le Monde

Le Monde is the largest newspaper in France. As you may have heard, Le Monde published a blasphemous cartoon on March 19 showing 'Our Lord' handing out prophylactics to the excited masses with the caption "The multiplication of the condoms followed the multiplication of the loaves."The cartoon targeted the Pope too. He was depicted as a decrepit old man who says: "Anything goes!"

Many offended Catholics have sent a note to Le Monde expressing their protest. Below is the email address and example note you may send.

Send it to courrier-des-lecteurs@lemonde.fr:

Le Monde: As a Catholic, I was dismayed and offended by your newspaper publishing a sacrilegious cartoon showing Our Lord Jesus Christ handing out prophylactics from a boat to the excited masses. The cartoon depicts Christ and the Pope saying things that are sacrilegious. This is offensive and hurtful to the Catholic faith. In response, I demand that you apologize for the cartoon and pledge never to publish such offensive material again. Thank you for your time.

Fallen Away

I was talking to a really nice lady at a playgroup recently. I assumed she was a Protestant until we got to talking and she shared she was a Catholic. I always get an excited feeling of kinship when someone shares that they are Catholic. But, she also shared that she is a non practicing Catholic.... but as our conversation continued I was struck by her 'relationship' with Catholicism in general. She spoke of her affection to saints and how she gave her St. Christopher medal to a friends high school newly driving son. She said her boyfriend had fallen ill, been given a rosary while in the hospital and how he wore it around his neck. She laughed and shared that he made him take the rosary off and told him what it was for. When admitted to the hospital the boyfriend shared that his religion was Catholic and she said,' Catholic? You aren't Catholic!' When he replied that his mother had been Catholic she exclaimed 'Being Catholic isn't like being Irish! You have to work to be Catholic!'

The conversation really moved me. I invited her to the church we attend downtown and tried to share my love for the Eucharist. It was at this point that she shared how her daughter was asking about receiving her First Communion. She said that she told her daughter that receiving First Communion required learning and time... that it was a huge commitment.

It stopped me. Her child was asking to receive her Holy Communion. Her daughter was asking about the Son of God! Granted it is enticing thinking about a white dress and possible party of course but overall the child was asking to be united with God in a way no other earthly experience can provide.

How beautiful! How fascinating! Yet still there remains a huge element of sad..... Because I don't think that the mom had any intention of letting her daughter receive this beautiful mystery. It made me think about that huge population of men and women who are Catholic and not practicing. And the effects they have on their children. How do you reach them? How do you evangelize to those who have already been catechized? How do you break through the reasons why they 'left' the church in the first place? Through the power of the Holy Spirit and our ability to open our hearts to holy boldness maybe we can be instruments in the conversion of those who have 'fallen' away.

Lord, please bless those that have fallen away. Open their hearts to your love once again. Please use us however You desire so that we can be instruments of conversion for your loved ones who have forgotten the way.

Romans 10:17

Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

Philippians 2:9-11

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

How do you promote Catholicism to your children?

I have been meaning to mesh the whole 'mom' and 'catholic' lately.

I was thinking about the things that I do to bring Catholicism into my little three year olds life.

Then I was thinking about how most of my ideas all came from my friends. Ha! My thoughts were that maybe we could all share the things we do in our homes to promote Catholicism.

For example:

I just bought 'The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions'. (Review to come soon!) This book provides different activities for teachers or moms to do with their kiddos.

We do a Rosary playgroup on Fridays. My little one gets to have a playdate and I get to pray the rosary with my girlfriends. The kids definitely get loud during the rosary but I am sure Mother Mary is smiling down on us.

Holy Baby DVD's! Love them! (Another Holy Baby DVD giveaway to come soon!) They are Catholic DVD's that provide music, mass parts and so much more for your child.

What do you do? Post below and I can put together a comprehensive list for a new post entitled ' Keeping the Catholic in Kid!'

Woman's World and Repro-what?

I very innocently sat down with the magazine 'Woman's World' this weekend. All was well until I came to an article entitled 'Would You Like Fries With That Baby?'

It's funny because I 'get' the title now but when I first read it I wasn't sure if it was about losing weight after pregnancy! Oh how wrong I was.

In summary this article is about REPROGENETICS. New word for you? Me too. Basically it is a cross between reproductive technology (think IVF) and genetics and allowing a parent to choose or eliminate traits including things like gender or disease before the child is even conceived.

You can also test children when they are infants. The example they so innocently provide explains that a dad could test and see if his son is going to be a great football star. If genetics show that he does have an inclination toward athleticism than you know you do not have to waste time with music lessons. You can also use the information to foster the child's talent from a young age.

Overall the writer of the article is not very supportive of this break through in medicine because she believes a parent should let a child come into their own. She spoke about her own son who was athletically inclined but truly preferred music as his outlet. The article was not necessarily for this 'new wave' because they didn't want to crush a child's sense of creativity! WHAT?!!

Of course I am reading it and thinking OH MY GOSH! I guess I knew that these types of genetic findings would surface during my lifetime but I still am not prepared for this!

If parents are able to choose certain traits we are in a lot of trouble. Besides the obvious problem of playing God there becomes the issues of control. Hitler tried to choose the traits he wanted in society and it resulted in the Holocaust. China is attempting to choose gender traits by mandating a two child policy and killing baby girls. (This absolutely kills me that it is happening in this day and age and still I sit on my couch and can virtually do nothing.)

More than anything it directly affects the dignity of the human person. God knew us before we were formed in the womb. He plans it all out, our beauty inside and out, our talents, our motivations and science wants to eliminate those traits that it does not deem worthy. Or maybe traits that it just doesn't like. Science wants to try and trump what God has planned. How scary and sad! Please join with me in prayer to end reprogenetic research.

Prayer Request for Orphanage

I read an article about an orphanage in Padampur, India. It has been burned down for the second time from what I believe is religious conflict. This priest sounds inspirational. If you are interested you can read the article here.

Please remember to keep Father Edward and his efforts in your prayers. Pray for the children affected by this loss and for those who committed such a horrendous crime. This man sure sounds like a saint in the making. In addition to the orphanage he runs a leper colony in Asia.

Father Edward:

"Our mission to serve the marginalized and ostracised must go on, that is our calling, to serve these people with the love that Christ had for his Church. As a Catholic priest I was ordained to serve, so in spite of the climate of intimidation we have to breathe life of hope into these people. The cross is always be present in the life of a Christian, and this cross brought forth the most powerful fruit of the resurrection. This is our life, the cross of Christ in the face of persecution, and the hope of resurrection."

Wow. This truly puts in perspective the fact that persecution is real. And it really make the resurrection something very beautiful. I will go to bed grateful for my freedoms both religiously and politically.

A Doctor's Right

Here is another online form we can sign to let the Obama administration know that we do not agree with their policy.

It's called a Doctor's Right.

The Obama administration wants to rescind the bill by President Bush that allowed health care workers to refuse to participate in procedures that were against their beliefs. Most importantly this affects faith based hospitals and abortion issues.

The Heritage Foundation provides some additional information as well.

Thanks!