How gay activists seek to intimidate opponents - by Austin Ruse

In The Catholic Thing

I do not believe that sexual orientation and gender identity should become new categories of non-discrimination in international law. For this, I have been “outed” on a number of homosexual websites and blogs as supporting the murder of homosexuals.

Not long ago, I spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the preeminent gathering of conservatives in the nation. Our panel discussed the confluence of abortion supporters and homosexual activists in public policy. I gave an account of the international legal strategies for making abortion and sexual orientation legally binding human rights.

It’s little known how human rights are ginned up these days. Certain terms and ideas, seemingly innocent, are floated into the U. N. conversation and into U. N. documents. Then, in short order, new human rights are claimed under what is called “customary international law.”

On abortion, this is done through the repetitious use of the phrase “reproductive health.” It has been repeated hundreds of times in dozens of U. N. documents, most of them non-binding on states. Proponents say this repetition has created an international right to abortion. Of course, this is false.

In the same way, the homosexual movement hopes to make sexual orientation and gender identity protected classes in human rights law. It has been heavier sledding for them than for abortion proponents because opposition to their cause includes a majority of Member States of the United Nations.

But homosexual activists have tried for years simply to get the phrase “sexual orientation and gender identity” into U. N. documents. They have largely failed. The best they have been able to do is to have this phrase promoted in a “statement,” no more than a press release really, issued by the French government and signed by sixty-five countries back in 2008.

Not long after, there was a debate in the U. N. General Assembly about extra judicial killing and summary execution. This is one of dozens of annual resolutions the General Assembly produces each fall. Proponents tried and failed and then succeeded in getting “sexual orientation and gender identity” into the document as a protected class.

Opposition to the measure centered not on support for killing homosexuals, though this is what proponents said to the global media. Opposition centered on resistance to including this new and undefined term (does anyone know what “gender identity” really means?) into a U. N. document.

Everyone knows the strategy has little do with protecting homosexuals from execution but rather with introducing a new term that can then be turned into an elaborate justification for a new international legal norm. Member States know this and how the game is played. So they have resisted from square one.

Last summer the activists were at it again at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. A seemingly non-controversial vote was taken on the preparation of a report on violence against homosexuals. It barely passed. All it would be is a report, nothing more. But the U. S. government and others trumpeted it as an historical breakthrough for human rights. See how this is played?

I explained all this at CPAC. A young swain filmed my talk. I figured opponents would be there. I even suggested that those who support homosexual rights, but who were also American patriots, may even stand with me and others who believe these issues should not be decided in the ugly sausage factory at the United Nations but on our own shores.

Within a day, a video of a small portion of my talk was up on Right Wing Watch with the rather remarkable headline “Austin Ruse Condemns Efforts to Stop Violence Against LGBT Community.” Of course, this was scattered all over the homo-sphere. Right Wing Watch put it up on YouTube. It was called the ugliest talk at CPAC.

And the comments? They really had me pegged. I am really a self-hating homosexual. One of them knew this by the way I moved my eyes. It is amazing how the homosexuals like to use the word homosexual as an epithet. Self-hating indeed.

The video even found its way onto a “Catholic” blog called Catholics for Equality, a group of dissenters from Church teaching. They accused me of speaking out against efforts to stop homosexual executions.

None of these shameful charges is true; in fact, all are false and slanderous. It would have been easy to get the entire video and see that my arguments were about the proper and improper development of international law.

But this was small beer compared to what happens to Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, Peter Wolfgang, or others who are on the front lines defending traditional marriage every day. They get actual death threats. What happened to me is nothing compared to hate-filled rage directed at supporters of things like Proposition-8, or to a little girl who posted a YouTube video objecting to a troubled little boy being accepted into a Girl Scout Troop in Colorado.

The girl’s mother is an activist trying to stop the headlong leftward drift of the Girl Scouts. The girl put the video up on YouTube and it immediately went viral in the homo-fascist community. Her family came under immediate, brutal attack that lasted for weeks. The little girl’s life was threatened. The family was badgered at home. The father was badgered at work. They basically had to go into hiding and had to hire a lawyer to get the video taken down from dozens of websites.

In the end, the homosexuals got what they wanted. They shut that little girl up! Let’s hope that mainstreet America will come to know these tactics, which are more suitable for Kristallnacht than twenty-first century America.

I am tempted to predict that there is a dark night coming, except I fear we may already be there.

