Division in Our Nation

When faced with the division so apparent in our nation between the left and the right, it is important to define the conflict in order to seek a remedy.  
Is the conflict between Democrats and Republicans, between liberals and conservatives, between left and right a result of a difference of opinion that can be sorted out or solved by debate and by compromise?
Or is the conflict so fundamental and central that we have reached the point of war, for which very different tactics must be used?  And, if so, who initiated the war, and is peace even possible?

Conservatives Trying to Understand

When faced with someone’s actions that mystify you, the best policy is to assume the best about them (practice forbearance), to try to put yourself into the other’s shoes (show empathy), and to search for rational explanations and good motivations that might possibly lead a person to do what you find so perplexing.
These are the fundamentals of decent Judeo-Christian behavior which I was taught by my parents and by the Sisters of Saint Joseph (who educated me in New York City at St. Benny’s Catholic School in Richmond Hill) during my elementary years.

This is generally the best way to approach life, and it’s what those of us who try not to be curmudgeons strive for most of the time. 

Even when people do that which for us conservatives is unthinkable, like killing their own babies in the womb, we try to drum up explanations explaining their choices and softening their intent.  They could not afford a baby.  They felt social stigma.  They assumed the child would have a miserable life. They wanted to avoid inconvenience and had no idea how serious their choice actually was. They fell for secular propaganda without thinking.

This works for explaining the motivations of many nice people who are liberals, particularly those who have not devoted much thought to the issues at hand, and who themselves innocently try to fit in with the new and sometimes shocking “social values” that are presented to them (and most recently demanded of them) by our “culture.”
 
That “culture” is now predominantly defined and then controlled by the left. 
With the help of the now primarily leftist media,  the left projects the “everybody thinks this way” image very successfully, whether that is accurate or not.  Their message actually goes beyond “everybody thinks this way,”  and is rather more like “you are scum (racist, …etc.ist) if you don’t think our way.” So, wanting to fit in and not make waves, nice liberal people buckle easily under pressure from the extreme left, and become increasingly more liberal, not realizing the trouble for which they are headed.   

No Longer Liberal

In this way, the previously nice liberals in our midst have slowly been replaced by a very forceful element of the radical far left, to whom the word “liberal” no longer applies. 
They are no longer “liberal” or “easy” or “permissive” about anything. They are now quite angry, dictatorial, and inflexible, and, despite their free use of the word “tolerance,” are not very tolerant about anything with which they themselves disagree.  In fact, they even no longer refer to themselves as “liberals,” but now prefer the word “progressives.”  They try to dictate to all of us where our culture and our values must “progress,” they intolerantly label us with hateful names when we don’t comply, and they use increasingly violent and even illegal tactics on anyone who dares to disobey their agenda or to resist. Examples of the weapons used are:

Enough is Enough

When it comes to the leaders who are steering the new very radical and apparently very hateful left, our Christian attempts at understanding and overcoming disagreement, by practicing good will and forbearance, now fall short.

When faced with Antifa-like attacks, no amount of good will or forbearance will help.
You don’t approach Antifa-(oops, Attila)-the-Hun with good will and forbearance.
Efforts at logic, reason and debate simply enrage the radicals further.   

Their radical demands keep shifting to the extreme, demanding more and more”rights” which now routinely trample the real rights of the majority.  For instance:

• Democrats now demand the “right” to kill an unwanted baby after “accidental” birth.
• Democrats demand that America’s borders be simply removed, and that anyone from anywhere who walks into our country must be openly accepted and given all “rights” that previously had to be earned through comprehensive citizenship scrutiny and eligibility.
• Regarding support for declining moral standards, Democrats demand the “right” of AIDS patients to engage in promiscuous behavior without warning the other party, thus infecting others. (Half a million young men died unnecessarily during the AIDs crisis because facts about the transmission of AIDs were concealed.)
• And Democrats demand the “right” to change modesty standards in restrooms for the entire nation. 
• In attempts to garner control of the country, Democrats even advocate eradication of the Constitution’s Electoral College in favor of a popular vote, thus disenfranchising rural America.  Rural America is then expected to feed and support left-wing urban America, while the urban left gets to control government and law and free-load off rural areas. 
• And the list goes on…..

When a squeaky wheel begins to demand too much, and tramples the rights of others with their excessive demands, the time comes for reasonable people to declare that “enough is enough.”
The left now demands such a fundamental compromise of core values that no reasonable Christian could or should agree to compromise any longer.  

Even the Left Jumps Ship

The left has become too radical even for the left.
 
David Horowitz is one example of a devoted left wing activist of the 1960’s, who realized by the 1980’s that the left had migrated too far in its “ends justify the means” philosophy– in his case, going too far meant the murder of Horowitz’s friend by left wing activists.   
David Horowitz then abandoned the left, and for the next 30 years applied his intellect and talent  to opposing the left. 
David Horowitz has now been a leading conservative thinker and writer for several decades, until his death in early 2019.   

According to David Horowitz, progressive leaders of the left have declared war on America and its constitutional system, and are even willing to collaborate with America’s enemies abroad, and with criminals at home, to bring America down. He does not portray them as people who can be reasoned with, or people who are capable of compromise.  He does not even believe that they want the best for our nation — something that I had assumed all along.  In my naïveté, I have always assumed that the left wants the best for our country, but disagrees with me on the best route by which to achieve it.
 
Horowitz’s contention that the radical left hates America and the principles upon which it was built, and wants to destroy all that our nation stands for, is a game changing concept.  We can no longer hope to reason with and “convert” the left; instead we must expect escalating attacks and learn how to protect ourselves from them.       

Surely, This is Paranoia?

I would never have believed until very recently that leaders of the left (Pelosi, Biden, Hillary, Barack…) had direct intentions to damage America, as Horowitz suggests.

 
But extreme events have come to light during the past three years.  It has been reported that certain members of the leadership in the previously trusted and respected FBI, DOJ, CIA, FISA court and DNC, have colluded with Fusion GPS, Yahoo news and other main stream media, to produce false accusations against President Trump, in an effort to depose him, effectively initiating a coup.  The extent and lawlessness of this apparent subversive “deep state,” coordinating secret lies and violating laws to reverse an American election, have convinced me that there is, indeed, a conspiracy on the part of the left in our country. 

That conspiracy sought to unseat President Trump unjustly.  It is now widely known that:

• Numerous leftist government officials prioritized unseating a sitting President over the welfare of the nation. 
• In setting up their open “resistance movement,” numerous Democrat leaders refuse to support projects under President Trump which they previously supported under President Obama (such as building of a wall, or restrictions on immigration).  
• Democrats oppose work needed for the safety of the American people by our law enforcement officers just to “resist” President Trump.
• Many left-leaning politicians, also supported by the hostile press, place priority on damaging the President over protecting our citizenry and over maintaining our nation’s credibility abroad.  

For 3 years now, the Democrats have behaved like a child who rips the head off the favorite doll of a sibling rather than see that sibling enjoy (and possibly share) the precious doll.
  
