man and confess His resurrection until He come.

If then the Word of God is quick and energising Hebrews 4:12, and the Lord did all that He willed ; if He said, Let there be light and there was light, let there be a firmament and there was a firmament ; if the heavens were established by the Word of the Lord and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth ; if the heaven and the earth, water and fire and air and the whole glory of these, and, in truth, this most noble creature, man, were perfected by the Word of the Lord; if God the Word of His own will became man and the pure and undefiled blood of the holy and ever-virginal One made His flesh without the aid of seed , can He not then make the bread His body and the wine and water His blood? He said in the beginning, Let the earth bring forth grass Genesis 1:11, and even until this present day, when the rain comes it brings forth its proper fruits, urged on and strengthened by the divine command. God said, This is My body, and This is My blood, and this do ye in remembrance of Me. And so it is at His omnipotent command until He come: for it was in this sense that He said until He come: and the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit becomes through the invocation the rain to this new tillage. For just as God made all that He made by the energy of the Holy Spirit, so also now the energy of the Spirit performs those things that are supernatural and which it is not possible to comprehend unless by faith alone. How shall this be, said the holy Virgin, seeing I know not a man? And the archangel Gabriel answered her: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you. Luke 1:34-35 And now you ask, how the bread became Christ's body and the wine and water Christ's blood. And I say unto you, "The Holy Spirit is present and does those things which surpass reason and thought."

Further, bread and wine are employed: for God knows man's infirmity: for in general man turns away discontentedly from what is not well-worn by custom: and so with His usual indulgence He performs His supernatural works through familiar objects: and just as, in the case of baptism, since it is man's custom to wash himself with water and anoint himself with oil, He connected the grace of the Spirit with the oil and the water and made it the water of regeneration, in like manner since it is man's custom to eat and to drink water and wine , He connected His divinity with these and made them His body and blood in order that we may rise to what is supernatural through what is familiar and natural.

The body which is born of the holy Virgin is in truth body united with divinity, not that the body which was received up into the heavens descends, but that the bread itself and the wine are changed into God's body and blood. But if you enquire how this happens, it is enough for you to learn that it was through the Holy Spirit, just as the Lord took on Himself flesh that subsisted in Him and was born of the holy Mother of God through the Spirit. And we know nothing further save that the Word of God is true and energises and is omnipotent, but the manner of this cannot be searched out. But one can put it well thus, that just as in nature the bread by the eating and the wine and the water by the drinking are changed into the body and blood of the eater and drinker, and do not become a different body from the former one, so the bread of the table and the wine and water are supernaturally changed by the invocation and presence of the Holy Spirit into the body and blood of Christ, and are not two but one and the same.



Wherefore to those who partake worthily with faith, it is for the remission of sins and for life everlasting and for the safeguarding of soul and body; but to those who partake unworthily without faith, it is for chastisement and punishment, just as also the death of the Lord became to those who believe life and incorruption for the enjoyment of eternal blessedness, while to those who do not believe and to the murderers of the Lord it is for everlasting chastisement and punishment.

The bread and the wine are not merely figures of the body and blood of Christ (God forbid!) but the deified body of the Lord itself: for the Lord has said, "This is My body," not, this is a figure of My body: and "My blood," not, a figure of My blood. And on a previous occasion He had said to the Jews, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. For My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed. And again, He that eats Me, shall live John 6:51-55.

Wherefore with all fear and a pure conscience and certain faith let us draw near and it will assuredly be to us as we believe, doubting nothing. Let us pay homage to it in all purity both of soul and body: for it is twofold. Let us draw near to it with an ardent desire, and with our hands held in the form of the cross let us receive the body of the Crucified One: and let us apply our eyes and lips and brows and partake of the divine coal, in order that the fire of the longing, that is in us, with the additional heat derived from the coal may utterly consume our sins and illumine our hearts, and that we may be inflamed and deified by the participation in the divine fire. Isaiah saw the coal. Isaiah 6:6 But coal is not plain wood but wood united with fire: in like manner also the bread of the communion is not plain bread but bread united with divinity. But a body which is united with divinity is not one nature, but has one nature belonging to the body and another belonging to the divinity that is united to it, so that the compound is not one nature but two.

