The results of a computerized survey indicate the perfect priest preaches exactly fifteen minutes. He condemns sins but never upsets anyone. He works from 8:00 AM until midnight and is also a janitor. He makes $50 a week, wears good clothes, buys good books, drives a good car, and gives about $50 weekly to the poor. He is 28 years old and has preached 30 years. He has a burning desire to work with teenagers and spends all of his time with senior citizens.

The perfect priest smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work. He makes 15 calls daily on parish families, shut-ins and the hospitalized, and is always in his office when needed.

If your priest does not measure up, simply send this letter to six other churches that are tired of their priest, too. Then bundle up your priest and send him to the church on the top of the list. In one week, you will receive 1,643 priests and one of them will be perfect. Have faith in this procedure.

One parish broke the chain and got its old priest back in less than three weeks.

[BT: Fr. Z]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/31/world.war.one.vet.memorial/index.html?hpt=T2

This week I turn 37.

It’s hard to believe. How time flies. January 22, 1973 seems like so long ago. I’m the oldest in my family. It’s a pretty big family, but I’ll explain that later.

If you’re a boomer, you probably don’t think much of my generation — Gen X. But that’s because we’re a threat to you! My generation is changing the world! Just think of all that has happened in the world these past 37 years…

The end of Vietnam. Watergate. Jimmy Carter. Actually, I don’t remember much from the 70s, since I was just entering elementary school when Ronald Reagan became president.

I loved the 80s. That’s when I grew up, but I had no idea just how much the world was changing.

Then, the Berlin Wall fell. I’ll never forget that day in November, 1989. I was 16 and on top of the world. I can remember my history teacher telling me that the world would never be the same. He was right.

Then, something even more dramatic developed. The Internet. If you want to understand me and my generation, then go online. When I was in college, a few of my friends saw it coming. We helped start a revolution online. And don’t believe it when they say the Internet bubble has burst. The only thing that has burst is the old way of doing business.

Now, I’m working on my third business startup — all by the time I reached 33. Not bad, eh? I got married four years ago, and we’re expecting our first child in three months. A new generation begins…

Except for one problem.

You see, I wasn’t actually born on January 22, 1973. In fact, I wasn’t born at all.

I never was given the chance to take even that first breath – never mind then the millions of breaths that would have followed over these 37 years.

Not a single breath.

That’s because of something else that happened on January 22, 1973.

Seven Supreme Court justices made a decision that would dramatically affect my life – and the lives of over 5- million others who would never take a breath.

That’s my family. And it’s growing every day. In fact, in the next 24 hours the family of abortion victims will grow by dozens more than the number of people who died when the Trade Center buildings collapsed.

The cleanup from 9/11 took a long time and finally was considered finished. But the clean up from 1/22/73 keeps going on and on!

And to think it was all based on a lie. Jane “Roe” of Roe v. Wade was lied to. And so were you – if you believed even for a moment that the mass of tissue wasn’t a human life.

That mass of tissue was I!

My goal here isn’t to make you feel guilty. Rather, think of me – or what could have been me – the next time the topic of abortion comes up.

Think of me graduating from high school and going to college. Think of me getting married and having children. Think of me celebrating my birthday with family and friends.

Think of me turning 37.

–Anonymous

We thank You Lord for Nicholas
who led a holy youth.
He slapped the face of Arius
when he denied the Truth.
He paid the daughters’ dowries
to help a poor man out.
And now he intercedes for us
of this there is no doubt.

http://summerofscience.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/robert-wilsons-weird-dream-lab-fermilab-part-1/

Dear Members of the Notre Dame Family,

Coming out of the vigorous discussions surrounding President Obama’s visit last spring, I said we would look for ways to engage the Notre Dame community with the issues raised in a prayerful and meaningful way. As our nation continues to struggle with the morality and legality of abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and related issues, we must seek steps to witness to the sanctity of life. I write to you today about some initiatives that we are undertaking.

Each year on January 22, the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, the March for Life is held in Washington D.C. to call on the nation to defend the right to life. I plan to participate in that march. I invite other members of the Notre Dame Family to join me and I hope we can gather for a Mass for Life at that event. We will announce details as that date approaches.

On campus, I have recently formed the Task Force on Supporting the Choice for Life. It will be co-chaired by Professor Margaret Brinig, the Fritz Duda Family Chair in Law and Associate Dean for the Law School, and by Professor John Cavadini, the Chair of the Department of Theology and the McGrath-Cavadini Director of the Institute for Church Life.  My charge to the Task Force is to consider and recommend to me ways in which the University, informed by Catholic teaching, can support the sanctity of life. Possibilities the Task Force has begun to discuss include fostering serious and specific discussion about a reasonable conscience clause; the most effective ways to support pregnant women, especially the most vulnerable; and the best policies for facilitating adoptions. Such initiatives are in addition to the dedication, hard work and leadership shown by so many in the Notre Dame Family, both on the campus and beyond, and the Task Force may also be able to recommend ways we can support some of this work.

I also call to your attention the heroic and effective work of centers that provide care and support for women with unintended pregnancies. The Women’s Care Center, the nation’s largest Catholic-based pregnancy resource center, on whose Foundation Board I serve, is run by a Notre Dame graduate, Ann Murphy Manion (’77). The center has proven successful in offering professional, non-judgmental concern to women with unintended pregnancies, helping those women through their pregnancy and supporting them after the birth of their child. The Women’s Care Center and similar centers in other cities deserve the support of Notre Dame clubs and individuals.

Our Commencement last spring generated passionate discussion and also caused some divisions in the Notre Dame community. Regardless of what you think about that event, I hope that we can overcome divisions to foster constructive dialogue and work together for a cause that is at the heart of Notre Dame’s mission. We will keep you informed of our work, and we ask for your support, assistance and prayers. May Our Lady, Notre Dame, watch over our efforts.

In Notre Dame,
Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.

As a Notre Dame alum, I received the above letter from Fr Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame, earlier this week.  While I am glad to hear that Fr Jenkins will be attending the March for Life and has these pro-life initiatives, I question why it is only now, after awarding Barack Obama an honorary doctorate of law, that Fr Jenkins is doing this.  To me, this letter has almost a “Well, I got my way in the end, so now I’ll show you that I’m pro-life” feel to it.  Proving his support for life would have been much more meaningful if he had attended the March before Obama’s visit to campus.  I have hope that this pro-life task force is not just for show.  I am glad Professor John Cavadini is one of the co-chairs.  Prof. Cavadini is a great guy.  My fear is that he is just being used similar to how the university administration tried to use Mary Ann Glendon to offset Obama’s anti-life positions.  I hope that all of this is an authentic support for life rather than just a political move to try to undo damage to the university’s Catholic identity by the Obama visit and honorary degree.