What's Happening in America

I've been reading parts of the new proposed Health Care Plan that Congress would like us to vote into legislation. For the life of me, I can't understand who can possibly accept it. There are a number of issues that defy the dignity of mankind as moral and spiritual beings. I can't believe our leaders actually want us to accept this Bill as proposed.

When I think of our Founding Fathers I think of men with character, integrity and honesty. "Give me Liberty or give me Death." Where are we today when we allow others to lead us down the road to perdition? This Bill as written would allow 'abortion on demand'. And who will pay for it? You and me and every other American who pays taxes. Why can't we elect leaders who truly want to serve the greater good of humanity? Is everyone out for themselves? Are we to believe that there are no men or women of integrity any more who don't mind being led by politicians who only have one concern, namely their own material wealth and power?

It seems to me that we really need to be aware of what is happening. If not we're going to get ourselves involved in a Health Care package that will, in my opinion, destroy the very fabric of our society. We cannot allow our leaders to do this to us. They are our elected leaders. They work for us. They need to be aware of what We want.

We respect all life and the dignity of every man, woman and child. We want our leaders to know that we will not tolerate any compromise that will negate that dignity. We need to let our leaders know that this time we will not stand by and let everything our Founding Fathers fought for be lost because of THEIR inability to govern with honesty.

Power of the Media

I'm constantly amazed at how powerful the news media (TV, Radio and Papers) is in our society and culture today. As we approach the holiday season, we'll hear so much about to celebrate this time with gifts, trips, and parties. We'll hear statements like, "if you want to have the best (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years), buy this or do that. It's as if you can buy the happiness you're seeking. How easily are we deceived. People will sit outside of department stores for hours waiting for them to open so they can get first choice of items the news media will designate the gift to get or have this season. People will put themselves in debt for articles they don't need simply because they are convinced they do need them. How silly.

Can you imagine what it would be like to open the doors of any Church, Temple or Mosque and actually see people waiting to get in? The greatest gift imagineable, Jesus, is waiting and no one seems to care.

I wonder what would happen if the media announced "The greatest gift you could ever want is waiting and free; it's at your place of worship...NOW".

Warriors for Justice

I wrote this some time ago after emailing with some priests and protestant clergy I served with while on active duty...Just a thought...Fr. Di

It has not escaped the notice of men and women in uniform that quite a number of religious leaders in civilian life have been outspoken opponents of war against Saddam Hussein. None of the Chaplains I know or have spoken to would directly criticize their anti-war civilian colleagues. Yet some did say the clerical pacifism leaves many soldiers angry, confused, betrayed and even spiteful toward faith. These pronouncements tend to reinforce the notion that religion is for wimps, for frilly suited morons and those are among the more gentle statements, one hears.

As men and women of faith deliberate the morality of war with Iraq, it is a travesty that more of them haven’t had the perspective of military chaplains, that virtually the only religious voices heard in the public square are coming from the anti-war corner.

The divide between military and civilian clergy over the Iraq war is philosophically very deep. It cuts to the core of one’s belief in evil and the nature of human beings. Military chaplains who have been with American troops in war zones have seen a side of humanity that bishops in well-appointed chanceries and pastors sitting in suburban middle-class comfort, pondering therapeutic approaches to the mystery of iniquity, never see. This is what Philip M. Hannan, the retired Catholic archbishop of new Orleans and a World War II military chaplain, was getting at last fall when he criticized his fellow bishops for their pacifist pronouncements on the Iraq war. Hannan, 89, who was with G.I.’s when they liberated two concentration camps, remarked at the time that the bishops had no experience with tyranny and had no idea how to cope with it.

“I’ve stared into the face of evil, says Chaplain Vince Inghilterra, who will soon take over as chief chaplain for the U.S. armed forces in Europe and the Middle East. “We chaplains have actually seen the oppression, the devastation, the hopelessness, the absolute inexplicable, irrational hatred a person can have against another human being. It astounds me. But evil definitely exists, and what we are dealing with in this Middle East situation is evil. There’s only one-way to deal with that kind of evil, and that’s to confront it, with force if necessary”.

