Archbishop John Carroll's Prayer for Government

Prayer for Government, composed by Archbishop John Carroll, first archbishop of the United states, on the occasion of the inauguration of George Washington as president of the United States, in AD 1791. Seems very appropriate for inauguration day 2017.

I believe this prayer was read in every Catholic parish on Sunday after the last Gospel for many years. I suspect the next four years will require a lot of prayer for our civil leaders. It might be a good idea to revive this tradition.

We pray Thee, O almighty and eternal God! Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, that Thy Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of thy name.

We pray The, Who alone art good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal, and sanctity of life, our chief bishop, N. N., the vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of His Church; our own bishop, N. N. (or archbishop); all other bishops, prelates and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise amongst us the functions of the holy ministry and conduct thy people into the ways of salvation.

We Pray Thee, O God of might, wisdom and justice! through Whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist, with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude, the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides, by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality.

Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government; so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and I useful knowledge, and may perpetuate to us the blessings of equal liberty.

We pray for his excellency, the Governor of this State, for the members of the Assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.

We recommend likewise to Thy unbounded mercy all our brethren and fellow-citizens, throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge, and sanctified in the observance, of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and, after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.

Finally, we pray to Thee, O Lord of mercy, to remember the souls of Thy servants departed who are gone before us with the sign of faith, and repose in the sleep of peace; the souls of our parents, relatives and friends; of those who, when living, were members of this congregation and particularly of such as are lately deceased; of all benefactors who, by their donations or legacies to this church, witnessed their zeal for the decency of divine worship and proved their claim to our grateful and charitable remembrance. To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, a place of refreshment, light, and everlasting peace, though the same Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Taken from The Life and Times of John Carroll, Archbishop of Baltimore (1735-1815).

Father Rutler on the infantilization of modern youth

Courtesy of the always brilliant Fr. George Rutler, this meme was generated from an article he wrote in Crisis Magazine entitled A Populist Election and its Aftermath. Here is the full quote in context:

“The average age of a Continental soldier in the American Revolution was one year less than that of a college freshman today. Alexander Hamilton was a fighting lieutenant-general when 21, not to mention Joan of Arc who led an army into battle and saved France when she was about as old as an American college sophomore. In our Civil War, eight Union generals and seven Confederate generals were under the age of 25. The age of most U.S. and RAF fighter pilots in World War II was about that of those on college junior varsity teams. Catholics who hoped in this election for another Lepanto miracle will remember that back in 1571, Don Juan of Austria saved Western civilization as commanding admiral when he was 24. None of these figures, in the various struggles against the world and the flesh and devil, retreated to safe spaces weeping in the arms of grief therapists. Yet pollsters ritually cite the attitudes of “college educated voters” as though colleges still educate and those who have not spent time in college lack an equivalent or even superior kind of learning shaped by experience.”

We are blessed that in this era there are still a few voices that retain some of the ancient vigor, and sparkle with a dynamism that bespeaks a charism of the Holy Spirit. Fr. Rutler is one of those voices. May Almighty God bless and protect him.

I voted for Donald Trump out of hate

Not even 24 hours after the event, those of us who voted for Trump are being accused of doing so out of hatred. Well, to a certain extent, that is true. I voted for Donald Trump out of hate.

• I hate the disastrous “Affordable Care Act” which has caused healthcare premiums to skyrocket for steadily degrading coverage, pushing many middle class people to the financial brink. 
• I hate the fact that taxes, fees and tolls are constantly being raised on the poor and middle class by a party that is supposed to be for "the little guy."
• I hate the hypocrisy of the anti-war left who barely batted an eyelash when Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama expanded wars and created new ones. 
• I hate it that our media and elites have baited us into thinking that “all lives matter” is somehow a racist statement. 
• I hate the depravity and corruption of our so-called leaders in DC of both parties. 
• I hate it that organizations have been specifically targeted by the IRS for audit based on their political, religious and moral beliefs.
• I hate it that powerful elites in government get off scot-free after breaking laws that would send the rest of us straight to jail. 
• I hate the fact that the Supreme Court has been allowed to become a super-Constitutional, politicized, unaccountable legislative body with the power to make and unmake our civilizational mores by the fiat majority of five individuals.
• I hate it that the elites in DC are seriously considering making my daughters liable to conscription into the armed forces at age 18.
• I hate the fact that I can no longer let my young daughters use a public restroom without the lurking concern that a man might be in it.
• I hate the fact that my church is being taken to court by the government because we won't fund or endorse things that violate our consciences. 
• I hate the fact that good educators, professionals, business people and government workers are losing their livelihoods for speaking unpopular opinions or following their consciences. 
• I hate the fact that the unborn are not protected by law and may be slain at will.

So yes, I voted out of hate--for the toxic principles that infect our government, media, academic and financial elites.

I voted out of hate--for an utterly corrupt and immoral political system that protects the guilty and punishes the innocent.

It should go without saying that I did not vote out of hate for any particular person.

