China's Abuse: Forced Abortion and Forced Labor

May 19, 2011. (Romereports.com) He was tortured and forced into labor for 19 years. Now, Harry Wu, spends his time, trying to fight the system that enslaved him for nearly two decades. 

Harry Wu
Founder Laogai Foundation 
“Living like an animal. If I don't work, they would remove my food.”

They're called Laogai prisons or forced labor camps. Speaking out against the Chinese  government is enough to be imprisoned for life. When he was just 19, Wu was labeled a counter revolutionary. During a recent visit to Rome, with the Laogai Foundation, he spoke about the days he spent in solitary confinement. 
 
Harry Wu
Founder Laogai Foundation
“Six feet long, three feet wide and only three feet high made of cement. So I was inside, no blanket, no food, no water. You have to give a confession. After three days, if you don't do it, they can't let you go.”

Wu survived and later moved to Washington. But he says, it's a problem that still goes on today, with roughly one thousand Laogai prisons scattered throughout China. 

Harry Wu
Founder Laogai Foudnation
“There are three to five million people as a labor force to make a product, that benefits the government.”

He says products, like auto parts, hand tools and even some Christmas lights are made by prisoners. Despite international laws, that prohibit the sale of goods made through forced labor, Wu says plenty of them are sold in the U.S. Another concern, is freedom of religion, since Catholics are often targeted. 

Harry Wu
Founder Laogai Foundation 
“All Churches, all temples are government property. All priests, pastors are sent to labor camps.”
For years, Reggie Littlejohn has denounced the government, saying the abuse goes far beyond prison walls. China's one child law, has led to hundreds of thousands of forced abortions. 

Reggie Littlejohn
President Women's Rights Without Frontiers 
“China's one child policy is enforced through forced abortion, forced sterilization and infanticide.” 
She says if women don't register their pregnancy with the Chinese government, they could be subject to a violent abortion, regardless of their pregnancy term. 

Reggie Littlejohn
President Women's Rights Without Frontiers 
“If you want to have a second child, you can simply pay a fine. What they don't tell the tourist is that that fine can be up to ten times your annual salary.”
Every day, roughly 500 women commit suicide in China.  Littlejohn believes it's directly connected to the country's strict family planning laws. 

Having significantly more men than women is provoking other problems. 

Reggie Littlejohn
President Women's Rights Without Frontiers 
“Because of the gender imbalance in China, and the presence of 37 million more men than women. Women and girls are trafficked into China from surrounding countries.”
The fight against these abuses has been going on for years. Until they see changes, these activists say, the fight will continue. 

17,500 capsules of powered human baby flesh made in China, sold to cure disease and boost stamina

Excerpt From BBC World News:

The Korea Customs Service said it had found almost 17,500 of the capsules being smuggled into the country from China since August 2011.South Korea says it will increase customs inspections targeting capsules containing powdered human flesh.

The powdered flesh, which officials said came from dead babies and foetuses, is reportedly thought by some to cure disease and boost stamina.

But officials said the capsules were full of bacteria and a health risk.

"It was confirmed those capsules contain materials harmful to the human body, such as super bacteria.



Excerpt From Daily Mail:

Thousands of pills filled with powdered human flesh have been discovered by customs officials in South Korea, it was revealed today.

The capsules are in demand because they are viewed as being a medicinal 'cure-all'.

The grim trade is being run from China where corrupt medical staff are said to be tipping off medical companies when babies are aborted or delivered still-born.

The tiny corpses are then bought, stored in household refrigerators in homes of those involved in the trade before they are removed and taken to clinics where they are placed in medical drying microwaves.

Once the skin is tinder dry, it is pummelled into powder and then processed into capsules along with herbs to disguise the true ingredients from health investigators and customs officers.

Hospitals and abortion clinics in China reportedly pass the remains onto drugs companies when a baby is stillborn or aborted, the South Korean SBS documentary team reported last year. 

The San Francisco Times reported that tests carried out on the pills confirmed they were made up of 99.7 per cent human remains. The tests were successfully able to establish the genders of the babies used.

However, in reality the human flesh capsules contain super-bacteria and other harmful ingredients.

There have been disturbing reports that some babies were those who had perished in China's notorious 'dying rooms' where youngsters are deliberately left to die because they were born into families that already had the limit of one child in country areas.

In order to keep its population down, China performs 13 million abortions a year - mainly because mothers sacrifice their newborns to avoid punishment such as severe fines or even a beating by the authorities.

The Chinese authorities have confirmed that 38 per cent of women of child-bearing age have been sterilised - but the babies that are aborted do not go to waste because of the sickening trade in using their corpses for purported medicinal purposes.

