The Catholic Church: Bought by Soros?

While trying to catch up on some blog reading and commenting this morning, I ran across a post over at teresamerica urging people to not donate to the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) due to their willingness to donate to ACORN. I agree wholeheartedly.

Wanting a little more info, I came across an article written by Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media. Donating to ACORN is just the tip of the iceberg.

According to the article, George Soros, an avowed atheist, has been channeling money to certain Catholic groups via his Open Society Institute. The groups receiving funds from Soros have been groups of progressive Catholics who have been on the forefront in the Obamacare debate and the debate on amnesty for illegal aliens.

Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG) has received at least $200,000 from the Open Society Institute. This group backs Pope Benedict XVI's mission of using religion to further a socialist agenda.

From their website comes this list of things that is in the latest encyclical by the Pope. Hold on to your lunch, folks.

• “Another important consideration is the common good. To love someone is to desire that person's good and to take effective steps to secure it. Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good.”
• “If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Not only is justice not extraneous to charity, not only is it not an alternative or parallel path to charity: justice is inseparable from charity, and intrinsic to it."
• “The dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable manner, and that we continue to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment for everyone.”
• "Economic activity cannot solve all social problems through the simple application of commercial logic. This needs to be directed towards the pursuit of the common good, for which the political community in particular must also take responsibility."

Now we have an insight into exactly what the Pope thinks of socialism. He's in favor of it. And since this group supports the mission of the Pope, George Soros and his Open Society Institute will continue to fund them. It's disgusting to see a religion sell out to anyone let alone liberals.

Also receiving money from OSI is the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), a group who has been on the front lines of having Obamacare cover illegal immigrants. The group was established by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1988 and has received at least $530,000 from the Soros-backed OSI.

While celebrating the passage in the House of Pelosicare, CACG had this to say about the whole debacle.

“As Catholics, we applaud the efforts of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Bart Stupak, and others who helped extend current restrictions on federal funding of abortion to health plans participating in the public [health] exchanges.”

Not so fast, pal. According to Judie Brown of the American Life League, some of the provisions still in Pelosicare allow for federal funding of abortion and other life issues, something the Catholic Church is supposed to be dead-set against. Please read Mr. Kincaid's article to see for yourself.

The CACG advisory council reads like a who's who of leftist groups. Some of the groups that are represented on the advisory council: SEIU, AFL-CIO, Georgetown University, and Boston College. No wonder the Catholic Church has been throwing their support behind card check.

The SEIU representative on the advisory council of CACG is a man by the name of Tom Chabolla, assistant to SEIU president Andy Stern. Prior to this gig, Chabolla served as associate director of programs for CCHD, directing money to ACORN to the tune of $7.3 million over the past 10 years.

The Gamaliel Foundation, an interfaith group with a socialist agenda, still continues to receive money from CCHD. They've been pushing hard for continued financial support through CCHD and is citing that it is “under attack from those with a partisan agenda to de-fund groups committed to organizing for social justice.” It says: “Many Gamaliel Foundation affiliates rely on funding from CCHD to serve their communities.” Yeah. ACORN's done a great job of that, eh?

Gamaliel says on its website that “Barack H. Obama, former Gamaliel organizer, is the 44th president of the United States,” and that this makes the organizing community proud. It also has a story about Obama friend and White House adviser Valerie Jarrett speaking to a Gamaliel event in Washington, D.C. of 2,500 activists. Jarrett is the official who said that “we” had recruited communist Van Jones to the White House. Another speaker was Melody Barnes, Obama’s Director of the Domestic Policy Council.

Before coming to the White House, Barnes was the executive vice president for Policy at the Soros-funded Center for American Progress (CAP). Van Jones also worked at CAP before going to the White House. CAP CEO and President John Podesta, who served as President Clinton’s chief of staff, is a major “progressive Catholic” and member of the ACORN advisory council, and served as a professor at Georgetown University.

Interestingly, Tom Chabolla of the SEIU and formerly of the CCHD was on the dinner committee for the 33rd Annual Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award Dinner, which was held on May 7, 2009 in Washington, D.C. One of the winners was none other than Van Jones.

While appealing for more funds through CCHD, the Gamaliel Foundation received $300,000 from OSI in 2008.

Let them continue to go to Soros for their funding as they seem to be of like minds. They'll see not another dime from me.

Spanish Calendar Features Transgender Models as Virgin Mary

COGAM, the Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual Association of Madrid, has released a calendar in Spain to promote awareness. Unlike most calendars, this calendar is chock full of transgender models posing as the Virgin Mary. The calendar also offers secular alternatives to religious holidays such as Christmas.

One example of this is "Wherever it's noted that December 25 is Christmas, a candy sweet should be eaten on behalf of International Democracy Day." Gee...and all these years I thought December 25th was celebrated as the birth of our Savior. Guess I need to get out more!

Condom use seems to be a recurring message throughout each of the pictures. This not only gives further offense to the idea of male-born people depicting Blessed Mother, but it goes against the Catholic Church's long held opposition of use of contraception. [Note: This is one place the Church and I disagree. If I'm wrong on the issue, I'll answer to God, not the Pope.]