The spitefulness of the left has now risen to the level that they side with Iran and with sadistic mastermind Qassem Soleimani, rather than acknowledge the accomplishments of President Trump in stemming terror directed at the US.
 
And their spitefulness has most recently risen to the level that they tried to convict the President of false manufactured accusations and “Impeachment” without allowing him due process or defense.  

Vast Left Wing Conspiracy?

So yes, now it seems we have to to acknowledge the existence of a vast left wing conspiracy aimed at bringing down America and the (Christian-based) constitutional government that supports our success.
David Horowitz, who suggests this, is probably right, and his view and his warnings should not be dismissed.  
He knows our opponents, he used to be one of them. 

When Hillary Clinton was accusing us of a “vast right wing conspiracy” over 20 years ago in 1998, we thought she was crazy.  But knowing what we know now, her accusations were probably based on a projection of her own plans, an assumption that we on the right are doing what the she and the left were already engaged in back then — their own “vast left wing conspiracy.”  

Accusations Backfire

Now, after the left has repeatedly attacked President Trump with falsehoods which actually turn out to be reflections of their own behavior, we are beginning to learn:

• President Trump was accused in the Mueller investigation of colluding with Russia, but in actual fact it was found that it was the FBI and Hillary Clinton who were colluding with Russia, trying to obtain false dossiers with which to undermine President Trump’s election.
•  President Trump was accused of bribing the Ukraine in a phone call with “quid pro quo” demands, when actually it was Vice President Biden who was bribing the Ukraine with a  billion dollar “quid pro quo.”
•  President Trump was subjected to over 3 years of investigation trying to unearth election manipulation by President Trump, followed by a failed impeachment effort to prevent his reelection in 2020.  In actual fact, the impeachment plan, which started on the day of the President’s inauguration, and involved a fruitless 3 year search for a crime, was the ultimate election manipulation effort by the left, attempting to overturn the 2016 election and to damage the President’s chances in the 2020 election.  100% of the election manipulation was on the Democrat side, not on President Trump’s.

The Mueller investigation backfired,  accusations of “quid pro quo” backfired, and the impeachment attempt backfired. 

How Much Damage Has Been Done?

Now, following impeachment, a Rasmussen poll finds that 55% of voters say impeachment made President Trump stronger politically, while only 16% say that it weakened him.   

So, the efforts of the left to unseat our President have not only backfired, but have actually strengthened President Trump.
Americans seem to be well aware of the war that is being waged against them and their values.   
What does not kill you makes you stronger.  

What Have We Learned?

So now we have learned:  if the Left accuses the Right of some shocking behavior, that behavior will actually be found on the Left, and not on the Right. 
 
Why should that be surprising?
The left has been using Alinsky tactics now for decades— tactics described in a book by Saul Alinsky, a book dedicated to Lucifer, the Father of Lies. 

So we have learned that the Left lies, attacks, and distracts.  But most importantly, the Left HATES, and the Left is out to destroy – destroy conservatives, destroy the constitution, and destroy religion, on which all of this is based.
 
The Left does not plan to play by the rules, to use the legal tools our Constitution has made available to us.
Yet Conservatives are expected to stick to the rules to preserve all we believe in. 
For millenia, such battles against evil have been faced by good men who rolled up their sleeves, risked their necks, prayed to God, and took great courageous risks to protect all they believe in.  They even left their homelands, and founded new lands, including America, to escape injustice.
These men were tough, they were courageous, and they were unafraid to call out and face the enemy. 
Enter Donald Trump. 

Enter Donald Trump

***

Donald Trump has identified our problems, called out our enemies foreign and domestic, does not shrink from confrontation, and can play global poker brutally and successfully.  
He manages to remain devoted to America, the constitution, our history, our flag, our Christian roots, and our babies.  
He has taken on the Alinsky left, the European Union, China, ISIS, false attacks and counterfeit impeachments without flinching, all the while fixing our economy, returning jobs to America, repairing our government through the appointment of just judges, defending our unborn future citizens, and inspiring everyday Americans to join him in the hard work of restoring the America most of us believe in — a united America where all groups are included, and no group is played politically or excluded from the prosperity.  

Toxic Masculinity

What is the Trump Haters’ biggest complaint against President Trump?

The gripes vary around various aspects of the President’s behavior– his twitter lashings in response to attacks, his outside-the-box responses to attacks on his policy, his humor which takes the form of theatrical grandstanding, and some decade old locker room talk he was caught using.  Oh, yes, and he does not hold back when his attacker is a minority, like a woman.  This President can be very equal opportunity with dishing back to those who attack him.  

In short, the aggressiveness and unpredictability of President Trump’s (primarily Twitter) behavior offends the left, and even offends some in his own party.  The New  York Times calls this “toxic masculinity,” which they define as including bullying, catcalling, suppressing emotions and masking distress, maintaining an appearance of hardness, and “tough-guy” behavior.
 
According to the New York Times, “Toxic masculinity is what can come of teaching boys that they can’t express emotion openly; that they have to be “tough all the time”; that anything other than that makes them “feminine” or weak.”
The left actually has psychologists working with boys and men who “have been socialized to conform to traditional masculinity ideology.”

 When a President faces serious global and domestic opponents, then aggressiveness, cunning strategy, brutal honesty, willingness to take intelligently calculated risks, and in general, many qualities defined by the New York Times and by the left as “toxic masculinity,” not only become useful, but become essential. 

Is This a Debate or Are We at War?
And What Are the Stakes? 

Once we realize that we are engaging in a war with the left, not a debate, it becomes clear that all the qualities President Trump is displaying are most useful and essential.

In war, you cannot broadcast your plans openly to everyone, you must be aware of potential spies, you must use red herrings and diversionary tactics,  smoke screening, infiltration, information warfare, and covert operations. 
These are masculine military tactics, and President Trump attended a military academy, where he excelled. 
Incidentally, the left has been using these tactics clandestinely for years, way before President Trump’s election and the left’s official declaration of “Resistance.”

It’s time we face reality and stand behind this President.
 
And the stakes?
Unborn children and our nations’ future. 

What President Trump Does

President Trump identifies threats, prioritizes wisely, tackles problems simultaneously on many fronts, rallies the troops, creates diversions and never foolishly shows his cards to the enemy. 
President Trump is a warrior and Commander in Chief on a par with any of our greatest Presidents and generals of the past. 
We should make no mistake about the seriousness of the threats our nation is facing today, whether they are internal or global. 

And do not be distracted by his Twitter rants.  Through them he broadcasts the truth, which the media will not do, and he throws many red herrings to the enemy.  He always has a plan!

President Trump has the courage to face enemies like China, Russia, North Vietnam, ISIS, and our domestic radical left, while still having the heart to defend unborn babies, worry about prisoners who were unjustly sentenced, and work hard for the welfare of everyday Americans.

And President Trump has the moral fortitude and intelligence to negotiate all this within the confines of the law, unlike his enemies, who do not limit themselves to lawful combat, but who flagrantly trample the laws of decency.
 
