Bribing God: George Soros' Dirty Money

The Church is not a political tool. She is the rock of human history. Only the Cross stands, and the rest of the world revolves around it - as the motto of the Carthusians goes. The Church doesn't endorse candidates for office or change her position at the whim of its constituency. She is the stronghold of the faithful. Of course this doesn't stop men like George Soros.

Soros is one of the biggest names in the world of finance. His Soros Fund has made billions in investments, most famously by betting against the British pound just before it was massively devalued. Not all of his deals are so lauded. The government of Thailand accused him of launching speculative attacks against the Thai baht in 1997. In 2002, Soros was convicted of insider trading by a French court. Long story short, Soros is a money man with a not-so-clean track record.

What's worse is that he's using that money to spread an agenda that is totally opposed to the Truth.

Thanks to documents released by WikiLeaks, it was discovered that George Soros is using his massive fortune to try to influence the Catholic Church. In addition to funding subversive elements within the Church, Soros' pet political organization, the Open Society Foundation, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead of Pope Francis' visit to the United States in an order to shift the policy of the Catholic Church so that it would better fit the extreme progressivism of Soros.

What exactly does Soros believe in? One of the best ways to know what a man values is to pay attention to how he uses his wallet. George Soros, albeit a man with a rather large wallet, is no exception.

Soros is the founder of the Open Society Foundation and the Center for American Progress. Both groups are agents of the culture of death. They are zealously pro-abortion and seek to undermine the Sacrament of Marriage through pushing the gay agenda, especially in developing countries. The Open Society Foundation goes so far as to support the decriminalization of prostitution!

In 2012, Soros donated $1M to the effort to legalize marijuana in California. He is also pro-euthanasia, an issue that is getting more and more important with its legalization in Belgium, a policy that could better be called suicide on demand. Soros has even said publically that he offered to help his mother kill herself!

Now it would be unfair to overlook the large amount of philanthropic work Soros supports. He donates millions of dollars to various charities. Without a doubt some of that money has done a lot of good. The problem is that many of those organizations combine helping the poor with providing abortions and euthanasia and lobbying for the destruction of marriage. Let us remember the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians: "And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:3). It is impossible to truly love your fellow man if you support his being butchered in abortion.

Let us now turn to the recent scandal reported by the Washington Times and the Catholic League. Leaked documents unveiled a deliberate attempt by Soros' organization to attack the Tradition of the Catholic Church. He paid grass-roots activists to spread lies about the social teachings of the Church and even discussed the "buy-in of individual bishops" to give his agenda the momentum to "shift the Catholic Church."

Brothers and sisters, we ought to be outraged! This modern day tax-collector is interfering in the Church. His activism is just as harmful to the Church as an armed invasion, even worse because of his subtlety.

This is not the first time Soros has tried to change the Church. He is a regular supporter of Catholics United, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and Catholics for Choice.

Catholics United was founded to get Catholics to vote for pro-abortion politicians. Their president is a regular guest of the White House.

Catholics in Alliance is even worse. They have hijacked Pope Francis' message for their anti-marriage ends. Their website is filled with such drivel as "Could Pope Francis be a Feminist Pope?" that confuses and divides the laity. Catholics in Alliance also has a history of supporting heretic-priests universally condemned by the Church for their schismatic efforts.

I can't do the perversity of Catholics for Choice justice. They are a pack of wolves masquerading as the flock of Christ. Saying abortion can be consistent with the Catholic faith is nothing but lies. This group steals our name and supports the killing of children! Not hard to see why George Soros bankrolls them.

Soros makes it apparent that he sees the Church as a tool, something to be manipulated for his own gain. He supports the spread of contemptible falsehoods and misguidance under the pretext of faith. Soros would in fact like nothing more than the destruction of the Catholic Church, despite his charitable pretenses.

He is not the first. The Romans owned the known world and threw Christians into torture pits for their entertainment. King Henry VIII outlawed Catholicism, established his own false breed of Christianity, and beheaded St. Thomas Moore. The radicals of the French Revolution executed countless priests and religious in the name of liberty. Hitler, the Soviets, and countless kings and warlords have all tried to subvert, divide, or destroy the Catholic Church. Every single one of them failed.

Soros will be no different. No matter how much money he wastes, he will never shake the foundation established by Christ.

That doesn't mean we should remain inactive. No Catholic organization, or bishop for that matter, should accept one cent of Soros' money. It is bloodied by his support for abortion and euthanasia. Furthermore, we ought to call out these faux-Catholics groups, these wolves in sheep's clothing. They are "traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasure more than God" (2 Timothy 3:4). If a group supports abortion or the destruction of marriage, they are not Catholic. Period. Catholics for Choice is a sham; they and their ilk need to be exposed as the liars they are. "Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city" (Psalms 54:10).

