It's Still "Wait Until Next Time" for the Innocent Preborn

Hundreds upon hundreds have been the articles on this website dealing with the utter futility of naturalism as the basis of a just social order, sound public policy and genuine national security. Yet it is that many Catholics who accept the truth about the state of the Church Militant in this time of apostasy keep believing in the political equivalent of the “tooth fairy” by refusing to accept the simple fact that Catholicism is the one and only foundation of personal sanctity and salvation and of all social order.

There are no naturalistic, secular, interdenominational or nondenominational shortcuts to retarding the prevailing social evils of the day. Naturalism is but the sanitized expression of Judeo-Masonry’s efforts to eradicate the Holy Name of Jesus and the authority of His true Church from exercising any influence over men in their public lives, which is why Talmudists were enthusiastic in their support of Martin Luther’s revolution five hundred years ago against the Divine Plan that God Himself instituted to effect man’s return to Him through His Catholic Church. A social order that does not render due submission to the teaching authority of Christ the King’s true Church is evil of its nature. We are only witnessing the logical end results of the madness that must ensue from the deification of man and the desecration of everything to do with the God-Man and His Divine Revelation.

Even many fully believing Catholics permit themselves to be blinded by agitation induced by the utter farce of electoral politics, which is accompanied by the glitter of secular saviors of the false opposites of the naturalist “right” and the naturalist “left,” which group of which is cheered on endless by agents of agitation posing as serious thinkers who are paid very handsomely to blather on radio and/or television about the salvific nature of this or that naturalistic political philosophy or ideology (liberalism, socialism, communism, conservativism, constitutionalism, libertarianism, environmentalism, evolutionism, feminism, populism, nationalism, militarism, etc.).

This site, apart from offering commentaries on the state of the Church Militant and a few spiritual reflections now and again, began as the continuation of the Christ or Chaos printed journal that began publication in September of 1996. The printed journal, which began at four and grew to seventy-two pages by the time of the last issue in the Fall of 2003, contained scores of articles that attempted to explain the futility of electoral politics and the fact that career politicians of the naturalist “right” were not in the least bit interested in doing anything to retard baby-killing under cover of the civil law other than to pass meaningless legislation replete with “exceptions” that does nothing but to further institutionalize the daily slaughter of the preborn. Empty campaign promises are made. Gullible people, including those Catholics who care about the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law fall for empty rhetoric and cheap legislative tricks time and time again. This is mind-boggling and head-spinning to behold.

As I have noted so many time, we have learned nothing over the years. Moreover, we don’t want to learn anything about the futility of naturalism.

Career politicians of the organized crime family of the naturalist “right” care only about one thing: getting election, enjoy the perequisites during their terms and then getting themselves re-elected to continue exercising their power and perquisites.

Consider the fact that the Republican leadership of the United States House of Representatives did not want to play undercover videos recorded by the Centers for Medical Progress during its investigation of Planned Barrenhood’s illegal trafficking of the bodily members of butchered babies in hearings held last year:

LSN: Another disappointment for pro-lifers is that under the Trump/Ryan plan, Planned Parenthood would only be defunded for one year.

Jordan: Yeah, that's all this (current) bill does too ... because they're concerned about the 'reconciliation' process (and) senate rules. ... Unfortunately, it's only a year.

LSN: And that's not going to change?

Jordan: No. But we should have gotten rid of Planned Parenthood dollars and defunded them nearly three years ago when the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) videos first came out. Unfortunately, our leaders at the time didn't want to push.

LSN: You were on the oversight committee.

Jordan: Yes. In June, when we had a hearing in the oversight committee, I was pretty aggressive with Cecile Richards, the head of Planned Parenthood.   

LSN: What happened?

Jordan: We didn't show the (CMP) videos, because our leadership didn't want to. Those videos were the most compelling evidence we had. They weren't fraudulently edited.  

LSN: The oversight committee didn't view the CMP video evidence against Planned Parenthood?

Jordan: We didn't even show the videos in the hearing prompted by the videos. We should have shown them in the oversight committee: "Look what you guys said; look at what you guys did. This is showing your disgusting and repulsive behavior, and doing it in an organization that receives tax dollars." Unfortunately, we didn't deal with it then, and we've got to deal with it now.  (Republican Leaders did not want Planned Barrenhood videos shown.)

The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives is Paul Davis Ryan (R-Wisconsin), a “heavy metal” enthusiast who belongs to the false conciliar sect in the belief that it is the Catholic Church. A complete naturalist, Ryan did not want to hurt his party’s chances to retain control of the House of Representatives by agreeing to show the Centers for Medical Progress videos as this is seen by career politicians of the naturalist “right” as alienating “moderate” voters in “swing” districts who are perfectly content to see the daily slaughter of the innocent preborn remain the law of the land.

Who cares for truth?

Not Paul Davis Ryan.

Donald John Trump?

Please, do you really have to ask at this point?

Donald John Trump cares only about popularity and success. He longs to be viewed favorably by others, which is why he spends a good part of day watching cable television talk show program to find out what is being said about him (see Inside Trump's Obsession With Cable Television News.)

Donald John Trump cares nothing about objective morality even on a natural level. After all, he has used contraception throughout the course of his adult life, both in and out of marriage, as a means of avoiding the conception of children for which God Himself ordained men and women to be the procreators of life so that souls could give Him honor and glory in this life and for all eternity in Heaven.

Remember, Trump has said that Planned Barrenhood does “good things.” He has no problem with their evil work of dispensing contraceptives, most of which are abortifacients, and of providing other “family planning services,” including sterilization. The president has long said that he would gladly continue Federal funding for this organization that has been evil since its very inceptions if they stopped killing babies surgically. This is what he said in March of 2016:

(CNSNews.com) - At a press conference on Tuesday night in Florida, businessman Donald Trump, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, said that Planned Parenthood has “done some very good work” but that he would not give federal funds to the organization “as long as you have abortion going on at Planned Parenthood."

"I'm just doing what's right," said Trump. "Look, Planned Parenthood has done very good work for some--for many, many--for millions of women. And I'll say it and I know a lot of the so-called conservatives, they say that's really--because I'm a conservative, but I'm a common sense conservative--but millions of women have been helped by Planned Parenthood. But we're not going to allow and we're not going to fund as long as you have the abortion going on at Planned Parenthood and we understand that and I've said it loud and clear."

In its latest annual report, Planned Parenthood said that its affiliates performed 323,999 abortions in the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, 2014. The same report said that in the year that ended on June 30, 2015, Planned Parenthood received $553.7 million in government health service grants and reimbursements.

At the press conference a reporter asked Trump: “Does it feel to you yet like you are the presumptive Republican nominee--and along those lines, you had some complimentary things to say about Planned Parenthood. You said you could be flexible on immigration. Are you trying to adjust your tone to a more general election message?”

Trump responded:

“I'm just doing what's right. Look, Planned Parenthood has done very good work for some--for many, many--for millions of women. And I'll say it and I know a lot of the so-called conservatives, they say that's really--because I'm a conservative, but I'm a common sense conservative--but millions of women have been helped by Planned Parenthood.