Following more than three years of investigation by his unprincipled opponents in the “swamp,” President Trump still remains guiltless and righteous.      

Back to David Horowitz

David Horowitz was a prolific author, and has much to teach us about the left. 
His latest book, published just after his death, Dark Agenda- The War to Destroy Christian America, outlines many of the tactics and goals adopted by the left. 

Horowitz claims that Radical infiltrators have been quietly transforming America’s societal, cultural, and political institutions for more than a generation. Now, backed by Billionaire George Soros, they are ready to make their move. These “progressive” extremists have gained control over a once-respectable but now desperate and dangerous political party. From their perches in the Democratic hierarchy, they seek to undermine the war on terror, destabilize the nation, and effect radical “regime change” in America, all in an attempt to usurp power for themselves.

Horowitz claims that progressives are “self-appointed social redeemers,” whose every tactic, particularly their “community organizing,” is designed to gain power.  Their weapons include provoking the public to anger, which generates publicity, and makes people more prone to tolerate the adoption of totalitarian tactics by government under the guise of protecting the public. Progressives claim to be dissatisfied with the status quo, but offer no concrete suggestions on how to effect change and improvement in our society.   

Horowitz claims that numerous groups and programs have been hijacked by the left as ways of recruiting bodies for their revolution.  If you can claim to offer any discontented group promises or sympathy, you will have their votes.  If citizens are not discontent, progressives invent ways to convince them to be discontented. Once they have their votes, progressives forget about these poor slobs, they only needed them to acquire power, so now they don’t have to deliver.  

The Progressive Umbrella of Discontent

.A partial list of activities and issues that now fall under the progressive umbrella of discontent, and are used and controlled by progressives to get votes, but are never solved or overcome, include: 
(Organizations taken from David Horowitz’s very comprehensive Freedom Center Discover the (Leftist) Networks Website): 

Affirmative Action Animal Rights Anti-Americanism Climate Change Communism Globalization Decline of Democrat-Run Cities & States Environmentalism Feminism Health Care Hollywood Immigration Islam Social Justice Treason Victims of the Left—Black Americans, AIDS deaths, Democrat cities

According to one Students for Democratic Society (SDS) radical, for progressives, “the issue is never the issue.  The issue is always the revolution.”  No solutions are ever offered.
Many of the issues, like Global Warming aka Climate Change, are manufactured (another blog article coming soon), and probably do not even exist.

Many of these issues are items all decent people are concerned with, like environmentalism, immigration and social justice.  Progressives do not acknowledge that conservatives, including President Trump, have always worked on and care about justice and decency, have accomplished more in these areas than has the left, and should not be villainized by the progressives.   
 

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Now that we have had 3 years of a President who pushes back on the progressive agenda of the left, and who has actually made some progress on some of these issues without divisive tactics, we can appreciate better how groups of Americans had been splintered and pitted against each other in the past, paralyzing our nation and impeding accomplishment, progress, and prosperity.  

If David Horowitz is correct, and we are indeed in a war with the Left, we must realize this now.  We urgently need to abandon our “Marquis of Queensbury” rules, join in the battle, and become great supporters of President Trump’s fight against the warriors on the Left.  No room for criticism, even for the President’s tweets, which represent his brilliant circumvention of the media that has been corrupted by the left, and which show his transparency and accountability to the people who elected him. 

The Left is Particularly Vulnerable Right Now

One of the unintended consequences of the progressive strategy of collecting the votes of numerous malcontent groups and sowing division, is that one of those malcontent groups just might gain enough momentum to hijack the Democrat Party which pretended to care about them. 

At this very moment, Democrats are panicking about just such a crisis takeover by the angry old socialist Bernie Sanders.  Bernie’s grumbling agenda is gaining momentum with its promises of handouts which only someone who is mathematics-impaired could possibly believe, and the Democrat Party is in danger of being taken over by this socialist.   His supporters include many of our young people who have recently graduated from the politically altered, arithmetic-sparse and history-sparse curriculum imposed by the left in our schools.

Desperate Democrat attempts to regain control of their own party include not only misappropriating their limited energies into continuous yet unproductive attacks on President Trump, which leave their own list of accomplishments anemic, but now also include an attempt to purchase leadership of the party by Michael Bloomberg, the very type of aging white billionaire male, and previous Republican to boot, that Democrats have publicly consumed themselves with hatred for in the past. 

Needless to say, the left is in very poor condition at the moment to pose any threat to the focused, organized, and accomplished administration that President Trump heads.    

.
What Are Our Options?

This is not the first time our nation has suffered internal conflict and division, and it will not be the last.  
We are not limited to the unattractive option of digging in and  “fighting it out to the death” with our brother and sister progressives;  we can use our brains and our brotherly love to find alternate solutions. 

As with any human dispute, sometimes a good “deal” or compromise can be found. 

First of all, we need to ascertain just how many of our citizens are on board with the radical agenda– is it truly half, as the press would have us think, or has the left conned us all into thinking that more Americans are behind them than actually are?
  
The coming 2020 election should help us to find out.  We need every single vote, so let’s make sure we don’t slack!
  
As we come to realize (and defuse) some of the radical left tactics used in the past, such as voter fraud and media manipulation, a better assessment can be made of where Americans actually stand with reduced Alinsky rigging of elections. 

The Best Solution

Then, one general solution to issues on which we Americans have sharp division, is deregulation and decentralization of control over issues on which Americans disagree.  The concept of Federalism, on which our nation was founded, allows the combining of a central “federal” government with regional state and city governments in a single political system.  Most major areas of disagreement can be delegated to the States for more local resolution.  This can ease many of the national tensions that arise when the people of one region disagree strongly with those of another.

Just as family disputes can be eased by allowing family members more freedom and space in their own rooms, so also national disputes can be eased by getting rid of those regulations that Americans disagree on (see the list above, in the areas of Affirmative Action, Animal Rights, Anti-Americanism, Climate Change, Communism, Globalization…….) and allowing States to pass whatever regulations their majorities wish to pass on these contentious issues.  Fundamentally, we all back off of imposing our will on the fellow citizens who disagree with us. Then those who are discontent can find a State to live in that suits their desired lifestyle better.  

Guess What?

The previous section on What Are Our Options?, which concluded that deregulation and decentralization can provide some solutions, is precisely what President Trump has already been doing. 
President Trump is WAY ahead of the game.
And as he lifts regulations that have been crippling our economy, lifts health care requirements for the Little Sisters of the Poor so they do not have to pay for contraception, and reclaims our ability to say “Merry Christmas,” our nation is beginning to prosper.  

Why We Need President Trump

President Trump is a far sighted leader who has been able to identify many of our enemies and problems, and has energetically pursued finding solutions against great odds. He has a wonderful ability to discern what Americans want and need, as opposed to what career politicians want and need.  
Almost miraculously (assisted by the prayer of millions of Americans), President Trump has managed to rise above the assaults he has suffered, and continues to look for win-win solutions for all Americans.
President Trump is the “deal-maker” of the century, and he will be able to continue finding us win-win deals that solve our nation’s problems with fairness and justice. 
As a previously reluctant Trumper, I am now completely on board with our President, and so should you be.