Photo of baby aborted in China at 9 months in forced abortion circulates on Internet, sparks outrage

Excerpt from LifeSiteNews:

LINYI CITY, Shandong Province, China, April 3, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A chilling photograph circulating in China shows the body of a 9-months-gestation baby submerged in a bucket of water, apparently a victim of the country’s one-child policy.

Digital Journal reports that the photograph, in which the head and arm of a child can be seen underwater in a large red bucket on the floor, was posted to the Chinese web services company Baidu before it was circulated on Weibo, the country’s version of Twitter, last week.

The abortion appears to have taken place on March 26 after Chinese family planning police in the town of Moshan hunted down the family because the couple already had one child.

According to English reports regarding the original post, the pregnant mother was forcibly held down as she was given an injection to induce labor, after which the baby “even gave a cry when it came out,” but was left in a bucket to drown.

In response to the photo, Reggie Littlejohn of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, which opposes China’s one-child policy, confirmed that late-term abortions and infanticide are common means of enforcing China’s one-child population rule.


“These violent procedures can happen up to the ninth month of pregnancy,” Littlejohn told LifeSiteNews.com. “Sometimes the women themselves die along with their full term babies. Forced abortion is China’s war against women.  It is official government rape.”


“Late term babies are injected with poison in their skulls or drowned in buckets,” she continued. 


Click here to read the rest of the article.

The Prince of Liechtenstein is upholding natural justice in his threat to veto a law legalising abortion

From Catholic Herald:

By FRANCIS PHILLIPS

We live in a constitutional monarchy where the actual powers of the monarch are very limited: to listen, to advise, and to warn, as Bagehot says. This is not the case in the tiny principality of Liechtenstein (population: 36,000 with a land area of 62 square miles) where the constitution gives the hereditary prince the right of veto. Tim Tindal-Robertson of the World Apostolate of Fatima in the UK has emailed me to say that this right of veto has resulted in a difficulty: Hereditary Prince Alois von und zu Liechtenstein, who assumed his constitutional powers in 2004, has stated that he is prepared to abdicate his position if the principality carries out a referendum this Thursday, May 10, to approve a new abortion law.

Political activists want to revoke the Prince’s right of veto and have formed a citizens’ committee for this purpose. The Prince, a devout Catholic, told the parliament on March 1 that if the population wants to change the constitution, effectively removing the princely family’s power, a power it has exercised for over 200 years and which has given the principality its identity, he would not be able to undertake his political responsibilities and would “completely withdraw from political life”.

This seeming impasse began in 2011 when Prince Alois threatened to veto a referendum legalising abortion if it were passed. That attempt at a referendum failed because of his threat and the current campaign has developed as a result. Under the Liechtenstein constitution, it has to gather 1,500 signatures by May 10 in order to call the referendum. Currently the Prince still retains his power of veto; it is thought this might not last for much longer.

Many commentators will think, “Quite right too.” How can a modern democracy develop when one person, by the caprice of birth, still retains seemingly feudal powers? But the Prince is not exercising this power arbitrarily. Within recent memory, unborn children were protected by law as a matter of course in every European country, a law that stated they had “the right to life”. Prince Alois, as a practising Catholic – and unlike some American high-profile, supposedly Catholic politicians who I have blogged about recently – does not believe he can separate his faith from his public duties over a matter of such fundamental importance. I think he is right. He is exercising his right of veto, not because of a personal whim but to uphold natural justice against the threat of an unjust law. As the custodian of justice towards unborn future citizens of Liechtenstein, he is acting more responsibly than the activists.

In 1990 a somewhat similar crisis occurred in Belgium. The government wanted to bring in a new law permitting abortion. Such a law, constitutionally, had to be signed in by the King of Belgium, Baudouin I. Not having the power of veto, he stated that as a Catholic, he could not, in good conscience, sign the proposed law. The Cabinet declared the King “unable to govern”; he abdicated, and the law was passed. Yet 44 hours after his abdication, the Belgian parliament reinstated him. It was a compromise solution to a potential constitutional crisis. No compromise is being talked about in Liechtenstein.

Ave Maria (Gregorian Chants)

Remembering Pope John Paul II

Sacred Relics of Blessed Pope John Paul II in Manila

UPDATE:

The Relics of Blessed John Paul II and the Pope Mobile-World Youth Day 1995 will stay at the Blessed John Paul II Parish, Eastwood City, until May 14, 2012. A farewell Mass will be celebrated on Monday at 12:15PM.  The relics will be brought to Don Bosco Makati and will be there until May 22, 2012.

KFC ordered to pay $8.3 million to Australian girl

From Yahoo News:

Fast food giant Kentucky Friend Chicken has been ordered to pay Aus$8 million (US$8.3 million) to an Australian girl who suffered severe brain damage and was paralysed after eating a Twister wrap.

Monika Samaan was seven when she suffered salmonella encephalopathy -- a brain injury linked to food poisoning that also left her with a blood infection and septic shock -- in October 2005.