Being a Christian can be intimidating. The foes of the Church always seem to have more money, more power, and more votes. But in the words of St. John Paul the Great, "Do not be afraid!" Brothers and sisters, continue thou in those things which thou hast learned, and which have been committed to thee: knowing of whom thou hast learned them" (2 Tim 3:14). Stand for the Truth even if it means you're the only one standing!

DEUS VULT!

The Pelosi Heresy

Far too often in the public sphere, we have seen this watered-down, tamed, and inert kind of Catholicism, most recently with Hilary Clinton choosing Time Kaine as her running mate. Tim Kaine claims to be a "traditional Catholic" who is "personally pro-life." Of course, he doesn't let that interfere with his legislative career. Kaine is a firm supporter of a woman's right to chose, better known as a woman's right to kill - he has a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood, a gold star from the murder industry. Though it has not been as publicized, Kaine is also a staunch supporter of gay "marriage." What kind of Catholic is this?

Among other names he deserves to be called (spineless flip-flopper among them), Tim Kaine is a Pelosi Catholic. I choose the name Pelosi simply because the former Speaker of the House is one of the mots prominent of this type of Catholic, though there are others: Biden, John Kerry, and the late Ted Kennedy just to name a few.

Their error is both grave and scandalous; they believe that it is possible to separate your private life from your public life, to be a faithful Catholic at Mass but a partisan abortion promoter in Congress.

This doesn't work. Christ tells us that "No man can serve two masters.... You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24), or in this case you cannot serve both God and party. One or the other will end up being your priority. And I am not saying that this problem is limited to the Democrats. Many Catholics who operate in the public sphere, regardless of their political affiliation, are guilty of this. But the issue here is that these Catholics are in such prominent positions and flaunt such flagrant contradictions. When the New York Times writes articles like "In Pelosi, Strong Catholic Faith and Abortion Rights Coexist," the faithful must respond.

We are not simply condemning a sin. We are proclaiming to the world that this is not Catholicism!

In times past, we would have called such a trend a heresy.

It is a heresy because you cannot separate what you believe from how you live. There's that famous quote of St. Francis, "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words." And this is the truth. Will people be inspired by your faith if you leave it on your lips and it never reaches your hands? How often did Jesus rebuke the Pharisees for merely sermonizing instead of authentically living their faith.

A popular excuse from people like Tim Kaine is that they don't want to impose their views on others. Sure I think abortion is murder, but I'm not going to interfere if someone else makes that their choice. But that is not consistent with the Message of the Gospel! Jesus imposed His views on others *gasp. When He saw the adulterous woman about to be stoned, Our Lord did not shrug His shoulders and rationalize that while He was personally opposed to this punishment, it would be intolerant of Him to try to stop it. No, Jesus stepped in front of the raised stones and rebuked the self-righteous condemnation of the crowd. Neither did Jesus allow the woman to continue in her sinful ways, accepting her different "lifestyle." After sending the crowd away, Jesus said to her "Go, and now sin no more" (John 8:11). That is not tolerance, that is love.

It is impossible to build a wall between your private faith and your public life.

While I cannot speak for Kaine, Pelosi, or any of the rest of their equivocating ilk, it does appear tht they are only Catholic when it looks good. Our country has not yet fallen so far that being a person of faith does not look good, just so long as that faith remains uncontroversial. Tim Kaine did a fair amount of mission work in his youth, and that ought to be applauded. And the truth of the matter is, that looks good. But the masses and the media and the party officials have decided that the right to have an abortion and gay "marriage" ought to be as sacred as the name of God. Hence Pelosi Catholics, despite the word "Catholic," are both abortion promoters and foes of traditional marriage. And complicity in the murderous evil of abortion blots out a whole lot of good.

Is this really Christianity? Faithful when it's convenient, pagan when it's not?

Father David Knight writes in His Way (a book that I can't recommend enough) that this is instead what he calls civil religion. "Civil religion is a religion whose morality is simply a reflection or an echo of what the 'nice' people in one's culture think, say and do." And that is what Pelosi Catholicism amounts to.

The scandal of this Pelosi heresy is great because of their position and power. Think about what good could be done if we had a truly faithful Catholic vice-president! God does not expect a lower standard of Catholicism from those in power. "And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required" (Luke 12:48). Children and even some adults look up to people in power. They become role-models. What message does it send our youth if abortion activism appears to "coexist" with the Catholic faith? It is these heretics who lend credence to the idea that support for traditional marriage is merely something for "conservative Catholics." Once more from the Gospel of Luke, we read that "It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin" (Luke 17:2). Woe to those who lead others into sin by their examples!

