The CatholiCity Message

Volume XV, Number 4 – May 2, 2011

Dear CatholiCity Citizen,

Happy Easter! Let's go:

THREE FOR THE AGES
Blessed Pope John Paul II, among his many accomplishments, ended Polish jokes in North America. Last month, we wrote about the thoroughly modern Polish evangelist, Saint Maximilian Kolbe. This past Sunday, Catholics worldwide celebrated Divine Mercy Sunday, a gift of Jesus through Saint Faustina of Poland. Here were three towering saints who enriched the souls of every person on this planet, indirectly or directly, from one beautifully Catholic culture. Dear God, thank you for Poland.

HUMAN SIDE EFFECTS
Wired Magazine recently featured an article on an inexpensive form of "male contraception," which was developed and is currently being tested with apparent success in India: a "gel" compound, once injected, which renders sperm infertile. With seemingly no negative medical side effects compared to surgical vasectomies, this treatment can also be reversed with a relatively simple procedure.

Unfortunately, if approved and adopted throughout the world, such a treatment will have devastating spiritual and cultural side effects, just as the widespread acceptance of contraceptives by mainline Christian denominations in the middle of last century was instrumental in the rapid erosion of Christian society in western nations.

A great majority of Christian men in America (including nominal and practicing Catholics) now have surgical vasectomies while their wives are still capable of bearing children. For devout Catholics, the practice is unthinkable. For virtually all other Americans, it is a given. I once heard a wise man observe that a man who has a vasectomy not only makes himself infertile, but he also makes every woman in the world infertile to him. I know we have readers who have had vasectomies before returning to the Church, including those who did not fully realize it was immoral at the time. We also know you appreciate plain speaking. If you have not done so, face this issue squarely. Confess it, if need be. Seek the counsel of a good priest, discuss it with a faithful friend, and, most importantly, with your beloved.

FROM PETER KREEFT:
"The crisis of faith in the Church is a crisis of faith in Christ's real presence. The deepest root of the dullness and ineffectiveness of most parishes, laity, clergy, homilies, liturgies, music, catechesis, programs, and all the extra Martha-like activities, is not outright heresy or apostasy, but simply remoteness -- not, as the liberals say, the Church's remoteness from 'the people,' but from The Person."

RIDICULOUS BY THE HUNDREDS
Some of you may not realize that you can order all of our CDs, including our brand new "Eucharist Explained" by Rich May in bulk (minimum one hundred per title) for a laughably small donation of 50 cents per CD (with free shipping!). Help us lose money while reaching hundreds or thousands of souls here:

http://www.catholicity.com/cds/evangelization.html

YOU ARE NOT IMAGINING IT
Perhaps the most brilliant allegory every written was Hans Christian Anderson's "The Emperor's New Clothes." Along these lines, we will report that which the mainstream media seems unwilling to admit lest it harm the political fortunes of those they favor. In short, the prices for stuff you cannot prudently avoid buying such as gas, food, insurance, medical care, housing, and tuition have risen faster and more dramatically than is being reported. Additionally, state and local authorities have steadily increased taxes, fees, fines, and the like for years. The shrinking numbers in your checkbook confirm this.

Virtually all of us have done our share of cutting back and belt-tightening going back to the 2007 economic crisis well before the current inflation started to eat into our financial resources like acid. There is tremendous strain on regular folks, especially families struggling to provide for children. Some of us have lost jobs or otherwise suffered loss of income or savings that may never be recovered. We just wanted to acknowledge this, in black and white pixel, so you know that you are not imagining it. Costs are going through the roof. The emperor is naked.

Every day for twenty years your writer has prayed with great sincerity and faith for your temporal and financial needs after receiving Communion, and he will continue to do so, well, until he stops breathing. God will answer these prayers. Remember, we have the great advantage of our actual experience of God providing for our needs, sometimes in miraculous ways. Jesus does love us more than birds that neither sow nor reap. We sometimes wonder if the evil one wants us to be anxious about these things because he hates that it is God, not he, who provides for us, including the gifts of health, motivation, prudence, and the opportunity to work hard and receive decent pay in a relatively free, essentially well-ordered society.

TENS OF THOUSANDS PRAYING TOGETHER
Let's pray right now, tens of thousands of us together, with great sincerity, for each other's financial needs:

"Father, oh Father, we need your help. We struggle to pay the bills. Those of us who do not struggle have friends and families who do. Some of us are worried about keeping our jobs. Some of us are out of work. We could go on and on, but you know all the details, and every need, small and large, every pixel on every bill on our desks, so with great humility, and simple faith, with heads bowed, as your sons and daughters, we ask You to supply quickly what we lack through your superabundance of generosity, even if that requires guiding us perfectly to the means to earn what we need through our hard work. Help us to find ways to live simply and prudently within our means. Enlighten us in every area where our financial struggles are an opportunity to embrace poverty of spirit and to forsake any material goods which are a burden to holiness. Without hesitation we ask for miracles where needed for ourselves, our loved ones, and our parishes. We acknowledge that every prosperity and material blessing developed and enjoyed by man throughout the centuries is a reflection of your rational nature, a trait that most makes us like you aside from our immortality. Your Son told us not to worry about these things. Give us the grace to follow His advice. We ask for bread, and know you will not give us rocks. Thank you. Amen."