“But we're not going to allow and we're not going to fund as long as you have the abortion going on at Planned Parenthood and we understand that and I've said it loud and clear.

"But--and we'll see what happens--but Planned Parenthood, millions of people, and I've had thousands of letters from women that have been helped. And this wasn't a set-up, this was people writing letters.

“I'm going to be really good for women. I'm going to be good for women's health issues. It's very important to me, very important to me. And maybe that is not a perfect conservative view but I can tell you one thing, I'm more conservative than anybody on the military, on taking care of our vets, on the border, on the wall, on getting rid of Obamacare and coming up with something much, much better and certainly getting rid of Common Core and bringing education to a local level, so that you're going to have good education for our children who are being absolutely starved for proper education.

"So, Sara, I mean, you know, you can call it what you want. But I am a truth teller and I will tell the truth. Okay.” (Trump Says Millions of Women Have Been Helped by Planned Barrenhood.)

No, Donald John Trump is not a “truth teller.” He is an ignorant, little-read man who changes his positions from moment to moment and is obsessed with his personal popularity. He craves for the approval from others and, thanks, no doubt, to the influence of his Kabbalist daughter, Ivanka Trump Kushner, agreed to drop the defunding of Planned Barrenhood in order to prevent a shutdown of the Federal government that had been looming this past Friday, April 28, 2017, as a result of a stalemate between the two major organized crime families of naturalism in Congress over a continuing resolution to provide the Federal government with funding for a six month period:

Although President Donald J. Trump promised to defund Planned Parenthood if elected president, and the GOP House and Senate often claim that they want to defund the group, the reportedly is no language in the continuing resolution to fund the government through next September to defund Planned Parenthood, a group that has performed approximately 81,567 abortions since Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.  That's about 877 abortions per day, 36 per hour,  or 1 every two minutes.

The continuing resolution, or CR, is a funding mechanism that -- absent a budget and the regular appropriations process -- wraps federal spending into one package for a set period of time. The deadline for the Congress to pass and the president to sign the CR is this Friday, April 28.  If the CR is not signed or it is filibustered, the federal government will shut down. 

Planned Parenthood is the biggest abortion provider in the United States. In its latest annual report from 2014-15, Planned Parenthood reported a total revenue of $1.29 billion, of which $553.7 million came from "government health services grants & reimbursements," i.e., the taxpayers. 

The same report revealed that Planned Parenthood performed 323,999 abortions in 2014-2015.  The annual report for 2013-2014 showed that Planned Parenthood did 327,653 abortions. In 2012-2013, Planned Parenthood performed 327,166 abortions.

Take the average of those three years and it equals 326,272 abortions per year. That averages to 27,189 abortions per month, 877 abortions per day, 36 abortions an hour, or about 1 abortion every two minutes. 

Since Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, Planned Parenthood has performed approximately 81,567 abortions (Jan. 20 - Apr. 23). 

Back on Sept. 1, 2016, the Trump-Pence campaign sent a letter to pro-life leaders, inviting them to join Donald Trump's "Pro-Life Coalition." In the letter, Trump said he is committed to, "Defunding Planned Parenthood as long as they continue to perform abortions, and reallocating their funding to community health centers that provide comprehensive health care for women."

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) put language in the "repeal and replace Obamacare" bill that would have denied Medicaid money to Planned Parenthood for only one year. It would not have ended title X money.  But it didn't matter because the bill was so flawed it could not pass in the Republican-dominant House, and so the legislation was not put up for a vote.  

Now there is the continuing resolution, which House Speaker Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the GOP-majorities in the two chambers control.  But it reportedly does not contain any language to defund Planned Parenthood, and apparently will fund the government -- and Planned Parenthood -- through next September. 

Republicans control the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.

They promised pro-life Americans that if they held all three branches, then they would defund Planned Parenthood because they would finally have a president who would sign the bill.  

It seems the GOP has run out of excuses. (The GOP has run out of excuses.)

Nothing ever changes.

The American political system is a farce.

As it turned out late last night, full Federal government funding of Planned Barrenhood was included in the actual one trillion dollar "stop gap" budget that funds the Federal government's activities for a six month period (see Congressiona Leaders Agree to Deal on $1,07 trillion dollar spending bill through September.)

Modernity itself is a farce as it is premised upon the specific and categorical rejection of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ’s Incarnation, Nativity, Public Life and Ministry, Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension as having any relevance to the conduct of public life. Modernity is the work of Protestantism and Judeo-Masonry. Our public life is stained with crime precisely because naturalism is merely a means to promote and then institutionalize evil.

Contraception has been the chief means to spread widespread immorality and indecency around the world. It has destabilized and impoverished families, feminized poverty and helped to make it more possible for women to abandon their children to the care of strangers so that they can pursue career interests in order to be “fulfilled” and “empowered.” Many women who do not want to leave home for the workplace have been forced to do so after being abandoned by husbands who have divorced them to remarry civilly or to engage in open concubinage.

Generations of children have been shunted off to “daycare” shortly after birth by their mothers, something that prepares them for a childhood and adolescence spent in pre-school and after-school programs. These children have lacked the love of parents who have been selfish enough provide them with brothers and sisters because it was too important for them to make more and more money and to win higher and higher promotions.

Moreover, as readers of this site know, most contraceptives act as abortifacients and their widespread availability has become the very foundation of economic life as their manufacture and distribution have become big business for Big Pharma and for the pharmacies and grocery stores that sell them. The surgical killing of babies in their mothers’ was only the the inevitable result of the institutionalization of contraception in the decades after the beginnings of Margaret Sanger’s malevolent work with the opening of her fist “clinic” on October 16, 1916, in Brooklyn, New York, and the Anglican sect’s endorsement of denying the Sovereignty of God over the sanctity and fecundity of marriage.

Having become a fact of civil life by the mid-1960s, the Supreme Court of the United States of America, seven of whose justices (Chief Justice Earl Warren and Associate Justices William Oliver Douglas, Thomas Clark, John Marshall Harlan II, William Brennan, Byron White and Arthur Goldberg) were eager to engage in the sort of social engineering taking place during then President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Great Society, discovered “penumbras” within the Sixth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments that made it possible for them to use the case of Griswold v. Connecticut, June 7, 1965, to provide a constitutional foundation for a supposed “marital right to privacy, a “right” that was extended by seven justices (five of whom—Chief Justice Warren Burger and Associate Justices Potter Stewart, William Brennan, Harry Blackmun and Lewis Powell—had been appointed by two different Republican presidents) to the surgical execution of preborn babies in the cases of Roe v Wade and Doe v. Bolton, January 22, 1973.

Contraception thus led to abortion, both societally and constitutionally. It also helped to enable unspeakable acts of perversity in violation of the Sixth and Ninth Commandments that received the sanction of the Supreme Court of the United States of America as a “right of privacy” in the case of Lawrence v. Texas, June 26, 2003, and subsequently in a “right” of sodomites to “marry” that was declared in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, June 26, 2015.

