The Catholic Church ALLOWS Stem Cell Research

Four hours ago, our local TV news misstated* that the Catholic Church opposes Stem Cell Research. (Co-anchor Rosanna Scotto, NYC Fox 5 News, Friday, Oct. 29, 2004, 10 p.m.) My BP rose and I almost hit the roof... As of late, this is typical "journalism" from the fourth estate. But don't believe them. It's NOT true. It is WRONG to say or think that the Catholic Church "does not support" Stem Cell Research! The Catholic Church does NOT OPPOSE it.

(* I don't believe that FOX News was telling a deliberate lie or being malicious. Rather, it fell victim to the misinformation campaign of John Kerry, The Apostate Altar Boy. However, Rosanna Scotto of Brooklyn is a graduate of Catholic University no less and she should have qualified her remarks.)

Rather, The Church Catholic DOES support Adult Stem Cell Research which is already helping people with heart disease, spinal cord injury, Parkinson's and many other diseases.

But it DOES NOT support EMBRYONIC Stem Cell Research or the preparation of embryos solely for the purpose of destroying them by using the remaining cells for any kind of medical or scientific research.

Zygotes are souls created by God - human lives. Disposal of them is just as much MURDER as abortion is. The ONLY purpose of this kind of research is to undermine the American campaign to respect all human life from the moment of conception.

"No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written within every human heart, knowable by reason itself and proclaimed by The Church!" [Encyclical of Pope John Paul the Great, "The Gospel of Life" ("Evangelium Vitae"), paragraph 62.]

Neither can mad scientists experiment on the corpses of "already dead anyway" abortions. I'm sure you're smart enough to figure out that lame rationalization yourself, so I won't insult your intelligence by explaining why.

Embryonic stem cells have NOT helped even one single patient. And those who tout this kind of research have nothing to base it on since it lacks a proven track record. So far, there has NOT even been successful treatment in mice, and no specific help for humans is on the horizon. Worse, it engenders false hopes in the desperate.

NOT the treatment or cure for Alzheimer's

On June 10th a Washington Post article debunked false claims that stem cells could provide a cure for Alzheimer's. "I think the chance of doing repairs to Alzheimer's brains by putting in stem cells is small," said stem cell researcher Michael Shelanski, co-director of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York. "The Reagan-inspired tidal wave of enthusiasm stands as an example of how easily a modest line of scientific inquiry can grow in the public mind to mythological proportions," observed the article.

Objections were also raised to abusing Reagan's name to justify stem cell research. "Ronald Reagan's record reveals that no issue was of greater importance to him than the dignity and sanctity of all human life," commented William Clark, national security adviser and secretary of the interior under Reagan, in the New York Times on June 11. Clark also argued that Reagan would also have been unlikely to favor using government funds for such research. "He understood the significance of putting the imprimatur of the nation, through public financing, behind questionable research," said Clark. In fact, he noted that Reagan put in place a de facto ban on federal funding of embryo research during his presidency.

Regardless of these facts, little Ron Reagan, Jr. -- who never missed an opportunity to besmirch his late father's principles and ideals or rebel against his GOP positions -- spoke at the Democratic National Convention and advocated for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research anyway. John Kerry had him give the impression that the kid is pleading for something that would have improved the quality of his Gipper's life. Tragic, yet disingenuous.

Not only did he embarrass and dishonor his esteemed father's memory, he -- along with several other VIP drama personalities -- became a chief operative behind a national disinformation campaign. Because of his reverence for human life, the late President would NEVER advocate for (nor approve of his family doing same) such scientific experimentation. It requires the creating of a human embryo by cloning and then the killing of that human life to harvest his or her stem cells. It's an attempt to play God in the worst possible way!

His other son, Michael, recently wrote, "My father, as do I, opposed the creation of human embryos for the sole purpose of using their stem cells as possible medical cures..."

A National Review article this week also stated that near the end of his life, actor Christopher Reeve, who became a paraplegic after an accidental fall, “apparently began to realize that embryonic stem cells were NOT the magic bullet he had assumed them to be.” The report also stated that the actor, famous for his film roles as Superman and a Monsignor, felt that “far from claiming that this avenue offered ‘biological miracles,’ or was the best or only hope for patients like him, he felt they were ‘not able to do much’ for him.”

Proponents of this agenda will stoop to any level to achieve their ungodly goals. John Kerry grossly exaggerates the potential gains from Embryonic Stem Cell Research by misstating, "100 million Americans suffer from one disease or another that's chronically debilitating." (Indicating that more than one in every three Americans has a debilitating disease.) In fact, 12 percent of the population, or about 35 million Americans, have “limitation of activity caused by chronic conditions.”

