Hawking's new book does not dismiss the real God from creation, Jesuit scholars say

Much has been said in recent news about Stephen Hawkins' ridiculous statement that the universe created itself. A couple of Jesuits clarify his obvious confusion.

Dr. Stephen Hawking's new book, “The Grand Design,” makes the bold claim that the universe “created itself from nothing” based on physical laws such as gravity, making God unnecessary for a self-created and self-unfolding model of the universe. However, two Catholic scholars trained in physics say his remarks misconstrue the real relationship between God and creation.

A Jesuit priest and scholar, former president of Gongaza University Fr. Robert Spitzer, says that Hawking's dismissal of God in favor of physics reflects fundamental confusions about the Christian concept of God, as the creator of all that exists-- both the physical universe, and the laws of physics which apply to it.

When this is understood, Fr. Spitzer said, Hawking's basic confusion becomes clear. Although Hawking talks about the universe “creating itself from nothing,” he is presupposing that this “nothing” somehow involved gravity and other fundamental laws of physics, Fr. Spitzer explained.

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Newborn Giant Panda Twins Make Debut at Zoo

A little off-topic but they were too cute to resist :)

Book Review: Breach of "Trust" by DiAnn Mills

Paige Rogers is a librarian in the small town of Split Creek, Oklahoma. What no one there knows is that she is a former CIA operative. She is one of two survivors of a failed mission which killed the rest of her team.  The other survivor is Daniel Keary, who she believes betrayed their team.  Unfortunately, Keary is about to be elected Governor of Oklahoma.

Paige has become  quite at home in Split Creek.  She has also become a Christian, trying to follow God's will for her.  She has also developed a relationship with Miles Laird, the local football coach.  He is also a Chrisian.   They both face each situation as a Christian.  Throughout the story, each of them is constantly praying for God's guidance and, more frequently, for others who need prayers.


When Paige is called back into service by the CIA, it is fascinating to see her struggle to reconcile the super CIA operative she was/is with the Christian she has become and is committed to being.  It  was refreshing to read a good mystery with two characters falling in love without hopping into bed right away.  Paige is also hesitant to get too close to anyone and  endangering them because of her past, and the threat it poses  to her  today.

The characters were particularly well-defined and integral to the story.  I enjoyed "Breach of Trust" tremendously and I am truly hoping it will one day be made into a movie. 

Miners trapped in Chile receive 33 rosaries blessed by Pope

Bishop Olmsted says ‘divisive’ attempted ordination of woman harms Church

The good Bishop addresses those "grannies gone wild" who like to play priest. 

Oh how I wish we had more Bishops like Olmsted.

The Catholic Bishop of Phoenix responded Wednesday to a priest’s reported participation in an attempted priestly ordination of a woman. Urging prayers for all involved, he said such actions are “divisive” and have “profoundly harmful consequences.”

Writing in a Sept. 1 letter published in the Catholic Sun, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted informed Catholics in the diocese that a “schismatic group” in Tempe, Arizona called the Ecumenical Catholic Communion tried to ordain a woman. Fr. Vernon Meyer, a priest of the Diocese of Phoenix, reportedly participated in the alleged ordination.

“To feign the conferral of the Sacrament of Holy Orders results in the penalty of excommunication,” Bishop Olmsted explained, saying the penalty applies both to the person attempting the ordination and to the person attempting to be ordained.

“The attempted ordination of a woman is a grave offense against a sacrament and the structure of the Church,” he added. “Please pray for all involved in this divisive, scandalous act against the Catholic Church.”

The teaching of the Church is “of paramount importance,” he said, citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s statement that only a baptized man can be validly ordained. The Catechism says the ordination of women is “not possible.”

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Memorial of St. Gregory the Great, pope and doctor

The Saint of the Day for September 3 is St. Gregory the Great.

St. Gregory was born at Rome in 540. He was successively senator and prefect of Rome before the age of 30. After five years he resigned and became a monk, transforming his own house into a Benedictine monastery, and founding six others. At the age of 50 he was elected pope, serving from 590 to 604. In 14 years he accomplished much for the Mystical Body of Christ.

After seeing English children being sold as slaves in Rome, he sent 40 monks, including St. Augustine of Canterbury, from his own monastery to make "the Angles angels." England owes her conversion to him. At a period when the invasion of the barbarian Lombards created a new situation in Europe, he played a great part in winning them for Christ. When Rome itself was under attack, he personally went to interview the Lombard King.

At the same time he watched equally over the holiness of the clergy and the maintenance of Church discipline, the temporal interests of his people of Rome and the spiritual interests of all Christendom. He removed unworthy priests from office, forbade taking money for many services, and emptied the papal treasury to ransom prisoners of the Lombards and to care for persecuted Jews and victims of plague and famine. These deeds and others made him, in the words of an antiphon in his office, "the Father of the City, the joy of the World."

Gregory reformed the liturgy, and it still contains several of his most beautiful prayers. The name "Gregorian chant" recalls this great Pope's work in the development of the Church's music. His commentaries on Holy Scripture exercised a considerable influence on Christian thought in the Middle Ages. St. Gregory died on March 12, 604. His body lies at St. Peter's in Rome.

Patron: choir boys; educators; gout; masons; music; musicians; choirs; singers; stonecutters; teachers; popes; students; scholars; against plague; against gout; against fever; England; West Indies;

Is Catholics in Alliance finished?

The Catholic Dissenter group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, which was formed to get Obama the Catholic vote in 2008, may be history.  Good Riddance!

Jack Smith at the Catholic Key Blog has been following them for a couple of years and he reports the following:

It appears they are out of business. Let’s consider the evidence:

They’ve had no blog posts since June 10.

They’ve made no tweets since May 12.