Contraception and surgical abortion become so ingrained in American social, economic and political life by 1992 that Associate Justice Anthony MacLeod Kennedy, an appointee of President Ronald Wilson Reagan, described it as follows in a concurring opinion in the case of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. William Casey, June 29, 1992:

Although Roe has engendered opposition, it has in no sense proven unworkable, representing as it does a simple limitation beyond which a state law is unenforceable. P. 835.

(e) The Roe rule's limitation on state power could not be repudiated without serious inequity to people who, for two decades of economic and social developments, have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail. The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives. The Constitution serves human values, and while the effect of reliance on Roe cannot be exactly measured, neither can the certain costs of overruling Roe for people who have ordered their thinking and living around that case be dismissed. Pp. 855-856. (Text of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey.)

The fact that something has become a commonly accepted practice does not make it morally right, although we know that this is what Jorge Mario Bergoglio really believes about false religions and about those who live in sin. Ironically, even though there is little common ground between President Donald John Trump and “Pope Francis,” who has been singing the praises of “universal brotherhood,” they are joined at the hip in accepting licentiousness in order to avoid offending those engaged in it, and Trump, of course, has lived licentiously throughout the course of his life.

As is ever the case with Republican presidential administrations, therefore, administrative measures undertaken by Democratic administrations to institutionalize various evils and/or to mandate funding for them almost never get reversed. This is as true now as it was during the administration of President George Walker Bush, the supposedly “pro-life” president who did not revoke the United States Food and Drug Administration’s September 26, 2000, and under whose watch the FDA Although even I thought that one of the ways President Donald John Trump could score some points with voters who care about the daily surgical slaughter of the innocent preborn by having United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Thomas Price to rescind the Obama administration’s “contraception insurance mandate, it appears that this is not going to happen for a while, if it happens at all.

Yes, much to my own surprise—and readers of this site know that I have been unsparing in my criticism of Donald John Trump’s shallow understanding of the binding precepts of the Natural Law, the United States Department of Justice under Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions will continue the Obama administration’s case against the Little Sisters of the Poor that has sought to compel them to provide insurance for “family planning services” to their employees:

April 25, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – The Trump administration's Department of Justice (DOJ) caused surprise today by signaling that it intends to continue the Obama administration's court battle with the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious groups over the HHS contraception mandate, at least for the time being.

While Trump had promised on the campaign trail to drop the provision, the DOJ has now asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for 60 more days to negotiate with East Texas Baptist University and other religious institutions to find a solution to their religious liberty concerns.

In June 2016, the Supreme Court in Zubik v. Burwell had ordered the government to work with the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious employers to find a solution. Dozens of religious groups have objected to being forced by the Obama administration to provide their employees with health insurance that covers contraceptives and potentially abortifacient drugs and devices. 

However, thanks to the Supreme Court, the Trump administration is prevented from enforcing the heavy penalties the contraception mandate imposes on non-compliant employers. 

The DOJ's decision to prolong the case, essentially picking up where the Obama administration left off, has puzzled conservatives. 

The DOJ's actions "[seem] to be very contrary to what they’ve been saying publicly," Eric Rassbach, an attorney for Becket Law (formerly the Becket Fund for Religious Freedom), told The Washington Post. According to Rassbach, the same lawyers who dealt with the case for the Obama administration remain on the case.

In their filing, the DOJ put forward the newness of the administration, as well as the complexity of the case, as reasons for requesting the 60-day extension. 

"The new Administration has been in place for only a few months," the DOJ wrote to the Court, pointing out that the regulations at issue are "jointly administered by three Departments" that haven't been fully staffed under the new administration. "The issues presented by the Supreme Court’s remand order are complex; for example, the original accommodation took more than a year to develop with input from interested parties."

The DOJ also noted that the plaintiffs "have the benefit of the interim relief" provided by the Supreme Court preventing the government from enforcing any of the mandate's fines yet.

The request for the extension doesn't mean that the Trump administration won't eventually drop the provision, according to Brigitte Amiri, a staff attorney for the far-left American Civil Liberties Union. 

"To be honest, I think it's more of a 'kicking the can down the road' than anything else," Amiri told NBCNews. "We're deeply concerned that, ultimately, the Trump administration is going to weaken or eliminate the contraception coverage requirement, but I don't see this particular court filing as indicating anything, really, one way or the other."

However, Becket Law's Rassbach says that the time has come for the new administration to put the fight to rest for good.

“The government has a chance to do the right thing here. It got it wrong for five years in these cases, almost six years,” Rassbach told Catholic News Agency. “And they can do the right thing by dropping their appeals that are in favor of the mandate, and admitting that they were wrong on the issue of the contraceptive mandate, as applied to religious non-profits.”

Forcing the Little Sisters of the Poor to cooperate in the provision of contraception is "a hostility to religious liberty you will never see in a Trump administration," Trump wrote to Catholic leaders during his campaign.

"I will defend your religious liberties and the right to fully and freely practice your religion, as individuals, business owners and academic institutions," he promised.

The new Secretary of Health and Human Services, former Georgia Rep. Tom Price, had a 100 percent pro-life voting record in the U.S. House. He has said "there is nothing more fundamental to our humanity than to defend life" and it is our "solemn duty to protect and defend the lives of the most innocent among us."

Price sent a pro-Little Sisters of the Poor amicus brief to the Supreme Court with other members of Congress in January 2016.

"A draft executive order to broaden legal exemptions on the grounds of religious beliefs surfaced during the early days of Mr. Trump’s presidency, triggered a brief controversy, and has never been seen again," the Wall Street Journal noted. "For now, the White House is stalling."

The HHS department would not comment and directed LifeSiteNews' request for comment to the DOJ. No pro-life group has issued a statement yet. LifeSiteNews will provide updates as they become available. (Trump Administration is Defending Obama HHS contracpetive mandate.)

What are the complex issues to be resolved?

I will give you a hint: There are no “complex” issues to be resolved.

Contraception has become such an accepted part of social life and public law that its mandated coverage in an unconstitutional piece of social-engineering (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) is being treated as beyond question.

After all, most people, including most Catholics, in the United States of America and elsewhere in the supposedly “developed” world, use contraceptives of one type or another. The concentration camps of ideological brainwashing and programming known as “public schools” dispense them freely and/or refer children to places where they can be obtained. Contraception is thus a given, and ObamaCare has made it a mandated health insurance entitlement program.

President Donald John Trump’s administration may wind up revising the Obama/Care contraception health insurance mandate so that religious organizations may be exempted, especially since the completely no-exceptions head of Americans United for Life, Dr. Chamane Yoest, has been appointed as the public affairs officer of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (see Trump Appoints Pro-Life Activivst to Serve in HHS top spot) but it remains to be seen whether the mandate itself will be repealed outright.

Why the delay?

Trump moved on the issues he cared about (the travel ban, since challenged and blocked in the Federal courts, renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, etc.) immediately.

Why the delay?