With bread and wine Melchisedek, the priest of the most high God, received Abraham on his return from the slaughter of the Gentiles. Genesis 14:18 That table pre-imaged this mystical table, just as that priest was a type and image of Christ, the true high-priest. Leviticus xiv For you are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek. Of this bread the show-bread was an image. This surely is that pure and bloodless sacrifice which the Lord through the prophet said is offered to Him from the rising to the setting of the sun Malachi 1:11 .

The body and blood of Christ are making for the support of our soul and body, without being consumed or suffering corruption, not making for the draught (God forbid!) but for our being and preservation, a protection against all kinds of injury, a purging from all uncleanness: should one receive base gold, they purify it by the critical burning lest in the future we be condemned with this world. They purify from diseases and all kinds of calamities; according to the words of the divineApostle 1 Corinthians 11:31-32, For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. This too is what he says, So that he that partakes of the body and blood of Christ unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself. Being purified by this, we are united to the body of Christ and to His Spirit and become the body of Christ.

This bread is the first-fruits of the future bread which is ἐπιούσιος, i.e. necessary for existence. For the word ἐπιούσιον signifies either the future, that is Him Who is for a future age, or else Him of Whom we partake for the preservation of our essence. Whether then it is in this sense or that, it is fitting to speak so of the Lord's body. For the Lord's flesh is life-giving spirit because it was conceived of the life-giving Spirit. For what is born of the Spirit is spirit. But I do not say this to take away the nature of the body, but I wish to make clear its life-giving and divine power John 6:63 .

But if some persons called the bread and the wine antitypes of the body and blood of the Lord, as did the divinely inspired Basil, they said so not after the consecration but before the consecration, so calling the offering itself.

Participation is spoken of; for through it we partake of the divinity of Jesus. Communion, too, is spoken of, and it is an actual communion, because through it we have communion with Christ and share in His flesh and His divinity: yea, we have communion and are united with one another through it. For since we partake of one bread, we all become one body of Christ and one blood, and members one of another, being of one body with Christ.

With all our strength, therefore, let us beware lest we receive communion from or grant it to heretics; Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, says the Lord, neither cast ye your pearls before swine Matthew 7:6, lest we become partakers in their dishonour and condemnation. For if union is in truth with Christ and with one another, we are assuredly voluntarily united also with all those who partake with us. For this union is effected voluntarily and not against our inclination. For we are all one body because we partake of the one bread, as the divine Apostle says 1 Corinthians 10:17 .

Further, antitypes of future things are spoken of, not as though they were not in reality Christ's body and blood, but that now through them we partake of Christ's divinity, while then we shall partake mentally through the vision alone.

Don't Let the World Get You Down.

Fr. William Casey of the Fathers of Mercy is one of my favorite preachers. In this 5 min portion of this sermon, he calls Catholics to hold firm to their faith in the midst of the moral corruption in the world.

Catholicism-A Force for Good in the World: (Part 2:Charity)

Catholic organizations help millions of people in many different areas of service all over the world. Below are statistics from just the U.S. in 2004. I wonder how many Christian organizations come close to these numbers?

More than 1,688 local Catholic Charities agencies and institutions provided services to 8,522,997 unduplicated individuals in need of help in 2004.

* Provided Services that Build Strong Communities to 3,646,222 people
Social support services 1,837,964
Education and enrichment 775,968
Socialization and neighborhood services 359,574
Health-related services 276,400
Services to at-risk populations 396,316

* Provided Food Services to 6,287,891 people
Food banks and food pantries 2,984,089
Soup kitchens 1,247,290
Congregate dining 1,291,982
Home delivered meals 274,253
Other food services 490,277

* Provided Services that Strengthen Families to 1,071,463 people
Counseling and mental health services 387,856
Immigration services 350,164
Addiction services 94,027
Refugee services 92,034
Pregnancy services 98,064
Adoption services 49,318

* Provided Housing Related Services to 598,953 people
Counseling and Assistance 203,063
Temporary shelter 251,671
Supervised living 70,121
Permanent housing 52,384
Transitional housing 21,715

