By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The Vatican may soon become involved in trying to persuade the Iranian government to spare the life of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 43 year-old mother of two who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that the first of what will be $1.1 billion of taxpayer money has been given to four research groups charged with setting up a network of the controversial "patient-centered outcomes research centers" that will determine the effectiveness of different medical treatments, which many believe will be used to ration care when ObamaCare gets underway in 2014.
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As you may know, funds are very tight for our apostolate right now, as they are for everyone, and we have been appealing for help in a variety of ways. Recently, we sent a letter to many individuals who have graciously supported us in the past. I received this email back from one person and thought it hit the nail right on the head. For the sake of the writer's anonymity, I have removed her name:
Note for Johnnette, please:
Dear Johnnette,
I am sorry to hear of your funding stress. Had I the resources, I would immediately send you the money. Your work is vital! As I pondered your situation, it occurred to me that it may console you if I share with you what I have been observing since the election of BHO:
Those who actively work for and promote Christian principles are being financially beseiged. Every single one of us -- epsecially those who work via the media.
It's not just the economy. Quite obviously, this is an integral part of The Evil One's strategy. Starve us, squeeze us, agonize us with worry about keeping financially afloat, and perhaps we will crumble, and our work cease -- At this point, TEO is well aware that this is his only -- and last -- recourse against us.
Like you, I daily witness the glory of the tide turning back, away from 'evil', toward God, and our country's classic moral values. This is why TEO is so desperate to destroy us.
He nearly had our entire country in his grasp -- something he has lusted after since our birth in 1776.
Perhaps you should look the beast squarely in the eye and pronounce: If I lose my studio and have to preach from the street corner, I will! You will NEVER silence me! [With every trial, my message consistently is: "You will never command or control me. You're wasting your time. Go find someone who is fool enough to listen to you."]
Johnnette, I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. I am certain that God is so proud of you!
Abundant Blessings,
M.
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Dear M.,
Your words are encouragement to me and I so agree with you on every point. Our mission, the mission of each one of us baptized in Christ Jesus and living today, is of utmost importance. We are the saints predicted by St. Louis Grignion de Montfort, the "saints of the latter day," who would be selected by God to wage a spiritual battle against the evil one and his wiles and ways. If we give up, if we surrender, from whom will the "voice" go out? With God's grace, we will continue to proclaim truth until He takes our voice from us through natural death. In Him and through Him is every victory May that victory be won in the hearts of each one us.
In Jesus Name,
Johnnette
In reminding us that our fight is against powers and principalities, she encourages us to continue to move forward in whatever way we can. We had already committed to doing just that and I took her email as a confirmation. If it is one thing we know, the mission looms larger and more vitally important than ever before -- for each one of us.
I am reprinting the email as a means of encouraging you to "put on the armor of God" and go with courage and resolve into the battle of our day and time to win the victory that has been given to us through Christ.
That being said, we welcome your support -- financial and prayerful. Your donations can be received right on our website or by calling us at 1-800-558-5452.
In Christ,
Johnnette
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Various secularist and gay rights groups in the UK are seething over comments made by an aide to the Archbishop of Westminster in which he called Britain "the geopolitical epicenter of the culture of death" where gay rights and the commercialization of sex has turned the country into a "selfish, hedonistic wasteland."
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG), the Catholic group that was instrumental in trying to convince Catholics they could vote for pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008 appears to have gone out of business.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Aid groups working in Pakistan's hardest hit areas of flooding are saying that large landowners and other wealthy citizens have deliberately directed the flow of floodwaters into the villages of poor Hindu and Christian minorities to save their own farmlands.
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By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Police in Silver Springs, Maryland shot and killed a man who stormed into the headquarters of the Discovery Channel brandishing a gun and bombs and demanding that the channel do more to discourage overpopulation and the "human filth" of new children.
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Those of you who are wondering whether the new Julia Roberts movie,
Eat Pray Love, has anything positive to say about Christianity may want to learn from her lessons - she became Hindu after filming the movie.
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