O Mary, Mother of Mercy and Refuge of sinners, we beseech thee, be pleased to look with pitiful eyes upon poor heretics and schismatics. Thou who art the Seat of Wisdom, enlighten the minds that are miserably enfolded in the darkness of ignorance and sin, that they may clearly know that the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church is the one true Church of Jesus Christ, outside of which neither holiness nor salvation can be found. Finish the work of their conversion by obtaining for them the grace to accept all the truths of our Holy Faith, and to submit themselves to the true Supreme Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth; that so, being united with us in the sweet chains of Divine charity, there may soon be one only fold under the same one Shepherd; and may we all, O Glorious Virgin, sing forever with exultation: Rejoice, O Virgin Mary, thou only hast destroyed all heresies in the whole world. Amen.

And so it is, my dear brethren; the most terrible of all public calamities is war. Pestilence and contagious diseases are a severe punishment, and so is famine and hunger; but if war once breaks out in a country, you have all those other plagues with it; for, as experience teaches, they follow in its train, as matters of necessity. All trials and contradictions, no matter what their name may be, are, indeed, punishments, but they are salutary punishments, which serve to bring men to a sense of the wickedness of their ways, and to lead them to God; but, as the old song has it, "there is no good in war;" instead of amending abuses, it only increases them; instead of hindering, it only encourages injustice, theft, rapine, adultery and all kinds of impurity, murder, despair, and other vices. Alas, that we should have such bitter experience of the truth of this! And consequently war is not merely a temporal punishment, as far as our mortal bodies are concerned, but it also brings with it, as a general rule, the perversion and damnation of our immortal souls. Well didst thou choose, O holy David, when God left it free to thee to select war, famine, or pestilence as a punishment! That wise king did not take long to consider, my dear brethren. If I and my people have to be chastised, he said, it is better for me to fall into the hands of God, and to choose pestilence, than to fall into the hands of men by bringing the evils of war on the land. And therefore, when the Catholic Church prays in the Litanies to be delivered from temporal evils, she mentions war last of all, as the summary of every calamity; "from pestilence, famine, and war, deliver us O Lord."

Renounce what is displeasing to Him! And if your hearts are captivated by the attachment to some sin, which has hitherto kept you from doing penance, ah! then, let the lamentable destruction of so many, who have lost either their lives or their property in war, influence you to give it up for God's sake what has been the obstacle to your making peace with Him. We beseech you for the sake of the whole Christian world, "be reconciled to God!" Make peace with Him! Without this peace, that other, for which we long and sigh, cannot be obtained; for who is it that sends us the scourge of reconciled war? Is it not the all-ruling God, without whose decree nothing can happen in the world? And why does He afflict us in that with way? Is it not on account of the sins and vices of the people which arouse His anger and compel Him to take the sword of vengeance in His hand? There Christians, is the only reason why we are now scourged by war; and as long as we are at enmity with God there is no hope of peace, or of being relieved from the burden that oppresses us. Therefore, if you wish to be at peace with men, first be reconciled to God by true penance.

What arms are we to use, besides prayer, in order to obtain this much desired peace? The very same arms that we must use to preserve our souls in peace with God and to keep them from sin ; for it is a well-known axiom of the holy Fathers, that public calamities are never inflicted by God on a country, unless on account of the sins of the people; so that, if sin is taken away, all other evils disappear with it; if we are safe from sin, we can be sure that we shall be able to keep our possessions in peace. Fasting and abstinence, are the chief, the most suitable, and the most convenient arms for this purpose, for all classes of men, as St. Bernard, with many others, teaches us. "Fasting," he says, "not only blots out past sins, but also preserves us from future sins."

With child-like confidence, O Lord and Author of peace, we address to Thee the prayer of the Church: grant us the help of Thy grace, that, attending as we ought to fasting and prayer, we may be freed from our enemies of soul and body; through the intercession of Thy Mother Mary and of the angels of peace. Amen.

St. Leo informs the Romans, without hesitation, that the pillage of the city was caused by nothing else than their ingratitude, the licentiousness of their conduct, and their contempt for the word of. God. The same may justly be said of every calamity that comes over a city or country--such as famine, war, pestilence or other plagues. Men only owe it to themselves. God punishes their sins by such means. "It is certain," says St. Jerome, "that to our sin we owe famine, war, pestilence and whatever else we suffer." Holy writ presents so many examples of this that no one can possibly doubt its truth. Whenever God menaced His chosen people, the Jews, with a general calamity, He invariably made known to them that the visitation would come'upon them on account of their sins. They themselves recognized it, and many times freely acknowledged it. "For we have not obeyed Thy commandments," says the pious Tobias, "and therefore are we delivered to spoil and to captivity and death, and are made a fable and a reproach to all nations amongst which Thou hast scattered us" (Tobias iii.)

