Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Friday 19 May 2017

50 Years Too Long. 8.7 Million Lives Too Many. Is This A Good Idea To Continue Killing ? Let Us Consider What We Are Doing To The Little Ones. March For Life On 20 May 2017.



Illustration: MARCH FOR LIFE

HOW TO GET TO
MARCH FOR LIFE 2017
AT VICTORIA SQUARE,
BIRMINGHAM CITY CENTRE.
Details: 
HERE

“You are called to stand up for life !

To respect and defend The Mystery of Life always and everywhere, including the
lives of unborn babies, giving real help
and encouragement to mothers
in difficult situations.

You are called to work and Pray
against abortion.”

— Pope Saint John Paul II.


Fifty years ago, The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill [subsequently The Abortion Act 1967] passed its Second Reading in The House of Commons with a massive vote of 223 votes For and 29 Against.

The Society For The Protection Of Unborn Children (SPUC) calculates that, so far, 8,624,567 innocent lives have been lost under The 1967 Abortion Act.


It’s instructive to consider the The Pro-Abortion Lobby’s claims in 1966, in The Second Reading Debate, and during subsequent Debates on this tragic Legislation:

“…it is not the intention of the promoters of the Bill to leave a wide open door for abortion on request.” (David Steel, Hansard 5th Series, Vol 732, col 1075, 22 July, 1966).

[Editor: Wouldn't it be a good idea to invite David Steel (now Lord Steel) to comment as to whether or not his comment (see, above) was correct ?]

“Nobody is advocating abortion on demand in this Committee or anywhere else…” (David Steel, Standing Committee F, 15 February 1967, col 250).

[Editor: Wouldn't it be a good idea to invite David Steel (now Lord Steel) to comment as to whether or not his comment (see, above) was correct ?]

“It is certainly not a general licence to a medical practitioner to carry out an abortion on anybody who desires it.” (Lord Silkin, sponsor of the Abortion Act 1967 in the House of Lords, Hansard, 19 July 1967, col 263).


MARCH FOR LIFE 2017.
Available on YouTube at

What proved to be true was the following:

As early as 1972, a report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) stated:

“…there is no such danger of injury [to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman] in the vast majority of cases [of women seeking abortion], as the ‘indication’ is purely a social one.”
(RCOG Report on Unplanned pregnancy. London, England: RCOG; 1972)

And (Lord) David Steel himself, formerly David Steel MP, has, over the decades, openly promoted abortion on demand: “If it’s simply the decision of the mother then the limit should be 12 weeks” (BBC, 4 July 2004).


He has also written: “Incidentally, I was misreported in one Sunday paper as advocating a lower limit for “social” abortions. There should be no such distinction – proper medical care takes all social considerations into account….” (The Guardian 6 July 2004).

And, earlier this year, Lord Steel said regarding the state of the law in Northern Ireland that it was “simply ridiculous” and “absolutely extraordinary” that abortion is not widely available there.

Back-street abortion claims

The most widely promoted claim by the pro-abortion lobby in 1966, in Parliament and in the media, was that the Abortion Act was necessary to overcome back-street abortion and deaths associated with back-street abortion. The pro-abortion lobby’s estimates as to the number of back-street abortions rose to hundreds of thousands – but the evidence indicates a very different reality.

David Steel MP, the principal sponsor of the Abortion Act, claimed in the parliamentary debate:

“I would not settle for any definite figure, but it is probably somewhere between 40,000 and 200,000 a year.” (David Steel, Hansard 5th Series, Vol 732 col 1071 22 July 1966)


The truth was:

In 1966, the Council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) showed that, in 1962, approximately 14,600 women in England and Wales had received hospital treatment for the consequences of criminal abortion. The RCOG Council commented: “It has been repeatedly stated that as many as 100,000 criminal abortions are induced in this country each year, and a more recent estimate is 250,000. These, and an earlier figure of 50,000, are without any secure factual foundation of which we are aware.” (Legalised Abortion: Report by the Council of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists”, British Medical Journal, 1966; 1: 850-854.)

In developed countries, the number of women dying from abortion started to fall significantly in the decades before abortion laws were liberalised. Numbers in England and Wales fell from 96 deaths in 1950 to 56 deaths in 1960, and to 32 deaths in 1970. (World Health Statistics Report, Vol.30, no.4, Geneva: World Health Organisation, 1977, p.322.; World Health Statistics Annual 1970, Geneva: WHO, 1973, vol.1, p.516.) (These figures include deaths from both legal and illegal abortions, as well as natural miscarriages.) Medical advances, such as the use of antibiotics, have been the most important factor in this trend.