But I also voted out of hope--that a political neophyte outsider with an unstoppable work ethic might be able to break up the culture of corruption and somehow get this country back on track. Considering Mr. Trump's character, it may well end up being a vain hope. But a vain hope is better than a destructive and hypocritical status quo.

Top 3 Reasons for Catholics to cast a vote for Trump

Tomorrow, I am voting to ensure the defeat of Hillary Clinton.

For the record, I have not supported Donald Trump throughout the primary process and much of the general election. But as the campaign season has wrapped up, I have decided to vote for him for the three simple reasons that follow:

First, is the status of The Supreme Court.

Mrs. Clinton has been in the vanguard of the Culture of Death for my entire adult life. If she is elected president, she could realistically appoint up to three Supreme Court justices. This would be a catastrophe and would enshrine the atrocity known as human abortion as an unassailable facet of US law for another generation or more. As US Catholics, we can not sit meekly by while this happens. If it takes a vote for Donald Trump to avoid this catastrophic situation, then it is well worth it.

My second reason is because Trump has attacked the political left on the national stage in a way that none of the cowardly/duplicitous GOP leadership has ever dared to. 

Until the second debate, it was my suspicion that Donald Trump was a Democrat shill whose only purpose in the race was to ensure the election of Mrs. Clinton. However, when Mr. Trump began dropping rhetorical truth bombs on Mrs. Clinton in a way that no Republican has ever dared -- even threatening her with jail time for her perceived violations of federal law -- I realized that he was no shill. He did real political damage to the left in a way that I had not seen on the national stage since Ronald Reagan.

Yes, Trump is a blowhard and a buffoon. Everyone knows this. But to take on the Washington and global elites so fearlessly -- he won my admiration because this was an extraordinarily brave thing to do. He will not soon be forgiven.

My third and most important reason is this: Mrs. Clinton and her political machine hate the Catholic Church.

Read Fr. Marciano's complete homily here.

This was made abundantly clear when the emails from John Podesta, chairman of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, were released in October. In these emails, Podesta admits that they had created “Catholic” front groups for the purpose of infiltrating the Church and changing Church teaching on issues that are inconvenient to Democrats. In one particular correspondence, Podesta encouraged the creation of new groups which would “plant the seeds of revolution" in the Church.

It had long been theorized that nominally Catholic front groups (eg. Catholics for Free Choice) had been created by political forces and that their crass goals had nothing whatsoever to do with serving God or our brothers and sisters, but were founded only to deliver political power to the left. Now, we have the proof. No Catholic in good conscience can vote for this attempted usurpation of Mother Church for the sake of political power.

The best way to defend and protect the Catholic Church in the US and to ensure that Mrs. Clinton and her corrupt cronies do not gain the White House is to cast a vote for Donald Trump tomorrow. As distasteful as I may find it, that is the best way forward I see at this point.

That said, we should all follow Padre Pio's advice to "Pray, hope and don't worry" for our gracious Lord is our true ruler and has the power to bring unexpected good out of even the most evil people's designs.

Abp Chaput calls for Clinton to repudiate Podesta's anti-Catholic statements

Further to the recent leak of internal documents from Hillary Clinton's campaign chair, John Podesta, containing information about the attempts of the political left in the US to infiltrate and influence the Catholic Church, Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia has issued a memo entitled, About Those Unthinking Backwards Catholics. It is a solid rebuke of the Podesta emails, as well as a call-to-action to his flock to be aware of this grotesquely Machiavellian attempt to hijack Church teaching for purely political gain. God bless him for taking a swift and strong stand on this emerging scandal.

In his essay, the archbishop recounts an anecdote of how, as Archbishop of Denver, he was solicited by Democrat activists in 2008 who attempted to convince him to shift the Church's focus away from pro-life issues toward other "social justice" questions. Though he was able to sniff out their intentions, it seems many American bishops fell for the sophistry and became tools of the Democrat machine. Chaput recounts the grim results of such activism:

"...These two young men not only equaled but surpassed their Republican cousins in the talents of servile partisan hustling. Thanks to their work, and activists like them, American Catholics helped to elect an administration that has been the most stubbornly unfriendly to religious believers, institutions, concerns and liberty in generations."

Now, it has been revealed that such efforts were not simply appeals to conscience, but nakedly partisan efforts generated from central planning where an amazingly bigoted view of Catholics prevails. Archbishop Chaput closed with the following mildly snarky demand:

"Of course it would be wonderful for the Clinton campaign to repudiate the content of these ugly WikiLeaks emails. All of us backward-thinking Catholics who actually believe what Scripture and the Church teach would be so very grateful."

Given that the news media has issued a virtual black-out on this story, it is necessary for all American bishops to take a strong stand here and force coverage. Will they? I guess we're about to find out how successful the infiltration has been.

Contact named by Podesta in leaked email is on the board at NCR

Further to the previous post, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend who was called out by John Podesta in the leaked "revolution in the Church" email is a member of the Kennedy family, former Democratic lieutenant governor of Maryland, and is on the board at the dissident newspaper, The National Catholic Reporter.

The connections here are fascinating. One wonders how many other names will shake out here before all is said and done.