Impeachment: Desperate False Accusations, trying to take down a righteous man

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As we approach tonight, the vote of the United States House of Representatives, in which the extreme “progressive” left will try to defame one of our best Presidents through false accusations and impeachment, let us remember to put these events in God’s hands with prayer. Heaven will be stormed with prayer, as is appropriate.   

We don’t (as the left does) lash out, lie, don black masks, or riot. 
Instead, we support our President with letters, donations and prayers, and prepare quietly for the next election, knowing that this good and wonderful man is in God’s very capable hands.  

President Donald J. Trump’s letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (who is heading these proceedings) outlines the injustice and false accusations, and is printed below.

But first, a few quotations from the Holy Bible that many of us try to live by: 

Exodus 20:16:

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Psalm 109:1-5

For the leader. A psalm of David.

O God, whom I praise, do not be silent, for wicked and treacherous mouths attack me.
They speak against me with lying tongues; with hateful words they surround me, attacking me without cause.
In return for my love they slander me, even though I prayed for them.
They repay me evil for good, hatred for my love.

Psalm 109:29-30:

Clothe my accusers with disgrace; make them wear their shame like a mantle.
I will give fervent thanks to the LORD; before a crowd I will praise him.

Deuteronomy 19: 19-20

The judges must investigate it thoroughly. If the witness is a false witness and has falsely accused the other, you shall do to the false witness just as that false witness planned to do to the other. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst.
The rest shall hear and be afraid, and never again do such an evil thing as this in your midst.

Herculean Effort, Real Science

SOooooooo proud of my husband Rolf– he initiated & put together an editorial,  collecting input from 37 of the world’s most prominent engine engineers (his field) on the impact of the internal combustion (IC) engine on global warming, and on the future of IC engines. 
Real and honest science, with recommendations for future directions. See the full editorial in the International Journal of Engine Research entitled The Future of the Internal Combustion Engine. 
After only a short time up online, the editorial has already had thousands of downloads.  It comes out in print in the January 2020 issue of the Journal.  

In a Hurry?

The “Executive Summary” and “Closure” at the end of the editorial are great for those in a hurry, and are posted just below. The rest of the article supplies enough details and data to satisfy the most discerning of scientists.

Oh No! Not Politics? 

The article is not at all political, and does not take sides with climate “alarmists” or climate “deniers,” as the opposing political camps have often been called.
It simply presents pertinent powerful facts, which lead logical people to make their own inescapable conclusions.
For example, IC engines provide 25% of global power, while producing only 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. Also, research of the last several decades has reduced pollution by IC engines by a thousand fold.
We are now at the point where more pollution is caused by the wear of automobile tires on the road than by the vehicle’s emissions. This makes the modern day IC engine vehicle equivalent to electric vehicles in terms of pollution. In fact, vehicles with catalytic air cleaners will actually exhaust cleaner air than they take in, in cities such as Los Angeles.

Enjoy! 

IJER editorial: The future of the internal combustion engine

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1468087419877990 

Below is the Executive Summary and the Closure — 
(Entire Editorial at: 

IJER editorial: The future of the internal combustion engine )

Internal combustion (IC) engines operating on fossil fuel oil provide about 25% of the world’s power (about 3000 out of 13,000 million tons oil equivalent per year—see Figure 1), and in doing so, they produce about 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Figure 2). Reducing fuel consumption and emissions has been the goal of engine researchers and manufacturers for years, as can be seen in the two decades of ground-breaking peer-reviewed articles published in this International Journal of Engine Research (IJER). Indeed, major advances have been made, making today’s IC engine a technological marvel. However, recently, the reputation of IC engines has been dealt a severe blow by emission scandals that threaten the ability of this technology to make significant and further contributions to the reduction of transportation sector emissions. In response, there have been proposals to replace vehicle IC engines with electric-drives with the intended goals of further reducing fuel consumption and emissions, and to decrease vehicle GHG emissions.

Indeed, some potential students and researchers are being dissuaded from seeking careers in IC engine research due to disparaging statements made in the popular press and elsewhere that disproportionately blame IC engines for increasing atmospheric GHGs. Without a continuous influx of enthusiastic, well-trained engineers into the profession, the potential further benefits that improved IC engines can still provide will not be realized. As responsible automotive engineers and as stewards of the environment for future generations, it is up to our community to make an honest assessment of the progress made in the development of IC engines over the past century, with their almost universal adoption to meet the world’s mobility and power generation needs. Considering that the maturity of IC engine technology is something that many other technologies/possibilities do not have, we also need to assess the potential for future progress, as well as to assess the benefits offered by competitor technologies, in order to make responsible recommendations for future directions.

Factors impacting that future are discussed in this editorial and include the following:

• - The fact that affordable energy has been instrumental in raising the standard of living in the world dramatically, particularly in poor countries, and the fact that so far in the history of humanity, the burning of fossil or bio-derived fuels has been the only reliable source of energy;
• - The fact that the entire planet is linked by a massive transportation infrastructure that is largely based on the IC engine and that would require decades and tremendous expense to replace;
• - The dramatic advancements in IC engine technology that have brought pollutant levels down a 1000-fold in past decades, and which now make particulate emissions from tire and brake wear a larger problem than engine emissions (in both IC engine powered and electric vehicles);
• - The obstacles still faced by proposed alternatives, such as electric vehicles powered by batteries, which have tremendous cost, weight and other limitations, and which are hoped to be fuelled by renewables, such as wind and solar that currently represent only a miniscule fraction of the world’s energy supply;
• - And the fact that concerns about the impact of IC engines on climate change have become politically charged, even as they need to be assessed impartially. There is need for informed, data and science-driven government policies that promote a managed, realistic transition to sustainable future energy systems.

The vast majority of automotive engineers, including IJER editorial board members, are optimistic about the continuing importance of the IC engine to meet the world’s mobility and power generation needs. Certainly, exploring new and competing engine technologies, as well as new fuels, is important for a sustainable future for our planet. The inescapable conclusion reached in this editorial is that, for the foreseeable future, road and off-road transport will be characterized by a mix of solutions involving internal combustion engines (ICEs), battery and hybrid powertrains, as well as conventional vehicles powered by IC engines. Thus, there is a pressing need for recruiting the brightest young minds to engage in this effort.