After the British Abortion Act was implemented in 1968, the overall trend in the number of women dying from all causes in their main childbearing years continued the steady decrease already in evidence, apart from a slight increase in 1968 itself. (Report on Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the United Kingdom 1985-1987, London: HMSO, 1991, p.6.) In other words, there was no sudden, marked decline in women’s deaths which could be attributed to the working of the Abortion Act.

The same pattern of exaggeration has characterised campaigns for legalised abortion all over the world. Former abortionist Dr Bernard Nathanson has admitted that he deceived people about the number of abortion deaths while campaigning for pro-abortion law in the United States. (Bernard N. Nathanson (with Richard N. Ostling), Aborting America, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1979, p.193.)

This write up is courtesy of LifeNews.com written with the help of SPUC. Note: John Smeaton is the director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), a leading pro-life group in the UK.

The " Super Chief ". Train Of The Stars, The Rich, The Famous. Passengers Didn't Wear Tank Tops, Camouflage Shorts, Or Jeans. Just Hats, Ties, Couturier, And Chanel. If They Wanted Châteauneuf-Du-Pape, They Got It.




The Super Chief.
Illustration: PINTEREST





The "Super Chief", in "War-Bonnet" colours, calls at Pasadena, just before heading into
Los Angeles Union Station. To the right of the palm trees, above the engine, we can see
the seventh floor of "The Castle Green". The Moorish Colonial and Spanish Hotel was across
the street from Pasadena's Santa Fe Railroad Station. Pasadena was the "gateway" to
The San Fernando Valley, Hollywood and Beverly Hills.
Illustration: NEW YORK SOCIAL DIARY




" The Super Chief ".
The Santa Fe Railroad.
1950s Passenger Trains In The USA.
Available on YouTube at



The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.

The Super Chief was one of the Named Passenger Trains and the Flagship of The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It claimed to be "The Train of the Stars" because of the celebrities it carried between Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California.

The Super Chief (Nos. 17 and 18) was the first Diesel-powered, all-Pullman sleeping car train in America, and it eclipsed the Chief as Santa Fe's standard bearer. The extra-fare ($10) Super Chief left Dearborn Station in Chicago for its first trip on May 12, 1936. Before starting scheduled service in May 1937, the lightweight version of the Super Chief ran 2,227 miles (3,584 km) from Los Angeles over recently upgraded tracks in 36 hours and 49 minutes, averaging 60 mph (97 km/h) overall and reaching 100 mph (160 km/h).

With one set of equipment, the train initially operated once a week from both Chicago and Los Angeles. After more cars had been delivered the Super Chief ran twice weekly beginning in 1938 and daily after 1948. Adding to the train's mystique were its gourmet meals and Hollywood clientele.


Competitors to the Super Chief were the City of Los Angeles on the Chicago and North Western Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad, and (to a lesser extent) the Golden State on the Rock Island and Southern Pacific. The Santa Fe Super Chief was one of the last passenger trains in the United States to carry an all-Pullman consist; only the Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway Limited and the Illinois Central's Panama Limited survived longer. The train maintained its high level of service until the end of Santa Fe passenger operations on May 1, 1971.

When Amtrak took over operation of the nation's passenger service on May 1, 1971, the 35-year run of the Super Chief on the Santa Fe ended, though Amtrak used the name on the same route for three years. In 1974 the Santa Fe withdrew permission to use the name due to a perceived decline in service, so Amtrak renamed it Southwest Limited. Following the delivery of new Superliner equipment, the Santa Fe allowed Amtrak to call it the Southwest Chief in 1984.

Tuesday 16 May 2017

Saint Ubaldus (1084-1160). Bishop. Confessor. Feast Day 16 May.


Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

Saint Ubaldus.
   Bishop and Confessor.
   Feast Day 16 May.


Semi-Double.

White Vestments.




Fresco of Saint Ubaldus at
 Gubbio, Umbria, Italy.
Source: http://www.ilmiositoweb.it/santubaldo/Santo.htm
(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Ubaldus, born at Gubbio, Umbria, Italy, received Episcopal Consecration (Introit, Epistle, Alleluia) and was obliged, by Pope Honorius II, to take the government of that Church (Communion).

After having, under the guidance of The Holy Ghost, by his Charity and Apostolic zeal, put to full advantage the talents which God had entrusted to him, he piously fell asleep and "entered into the joy of his Lord" (Gospel) on Whit-Sunday evening.

He died in 1160 and his body has remained intact up to our time. Let us ask this Saint, to whom God gave special power against Satan, to preserve us from all the malice of the devil (Collect).