Several other family members also fell ill and they claimed Samaan's injuries, which include severe cognitive, motor and speech impairment and spastic quadriplegia, were caused by a chicken Twister wrap from a Sydney KFC outlet.

The New South Wales Supreme Court ruled in the family's favour a week ago and on Friday ordered KFC to pay the girl Aus$8 million in damages plus legal costs.

In a statement, the family's lawyer George Vlahakis said they were relieved the battle was over.

"Monika's severe brain damage and severe disability has already exhausted the very limited resources of the family," he said.

"Monika is now a big girl and they are finding it increasingly difficult to lift her and to look after her basic needs as well as look after Monika's younger siblings.

"The compensation ordered is very much needed. KFC have to date been determined that Monika does not receive a cent."

Last week KFC indicated it will appeal the decision but is yet to do so.

During the trial, Justice Stephen Rothman said the chicken became contaminated "because of the failure of one or more employees of KFC" to follow proper preparation rules, which he described as "negligent".

Absurdly Luxurious Pet Accessories for the 1%

52 carats diamonds dog collar set in 18 Karat white gold ($3,200,000)

Hand painted, 18k gold-dipped bowl ($225-$275)

Dog shower with water jet nozzles and a shower head ($1,250)

Click here for a complete slideshow of absurdly luxurious pet accessories.

Remembering Pope John Paul II

Click here to view powerpoint presentation on Pope John Paul II

Thought For The Day: War

"There is nothing that war has ever achieved that we could not better achieve without it."

RH Bill: Part Of Global Depopulation Agenda

US' HHS Mandate, Philippine's Reproductive Health Bill & Ireland's Medical Treatment Bill.  What do they have in common? 

To me, it looks like an orchestrated, simultaneous, global attack to rapidly advance the depopulation agenda.

The depopulation strategy is - first you take God out of the picture, then legislate laws that will kill humanity - either through contraceptives, abortion, mandatory mass vaccinations, GMOs, etc ...

Catholics Prepare for Spiritual Battle - Good vs. Evil

Global Warming Scam Tied to Depopulation Agenda

ADDENDUM:

MANILA, April 25, 2012–Retired Archbishop Emeritus Oscar V. Cruz yesterday tagged the Reproductive Health (RH) bill as a form of foreign intervention in reaction to reports of foreign agencies’ push for the proposed legislative measure.

“I perfectly understand the collaboration and possibly even the conspiracy because there is a lot of money behind the RH bill, precisely because the most interested entities here are multinational pharmaceuticals.”

A conference on maternal and child health held this month had World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative Dr. Soe Nyunt-u commenting that the “RH bill is of paramount importance for the welfare of the Filipino people,” stating an an oft-repeated line of advocates of the controversial measure that seeks taxpayer-funded procurement and distribution of birth control supplies, and a six-year mandatory sex education program in all schools.

In 1995 the WHO and the Philippine Department of Health (DoH) were involved in a controversy when they introduced the Tetanus Toxoid Vaccination Program. The vaccines were proven to carry hCG, which causes the spontaneous abortion of the child in the mother’s womb.

The Philippine Medical Association (PMA) came up with a positive test result that indicated that just such an abortifacient may have been administered to Filipinas without their consent.

Rey J. Echavez, M.D., one of the doctors who led the investigation and exposure of the controversy, rebuked the WHO representative and said that “He is under WHO. He cannot be neutral because his salaries are from WHO. What WHO will tell him he will propagate even if it is not the truth morally or scientifically.”

Natural Family Planning (NFP) teacher Willy Jose questioned, “It is clearly a case of unwanted foreign intervention into internal policy matters. Who are they to insist upon us Filipinos what laws we need to put in place and what not? Between the PMA and the WHO — who have contrasting views on the start of life — I’d side with our very own PMA.” (CBCP for Life)

RH bill denies freedom of religion, choice – lawyer

MANILA, April 19, 2012—As pro-lifers in the United States gear up for another nationwide rally for religious freedom in June to protest the birth control mandate, numerous Filipinos still need to open their eyes to the fact that one of the  Philippine government’s proposed measures violates the freedom of religion.

Atty. Ma. Concepcion Noche, president of the Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines Inc. (ALFI) said that the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, which has divided the nation due to contradictory viewpoints and insufficient understanding of its implications, tramples on the people’s religious freedom, a freedom protected by the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

Based on the bill, healthcare workers and medical professionals are forced to provide RH supplies and services  or participate in practices that go against their religious convictions — referring patients to others who would provide the services concerned is participation nonetheless. Employers also must either provide RH services to their employees or suffer the consequences as specified by the legislative measure.

“Dangling a criminal penalty of imprisonment and/or fine, believers will find themselves torn between fidelity to God and loyalty to their country. This unjustly limits the right to conscientious objection on the part of health care workers and medical professionals,” Noche explained.