(Aside: Here we skip the bulk of the detailed article and skip to “Closure;”  for the entire article, go to The Future of the Internal Combustion Engine )

In summary, the ICE, and IC engine research have a bright future, in contrast with some widely distributed media reports (e.g. The Economist¹⁹). The power generation and the vehicle and fuel industries are huge, representing trillions of dollars (US) per year in turnover, with a massive infrastructure. We are certainly in revolutionary times, but it is clear that power generation sources will not become fully renewable and transport will not become fully electric for several decades, if ever. However, research to improve efficiency and methods to reduce dependence on fossil fuels are exciting directions for future IC engine research. It is very likely that highly efficient “fully flexible” engines with hybridized solutions will be a big part of sought-after efficiency improvements, as well as emission/GHG reductions.²⁰ Finally, it must be acknowledged that, in practice, people select their choice of powertrain based on numerous factors, including cost. Consumer preference is not decided by politicians, nor by car-makers, nor academia. Policy unilaterally favoring one technology solution may be deeply inefficient and perhaps even the wrong eventual solution. A better approach is to use real-world data to allow competing technologies to flourish; if they evidence efficiency improvements and emission reductions, and they then need to be delivered as soon as possible. Continued progress requires that we recruit the brightest young minds to engage in this effort to deliver a vibrant and sustainable future for the ICE.

(Entire Editorial at: 

IJER editorial: The future of the internal combustion engine )

A photo history from my brother “Vyt’s” childhood photo album.

Albert Vytas Strazdis, 1950-2010

Father John Pakalniškis  (in photo, priest baptizing Vyt)

On Wednesday, February 25, 1987, Fr. John Pakalniškis offered the prayer at the United States House of Representatives commemoration of the 69^th anniversary of the Independence of Lithuania.

Father Pakalniškis was (in 1987) the supreme chaplain to the Lithuanian Scouts Organization, as well as the vice president of the Lithuanian Priests’ League of the United States.

He was born in New York City, and when he was 6 years old in 1921, Father Pakalniskis moved with his parents to Lithuania, where he completed his education. Ordained to the priesthood on June 3, 1939, Father Pakalniškis also graduated from the University of Vytautas the Great in Kaunas, Lithuania, that same year.

His first assignment was the assistant at the Cathedral Church in Kaunas,where he also taught religious courses.

On June 7, 194 7, Father Pakalniškis came to the United States, and served as assistant pastor to three parishes in Brooklyn, until July 16, 1978, when he was appointed the pastor of the Annunciation Church.

Father Pakalniškis taught generations of children religion at our Maironis Lithuanian Saturday school in Brooklyn, celebrated Masses for the school, and was chaplain for numerous groups, including the Lithuanian Scouts.

Father Pakalniškis officiated at the wedding of Ruta & Albinas Strazdis, the baptism of their children, Albert Vytas, Joan Ruta (Syte), and Lucius Algis.

He also baptized Syte’s children Christopher Vytas and Tomas Jan, and officiated at Syte and Rolf’s wedding at Anunciation Parish. 
He was a spiritual father to numerous Milukas families and other New York Lithuanian families at the Church of the Annunciation in New York, and was truly a priest after Christ’s own heart.

One More (Sad) Treasure

One more treasure from my basement is the Sunday bulletin from Madison’s St. Raphael Cathedral, March 13th, 2005, shown below.

This was the last day Masses were celebrated at the Cathedral, before the Cathedral burned down in the early morning hours of March 14th, 2005, due to break-in and arson.

This Thursday, March 14th, 2019, is the fourteenth anniversary of the Madison St. Raphael Cathedral fire.

Download or View Below

Download the Cathedral Bulletin 3-13-05 PDF here, or view by scrolling below.

Note that in his bulletin pastoral letter, Msgr. (now Bishop) Swain provides us with a great examination of conscience for Lent.

Astonishingly Perceptive Wisconsin State Journal Article Portrays Bishop Morlino in 2004

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Treasures in My Basement
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DIOCESE HAS NEVER HAD A BISHOP LIKE MORLINO

HE WADES INTO CONTROVERSY, BUT HE IS TOLERANT OF THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH HIM.

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Bishop Morlino’s address to the World Future Society was one of his early encounters with secular Madison and was entitled “The Future of Religion.” It was presented at Fluno Hall on the University of Wisconsin Madison campus.  Bishop Morlino pointed out during that address that Democracy maximizes individual freedom and minimizes restraint by the government.  Thus it requires free self-restraint, which makes sense only in a religious framework.  Government ought to favor authentic religion– when self-restraint under God is promoted, the government has less restraining to do.  Religion, therefore, must have a future if democracy is to have a future. In hindsight now in 2019 with Antifa type disorder rampant, this prediction by Bishop Morlino made 15 years ago (in 2003) comes across particularly inspired.