Trump is more concerned about the relatively minimal threat posed by the Pillsbury Dough Boy, Kim Jong-un, than he is about an internal threat he does not understand exists by virtue of the fact that God’s wrath will be visited upon any nation that defies the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law with impunity. How ironic it would be if the rush to war with North Korea serves as a “down payment” on the wrath of God that must be visited on the supposedly “civilized” world? (For a very good assessment of the North Korea situation, please see Patrick Joseph Buchanan’s Rise of the Generals.)

However, no matter the correctness of many of his executive orders and directives to roll back the executive orders and directives issued by his predecessor, Barack Hussein Obama/Barry Soetoro, that seized private property unjustly and imposed monstrous regulations on small businesses, the plain fact of the matter is that the president is unwilling to act as boldly and decisively on matters of moral truth as he has no understanding of the fact of the simple fact that it is impossible for nations to realize economic prosperity and national security while sanctioning things that are repugnant to the peace and happiness of eternity.

Once again, here is what our true popes have taught about the necessity of basing public policy on what is pleasing to God and thus promotes the sanctification and salvation of men:

The more closely the temporal power of a nation aligns itself with the spiritual, and the more it fosters and promotes the latter, by so much the more it contributes to the conservation of the commonwealth. For it is the aim of the ecclesiastical authority by the use of spiritual means, to form good Christians in accordance with its own particular end and object; and in doing this it helps at the same time to form good citizens, and prepares them to meet their obligations as members of a civil society. This follows of necessity because in the City of God, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, a good citizen and an upright man are absolutely one and the same thing. How grave therefore is the error of those who separate things so closely united, and who think that they can produce good citizens by ways and methods other than those which make for the formation of good Christians. For, let human prudence say what it likes and reason as it pleases, it is impossible to produce true temporal peace and tranquillity by things repugnant or opposed to the peace and happiness of eternity. (Silvio Cardinal Antoniano, as quoted by Pope Pius XI inDivini Illius Magistri, December 31, 1929.)

So, too, the liberty of thinking, and of publishing, whatsoever each one likes, without any hindrance, is not in itself an advantage over which society can wisely rejoice. On the contrary, it is the fountain-head and origin of many evils. Liberty is a power perfecting man, and hence should have truth and goodness for its object. But the character of goodness and truth cannot be changed at option. These remain ever one and the same, and are no less unchangeable than nature itself. If the mind assents to false opinions, and the will chooses and follows after what is wrong, neither can attain its native fullness, but both must fall from their native dignity into an abyss of corruption. Whatever, therefore, is opposed to virtue and truth may not rightly be brought temptingly before the eye of man, much less sanctioned by the favor and protection of the law. A well-spent life is the only passport to heaven, whither all are bound, and on this account the State is acting against the laws and dictates of nature whenever it permits the license of opinion and of action to lead minds astray from truth and souls away from the practice of virtue. To exclude the Church, founded by God Himself, from the business of life, from the making of laws, from the education of youth, from domestic society is a grave and fatal error. A State from which religion is banished can never be well regulated; and already perhaps more than is desirable is known of the nature and tendency of the so-called civil philosophy of life and morals. The Church of Christ is the true and sole teacher of virtue and guardian of morals. She it is who preserves in their purity the principles from which duties flow, and, by setting forth most urgent reasons for virtuous life, bids us not only to turn away from wicked deeds, but even to curb all movements of the mind that are opposed to reason, even though they be not carried out in action. (Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885.)

It is a grave and fatal error to exclude Holy Mother Church from the business of life, from the making of laws, from the education of youth and from influencing the whole direction of domestic society. The Western world is on a death march from which, humanly speaking, there is no retreat. This is all a preparation for the coming of Antichrist to take control of a world that has been torn apart by the proliferation of sin and error by those who believe that men can make their lives better without Christ the King and His true Church.

Absent any understanding of this, of course, most of those in public life, whether they belong to the organized crime families of the false opposites of the naturalist “left” or “right,” become paralyzed when faced with having to take away “goodies” from the people.

Even more sadly, most of those in public life do not care if the “goodies” were bestowed by means of unconstitutional programs as they take refuge in the cover provided them by judicial positivists who have simple declared unconstitutional laws to be constitutional by simple judicial fiats. That which becomes “settled law” is hard to unsettle, especially if it means sacrificing one’s political self-interest to do so.

All of their campaign rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding, Congressional Republicans never had any intention of repeating ObamaCare:

"We're going to go when we have the votes," Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday when asked when the House will pass a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. Lawmakers will not be constrained by any "artificial deadline," Ryan declared.

On March 24, when the Speaker pulled the GOP Obamacare bill before what would have been a sure defeat, he said, "We're going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future."

But why? Republicans have 238 seats in the House. Repealing Obamacare will require 217 votes. Even with unanimous Democratic opposition, Republicans could lose 21 votes and still prevail on repeal. Why haven't they done it?

By this time, it's becoming increasingly clear that Republicans have not repealed Obamacare because a lot of Republicans do not want to repeal Obamacare.

They don't even want to sorta repeal Obamacare. The bill currently on the table, like the bill pulled in March, falls far short of a full repeal of Obamacare. And yet Republicans still cannot agree on it.

About a week after the first Obamacare repeal failure, a House Republican, speaking privately, said the difficulty in passing the bill was not a parliamentary problem involving the complexities of the Senate and reconciliation. No, the lawmaker said, "It is a problem that we have members in the Republican conference that do not want Obamacare repealed, because of their district. That's the fundamental thing that we're seeing here."

"I thought we campaigned on repealing it," the lawmaker continued. "Now that it's our turn, I'm finding there's about 50 people who really don't want to repeal Obamacare. They want to keep it."

Other conservatives are saying similar things. In an email exchange Thursday afternoon, I asked one member where the latest bill stood. "We absolutely do not have the votes to repeal it," he answered. "The fact that some members are balking at even allowing states to waive out of some of Obamacare regulations is proof positive. We've gone from 'repeal it root-and-branch' to 'Mother-may-I opt out of some of Obamacare' — and we still are having trouble getting the votes."

In a phone conversation Thursday afternoon, another Republican, Rep. Steve King, quibbled a bit with the number of House Republicans who don't want to repeal Obamacare — he would put it in the 40s — but felt certain there are lots of Republicans who don't want to repeal. "If you don't want to get rid of federal mandates to health insurance, then it's pretty clear you don't want to get rid of Obamacare," King said.

"Whatever we come out with, it will say to the American people that a full repeal of Obamacare is no longer in the cards," King added.

Yet another Republican member, in an email exchange, estimated that there are 25 to 30 House Republicans "who don't want to be forced to make the repeal vote." Even that lower number would be enough to sink a repeal measure.

Other GOP lawmakers are openly conceding that whatever the House does — if it does anything — it won't actually repeal Obamacare. Large parts of Barack Obama's legacy legislation will remain standing, a fact that more Republicans are admitting as time goes by.

"It's not full repeal. I will be honest, it's not," Rep. Jim Jordan told Fox News on Wednesday. "But it's as good as we think we can get right now."

"We've given up on trying to get this bill repealed, basically," Rep. Louie Gohmert told Fox Business on Tuesday. "But we've been demanding at least let's repeal some of the provisions that we know will bring down rates."

