Here’s the sign next to crosses in front of St. Thomas Catholic Church on Route 176 in Crystal Lake.
The message in front of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Crystal Lake says, “Vote for Life and Religious Liberty.”
Notice all those “Vote Pro-Life” signs?
My guess is that most are front yards of Catholics.
And I understand that at at least one evangelical church, attendees were strong urged to vote.
Here’s this weekend’s homework for Crystal Lake Catholics who attend St. Thomas Catholic Church on Route 176.
“Vote Pro-Life,” says the sign on Route 176 before crosses representing aborted babies since Roe v. Wade.
By Msgr. Eric Barr, Vicar General & Chancellor, Diocese of Rockford
Step with me into the area of controversy and consider the provocative question of whether President Barak Obarna is an opponent of Catholicism and its values. As our government bent upwards and sideways last week to appease the darkness that is radical Islanr, apologizing and even going wobbly on the issue of free speech, I thought a bit about how the president and his govemrnent is treating Catholics and their views.
For your consideration:
Not only is the president a fierce proponent of abortion on demand, he is also for something that should horrify not only Catholics but all people of good will. Not once, not twice, but three times as an Illinois senator, Obama opposed the “Bom Alive Infant’s Protection Act,” which stated that babies born after abortions are persons and must be given care.
His opposition was a patent endorsement of infanticide – the murder of children. There has never been an abortion restriction that he has endorsed. He is not simply pro-choice; rather, he is an activist in the strongest sense, diametrically opposed to the most obvious moral stance taken by Catholicism.
During a White House meeting between the cardinal and the president Obama promised the cardinal that he would protect churches and religions and the consciences of those in Obamacare, not forcing them to go against their beliefs in any way.
The HHS mandate forcing Catholics and others to pay for birth control abortifacients, and sterilization in their employees’ healthcare plans showed his prornise to be false and the “compromise” he suggested simply doubled down on his belief that the Constitution provides only for freedom of worship (inside church buildings) and not freedom of religion (a broader concept that allows people of faith to act publicly).
Just this past Monday, the president made a video on religious liberty. The HilI reports that Obama, “made a campaign pitch to ‘people of faith’ in which he reaffirmed his ‘commitment’ to this value saying ‘The American people should know this: In a changing world, my commitment to protecting religious liberty is and always will be unwavering-’” He goes on talking about protecting people’s consciences – something he has no intention of ever doing. Meanwhile, Obamacare marches on; steamrolling Catholic morality and the First Amendment under its weight. How can that be tolerated by citizens?
These statements and attitudes by the president become even more breathtaking when weighed with the passion and determination the administration has shown trying to soothe outraged Muslims who are not even citizens of our country.
The rioting mobs around the world are kowtowed to and the precious sensibilities of their belie{s are put on the front burner even as they kill and harm others. Nothing jusfifies this peculiar and unreal stance of the president.
But these are the times we live in, when truth is sacrificed for expediency and a hostile stance – we could even call it a hatred – toward religion and Catholicism in particular grows in our country. Ifs persecution without rack and pyre, but perhaps those are coming too, if men and women of integrity, regardless of faith do not stand up for religious liberty.
September 21 , 2012, Observer Newspaper
This evening I was at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Crystal Lake registering voters.
A man not attending services said he was there as part of an effort to erect crosses in memory of the millions of babies that have been aborted since Roe v. Wade was handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
One cross for every million babies who died an untimely death by way of an abortion.
As I was leaving I saw the Knights of Columbus at work on Route 14.
I asked how many crosses were being put up.
“96.”
Drivers on Route 176 in Crystal Lake will see 96 crosses in front of St. Thomas Catholic Church during October. They are in memory of the 96 million babies aborted since Roe v. Wade was handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
I didn’t realize the total had risen that high.
92 million babies.
This morning on the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times is the headline,
All capital letters.
This comes one day after the Chicago Tribune reported Obama’s popularity in Illinois has improved since last fall.
One might ask, “How’s that trend coming?”
In my analysis of why Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum won every county in the Missouri
primary, I suggested that the Catholic Bishop’s letter, read through his diocese the weekend before the election, might have motivate Catholics to go to the polls (even though it asked for letters).
How better to deliver a message to the President than to vote for the GOP candidate who is most Pro-Life?
It’s not just happening in the Joplin Catholic Church my brother-in-law attends.
At St. Thomas in Crystal Lake, I arrived early to register voters and heard part of the homily by Monsignor Daniel Hermes.
He was talking about the controversial decision by the Obama Administration.
I didn’t catch the exact words in the first part of the sentence, but the thrust was that he could see something good coming out of “all the stupid stuff coming out of the Federal government now.”
Immediately after, John McFadden, a teen in the congregation spoke movingly of his trip to Washington to take part in the Pro-Life march. He said he wanted to be able to tell his children that “when I was a kid I stood up for something.”
Parishioners fill the pews at this five o’clock service. I was told it was because the Super Bowl was the next day.
When I inquired if the youth spoke at every service, the Monsignor told me that there was a different teen speaking at each mass.
This was the second shot at the President at St. Thomas in two week.
The following letter from Rockford Diocese Bishop Thomas Doran was read the weekend before.