Mass: Státuit.



The Festival of La Corsa dei Ceri, at Gubbio, Italy. 
The statue of Saint Ubaldo leads the Procession, followed by 
Ceri, topped with the statues of Saint George and Saint Anthony the Great.
Date: 2000.
This File: 29 April 2006.
User: Starlight.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.

The Basilica is the finishing-point for the annual Saint Ubaldo Day Procession on 15 May (in Italian, La Corsa dei Ceri). The Procession includes a race between three teams of men, each representing one of the Town's three Guilds:

The Masons (in Gold) with a statue of Saint Ubaldo;
The Merchants (in Blue) with a statue of Saint George;
The Peasants (in Black) with a statue of Saint Anthony.

The participants dress in colourful "Ceraioli" and carry three, nearly-900-pound, wooden stands and statues (Ceri) of their Saints through the City to the City Gates. Thereafter, the teams sprint up Mount Ingino to the Basilica, where the statues remain until the following May. A similar Festival is celebrated in Jessup, Pennsylvania, United States of America. The event is considered an important contribution to the Town's tourism industry.




English: The Courtyard of the Basilica of Sant'Ubaldo, Italy.
Italiano: Gubbio - Basilica di S. Ubaldo.
Gubbio, Umbria, Italy.
Photo: August 2009.
Source: Own work.
Author: Geobia.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Ubaldo of Gubbio (Italian: Ubaldo; Latin: Ubaldus; French: Ubalde; circa 1084–1160) was a Mediaeval Bishop of Gubbio, in Umbria, today Venerated as a Saint by The Catholic Church. Saint Ubaldo Day is still Celebrated at the Basilica of Sant'Ubaldo, in Gubbio, in his honour, as well as at Jessup, Pennsylvania.

Born Ubaldo Baldassini, of noble parents, at Gubbio, Italy, Ubaldo lost his father while still very young. He was educated by the Prior of the Cathedral Church of his native City, where he also became a Canon Regular. Saint Sperandia was a relative of Ubaldo.

He felt a Vocation to become a Monk, and entered the Monastery of Saint Secondo in the same City, where he remained for some years. Recalled by his Bishop, he returned to the Cathedral Monastery, where he was made Prior. Having heard that, at Vienna, Blessed Peter de Honestis, some years before, had established a very fervent Community of Canons Regular, to whom he had given special statutes which had been approved by Pope Paschal II, Ubaldo went there, remaining with his Brother Canons for three months, to learn the details and the practice of their rules, wishing to introduce them among his own Canons of Gubbio.




English: The Courtyard of the Basilica of Sant'Ubaldo, Italy.
Italiano: Gubbio - Basilica di S. Ubaldo,
Gubbio, Umbria, Italy.
Photo: August 2009.
Source: Own work.
Author: Geobia.
(Wikimedia Commons)

This he did at his return. He earned a reputation for piety, poverty (for all his rich patrimony, he had given to the poor and to the restoration of Monasteries), humility, mortification, meekness, and fervour, and the fame of his Holiness spread in the Country, and several Bishoprics were offered to him, but he refused them all.

Ubaldo is said to have prevented Frederick Barbarossa from sacking Gubbio, as the Emperor had sacked Spoleto in 1155.


However, the Episcopal See of Gubbio becoming vacant, he was sent, with some Clerics, by the population to ask for a new Bishop from Pope Honorius II, who, having Consecrated him, sent him back to Gubbio. To his people, he became a perfect pattern of all Christian virtues, and a powerful protector in all their Spiritual and Temporal needs.

He died after a long and painful illness of two years.




English: The glass sarcophagus of Saint Ubaldo, 
Basilica of Saint Ubaldo, 
Gubbio, Umbria, Italy.
Italiano: Gubbio - Urna con le spoglie di S. Ubaldo
(nella Basilica di S. Ubaldo).
Date: August 2009.
Source: Own work.
Author: Geobia.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Numerous Miracles were attributed to him during his life and after his death. At the solicitation of Bishop Bentivoglio, Pope Celestine III Canonised him in 1192. His power, as we read in The Office for his Feast, is chiefly manifested over the evil spirits, and The Faithful are instructed to have recourse to him "contra omnes diabolicas nequitias".

The Life of the Saint was written by Blessed Theobaldus (Theobald, Teobaldo), his immediate successor in the Episcopal See, and, from this source, is derived all the information given by his numerous biographers. The body of Ubaldo, which had at first been buried in the Cathedral Church by the Bishops of Perugia and Cagli, at the time of his Canonisation was found flexible and incorrupt, and was then placed in a small Oratory on the top of the hill overlooking the City, where, in 1508, at the wish of the Duke of Urbino, The Canons Regular built a Church, frequented by numerous Pilgrims, who come to visit the Relics.