Of course, this rebuke is not limited to those with Secret Service details. Each and every one of us, myself most certainly included, must reflect upon our lives and ensure that there is no contradiction between our private faith and our public lives. Embrace the fullness of the Gospel! Catholicism is not a la carte. We cannot pick and choose. Being Catholic means that we also have to follow those teachings of Christ that we might not necessarily want to, those that make us uncomfortable, and even those that hurt a little like loving your enemy or praying for those who persecute you.

Remember that pretty much every one of us is an example for someone else whether we are a manager, a teacher, a parent, or even an older sibling. Your life is not just your own. Make sure that your conduct leads others, particularly the vulnerable, towards God instead of towards sin and bondage.

Brothers and sisters make your faith controversial! Counter the message that certain high-profile Catholics are sending. We are not of the world and so it is only natural for the world to hate us. If you're living comfortably in your faith in the midst of the world, chances are you're doing it wrong.

Deus Vult!

Peace in Our Time?

What is our world coming to? Last Friday, on November 13th, the city of Paris suffered her worst attack since the Second World War. 129 people died. Several hundred were injured. Why? This was the work of truly depraved men, men who believed that they were fighting for the sake of religion. "Allah Ackbar," they cried as they stole innocent lives and covered the streets of the City of Lights with blood. These are not men of God. These are men of hate. These are not holy warriors fighting for their faith. These are cowards who target civilians and blow themselves up. These are not martyrs. These are murderers. In a recent address, His Holiness Pope Francis called these monsters and all who kill in the name of religion "blasphemers." Islamic terrorists like the ones who perpetrated the attacks in Paris make a mockery of the name of God by using it as their final words as they kill innocents. That is not what God is. That is not the truth. That is a lie.

The taking of innocent lives is never justified by religion. It is never justified by anything. We must always remember that a single life, a single soul, is so precious that Jesus Christ would have died on the Cross for them alone.

That is the problem with Islam. The Bible does not say "kill the unbelievers" seven times. The Quran does. The Bible does not sentence basically all woman to damnation. The Quran does. Jesus did not reclaim his holy city by massacring Jews. Muhammad did.

The heresy of these Islamic terrorists is that they think that God is pleased by acts of violence, by their killing of the unbelievers. They believe that they can appease him with the shedding of innocent blood. What damned nonsense.

They are dying for a lie. They are killing for a lie. They are truly monsters. Their violence and blasphemy is not limited to Paris, not by any means. Our Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East are callously murdered by the same lie that murdered 129 in France. Every single day, the Islamic State and others like them blow themselves up, behead, rape, and murder all for the sake of their "religion," their lie.

What should we do? What can we do? Is there anything that we can do in the face of such utter violence and depravity?

Have faith in the justice of God. His righteousness is so much greater than our own. His justice comes in His own time. Make no mistake, these monsters that call themselves holy warriors, mock the name of God, and murder His true believers will have their day before the Throne. They will not be able to escape the judgement of God for their depravity.

What we should do is pray. Pray for those who lost their lives in France, in the Middle East, and around the world because of the lies of hate and blasphemy. And though it might be hard, pray for those souls that have somehow become so consumed with hate that they think that it is acceptable to take a life. And pray for better times. Pray that we might have peace in our age, as impossible as it seems, for nothing is impossible with God. This age of hate and apostasy should make us yearn all the more strongly for the coming of the Kingdom of God. Just as the Israelites prayed for deliverance during their years of captivity and oppression, so too should we Christians pray for the love of God to blot out the hate of our world.

The only thing in this world stronger than this hate is love. We have no shortage of examples of radical love in the face of hate. Do not be afraid of these terrorists. Have hope. They are not the first to promise the destruction of Christianity and all we hold dear. We have two millennia of true and holy martyrs to prove this. The Romans could not extinguish the love of Christ, regardless of the numbers of Christians sacrificed to the beasts or burned alive or tortured to death. The Church survives. She has survived fire and blood, schism and hate. The Church is well and alive!

This attack on Paris was the act of cowards, but they are doomed cowards. They have taken on a futile task because the Church of God will never fall. We are established on a rock, not on bloodied sand as they are. Await God's judgement eagerly, for He will bring peace in our time. He alone will bring peace in our time.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

Saint Genevieve, patroness of Paris, pray for us.