La historia de la más famosa sobreviviente de un aborto llega a la gran pantalla en EEUU

In Religión en Libertad

Este viernes se estrena en Estados Unidos la película "October Baby", una producción basada en la historia real de Gianna Jessen, una activista pro-vida que hizo suya la causa de los no nacidos tras descubrir que ella misma sobrevivió a un aborto.

"October Baby" narra el drama de una joven que a los 19 años de edad se entera que fue adoptada tras sobrevivir a un aborto fallido y emprende un duro camino para perdonar a su madre biológica.

En el filme, la protagonista Hanna, interpretada por la actriz Racher Hendrix, es una joven universitaria que sufre de epilepsia, asma y depresión. Tras realizarse análisis médicos para descubrir el origen de sus males, descubre que fue adoptada tras el fracasado intento de abortarla.

Tras el desconcierto y la confusión, con la ayuda de un sacerdote católico, Hanna logra encontrar el camino para perdonar a su madre biológica.

En la vida real, la madre de Gianna Jessen tenía siete meses y medio de embarazo cuando decidió someterse a un aborto por inyección salina, un agresivo procedimiento que causa la muerte del bebé por envenenamiento y quemaduras. Gianna sobrevivió al procedimiento y fue auxiliada por una enfermera. Su madre la entregó en adopción.

"Yo soy la persona que ella abortó. Viví en vez de morir. Mi madre estaba en la clínica y programaron el aborto a las 9 de la mañana. Afortunadamente para mí, el abortista no estaba en la clínica al yo nacer a las 6 de la mañana del 6 de abril de 1977. Me apresuré. Estoy segura que si él hubiera estado allí, yo no estaría aquí hoy, ya que su trabajo es terminar la vida, no sostenerla. Hay quien dice que soy un ‘aborto fracasado’, el resultado de un trabajo mal hecho", afirmó Gianna ante el Congreso de Estados Unidos cuando tenía 19 años de edad.

La hoy activista pro-vida ha dicho que "somos más de los que la gente se podría imaginar. Regularmente me contactan por sobrevivientes que me escucharon o me vieron en un programa o cuando hablo, y ellos descubren que no están solos".

"Sólo en las dos últimas semanas he sido contactada por dos sobrevivientes más. Sospecho que ‘October Baby’ podría tener un efecto para que otros sobrevivientes aparezcan, lo cual es emocionante".

Los productores de "October Baby" decidieron destinar el 10% de las ganancias de la película para la fundación Cada Vida es Bella (Every Life is Beautiful), que distribuirá a su vez el dinero entre organizaciones que ayudan a mujeres que enfrentan crisis de embarazo, agencias de adopción que apoyan la vida y orfanatos.

El apoyo a la causa a favor de la vida en Estados Unidos ha aumentado considerablemente. En 1996, sólo el 33% de la población se identificaba como pro-vida, cifra que creció hasta el 47% en el año 2011.

A stinging rebuke from a Vatican official to Tony Blair

by Hilary White, Rome Correspondent

ROME, March 22, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The boast of Tony Blair that he supports homosexual “marriage” in open defiance of Catholic teaching, has embarrassed the Vatican and garnered the globetrotting Blair even more criticism from pro-life leadership in Britain. John Smeaton, the head of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, told LifeSiteNews.com that the blame for the ongoing “scandal” of Blair’s open dissent from Catholic teaching on life and family issues, sits “squarely” with the Catholic hierarchy, who had decades to correct and denounce it.

Blair was reported as saying earlier this month that he “strongly supports” a proposal by the current coalition government of Britain to rewrite the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex partners. His defiance of Catholic teaching prompted a response from the Vatican that usually remains silent

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation, was roused to respond that if the press reports of Blair’s statement were true, the former British Prime Minister would need to “examine his conscience carefully and realise that there is no coherence between the content of faith and the concrete action that must be taken by a politician.”

This stinging rebuke from a Vatican official comes as Britain is plunged into a debate over the meaning and political significance of marriage. A public consultation launched by the coalition government this month made it clear that there would be no question of whether marriage would be redefined, but only how.

Fisichella’s comment was followed by comments from John Smeaton, a long-time critic of Blair’s reception into the Church. Smeaton wrote in an email to LifeSiteNews.com that responsibility for Blair’s open defiance and ignorance of what the Catholic Church teaches, can be placed in the lap of the English bishops.

“Tony Blair’s renewed dissent from Catholic teaching on sexual ethics is a growing scandal,” Smeaton said. “The blame for that scandal lies squarely with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, in particular the bishops of England and Wales.”

