Big Mac vs The Whopper

Over the past few weeks the American Family Association (AFA)-- http://www.afa.net/-- has been sending e-mail alerts exposing McDonald’s support of the homosexual agenda. The boycott attached to the e-mails specifies that AFA’s objection “is not about hiring homosexuals, or homosexuals eating at McDonald's, or how homosexual employees are treated. It is about McDonald's, as a corporation, choosing to put the full weight of their corporation behind promoting the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage.”

AFA reached out to McDonald’s and asked the corporation for the following:

Remove McDonald's name and logo from the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) Web site listing McDonald's as a "Corporate Partner and Organization Ally" of NGLCC.

Remove the endorsement of NGLCC by Richard Ellis, Vice President of Communications for McDonald's USA, from the NGLCC Web site.

Not only did McDonald’s deny the request, but according to AFA the fast-food chain even “paid $20,000 to become a member of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and to have a seat on the board of directors.”

On August 13 AFA announced that McDonald’s had upped the ante in this cultural poker “game” by sponsoring a group called Out & Equal Workplace Advocates. According to AFA,
“Out & Equal™ Workplace Advocates is a national organization devoted to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the workplace.

One of its primary purposes is to train employees how to aggressively promote homosexuality within the company they work for, all the way to the corporate boardroom. Part of last year’s Out & Equal Summit in Washington, DC, (sponsored by McDonald’s) was an organized march into congressional offices demanding same-sex marriage laws be passed.”

So the next time you crave a hamburger, go with a Whopper.

Donald Tremblay

Time to Clean House

The current issue of the New Oxford Review examines Leon Podles latest book, Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. (http://www.newoxfordreview.org/reviews.jsp?did=0708-bower) Podles is also the author of The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity. Reviewer Paul Bower describes Sacrilege as “thoroughly researched and painstakingly detailed” and adds that it “inspires anger and disgust”. Among the more shocking allegations in the book is that there has been “networks of child-abusers in the priesthood, some of which spanned entire geographic regions and crossed several diocesan borders. The most notable of these were in New Mexico and Iowa .” According to Podles it is a desire for power, and not sexual gratification, that drives these abusers. They are classic narcissists in his view.

At 675 pgs Sacrilege should provide a wealth of information. I am eager to read the tome since Podles take on the sexual abuse crisis differs so widely from my own.

A Feb 2007 article in the National Catholic Register (http://ncregister.com/site/article/1876) states that “between 75% and 80% of the abuse involved adolescent male victims”. Some argue that the reason so many of the victims are males is because the abusers had greater access to boys than to girls. Possibly. But I tend to agree with the analysis of Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital , who argues that “the abuse crisis wasn’t pedophilia but ‘homosexual predation on American Catholic youth.’” Why homosexual predation and not pedophilia? The overwhelming majority of the victims were adolescent males, not prepubescent children of both sexes. There is a major psychological difference between the two. Acknowledging this distinction is essential because only by properly defining a problem can you expect to solve it.

So what should the Church do to prevent this disgrace from happening again?

Pope Benedict’s apology on behalf of the Church and his willingness to confront the issue is an excellent first step. In addition, the standards spelled out in 2005 by the Congregation for Catholic Education are a very important step in preventing future abusers from entering the clergy:

“In light of this teaching, this department, in agreement with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, holds it necessary clearly to affirm that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, may not admit to the seminary and Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, show profoundly deep-rooted homosexual tendencies, or support the so-called gay culture.” (http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=40891)

But the cleansing of the seminaries should not end here. The Church needs to purge the seminaries of those ecclesiastics who have allowed or encouraged the gay subculture to exist in seminaries. Numerous articles and books have been written about this subculture. Goodbye, Good Men by Michael Rose is probably the most recognizable. Among the sickening tidbits exposed by Rose are the nicknames given to some American seminaries: “Notre Flame” for the Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans ; “Theological Closet” for Theological College at the Catholic University of America in Washington , D.C. ; and the “ Pink Palace ” for St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore .

After classifying the church sexual abuse crisis as “homosexual predation on American Catholic youth,” Dr. McHugh added, “’I’m astonished that people throughout America are not talking about it, thinking about it, and wondering about what the mechanisms were that set this alight.’” We the laity need to assume this responsibility. Stiff resistance can be expected from entrenched ecclesiastics who favor the status quo, so we need to actively and zealously support the clergy who want to enforce these “changes”. In a society where Catholic doctrine and dogma is anathema, reform-minded clergy desperately need our reinforcements.

“Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18) Although we may take comfort in knowing that the Lord is protecting His Church, we cannot use this knowledge to absolve ourselves of responsibility. We are soldiers of Christ and we are called to defend His Church against the gates of hell.


Donald Tremblay

Click here to hear what the Pope is talking about

This Is How it Begins

Yes, this is how it begins. Sure we have a first amendment, but activist judges will find a way around that inconvenience. It’ll start the way it did in places like Canada . Laws will be passed to prevent discrimination. Then those laws will be used to argue that “offensive” words are a form of discrimination and violate a person’s rights. Eventually the very teachings of Christianity will be considered hate speech and will result in lawsuits. Paranoia on my part? Hardly. (See: “Attack on Religious Freedom Begins in Earnest in Canada ” - Battleground Homosexuality - http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/oct/06100601.html )

We now have the beginnings of this in the United States . The Church Report Online announced in their newsletter today that “a Michigan man has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that certain Bibles from Thomas Nelson Publishing and another Bible publisher discriminate against gays.” (http://www.thecronline.com/mag_article.php?mid=1369&mname=July)

Here is the scriptural passage under dispute:

"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God ? Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God ." (1 Corinthians, 6:9)

Bradley Fowler, the homosexual man who has filed the lawsuit, says “he believes the use of the word homosexual in the Bibles is a misinterpretation and that the verse isn't translated correctly.”

It seems unlikely that the case will be heard . . . but it doesn’t matter. This is the beginning of the slippery slope. More lawsuits will follow in the coming months and years, each one more focused on the minutiae of the law, intent on finding a loophole that will allow an activist judge to strike a blow against the homophobic Catholic Church.

Be watchful. Be aware.

Donald Tremblay

A Get Out of Jail Free Card...Not

The Pew Forum released a report today reminding Catholics, albeit unintentionally, of the damage caused by the misguided notion of "primacy of conscience."

"A newly released study from the Pew Forum shows that many self-described American Catholics ignore Church teachings on both theological and social issues." (http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=89626) According to the report, "the Pew Forum found that 48% of Catholics respondents favor legal abortion (16% in all cases, 32% in most cases), while only 18% agree that abortion should always be illegal. A substantial majority of the Catholics polled-- 58%-- said that society should accept homosexuality. On theological issues, only 16% of American Catholics believe that the Church is the one true means of salvation."

This shouldn't surprise anyone given the morally relativistic culture we live in. Your truth is your truth, and my truth is mine, and we agree not to pass judgment on one another. What better fertile ground for the concept of primacy of conscience to blossom?

Australian Archbishop George Pell best defined primacy of conscience as "secular relativism with a religious face." Dissenting Catholics embrace primacy of conscience as their "get out of jail free card", because it allows them to justify their refusal to accept Church teachings: "After all, I'm just following the conscience that God gave me. I'm making the choice I feel is right. How can I be held responsible for a bad choice if I only followed my heart, my conscience?"


Well, guess what? You will be held responsible.


The problem with primacy of conscience is that it assumes the conscience in question is mature and well-formed. In many cases this is not true. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches the following in regards to the formation of our consciences:


“In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path, we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church” (Catechism, 1785).


Refusing to be 'guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church' is to willfully reject the proper formation of our consciences. Our consciences stagnate, leaving us in a state of ignorance for which we are responsible:

"A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed. This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man 'takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin.' In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits." (Catechism 1790, 1791)

Pray. Pray for those who willfully scorn the Church's teachings and for those who mistakenly believe that our consciences alone can distinguish between right and wrong. Otherwise, there will be many smiling souls who will be surprised to learn that the path they are treading leads not to the Beatific Vision, but to the place where Dante warns, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." (Inferno, Canto Three)


Donald Tremblay