We heard all about how important Jeremiah Wright was to Obama, and how he was friendly with William Ayers.  The news cycle has been through both of them and Obama was able to explain each one away (to an extent.)  Now, suddenly, loony priest of St. Sabina’s “Catholic Faith Community” in Chicago, has become relevant to the news cycle.  Two or three weeks back, a video hit YouTube with Pfleger speaking at Obama’s home church, openly campaigning for Obama.  Just two days ago, video of Pfleger mocking Hillary Clinton’s tears from the pulpit at Obama’s home church hit YouTube - and this one started getting attention from the talk radio world.  Surfacing today, photos of Obama meeting with a hugging Calypso Louie himself (Louis Farrakhan.)  Obama’s referred to Pfleger as his “moral compass.”  Talk about being off course…

And one more nugget of joy.  When Obama was an Illinois legislator, he earmarked $225,000 to Father Pfleger’s parish “Catholic Faith Community.”  Coincidentally, Pfleger gave $5000 to Obama’s campaign and has been a vocal proponent of his, despite the Catholic Church’s stance of being apolitical.

Time for the Obama campaign to kick into damage control mode…can they explain this one away as well as they explained away Wright, Ayers, and Mrs. Obama never in her adult life being proud of her country until her hubby was running for president?

The Obamessiah says,

“That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger’s divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn’t reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause.”

Sounds a little like what he said about Wright, doesn’t it?  It seems there’s a pattern of Obama choosing friends, close personal advisors, and moral compasses who have problems with divisiveness, backward rhetoric, and such.

Of course, the Obama camp asked Pfleger to issue an apology.  It’s a standard political apology.

“I regret the words I chose on Sunday,” he said in a statement. “These words are inconsistent with Sen. Obama’s life and message, and I am deeply sorry if they offended Sen. Clinton or anyone else who saw them.”

So, let’s be clear.  I am sorry I used those words because they made Obama look bad.  I am sorry if they were offensive.  Ever notice how they never say, “what I said was offensive, and I am sorry.”  No, it’s a standard liberal apology.  I am sorry if you thought it was offensive.  A real apology would be the type of thing from talker Don Imus when he made his “nappy-headed hoes” comment - he said, “what I said was awful, stupid, mean, and offensive, and I want to make it right.”

Finally, Cardinal George awoke from what must have been a blissful slumber (for the last several years, judging be how long Pfleger’s been allowed to keep this junk up) and issued a statement.

Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George on Friday said that Rev. Michael Pfleger, who mocked Sen. Hillary Clinton from the pulpit of her opponent’s South Side church last weekend, has promised the cardinal he will “not mention any candidate by name” in the future.

“To avoid months of turmoil in the church, Father Pfleger has promised me that he will not enter into campaigning,” George said in a statement. “[He] will not publicly mention any candidate by name and will abide by the discipline common to all Catholic priests.

“Racial issues are both political and moral and are also highly charged,” George said. “Words can be differently interpreted, but Father Pfleger’s remarks about Senator Clinton are both partisan and amount to a personal attack. I regret that deeply.”

The questions is, can Pfleger stand to step out of the spotlight?  At this point, I have become convinced that he is as much of a race whore as Sharpton and Jackson and Wright.  He’s the quintessential guilty white liberal - a yes-man for the liberal black victimization movement (remember how Powell and Rice have been called yes-men for a white president? role reversal, no?)  I would have to seriously wonder if in his hateful rhetoric he has neglected his priestly obligations sufficiently to warrant a rehab assignment in some far-away corner of the globe at a monastery.  I bet every morning he thanks God he’s not in the diocese of St. Louis.

More here

and here

and here

and there will keep being more!

In a story sure to surprise no one, here’s what Reuters says about the Vatican’s recent statement on “female ordination.”

The Vatican issued its most explicit decree so far against the ordination of women priests on Thursday, punishing them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.

The decree was written by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, giving it immediate effect.

A Vatican spokesman said the decree made the Church’s existing ban on women priests more explicit by clarifying that excommunication would follow all such ordinations.

Excommunication forbids those affected from receiving the sacraments or sharing in acts of public worship.

Of course, class, we all know that one excommunicates oneself by one’s actions, the Church simply formally states it if necessary.  What the heck does “sharing in acts of public worship” mean?

story 

As a follow-up to my post some weeks back, here’s another video from Pfather Pfleger speaking at Obama’s church.  Not sure if it was the same Sunday, but it’s nonetheless entertaining.

Here’s a note from Tim, our seminarian contributor who is spending the summer with Mission Honduras International:

Greetings from Honduras!