* Provided Other Basic Needs Services to 1,741844 people
Financial Assistance (not rent, mortgage, etc.) 176,304
Clothing Assistance 592,899
Utilities Assistance 330,721
Assistance with Purchase of Prescriptions 47,484
Additional Other Basic Needs Assistance 594,436

* Provided Disaster Services to 331,727 people
Source:USCCB

Catholicism- A Force For Good in the World (Part I: Cluny)

In this new ongoing series I will post examples of how the Catholic Church has been a force for good in societies over the past 2000 years. It seems that some people have been hoodwinked by atheist chiselers like Christipher Hitchens, into believing that the Catholic Church has not been a force for good in the world. Aside from the fact that the Church is more concerned for the salvation of souls rather than building a utopia here on earth, we can see very clearly that there has never been a greater force for good on the earth than the Catholic Church. Today's example, Pope Benedict XVI's audience on the monastery of Cluny. For the sake of brevity I quoted only parts of the audience address. The entire text can be found here.

In our catechesis on the Christian culture of the Middle Ages, we now turn to the monastic reform linked to the great monastery of Cluny. Founded eleven hundred years ago, Cluny restored the strict observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict and made the Church’s liturgy the centre of its life. It stressed the solemn celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours and Holy Mass, and enriched the worship of God with splendid art, architecture and music. The monastic liturgy, seen as a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy, was accompanied by a daily regime marked by silence and intercessory prayer. Cluny’s reputation for sanctity and learning caused its influence to spread to monasteries throughout Europe. Exempt from interference by feudal authorities, the monastery freely elected its abbots and flourished under a series of outstanding spiritual leaders like Saints Odo and Hugh. Cluny also contributed to the reform of the universal Church by its concern for holiness, the restoration of clerical celibacy and the elimination of simony. At a formative time of Europe’s history, Cluny helped to forge the Continent’s Christian identity by its emphasis on the primacy of the spirit, respect for human dignity, commitment to peace and an authentic and integral humanism.

Significant also were the benefits contributed to society by monasteries inspired by the Cluniac reform. At a time in which only ecclesiastical institutions provided for the indigent, charity was practiced with determination. In all houses, the almoner had to receive passers-by and needy pilgrims, traveling priests and religious, and above all the poor who came to ask for food and roof for a day. Not less important were two other institutions, typical of Medieval civilization, which were promoted by Cluny: the so-called truce of God and the peace of God. At a time strongly marked by violence and the spirit of revenge, assured with the "truce of God" were long periods of non-belligerence, on the occasion of important religious feasts and of some days of the week. Requested with "the peace of God," under the pain of a canonical censure, was respect for defenseless people and sacred places.

Thus enhanced in the conscience of the people of Europe was that process of long gestation, which led to the recognition, in an ever clearer way, of two essential elements for the construction of society, that is, the value of the human person and the primary good of peace. Moreover, as happened with other monastic foundations, the Cluniac monasteries had ample properties that, put diligently to good use, contributed to the development of the economy. Next to manual labor, there was no lack of some typical cultural activities of Medieval monasticism, such as schools for children, the setting up of libraries and the scriptoria for the transcription of books.

In this way, a thousand years ago, when the process of the formation of European identity was at its height, the Cluniac experience spread over vast regions of the European Continent, and made its important and precious contribution. It recalled the primacy of the goods of the spirit; from this it drew the tension toward the things of God; it inspired and favored initiatives and institutions for the promotion of human values; it educated in a spirit of peace.

Christ the King Latin Mass, Now Streaming Live!

Father James Fryar FSSP, the Chaplain of Christ The King Chapel in Sarasota, Florida has begun broadcasting the Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form) live online! For now, the schedule for live streaming Masses is as posted below. Hopefully at some time in the future there will be added content. You can find more information about it on the Christ the King website. Go to the webpage and click on "Video Stream" to watch. If you are so inclined, you can donate to help keep the stream going and possibly help with getting more broadcast time so more content can be added in the future. Any amount would be appreciated. Enjoy, and pass it along.


Mass Times:

Based on current local time (EST)

Sunday: 8:30 am 10:30 am

Mon-Sat: 9:00 am

Tues & Fri: 6:30 pm

Evening Recollection of the Confraternity of St. Peter:

Second Friday of the Month
at 6:30 pm