He writes of “an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United States directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religion liberty for all citizens.”
Doran points out that about 25% of Americans are Catholic.
He identifies the objectionable mandate as being forced to provide “sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs and contraception.”
The Bishop says that unless the ruling is overruled Catholics will have to either violate their consciences or “drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so).”
Among those penalties would be the forcing of Catholic citizens to buy health coverage containing the objectionable “services.”
“We cannot–and we will not–comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second-class citizens.”
There’s more, of course, some along the lines of the Missouri Bishop’s letter.
The point to be made is that this was part of a one-two punch in Crystal Lake.
The Chicago Cardinal’s roundhouse makes three.
Thanks to the McHenry County Democratic Party’s web site, I have been able to find the McHenry County schedule for the immigrant protest march to Woodstock.
Here it is:
Saturday
Shelter & Vigil in Cary, 8 pm
Sts. Peter & Saint Paul Church
410 N First St, Cary
Sunday, May 23
Depart Ss. Peter & Paul at 7:30am
Sunday Stop in Crystal Lake, 10:45 am
St. Thomas Catholic Church
453 Pierson St, Crystal Lake, IL
Depart: 12:00 noon
Sunday Dinner in Woodstock, 4:30 pm
St. Mary’s Catholic Church
312 Lincoln Ave, Woodstock, IL
Depart: 5:30
Sunday Arrival at Jail, 6:30pm
McHenry County Jail
2200 N Seminary Rd, Woodstock, IL
FINAL VIGIL: 6:30-7:30 pm
In the aftermath of the Easter rescue of Merchant Marine Captain Richard Phillips, 16th District Congressman Don Manzullo has appointed Crystal Laker Christopher Benard to the Kings Point U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
Here is Manzullo’s press release:
CL Central High School Student Appointed to United States Merchant Marine Academy[CRYSTAL LAKE] Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan) today announced that Christopher Benard of Crystal Lake, Illinois, has received an appointment to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY.
Christopher will graduate in June 2009 from Crystal Lake Central High School in Crystal Lake. Christopher is an Eagle Scout with the Boy Scouts of America.
He is also a member of the Peer Ministry Team at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Crystal Lake, where he assumed a leadership role planning and implementing retreats for the youth group.
At Central, Christopher is a member of the Wrestling Team and past member of the Football Team. Christopher is the son of Tony and Cindy Benard of Crystal Lake.
After filling up with gas at the station that was called “State Gas” when I first started driving back in the late 1950’s, I drove home past the old St. Thomas Catholic Church.
There were several pro-life bumper stickers on cars and vans parking around the park where the Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce has its building.
Here’s one of them:
“Babies Don’t Choose To Die!”
If you want one of these, click on the image and you can see the price and address.
After filling up with gas at the station that was called “State Gas” when I first started driving back in the late 1950’s, I drove home past the old St. Thomas Catholic Church.
There were several pro-life bumper stickers on cars and vans parking around the park where the Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce has its building.
Here’s one of them:
“Babies Don’t Choose To Die!”
If you want one of these, click on the image and you can see the price and address.
How often does that happen?
Apparently there is a parishioner at the old St. Thomas Catholic Church who didn’t like a homily (called a sermon in Protestant churches) Father Luis Alfredo Rios gave.
One Angel Llavona, a teacher at Maine West High School who lives in Algonquin, left a rather blunt voice mail expressing his feelings for the priest.
Later, the priest played the recording at two of the Spanish-speaking masses and asked, “What should we do? Should we send him to hell or to another parish?”
Llavona apparently hasn’t read that part of the old Testament that admonishes people to stay out of court.
He sued the priest and the church and the Rockford Diocese.
A member of the Anglo church figures that Father Rios was just making a joke at Llavona’s expense.
Can television be far behind?
And, if they come for the evening service they can get beautiful pictures like the one of the stained glass windows you see here.
You can read Stefano Esposito’s Sun-Times article here and the Daily Herald story here by Chuck Keeshan. Brandon Coutre’s Northwest Herald article is here.
The picture of the stained glass window can be enlarged by clicking on it. The image of the front page of the Sun-Times does not need enlargement.
How often does that happen?
Apparently there is a parishioner at the old St. Thomas Catholic Church who didn’t like a homily (called a sermon in Protestant churches) Father Luis Alfredo Rios gave.
One Angel Llavona, a teacher at Maine West High School who lives in Algonquin, left a rather blunt voice mail expressing his feelings for the priest.
Later, the priest played the recording at two of the Spanish-speaking masses and asked, “What should we do? Should we send him to hell or to another parish?”
Llavona apparently hasn’t read that part of the old Testament that admonishes people to stay out of court.
He sued the priest and the church and the Rockford Diocese.
A member of the Anglo church figures that Father Rios was just making a joke at Llavona’s expense.
Can television be far behind?
And, if they come for the evening service they can get beautiful pictures like the one of the stained glass windows you see here.
You can read Stefano Esposito’s Sun-Times article here and the Daily Herald story here by Chuck Keeshan. Brandon Coutre’s Northwest Herald article is here.
The picture of the stained glass window can be enlarged by clicking on it. The image of the front page of the Sun-Times does not need enlargement.
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