Netanyahu Predicts Al Queda Will Try to Destroy Holy Sepulcher
January 29, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Benjamin Netanyahu, the favorite to win the upcoming Israeli election, says al Qaeda terrorists will destroy Jesus Christ’s burial site.
Netanyahu, who claims he had predicted an Islamic extremists attack on the World Trade Center six years before the actual attack, said terrorists will target Church of the Holy Sepulchre also known as the Church of the Resurrection – Christianity’s holiest site.
The church located in Jerusalem (al-Quds) — which Christians believe is the site of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus — attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims every year and is considered a spiritual focal point.
“Radical Islam is willing and will want to attack the symbolic heart of the Christian religion,” said the former Israeli prime minister.
“This will incur a chain reaction we can’t even envision. We will witness an escalation of religious conflict above and beyond the regional conflict we have now,” Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying . . . . (read article)
Honestly, if I Weren't a Married Man . . .
January 29, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
In a solitary monastery under the Rocky Mountains in northern Wyoming, the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming seek to perpetuate the charism of the Blessed Virgin Mary, living the Marian life as prescribed by the primitive Carmelite Rule and the ancient monastic observance. This new monastery of contemplative monks lives a life of faithful orthodoxy to the Magisterium, where joy and peace abound in a manly, agrarian way of life.
The Carmelite Monks wear the Holy Habit faithfully, which includes the brown Carmelite scapular and white mantle of our Lady of Mount Carmel. These young Roman Catholic monks live a full, reverent, and traditional Carmelite liturgical life, with the Divine Office and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass being prayed in Latin with Gregorian Chant.
Desiring to become great saints, this community of strictly cloistered contemplative men has a vehement longing to live the entirety of the customs and charism established by Ss. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila in the Discalced Carmelite Reform, namely: strict monastic enclosure, two hours of contemplative prayer daily, study and spiritual reading, and manual labor.
The Carmelite monk may aspire to be a lay brother or a priest who celebrates the Sacraments, gives spiritual direction, and preaches retreats to the monastery retreatants. Once mature in the spiritual life, a Carmelite monk may aspire to become a solitary hermit in the mountains, alone with the Alone. With a burning love of God and a missionary zeal for souls, the Carmelite monk immolates his life in the vows of obedience, chastity and poverty for the Holy Roman Catholic Church and the entire world.
Honestly, if I Weren’t a Married Man . . .
January 29, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
In a solitary monastery under the Rocky Mountains in northern Wyoming, the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming seek to perpetuate the charism of the Blessed Virgin Mary, living the Marian life as prescribed by the primitive Carmelite Rule and the ancient monastic observance. This new monastery of contemplative monks lives a life of faithful orthodoxy to the Magisterium, where joy and peace abound in a manly, agrarian way of life.
The Carmelite Monks wear the Holy Habit faithfully, which includes the brown Carmelite scapular and white mantle of our Lady of Mount Carmel. These young Roman Catholic monks live a full, reverent, and traditional Carmelite liturgical life, with the Divine Office and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass being prayed in Latin with Gregorian Chant.
Desiring to become great saints, this community of strictly cloistered contemplative men has a vehement longing to live the entirety of the customs and charism established by Ss. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila in the Discalced Carmelite Reform, namely: strict monastic enclosure, two hours of contemplative prayer daily, study and spiritual reading, and manual labor.
The Carmelite monk may aspire to be a lay brother or a priest who celebrates the Sacraments, gives spiritual direction, and preaches retreats to the monastery retreatants. Once mature in the spiritual life, a Carmelite monk may aspire to become a solitary hermit in the mountains, alone with the Alone. With a burning love of God and a missionary zeal for souls, the Carmelite monk immolates his life in the vows of obedience, chastity and poverty for the Holy Roman Catholic Church and the entire world.
If You Are Contracepting, You Are Part of a Very Big Problem
January 27, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Global aging, combined with plummeting birth rates, is a catastrophically dangerous menace that only a few people seem to be waking up to. You may not be familiar with terms like “global aging” and “demographic winter,” but you will be soon.
I’ve been giving public lectures on the problem of global aging for the past 7 years or so, and my audiences are always shocked and dumbfounded as I explain how the West’s ever expanding population of old people (due, thank God, to the ever-improving capabilities of bio-medical science), while a good thing in itself, will soon become a prime target for the forced-euthanasia crowd as the decline in birth rates among women of child-bearing age throughout the West (as well as major non-Western countries like Japan and Russia) forces an ever-shrinking number of younger, working citizens to shoulder the economic burden of paying for the retirement benefits consumed by the ever-expanding population of retired, old folks.