English: Basilica of Saint Ubaldo, 
Gubbio, Umbria, Italy.
Italiano: Gubbio - Basilica di S. Ubaldo.
Date: August 2009.
Source: Own work.
Author: Geobia.
(Wikimedia Commons)

The Devotion to the Saint is very popular throughout Umbria, but especially at Gubbio, where, in every family, at least one member is called Ubaldo. The Feast of their Patron Saint is Celebrated by the inhabitants of the country around with great Solemnity, there being Religious and Civil Processions which call to mind the famous Festivities of The Middle Ages in Italy.

The Basilica of Sant'Ubaldo, with a Nave and four Aisles, is a Sanctuary atop Monte Ingino, just above the City. Noteworthy, are the Marble Altar and the Great Windows with episodes of The Life of Ubaldo. The finely-sculpted Portals and the fragmentary frescoes give a hint of the magnificent 15th-Century decoration once boasted by the Basilica.

Outside of Italy, a finger Relic of Ubald is Venerated in the Saint-Theobald Collegiate Church of Thann, Haut-Rhin (France).

Monday 15 May 2017

Saint John Baptist De La Salle. Confessor. Feast Day, Today, 15 May.


Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.

Saint John Baptist de la Salle.
   Confessor.
   Feast Day 15 May.


Double.

White Vestments.




John Baptist de la Salle.
This is the official portrait of Saint John Baptist de La Salle,
the Founder of 
The Brothers of The Christian Schools. It is by Pierre Leger

and has been designated 
as the official portrait of him for The Congregation.
Date: Unknown.
Source: The portrait is in the public domain and featured on the official website
of The Congregation, plus many other locations both in Print and on the Internet http://www.lasalle2.org/ClipArt/Iconog/icon5.jpg
Author: Pierre Leger.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Born at Reims, France, on 30 April 1651, of an illustrious family, Saint John Baptist de la Salle made himself, from childhood, dear to all by the virtues of his Soul, the gentleness of his nature and the keenness of his mind. He went to Paris to study Theology at The Sorbonne. At seventeen, he was a Canon of the Cathedral.

When he reached the Priesthood, he offered The Holy Sacrifice with fervent Faith and intense love; these never left him when he was at the Altar. God had raised him "to give a Christian education to the Poor and to confirm youths in the way of truth" (Collect). With this object in view, he Founded a new Religious Congregation which he called "Brothers of The Christian Schools" and which soon spread throughout the World.

Out of humility and out of love for poverty, he gave up his Canonry and gave all he had to the Poor (Epistle). "Inflamed with zeal for the salvation of Souls, he spent himself during his whole life," says The Breviary, "for their greatest good." Assiduously treating himself with rigour, in fastings, flagellations and other austerities, he passed the night in Prayer (Introit).


Such was his manner of life, until, remarkable for every virtue, especially for his obedience, his zeal for the accomplishment of The Divine Will, his love and devotion towards The Apostolic See, and loaded with merits, he fell asleep in The Lord, at Rouen, France, on Good Friday, 7 April 1719, at the age of sixty-eight."

After striving to pass his life in the most humble duties, by serving Jesus in little children (Gospel), he was called to Heaven by The Divine Redeemer Whose Glory he shares, and Who still Blesses his work throughout the World.

"Let us burn with zeal like this Saint to procure The Glory of God by saving Souls, so that we may share his reward in Heaven" (Collect).

Another proper Mass is said in the Houses of The Brothers of Christian Schools.

Mass: Os justi.

Sacred Heart Novena Of Latin Masses.






Enrolment includes a Novena Mass Card.*

A Novena of Traditional Latin Masses, according to
The Extraordinary Form of The Roman Rite (1962 Roman Missal), will be offered in honour of The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus for all families and persons (living and deceased) Enrolled in The Novena.

The Nine Tridentine Masses will be offered at
The Priory of Our Lady of Ephesus
and will begin on 23 June, 
Solemnity of The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.


The suggested donation for Enrolment
in The Novena is $15, 
which includes an 
Enrolment Mass Card that will be sent
for the person(s) or intention(s) Enrolled.

To Enrole Online, with Credit Card,

To print a Form,
and submit an Enrolment through The Mail, 

* N.B. If you make an Enrolment after 16 June,
the Novena Mass Card may not arrive before 23 June.


The Web-Site of
is HERE.
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