Some Republicans remain optimistic, but in a much longer-term sense. "The process of removing a 2,300-page law with 20,000 pages of rules can't be done in one vote," says the member who estimated that 25 to 30 Republicans don't want to vote for repeal. "The process will take two years."

The Republican-controlled House and Senate both voted to repeal Obamacare in January 2016. In the House, 239 Republicans voted for repeal, while three voted against it and four did not vote. President Obama, of course, vetoed the bill.

Now, with a president who would sign an Obamacare repeal, there's no way Republicans could get as many votes as last year.

"A pure repeal would get less than 200 votes," said the second member quoted above. "It really is one of the biggest political shams in history — many of these members would not have been elected without promising repeal, and now they are wilting. Some are even complaining that [the Rep. Tom MacArthur amendment] pushes the bill too far right — even though is it far short of a full repeal."

When repeal first failed last mWhen repeal first failed last month, a number of commentators blamed the conservative House Freedom Caucus. In the days since, caucus members have made the case, convincingly, that they have shown an enormous amount of flexibility in trying to reach agreement with the Tuesday Group, made up of House GOP centrists.

Now, the centrists — a number of Republicans refer to them as "the mods," for moderates — appear to be moving the goalposts, even as the conservatives offer concessions. Conservatives suspect the centrists were perfectly happy for conservatives to take the blame for killing the first bill, but now are showing their true colors by rejecting compromise on the second version. Whatever the circumstances, they don't want to vote to repeal Obamacare.

The reason is fear. When the lawmaker said colleagues don't want repeal "because of their district," that was another way of saying the members are all representatives, and the voters they represent don't want repeal. From The Hill on Thursday afternoon: "Many vulnerable Republicans are running scared. One moderate Republican was overheard in a House cafeteria this week telling an aide: 'If I vote for this healthcare bill, it will be the end of my career.'"

Whichever faction inside the Republican Party is to blame, it could well be that the conservatives' numbers are basically right: There are a lot of Republicans, say 40 to 50, who don't want to repeal Obamacare. Given unanimous Democratic opposition, that means that there are somewhere around 190, or maybe 195, House members who actually want to repeal Obamacare. That will never get the job done. Even a lower estimate, of 25 to 30 members who don't want repeal, would make success impossible. And if that is the case, the question is, why are Republicans trying (Why Can't House Repeal ObamaCare? Because A Lot of House Republicans Don't Want To.)

Noting that there are some “conservative” Republicans in the United States House of Representatives who would like to repeal ObamaCare, most members of the organized crime family of the naturalist “right” are concerned about pleasing their constituents. They do not want to do anything to offend “moderate” voters, and that is why they become paralyzed and tongue-tied when faced with the first prospect of seven years of eliminating the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act once and for all.

As I have been telling you for nearly five years now, ObamaCare is Here to Stay even if some kind of revised plan is cooked up that will keep the basic structure of this monstrosity in place that can secure enough votes to pass in the United States House of Representatives, something that some members of the House Freedom Caucus believe could happen this week.

By way of contrast, though, the leadership of the organized crime family of the naturalist “left” is unapologetic in its support of statism and moral evils. They take no prisoners in demanding that what has become “settled” remains that way, and they make no exceptions and will accept of no dissent from those within their ranks who believe that the surgical execution of innocent preborn babies in their mothers’ wombs is a crime before God that cannot be sanctioned under cover of the civil law.

Unlike Republicans, who hem and haw and make all kind of exception, Democrats are unapologetic in their absolutist, no exceptions to baby-killing, something that the pro-abortion Thomas Perez, the Chairman of the Democratic Committee and former United States Secretary of Labor in the administration of President Barack Hussein Obama/Barry Soetoro, said ten days ago in no uncertain terms. Perez was joined in his demand for unequivocal support for baby-killing by the Senate Minority Whip, United States Senator Richard Durbin (D-Illinois)

The 28 percent of Democrats who oppose abortion have no place in the Democratic party, according to two of the party’s leading figures.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin echoed party chair Tom Perez Sunday in saying that there is no room in the party for dissent on the abortion issue.

“I am committed to women’s rights under the law, reproductive rights certainly, and our party is [committed],” Durbin said in an appearance on CNN. “We’ve made that part of our platform and position for a long, long time. I know within the ranks of the Democratic Party there are those who see that differently on a personal basis, but when it comes to the policy position, I think we need to be clear and unequivocal.”

Those who personally believe abortion is wrong can be allowed in the party, Durbin added, “as long as they are prepared to back the law, Roe versus Wade, prepared to back women’s rights as we’ve defined them under the law.” That is: all members of the Democratic party are expected to publicly support abortion, regardless of what they personally believe.

Perez, who has struggled to unify the moderate and far-left wings of the Democratic party, also demanded conformity from party members on the subject of abortion.

“Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health,” Perez said in a statement on Friday. “That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state.”

Durbin and Perez’s disavowal of pro-life Democrats followed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders coming under fire for supporting a Democratic mayoral candidate in Nebraska who previously opposed abortion but later reversed his position under pressure from liberal activists.

Despite Durbin and Perez’s demands for ideological purity, a not-insignificant minority of the Democratic party is pro-life. Pew Research Center found last year that 28 percent of Democrats say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases. Hispanic voters — a key voting bloc for the Democratic party — are deeply divided on the subject of abortion. Pew found that 49 percent of Hispanics say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases, while 48 percent say it should be legal in most or all cases.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appeared to contradict Perez and Durbin on Sunday.

“Of course” Democrats can also be pro-life, Pelosi said on MSNBC. Pelosi quickly changed the subject, however, and did not address whether Democrats can support pro-life policies, in addition, to personally opposing abortion.

The 2016 Democratic party platform called for repealing the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal taxpayer dollars for abortions, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Before 2016, no major party platform had called for taxpayer-funded abortions. (Dems to Abortion Opponents: Get In Line or Get Out.)

This remarkable on several counts.

First, Thomas Edward Perez is a pro-abortion, pro-perversity Catholic who is in perfectly good standing in the Archdiocese of Washington, District of Columbia (he lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, which is part of the Washington archdiocese).

Second, House Minority Leader Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro Pelosi (D-California) is a pro-abortion, pro-perversity Catholic who remains in perfectly good standing in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, California.

Third, Senate Minority Leader Richard Durbin is a pro-abortion, pro-perversity Catholic who was warned in 2014 by the conciliar “bishop” of Springfield, Illinois, Thomas Paprocki, not to approach for what purports to be Holy Communion in the Protestant and Judeo-Masonic Novus Ordo liturgical service, is nevertheless not excommunicated and can, presumably, act as he desires at the Novus Ordo travesty outside the boundaries of the Diocese of Springfield.

Fourth, it is nothing other than entirely absurd for the militantly pro-abortion, pro-perversity Pelosi, who is going to face a primary challenge (see Stephen Jaffe to Mount Primary Challenge Against Pelosi) next year from a supporter of United States Senator Bernard Sanders (Socialist-Vermont), saw fit to say that her organized crime family of naturalism welcomed pro-life American within its ranks, although she did not say that they were free to act on their convictions once elected to public office.

