Defend marriage

The Other McCain is a protestant with a passel of kids and a saintly wife for putting up with him. But seriously why do we not hear this kind of thing from pulpit in the Catholic Church these days? Does it really take an evangelical to say it, Has the church become so secular that it no longer wants to tell the truth. Why is the church short of priests and sisters today? We are losing the high ground on birth control and marriage that's why, too much of Bernadine's seamless garment happy clappy crap, and CINOs such as the Kennedys and Pisslousy, look at all the Cinos in Washington, it's a damn disgrace

The Egyptian

‘Forbidding to Marry’

If you put something out with the trash . . . it’s not really yours anymore; you’ve relinquished your claim to it. And that’s exactly what we’ve done with marriage. We might as well let gays have it. We’re not using it. . . .

And for my fellow Christian conservatives: we haven’t got a moral leg to stand on. Our divorce rate is identical to the national average.

Well, to repeat the punchline of an old joke, “What do you mean, ‘we,’ Kemosabe?” As of next Monday, I will have been married to the same woman for 20 years. My lovely and long-suffering wife deserves almost all the credit for that achievement, of course, but I have at least been present for the occasion.

Most of what you have written about the marriage crisis is, of course, right on target, especially when you say that Christian churches “fail to create a culture of marriage in our youth and twenty-somethings.” But, as with your statistical generalization about the failure of “we,” I fear that you are missing the trees for the forest on this issue. What has happened, it seems to me, is that everybody’s sitting around moaning about “society” and “the culture,” rather than seeking to intervene directly and personally to make a difference in the lives of those closest to them.

For me, being pro-marriage, pro-family and pro-life is more than a political position. My wife and I have six kids ranging from age 5 to 19, and you can imagine how challenging this has been on a journalist’s pay. (Never mind a blogger’s pay.) But as my late father advised me long ago, “Son, if you wait to have kids until you can afford to have kids, you’ll never have kids.”

‘TWO AND TIE ‘EM’
Christians believe that marriage is an institution ordained by God, and every marriage is thus blessed. However, in ordaining marriage, God commanded man to “be fruitful and multiply.” This commandment has never been repealed or amended, no matter what any Malthusian population-control fanatic tries to tell you. One trend that has undermined marriage has been the rise of the Contraceptive Culture, which celebrates sterility as the norm and views fertility as a pathology requiring medical prevention.

How many Christians have embraced this false — dare I say, evil — worldview? How many young Christian married couples use contraception because “we can’t afford children now”? And how many married Christian couples have unwittingly subscribed to the Zero Population Growth ideal of exactly two children per couple? Did you know that surgical sterilization (tubal ligation) is the No. 1 form of birth control for American women? It’s the “two and tie ‘em” mentality: Have exactly two children, then get yourself surgically sterilized.

My wife and I encountered this mentality with our second pregnancy (our twin sons, who are now 16). During a prenatal examination, the obstetrician told my wife, “If you want me to perform a tubal at the time of delivery, it will be cheaper than if you want me to do it later, because the insurance will only have to pay for one hospitalization.” My wife came home in tears: “Am I an unfit mother? Why would he even suggest such a thing?” But millions of women across America not only accept such suggestions, they actively seek sterilization, viewing it as a liberation from the menace of pregnancy.

In this, many “Christian conservatives” seem entirely comfortable with being “conformed to this world,” slavishly following the secular trend. What one confronts is an attitude I call “middle classism”: The belief that the object of life is to accrue the symbols of middle-class status (college education, office job, new cars, home in the suburbs, vacation travel) and to ensure that one’s children accumulate the same symbols.

A SHOCKING CHOICE
Life without these symbols is deemed unworthy — “underprivileged” — and many parents who consider themselves Christian conservatives strongly caution their children against early marriage and early parenthood, since these are perceived as obstacles to obtaining middle-classness. If a 19-year-old returns from her freshman year at college to announce that she is a lesbian, her Christian conservative parents may not approve, but they will still love and cherish their child. Let the same 19-year-old announce that she’s marrying her boyfriend and dropping out of school to start a family, and this would drive her Christian conservative parents to the verge of suicidal grief: “You’re ruining your life!”

What is the result of this attitude? I wrote about it a decade ago:

Fact: In 1960, the median age at first marriage for U.S. women was 20. Today, it´s 25. For men, the median age at first marriage has gone from 22 in 1960 to 27 today. Yet researchers report that the average young American today first has sexual intercourse at age 17 or 18.
Judging from these statistics, then, most young people in this country will be “sexually active” . . . for eight to 10 years before marrying. If that is true, what future can there be for the politics of “family values”? . . .
If young Americans are less likely to marry than Americans of a generation ago, they are also less likely to become parents.
Overall, U.S. fertility rates have declined by 43.6 percent since 1960 and like the marriage trends this decline is most pronounced among the young. The birth rate for women aged 20-24 decreased 56.5 percent between 1960 and 2000, according to the Census Bureau. For all the outcry over America´s “teen pregnancy crisis,” the teen birth rate is now 34.7 percent lower than it was in the final year of the Eisenhower administration.

This trend away from marriage and parenthood has not been opposed or condemned by Christian leaders, who are afraid to offend their congregations. Many evangelical Christians like to talk about “stepping out on faith,” even while they live an existence carefully calculated toward attainment of upwardly-mobile middle-classness. Thus, at noon on Sunday, they get into one of their 2.4 cars and drive home from their suburban mega-church to their cul-de-sac development, to their 4BR/5BA house with 1.7 children. And then they wonder why they don’t feel particularly “spiritual.”

