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Dear Friends,
Below is a miscellany of items from our recent Facebook postings. They represent our attempt to bear witness to the sources of our hope (1 Peter 3:15) even as we call attention to the cultural perils and moral challenges facing our own society, the larger Western culture generally, and the never-ending task of building a just civilization that respects human freedom and the dignity of the least powerful.
Our little potpourri of items begins with an important reminder:
"The purpose of prayer is perhaps less to obtain what we ask than to become someone else. We should go further and say that asking something of God transforms us, little by little, into people capable of sometimes doing without what they ask for." - Fr. Bernard Bro, O.P., in the Magnificat for June 19th.
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In an article in First Things entitled, "Fortnight for Freedom-U.S. Catholics and Religious Liberty: The Origins," George Weigel quoted from the historian Theodore Maynard's 1941 history of American Catholicism:
"[The] Church . . . has always maintained that, whatever may be the accidental inequality of gift and station between man and man, they are all essentially equal in the sight of God. It is only upon such a doctrine that democracy can repose. It is only democratic institutions that put that doctrine into visible practice. For despite the Declaration of Independence, with its' 'self-evident' truth that all men are created equal, the thing is not self-evident at all. On the contrary, it seems to be at variance with self-evident facts. It is really a mystical dogma, and the one institution we can be perfectly certain will never renounce that dogma is the Catholic Church."
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As we have had too many occasions to report, the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe and elsewhere continues to be a very troubling sign. Here are some excerpts from a recent report by Guy Millière, University of Paris:
"400,000 Jews live in France today, and the number is decreasing. Two thousand Jews leave the country every year; those who do not leave now know they have no future in France.
"Six million Muslims live in France today, and their number is
increasing. In addition to the risk of riots, the existence of no-go zones and the omnipresence of political correctness, politicians, left and right, know whom they must seduce, flatter, or appease to be elected. ...
"Polls shows that France's new President, François Hollande received an overwhelming majority of Muslim votes, approximately 94%. On the evening of May 6, he was greeted at Place de la Bastille by a forest of flags of almost every country in the Muslim world. French flags were virtually invisible. Groups of veiled women were there, apparently happy. Any observable signs of Judaism would have been clearly inappropriate. Holding an Israeli flag would have been suicidal."
See the whole article here.
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Finally, this from a few last week:
Here are three counter-intuitive things that take a lifetime to learn:
1. It's not until you're grateful for something that it's really yours.
2. You never get enough of what you really don't want.
3. Everything not given away is lost.
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Thank you so much for your interest in our work and especially for your prayers and support.
With gratitude and affection,
Gil Bailie
 
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