“For the exercise of religious freedom to be truly meaningful, individuals should be allowed to profess and practice their faith by freely seeking and serving God in their hearts, in their lives and in their relationship with others, without fear of persecution or punishment. Only in this way can this right be truly guaranteed,” Noche pointed out.

The current set-up already allows respect for the religious beliefs of everyone, the lawyer said.

“But once a national policy on contraception is legislated, that changes the landscape altogether. Making it a matter of national policy or institutionalizing contraception via RH Bill and allocating billions of our scarce resources, will deprive us of our choice because the government will effectively have made that choice already for the Filipino families,” she explained.

What ‘separation of Church and State’ means

Much as separation of Church and State has been invoked by those who insist that the practice of one’s moral convictions has no place in the public square,  this principle has often been misunderstood.

“Under our Constitution, the command against the violation of the separation of the Church and State is directed to the State — not to the Church — which is mandated to steer clear of the religious realm and give utmost respect to the exercise of religion. So, with the RH Bill, is the State poised to breach this wall of separation?” Noche remarked.

“The State exists for persons, as a guarantor and defender of their rights,” she continued. “In the face of ever-changing social conditions that confront us as individuals and as a people, the central question is: What are the requirements that government may reasonably impose upon its citizens and how far should they extend?”

Religious convictions have no place in the political process, some RH bill advocates have said. Noche, on the other hand, disagreed with this notion.

On the contrary, “As demonstrated by St. Thomas More when he defied the sovereign of which he was a “good servant” and chose to serve God first, religion has an important place in the political process. For indeed, it has been proven time and again that for democracy to be stable, it needs a foundation of moral principles based upon faith and religion.” (CBCP for Life)

Ireland Scraps Bill On Abortion

"... And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? "

- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

MANILA, April 24, 2012–A supposedly proposed law on permitting abortion was defeated at the Dail Eireann, the Irish Parliament, with a landslide of 109 votes to 20.

The bill, authored by Clare Daly, a Teachta Dala (Parliament Member) of the Socialist Party, would have legalized abortions right up to birth in the European nation.

Bernadette Smyth, director of Irish pro-life group Precious Life, said it is “a victory for Ireland’s unborn children,” and also stated that the so-called ‘Medical Treatment Bill’ is a mere “sugar-coated name to make abortion-on-demand legal.”

“Abortion is not medical treatment,” she added. “There are no circumstances where the life of a mother can only be saved by killing her unborn baby. Even Clare Daly who tabled the motion admitted there was nothing ‘medical’ about it when she said it was really an issue of women’s rights to control their own bodies.”

Another Teachta Dala supporting the bill is Sinn Fein, who recently joined the said group in a rally, saying he wants an Irish Republic patterned after the 1916 Easter Proclamation, yet ends up voting for the bill and being branded as a liar.

“The Proclamation calls on Irish people to cherish all the children of the nation,” Smyth said.

“The question Sinn Fein now has to answer is, how can they cherish children while supporting killing children before they’re born?”

Smyth concluded by saying that Ireland’s unborn children continue to be protected by law, and that the nation is still the safest place in the world to have a baby.

“Precious Life continue to resist any attempt to legalise the killing of our unborn children and we continue to stand with the vast majority of people on the island of Ireland who say ‘NOT IN OUR NAME’,” she enthused.

Abortion is illegal in the Philippines, yet the proposed “reproductive health” (RH) bill being debated in both chambers of Congress poses a threat in its subtle steps toward legalization. Though the measure condemns abortion, it promotes contraception, including the use of the Pill and intrauterine device (IUD) both of which studies have shown have led to early-term abortion. Both have also been linked to serious side-effects on the women using them. 

http://cbcpforlife.com

MONUMENTAL: In Search Of America's National Treasure

http://www.monumentalmovie.com/

Human Dog Hybrid

Ginger The Human Dog Eating Cereal - Watch More Funny Videos

Sleepy Dogs

Glenn Beck talked to Vatican officials and warned Catholics to prepare for battle - good vs. evil.

Thought For The Day: Be the Best You!

"Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor each morning, 

the devil says - 'Oh crap, she's up!'" 

Hero dog draws sympathy

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—The one-year-old dog here whose face was horribly disfigured when she saved her young masters from being hit by a speeding motorcycle two months ago, has become a celebrity of sorts.

Kabang, a white-and-black “aspin” (short for asong Pinoy or native dog) shielded Dina Bunggal, 11, and cousin Princess Diansing, 3, from harm when she jumped into the path of the motorcycle. But her head got caught in the spinning front tire, causing her to lose her entire upper snout, including her nose and lower part of her eyelids.

Her deed has been described as heroic and her resulting plight has drawn a wave of sympathy. Despite the still open wound on her face, Kabang (a Visayan term that means spotty) is not showing any sign of trauma.