*** By William R. Wineke Wisconsin State Journal Six months after becoming spiritual leader of 265,000 Roman Catholics in southern Wisconsin, Robert Morlino is proving to be a bishop far different from any the Madison Catholic Diocese has seen before. He is at once more self-assured and, paradoxically, more humble than any of his predecessors, more willing to engage in public controversy on behalf of his church and more tolerant of those who disagree, a man who seems at ease with himself, his values and his abilities. He also begins his leadership of the diocese at a time when trends in the church that have been occurring for years are reaching crisis proportions. His priests are getting older and there are a few replacements in the pipeline. The result is that each pastor serves an increasing number of parishioners each year, parishes are being merged and ongoing scandals in the church at large are testing the faith of Catholics locally. Perhaps his biggest challenge, however, is confronting what Morlino sees as a pervasive secularism in Madison. Morlino said his first six months here have convinced him of the necessity for dialogue with the outside culture. “Madison has to face all the challenges of secularism,“ he said. “I think the challenge in Madison is to enter into dialogue with the culture that is secular. To strengthen people’s faith requires some flexibility and versatility.“ He says he is somewhat surprised by the extent of the secular culture here and by what he perceives as a split between the culture of Madison and of the rest of the 11-county diocese. “I knew it theoretically before I came here, but I didn’t realize how strong that culture is,” he said. He does much of his teaching through his column in the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Herald. In a recent column dealing with the referendum on expanding gambling at Madison’s DeJope  bingo hall, Morlino put the whole issue into the reference of the cities alleged secularism. He said it is hard to argue against gambling in the city that welcomes abortion and the production of anti-Catholic plays, such as “Corpus Christi,“ a play that portrays Jesus and his disciples as gay. A national organization, America needs Fatima, has organized a protest against its performance, which is scheduled for March 5-27 at the Bartell  Theater. “The kind of community we are seems to indicate a high comfort level with virtually no public morality,“ he said. But, he asked, “is that really the kind of community we want to be in the Diocese of Madison and in the state of Wisconsin looking into the future?“ His column reported in the front page story in the Wisconsin State Journal, elicited responses of both support and outrage. Both the State Journal’s and the Capital Times’ editorial pages criticized Morlino‘s position, and Capital Times columnist (Aside from Syte: calumnist?😂) Doug Moe wrote a piece on the newspaper’s front page taking the Bishop to task. The common thread in the editorial response was that Morlino hasn’t lived here long enough to pass judgment. Those who argue with him tend to do so from the perspective that in a pluralistic society, secular values of open-mindedness should prevail. The State Journal’s editorial page, for example, has been barraged with letters supporting and opposing Morlino. Philip Keillor, a Madison activist with a history of working with the poor, noted the city’s hard work in providing shelter for the homeless and suggested “moral minimums in our community seem to be developed on issues when there is enough agreement to ‘make it happen’ and those who remain uninvolved either accept or don’t strongly oppose controversial activities. And the Rev. E. Ellwood Carey, retired pastor of Parkside Presbyterian Church, suggested there is “nothing in Christian scriptures that reveals Jesus’ sexuality, so a word of caution regarding assumptions is appropriate.“ Many Catholic readers, on the other hand, argue that a Bishop’s letter to the people of his diocese should not be read as an allegation of immorality on the part of non-believers. Mary Weisensel, Sun Prairie, a Catholic laywoman  long active in church causes, noted that “a closer examination of the bishops column in our diocesan newspaper reveals that he cast no stones, he only sought to help us think through a moral issue. That’s what bishops are supposed to do…” What the flap demonstrates more than anything is that Morlino does not duck controversy. His recurring theme is that there is an “objective public morality, a moral truth.“ In Thursday’s column, for example, he said “our freedom is accountable to the moral truth and, as I have written so many times, the fact that something is done freely does not make it morally right, that should be obvious.“ He use the column to criticize the Super Bowl performance, in which the singer Janet Jackson’s bodice was ripped off to reveal one of her breasts during the nation’s most watched television event. He also commented on reducing love to its “sensual dimensions,“ adding that the “ongoing effort to assert into the civic life of our country and our culture the right to redefine marriage“ is “certainly not among the inalienable rights conferred upon each human person according to the mind of our nation’s architects from the beginning.“ Morlino, 57, who succeeded Bishop William Bullock last August, is the fourth Bishop to serve the 11-county Madison Catholic Diocese. He is a native of Pennsylvania, the only child of a Scranton couple. His mother died when he was a teenager. Morlino was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1974. He holds a bachelors degree in philosophy from Fordham University, a masters degree in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and a doctorate in moral theology from the Gregorian University in Rome. He is a large enthusiastic man who appears to enjoy company, love sports and doesn’t like being bound by rigid schedules. He doesn’t talk “down“ to people – which means, also, that he expects people to be able to hold their own when they speak with him. He had a diocese that was formed in 1946 and was led, successively, by bishops William O’Connor, who served from 1946 to 1967, Cletus O’Donnell, who served from 1967 to 1992 and Bullock, who served until 2003. If their tenures could be described by a single word – none would wish to be so described — O’Connor was a builder; O’Donnell was a national leader, Bullock was an administrator and Morlino is a teacher. Audio for many of Bishop Morlino’s homilies is available at the Cathedral Parish Media Archive – click above text for link and search “Morlino.” He seems perfectly willing to challenge a society he thinks is too secular and seems to have no questions about his ability to do so. However Morlino also insists on respect for those who disagree. He says that, in dialogue with the secular world, he is convinced that “the truth wins out by its own gentle power.“ Morlino writes long pastoral letters each Thursday in the Catholic Herald, on subjects ranging from support for the controversial orders of LaCrosse Bishop Raymond Burke (now Archbishop of St. Louis) on giving Communion to legislators who support abortion, to analysis of the best-selling novel “The DaVinci Code,“ to Marian devotions. Lorraine Endres of Waunakee, a Catholic laywoman who says she hopes to be considered a good Catholic but who is not known as an activist, says most of what she knows about her new Bishop comes from his pastoral letters. “I haven’t met him personally, but I think he’s going to be good for the diocese,“ she said. “He’s pro-life and he lets people know it. I read his column in the Herald every week and it’s easy to understand where he’s coming from. He’s down to earth and he lets people know what he thinks.“ Morlino confronted his Priests with a tightly reasoned multi-page letter on changes in Catholic worship having to do with confession and First Communion and, when asked by some priests for a simpler version they could share with their parishioners, he replied that cutting it down to five pages was as far as he could justifiably go. If Morlino expects his priests to bone up on their theology, however, he has also scored points with those same priests by announcing he won’t even read unsigned letters complaining about them. “I think he brings a great deal of renewed optimism to the diocese,“ said the Rev. Felix Oehrlein, pastor of Saint Cecilia Catholic Church in Wisconsin Dells. “He’s been very affirming. At our recent gathering of priests, he had a town-hall meeting, sat down with us for a couple of hours and just anyone who had something to say to stand up and say it. He wasn’t defensive about anything.” At the same time, Morlino has spent comparatively little time on administering the diocese, something Bullock prided himself as doing. During his first six months as Madison‘s bishop, he travel to other states for days and weeks at a time, sometimes to for fill commitments he made before arriving here, sometimes to take a few days off. In an interview with the state journal, Morlino said it’s all a matter of emphasizing a bishop’s talents. “There are bishops who hover with their investment officers and develop financial strategies,“ he said. “No one would be more useless at that than me. There are lay people with far more financial skills than I have and I think we ought to let them use those skills for the good of the church.“ Much of the work of actually administering the diocese has fallen to his vicar general, or second in command, Monsignor Paul Swain (Aside from Syte: now Bishop of  Sioux Falls) who, nevertheless, says Morlino has brought a sense of zest to the office. Morlino may have best explained his concepts of personal strengths in a talk to diocesan young people recently in Wisconsin Dells. Comparing life to jigsaw puzzle, Morlino said, “I can’t go anywhere I want. Every piece is fitted to occupy a certain spot. I know I have strengths and weaknesses and if I don’t like my strengths and weaknesses, if I don’t accept them, there is no joy.” Morlino stunned his staff at the Bishop O’Connor Pastoral Center by giving each person two weeks off over the Christmas season. Those who had to work to keep the facility running were told to take extra vacation time later in the year. Telling his staff to take more time off also has its pastoral side, Morlino suggested. “Our culture really does need to slow down,“ he said. “What drives it is the materialism of our age. If you’re never satisfied with what you have, there’s only one way to get more and that is to work longer hours and that has its effect on all sorts of other values.“ As for himself, Morlino confessed, “I know I don’t make my best decisions when I’m overtired.“ Morlino raised some eyebrows locally when, shortly after being installed as Bishop, he joined a group of abortion opponents in a march to an abortion clinic, where he recited the rosary. People weren’t surprised that he opposes abortion – all Catholic bishops do – but his predecessors hadn’t been involved in public marches. Perhaps more telling than Morlino‘s participation, however, was his admonition to his fellow marchers to love their opponents. “When someone is promoting error, that error has to be corrected, of course,“ Morlino said then. “But the person promoting the error never loses that dignity and sacredness of the human person.“ Morlino said that’s just basic Catholic teaching. He applied the same judgment to politicians who may not conform to church teachings. “I can’t judge the heart of an individual, but, objectively, those who hold public office and are in public positions have to be challenged, not only for the good of their souls and the state of their own faith,“ he said, adding that if politicians “publicly promote things we can’t abide by, that becomes sinful for them and scandalous for the Catholic community.“ The issue, Morlino continued, isn’t that politicians must take orders from the church, but they must live up to their own vocations. Morlino’s strong stance on social and moral issues seems to be popular with his fellow Catholics, many of whom are writing to the newspapers in support of him. Within his church, Morlino has been most controversial in Baraboo, where the pastor of Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church, the Reverend Gerald Vosen, was accused of sexual improprieties and was removed from office last September. The man Vosen is accused of abusing denies the allegations (they were made by the man’s sister), but Morlino and the diocesan body charged with investigating sexual abuse charges have neither confirmed the charges nor returned Vosen to his pulpit. Morlino suggested, obliquely, that other allegations may have been made. At any rate, Saint Joseph parishioners– and even pastors of Protestant congregations in Baraboo – have protested and marched against what they perceive to be Morlino’s inaction. Morlino scoffs at the one-word descriptions of Bishop’s records cited above. “I don’t think of myself as coming to leave a mark,“ he said. “I think the bishop should do what the church wants him to do and that is to try to create an environment in which every person, every day, is invited to meet Christ, risen from the dead, in a gentle and kind the way.“ He added: “I am not the Messiah and things may go awry. But, the gifts I have, I will use. If it turns out later that I have left a mark so be it.“

