From Pope Benedict XVI

'It is inconceivable', as Benedict XVI remarked, 'that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves - their faith - in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one's rights. The rights associated with religion are all the more in need of protection if they are considered to clash with a prevailing secular ideology or with majority religious positions of an exclusive nature'".


Read more here

Some Explanations and Other Stuff

As many long time readers and followers already know, when these blogs began almost five years ago (Faith of the Fathers blogs will celebrate our five year anniversary on July 31), there was a total of four contributors to these blogs.

As time has passed, only I remain. One contributor, Marie in fact, became very ill, and was forced to cut back on many activities for the sake of her health. I hope all of you will keep her in your prayers. The other two contributors have had many other pressing obligations that have prohibited them from being able to participate on these blogs as before.

So, I alone remain, and let me tell you, it is quite a job for me to try to keep 24 blogs going, and I am afraid that my best is not good enough. I have been primarily concentrating on Saint Quote of the Day, Daily Mass Readings, and Pope Benedict XVI.

I have attempted to post to the others as time permits, and to be frank, I do not have the insight, knowledge and wisdom of Marie when it comes to such topics as Spirituality and Mysticism, Spiritual Warfare, or Saints of the Faith. She wrote her posts with a lively style and insight that I could never hope to equal or remotely imitate. At least that’s my opinion.

Ginny always had a way of "speaking" to the younger generation...her generation... that is far beyond my meager abilities. She also knew how to talk with, and "explain" our Faith to kids, and that is why she was the one who undertook the "Kids Corner" blogs (five of those) for our younger readers. She did such a great job, that one young lady (I think she was about 8 or 9 years old) wrote a comment about a year back in which she said, among other things, "I love your sight". That was a compliment that belonged entirely to Ginny and her efforts.

Lastly, Emmy had a way of finding many prayers from various saints, to Our Lady, and more that made me want to learn more of these prayers and include them in my prayer life. She also provided some very good articles on Approved Apparitions.

All in all, I have some very big shoes to try to fill, and I find myself lacking. I will try to do better, as time and my job permit.

Now, let me address one thing here also. There have been a few questions about some of the advertisements and items that have been placed on "Faith of the Fathers" blogs sidebars.

I have placed these items there in order to attempt to earn a little extra to help pay for my internet access and other expenses related to research materials, and some hard to find traditional materials related to the Church and our faith. With the economy as it is, I am very blessed to still have a job. However my hours have been cut, but my bills have not. I know I am not the only one in this boat and I am not complaining.

There are book offerings on various Catholic topics from Barnes & Noble for example. Some of those sidebar ads show particular books that are relative to the blog on which they are displayed. It is not an attempt to get you to buy those particular books, but a suggestion as to the types of books that are available on that particular topic. I  hope to be able to offer books and items from the husband and wife author team of Bob and Penny Lord very soon.

I also created an e-book called "My Daily Saint Quotations" for $1.99 that is in PDF format. I worked hard on this little 30-page offering,. So far, the people who have purchased it have been pleased with it.

Lastly, I created a free toolbar that can be downloaded and installed in your browser if you have Internet Explorer (versions 6 and above) or Mozilla Firefox (versions 1 and above). I make a few cents from it when you download, install, and use it. The search box in it is Google Search (by default), it has a menu with shortcuts to Faith of the Fathers blogs, a news ticker, a radio player (Catholic radio stations such as EWTN, and Catholic podcasts by default), and some other functions you might find useful or entertaining. I also joined the Conduit (creators of free toolbars) Affiliate program that enables me to earn some cash for those who create toolbars for their blogs or web sites. You can create your own toolbar by a Click Here.

I just wanted to explain to everyone what is going on and why I have taken the steps that I have. I hope to make this blog as good as it once was, and with your continued readership, and most especially, your prayers, I know that I can.

Thnak you, and God Bless you all!

Abortion Lobbying By White House In Kenya Alleged

 

 

The Obama administration is alleged to have offered “incentives” to Kenya to approve a new constitution that would legalize abortion in that country for the first time.

Three members of the United States Congress have asked in letters to the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Government Accountability Office, and U.S. Agency for International Development for a federal probe to determine whether the administration violated federal law with its assistance. The letters were sent to the three named departments by Republican Reps. Darrell Issa of California, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Chris Smith of New Jersey.

One of the letters sent this past May states, "Any advocacy by the administration in support of the proposed new constitution would constitute lobbying for abortion. There is no doubt that the administration is advocating for adoption of the proposed constitution."

Article 26 of the proposed constitution states that abortion is allowed if "in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger or if permitted by any other written law."

Many pro-life organizations point out that this wording of the Article is too broad to interpretation. Some have said that a “trained health professional” could be anyone who has health training “including a student or physical therapist”. They also say that this includes any kind of health including psychological or emotional health. They also point out that it leaves the way open for the passage of more pro-abortion laws.

Vice-President Joe Biden gave a speech in Kenya last month in which he urged the Kenyan people to pass the constitution in a referendum scheduled for August 4. In the speech Biden said, “The United States strongly supports the process of constitutional reform. ... Dare to reach for transformative change, the kind of change that might come around only once in a lifetime.” He also added, "If you make these changes, I promise you, new foreign private investment will come in like you've never seen."

It has also been alleged in reports that the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger told Kenyan officials last May that the U.S. has offered 2 million dollars in taxpayer funds for civic education to support the process of enacting the new constitution.

It has not been a healthy climate in Kenya for those who oppose the new constitution. Three members of the Kenyan parliament were arrested for “hate speech” that related to their prominence in opposing the new constitution. Three more opponents of the new constitution were accused of hate speech including the Higher Education Minister. A Kenyan newspaper, The Standard also reported that a peaceful anti-constitution protest and prayer service turned deadly when 2 bombs exploed killing 6 and injuring 100.

A federal law known as the Siljander Amendment passed in 2006 makes it illegal for the U.S. government to lobby on abortion in other countries, whether the lobbying is either for or against abortion.