Throughout his tenure in office as head of the Labour Party and as Prime Minister, Blair “shamelessly advanced the culture of death and the war on the family”. Smeaton once identified Tony Blair as the primary “architect” of the Culture of Death in Britain, the country that was later called that culture’s “geopolitical epicentre”.

“The Catholic bishops’ conference of England and Wales offered little resistance to him,” Smeaton continued, “and was even complicit in those evils.”

Blair’s long history of political support for abortion and for the homosexualist cause was no secret in Britain when he was received unconditionally in 2007 into the Catholic Church by then-archbishop of Westminster Cormac Murphy O’Connor. After repeated attempts at communication with Blair, asking whether he now recanted his previous positions, Smeaton reported that Blair’s handlers replied that there would be no response.

Soon after this, Blair gave a series of media interviews in which he confirmed his dissent from Catholic teaching on abortion, contraception and the family.

“Despite this,” Smeaton said, “both he and his wife Cherie, who has publicly supported IPPF (International Planned Parenthood), gay rights and contraception, have been feted by some prominent Catholic bodies. Enough is enough!”

Smeaton said, however, that this history “and it truly is a great, historic, scandal,” must not be allowed to stand in the way of forming an effective coalition with Church leaders and the public to stopping the government’s push for same-sex marriage.

In recent meetings with North American bishops, Pope Benedict XVI urged all Catholics, including Catholic politicians and all national hierarchies, to resist the “powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage”. On the same weekend that Blair made his statement, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales instructed that all parish priests read a letter to congregations outlining some of the reasoning behind Catholic opposition, and urging the laity to help.

Lettre Mgr. Nicola Bux au Superior da la Fraternité S. Pie X

In Scuola Ecclesia Mater

À son excellence Mgr Bernard Fellay et aux prêtres de la Fraternité sacerdotale saint Pie X

Excellence Révérendissime,

Bien chers Frères,

la fraternité chrétienne est plus forte que la chair et que le sang parce qu'elle nous offre, grâce à la divine Eucharistie, un avant-goût du paradis.

Le Christ nous a invités à faire l'expérience de la communion, c'est en cela que consiste notre “je”. La communion, c'est estimer a priori son prochain, parce que nous avons en commun avec lui l'unique Sauveur. De ce fait, la communion est prête à tout sacrifice au nom de l'unité ; et cette unité doit être visible, comme nous l'enseigne l'ultime invocation de la prière adressée par Notre Seigneur à son Père – “ut unum sint, ut credat mundus” –, parce qu'elle est le témoignage décisif des amis du Christ.

Il est indéniable que de nombreux faits du concile Vatican II et de la période qui l'a suivi, liés à la dimension humaine de cet événement, ont représenté de vraies calamités et causé de vives douleurs à de grands hommes d'Église. Mais Dieu ne permet pas que Sa Sainte Église puisse en arriver à l'autodestruction.

Nous ne pouvons pas considérer la dureté du facteur humain sans avoir confiance dans le facteur divin, c'est-à-dire dans la Providence qui, tout en respectant la liberté humaine, guide l'histoire, et en particulier l'histoire de l'Église.

L'Église est à la fois institution divine, divinement garantie, et produit des hommes. L'aspect divin ne nuit pas à celui humain – personnalité et liberté – et ne l'inhibe pas nécessairement; l'aspect humain, demeurant entier, et même compromettant, ne nuit jamais à celui divin.

Pour des raisons de Foi, mais aussi en raison des confirmations, même lentes, que nous observons au plan historique, nous croyons que Dieu a préparé et continue de préparer au fil de ces années des hommes dignes de remédier aux erreurs et aux abandons que nous déplorons tous. Déjà apparaissent, et apparaîtront toujours plus, de saintes œuvres isolées les unes des autres mais qu'une stratégie divine relie à distance et dont l'action constitue un dessein ordonné, comme cela survint miraculeusement à l'époque de la douloureuse révolte de Luther.

Ces interventions divines semblent se multiplier à mesure que les faits se compliquent. L'avenir le démontrera, comme nous en sommes convaincus, et déjà semble poindre l'aurore.

Pendant quelques instants, l'aurore, incertaine, lutte avec les ténèbres, lentes à se retirer, mais quand elle pointe on sait que le soleil est là et qu'il poursuit immanquablement sa course dans les cieux.

Avec sainte Catherine de Sienne, nous voulons vous dire : “Venez à Rome en toute sécurité”, auprès de la maison du Père commun qui nous a été donné comme principe et fondement visibles et perpétuels de l'unité catholique.