“I am not the Messiah and things may go awry. But, the gifts I have, I will use. If it turns out later that I have left a mark so be it.“ – Bishop Morlino

Bishop Morlino has certainly made a very positive and very remarkable mark in Madison, and his mark includes:

40 new priests
30 seminarians
Perpetual Adoration Chapel in Madison (well know by Faithful Catholics to generate priestly vocations)
New St. Paul’s Campus Catholic Center at UW Madison (preserving the faith of our youth and generating numerous vocations)
Opening discussion of relativism and the importance of moral truth
Courageous defense of life and marriage
Opposition to embryonic stem cell research
Clarification of Church teaching on controversial issues like immigration
Willingness to take strong stands on protecting victims of clerical sexual abuse, both in his own Diocese, and all the way up to supporting Archbishop Vigano’s calls for Papal transparency.

For more of Bishop Morlino’s accomplishments, see Bishop Morlino was Truly a Churchman of His Time 

See also:

Madison Catholic Herald on Bishop Morlino

Madison’s Bishop Celebrates 15 Years!

Rest in Peace, Bishop Morlino

Madison’s Brilliant Bishop

What on Earth is Going on with the Catholic Church? or The Flip Side of Mercy

SOTU Dems

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday!

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A Very Different Christmas

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Bishop is Enjoying Christmas!

“Apostle of Purgatory”

“Ave Maria” in Honor of Bishop Morlino

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AVE MARIA mp3,  played by Rolf Reitz:

Rolf, Syte, Tracey and Tom Reitz with Bishop Morlino

Happy Birthday, Bishop Morlino!

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Remembering  Bishop Morlino:

Bishop Morlino Was Truly a Churchman of His Time 

Madison Catholic Herald on Bishop Morlino

Madison’s Bishop Celebrates 15 Years!

Rest in Peace, Bishop Morlino

Madison’s Brilliant Bishop

What on Earth is Going on with the Catholic Church? or The Flip Side of Mercy

 What on Earth is Going on with the Catholic Church?

or

The Flip Side of Mercy

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Scandals and Sinners are Not New

The Current Pedophilia and Coverup Scandals

Being Balanced and Fair to the Catholic Clergy

The Unexpected and Shocking Developments

The new facts to surface regarding the old Catholic Church scandals do not involve frequency of incidence, which seems to have been dramatically reduced, but they involve two aspects of the old coverups which cannot be ignored:

• The Church is now being accused of coverup, as high up as Pope Francis.

• The detailed nature of the sexual abuse has been identified — and it is almost exclusively homosexual.

The picture now emerging is one not of pedophilia, but of homosexual abuse of older male children and seminarians by homosexual priests.
These developments create a clash of values in our modern culture that will have no easy resolution.

Clash of Values
First, the Events of Summer 2018

Pope Francis greets Archbishop McCarrick

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Three major new events have brought us to this point of scandal in the Catholic Church this summer.

• Cardinal McCarrick, one of Pope Francis’ closest advisors, resigned from the College of Cardinals following allegations of sexual abuse of a teenage boy 40 years ago in New York City, as well as sexual misconduct with seminarians over an extended more recent period of time.
• Separately, a Pennsylvania Grand Jury issued a report summarizing that from 1950 to 2000, 300 priests in Pennsylvania sexually abused over 1,000 children. 90% of the abuse reported by the Pennsylvania Grand Jury was of older male children by homosexual priests.
• Then, Archbishop Vigano, former apostolic nuncio to the United States, issued an 11 page letter implicating Pope Francis and several senior prelates in covering up Archbishop Theodore McCarrick’s alleged sexual abuse of a youth and of seminarians. He claimed that Pope Francis knew about strict canonical sanctions imposed on McCarrick by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 but chose to repeal them. He accused Pope Francis of not only ignoring Pope Benedict’s sanctions, but also of promoting Cardinal McCarrick to be the Pope’s trusted counselor.  Archbishop Vigano claimed that he personally spoke with Pope Francis about the gravity of McCarrick’s abuses soon after the Pope’s election in 2013.  These allegations have not yet been verified.

Pope Francis, caught by Archbishop Vigano’s accusations during his trip to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families, told media that he is “not going to say a word” about the McCarrick coverup accusations from Archbishop Vigano.

Two weeks later, the Pope’s advisors have stated that the Holy See is preparing an answer to the current debates, presumably referring to Archbishop Vigano’s accusations.
On September 11, the Council of Cardinals expressed full solidarity with the Pope’s handling of the abuse crisis.  No timeline yet on the promised clarification.
On September 12, Pope Francis called the world’s Bishops to a meeting on sexual abuse of children to occur in February 2019.
On September 13, some US Bishop leaders are meeting with Pope Francis to discuss the McCarrick abuses. Pope Francis is receiving Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. conference of Bishops, along with Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, the Vice President; Monsignor Brian Bransfield, the conference’s secretary; and Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

Is the Catholic Church Abuse Homosexual in Nature?

There is now much debate on whether the abuse occurring in the Catholic Church is homosexual in nature.
And there are many claims on both sides.
This blogger believes that the statistics speak for themselves, but below is some of the evidence pro and con.

The vast majority of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, 80% of past abuse in the Catholic Church and 90% of the abuse reported by the Pennsylvania Grand Jury, has been of older male children by homosexual priests.

Although the majority of abuses involve older youth, our society is more shocked by cases involving young children.   This issue is complicated by the fact that in the past the term “pedophilia” was used broadly and included activity with teenagers.
For example, sexual activity with 16 year old children is not actually categorized as pedophilia, but as ephebophilia — which is not categorized as a mental disorder, nor is it illegal in many places such as Washington D.C., where the age of consent for sexual activity is 16.  

 

The Flip Side of Mercy

As Catholics, both Catholics in the pews and clergy, many of us have trapped ourselves unwittingly, as we tried so hard to accommodate the cultural values around us, and to understand and excuse the behavior the sexual revolution of the 1960’s has spawned. We have tried to normalize, accept, and sometimes even welcome the homosexual culture into the Catholic Church.  This has been a source of much conflict within the Catholic Church.