I hope and pray that all of you are doing well.  I arrived here on Tuesday afternoon; it was sunny and beautiful as always.  So far, I am the first summer volunteer to arrive. Jerome, the house director has been here since the second time I came down here. I am the work supervisor for the groups that come down.  This means I direct them and show them where their projects will be; for those of you who have been here with me before, you can imagine how that is for me… my Spanish skills are definitely coming in handy—Gracias a todos mis maestros de español—I am translating and interpreting. The most amazing part of course is the children. Just today I was talking with a boy named Daniel, whom I have know for the past 3 or 4 years, it was amazing to see how much he had grown and matured since I first met him. The fact that these children remember all of the names of the hundreds and hundreds of volunteers that come down here is truly a gift from God. As I write this I am preparing to lead night prayer. It is amazing that I can be here with a group of young Catholics who love their faith and pray with them in community. We have a chapel in the corner of the house that has The Blessed Sacrament, again truly amazing to be able to go visit with Jesus whenever I want. As I wrap this up I want to thank all of you for you prayers and support; tonight my prayers and rosary will be offered for all of your intentions. I would love to hear how you are all doing and i will be able to respond about once a week. Please feel free to pass this along to anyone who I have not included on my list.

In Christ,

            Tim

As I have mentioned in the past, the organization that employs me hires a substantial group of seasonal summer staff for its programming.  In an effort to help said staff get to know some of the people not directly involved in their area of programming, each day during lunch, a member of the full time staff is being introduced and invited to pray for the group of seasonal summer staff.  I got picked today.  I didn’t have much time to prepare, and even though I have only been Catholic 5 years, I’ve never been good at spontaneous prayer.  So, I got my hands on a copy of the Prayer of St. Francis and after being introduced as the IT guy, I was handed the microphone and explained that I am not good at spontaneous prayer, especially when praying out loud, but one of the beautiful things about Christianity is all the Saints who have gone before us, who have written down their conversations with God, and that I would be reciting the Prayer of St. Francis; we bowed, I prayed, and at the end I added the sign of the cross.

Bet you’ve never heard people shout amen during a recitation of the Prayer of St. Francis!

(this post’s title is stated with tongue planted firmly in cheek, by the way.)

Irony doesn’t get much better than this:

The hour-long sermon focused on the sin of committing adultery -– as outlined in Mathew 5:27-32.

Paul Fryman of the State Street United Methodist Church asked the congregation, “How is your commitment level in your marriage this morning?’

He spoke about lust and the sin of cheating on your partner. Clinton looked straight ahead as the man spoke about the theme of the sermon, which was: “Come Up Higher When the Devil Whispers Over Your Shoulder.”

Bill wasn’t there…and I am not even going to go there.  I must wonder, if Mrs. Clinton had responded in a more normal way to the news of her husband’s infidelity would this be a story now, 10 years later?

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Father Pfelger, pastor of something called “Faith Community of St. Sabina” spoke recently at Trinity UCOC - better known as the church Barack Obama has attended for 20 years (but never when Rev. Wright said something controversial.) Pfelger, to put it simply, has several big problems with his priesthood. First of all, he’s ridiculously pro-abortion by virtue of his support of Obama. Further, he called for the murder of a gun shop owner. Third he is apparently a racist, based on his statement on the home page of “St. Sabina Faith Community” that “St. Sabina is a Word-based, Bible teaching African-American Catholic Church…” Fourth, he is apparently anti-semitic based on his statement in support of Farrakhan. And of course the list goes on. Suffice to say, he comes of sounding downright nutty, and not at all like a Catholic priest. Cardinal George ought to do something about this. But I bet he won’t.

By the way, apparently “Faith Community” means something similar to “church.” And apparently, it’s okay to advertise the race of your local parish. I’m going to go over to SMCRome.org right now and change it to say that we are a White European and Hispanic Catholic Parish. Watch how fast Father Jim would be on the phone calling me and telling me to change it!

…Georgia, that is.  Here’s video from the Rome News-Tribune taken at the May Crowning of Mary at St. Mary’s School in Rome.  Father Jim explains the May Crowning…and then some of the kids explain why Mary should be honored.

Click here! 

Thank you everyone that has been praying for me. I will continue to pray for you all throughout my process. Also as Chris said, I will be in Honduras and I will try to send out a weekly newsletter to all of my family and friends, I will post it here as well.

Here is the link to Mission Honduras International.

The Archdiocese of Atlanta has accepted my brother-in-law and occasional contributor to this blog, Tim, as a seminarian! He got word yesterday. He is completing his application to Josephinum Papal College (Columbus, OH) right now, and should start classes in mid-August.

He departs for a summer with Mission Honduras International on Tuesday…perhaps during he allotment of internet time per week, he’ll write a short blog post about what’s going on there. I’d love for this blog to go international!! Congrats to Tim…we’re all looking forward to your future!