Kerry's conjectured wrong figure comes from the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, an organization that advocates therapeutic cloning for the purpose of scientific study and TOTALS this number of people who “suffer from cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, Parkinson’s, spinal cord injuries, heart disease, A.L.S. and other devastating conditions for which treatments must still be found.” In 2001, the Census Bureau reported that 53 million Americans had “some level of disability” and that 33 million had “a severe disability.”

On Aug. 9, 2001, President George W. Bush ordered the National Institutes of Health not to fund research on stem cells taken from embryos destroyed after that date. Subsequently, the NIH identified a number of stem cell lines that met the guidelines and could receive government funding.

Eric Cohen, a consultant to President Bush's Council on Bioethics, objected to the destruction of human life resulting from stem cell research. Writing in USA Today on June 8, 2004 Cohen argued that while the embryos destroyed may be small, "size does not define a person's humanity." And while they many not have had a chance to develop human consciousness at such an early stage, "human dignity does not reside in our consciousness alone." Cohen also noted that the Bush policy does not impede research in the private sector, but instead avoids "forcing all taxpayers to support new embryo destruction."

Embryonic stem cell research is hastening without any federal funds. New Jersey Governor James McGreevey recently signed legislation last spring establishing a state-supported research center. The Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey will be run jointly by Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. McGreevey proposed $6.5 million for the institute within his budget.

This Election Day, Calif. voters will decide Proposition 71, the $3-billion bond measure to fund human embryonic stem-cell research.

Such proposed legislation would make it legal to clone embryos using taxpayer money. Under the proposal the clones would be destroyed within 14 days and used only for research. It seeks to cure people by turning people into a commodity. The next step would go from 14-day-old cloned embryos to fetal farming -- manufacturing fetuses to harvest body parts.

To cure is to endure. But taking one life to save another would not be a cure. Such means could never justify the end. A principle often overlooked by allies of embryonic stem cell research is that, "It is never morally licit to do evil intentionally in order to achieve ends that are good in themselves." (9th General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, The Vatican, February 2003.)

BOSTON IS HEREBY ABSOLVED OF ITS CURSE

Congratulations, BOSTON RED SOX, on winning your first World Series tonight since 1918! You are hereby absolved of your 86-years-old "Curse of the Bambino" + (However, for what it's worth, the Chicago Cubs last won it in 1908, the White Sox in 1917.) Tonight's 9:14 - 11:45 p.m. total lunar eclipse glowing over your World Series game pointed to Babe Ruth's celestial sanction. Our 2004 American League Championship Series with you guys was fought just a week ago tonight. So until next year when we reclaim the championship, enjoy your well-earned title. And thanks for giving us a much-deserved lesson in humility. Meanwhile, let me be the first to proclaim this: Johnny Daman is my daddy! -- NYC Padre

National Pastoral Care Week

This is National Pastoral Care Week (Oct. 24-30) which takes time out to recognize and thank pastoral caregivers. We serve in the streets, hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, mental health facilities and prisons, etc. In this day and age, not all chaplains are ordained clergy.

St. Anthony's Bread Mission Apostolate realizes and appreciates this better than most others. Established 23 years ago as a private clerical association, we later encompassed the laity into our common suffering ministry as "pastoral associates". Together we evolved into an interfaith covenant community gathered from the streets, hospitals and prisons.

So in appreciation of those who reached out to serve you and your loved ones during painful times of hardship, please consider developing your own spiritual gifts and perspectives in a variety of functions such as preaching, teaching, leadership, management, pastoral care and perhaps pastoral counseling and sharing them with others. The Church needs YOU.

Kerry's FORMAL Excommunication is Impending

"Thereupon the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of His mouth and annihilate him by manifesting His Own presence. This lawless one will appear as part of the workings of Satan, accompanied by all the power and signs and wonders at the disposal of falsehood -- by every seduction the wicked can devise for those destined to ruin because they have not opened their hearts to the truth in order to be saved. Therefore, God is sending upon them a perverse spirit which leads them to give credence to falsehood, so that all who have not believed the truth but have delighted in evildoing will be condemned." -- (II Thessalonians 2:8-12.)

BREAKING NEWS: On this old calendar Feast of St. Raphael the Archangel, the inside word from editorial "think tanks" tonight (via the Traditional Roman Catholic press grape-vine) is that John Kerry's formal excommunication for heresy is rapidly coming to a head.

Like in the late Christopher Reeve's movie "Monsignor" (who I will memorialize on his Month's Mind anniversary), political intrigue is mounting on the ecclesiastical front. A prominent canon lawyer filed charges of heresy against JFK (John F. Kerry) at the Vatican last year. Last week he received affirmative responses to pertinent questions he had posed to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. (That's the same Vatican dicastery that "leaked" Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's comments on giving Communion to pro-abortion politicians -- after Theodore Cardinal McCarrick withheld those comments from the other US bishops.) Rome is trying to claim that he received "no response", however he did get a 4-page response from an American theologian just 10 days later. WOW, talk about expediting things. Despite their double talk, Rome HAS spoken - but the matter is NOT finished.