Some chaplains say the failure of contemporary American society to grasp the true nature of the evil we face means the country is spiritually unprepared for war and its sacrifices. The civilian clergy is not particularly helpful on this point. “There are a lot of people living in denial, even though right now there are Humvees with Stinger missiles patrolling Washington, ‘says one experienced chaplain’. “The battlefront is now here at home. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Military clergy have been dealing with this chasm in understanding with their civilian counterparts since at least the Vietnam era. When Father Vince Capodanno, a Maryknoll priest, returned from a year spent ministering on the battlefields of Southeast Asia, his fellow Maryknollers greeted him with indifference at best and scorn at worst. “They didn’t want to hear about it. They didn’t know and they didn’t want to know because they were anti-war,” says Chaplain Mode, Capodanno’s biographer. Father Capodanno immediately wanted to go back and be with his men. Father Capodanno did go back. He died on the battlefield serving the needs of his men. For that he received the Medal of Honor.

God Bless America? Why

I wrote this a few years ago while stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. I thought it worth repeating.

Something happened to me the other day that I’m having trouble with. I was driving on the boulevard and I noticed a car that passed me had a sign taped inside the back window. The sign simply said, God Bless America. Now I’ve seen, God knows, hundreds of such signs over the last few years. I’m sure you have too. No doubt the tragic events of September 11 have caused a lot of Americans to consider their own mortality and think perhaps a little more about God. As I drove behind that car the thought would not leave my mind. God Bless America. And then it hit me. Why should God Bless America? What have we done to deserve His blessing? A court in Indiana is trying their hardest to make it illegal to have a plaque with the ‘Ten Commandments’ posted in a Federal Court House, we already voted to take prayer out of public schools, our Supreme Court now permits ‘Abortion on Demand’ which has resulted in over a million abortions a year (over thirty million) since Roe vs. Wade. We have pornography rampant in movies and television. Americans don’t seem to care if their leaders have moral values, character or integrity (that has already been proven, twice). And now we have the audacity to ask, ‘God Bless America’.

If I were God I’d be rolling on some soft cloud laughing my sides out. As I continued to drive I thought about another incident. In Genesis, chapter 18, we read the account of how displeased God was with Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham begged the Lord not to destroy both towns. He said, “Lord, Are you going to destroy both the good and the evil”? And God said, “If you find just fifty good people, I will not destroy those towns”. You know what? Abraham could not find even fifty good people. He went back and brokered with the Lord; how about forty? He couldn’t find forty or thirty or ten. You know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. Do you think Sodom and Gomorrah were worse off in their day than we are today?

God Bless America? Is there any Nation more blessed by God than America. And yet here we are, the strongest and richest nation in the world which also happens to have the highest divorce rate of any other nation in the world, where solemn vows and promises are made a joke of, where we spend more than four billion dollars a year on pets while forty thousand children and poor go to bed hungry every night. God Bless America? Why?

God Bless America? Where more children are born out of wedlock every year than anywhere else in the world. Where we spend over ten billion dollars on athletes and entertainers who lack moral convictions and are the saddest examples for our children and yet teachers, counselors, nurses and so many other professions that truly help our families are paid the most pitiful wages imaginable. God Bless America? Why?

God Bless America? Where homosexuality is accepted as an ‘alternate life style’ and where some states are enacting legislation that will allow same sex marriages. Well, I hope God does bless America. But for the life of me, I can’t understand why He would want to.

Learning From Experience

One of this Nation's greatest patriots, Patrick Henry, addressed the Virginia Convention at St. John's Church in Richmond Virginia on March 23, 1775. His address was powerful and full of determination that America would see the build-up of British weapons and realize that war was near. Most of us remember his closing statement, "As for me, give me liberty, or give me death."

I wonder, however, how many recall another famous part of that address. Towards the middle of his speech, Patrick Henry said; "I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging the future except by the past." The philosopher Nietzsche said, "We study the past so as not to repeat its mistakes."

It seems to me that we have not learned the important lessons of the past. I say that simply because we are repeating so many of them again. To me the important lessons of the past are those which reflect our need and dependence on God. If we can only turn back to God and ask His guidance, I believe this great Nation can once again live out its mission to teach Liberty, Justice and Equality as the gifts, given not by man, but by God.

God Bless You...

Taking a break

This week I will be on vacation at the Jersey shore. With a little luck I may even catch a few Striped Bass or a few Blues. In any event I'll have fun trying. I will not be posting any items until I return, next Saturday.