Deus Volt!

The Dignity of Man

In his address to the United Nations, Pope Francis reminded the collective nations of a simple fact - all men are created in the image and likeness of Christ. Every man, woman, and child that shares this earth has the same essential dignity.

Despite the unprecedented level of connectivity and communication ushered in by technological advances, we maintain an attitude of what His Holiness called "exclusiveness." Far too often, we do not look beyond our borders, our families, and most importantly, our selves. It is far too easy to reduce the seven billion members of humanity to just that: a number.

Catholics should not look upon the world as a hodgepodge of separate nations, of individual interests, or of statistics. Sure, you might feel bad if you hear that just short of a billion people worldwide face hunger and starvation. But what do you do with that feeling? The sentiment is not enough. It might reflect well on your moral sensibilities if you can conjure up feelings of sympathy for the millions of displaced refugees around the world, but it does not make you a good person. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, or so the adage goes.

We are Catholics. The word "catholic" means universal. We are a part of the Universal Church. The truth in which we place our faith is not limited to any hemisphere of the globe. It is not limited to any culture. It is not limited to any tongue. Abraham and his descendants, the Israelites, were the first people chosen by God. When the Son of God became man, our inheritance was no longer of flesh and blood, but of the spirit.

Leaders and followers alike, do not fall into error! Do not forget that all men were created equally by God. There is no essential difference between an American billionaire and a Syrian refugee. Both have the same dignity as children of God.

Now what does this dignity mean? It means that all men are entitled to the same, basic rights. As the Declaration of Independence puts it, "unalienable rights." When speaking before the United Nations, Pope Francis put forth the three L's of human dignity: lodging, labor, and land. These three things are needed to give men quality of life. In addition to those three, His Holiness added to the necessities of life education, and religious freedom, freedom of conscience.

Men are not numbers. They are not a statistic. Refugees from regional conflicts are not a problem, they are people. The starving are not simply mouths. The homeless are not simply buckets to catch thrown loose change. Issues involving humans cannot simply be solved by throwing money at them.

What this world needs is a new host of Catholics who understand the dignity of each and every human life. We must protect that life from the womb to the grave. We must not stop fighting. We cannot allow children to be murdered in the womb. We cannot allow the elderly to be discarded when they are of no use. We cannot allow people to starve, to live in ignorance, to lack the basic necessities of a human life.

As always, Jesus did not leave us bereft of instruction. Matthew 25:37-40:

        "Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’"

When we see another man, we should not see the tone of their skin, their religion, their clothing, their wallet, or their language. We should instead see the face of God.

Especially in this age of darkness, when true doctrine is mocked and when faith is reduced to a fantasy, the faithful must act as the body of Christ. The Church must be the hands and feet of God, wherever He is needed. And He is needed everywhere: from the streets of Chicago to the slums of Mexico city, from the boardrooms of New York to the villages of Mongolia.

Every man was born as a reflection of the goodness of God.

No man can survive without God.

Deus Volt!

You are Greater Than Cecil

A lot of fuss has been made about the death of Cecil the lion, a recently deceased denizen of a Zimbabwe national park who was killed, purportedly illegally, by an American dentist. With the sheer number of different animals in the world, it is surprising that the demise of a single member of the big cat family would cause such an international uproar. Yet such is the case. I would venture a guess that more people in the United States know the name of Cecil the lion than know the name of the current vice president. That is the power of trending on social media.

There is nothing wrong with being angry that an animal was killed illegally. All creatures are created by God and they are due some measure of dignity. There are laws against poaching and for good reason. In acting as stewards of God's earth, it is right and fitting to preserve species from extinction. The most recent papal encyclical by Pope Francis, Laudato Si, examines this stewardship in greater detail and wisdom than can be provided in this short post.

But we need to look at the phenomenon of the death of Cecil the lion for an even bigger reason than as a reminder of our human responsibilities. The reaction itself was dangerous, even terrifying. It was myoptic. Suddenly, the death of one lion became national headlines. The death of a single human would not have been as tragic in the eyes of the media (Not to mention the millions of dead children from abortion.) Protestors flocked to the dental practice of the man who killed Cecil carrying signs that called for his death. The moral equivalency here is out of proportion for more than one reason. It is interesting to note that the same people who have trouble stomaching the death penalty would have no qualms about its application on a man who killed a beast. If you would believe Facebook and Twitter, a murderer is little more than a lightweight felon next to the dentist who hunted Cecil.