This is a lethal combination that will, I am certain, begin playing itself out with horrifying new consequences within the next 10, 15, 20 years. Perhaps sooner. It’s hard to predict. What we do know for sure, though, is that the West has been marinating for decades now in the bloody serum of legalized abortion, and it breathes the toxic atmosphere of ubiquitous pornography, insatiable consumerism, the mania for entertainment (much of it violent), and an all-pervasive contraceptive mentality. What would have been unthinkable to Americans a mere 50 years ago (gay marriage, a billion-dollar abortion industry, the rise of euthanasia, etc.) has become commonplace and increasingly unremarkable in this generation.
Where are we headed?
American economist Peter G. Peterson, in his book Gray Dawn: How the Coming Age Wave Will Transform America and the World (Random House, 1999), predicts: “Global aging will become the transcendent political and economic issue of the twenty-first century. I will argue [in this book] that — like it or not, and there’s every reason to believe we won’t like it — renegotiating the established social contract in response to global aging will soon dominate and daunt the public policy agendas of all the developed countries” (p. 5).
What Peterson means by “renegotiate the established social contract” is: You retired people, as well as all you who expect to retire in the next decade or two, don’t expect that you’ll be taken care of by the rest of us the way you now are or expect to be taken care of. Safety nets like Social Security and Medicare may have to be drastically downsized or even, if the economy deteriorates badly enough, eliminated. In other words, we may not be able to continue paying for the “burdensome expenses” old people impose on an ever-shrinking younger workforce (Thanks, contracepting couples! Thanks, abortion industry!). And what happens then?
I’ve been saying for years now what is being reported yet again in this article. What is now known as the “right to die movement” is steadily morphing into what will soon become the “obligation to die movement.” Watch and see. It’s happening right now, before our eyes, though just imperceptibly enough not to raise any significant alarm. When it does finally come out into the open, many people will be so desensitized to this looming new evil that those promoting it will have little difficulty imposing it on our ever more effete population.
The politics of “young versus old” is rising, slowly but surely, and we will live to see its pernicious effects. Soon enough we will begin to see how the demographic winter results in an intergenerational struggle. The younger people, who have lived their entire lives learning from the media and our culture as a whole that other people are only useful or valuable insofar as they do one or more of a few things: give sexual pleasure, provide entertainment, make money, or produce some kind of product or service.
30+ years of legalized abortion has hardened millions of younger Americans into seeing unborn children as “parasites” who should be eliminated because they are inconvenient and unwanted. 50 years of the mainstreaming of pornography (thanks, Heff!) have educated a wide swath
of Americans to look at others as objects for pleasure. And the aggressive cult of scientism has successfully swayed many people to look at unpleasant realities such as aging, pain, and lonliness as intolerable conditions that must be eliminated at all costs.
of Americans to look at others as objects for pleasure. And the aggressive cult of scientism has successfully swayed many people to look at unpleasant realities such as aging, pain, and lonliness as intolerable conditions that must be eliminated at all costs.
So, barring some miracle (and while I do believe in miracles, I also believe in Divine Justice), I predict that the next step in the morbid evolution of the West’s enmeshment in the culture of death will entail such horrors as forced euthansia and cloning human beings for body parts. This will begin to take shape as soon as enough people who have no belief in God and no regard for the value of human life begin to realize what “demographic winter” means for them financially.
With that in mind, please consider the chilling points made in this LifeSite article:
Celebrated columnist and pro-family leader Don Feder gave a jaw-dropping presentation on the coming ‘Demographic Winter’ at the Rose Dinner which closes the official March for Life festivities every year. Speaking to hundreds of attendees, Feder suggested that the demographic problem of worldwide declining birthrates “could result in the greatest crisis humanity will confront in this century” as “all over the world, children are disappearing.”
“In the Western world, birthrates are falling and populations are aging,” said Feder. “The consequences for your children and grandchildren could well be catastrophic.”
Feder noted, “In 30 years, worldwide, birth rates have fallen by more than 50%. In 1979, the average woman on this planet had 6 children. Today, the average is 2.9 children, and falling.” He explained the situation noting, “demographers tell us that with a birthrate of 1.3, everything else being equal, a nation will lose half of its population every 45 years.”
Beyond an inability to pay for pensions, it is likely that euthanasia will be one looked-to solution to the aging crisis, he said.
“In the Western world, birthrates are falling and populations are aging,” said Feder. “The consequences for your children and grandchildren could well be catastrophic.”
Feder noted, “In 30 years, worldwide, birth rates have fallen by more than 50%. In 1979, the average woman on this planet had 6 children. Today, the average is 2.9 children, and falling.” He explained the situation noting, “demographers tell us that with a birthrate of 1.3, everything else being equal, a nation will lose half of its population every 45 years.”
Beyond an inability to pay for pensions, it is likely that euthanasia will be one looked-to solution to the aging crisis, he said.“Demographic Winter is the terminal stage in the suicide of the West – the culmination of a century of evil ideas and poisonous policies,'” he said. Among them he listed:
“Abortion – As I mentioned a moment ago, worldwide, we’re killing 42 million people a year. It’s as if an invading army killed every man woman and child in Italy – then repeated the process every year.
