The occasional, often ill-considered thoughts of a Roman Catholic permanent deacon who is ever grateful to God for his existence. Despite the strangeness we encounter in this life, all the suffering we witness and endure, being is good, so good I am sometimes unable to contain my joy. Deo gratias!


Although I am an ordained deacon of the Catholic Church, the opinions expressed in this blog are my personal opinions. In offering these personal opinions I am not acting as a representative of the Church or any Church organization.

Showing posts with label NFL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NFL. Show all posts

Thursday, July 30, 2020

The Church Under Attack

My apologies for taking this post offline for a few hours. There were some link problems and other issues that had to be fixed. I think it's all OK now - DGM
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One doesn't have to look very far to find signs of the world's attack on the Church. Here are just a few examples from this week's news.

NFL and NFLPA agree that church attendance is apparently not a good thing. I can only assume that the National Football League considers church services, which traditionally take place on Sunday, a form of competition that should be suppressed.

The league, in its new agreement with the NFL Players Association, bans players from attending any church service with an attendance greater then 25% of the church's capacity. In addition to its ban on church attendance, this latest collective bargaining agreement also prohibits players from attending such indoor venues and activities as nightclubs, bars, concerts, professional athletic events, and parties with more than 15 people in attendance. Players who violate the agreement will be fined. The NFL also encourages members of the community to report players they see attending church services...nice touch.

Conspicuously absent from the list of prohibited activities are protests. In fact, the NFL, recently tweeted that, "We, the NFL... encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest...We believe Black Lives Matter." And on its various social media accounts, the league shares photos of its players taking part in protests across the country.

One can only hope that the faithful will turn their collective backs on the NFL this season...assuming there is a season.

Destruction of Catholic Statues. The recent outbreak of statue and monument defacement and destruction seemed to begin with Black Lives Matter "protestors" taking aim at public statues of Confederate generals and politicians. But BLM and its fellow travelers in Antifa have deep Marxist roots. Their attacks on statues and symbols have, therefore, expanded to include anything or anyone who supported what we might loosely call "Western Civilization."

We're observing a new form of atheistic iconoclasm directed at Christianity in general, and the Catholic Church in particular. Indeed, the Catholic Church is the perfect "target of opportunity" for these iconoclasts because of its universal presence and because it uses many different forms of artistic expression to honor our God and His saints. Among these expressions are statues displayed on the grounds of many of its churches. In recent weeks many Catholic churches across the country have had statues defaced, damaged, or destroyed.

Public statues have also been attacked. Several statues of St. Junipero Serra, the early missionary to California who so deeply loved, defended, and protected the native people to whom he ministered, have been destroyed. As a protective measure many others have been moved to safe locations. After a statue of Father Serra in Golden Gate Park was destroyed, Archbishop Cordieone of San Francisco led the faithful in a Rosary, then prayed Pope Leo XIII's Exorcism Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel in Latin and sprinkled the site with holy water. Thank you, Archbishop. California Catholics have also taken part in vigils at the sites of many religious statues to protect them from vandals.

In Missouri, when vandals threatened to destroy the statue of St. Louis, local Catholics announced a public Rosary and counter-demonstration. Predictably, they were labeled as "white nationalists" by those bent on destruction. But the protective vigils continue despite physical attacks by BLM and Islamists.

I've provided a link (below) to a site worth visiting. It includes several videos (click on the Twitter links) showing the attacks on peaceful, prayerful Catholics protecting the statue of this saintly king:



Bible and Catechism as Hate Speech in Scotland? According to a bill making its way through the Scottish Parliament, Scots could be accused of criminal hate speech if they quoted the Bible or the Catholic Catechism. The bill would criminalize behavior or communication that stirs up hatred against any of the protected groups covered by the bill. These include race, religion. sexual orientation, and transgender identity.

Such legislation simply makes cancel culture legal, and permits the prosecution of anyone who disagrees with the current zeitgeist. Great Britain, once a champion of free speech, might well become the West's most intolerant and anti-religious society. Predictably, the Scottish government has defended the bill:

"Religious beliefs are an integral part of Scottish society and this Bill does not change that in any way...The Bill does not criminalize religious beliefs or practices and possessing a Bible would not constitute an offense...The Bill includes provisions on freedom of expression to provide reassurance that the prohibition on stirring up hatred will not limit people's right to express their faith...No one can commit a stirring up of religious hatred offense unless they act in a threatening and abusive manner or communicate threatening or abusive material that is intended to stip up hatred or likely to stir up hatred."