Juan Antinoo, the Venezuelan photographer who authored the images, sees no reason why there should be controversy.

"It's not something that worries me, what truly is important is that the message gets out there; which is the importance of the use of a condom" he said. "They are interpretations of religious images, not copies," he added, "I sincerely don't think anyone should be offended by them".

If interpreting religious images using transgenders is something that shouldn't be offensive, then why didn't Mr. Antinoo depict transgenders as Muslim women? Maybe even Muslim women worshipping an image of a one-time female who is now male as Mohammed? No..... THAT would be offensive, right? War on Christianity has been declared on numerous fronts, folks.

The scariest part of this is that there are people out there who actually think that this is perfectly okay and actually empowers women. Don't believe me? This was posted on a blog that shall remain nameless. You decide whether this seems logical.

"The depiction of Mary as a transgender woman seems very natural to me. I really don't understand how it is any different than the myriad ways that Mary has already been depicted. I know that some people arrogantly think that they can own the divine. They don't want others to know that Mary belongs to everyone. She is the face that we see when we think about the feminine divinity. If Mary looks like us and the Creator deemed her worthy of recognition and respect and admiration, how could we worthless? In my opinion, depicting Mary as a transgender woman only magnifies her image and I think this is something that could be quite empowering for all women. "

How does a bunch of transgenders posing as The Virgin Mary empower women? Empowerment comes from within. You are only a victim of a patriarchal society if you allow yourself to be. Many women have been extremely successful in a "man's world" without playing the sexism card. THAT is real empowerment. I digress....

Just as we have chosen sides on the political front in the war on conservative values and freedom, we are reaching a point where we will need to choose sides in the war on Christianity. Attacks have come from Muslims, liberals, and, in some instances, from within church pulpits. It's like nothing I've ever seen in my life.

Christians have been portrayed as zealots and lunatics more and more in recent times, and the idea of religious tolerance seems only to apply to religions other than Christianity. I, for one, am fed up with having my faith ridiculed and the icons of that faith smeared. Our time to make a stand is fast approaching.

Big h/t to The Right Guy
[Author's note: Anyone who, for whatever reason, would like to view the images on the calendar, click here. I have chosen not to do so.]

Vatican Endorsing Karl Marx?

In recent years, the Vatican has taken another look at some historical figures and begged "Mea culpa" for what they have viewed during the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Galileo, Charles Darwin, and Oscar Wilde have all been reappraised by the Church, and now it appears that Karl Marx has joined the list.

From the Times of London:

L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, said yesterday that Marx’s early critiques of capitalism had highlighted the “social alienation” felt by the “large part of humanity” that remained excluded, even now, from economic and political decision-making.

Georg Sans, a professor of the history of modern philosophy at Gregorian University, wrote the article for the newspaper, saying:

“We have to ask ourselves, with Marx, whether the forms of alienation of which he spoke have their origin in the capitalist system,” Professor Sans wrote. “If money as such does not multiply on its own, how are we to explain the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few?”

Last year, the Vatican erected a statue of Galileo as a way of apologizing for trying him for his 1633 discovery that the earth moves around the sun. In February of this year, a church official declared Darwin's theory of evolution is compatible with Christian belief. And in July, the Vatican newspaper praised gay playwright Oscar Wilde as “a man who behind a mask of amorality asked himself what was just and what was mistaken”.

Though Pope Benedict XVI called Marxism a scourge two years ago, he seems to have changed his position. He now argues that global capitalism has lost its way and that Church teachings can help to restore economic health by focusing on justice for the weak and closer regulation of the market.

Professor Sans’s article was first published in La Civiltà Cattolica, a Jesuit paper, which is vetted in advance by the Vatican Secretariat of State. The decision to republish it in the Vatican newspaper gives it added papal endorsement.

I've got real issues with this, folks. While I agree with the basic tenets of the Church (the Holy Trinity, the Eucharist, etc.), since when is Darwin's theory compatible with Christian belief? In fact, it is the complete antithesis of the belief that God created the universe and everything in it as detailed in the book of Genesis.

As a practicing Catholic, I will tell you right now that I have become somewhat disillusioned with the Church. I go to worship God, but, in recent years, have gotten a politically ideological lecture during the homily. With my own ears, I've heard more and more liberal leanings coming from the pulpit. Was I sleeping during the Mass where we used to celebrate God's love for us and our love for Him? When did it all change?

For Pope Benedict XVI to use his interpretation of Church law and his power within the Church to further a seemingly global agenda is, in my opinion, a direct path to religious tyranny. It's bad enough that we've got our government leading us down that path. The Catholic Church need not follow suit.

Does that mean that I'm against helping the poor and praying for those in need? Absolutely not. In fact, that is what the church SHOULD be doing. Instead, we're getting a lesson in politics directly from the Vatican.

I will continue to pray for all of humanity, but I'm throwing in an extra one for the Catholic Church that they may find their way back to doing God's work and not the work of George Soros.