The answer wasn't "official" and it didn't come "authoritatively" from the Vatican. (Now we know WHY so many American bishops are also such cowards.) Rather, Rev. Fr. Basil Cole, a Dominican theologian and consultant to the congregation based in Washington, DC (appropriate) was delegated by The Very Rev. Augustine DiNoia, undersecretary of the congregation, to give an unofficial response to the questions that Balestrieri had submitted. Indeed, John F. Kerry has incurred an AUTOMATIC Excommunication (latae sententiae) "Kerry Said to be Excommunicated" (Catholic World News)

That much we ultrajectine traditionalists already realized even though the ultramontanes petitioned for this canonical definition. John F. Kerry is now posed for a knock-out blow from Rome with a MAJOR Excommunication - Vitandus because of his continued public support for abortion and euthanasia in defiance of Church teaching. Kerry's RC Church case is now in the hands of Archbishop Sean O'Malley of Boston, a stand-up Franciscan who is being nudged by thousands of Bostonian Catholics who want to add their names to the Tribunal complaint. Ideally, Kerry should be served with a Supplex Libellus before the Presidential Election, but I doubt it.

Sadly, he's brought this upon himself, yet it couldn't happen to a worse skellum. Let there be another public ceremony with bell, book and candles! Unless he repents and changes his murderous positions (which slaughter over 1.4 Million innocent lives per year via abortions alone), he will be "eternally accursed - Maranatha ANATHEMA!" *** When it happens -- and it will -- you will read about it at the bottom of page 46, if there's a reporter overhearing them whisper it through the back door. Hey, Fathers, you could use that smoke chimney in the Sistine Chapel.

Ironically (I'm ashamed to admit), these Roman developments were yet unknown to me when last Wednesday, Oct. 20th, I blogged ("Holy Innocents Cry Out on All Souls ELECTION Day", (BELOW) Re. cowardly RC bishops and the meeting between Kerry & Cardinal Abp. of Wash., DC)... "If they were real Churchmen then they would have pressed the issue, assembled as a fraternal collegiate body and excommunicated the reprobate en masse. It’s within their power and right. And it wouldn’t be considered “going over the boss’ head in Rome.” Instead, a mutual and silent understanding was “prudently” forged. -- DISGRACE!!! -– because effete “gentlemen” were playing back-room politics in an Arch-Episcopal Residence parlor and agreed to let the gory elephant escape so they wouldn’t get messed up or trampled upon. Meanwhile, democide continues in the hood while in the abortuaries it’s big bloody business as usual…

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*** Inquiring minds want to know... WHICH ORC bishop is openly fraternizing with an unrepentant apostate who received the Major Excommunication of Vitandus (exclusion from society of the faithful) at a Church Tribunal? And WHY is this ORC Bishop flagrantly displaying contempt for the canonical sentence of that Church Court comprised of 14 of his brother bishops? As this ultrajectine traditionalist well knows, or should since he also received the notice and pertinent documents from the Tribunal, consorting with a condemned apostate is an automatic minor excommunication in itself (exclusion only from the sacraments; Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Codex Iuris Canonici, 1917 A.D.) This apathetic Bishop knows who he is, just as the "nose" knows. But more importantly, GOD KNOWS!

Unless he ceases from aiding this notorious enemy of Christ then the world will know who he is as well (Bishopric portrait and all). Instead of giving succor to his diabolical associate, the ORC Bishop should be leading this reprobate sinner back home to The True Catholic Faith and away from the Gnostic heresies he wildly promulgates as its "primate". At the very least, this Bishop should obtain this witch's death-bed confession before the apostate shakes hands with Beelzebub as well. Get with the CATHOLIC program, Bishop, or the sun will shine where you don't want it to. (I also helped achieve the NJ "Sunshine Laws" when I lived and served there, public office and ministry.) That's what "Zero Tolerance" also means in The Church.

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O most glorious Prince, Raphael the Archangel, be mindful of us, here and everywhere: pray always unto the Son of God for us, Alleluia, Alleluia.

V. An Angel stood near the altar of the temple.
R. Holding a golden censer in his hand.

O God, who didst give blessed Raphael the Archangel to Tobias Thy servant as a companion for his journey, grant that we, who are also Thy servants, may likewise be safeguarded by his watchfulness and fortified by his help. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

VOUCHSAFE, O Lord God, to send unto our assistance Saint Raphael the Archangel: and may he, who, we believe, evermore standeth before the throne of Thy Majesty, offer unto Thee our humble petitions to be blessed by Thee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. +++