It is clear that the leaders of the Democratic Party consider support for abortion as a matter of constitutional law and public policy is non-negotiable.

Equally clear is the fact that the leaders of the Republican Party believe that everything is negotiable when it comes to the moral law. Indeed, everything is negotiable if it means doing anything substantive to reverse the immoral, statist and unconstitutional policies of Democratic regimes.

Our true popes have taught us otherwise.

Pope Leo XIII exploded any kind bifurcation of one’s “private” or “personal” beliefs from his public actions as follows:

Hence, lest concord be broken by rash charges, let this be understood by all, that the integrity of Catholic faith cannot be reconciled with opinions verging on naturalism or rationalism, the essence of which is utterly to do away with Christian institutions and to install in society the supremacy of man to the exclusion of God. Further, it is unlawful to follow one line of conduct in private life and another in public, respecting privately the authority of the Church, but publicly rejecting it; for this would amount to joining together good and evil, and to putting man in conflict with himself; whereas he ought always to be consistent, and never in the least point nor in any condition of life to swerve from Christian virtue. (Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885.)

Pope Pius XI was unsparing in his description of how God will deal with those in public life who support the surgical dismemberment of preborn human beings under cover of the civil law:

Those who hold the reins of government should not forget that it is the duty of public authority by appropriate laws and sanctions to defend the lives of the innocent, and this all the more so since those whose lives are endangered and assailed cannot defend themselves. Among whom we must mention in the first place infants hidden in the mother's womb. And if the public magistrates not only do not defend them, but by their laws and ordinances betray them to death at the hands of doctors or of others, let them remember that God is the Judge and Avenger of innocent blood which cried from earth to Heaven. (Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, December 30, 1930.)

What does this mean to the likes of Thomas Edward Perez, Richard Durbin and Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro Pelosi?

What does it have to mean to them as none of the conciliar “popes,” despite the strong language, albeit couched in very naturalistic terms and expressed in conciliarspeak, used by Karol Josef Wotyla/John Paul II to condemn the slaughter of the innocent preborn under the cover of the civil law?

Not even “Saint John Paul II” excommunicated the likes of the late United States Senator Edward Moore Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) or the late Associate Justice William Brennan or the late Geraldine Anne Ferrara-Zaccaro or, among so many others, the late Mario Matthew Cuomo, who was called a “great man” when Jorge Mario Bergoglio spoke to his son, the militantly pro-abortion, pro-perversity Governor of the State of New York who said three years ago that “pro-lifers” were not welcome in the Empire State (see                                        ) in the Cathedral of Saint Patrick, Borough of Manhattan, City of New York, New York, on Thursday, September 24, 2015, the Feast of Our Lady of Ransom.

Bergoglio, of course, has universalized the absolute indemnification of statist pro-abortion and pro-perversity Catholics in public life that was championed by “seamless garment” bishops, both truly consecrated and those who have not been, in the United States of America and elsewhere in the world ever since he stepped out on the balcony of the Basilica of Saint Peter on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, to begin his masquerade as “Pope Francis.”

Thus it is that the Catholics in public life who have supported the daily slaughter of the innocent preborn by chemical and surgical means under the cover of the civil law are less to blame for their persistence in support for willful murder and/or in their support for the status of “marriage” for those engaged in perverse sins against nature, two of the four sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance, than are the conciliar “popes” and the “bishops” and clergy who have either been too timid or entirely unwilling to impose upon them the sanctions that exist, at least on paper, in their false religious sect’s “code of canon law.” (A series of articles written four years ago—Forty Years Of Emboldening, Appeasing And Enabling Killers, part two and part three--dealt with this sorry record of coddling pro-aborts that has gotten sorrier under Bergoglio.)

Quite unlike the wolves in shepherds’ clothing within the counterfeit church of conciliarism, Pope Gregory the Great wrote in his Pastoral Guide that shepherds must identify the wolf and protect the sheep from that which is harmful to the sanctification and salvation of their immortal souls:

The Lord reproaches them through the prophet: They are dumb dogs that cannot bark. On another occasion he complains: You did not advance against the foe or set up a wall in front of the house of Israel, so that you might stand fast in battle on the day of the Lord. To advance against the foe involves a bold resistance to the powers of this world in defense of the flock. To stand fast in battle on the day of the Lord means to oppose the wicked enemy out of love for what is right.

When a pastor has been afraid to assert what is right, has he not turned his back and fled by remaining silent? Whereas if he intervenes on behalf of the flock, he sets up a wall against the enemy in front of the house of Israel. Therefore, the Lord again says to his unfaithful people: Your prophets saw false and foolish visions and did not point out your wickedness, that you might repent of your sins. The name of the prophet is sometimes given in the sacred writings to teachers who both declare the present to be fleeting and reveal what is to come. The word of God accuses them of seeing false visions because they are afraid to reproach men for their faults and thereby lull the evildoer with an empty promise of safety. Because they fear reproach, they keep silent and fail to point out the sinner’s wrongdoing. 

The word of reproach is a key that unlocks a door, because reproach reveals a fault of which the evildoer is himself often unaware. That is why Paul says of the bishop: He must be able to encourage men in sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. For the same reason God tells us through Malachi: The lips of the priest are to preserve knowledge, and men shall look to him for the law, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.Finally, that is also the reason why the Lord warns us through Isaiah: Cry out and be not still; raise your voice in a trumpet call.  

Anyone ordained a priest undertakes the task of preaching, so that with a loud cry he may go on ahead of the terrible judge who follows. If, then, a priest does not know how to preach, what kind of cry can such a dumb herald utter? It was to bring this home that the Holy Ghost descended in the form of tongues on the first pastors, for he causes those whom he has filled, to speak out spontaneously. (For two different translations, see: The Book of Pastoral Rule and That the ruler should be discreet in keeping silence, profitable in speech .)  

The Good Shepherd protects his flock from the wolf. The false shepherds of the counterfeit church of conciliarism are the agents of Antichrist and it is only logical, therefore, that they should align themselves so closely with their counterparts in the anti-Incarnational world of Modernity.

Today is the Feast of Saints Philip, who was in the company of Saint John the Baptist when Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ manifested Himself to His cousin and precursor at the Jordan River for the symbolic baptism of repentance that He to deigned to undergo, and James (the Lesser), the first Bishop of Jerusalem.

Today’s Divine Office teaches us about their lives:

Philip was born in the town of Bethsaida, and was one of the first of the twelve Apostles who were called by the Lord Christ. Then Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him: “We have found Him of Whom Moses in the Law, and the Prophets, did write.” And so he brought him to the Lord. How familiarly he was in the company of Christ, is manifest from that which is written: "There were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the Feast the same came therefore to Philip, and desired him, saying: Sir, we would see Jesus." When the Lord was in the wilderness, and was about to feed a great multitude, He said unto Philip: “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” Philip, after that he had received the Holy Ghost, took Scythia, by lot, as the land wherein he was to preach the Gospel, and brought nearly all that people to believe in Christ. At the last he came to Hierapolis in Phrygia, and there, for Christ's Name's sake, he was fastened to a cross and stoned to death. The day was the first of May. The Christians of Hierapolis buried his body at that place, but it was afterwards brought to Rome and laid in the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles, beside that of the blessed Apostle James.