UPDATE:  ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines— The courageous canine who saved two girls from harm when she blocked the path of a speeding motorcycle here in December, is US-bound.

“Kabang,” a female aspin (short for asong Pinoy or native breed), will undergo major surgery to reconstruct her upper snout, which was mangled and ripped off in the accident, according to veterinarian Dr. Anton Lim.

“Kabang is going to the US with the help of many kind-hearted individuals and donors, who would like to see the dog … live longer. Her story inspired many people especially animal lovers,” Lim said, citing a confirmation from Ramona Consunji of the Animal Welfare Coalition.

Lim said among those helping in Kabang’s trip to the US, which could take place next month at the latest, aside from local veterinarians and humanitarian groups and individuals, was Animal Welfare Coalition US coordinator Karen Kenngott.

In an e-mail to the Inquirer, Kenngott said that they wanted Kabang flown to the US as soon as possible.

“The more time that goes by, the more Kabang is at risk of infection,” Kengott said. “Fungal infections can be especially difficult to eradicate and any infection in the bone can be a lengthy process to treat at best. Her chances are better the sooner she can get those wounds closed,” she said.

Lim agreed by saying that Kabang is losing one of her remaining upper molars–which is very important for chewing and grabbing food–because of a previous infection.

Kenngott said Kabang would be operated on at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital of the University of California in Davis, “under a team of multi-disciplinary doctors and surgeons led by Dr. Boaz Arzi.” Arzi is a maxillofacial and dental surgeon.


LATEST UPDATE (09/12/12): click here for Update on Kabang, The Hero Dog 

Lawsuit: KFC Franchisee Fired Employees For Refusing To Serve Expired Chicken

A former manager at a KFC eatery in Oregon alleges that the owner of his franchise not only ordered employees to serve expired chicken, but also that employees who refused to do so were fired.

According to the lawsuit filed yesterday in a state Circuit Court, KFC policy requires that all fresh chicken be served or discarded within 12 days of the "kill date" stamped on the box.

The lawsuit alleges that in 2010, a different manager had been ordered by the franchise owner to serve chicken that was "turning green and was several days beyond the expiration date." Instead, that manager threw away the chicken, against orders of her bosses. After the owner discovered the chicken had been tossed away, that manager says she was fired.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit alleges that he was directed by the franchisee to serve expired chicken as early as August 2010.

In Feb. 2011, he says one of his bosses changed the label on a box of fresh chicken to make it look like the chicken had been shipped frozen and thawed, and thus okay to serve.


Click here to read the rest of the article.

The Virtue of Patience

Excerpt from "10 Things Pope Benedict XVI Wants You to Know":


"Probably without being conscious of it, Pope Benedict XVI is teaching the world something through his own behavior.  He is exceedingly humble and gentle, which stands in stark contrast to the bluster and braggadocio often associated with global titans in the worlds of politics, finance, and culture.  He is living proof that one does not have to be an exhibitionist to lead and to inspire.

Perhaps more important, he's teaching a microwave world that expects instant results to slow down a bit, to catch its breath, and to look before it leaps.  Upon Benedict's election, there were fevered expectations of swift and dramatic action in many quarters.  Some expected a root-and-branch reform of the Roman Curia, the Catholic Church's central organ of government.  Others anticipated a sweeping crackdown on dissident theologians and liberal activists within the Church.  To this day, many pundits and commentators are still waiting for the "real" Benedict to emerge from beneath his patient, gentle facade; what they don't seem to appreciate is that what they regard as a facade is, in fact, the real pope.

Benedict is a man of deep faith, which means he realized that, ultimately, the vicissitudes of the Church and of the world are in God's hands, not his.  There's a serenity about him, a lack of what the Germans call angst, rooted in his belief that the final act of the story in which all of us are involved has already been written, and it ends well. Thus he does not feel the need to lurch from one initiative to the next or to resolve all the Church's problems in a single bound.  He understands better than most the complexities of those problems, both intellectually and pastorally, and he also grasps the importance of thinking carefully before taking steps that may have unforeseen consequences.

In an impatient world, Benedict XVI is a very patient man.  To paraphrase Saint Augustine, occasionally his very lack of deeds is an important "word" for the harried women and men of his time".

Thought For The Day: Gossip

"Careless talk against and about people can be like quicksand! 

Not only have such mistakes of tongue destroyed innumerable friendships 

but they have ruined marriages and cost many people their jobs and their future.”

- Jean E. Laird

The Untold Story Of The Titanic’s Catholic Priests Who Went Down Hearing Confessions

"May all Christians be found worthy of either the pure white

 crown of a holy life or the royal red crown of martyrdom"

- St. Cyprian

All three of the European-born priests – Father Juozas Montvila of Lithuania, Father Josef Peruschitz, O.S.B. of Bavaria, and English rector Father Thomas Byles – are said to have declined lifeboats in order to offer spiritual aid to travelers who perished in the shipwreck.

