Acts, Chapter 10, verse 34-35
34 Then Peter
proceeded to speak and said, “In
truth, I see that God shows no partiality. 35 Rather, in every
nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.
God shows no impartiality. This is true today as it
was in the time of Peter. Rome had no fear of God when it came to the sins of
the flesh and lust of the eyes having killed an estimated 400,000 human beings
in the coliseum. Yet Rome as terrible as it was pales in comparison to the sins
of America with 58,586,256 abortions in America since Roe v. Wade in 1973. God
shows no impartiality to Nations either. Each receives their due.
God is no respecter of rank or titles and asks us to
combat the evil in our day. Pope John Paul has proclaimed “Here is the remedy
against evil. Pray, pray, and nothing more.
Michael Brown in his book “Prayer of the Warrior,” reminds us that it was Luke who mentions
that Jesus very frequently stated: “Unless you repent you will all perish.” (Lk.
13:3) To save us our Lord has not abandoned us we have His church and the
Virgin Mary’s apparitions during these last days. She constantly emphasizes
prayer, conversion, fasting, penance, and faith. At Medjugorje she has stated, “Members
of all faiths are equal before God. God rules over each faith just like a
sovereign over his kingdom. In the world, all religions are not the same
because all people have not complied with the commandments of God. They reject
and disparage them.” Indeed, God shows no impartiality there are saints of God
that are not catholic. The Virgin told the seers of Medjugorje that there was a
saint in the village and they were astonished because this person was a Muslim.
Senior leaders from the Catholic Church
and the Muslim community have issued an eight-point joint statement reflecting
their shared beliefs. The document, which is the result of the fourth
Catholic-Muslim colloquium on interreligious dialogue, includes a call for
basic human rights to be protected by law, a pledge of solidarity with all
those in need, a rejection of all forms of proselytism and a focus on the right
of young people to an education that is “respectful of diversity”. At the end
of a two-day meeting at the Vatican entitled ‘Shared values in social and
political life: Christian and Muslim perspectives’. Delegates from a dozen
different countries came together, organised by the Pontifical Council for
Interreligious Dialogue and Jordan’s Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies.
They were joined by Pope Francis on the concluding day. Former Canadian
ambassador to the Holy See, Anne Leahy, who currently teaches Catholic Social
Thought at McGill University in Montreal said “there was a meeting of minds” on
the important values that Muslims and Christians share in terms of being good
citizens acting together for the common good. “We hear too much about what our
differences are”, she said, so it’s important now “to witness that there are
basic values we share that can counter the negativity”. Muslims and Christians
can work with all people of good will who do not profess a religion, so “inclusivity
was a hallmark here”, she says.
However, a month earlier the Vatican’s
chief inter-faith expert, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, warned that dialogue with
Muslims had so far produced “negligible results” and failed to prevent the
threatened eradication of Christianity in the Middle East. The Cardinal said:
"We meet, we observe and listen to each other - but the problem is that
all these small achievements don't translate at all into law and
administration, or into the lives of ordinary people. The dialogue is just too
elitist".
The eight-point agreement stated:
1.
We
share beliefs and moral values. Our commonalities are much more than our
particularities, and they constitute a solid basis peacefully and fruitfully
living together, also with persons of good will who do not profess a particular
religion.
2.
We
believe in the humanising and civilising role of our religions, when their
followers adhere to their principles of worshipping God and loving and caring
for the other.
3.
We
believe that God bestowed upon every person dignity and inalienable rights.
They are His gifts that should be recognised, guaranteed and protected by law.
4.
We
pledge our solidarity with our brothers and sisters in humanity who are in any
kind of need regardless of their ethnic, religious or cultural background.
5.
Our
help to the poor and the needy should be offered out of compassion and for the
sake of God's favour. It should never be used to proselytise.
6.
We
believe that the youth represent not only the future of humanity. They are also
an important part of its present. They have the right to proper education that
prepares them to be good citizens respectful of diversity.
7.
Our
world, our "common home", is going through many complicated crises
and needs the steady efforts of its inhabitants to make it a suitable place
where we can live together peacefully, sharing the resources of the universe,
mindful of future generations.
8.
We
express our proximity and solidarity with all those who suffer, especially from
violence and armed conflict. Respect for international law, dialogue, justice,
mercy, compassion are values and adequate means to achieve peace and
harmony.
This amendment to the Constitution granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed.
Under
current law, U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants are automatically
considered U.S. citizens. Select states and certain Federal lawmakers are
hoping to change that. In an effort to end birthright citizenship – which has its origins in English
common law – for
children of unauthorized immigrants born in the United States, state and
federal lawmakers have proposed everything from state-level legislation to a
constitutional amendment. They claim that by repealing birthright citizenship,
the United States will deter immigrants from coming to the United States and
giving birth to what they term "anchor babies" through whom
unauthorized family members allegedly then obtain legal status. Proponents for a
repeal of birthright citizenship are drafting state-level legislation to deny
privileges of U.S. citizenship to the U.S.-born children of unauthorized
aliens. Because citizenship is within the purview of the federal government,
and not the states, the proponents hope that doing so will ultimately trigger a
Supreme Court review of the law.
Position of the Catholic Church
To
address legitimate concerns surrounding immigration law enforcement in the
United States, the Catholic Church believes that our country must pass
immigration reform laws to ensure the rule of law, while simultaneously
ensuring that the laws that rule are rooted in the reunification of family and
respectful of the human dignity of the immigrants in our midst. The Church
opposes the repeal of birthright citizenship because it would render innocent
children stateless, depriving them of the ability to thrive in their
communities and reach their full potential. The Church believes that a repeal
of birthright citizenship would create a permanent underclass in U.S. society,
contravening U.S. democratic tradition; undermining the human dignity of
innocent children who would be punished though they did nothing wrong; and
ultimately weakening the family. Because of this, the Church opposes the
current efforts underway for its repeal.
"Read
these counsels slowly. Pause to meditate on these thoughts. They are things
that I whisper in your ear-confiding them-as a friend, as a brother, as a
father. And they are being heard by God. I won't tell you anything new. I will
only stir your memory, so that some thought will arise and strike you; and so
you will better your life and set out along ways of prayer and of Love. And in
the end you will be a more worthy soul."
15.
Don’t put off your work until
tomorrow.
Daily Devotions
·
Please
pray for me and this ministry
·
Please
Pray for Senator
McCain and our country; asking Our Lady of Beauraing to
intercede.
Comments
Post a Comment