They haven’t posted to their own facebook page since May 12.

Their calendar page is blank.

Their staff bio page is blank.

Their media guy, John Gehring, is now working for Faith in Public Life.

But why rely on circumstantial evidence? I decided to just give them a call. The phone number has been disconnected.

I’ve long asserted that CACG was a campaign organization and not a non-partisan advocate of Catholic Social Teaching as many news outfits have gullibly or willfully maintained. With the president elected and health care passed, it looks, for now, like the campaign is over.

Discovery TV Gunman Demands Halt to 'Parasitic Human Infants,' Credits Al Gore with ‘Awakening’

Chaos erupted after at least one hostage was taken at the Silver Spring headquarters of the Discovery Channel by what appears to be a crazed radical environmentalist.

The armed man has reportedly demanded that Discovery Channel executives run programming geared toward stopping the propagation of "parasitic human infants" in order to save the planet from global warming and pollution.

In a document apparently authored by James J. Lee, identified by law enforcement as the gunman, Lee expresses his intention to force the network to discourage overpopulation and the "human filth" of new children, particularly among immigrant populations.

Discovery Channel employees first noticed Lee in February 2008, when he was arrested during a protest at the Discovery building. For his involvement in that protest he served two weeks in jail.

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Martyrs Of September

The Saints of the Day for September 2 are the Martyrs Of September.

The September Martyrs are a group of 191 faithful Christians who were martyred at the hands of the French Revolution on September 2 and 3, 1792.

After refusing to take an oath in support of the civil consititution of the clergy, an act condemned by the Vatican which placed Catholic priests under the authority and control of the state, these priests and religious brothers and sisters were imprisoned in a Carmelite convent and then massacred in the space of two days by bloodthirsty revolutionary mobs.

They were beatified on October 17, 1926 by Pope Pius XI.

Among the martyrs were Louis and Francis de la Rochefoucauld, the bishops of Saintes and Beauvais respectively; Apollinaris of Posat; John Francis Burte; Charles de la Calmette; Augustine Ambrose Chevreux; Andre Grasset de Saint Sauveur; John Mary de Lau; Severin Girault; Julian Massey; and Louis Barreau de la Touche.

video: 4,000,000!!!!!

Louis C.K. Can't Give It Up

I've never seen this show, I'm just grateful we have people like Bill Donohue to keep an eye on anti-Catholics like Louis C.K.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue discusses last night's episode of "Louie" on FX:

When we got word that Louis C.K. was at it again, we had to watch last night's show. It was painful. But was it anti-Catholic? Sure. That was the point of it. After all, the purpose of the episode was to convince elementary school kids that all this talk about Jesus dying on the Cross for our sins is pure bunk. To adults, this doesn't matter, as no TV show is going to change their beliefs. But to boys handy with their trusty DVR, they learn (from the mother of kid Louie), "the whole thing is a bunch of malarkey."

In fairness, the script is boring. The proverbial nun in habit shows up berating the kids about the death of Jesus; the Crucifixion is trivialized; a creepy doctor shows up describing what actually happened; a traumatized kid gets freaked out and knocks down a large crucifix, etc. In other words, most of what is portrayed is without meaning, except for the end where we learn what a crock Christianity is.

As for Jesus, he is described by the doubting mother as "a really, really nice guy who lived a long time ago and told everyone to love each other." He must have been really nice if she said it twice. And Louis C.K. must be really obsessed with Catholicism because he can’t give it up.

If this show had any value whatsoever, it showed with stunning accuracy exactly how Hollywood sees Christianity.

Pope Benedict's Prayer Intentions for September

  * The Word of God as Incentive for Social Development. That the proclamation of the Word of God may renew people's hearts, encouraging them to work toward authentic social progress.

* End of War. That by opening our hearts to love we may put an end to the wars and conflicts which continue to bloody our world.

St. Beatrice Da Silva Meneses

The Saint of the Day for September 1 is St. Beatrice Da Silva Meneses

St. Beatrice was born to Portuguese nobility in Cuerta, Portugal, in 1424. She was the daughter of the Count of Viana, and the sister of Saint Amadeus of Portugal. She was raised in the household of the future Queen Isabel of Portugal and spent some time in her royal court in Castile following the Queen's marriage to John II.

She soon got tired of the empty life at court and joined a Cistercian convent in Toledo. She lived at the convent until 1484, when she answered a summons from God to found a religious order. The Congregation of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was begun, and with the help of the Queen, she founded a house outside of Toledo where she lived and served as superior until her death on September 1, 1490.

Saint Beatrice was canonized in 1976 by Pope Paul VI.

video: The Truth

Teen Pro-Life Phenomenon 'Lia' Defends Rights of the Unborn

 Amazing.   A 13 year-old understands more about respecting life than pro-abort adults do.

Pro-life prodigy Lia Mills, whose Youtube orations have amassed nearly a million views, has set out to prove the humanity of the unborn in a new video, part of an ongoing campaign to promote the message of life.

If the unborn are not human, the 13-year-old Toronto-native explains in her ten-minute address, then abortion is simply a matter of personal preference. But, she says, "if the unborn are human, then they have value and rights."

She points out that textbooks on embryology clearly state that life begins at conception and human development begins at fertilization. "At conception, a new life with its own unique DNA begins,” she explains. "All of the body parts of the mother share the same DNA, the mother's DNA. But an unborn baby has an entirely different DNA. He or she is separate from the mother."

“It should be clear that when two living beings from the same species mate, the product will be the same species as the parents," she adds.

Lia argues that all of the claims against the humanity of the unborn distinguish them from the born based on (1) size, (2) level of development, (3) environment, or (4) degree of dependency. She goes through each one and points out that we do not devalue born people based on these differences.

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