God Bless...

Taking Responsibility ....

It is our Catholic belief that we are judged on what we do. The good that we do is rewarded and the evil that we do is punished. However, we often hear of judgment expressed in terms like particular and general. Just what do these two terms mean? Well, simply put our faith teaches that at the moment of our death we are individually judged for our actions and rewarded or punished; pretty straight forward.

Now the question ... What is the general judgment and how do we know that it exists? Well turn to chapter 25 of St. Matthew's gospel. Right there in black and white you have the General Judgment.

What Jesus refers to in that chapter is what will occur at the end of time and after everyone has died - In other words, at the end of the world. All the nations will be assembled before Him and they will be judged. And on what will they be judged? It seems to me that they will be judged on how the nations conduct themselves in the affairs of the world and how they fulfill the mandates and the teachings of God as they are presented to us in scripture.

We are taught that all human life must be protected and no one has the right to take any life, especially that of the unborn. If a government permits the taking of innocent human life and we vote for an individual who advances the cause of abortion and permits it at any stage, then are we not also advancing abortion? Can we possibly say, "Well I'm personally against abortion but I'm voting for one who permits it because his or her position on taxes is important to me?"... Are we not saying saving taxes is a more important issue than that of a human life? Are we not complicit in the act of abortion? Certainly we are.

So, the General Judgment is how we, as a nation, fulfill God's will by agreeing or disagreeing with our leaders. If we elect our leaders through our vote, and the consequence of that vote is the allowing of the destruction of human life (or for that matter the advancing of any moral evil), then we are in fact agreeing with the intrinsic evil by allowing that moral evil.

God bless you.

Do what you like ... Like what you do

I had the opportunity to attend and see the Phillies play the New York Mets yesterday. They won and it was a clean sweep of their three game series.

It made me think; what a great way to make a living ... playing a game that, I'm sure the players like, make very good money doing it and at the same time giving the fans a lot of enjoyment, especially when they win.

Then I had another thought. I'm like those players. I'm certainly doing something I very much enjoy, especially saying Sunday Mass. I have the opportunity to preach to a lot of people and hopefully I'm able to give them something they need; namely the Word of God.

We people are two dimensional ... physical and spiritual. We all need physical nourishment to sustain us and physical stress to keep us sharp and on our toes. We also need spiritual food, the Eucharist and spiritual stress; the daily temptations of life to keep us on the right track. Just as we have doctors to help when we get sick, we also have the Sacraments to get us back on track when we fail. The more we use those things that are available to us, the more we enjoy life and the stronger we become in our relationship with the Lord. Do in life what you like and like what you're doing ... What a great life and it can be yours!

God Bless You.

Men Who Paid Freedom’s Price

On July 4, 1776, there was signed in the City of Philadelphia one of America’s historic documents: the Declaration of Independence. It marked the birth of this nation which, under God, was destined for world leadership. We often forget that, in declaring independence from an earthly power, our forefathers made a forthright declaration of dependence on Almighty God. The closing words of this document solemnly declare: “With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

The fifty-six courageous men who signed that document understood that this was not just high-sounding rhetoric. They knew that if they succeeded, the best they could expect would be years of hardship in a struggling new nation. If they lost, they would face a hangman’s noose as traitors. Of the fifty-six, few were long to survive. Five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes, from Rhode Island to Charleston, sacked, looted, occupied by the enemy, or burned. Two lost their sons in the army. One had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six died in the war, from hardships or from its bullets.

Whatever ideas you have of the men who met that hot summer in Philadelphia, it is important that we remember certain facts about the men who made this pledge: they were not poor men or wild-eyed fanatics. They were men of means; rich men, most of them, who enjoyed much ease and luxury in their personal lives. But they considered liberty much more important than the security they enjoyed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. They fulfilled their pledge. They paid the price. And freedom was won. Someone once said, “To be born free is a privilege. To die free is an awesome responsibility.” Yet freedom is never free. It is always purchased at great cost. Little did John Adams know how significant his words would be when he spoke to his wife, Abigail, on the passing of the Declaration of Independence and said, “I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this declaration and support and defend these states; yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all the means.”