The problem, of course, is deciding how to define exactly what constitutes "threatening or abusive" behavior or communication. It will be interesting, and perhaps foreshadowing, to watch how this all plays out in Scotland.

Joe's Pro-Abortion VP Choices. If you know me, you can probably guess that I won't be voting for Joe Biden. As I've stated many times, I have never voted for a pro-abortion candidate and never will. How sad that Joe Biden, a Catholic, is so beholden to Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and other anti-life groups, that he rejects the teachings of the Church on a multitude of issues. And sadder still that the Democrat party seems to have made abortion the key criterion for party support. Years ago pro-life Democrats were not uncommon, but not today. And, predictably, not one of Biden's current candidates for the VP job is pro-life. I find that especially troubling since all four of the top candidates are black Americans, a group that has been particularly savaged by abortion. Margaret Sanger, a eugenics supporter, founded Planned Parenthood to limit the "less desirable" races.Today, abortion is the leading cause of black American deaths, taking the lives of thousands of beautiful black infants every year.

Not long ago, Joe Biden said, "We are in a battle for the soul of this nation." I couldn't agree more, Joe.

Failure of China-Vatican Agreement? One wonders when the world will finally accept that the Communist Party of China (i.e., the Chinese government) is simply unable to be truthful or honor agreements. 

Two years after the 2019 signing of the agreement between the Vatican and the Chinese government -- an agreement, by the way, that remains secret -- Chinese Catholics in the underground Church state that "parish places of prayer have been closed, the public celebration of Sunday Mass is no longer allowed, priests can do nothing but celebrate Mass privately in the house of some faithful, without communicating too many faithful for participation. Despite this, even private Masses are often stopped by local officials, not to mention catechesis courses." 

And this is the underground Church, the Church in China that has always been in union with Rome. But, not surprisingly, this persecution isn't restricted to the underground Church. Members of the "official" Church are experiencing identical restrictions. 

The 2019 agreement was, of course, intended to eliminate such persecution. Sounds like a terrific agreement if the goal is to destroy what was once a growing and vibrant Catholic Church in China. And then, to add salt to the wound, the Chinese have recently hacked into the Vatican's computer systems in advance of September's planned talks regarding the renewal of the 2019 agreement.

And Chinese Catholics aren't alone. The communists have applied the same level of persecution to other religions as well. Indeed, the persecution of the Uighurs (a Muslim sect) is horrendous and includes concentration camps and forced sterilization.  

Perhaps it's time for the Vatican to accept that it was a serious mistake to enter into this agreement since no accord with a communist government has ever led to greater religious freedom. Far better for the Vatican to support Chinese Catholics both openly and clandestinely, to encourage governments to apply pressure on China to honor the religious freedom of its citizens, and to call on the faithful to pray for the conversion of communist China.

Note: To learn more about the persecution of the Catholic Church in China, read Joseph Cardinal Zen's enlightening book: For Love of My People: I Will Not Remain Silent.

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There's so much more in this week's news, but I'm too tired and it's time for dinner.


Friday, July 10, 2020

Priorities

An old friend sent me the below tribute in honor of those who have devoted their lives to defending our country. I don't know who wrote it but the author suggested we pass it along to others, so I thought I'd simply post it on my blog, along with a few of my own comments. 

I'm not a big fan of professional athletics. I haven't watched a major league baseball game in years and haven't attended one in decades. The NBA and NFL have both lost me as well. The NFL, for example, has displaced religion in the lives of many Americans, who would much rather devote their Sundays to football than to "keep holy the Sabbath Day." Indeed, this fanatical focus on professional (and college) sports, along with all the other celebrity worship that permeates our society, is symptomatic of our nation's moral decline. When we remove the "cult" -- the religious foundation -- from our culture, we are left with nothing.

I find it remarkable that so many of our professional athletes, who have reaped rewards unavailable elsewhere, seem to despise the nation that provided them with the opportunity to achieve such material success. One would think they would be overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude. Instead they pay homage to groups like "Black Lives Matter," a movement founded by committed Marxists whose stated goal is not the saving of all, or even most black lives, but the destruction of the family and religious faith, two major obstacles to the power they seek. It's all very sad, and so we pray for them, knowing we have a loving God who has promised to be with us "until the end of the age."