“Contraception – For the first time in history, just under half the world’s population of childbearing age uses some form of birth control. Some of us remember when births weren’t controlled and pregnancies weren’t planned. With all the wailing about man-made Global Warming, carbon footprints and the ozone layer, wouldn’t it be ironic if what did us in wasn’t the SUV but the IUD? . . . (read article)
“Abortion – As I mentioned a moment ago, worldwide, we’re killing 42 million people a year. It’s as if an invading army killed every man woman and child in Italy – then repeated the process every year.
“Contraception – For the first time in history, just under half the world’s population of childbearing age uses some form of birth control. Some of us remember when births weren’t controlled and pregnancies weren’t planned. With all the wailing about man-made Global Warming, carbon footprints and the ozone layer, wouldn’t it be ironic if what did us in wasn’t the SUV but the IUD? . . . (read article)
Babies Routinely Being Aborted for Not Being Perfect
January 23, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
The ethical storm over abortions has been renewed as it emerged that terminations are being carried out for minor, treatable birth defects. Late terminations have been performed in recent years because the babies had club feet, official figures show . . .
Julia Millington, of the Alive and Kicking Campaign, said: ‘It is all about our perceptions of perfection. Increasingly things are moving along the lines where nothing is good enough. it seems we can no longer tolerate any imperfection. Babies are at the mercy of ultrasound scans and what they may disclose. . . (read article)
Cloning Christ?
January 23, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Alright. I’ll be the first to say that this strange story is about as strange as strange can get. But it is significant insofar as modern biomedical technology is very close to, if not already at, the point of actually doing what these researchers are proposing: using extant DNA latent in the blood of long-deceased persons (in this case, from nothing other than the Shroud of Turin), in an attempt to produce a human clone.
Bizarre? Yes. But, sadly, it’s more than a mere theoretical curiosity to those involved in this project. Read what the Russian newspaper Pravda (Правда — which, ironically, means “the truth”) said a couple of years ago about this venture:
Researchers say they would like to clone Christ. But with this good intention they on the contrary may get an antichrist. Famous chemist Alan Adler who studied samples of the Shroud of Turin, the legendary burial cloth into which Jesus Christ was wrapped after crucifixion, made a sensational statement not long ago.
The researcher said there was blood on the Shroud and it was shed by a man who died a violent death.
The University of Texas Center for Advanced DNA Technologies, USA, analyzed the DNA of the bloodstains. Head of the Center Victor Tryon confirmed that was human genetic material. It was divided into several samples and sent to different laboratories for further analysis.
No results of the research have been published yet but there are certainly some. Dr. Leoncio A. Garza-Valdes, one of the few researchers allowed to touch the Shroud of Turin is working on his book that will have a shocking name, The DNA of God.
The very abbreviation DNA seemed to be rather common for majority of people a couple of years ago. But today it is a serious cause for anxiety. Indeed, DNA gives researchers an opportunity to produce clones, a copy of any creature whose DNA is available for experiments. Experiments of this type have been already made public: Dolly the sheep became an absolute cloned copy of a sheep whose genetic material, DNA, was available.
Soon, it became clear that cloning humans was also possible. Professor Richard Seed declared he would solve the human cloning problem by the end of the millennium. He said he was seeking a fitting candidate for cloning. Finally, researchers supposed that blood found on the shroud of Turin might be used as genetic material for cloning . . . (continue reading)
My “Debate” With Bishop Gumbleton on Gays in the Priesthood
January 23, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
A couple of years ago, I was asked to appear on a secular talk-radio show to discuss the issue of homosexuals in the priesthood with now-retired Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a perennial fixture within the “progressive” fringe of dissenting Catholics. He argued the case that homosexuals in the priesthood is no problem at all. I, as you might guess, said exactly the opposite. It was a brief discussion, only about 20 minutes (including a commercial break), but long enough to see two very different approaches to this important issue. What are your thoughts?
Islam's Long-Awaited “12th Imam” and What That Means for You
January 23, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
“It is said that in the 10th century, the 12th and last Imam of the Shiite branch of Islam disappeared. He is said to be hidden by God and will reappear at the end of history to lead an era of Islamic justice. Actions by, and rumors about, Iran’s president have renewed interest in the 12th Imam.” (Additional info)
Islam’s Long-Awaited “12th Imam” and What That Means for You
January 23, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
“It is said that in the 10th century, the 12th and last Imam of the Shiite branch of Islam disappeared. He is said to be hidden by God and will reappear at the end of history to lead an era of Islamic justice. Actions by, and rumors about, Iran’s president have renewed interest in the 12th Imam.” (Additional info)
25 Random Things About NekoGal
January 23, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
Okay, I admit that I don’t share her love for cats. Not. At. All. But I’m definitely sympatico with her love for languages, especially Japanese (though she’s a great deal more advanced in Nihongo than I am). When I first discovered her blog, I complimented her on the layout and design. Y’all say hi to NekoGal, our Catholic galpal in Singapore.