Fr. Thomas Byles

Source:  Lifesitenews

Amidst all the tales of chivalry from the Titanic disaster there is one that’s not often told.

It is that of Fr. Thomas Byles, the Catholic priest who gave up two spots on a lifeboat in favour of offering spiritual aid to the other victims as they all went down with the “unsinkable” vessel.

A 42-year-old English convert, Fr. Byles was on his way to New York to offer the wedding Mass for his brother William. Reports suggest that he was reciting his breviary on the upper deck when the Titanic struck the iceberg in the twilight hours of Sunday, April 14th, 1912.

According to witnesses, as the ship went down the priest helped women and children get into the lifeboats, then heard confessions, gave absolution, and led passengers in reciting the Rosary.

Agnes McCoy, one of the survivors, says that as the great ship sank, Fr. Byles “stood on the deck with Catholics, Protestants and Jews kneeling around him.”

“Father Byles was saying the rosary and praying for the repose of the souls of those about to perish,” she told the New York Telegram on April 22, 1912, according to the website devoted to his memory, FatherByles.com.

In the words of the priest’s friend Fr. Patrick McKenna, “He twice refused the offer of a place in a boat, saying his duty was to stay on the ship while one soul wanted his ministrations.”

Nearly two weeks after the disaster, The Church Progress in St. Louis, Missouri wrote this moving tribute to the heroic priest:

In almost every line that has been written, and in every sentence that has been spoken, there stands boldly out above every other expression a picture of sublime heroism that will be copied into the pages of history. And well it may, for it is deserving of that honor.

But when it is, mention should be made of one whom pens and tongues have almost forgotten in their accounts of this awful sea tragedy. Among those who safely reached the land again no one seems to have been aware of his presence on the ship, but we may hope that many who meet him in a blissful eternity will praise God that Father Thomas Byles was there to administer absolution unto them.

Thought For The Day - Science And Religion

"Science develops best when its concepts and conclusions are integrated into the broader human culture and its concerns for ultimate meaning and value. Scientists cannot, therefore, hold themselves entirely aloof from the sorts of issues dealt with by philosophers and theologians. 

By devoting to these issues something of the energy and care they give to their research in science, they can help others realize more fully the human potentialities of their discoveries. They can also come to appreciate for themselves that these discoveries cannot be a genuine substitute for knowledge of the truly ultimate. 

Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish." 

- Pope John Paul II

Spectacular Solar Flare Erupts From the Sun

Video and News courtesy of Space.com and Yahoo News.

The sun erupted in an amazing solar flare today (April 16), unleashing an intense eruption of super-heated plasma that arced high above the star's surface before blasting out into space.

The powerful solar flare occurred at 1:45 p.m. EDT (1745 GMT) and registered as a moderate M1.7-class on the scale of sun storms, placing it firmly in the middle of the scale used by scientists to measure flare strength. The storm is not the strongest this year from the sun, but photos and video of the solar flare captured by NASA spacecraft revealed it to be an eye-popping display of magnetic plasma.

"Great eruption happening on the sun now," scientists with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) wrote in a Twitter post.

The solar flare erupted along the sun's eastern limb (its left side) from an active region that may also be responsible for solar storm activity observed on Sunday, SDO mission officials said. The flare kicked up a massive amount of solar plasma in an explosion known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME.

"Such eruptions are often associated with solar flares, and in this case an M1 class (medium-sized) flare did occur at the same time, though it was not aimed toward Earth," officials with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., explained in an image description. The Goddard center oversees the sun-monitoring SDO mission.

When aimed at Earth, strong solar flares and CMEs can supercharge the planet's auroras, also known as the northern and southern lights. Extremely powerful CMEs can pose a danger to astronauts and satellites in space, as well as power grids, navigation and communications systems on Earth.

Astronomers measure solar flares on a letter scale, with the strongest events falling into three categories: C, M and X. C-class solar flares are the weakest events, with the X-class sun storms marking the most powerful events on the sun.

The sun is currently in an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle and is expected to reach its peak activity in 2013. The current solar weather cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24.

Loyal Dog Refuses To Leave Her Friend After She Was Run Over

Taken from Daily Mail Reporter:

A black Labrador retriever that braved traffic to stay by another dog that was fatally struck by a car has been hailed for its loyalty.

A concerned motorist who saw the dogs on a La Puente street in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday morning put down traffic cones to alert other drivers and shot a video of the dogs. 

The footage released on Saturday showed the female Labrador lying next to a motionless, yellow Labrador as vehicles pass dangerously close to them.

Blood can be seen around the injured dog's head while the Labrador waits by its side. Animal control officials responded to the scene and took the frightened but unharmed dog to a shelter.

The Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control (DACC) said the two-year-old dog, who animal shelter staff and volunteers have named Grace, appears to have been well cared for. But nobody has come forward to claim her,  so she is up for adoption.

Thought For The Day: Dogs

"This soldier, I realized, must have had friends at home and in his regiment;
yet he lay there deserted by all except his dog.
I looked on, unmoved, at battles which decided the future of nations.
Tearless, I had given orders which brought death to thousands.
Yet here I was stirred, profoundly stirred, stirred to tears. And by what?
By the grief of one dog."

-Napoleon Bonaparte 
(on finding a dog beside the body of his dead master, licking his face
 and howling,on a moonlit field after a battle.) 

"To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden,

where doing nothing was not boring

- it was peace."

~Milan Kundera

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

~Samuel Butler, Notebooks, 1912




"You can say any fool thing to a dog, and the dog will give you this look that says,
`My gosh, you're RIGHT!  I NEVER would've thought of that!' "

- Dave Barry

"My dogs forgive anger in me, the arrogance in me, the brute in me.
They forgive everything I do before I forgive myself."

~Guy de la Valdene

Strictly Come Dancing Underwater - BBC Sport Relief 2012

The absolutely magnificent dance sequence starts from mark 4:40 to 6:15

The 10 most destructive tsunamis in history

Excerpt from Australian Geographic:

Here are the 10 worst tsunamis of all time, before the Japan tsunami:

1.    Sumatra, Indonesia - 26 December 2004
The 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra was estimated to occur at a depth of 30 km. The fault zone that caused the tsunami was roughly 1300 km long, vertically displacing the sea floor by several metres along that length. The ensuing tsunami was as tall as 50 m, reaching 5 km inland near Meubolah, Sumatra. This tsunami is also the most widely recorded, with nearly one thousand combined tide gauge and eyewitness measurements from around the world reporting a rise in wave height, including places in the US, the UK and Antarctica. An estimated US$10b of damages is attributed to the disaster, with around 230,000 people reported dead.


2.  North Pacific Coast, Japan - 11 March 2011
A powerful tsunami travelling 800km per hour with 10m-high waves swept over the east coast of Japan, killing more than 18,000 people. The tsunami was spawned by an 9.0 magnitude earthquake that reached depths of 24.4km- making it the fourth-largest earthquake ever recorded. Approximately 452,000 people were relocated to shelters, and still remain displaced from their destroyed homes. The violent shaking resulted in a nuclear emergency, in which the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant began leaking radioactive steam. The World Bank estimates that it could take Japan up to five years to financially overcome the $235 billion damages.


3.    Lisbon, Portugal - 1 November 1755
A magnitude 8.5 earthquake caused a series of three huge waves to strike various towns along the west coast of Portugal and southern Spain, up to 30 m high, in some places. The tsunami affected waves as far away as Carlisle Bay, Barbados, where waves were said to rise by 1.5 m. The earthquake and ensuing tsunami killed 60,000 in the Portugal, Morocco and Spain.


4.    Krakatau, Indonesia - 27 August 1883
This tsunami event is actually linked to the explosion of the Krakatau caldera volcano. Multiple waves as high as 37 m were propagated by the violent eruptions and demolished the towns of Anjer and Merak. The sea was reported to recede from the shore at Bombay, India and is said to have killed one person in Sri Lanka. This event killed around 40,000 people in total; however, as many as 2,000 deaths can be attributed directly to the volcanic eruptions, rather than the ensuing tsunami.


5.    Enshunada Sea, Japan - 20 September 1498
An earthquake, estimated to have been at least magnitude 8.3, caused tsunami waves along the coasts of Kii, Mikawa, Surugu, Izu and Sagami. The waves were powerful enough to breach a spit, which had previously separated Lake Hamana from the sea. There were reports of homes flooding and being swept away throughout the region, with a total of at least 31,000 people killed.


6.    Nankaido, Japan - 28 October 1707
A magnitude 8.4 earthquake caused sea waves as high as 25 m to hammer into the Pacific coasts of Kyushyu, Shikoku and Honshin. Osaka was also damaged. A total of nearly 30,000 buildings were damaged in the affected regions and about 30,000 people were killed. It was reported that roughly a dozen large waves were counted between 3 pm and 4 pm, some of them extending several kilometres inland at Kochi.


7.    Sanriku, Japan - 15 June 1896
This tsunami propagated after an estimated magnitude 7.6 earthquake occurred off the coast of Sanriku, Japan. The tsunami was reported at Shirahama to have reached a height of 38.2 m, causing damage to more than 11,000 homes and killing some 22,000 people. Reports have also been found that chronicle a corresponding tsunami hitting the east coast of China, killing around 4000 people and doing extensive damage to local crops.