James, surnamed the Just, the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ, was a Nazarite from the womb. During his whole life he never drank wine or strong drink, never ate meat, never shaved, and never took a bath. He was the only man who was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies. His raiment was always linen. So continually did he kneel in prayer, that the skin of his knees became horny, like a camel's knees. After Christ was ascended, the Apostles made James Bishop of Jerusalem and even the Prince of the Apostles gave special intelligence to him after that he was delivered from prison by an angel. When in the Council of Jerusalem certain questions were mooted touching the law and circumcision, James, following the opinion of Peter, addressed a discourse to the brethren, wherein he proved the call of the Gentiles, and commanded letters to be sent to such brethren as were absent, that they might take heed not to lay upon the Gentiles the yoke of the Law of Moses. It is of him that the Apostle Paul saith, writing to the Galatians: “Other of the Apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.”

So great was James' holiness of life that men strove one with another to touch the hem of his garment. When he was ninety-six years old, and had most holily governed the Church of Jerusalem for thirty years, ever most constantly preaching Christ the Son of God, he laid down his life for the faith. He was first stoned, and afterward taken up on to a pinnacle of the Temple and cast down from thence. His legs were broken by the fall, and he was well-nigh dead, but he lifted up his hands towards heaven, and prayed to God for the salvation of his murderers, saying: “Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” As he said this, one that stood by smote him grievously upon the head with a fuller's club, and he resigned his spirit to God. He testified in the seventh year of Nero, and was buried hard by the Temple, in the place where he had fallen. He wrote one of the Seven Epistles which are called Catholic. (The Divine Office, Feast of Saints Philip and James.)

Well, the same sort of people who martyred Saint James the Lesser and Saint Philip are in control of the world today, and they have a substantial influence, of course, upon the inner workings of the counterfeit church of conciliarism.

Ah, the mighty of this world, whether their numbers be Trump or Obama/Soetoro or the Clintons or the Red Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, whose Communist Party has turned China into one of the most monstrous killers in human history, or Vladimir Putin or Jorge Mario Bergoglio himself each will have to stand before Christ the King at the moment of their Particular Judgment. So will we.

Perhaps the wisdom of a young boy who became King Fernando III of Castile and Leon as he saw his brother, who was heir to the throne, die at the age of twenty-two, can provide us with a bit of perspective about the plans of the powerful of this world as their power and supposed “accomplishments” will count for nothing when they meet Christ the King in the Face:

Soon God willed that life should teach him a lesson.

The Prince-heir to the throne, Don Ferdinand of Castile, was a young man of twenty-two in whom God had concentrated all the graces that make a king good, great, and loved by his vassals. Ferdinand of Leon and his brother Alfonso also loved and admired him very much.

One day the Infante became sick. His sickness became very serious, unabated by either doctors or prayers. Soon he died, leaving the King, the Queen and the whole kingdom overwhelmed with grief and suffering. Berenguera, noticing the deep sorrow and affliction of her parents, took charge of taking the body from Magerit, where the tragedy occurred, to Burgos. Her son Ferdinand accompanied her during this sad journey.

Following the funeral stretcher through the plains of Castile, which with their wide horizons invite one to meditate, the boy of thirteen years thought about very serious things, things that older men often expel from their memories for lack of courage to face them. Death, then ended everything. Neither youth, beauty, strength, intelligence, nor even being heir to the throne of Castile had helped the Prince against death, which had assaulted him as it would any worn, old man who had spent his energies tilling the lands they were passing through. Later during the funeral, when the voice of the Church commended to God the soul of “famulo tuo Ferdinando,” the young boy reflected that but for the miracle of his Lady Holy Mary, those words being said now for Ferdinand of Castile would also have been said for Ferdinand of Leon.

He confided to his mother all these impressions. As she listened to his words, seeing the purity of an angel which was reflected in his eyes, Dona Berenguera came to feel for her son almost a veneration, and a mixture of deep humility and intense gratitude for having been chosen by God to cut that diamond destined for the crown of Leon. (Sister Maria del Carmen Fernandez de Castro Cabeza A.C.J., The Life of the Very Noble King of Castile and Leon Saint Fernando III, pp. 6-7. The appendix below describes the noble work of Saint Ferdinand’s uncle, whose very noble accomplishments in this world stand as a contrast to the ignoble achievement of today’s Judeo-Masonic power-brokers and their enablers in the conciliar sect.)

The powerful of this world never bother to reflect on the fact that death takes away everything from them except the state of their immortal souls as it appears in the light of Truth Himself, Christ the Just Judge of all men, when their eternal sentence is pronounced. We must not be deceived into thinking that those who act as though there is no Particular Judgment or that their eternal salvation is assured can do anything but worsen the state of the world, No nation can ever be made “great” while its leaders and its people ignore First and Last Things as they try to find peace and security in all of the wrong places.

May we rely more and more on Our Lady, she who is our Co-Redemptix, Advocate and Mediatrix of All Graces, especially in this month of May, through her Most Holy Rosary and as the consecrated slaves of her Divine Son through her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart in order to save our own souls and to plant the seeds for the Triumph of her Immaculate Heart.

What are we waiting for?

Viva Cristo Rey!

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saints Philip and James, pray for us.

Appendix

From The Life of the Very Noble King of Castile and Leon Saint Fernando III

Soon God willed that life should teach him a lesson.

The Prince-heir to the throne, Don Ferdinand of Castile, was a young man of twenty-two in whom God had concentrated all the graces that make a king good, great, and loved by his vassals. Ferdinand of Leon and his brother Alfonso also loved and admired him very much.

One day the Infante became sick. His sickness became very serious, unabated by either doctors or prayers. Soon he died, leaving the King, the Queen and the whole kingdom overwhelmed with grief and suffering. Berenguera, noticing the deep sorrow and affliction of her parents, took charge of taking the body from Magerit, where the tragedy occurred, to Burgos. Her son Ferdinand accompanied her during this sad journey.

Following the funeral stretcher through the plains of Castile, which with their wide horizons invite one to meditate, the boy of thirteen years thought about very serious things, things that older men often expel from their memories for lack of courage to face them. Death, then ended everything. Neither youth, beauty, strength, intelligence, nor even being heir to the throne of Castile had helped the Prince against death, which had assaulted him as it would any worn, old man who had spent his energies tilling the lands they were passing through. Later during the funeral, when the voice of the Church commended to God the soul of “famulo tuo Ferdinando,” the young boy reflected that but for the miracle of his Lady Holy Mary, those words being said now for Ferdinand of Castile would also have been said for Ferdinand of Leon.