BETTER MOUSETRAP DEPARTMENT: VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
You can now order free Mary Foundation CDs and Saint Jude Media novels through CatholiCity.com in one simple transaction. We will not bore you with the somewhat technical and operational reasons why we made this change. We do need a bunch of you to test drive our (hopefully) staggeringly simple, fully secure online order form:

https://secure.catholicity.com/

Seriously, we need a few hundred volunteers to go there right now and order a book or a CD, including those of you who have not ordered online from us in a long time. Make a donation for a dollar (or stock up for your summer evangelization needs) and then, in the comment box at the end, let us know how easy it was or was not, and if and where you were confused, so we can improve or fix it. A few minutes and a couple bucks from you today can save tens of thousands of people lots of time and trouble.

FREE NOVEL FLYERS FOR FREE
As a result of the one-stop ordering, we have thousands of perfectly wonderful and valid "Free Catholic Novel" full-color flyers that we will no longer include in our outgoing shipping packages. If you think you can distribute a thousand or more flyers in your area, email our webmaster with the number flyers you want and your address, and we'll ship them to you free-of-any-imaginable charge right away:

webmaster@catholicity.com

FOR OUR SEASONED CITIZENS: IRA GIFT REMINDER
If you are older than 70 and a half, you may now make tax-free transfers of up to $100K from an IRA to the Mary Foundation for the 2011 tax year. Gifts can be made until December 31, 2011 as part of the Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2010. These fulfill some or all the required minimum distribution without increasing taxable income.

BIN LADEN IS DEAD
One day later, we struggle to find something worthwhile to write about a cowardly mass murderer who killed innocent civilians in the name of Allah. Here is the statement from the Vatican's spokesman, which does a better job than we could ever do:

"Osama bin Laden, as we all know, bore the most serious responsibility for spreading divisions and hatred among populations, causing the deaths of innumerable people, and manipulating religions to this end. In the face of a man's death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred."

CORRECTION FROM LAST MESSAGE
An ounce of gasoline costs 3 cents, not 45 cents.

KINDLE FIRST
For those who prefer it, all Saint Jude Media novels are now available for Kindle for a nominal two bucks (almost all of which goes to Amazon). Apple formatting (iPad, etc.) will follow soon.

BIG MAY DAYS
The Feast of Our Lady of Fatima is on Friday, May 13, so you can start a nine-day Rosary Novena this Thursday, May 5, which happens to be the National Day of Prayer in the United States. May ends with the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the 31st, a day inspiring to all pro-lifers because John the Baptist kicked in the womb.

QUOTES

"On September 11, 2001, we all knew one thing right away: that it was not a bunch of Lutherans who flew planes into those buildings."
G.K. McBrien

On Blessed John Paul II: "He met my visiting parents, who were not yet Catholic, and instead of discussing the papal primacy he took their hands and mine and made a kind of sandwich of them between his own. Within little more than a year they were received into the Church. The only personal contribution I made to his pontificate was at a frugal Lenten dinner when he asked the English word for 'homiletics' -- and I told him: 'homiletics.'"
Fr. George Rutler

"We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."
Aristotle

"A beatification is not a posthumous honor given to a papacy, however historic and inspiring. It is a recognition by the Church that one of her members lived the theological virtues of faith, hope and love to an heroic degree and that God has confirmed that ecclesial assessment, so to speak, by the granting of a miracle (which only God can do) through prayers made to Him through that person's direct intercession."
Fr. Roger Landry

"But we don't want some heavenly city on the other side of death. We are still those faded, smudgy Xerox copies of Adam whose hearts pine after restful times spent under Eden's trees heavy with fruit. We use our bulky brains to figure out back doors and forgotten tunnels back into the Garden, or technological means to disable the flaming sword. We prefer the disappointments to which we're resigned to the terrifying transformation that is demanded, and when He gently explains to us that simple innocence no longer is an option, we look deep in His eyes -- and like the rich young man, we go away sad."
John Zmirak

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
Aristotle

"I am all yours Mary and all that I have is yours."
Blessed John Paul II, Papal Motto

Thanks for being a part of our work. We hope this helped you. We remain yours...

With Immaculate Mary,

Your Friends at CatholiCity