The surest means to prevent such punishments and avert them from the land, is to do true penance; because true penance reconciles God to His offending creatures, as we are taught by numerous examples in Holy Writ. It may be noticed specially of the Jews, that as often as they returned with their whole heart to God, did penance, prayed and fasted, so often did He remit the threatened punishment; or if they were already bowed down under its infliction, He turned it from them. "Let us be penitent," said the pious Judith to the people of Bethulia, "and with many tears let us beg pardon " (Judith viii.). Should we at any time be visited by unexpected sorrow or adversity, it will be well that we examine ourselves and see whether sin or impenitence is not perhaps the cause of it.

The only care of St. Leo, when he entered the papal functions, was faithfully to fulfil the onerous duties its proper administration imposed upon him. All his time, all his knowledge, all his faculties were given to it; he thought of no recreation but only of discharging his duty. In whatever station of life you may be, you have some peculiar duties and obligations. Strive to comply with them. Woe to you if you spend more time in idleness or empty enjoyments than in the work which your station requires, and which you, by reason of your position, are bound to perform. How will you stand when it is said to you, "Give an account of thy stewardship?" (St. Luke xvi.). This means, as interpreted by Cornelius a Lapide, "Give an account of thy life, thy station, the work entrusted to thee, thy time, thy abilities and other gifts which God gave thee, that thou mightst use them to His honor, and to thine own and other men's salvation."

I am your Flag. I was born on June 14th, 1777. I am more than just a cloth shaped into a design. I am the refuge of the world's oppressed people. I am the silent sentinel of freedom; I am the emblem of the greatest sovereign nation on earth. I am the inspiration for which American Patriots gave their lives and fortunes. I have led your Sons into battle from Valley Forge through the dark days after the sinking of the Maine, through the bloody days of Chateau Thierry and Belleau Woods, over the far reaches of the Sands of Iwo Jima, Leyte, Africa--the mud and snow of Italy and Germany, to the bloody ridges of Korea and Viet Nam. I walk in silence with each of your honored dead to the final resting place beneath the silent white crosses, row upon row. I have flown through peace and war, strife and prosperity, and midst it all, I have been respected.

My red stripes symbolize the blood spilled in defense of this glorious Nation; my white stripes signify the burning tears shed by Americans who lost their sons, husbands, and daughters; my blue field is indicative of God's Heaven under Which I fly; and my stars, clustered together, unify fifty States as one--for God and Country.

OLD GLORY is my name, and proudly I wave on high. Honor me. Respect me. Defend me with your lives and your fortunes. Never let my enemies tear me down from my lofty position lest I never return.

Keep alight the fires of patriotism. Strive earnestly for the spirit of democracy; worship Eternal God and keep His Commandments; and I shall remain the bulwark of peace and freedom for all mankind. For I am your flag

The Star-Spangled Banner

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
'Tis the star-spangled banner - O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!
Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto - "In God is our trust,"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

We beseech Thee, almighty God, that Thy servant, N., who by Thy mercy has assumed the government of our country, may experience an increase of all virtues, and being suitably equipped thereby, may both avoid grave sins and come to Thee, who art the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dear, Blessed Lady! by many titles art thou known and loved; but as Virgin Mother of Jesus Christ Incarnate none is greater, holier, more beautifully commemorative of thy ineffable prerogatives than the one of thy Immaculate Conception. It is the prayer of Thine own pure lips, and as such obtains for us special favors and graces. Thus prostrate before thee, O purest of Virgins, we offer thee our profoundest homage, and hail thee as our queen conceived without sin! Cast us not from thee, O tenderest Mother, but open to us the inexhaustible fountain of Divine graces, and be the holy refuge of our sin-burdened souls. Amen

"With enthusiastic acclaim and with unanimous approval and consent, the Fathers [of the Council] have chosen the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived without sin, as the Patroness of the United States of America"--May 13th, 1846: Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore

The Factors of Morality: To determine whether an individual act is conformable to the norm of morality or opposed to it--in other words, whether it is good or bad--three factors (known technically as the fonts of morality) must be considered. These are called respectively the object, the circumstances, and the end.

By the object of an act we mean its primary moral aspect; by its circumstances we mean those moral aspects which are present as accessories or additions to the primary aspect; by the end we mean the purpose of the person performing the act (finis operantis). Actually, the end is one of the circumstances; but it is given a separate classification because it has a very important bearing on human actions. For example: A man steals money belonging to the Church, his purpose being to buy liquor in order to get drunk. The object of the act is a sin of injustice; an essential circumstance is the fact that the money belongs to the Church; the end is a sin of intemperance. Again, a man is extraordinarily generous in taking care of his sick father, because in this way he hopes to atone for the sins of his past life. The object of his actions is charity; a circumstance is filial piety; the end is penance. Just as an evil act is made worse by additional bad circumstances or ends if they are foreseen, so a good act is rendered better by additional good circumstances or ends, if they are foreseen and intended.