8.    Northern Chile - 13 August 1868
This tsunami event was caused by a series of two significant earthquakes, estimated at a magnitude of 8.5, off the coast of Arica, Peru (now Chile). The ensuing waves affected the entire Pacific Rim, with waves reported to be up to 21 m high, which lasted between two and three days. The Arica tsunami was registered by six tide gauges, as far off as Sydney, Australia. A total of 25,000 deaths and an estimated US$300 million in damages were caused by the tsunami and earthquakes combined along the Peru-Chile coast.


9.    Ryuku Islands, Japan - 24 April 1771
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake is believed to have caused a tsunami that damaged a large number of islands in the region; however, the most serious damage was restricted to Ishigaki and Miyako Islands. It is commonly cited that the waves that struck Ishigaki Island was 85.4 m high, but it appears this is due to a confusion of the original Japanese measurements, and is more accurately estimated to have been around 11 to 15 m high. The tsunami destroyed a total of 3,137 homes, killing nearly 12,000 people in total.


10.    Ise Bay, Japan - 18 January 1586
The earthquake that caused the Ise Bay tsunami is best estimated as being of magnitude 8.2. The waves rose to a height of 6 m, causing damage to a number of towns. The town of Nagahama experienced an outbreak of fire as the earthquake first occurred, destroying half the city. It is reported that the nearby Lake Biwa surged over the town, leaving no trace except for the castle. The Ise Bay tsunamis caused more than 8000 deaths and a large amount damage.

The Power Of Love!

Taken from Immaculee Ilibagiza's e-newsletter:

Next Saturday April 7, will mark the 18th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda. I still remember it like it was yesterday. In 1994, it was 3 days after Easter; this year, it will fall on the Saturday before Easter. While I miss my parents greatly, I can’t help but to feel the joy of knowing that even in the darkest hour, God’s love is even more palpable. Suffering has a way of opening your eyes to another level.

Few years ago, I met a fellow survivor who shared her story and it deeply touched me. When the war started,Rosette and her family run to a nearby church. Soon after, the killers attacked the church and killed most of the thousands of people hiding inside. A few people were able to escape, including Rosette and her father who was badly wounded. They went to hide in the nearby forest, but they didn’t have any food or medical supplies to help the father. Then her father looked at her and told her, "My daughter you must live, I won't make it but you have to go on. I am going on the road, and I will get you food to eat." Then the father crawled to the road and begged people who were passing by from the market to give him food. Some were merciful and gave him food, dry and cooked. At night he called his daughter from the hiding behind the bushes, to come and take the food. The daughter asked him to eat with her and the father said, "I am dying, my child, you need to eat to live. I want to make sure you have enough food to last you until the war lasts." 

When the killers found him on the road, they wanted to kill him at once but he begged them not to finish him since he was already dying. So instead of taking his life, they hit him and broke his bones so he could no longer move. He thanked them and he started begging for food again after they left. At night he called to his daughter to take the food. Before he died few days later, he told his daughter, "My journey is over on earth and you must continue yours, we will be waiting for you on the other side."

This is a Holy Week, tomorrow is Good Friday. Jesus died on the cross for us. Rosette’s father died for his daughter. Both stories teach me a great deal about love, and I realize how much my love has a long way to grow. Sometimes I wonder, "If I lived in Jesus’ time, could I have been the one to shout Him to be crucified or would I have defended Him even if I might not have been sure He was God or not." The idea of betraying Him breaks my heart now that I know Him, but who knows what I could have done. However, everyday I choose what I can do in the similar situation. With this, I challenge you my dear sisters and brothers, to look inside your heart and see if there is anyone being crucified by your attitude, your words, your actions or your rejection and know that, that can easily be Jesus. And if so, please decide to be kinder towards that person.

URGENT: One Day of Fasting on Good Friday to Prevent One World Currency

Excerpt taken from TheWarningSecondComing.Com:

My child ask my children to do one day of Fasting on Good Friday to prevent the one world currency from being introduced. Your prayers and fasting can do this.

As soon as this prayer is said during your Fast, My Eternal Father will stop these people from inflicting the austerity they are planning so that they can control you.

These same people want to abolish Christianity so it is important that you stop this from happening through special sacrifices.


Crusade Prayer (42) Pray of fasting to stop One World Currency

O God Most High
I offer you my gift of fasting
So that you will stop the grip of evil in the world
Being planned to starve my country of food including the bread of life
Accept my offering and listen to my pleas for other nations to prevent them from
The suffering being planned by the anti-christ
Save us Dear Lord from this wickedness and protect our faith
So that we can honour you with the freedom we need to love and adore yu
Forever and ever. Amen.


My child, one day of fasting on Good Friday will bring much freedom to nations from the evil one and those who follow his wicked desires to control the finances of all nations.


Click here to read the full message.