Words of Relevance: Kate Bachelder: Top 10 Liberal Superstitions

That's Kate Bachelder, assistant editorial features editor of the Wall Street Journal.

She wrote an important piece today in the Journal, in which she lists the Top 10 superstitions, or myths, of the Liberal establishment, all of which are important to remember in these final days of the 2014 campaigning.

Herewith the list, which will serve as today's quote:

(1) Spending more money improves education.

(2) Government spending stimulates the economy.

(3) Republican candidates always have a big spending advantage over Democrats.

(4) Raising the minimum wage helps the poor.

(5) Global warming is causing increasingly violent weather.

(6) Genetically modified food is dangerous.

(7) Voter ID laws suppress minority turnout.

(8) Obamacare is gaining popularity.

(9) The Keystone XL pipeline would increase oil spills.

(10) Women are paid 77 cents on the dollar compared with men. 

Bachelder makes her compelling case for each of the above listed superstitions in her article, which you can read by clicking HERE.  (subscription required)

Words of Relevance: Fr. George Rutler: The Secularist and Islam

Father George Rutler wrote today at Crisis Magazine an essay entitled: Mad Intelligence: The Secularist Response to Islam.  In the essay, Fr. Rutler has nothing good to say about "public thinkers," who he says have been usurped by practical atheists who are politely styled "secularists.” He goes on: Essentially, the secularist is not without religion: rather, he has made a religion of politics and wealth, and rejects any religion that worships anything else...Secularists play down Islamist atrocities because they seek to eradicate the graceful moral structure that can turn brutes into saints.  Heinous acts are sometimes dismissed as “workplace violence.”  

Fr. Rutler explains why the secularists do not see the world as it is: The secularist makes a religion of irreligion, and is different from the saints who are “in this world but not of it” because the secularist is of the world but not rationally in it. This explains why the secularist’s solutions to the world’s ills are so destructive.  Today's quote provides an example of the destructive irrationality of the secularists.

Here's the quote:

There even are those in high places who pretend that Islamic militants are not Islamic and foster the delusion that false gods will not demand sacrifices on their altars.

Words of Relevance: St. Pope John Paul II: "Be Not Afraid!"

Today is the Feast of St. Pope John Paul II, who began his papacy, on October 22, 1978, with the now famous words: "Be Not Afraid!"  

In 1994, in his encyclical, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, he recalled the words with which he began his papacy.

Here's the quote:

When, on October 22, 1978, I said the words "Be not afraid!" in St. Peter's Square, I could not fully know how far they would take me and the entire Church. Their meaning came more from the Holy Spirit, the Consoler, promised by the Lord Jesus to His disciples, than from the man who spoke them. Nevertheless, with the passing of the years, I have recalled these words on many occasions. ... Why should we have no fear? Because man has been redeemed by God. ... The power of Christ's Cross and Resurrection is greater than any evil which man could or should fear.

Words of Relevance: Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki: Synod's First Week Summary Unacceptable

The first encouraging sign for traditional Catholics since the beginning of the Synod in Rome came today from Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, the current Bishop of Poznan, Poland, who criticized the document summarizing the first week of the Synod.

The following was posted on the website Rorate Caeli today:

In an interview with Vatican Radio, the President of the Polish Episcopal Conference did not hesitate to say that this document departs from the teaching of John Paul II, and even that in it can be noticed traces of the anti-marriage ideology. According to Archbishop Gądecki, this text also highlights the lack of a clear vision for the synodal assembly.

Bishop Gadecki laments what the summary leaves out as much as what it does report which, he says, is not clearly focused on Truth. 

Here's the quote:

Speak about the practical exceptions, but we also need to present the truth. Also, the points that speak of children entrusted to same-sex couples are formulated somewhat as if this situation is being praised! This is also a defect of this text, which instead should be an incentive to fidelity, family values, but instead seems to accept everything as it is. It created an impression that the teaching of the Church has been merciless so far, as if the teaching of mercy were beginning only now."   

Words of Relevance: Don John of Austria: Leadership at Lepanto

Don John's victory at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 was the cause for Catholics everywhere to celebrate tomorrow the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.  Before that famous battle, Don John whose forces were vastly outmanned and outmatched by the Islamic Turks, issued to each of his warriors, a rosary.  Pope Pius V, back in Rome, urged all the faithful to pray the rosary before the battle, and in his stateroom aboard his flagship Don Juan had mustered his admirals to go over the battle plan.  One of those admirals broached the possibility of further negotiation with the Islamic Turks, but Don John did not hesitate before making his decision clear.

Here's the quote:

"Gentlemen, the time for counsel has passed.  Now is the time for war."