To be truly good, an action must be good in object, circumstances, and end. The theological axiom expressing this is Bonum ex Integra causa, malum ex quocumque defectu ("Good is from the entire cause, evil is from any defect"). The reason is that moral goodness consists in conformity to a certain measure or norm, and conformity demands that a thing meet the standards of the norm in all respects. E.g., a beam to be used in constructing a house is no good for the purpose if even one measurement is defective, even though the other measurements are correct. So, too, all the factors of a human act must be good if the act is to be accounted as morally good. This is the reason why a good end does not justify a bad means. Thus, a person would not be permitted to tell a lie, even though by means of it he could bring about many conversions to the faith. A man would not be allowed to deny his Catholic faith even though he could thereby gain a very desirable job in which he could affect much good for religion. Under circumstances are included chiefly place (e.g., the commission of a sin in church); time (e.g., working three hours unnecessarily on Sunday); person's state (e.g., a sin against chastity by a religious); and manner (e.g., theft by violence).

There are two classes of circumstances--those which change the species of the act, and those which merely increase or diminish the moral goodness or evil of the act within the same species. When a circumstance of the first type is present, the act is endowed with two species of virtue or of sin. Thus, the religious who overcomes a temptation against chastity practices both chastity and (because of the vow) religion. When a sinful act is accompanied by a gravely evil circumstance changing the species of the sin, this circumstance must be told in confession. Thus, a boy who has seriously injured his father by giving him a beating must confess not only that he gravely injured another (fifth commandment) but also that this other was his father (fourth commandment).

The other type of circumstances does not change the specific nature of the sin, but makes it more or less grave within the same species. Thus, if a person steals money from a blind beggar it is a more despicable act than if he stole from one in good health; but it would not add a new species of sin. Similarly, a person who assists at Mass with great fervor performs a better act than one who assists with very little devotion, but there is no new species of goodness added.



Morality: That quality of an act which characterized it as good or bad, i.e., as keeping or breaking the law of God as taught by the conscience. The morality of an act depends not only on the nature of the act itself but also on the end desired and the accompanying circumstances.

The Christian recognizes only one morality. If lying, dishonesty and incitement to hatred are morally wrongful in private relationships, they are even more wrongful when employed in the course of public affairs. Whether it is in politics, or in international affairs, or in industrial relationships, the Church does not recognize any "rules of the game" which attempt to justify conduct violating the moral law. A lie is a lie, dishonesty is dishonesty, hatred is hatred, irrespective of whether these methods or motives are used in private or in public life. It is apparent that, apart from their intrinsic evil and immorality, lying or dishonesty or hatred in private affairs may harm only a few individuals. In public life, when they are placed at the service, or enshrined in the policy of powerful organizations, the harm they can inflict may well induce a national calamity. Hence, moral responsibility for acts of this kind is not lessened when they are performed in the course of public life, because of some supposed separate moral code governing this sphere of activity. Precisely the opposite is the case.

The Christian is not entitled, therefore, to divide his moral standards into two separate compartments, one for private life, one for public life. If he does this, he is in serious danger of losing his soul. In the whole of revealed truth, there is nothing that says that while lying is wrong as far as private relationships are concerned, yet in public life it is not forbidden. There is nothing that says that while dishonesty is a violation of the Seventh Commandment, yet this prohibition is qualified by the understanding that the public man is entitled to take bribes. Nor is there anything which says that while the cultivation of hatred is grievously sinful if one man hates another or induces a third to hate another in private life, yet this rule does not hold if one is, for example, an employer, and the other a union official.

Our Lord Jesus Christ taught only one set of moral laws, and He meant them to apply to every aspect of life. By obeying those laws in every aspect of life, the Christian will save his soul. If, with deliberation, the Christian refuses to obey them, he will lose his soul. Nor is any half-and-half arrangement possible, which justifies the man who obeys them in the private sphere and not in the sphere of his pubic life. Do not vote for these policitians, as they do not represent Christian morality.

Canon Law 2350: Excommunications reserved to the Ordinary are incurred by: whoever procures an abortion, if effect has taken place.

Anyone may incur the penalty as an accomplice, including doctors, nurses, politicians, professors, lecturers, writers, members of the news media who counsel or facilitate abortions. Those individuals who vote for pro-abortion cadidates are complicit in the murder of millions of unborn children, commit a grave mortal sin and are ipso facto excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Anyone who dies in this state, unrepentant, will be damned for all eternity.