To those who sacrificed for our freedom, the end was worth the painful means. Where would we, who are citizens of the United States of America, be today if there had not been those who counted the cost of freedom and willingly paid for it? Where will we be tomorrow if men and women of integrity do not come forward today and pay the price to reclaim a dying America?

Every coin minted in the United States bears, along with the bust of a past hero, these words: LIBERTY- IN GOD WE TRUST. It was not lightly that our forefathers chose these inseparable words, for they knew the tremendous cost and sacrifice that had been paid to secure our freedom. In gratitude they continually acknowledged that God had made and preserved our nation. They were confident that God was blessing their endeavors because they acknowledged Him and sought His aid in all their doings. They warned future generations that the day God was not earnestly revered in America; she would become a byword among the nations. Several times in the history of our nation widespread revival has put God’s people back on course. Each time it has reversed a downward moral trend in society and ultimately unleashed profound social impact.

For in Jesus Christ lie all the secrets of the universe, the origin of life, the direction of history, the life beyond. Without at least an elementary grasp of God’s sovereign hand behind all history, which our founding fathers so clearly understood, the modern Americans will overlook the true meaning of their own land.

If many of America’s citizens have missed it, then let today’s generation know now the mighty sweep of spiritual events in our heritage and the story of how and when and why “God shed His grace on thee”.

God Bless You and God Bless America.

Fr. Tim Vakoc

I suspect a very few people will know of Fr. Tim Vakoc. Fr. Tim was a friend of mine. We served together in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In fact Fr. Tim and I overlapped as I was preparing to re-deploy back to the U.S. after 10 months. On May 12, 2004, Fr. Tim's Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb. He had just finished saying Mass; May 12, the 12 anniversary of his ordination as a priest. Fr. Tim sustained serious injuries in the explosion. His left eye was blown out and there was severe brain damage. Fr. Tim received emergency treatment, was flown to Landsthul Army Medical Center in Germany and then eventually to Walter Reed Hospital. He remained in a coma for the better part of a year. He was medically retired from the army and after two years at Walter Reed he was sent to his home in St. Paul, Minnesota where his family lived. Fr. Tim put up a heroic battle but on Sunday, June 21, Fr. Tim died.

I remember an incident that occurred while Fr. Tim was at Walter Reed. Fr. Jerry Haberak, another Army Chaplain was visiting Fr. Tim, who, at this time was still in a coma. Fr. Haberak entered his room and noticed that a doctor was there sitting quietly and saying the rosary. When he saw Fr. Haberak and noticed the cross on his left collar, indicating that he was a chaplain, the doctor asked him if he was a priest. Fr. Jerry said that he was. The doctor said, Father I come here every day at this time to spend a few minutes with Fr. Tim. I know that he doesn't even know I'm here. I and my family haven't been to church or Mass for almost twenty years. I couldn't help when Fr. Tim arrived and to hear what happened to him, the explosion, the lost of his eye, the severe brain damage, all because he was there helping soldiers like me. Well we all go to Mass now and my life has been changed, because of this priest.

Fr. Jerry paused for a second and then said to me. Can you believe it Joe? Tim's in a coma and he's still working as a priest bringing faith to those who lost it.

God Bless...

My Prayer Today

It's my prayer today that as the U.S. begins to hand over the reins to the Iraqi soldiers for the defense of their country, the world will support our military in this endeavor.

I don't think many realize the importance of what is taking place in Iraq. A new democracy is being born. The same feeling that permeated the souls and minds of our own founding fathers is, no doubt, coursing through the hearts of Iraqis who want nothing more that to be able to govern their own nation in peace and freedom. I can't help but feel that the eyes of all those signers of the Declaration of Independence are watching this with excitement and awe.

God Bless

Setting the Tone

I would like to set the tone of what I hope to accomplish.

My purpose will be to extend the love of God to all who read my blog. I pray the Lord will accomplish His work through me.

A New Beginning

Since this is the first time I'm doing this, let me start with a prayer. My prayer is that what I do here is for the greater honor and glory of God.

It is Sunday of the 13th week in the calendar of the church. The theme of the liturgy today is the Resurrection, the hope of eternal life. May the Good Lord bless us and grant us the strength to live our lives worthy of sharing in His Kingdom.

God Bless You.