Give a man annonymity, and you will get stupidity in return. The arguments on the Internet that would like to immortalize Cecil as some kind of figurehead of animal rights are disturbing. Self-appointed pundits are claiming that the lives of animals are worth more than those of humans. These claims tend to fall into one of two categories. About half say that since animals have not created war and racism, they are obviously morally superior to human beings. The other half uses a twisted sort of mathematics. Apparently, since there are only slightly less than 30,000 lions left in the world (Pandera.org,) lions are more valuable than humans as we number seven billion.

Both of these arguments are disgusting.

This is why the Cecil incident is so eye-opening. In this culture of death, people have become so jaded that they have forgotten their own dignity. They've listened to the lies of Satan for too long and mistaken them for truths. This is the pinnacle of an age that has lost sight of its own value. Pornography reduces us to objects of pleasure. Greed reduces us to our savings account. Now we look at the innocence of beasts and envy them, forgetting that their innocence comes from ignorance.

It is time for the truth.

God created both man and beast. But just because the same hand formed them does not mean that they have to be equal in value. The hands of a sculptor can create both a simple cup and the Pieta. In no eyes are the two equal in beauty or worth. The same is true for us. God did not create the animals in His image. It is in man that the likeness of God can be found.

The Catechism has the perfect answer for our moral dearth of a world:

"The hierarchy of creatures is expressed by the order of the 'six days,' from the less perfect to the more perfect. God loves all his creatures and takes care of each one, even the sparrow. Nevertheless, Jesus said: 'You are of more value than many sparrows,' or again: 'Of how much more value is a man than a sheep!' Man is the summit of the Creator's work,"

Jesus did not die for Cecil the lion. He died for you and me. Humans are inherently superior to animals.

Deus Volt!

The Legalization of Sin

The Church has lost more than a few legal battles in recent history, the most prominent of which is the notorious Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized the murder of unborn infants in the United States. This Friday, the Supreme Court made another ruling that will be remembered with infamy for its role in the moral degeneration of America. With a 5-4 majority, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that what the federal government considers to be "marriage" should be extended to homosexuals. 

This is obviously not the first time that the government has legalized sin. It won't be the last. But what worries me the most is the popular reaction to this ruling. People view this as some sort of progress. Just look at any variety of social media, and you will see a plethora of rainbow colored flags and blatant rejoicing. Homosexuals are the one group that defines themselves by their sin. They are proud of it. 

Even more disturbing are the apologetics for sodomy. There are a good number of God-fearing Christians who try to expose this travesty for what it is. But they are time and time again shut down by others claiming to be better informed in the ways of God. They write about the tolerance of God, saying that we should accept the practitioners of sodomy for who they choose to define themselves as being. These are heretics. They ignore the professed truths of the Church in favor of the weak creed that C. S. Lewis called "Christianity-and-water." These lukewarm beings think that since God is love, he would not pass judgment on people because of their lifestyles and therefore the Church has no authority to do so. They are WRONG. They are picking and choosing passages from the Bible that suit their own ends and leaving out those that do not. Remember, Satan has a doctorate in biblical studies.

Yes, Jesus did eat with prostitutes and tax collectors. What He did not do, however, is tolerate their sin. He did not say "While I disprove of what you're doing, I'm really not going to judge you for who you think you are." Jesus did not die for the sake of tolerance.  He died for the salvation of sinners. Salvation is predicated upon the rejection of sin, not its tolerance. Therefore, when the Church speaks out against the sin of sodomy, she is not doing so out of any "bigotry," but rather out of love. One of the spiritual works of mercy is informing the ignorant. By showing the world the simple truth that marriage exists solely between man and woman, the Church is trying to save those who try to identify themselves as homosexuals by identifying their lifestyle as being sinful.

What I cannot understand is the great outcry against this judgment. Few people defend the greedy businessman, the adulterer, or the thief and then call it intolerance to judge them. This is what is so dangerous about the legalization of homosexual unions. The world has gone beyond ignoring the Church. Now it is attacking her. It used to be that you were a quaint or misguided "religious person" if you believed in the Church's teaching on the Eucharist or the infallibility of the Papacy. Now, if you profess the truth of the inviolate institution of Holy Matrimony, you instantly become a dangerous, bigoted, insensitive, homophobe. This is a trend that we cannot ignore.

In closing, it is important to remember that the old saying "vox populi vox dei" (the voice of the people is the voice of God) does not have a shred of truth. In its decision on the nature of marriage, the Supreme Court is drastically exceeded its bounds. I was not under the impression that the Supreme Court had the power to change or define an institution that God Himself created. This decision is a little like the Tower of Babylon for all its mortal pretensions. Eventually God will cast it down.

 

Deus Volt!