He confided to his mother all these impressions. As she listened to his words, seeing the purity of an angel which was reflected in his eyes, Dona Berenguera came to feel for her son almost a veneration, and a mixture of deep humility and intense gratitude for having been chosen by God to cut that diamond destined for the crown of Leon.

The following year was a memorable one for all Spain. King Alfonso of Castile, [the grandfather of King Saint Fernando] in face of the Almohade danger, had launched an alert to Christendom; answering it, the Christian princes had assembled not only from Spain but also from other countries. Pope Innocent III proclaimed a Crusade against the Moors of Spain and bestowed a bull granting to those who participated the same graces granted to those who went to the Holy Land. Every day, new companies of French and German soldiers arrive in Toledo. Because the city could not contain them,  they camped on the lowlands which, covered with tents, looked like a garden of white flowers. However, the foreigners, could not bear the blazing Spanish sun and almost all retruned to their native countries, leaving to the Spanish blood, more ardent than that very sun, the task and also the glory of the Reconquest. How the two princes from Leon, Ferdinand and Alfonso, would have enjoyed that atmosphere heroism breathed in Toledo, if their father had answered the call. But Alfonso of Leon, always worried that his cousin from Castile would overpower him, did not join the Crusaders. In fact, Alfonso had already gone south, crossed the border and seized Duenas and other places. The shame of his father's conduct, which they tried to hide from him, cause Ferdinand to shed bitter tears, and during sleepless nights he made the firm resolution that he kept faithfully all his life: never to made war against another Christian prince.

Meanwhile, the battle took place on July 16, 1212, and God granted such a complete success to the Spanish armies that the Spanish calendar still celebrated that day as the “Triumph of the Holy Cross.”

That glorious event distracted the grandchildren of Alfonso of Castile from their sorrows. Their admiration for the hero of Navas de Tolosa inflamed their heroic spirit. Even the young son of the great leader, Henry, only eight, was infected by the enthusiasm. The royal family would surround the King and ask him to describe the portentous deed during their hours together of relaxation. Alfonso the Noble would smile with satisfaction, and all of the dramatic episodes of the fight would appear – one after another – before the children's eyes, resounding heroically from his lips. He would tell them how the army readied itself for battle by attending midnight Mass with the majority of the men going to confession and Communion.

Morning came, and the armies were arranged in battle formation. The trumpets sound the signal, and the attack began. The first ferocious assaults of the Moors was so terrible that they smashed through the Christian lines. Some of them advanced to the very position of the King of Castile and the Archbishop of Toledo, Don Rodgrigo Ximenez de la Rada. The King, seeing this onslaught, was under the impression that his army was being defeated.

He turned to the prelate and, without changing the color of his face, or the inflection of his voice, said:

“Archbishop, you and I will die here.”

“God will not permit that you die,” answered Ximenez de la Rada, “before you have triumphed over your enemies.”

“Let us go, then, to help those in the from lines who are under such heavy attack.”

Saying this, Don Alfonso commended himself to God, spurred his horse and left like lightning, avoiding the courageous Fernan Garcia who ran to grab his horse's reins, shouting at him:

“Lord, go slowly so as not to entrap yourself!”

but Alfonso the Noble could see only a clergyman, dressed in his vestments and displaying a cross, fleeing before a body of Moorish soldiers; he could hear nothing but the insults cast against the Sign of our Redemption.

Setting his lance, Alfonso the Noble attacked furiously, killing some, wounding others, and terrifying the rest into a panic-stricken flight. Seeing their sovereign fighting like the knight that he was, the enthusiasm of the Castilians rose so that nothing could stop their impetuous advance. The Canon Don Domingo Pascual rode into the Moslem ranks with a beautiful display of the standard of the Queen of Heaven, they remained momentarily paralyzed.

The the vanquished Almohade forces fled, but there still remained the human barrier of ten thousand negro slaves, who, chained one to another with their long spears hammered into the ground, formed an invincible wall of black warriors around the miramolin's tent. Suddenly, loud shouts of triumph were heard from the soldiers of Navarre. Their king had boldly jumped over the human fence. At almost the same moment, the alferes of Castile imitated the feat, and the flag of Castile flew proudly on the the other side of the barrier. Finally, they attacked the barrier with the horse, which kicked with their hind legs and broke the terrible fence.

As the soldiers of the Cross invaded the area of the tent the last phase of the battle ensued. The miramolin fled in panic on horseback , followed by the few who had managed to escape the horrible slaughter.

Meanwhile, darkness had fallen. Under the star-filled sky, the Archbishop of Toledo intoned the Te Deum, followed by the prelates, the clergy, the monks and even the soldiers. The echoes of the Sierra resounded that night, shaken by that hymn of thanksgiving raised up by the Church of Spain to the God of Battles.

As Ferdinand listened to this tale, Berenguera saw her son tremble with enthusiasm to the depth of his soul. She saw him listen to his grandfather's stories, literally drinking his words, his eyes intent and his face filled with excitement, his teeth gritted and his fists clenched, as if he were also awaiting the order to jump over the Moors. On the other hand, his piety became even more profound. Every morning without fail, he attended Mass, and many times his mother would notice that, closing his eyes, he bent his head over his breast and remained motionless for a good length of time. This happened especially when he received the Blessed Sacrament.

What was happening in the soul of this fourteen-year old boy?

One evening, during one of their intimate conversations, his mother risked asking, with a serene smile in her soft, tender voice that invited confidence: “What do you do, Ferdinand, when you close your eyes at Mass?”

A bolt of lightening shone with enthusiasm and joy in the innocent eyes of the boy, who blushed intensely. “I know well, Mother, that I have Jesus Christ inside of me, and I close my eyes to talk to Him better. I tell Him that He is my King and I am His knight, that I want to suffer great labors for Him in wars against the Moors, that I want to shed my blood for Him, and that His Glorious Mother is my Lady.”

Ferdinand had reached his sixteenth year when the passage and death of the transitory things of this life engraved with fire another lesson on his soul.

The good King Alfonso the Noble, his grandfather, died. Just a three years before he had followed his uncle's coffin through the plains of Castile, he was now following the victor in the battle of Navas. During this journey, he formed a scale of values that forever provided a firm foundation for his principles.

What remained to his grandfather of the kingdom that God had given him? Only the good deeds he performed, the justice righteously administrated, the helpless he had protected, the examples of deep and practical faith; of the rest, nothing. Now he no longer had a crown not a scepter, and the nobles would pay him homage no more. Vanity of vanities! What had become of his military glory? The upright intention he had of defending the Cross of Christ and the Holy Church, this, of course, God would reward. But, for him, the acclamations of his knights and the cheers of his soldiers had become silent. Castile? Yesterday in peace, governed by the strong hand of Alfonso VIII; today, held by the hand of a ten-year old boy and a woman dying of sorrow; tomorrow  . . . in spite of his sixteen years, Ferdinand well forsaw with his clear intelligence what the future held in store for him and the pains and sufferings that a family must endure.

He was seeing the answer in the bitter tears of his mother, whom for the first time he could not console; and that answer was completed twenty days later, when his grandmother the Queen Dona Leonor died of sorrow.