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The Sleeping Giant Awakens

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By Fr. Robert J. Carr

The Dallas Morning News has reported that one can find pedophile priests in hiding in other countries.

Meanwhile, the word out of the Sea of Tranquility is that there are priest pedophiles who are also in parishes on the Moon.

Fortunately, however, I understand both Mercury and Venus have solved their pedophile priest problem. I am waiting to hear from Mars. Yet, I hear the planets around Alpha Centuri have had a similar problem to our own. Yet, their greatest struggle is with a certain Doctor Smith who seems to be quiet Devious. "Oh the Pain, Oh the Pain."

You know, I think it is time to say, I think you doth protest too much. When the Dallas Morning News has to go to an island in the middle of the pacific to find a pedophile priest in order to sell newspapers, then this has just gone too far.

Something tells me that certain people needed to take their anger out on a religion headed by a Charismatic leader and is worldwide. Now since the one that destroyed the World Trade Center beheads people, they decided to pick the quiet one with the leader who is an older man with Parkinsons and whose members are not known for blowing up buildings.

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SITTING BEHIND A SONAR SCOPE

Do you know what I was doing in the early 1980s? No, believe it or not, I was not molesting kids. I was doing my best to stay awake at 0300 hours on a few hours sleep keeping my eye on a Sonar Scope so no one would be attacking this country. I was defending our West Coast. It was the Cold War then. We were afraid of a Nuclear war with the Soviets, remember? I was defending the right to live under the Constitution of the United States. Little did I know that I was wasting my time, because when I became a Catholic priest, I would become the enemy of members of my government and of my culture. Well, so be it!

A LAST MASS IN 'NAM

I remember that when I was a sailor, a chaplain told us of a true story during 'Nam. I was not old enough to be in 'Nam, he was.

He told us that they had just celebrated mass on a base and were riding out of the base on a jeep to celebrate our most sacred liturgy elsewhere, when enemy fire came in. All the men who had just attended mass were dying. The chaplains rushed back in to offer them the last rites and one of the men, maybe 18 years old looked up and said, "we have gone to confession and received communion we are going to Heaven now."

That chaplain is one of the most important priests I know. Later he was diagnosed with Leukemia. He had to go for an operation and, preparing himself for what some would call the worst, said "I could be in Heaven in a half an hour."

Yah, two situations where people understood just what it is we offer, hope! Eternal Hope. Even in the most hopeless of situations.

That priest was also your worst nightmare. He used to pray outside of abortion clinics, do you know why? "One of those babies may have the cure for leukemia," he would say.

AND WHAT HAS THE GLOBE DONE FOR YOU LATELY!

Let's face it, how many people do you know say, "Hey I just read the Boston Globe story on the traffic jam at the flower show and it changed my life."

How many people do you know say, "I got up early on Sunday morning to watch Bugs Bunny and now I have decided to quit drinking."

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Yet, I can name people all over this world who walk to mass during rain storms, during clear days, along cobblestone streets, dirt roads and even drive there like we do as Americans, why? Because they know Jesus is there in the Sacraments the Church offers through the hands of a priest. And you thought it was because of Catholic guilt. You have no idea just what it means to be Catholic do you?

TIME TO WAKE-UP PEOPLE, THERE IS A WAR AGAINST CATHOLICS

Well, there comes a point where one needs to say enough is enough. There are two ways to do that, it is to say "uncle" or throw up a white flag or even just surrender pack it all in and move on, as did the Iraqi Ambassador to the UN at the end of Gulf War II. The other way is to do what should have been done in the first place. Start taking action. It is time to do the latter.

First, let us ask the question, who is it that is attacking us? People who reject everything we represent. These are people who are using our weakness to bat us over the head and silence us. They have gone to war with us and figured that we are a sleeping giant who would never awake. They were wrong. Yet, if we Catholics were a sleeping giant, then we were not the warriors we were supposed to be all along. Catholics were asleep at the switch.