Now it turns out that welcoming and tolerating homosexuality, particularly into the priesthhod, brings with it some painful baggage that none of us ever expected– heart-rending injury to our youth.

We cannot rage for justice from our leadership, condemning them for coverups, while we are also the ones who raged for normalization of homosexuality.  Liberal Catholics are now caught between a rock and a hard place.  They cannot be on both sides of the fence.  There is often an unrealized cost to mercy, a cost that nobody knew would have to be paid.

Mercy only allows us to offer ourselves as compensation for wrongs which have been done.  We cannot submit other people to suffering, especially children, in the name of mercy. 

Where Do We Go From Here?

Now that this link between homosexual priests and promiscuous homosexual activity has been established (science is real!), everyone in the church, from each one of us, to our clergy, to our bishops, all the way to the pope, is being forced to choose between the victim and the perpetrator, between justice and mercy, between abused teenage boys and homosexual priests.

So, we better stop pointing fingers, blaming and demanding, and we better remind ourselves that our clergy is 16 times less likely to abuse children than all of the rest of us.  We better start putting our heads together to search for what will likely be uncomfortable and painful solutions. These solutions that will probably involve going back to the age-old church policy, which excludes homosexuals from ordination to the priesthood. Much as we recognize the value of all human beings, we must also recognize that not all of us are suited for every occupation on earth.

American progressives, who include some American Catholics, have pressured the Church to remove any stigma from homosexuality, and even to approve gay marriage.  But when homosexuality becomes associated with sexual abuse of teenagers, or with an increased predilection towards pedophilia, how can we simultaneously pressure the Church to welcome homosexuals, yet eliminate ephebophilia at the same time?

Most people are afraid of even voicing these questions, lest their local ANTIFA throws bricks through their living room windows.
And our Pope, who seems to want to be a nice guy to everyone, is trapped by this dilemma, too.
It takes tremendous courage to step into the middle of this controversy, to take sides with abused children rather than with the hurt feelings of homosexuals, to seek investigation and documentation of the truth, regardless of what unpopular results we might face.

The Most Difficult Question

The last logical, yet very difficult and politically incorrect question to be asked will be the following– if indeed it is demonstrated that the homosexual subculture in the Church is associated with sexual abuse of teenagers, how does this apply to every other institution in our society where adults are in authority over teenagers — the schools, the scouts, sports coaches, and adoption institutions?

The Bigger Picture

One thing so often forgotten in all of these discussions is the bigger picture of sexual sin.
It is always easier to point fingers at another group than to acknowledge our own group’s sins.

Our society demands a certain degree of self restraint in a number of areas.  These include eating, studying, working, refraining from stealing, refraining from “hate speech,” and many more.
Yet our modern society has pretty much abandoned the notion of sexual self restraint.

We are quite capable of such restraint.   In fact, it would really improve our lives and would eliminate much misery, from the pain of divorce, to broken hearts, to STDs, to the culture of abortion, which kills about 1 million children every year in the United States. It would also reduce the shocking 28% of youth being sexually abused today.

When we as a society accept the degree of promiscuity that we now tolerate, how can we blame homosexuals for their lack of self-restraint?
If we followed (Judeo-Christian) Catholic teaching on the responsible use of our sexuality, and we educated and modeled modesty and sexual self control to our youth instead of using Planned Parenthood pamphlets to teach middle schoolers to be “Happy, Healthy and Hot,” the general atmosphere of civilized sexual behavior would reduce all scandals, which surfaced following the 1960’s “sexual revolution.”

Pope Paul VI predicted the misery the sexual revolution would lead to in his 1968 encyclical Humane Vitae (On Human Life).  It’s only 15 pages long.  Read it.

No Witch Hunt, Please!

Homosexuals are not the only ones who need to exercise some self-restraint.
We all do.
We need to remove the log from our own eyes before we criticize the splinter in theirs.

We cannot go after homosexuals in a witch hunt, nor after Catholic priests in a witch hunt.

We should develop a bit more respect for the Catholic Church and her moral teachings, and return to Judeo-Christian values instead.

Next Time You See a Catholic Priest

Next time you see a Catholic priest, say to yourself-
“My children are over 20 times safer with him than they are with me and my spouse.  Maybe I should be grateful to him for devoting his life to preserving the Wisdom passed down to us from Jesus Christ through the Catholic Church.”

Instead of bigoted attacks on the least offenders, remind yourself that anywhere you leave your child– school, daycare, sports, scouts, Olympics — there is always potential for sexual abuse.  MORE potential than in the Catholic Church.

The Numbers- Abusers on the Loose

Instead of worrying about the 300 priests in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report (half of whom are dead), worry about the 21,219 registered sex offenders running around free in Pennsylvania today.

There are 747,408 registered sex offenders in the US today, and 747 registered sex offenders in my town of Madison, Wisconsin .

We cannot evaporate these people, we cannot keep them in jail for life, we cannot transport them to a fictional location like on Star Trek, and we have to deal with the existence of these people among us.

The Catholic Church is no different than the City of Madison, the State of Pennsylvania, or the United States.
Moreover, the Catholic Church does not operate any prisons, has no police force, Department of Justice, FBI, army, or any other mechanism to deal with offending priests other than reprimanding them or demoting them.

If we don’t attack the Mayor of Madison, the Governor of Pennsylvania, or the President of the United States for the 28% of our youth who are sexually abused, why is everyone so obsessed with going after the Catholic leadership?
The Church MUST be open and transparent, must prevent future abuse.
But the rest of society has to do the same, because this is a problem that requires action.

Most Important of All

Whatever you do, PRAY, and do NOT teach  your child to be “Happy, Healthy and Hot”nor allow the schools to do it.

In the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, join us in fasting and prayer called for by Bishop Morlino:

Masses of reparation are being held throughout the Diocese on September 14, the Feast of the Holy Cross. Bishop Morlino has also invited people to observe the Autumn Ember Days (September 19, 21, 22) “as days of fasting and abstinence in reparation for the sins and outrages committed by members of the clergy and episcopacy.

CLICK HERE for Madison’s Catholic Herald Report on the Mass of Reparation for Sexual Sins

Madison’s Bishop Morlino Celebrates 15 Years!

Congratulations, Love and Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! to Bishop Morlino–

–who was installed as Bishop of Madison 15 years ago today, on August 1, 2003.

Madison Catholics are overwhelmed with the blessings this Bishop has brought to our Diocese, and we return with gratitude the love this Bishop so obviously has shown for all of us.

The Madison Catholic Herald has done a wonderful job of summarizing Bishop Morlino’s contributions to our Diocese at:

Bishop Morlino has continued to                                     “badger them lovingly with the truth.”

Bishop Morlino has loved us, taught us, and led us now for 15 years.
He probably has no idea how much he has done for all of us, both as a Diocese, and as individual Catholics, parents, and children!
He has the perfect touch, balancing truth with love while he teaches and shepherds.

May God bless Bishop Morlino very richly both now and forever!
Pray for Bishop daily, as he continues shepherding our Diocese – Rosary for the Bishop.org