As for me, I was honored to have been able to serve my country and its citizens for many years as a officer in the U.S. Navy. During all those years, and even afterwards, I lost many Naval Academy classmates and close friends. Some lost their lives in combat, others in aircraft accidents, and some as a result of the lingering effects of wounds or agent orange. But none died in vain, despite what the current crop of neo-Marxist protesters and rioters scream at us as they try to destroy our nation and its history, while belittling all the good the United States has brought to the world.

The tribute (and its fitting rebuke) follows: 
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To the NFL and its players,

If I have brain cancer, I don't ask my dentist what I should do. If my car has a problem, I don't seek help from a plumber! Why do you think the public cares what a football player thinks about politics? If we want to know about football, then depending on the information we seek, we might consult with you, but even a quarterback doesn't seek advice on playing his position from a punter.

You seem to have this over-inflated view of yourselves, thinking because you enjoy working on such a large-scale stage, that somehow your opinion about everything matters. The NFL realizes the importance of its "image" so it has rules that specify the clothes and insignia you can wear, the language you can use, and your "antics" after a touchdown or other "great" play. But somehow you and your employer don't seem to care that you disgrace the entire nation and its 320 million people in the eyes of the world by publicly disrespecting this country, its flag, and its anthem! The taxpaying citizens of this country subsidize your plush work environments, yet you choose to use those venues to openly offend those very citizens.

Do you even understand what the flag of this country means to so many of its citizens before you choose to "take a knee" in protest of this country during our national anthem?

You may think because you are paid so much that your job is tough, but you are clueless when it comes to tough. Let me show you those whose jobs are really tough.







You are spoiled babies who stand around and have staff squirt Gatorade in your mouths, sit in front of misting cooling fans when its warm, and sit on heated benches when its cold. That's not tough, that's pampered.

You think you deserve to be paid excessively high salaries because you play a "dangerous" game where you can incur career-ending injuries. Let me show you career-ending injuries!





You think you deserve immediate medical attention and the best medical facilities and doctors when injured. Let me show you what it's like for those who really need and deserve medical attention.



You think you have the right to disrespect the flag of the United States, the flag our veterans fought for, risked limbs and mental stability to defend, and in many cases died for. Let me show you what our flag means to them, their families, and their friends.









You believe you are our heroes, when in reality you are nothing but overpaid entertainers, who exist solely for our enjoyment! Well, your current antics are neither entertaining nor enjoyable, but rather a disgrace to this country, its citizens, all our veterans and their families, and the sacrifices they have made to ensure this country remains free. You choose to openly disgrace this country in the eyes of the rest of the world, yet with all your money, still choose to live here rather than any other country. People with even the slightest amount of "class" will stand and respect our flag. Where does that put you? You want to see heroes...here are this country's heroes!






You can protest policies, the current government, or anything else you choose. That is your right. But when you "protest" our flag and anthem, you insult the nation we all live in and love, and all those who have served, been wounded, or died to keep it free. There is nothing you can do or say that will make your actions anything more than the arrogance of a classless people, who care about themselves more than our country or the freedoms for which our veterans and their families have sacrificed so much, all to ensure you have the right to speak freely. Our country is far from perfect, but if you can point to any other country with greater freedom and opportunity, then you just might want to go there and show respect for their flag! 
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That's all of it...a fitting tribute to those who, since the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, have sacrificed their lives and their livelihood for this remarkable nation.

God bless America, folks. 

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Cancer, Football, and Cheer

Today I once again drove our friend, Nancy, to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. She is undergoing a regimen of chemotherapy and must also receive regular transfusions of platelets. Things have not been easy for Nancy and her husband, Joe. They lost their youngest son, John, 41, just a few weeks ago, but Nancy's illness prevented them from attending John's funeral in South Carolina. (I've written about John in a recent post: John Hathaway) And then, to add to their difficulties, Joe suffered a heart attack here two nights ago. We immediately called the absolutely wonderful Sumter County (Florida) EMTs who treated Joe and transported him to our local hospital in record time. Joe's being treated there now and we hope to have him home here with us sometime tomorrow.

And yet, despite all these sorrows and burdens, Nancy, in the midst of her procedures, was cheered today by the arrival of a few members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. These young men, all rookies and accompanied by several of the team's lovely cheerleaders, stopped by the infusion ward and shared some Halloween candy and smiles with the cancer patients. They were cheerful and friendly and very large. The three who visited us were Vita Vea, a huge defensive tackle, tight end Tanner Hudson, and safety Godwin Igwebuike. They certainly endeared themselves to me because of the gift of small packages of M&Ms. I realize our local NFL team has faced some competitive challenges, but they earned my respect and have become my NFC favorites. (I remain a Patriots fan, but after all they're in the AFC.)