But another very grave crime is to be noted, Venerable Brethren, which regards the taking of the life of the offspring hidden in the mother's womb. Some wish it to be allowed and left to the will of the father or the mother; others say it is unlawful unless there are weighty reasons which they call by the name of medical, social, or eugenic "indication." Because this matter falls under the penal laws of the state by which the destruction of the offspring begotten but unborn is forbidden, these people demand that the "indication," which in one form or another they defend, be recognized as such by the public law and in no way penalized. There are those, moreover, who ask that the public authorities provide aid for these death-dealing operations, a thing, which, sad to say, everyone knows is of very frequent occurrence in some places.

As to the "medical and therapeutic indication" to which, using their own words, we have made reference, Venerable Brethren, however much we may pity the mother whose health and even life is gravely imperiled in the performance of the duty allotted to her by nature, nevertheless what could ever be a sufficient reason for excusing in any way the direct murder of the innocent? This is precisely what we are dealing with here. Whether inflicted upon the mother or upon the child, it is against the precept of God and the law of nature: "Thou shalt not kill." The life of each is equally sacred, and no one has the power, not even the public authority, to destroy it. It is of no use to appeal to the right of taking away life for here it is a question of the innocent, whereas that right has regard only to the guilty; nor is there here question of defense by bloodshed against an unjust aggressor (for who would call an innocent child an unjust aggressor?); again there is no question here of what is called the "law of extreme necessity" which could even extend to the direct killing of the innocent. Upright and skilful doctors strive most praiseworthily to guard and preserve the lives of both mother and child; on the contrary, those show themselves most unworthy of the noble medical profession who encompass the death of one or the other, through a pretence at practising medicine or through motives of misguided pity.


St. Basil (329-379)

She who has intentionally destroyed [the fetus] is subject to the penalty corresponding to a homicide. For us, there is no scrutinizing between the formed and unformed [fetus]; here truly justice is made not only for the unborn but also with reference to the person who is attentive only to himself/herself since so many women generally die for this very reason.

Let her that procures abortion undergo ten years' penance, whether the embryo were perfectly formed, or not.

...those who give the abortifacients and those who take the poisons are guilty of homicide.


St. John Chrysostom (347-407)

Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit? Where there are many efforts at abortion? where there is murder before the birth? For even the harlot thou dost not let continue a mere harlot, but makest her a murderer also. You see how drunkenness leads to whoredom, whoredom to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevents its being born. Why then dost thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with His laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter? For with a view to drawing more money by being agreeable and an object of longing to her lovers, even this she is not backward to do, so heaping upon thy head a great pile of fire. For even if the daring deed be hers, yet the causing of it is Thine. Hence too come idolatries, since many, with a view to become acceptable, devise incantations, and libations, and love potions, and countless other plans. Yet still after such great unseemliness, after slaughters, after idolatries, the thing [fornication] seems to belong to things indifferent, aye, and to many that have wives, too.


St. Jerome (347-420)

You may see many women widows before wedded, who try to conceal their miserable fall by a lying garb. Unless they are betrayed by swelling wombs or by the crying of their infants, they walk abroad with tripping feet and heads in the air. Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder.


St. Caesarius (470-543)

No woman should take drugs for purposes of abortion, nor should she kill her children that have been conceived or are already born. If anyone does this, she should know that before Christ's tribunal she will have to plead her case in the presence of those she has killed. Moreover, women should not take diabolical draughts (drinks) with the purpose of not being able to conceive children. A woman who does this ought to realize that she will be guilty of as many murders as the number of children she might have borne.


Tertullian (160-240)

Thus, you read the word of God, spoken to Jeremias: "Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee." If God forms us in the womb, He also breathes on us as He did in the beginning: "And God formed man and breathed into him the breath of life." Nor could God have known man in the womb unless he were a whole man. "And before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee." Was it, then, a dead body at that stage? Surely it was not, for "God is the God of the living and not the dead."

How are they dead unless they were first alive? But still in the womb an infant by necessary cruelty is killed when lying twisted at the womb's mouth he prevents birth and is a matricide unless he dies. Therefore there is among the arms of physicians an instrument by which with a rotary movement the genital parts are first opened, then with a cervical instrument the interior members are slaughtered with careful judgment by a blunt barb, so that the whole criminal deed is extracted with a violent delivery. There is also the bronze needle by which the throat-cutting is carried out by a robbery in the dark; this instrument is called an embryo knife from its function of infanticide, as it is deadly for the living infant.

In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the foetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in the seed.

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.