One of the comments I receive on a regular basis is the Bishops have to wake up. Yes, that is true, but so do the laity and the priests. Other will say that is what Voice of the Faithful is all about. Sorry, that is wrong. Voice of the Faithful is the Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally of this war. They speak anti-Catholic propaganda as if it is true and speak superficial slogans learned as if they were marketing Coca-Cola. Yesterday (Wednesday) in the Patriot Ledger, yet another pair of Voice of the Faithful types had a letter published talking about how Jesus threw out all the rules and called people to love each other. Like Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally they lie. Jesus said, I did not come to bring peace, but division. It is time to embrace that spirit. Voice of the Faithful is not of that Spirit. Yes, he taught us to love, yet, it is his wisdom that teaches us through the law and the prophets how to love. This is what Voice of the Faithful rejects.

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LOOK ABOUT YOU AND SEE THE WHAT HAS HAPPENED

We need to look about us as we see what happened while we were asleep at the switch. Gangs have taken the lives of our kids. Television networks are feeding sexual propaganda to our families and here in Massachusetts men are marrying men and women are marrying women. If you criticize them they will threaten to imprison you. You do not believe we are at war? I need to remind my Catholic Brothers and Sisters that indeed, we are very much at war. Further, for decades now nations have imprisoned priests just for being priests. Are governmental and media leaders modeling the Chinese model of interaction with religion: blanket accusations and blanket imprisonment of Catholic clergy?

There is the old saying. Nice guys finish last. How about this, nice guys lose wars. Christianity is not about being nice. Giants are nice when they are sleeping. We have been a sleeping giant and we have been nice. It is time to wake up and get ready for battle.

However battle takes an objective. It is not enough for us to defend ourselves, we need to be on the road to conquest. If we are not interested in conquest, there is no need to enter the battle.

Governments end up in the battle for territory. We are Christ's Church, we battle for souls.

We battle for souls against an enemy so terrifying to the worldly folks in his grip that they tremble at the thought of his existence. We cannot tremble.

WHO IS KILLING OUR KIDS WHILE TRYING TO SILENCE CATHOLICS?

Look about us, how many teens are dying on our city streets. Here in Boston we are up to somewhere around 29 just this year alone. Teenaged boys mostly who are now dead. Many of the perpetrators come from home situations where there is absolutely no family. How many teens today have no fathers? The product of that is true disaster. There are some college professors who say that by eliminating the father and mother we can make Utopia. Oh really. If the government has created such a violent mess as it is, what makes anyone think it can create a non-violent Utopia.

Yet, each of those boys who leave their blood on the street are the victims of a war on souls. If we are going to make conquest, then we are going to recognize that is the war. A war on souls seeks to silence our voice, it seeks to mock us and make fools of us and prevent us from being part of the solution. It is time to realize that if we are going to win this war then, we need to fight back with the right rules of engagement. There has been a call out to the preachers to stop violence. Notice that they did not call upon the Catholics. Yet, the Catholics will take care of their own and anyone who chooses to join them.

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The fact is that this war is going to get worse, through no fault of ours. The violence we see will breed more violence. The government is already warning of more terrorist attacks that could come our way. Yet, that violence is part of their war not ours. We are not fighting for territory, we are fighting for souls. Let them battle all they want. Let us seek to save all we can. Let us call ourselves and our neighborhoods, barrios and community to repentance and unity in Christ. We need discipline in our lives. Discipline is not about rigidity in fact its root word is disciple. It is about being disciples and taking the appropriate actions in our own lives to be those disciples.

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST

This week, we celebrated the Solemnity of the BirFeast of St. John the Baptist a great man of faith who was ready to do battle with the powers that sought to destroy souls. He was the man who called people to repentance as they prepared for the coming of the savior. So must we do the same. We need to put together a plan of conquest.

THE WB MOCKS A CATHOLIC NUN IN A CATHOLIC COUNTRY

Presently, our television networks are warring against our faith. Recently, while in Brazil, I saw a Warner Brothers production mock a nun as saying "blow it out your ass" This is in a Catholic country. It is all over our television programs that daily disparage Catholics. Why, because they know we have the power and they know we are right. Yet, their material wars against our religion and our soul. We need to find a response. Many say clean up the media. How are you going to do that? If Warner Brothers rejects Catholics, if Disney rejects Christianity, if Viacom mocks the faithful then at what point do you think they are interested in making a deal with us. At no point!