Venez prendre part à cet avenir béni dont on entrevoit déjà, en dépit des ténèbres persistantes, l'aurore.

Votre refus augmenterait les ténèbres et non la lumière. Or nombreux sont les éclairs de lumière que nous admirons déjà, à commencer par ceux de la grande restauration liturgique opérée par le motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum”. Celle-ci suscite dans le monde entier un large mouvement d'adhésion de la part de tous ceux, et notamment les jeunes, qui entendent magnifier le culte du Seigneur.

Comment ne pas considérer en outre les autres gestes concrets et chargés de signification du Saint Père, comme la levée des excommunications aux évêques ordonnés par Mgr Lefebvre, l'ouverture d'un débat public sur l'interprétation du concile Vatican II à la lumière de la Tradition et, à cet effet, le renouvellement de la Commission Ecclesia Dei ?

Il demeure certainement des perplexités, des points à approfondir ou à préciser, comme celui de l'œcuménisme et du dialogue interreligieux (qui a d'ailleurs déjà fait l'objet d'une importante clarification apportée par la déclaration Dominus Jesus de la Congrégation pour la Doctrine de la Foi du 6 août 2000) ou celui de la manière dont est comprise la liberté religieuse.

Sur ces thèmes aussi, votre présence canoniquement garantie dans l'Église aidera à plus de lumière.

Comment ne pas songer à la contribution que vous pourrez apporter, grâce à vos ressources pastorales et doctrinales, à votre capacité et votre sensibilité, au bien de toute l'Église ?

Voici le moment opportun, l'heure favorable pour revenir. Timete Dominum transeuntem : ne laissez pas passer l'occasion de grâce que le Seigneur vous offre, ne la laissez pas passer à côté de vous sans la reconnaître.

Le Seigneur en concèdera-t-il une autre ?

Ne devrons-nous pas comparaître tous un jour devant Son Tribunal et répondre non seulement du mal commis mais surtout de tout le bien que nous aurions pu faire et que nous n'avons pas accompli ?

Le cœur du Saint Père frémit : il vous attend avec anxiété parce qu'il vous aime, parce que l'Église a besoin de vous pour une profession de foi commune face à un monde toujours plus sécularisé et qui semble tourner irrémédiablement le dos à son Créateur et Sauveur.

Dans la pleine communion ecclésiale avec la grande famille que constitue l'Église catholique, votre voix ne sera pas étouffée, votre engagement ne sera ni négligeable ni négligé mais pourra donner, avec celui de tant d'autres, des fruits abondants qui demeureraient autrement gâchés.

L'Immaculée nous enseigne que trop de grâces viennent perdues parce qu'elles ne sont pas demandées : nous sommes convaincus qu'en répondant favorablement à l'offre du Saint Père, la Fraternité sacerdotale saint Pie X deviendra un instrument pour allumer de nouveaux rayons aux doigts de notre Mère céleste.

En ce jour qui lui est dédié, que saint Joseph, époux de la Bienheureuse Vierge Marie, Patron de l'Église universelle, veuille inspirer et soutenir vos résolutions : “Venez à Rome en toute sécurité”.

Rome, 19 mars 2012

Fête de saint Joseph

d. Nicola Bux

Carta de Mons. Bux a Dom Fellay e aos Padres da FSSPX

In OBLATUS

A Sua Excelência Dom Bernard Fellay e aos padres da Fraternidade Sacerdotal São Pio X

Excelência Reverendíssima,

Caríssimos Irmãos,

A fraternidade cristã é mais poderosa do que a carne e o sangue, porque ela nos oferece, graças à Divina Eucaristia, um antegozo do paraíso.

O Cristo nos convidou a fazer a experiência da comunhão, pois é nela que consiste nosso “eu”. A comunhão é estima a priori pelo próximo, porque nós temos em comum com ele o único Salvador. Por isso a comunhão está pronta a todo sacrifício em nome da unidade; e esta unidade deve ser visível, como nos ensina a última invocação da oração endereçada por Nosso Senhor a seu Pai – “ut unum sint, ut credat mundus” –, porque ela é o testemunho decisivo dos amigos de Cristo.

É inegável que muitos fatos do Concílio Vaticano II e do período sucessivo, relativos à dimensão humana deste acontecimento, representaram verdadeiras calamidades e causaram sentidas dores em grandes homens da Igreja. Mas Deus não permite que Sua Igreja possa chegar à autodestruição.