The below photos, taken with my iPhone, show these young men and one of the cheerleaders as they overwhelm Nancy, who swears she was smiling broadly beneath that mask.

Nancy, overshadowed by Vita Vea, DT and Godwin Igwebuike, Safety

Tanner Hudson, Bucs Tight End, with Nancy and a Bucs cheerleader

Monday, September 12, 2016

A Few Thoughts

Some of these thoughts might not sound very charitable, but sometimes we must speak the truth.

Patriots and Cowards. Colin Kaepernick, Brandon Marshall and the rest of the NFL's spoiled brats who have chosen to sit or kneel or to display clenched fists during the National Anthem are simply cowards. They have all reaped the benefits of life in this remarkable country, and done so to the extreme, all for playing a children's game. Most were coddled from the time they entered high school because of their athletic ability. Little was expected of them off the field, and a few might actually have fulfilled those minimal expectations. And now, because they have fame and fortune and a near-global public forum, but little or no sense, we are supposed to pay attention to them. They receive millions for playing their games while those who actually matter, those who defend this country and willingly sacrifice their lives for the rest of us, are paid very modestly, receive little thanks, and must try to survive health care from the VA. I wonder how many military funerals Kaepernick and Marshall have attended. I wonder how many wounded warriors they've visited at Walter Reed or Bethesda. Brandon Marshall says he's a patriot. Uh, Brandon, just an FYI: patriots stand for the National Anthem, at least those who haven't lost their legs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, Normandy, Iwo Jima...
Kaepernick Sits During National Anthem

I haven't attended or watched a major league baseball game since the strike in 1994. Remember when those millionaires had the chutzpah to declare, "We're doing this for the working people of America." Yes, all those thousands of low-paid working people who lost their jobs because the entire season was cancelled. Now I have to decide if I've  watched my last NFL game as well.
Brandon Marshall Kneels During National Anthem

Syrian Christians: persona no grata. Before the civil war in Syria, Christians made up approximately 10% of the country's population and were able to live in relative peace and practice their religion freely. Because of the war they have suffered more than any other religious group, largely at the hands of ISIS and other Islamic extremists. The war has not only led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrians, but it has also created a much larger number of refugees. Our president decided to aid these displaced Syrians by allowing thousands to immigrate to the United States.

Syrian Refugees: Christians Need Not Apply

According to the government's latest figures, the United States has admitted a total of 13,364 Syrian refugees since the civil war began. Of these, 13,019 (97.4%) are Sunni Muslims, while only 102 (less than 1%) are Christians. In other words, the religious group that has suffered the most and been persecuted the most has been virtually excluded. It's also important to note that ISIS is led by Sunni Muslims who follow the fundamentalist Wahhabi doctrines. These same ISIS leaders have stated that they intend to infiltrate terrorists among the Syrian refugees admitted to both Europe and the United States. Pray for the Christians of Syria; indeed, pray for all the people of that troubled country.

Dismemberment AbortionBan. Abortion is so horrific that I sometimes find it difficult to write about it. But for this very reason it's important to ensure the truth is told. For example, many people quite simply don't know exactly how abortions are performed, particularly late-term abortions. If they knew, support for abortion would likely drop considerably. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) has decided to introduce legislation in the Senate that he hopes will not only educate the public about the horrors of late-term abortions, but also ban these procedures nationwide. 

The legislation, called the Dismemberment Abortion Ban Act defines a dismemberment abortion as one that uses “clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments” to “slice, crush or grasp a portion of the unborn child’s body in order to cut or rip it off or crush it,” with the purpose of causing death to the unborn child. Senator Lankford reminds us, “We know now that children who are in the womb in late-term can feel pain, At least we should agree that in the womb when a child can feel pain, we shouldn’t pull them apart limb by limb.” Identical legislation was introduced earlier in the House by Reprsentative Chris Smith (R-NJ).

A man of faith, the senator stated, “I do pray, not only for those that are yet to be born, but I pray a lot for moms that have had an abortion and the grief that they experience based on that after the fact. I pray for those that actually perform abortions that they will at some point awaken to what’s happening right in front of them.” We should all join the senator in his prayer.