Know that when you are watching certain programs you are watching a philosophy at war with you. Recognize the signs and shut it off and seek to do something that is going to enliven you more strongly. Anything that seeks to war against you seeks to deaden your very humanity. Yet, Christ called us to be alive. See those who spend hours watching television and watch their lives deadened in front of them to the point that they just sit and do nothing but watch TV from supper time to bed time. Some even watch television throughout supper time. They have deadened their spirit, they cannot know life, because they have allowed their souls to be conquered.

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RAPE, DEATH AND BLING-THE VIACOM WAY

I have spoken to certain victims of abuse and I remind them that abuse happens after there is long process of deadening. It usually begins with pornography and ends after a process of more and more acting out. Yet, our society refuses to accept that process. Pornography deadens the soul and turns it into a killer of souls. Yet, people believe that Pornography is OK. It is not OK. Then do not read it, do not support it and do not encourage it. Pornography is a weapon that deadens the soul. Let those caught up in the war on the body succumb to their own lies, let us seek to live life to the full and turn from those things that deaden the soul.

Here is a program you will not see on CBS: Rape and Television-The MTV Connection. How many of our Children are left watching a television that mocks the whole concept of life and life to the full. Life is nothing more than a beach party in Florida with a lot of alcohol, sex and MTV. It is time to realize that MTV is not entertainment, it is a weapon that deadens your soul. Turn from it and start walking the path to life, life to the full.

How about the many "videos" that support violence and "bling". How many rappers write supportive notes to gang members of the nations' most violent gangs in their CD case jackets and are members of those gangs? How many parents can right now look through the rap CD's of their children and find the words "to my brother CRIPS" in some CD cases and "to my brother BLOODS" in others. These are the heroes of our inner city teens and they are nothing more than gang members promoting violence. How many of those rappers are allowed to perform in our state. What about the rapper who enjoys the role of paid endorser of one of our local shoe companies. What is his is greatest talent? Oh yeah, he survived an execution style murder attempt. He was shot nine times and lived to tell about it. Meanwhile, the major media companies and the political and media leaders who support them mock us as evil. When was the last time the Dallas Morning News did a story on this tragedy? Time to wake up people.

OUR WEAK LEADERS

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Boston's mayor turned a blind eye to the abuse of children outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Men were using bull horns to scream "Children keep your hands over your privates, there are priests in there." And "You are entering the house of rape." That is child abuse. It is an abuse also against the soul of a child. He said nothing. All our leaders remained silent. They had not the courage to speak out; they had not the ability to see injustice. They could not longer see with the eyes of their souls. Is that not what they accuse church leaders of doing? Yet, do they not do the same in other ways? Do they not remain silent in the face of violence and abuse?

When twelve men entered The Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston kissed each other during mass and walked out, they did so in war against our faith and against our souls. They did that in front of men, women and children just trying to attend mass. That is a felony by the way. Our mayor said nothing. Our leaders said nothing. No one said anything, for they were afraid to speak up. Their souls have been deadened to the point that they have no courage, no passion and can no longer speak for the truth. They have been conquered and now they seek to conquer us.

We fight back with the weapons Christ gave us. Repent, go to confession, go to communion and then ask God to give us the passion to live the faith to its fullest and wake up. Wake up your brothers and sisters in the faith. Wake up your family and join us all in the conquest against those who war against our very souls and seek to deaden our passions and then take us all prisoner.

The war began some time ago. It has domestic (inside the Catholic Church) and foreign (outside the Catholic Church) enemies. However, thanks to the absurdity of the Dallas Morning News people are starting to finally wake up. The Giant has rolled out of bed and he hates to hear that you are killing kids on our street while forcing us to believe that all priests are pedophiles.

Are you waking up? Join us in waking others up.