Não podemos considerar a dureza do fator humano sem ter confiança no divino, ou seja, na Providência que, sempre respeitosa da liberdade humana, guia a história, e em particular a história da Igreja.

A Igreja é ao mesmo tempo instituição divina, divinamente garantida, e obra dos homens. O aspecto divino não apaga aquele humano – personalidade e liberdade – nem necessariamente o inibe; o aspecto humano, permanecendo inteiro, e mesmo comprometendo, não apaga jamais o divino.

Por razões de Fé, mas também em razão das confirmações, ainda que lentas, que observamos no plano histórico, cremos que Deus preparou e continua a preparar no curso destes anos homens dignos para remediar os erros e abandonos que todos nós deploramos. Já surgem, e surgirão sempre mais, obras santas, isoladas umas das outras, mas que uma estratégia divina coliga à distância e assim a ação se torna um desenho ordenado, como aquela que ocorreu milagrosamente na época da dolorosa revolta de Lutero.

Estas intervenções divinas parecem se multiplicar na medida em que os fatos se complicam. O futuro o provará, e disto estamos convencidos, e já parece raiar a aurora.

Durante alguns instantes, a aurora, incerta, luta com as trevas, lentas a se retirarem, mas quando ela aponta já se sabe que o sol está lá e que ele percorre inevitavelmente seu curso nos céus.

Com Santa Catarina de Sena, nós queremos vos dizer: “Vinde a Roma com toda segurança”, à casa do Pai comum que nos foi dado como princípio e fundamento visível e perpétuo da unidade católica.

Vinde participar deste bendito futuro em que já se entrevê, a despeito das trevas persistentes, a aurora.

Vossa recusa aumentaria as trevas e não a luz. E já são numerosos os raios de luz que nós contemplamos, a começar da grande restauração litúrgica operada pelo motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum”. Ele suscita no mundo inteiro um grande movimento de adesão da parte de todos aqueles, e notadamente dos jovens, que pretendem engrandecer o culto do Senhor.

Como não considerar ainda os outros gestos concretos e carregados de significado do Santo Padre, como a remissão das excomunhões aos bispos ordenados por Dom Lefebvre, a abertura de um debate público sobre a interpretação do Concílio Vaticano II à luz da Tradição e, consequentemente, a renovação da Comissão Ecclesia Dei?

Restam certamente certas perplexidades, pontos a aprofundar ou a esclarecer, como sobre o ecumenismo e o diálogo inter-religioso (que ademais já foi objeto de um importante esclarecimento trazido pela declaração Dominus Iesus da Congregação para a Doutrina da Fé de 6 de agosto de 2000) ou sobre a maneira em que é compreendida a liberdade religiosa.

Também sobre estes temas, vossa presença canonicamente garantida na Igreja ajudará a trazer mais luz.

Como não pensar na contribuição que vós podereis dar, graças a vossos recursos pastorais e doutrinais, a vossa capacidade e sensibilidade, para o bem de toda a Igreja?

Eis o momento oportuno, a hora favorável para retornar. Timete Dominum transeuntem: não deixeis passar a ocasião da graça que o Senhor vos oferece, nem a deixeis passar a vosso largo sem a reconhecerdes.

O Senhor vos concederá outra?

Não deveremos nós todos comparecer um dia diante do Seu Tribunal e responder não somente pelo mal praticado mas sobretudo pelo bem que nós teríamos podido fazer e que não realizamos?

O coração do Santo Padre palpita: ele vos espera ansiosamente porque vos ama, porque a Igreja precisa de vós para uma profissão de fé comum no meio de um mundo sempre mais secularizado e que parece voltar irremediavelmente as costas a seu Criador e Salvador.

Na plena comunhão eclesial, com a grande família que constitui a Igreja Católica, vossa voz jamais será desprezada, vosso engajamento não será negligenciável ou negligenciado, mas poderá dar, com os de tantos outros, frutos abundantes que de outro modo permaneceriam dispersos.

A Imaculada nos ensina que muitas graças são perdida porque elas não são pedidas: nós estamos convencidos de que, em respondendo favoravelmente à oferta do Santo Padre, a Fraternidade Sacerdotal São Pio X se tornará um instrumento para acender novos raios nos dedos de nossa Mãe Celeste.

Neste dia que lhe é dedicado, que São José, esposo da Bem-Aventurada Virgem Maria, Patrono da Igreja universal, queira inspirar e sustentar vossas resoluções: “Vinde com segurança a Roma”.

Roma, 19 de março de 2012

Solenidade de São José

Pe. Nicola Bux