Too many people who consider themselves Christian conservatives are disobedient to God’s commandments, yet idolatrously reverent toward the conventions of a middle-class lifestyle. Their true religion is the Theology of Niceness: Get a nice job so you can live in a nice neighborhood with nice schools for your nice children who will wear nice clothes when you drive them in your nice car to play with their nice friends. Everything all neat and tidy, you see? Hard for the Duggars and their 18 children to live nice like that. Yet they work hard and have faith in God, and somehow they don’t all starve to death.

Thou shalt go to college is the first commandment of middle-classness, and the lifestyle idolators don’t consider how this inflexible attitude contributes to the flourishing of adolescent fornication. It’s very good to tell young teens that they should save sex for marriage, but . . . well, how soon can they get married?

“Oh, you’ll have to go to college, start a career and become financially stable first.” And the 13- or 14-year-old does the math and thinks, “Twenty-five? 26? 27? You’re freaking kidding me! That’s like a zillion years in the future! I’ll be practically 30 by that time!” The prospect of an (honestly) white wedding being dangled off in the distant future has a profoundly demoralizing effect on kids. As a result, every church youth leader can tell you stories about the 17-year-old girl who got pregnant after her boyfriend convinced her that “it’s not wrong if we really love each other.” (It’s the oldest line in the book, girls.)

THE DEATH OF ROMANCE
This is why pop songs no longer feature promises of “endless love” and “always and forever.” In 1971, the protagonist of the Temptations’ hit “Just My Imagination” saw a beautiful girl walk past and dreamed:

Soon we’ll be married
And raise a family.
In a cozy little home out in the country
With two children, maybe three.

If such visions of wedded bliss occupy no part of the youthful imagination today, why not? Perhaps because children are indoctrinated to believe that marriage is strictly for grown-ups — heaven forbid an 18-year-old boy should get a job, marry his high-school sweetheart, and start their life together in a tiny little basement apartment. What about college? What about your career? What about the upwardly-mobile ambitions of middle-classness?

If this status idolatry isn’t anti-marriage, what is it? I’m reminded of the fourth chapter of Timothy:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry . . .

Myself, I try to actively encourage marriage for young people. I’m a relentless matchmaker, and as soon as I see young folks pairing up as boyfriend and girlfriend, I start asking, “When’s the wedding?” (And once they’re married, “When’s the baby due?”) Instead of sitting around waiting for somebody’s legislative agenda, I’m “pro-family” in the most direct, personal way possible.

If young Christian conservatives want to be “pro-family,” then, they need to be getting married and having babies. And what a youth rebellion that would be, huh? “No, mother, I’ve decided against law school. As a matter of fact, Jennifer and I went to the courthouse and got married last Saturday and . . .” Strange to say that the most shocking thing a young person can do in 2009 is to get married. They can change the world one “I do” at a time.

UPDATE: Is this a harmonic convergence or what? While I was writing this, it appears that Laura was updating her post to link my American Spectator column, “Marriage: A Hill to Die On.”

UPDATE II:In the comments at my blog, father-of-five Larry says:

I cannot count the number of times we have been unintentionally insulted by well meaning, self-identified Christians, asking if we know what causes that (pregnancy) . . .

To which I always answer, “Yes, and we’re very good at it.” That shuts ‘em up quick.

In the comments here, meanwhile, Feel of Shadows calls our attention to an article in First Things outlining the role of the decline of the family in the economic crisis:

America’s population has risen from 200 million to 300 million since 1970, while the total number of two-parent families with children is the same today as it was when Richard Nixon took office, at 25 million. In 1973, the United States had 36 million housing units with three or more bedrooms, not many more than the number of two-parent families with children—which means that the supply of family homes was roughly in line with the number of families. By 2005, the number of housing units with three or more bedrooms had doubled to 72 million, though America had the same number of two-parent families with children.
The number of two-parent families with children, the kind of household that requires and can afford a large home, has remained essentially stagnant since 1963, according to the Census Bureau. Between 1963 and 2005, to be sure, the total number of what the Census Bureau categorizes as families grew from 47 million to 77 million. But most of the increase is due to families without children, including what are sometimes rather strangely called “one-person families.”
In place of traditional two-parent families with children, America has seen enormous growth in one-parent families and childless families. The number of one-parent families with children has tripled. Dependent children formed half the U.S. population in 1960, and they add up to only 30 percent today. The dependent elderly doubled as a proportion of the population, from 15 percent in 1960 to 30 percent today.

BTW, we should not neglect to mention that, in myriad ways, government policies have incentivized the decline of the traditional family. Beginning in the 1960s, federal money paid for “family planning” services, numerous welfare programs that fostered unwed motherhood, and policies that tended to destroy the kinds of neighborhoods where young families once got their start.

gratitude for this wondrous day

As you wish Patrick, I have posted and I pray

The Egyptian

Join The Non Nobis Network

I want you to do something, so please read this entire post.

For many, I suppose that the true meaning of last week's events has yet to sink in. For the last few days as I pondered the meaning of the arguably miraculous turn of events, I am overwhelmed with gratitude.

As we approached the birthday of Our Lord, pro-lifers in the U.S. reluctantly realized that this momentous battle in the war on life was likely lost. The opposition had overwhelming superiority in numbers and a steely determination to institute a universal health-care regime that funds abortion. We, along with many other concerned citizens of various stripes, protested, marched, attended townhalls, lobbied, and prayed, seemingly to no avail. The Senate had passed, in complicity with ostensibly pro-life Senators, its version of the bill with its thinly disguised abortion on demand funding.

The passage of the Senate bill signaled what seemed to many, the end of the fight. Democrats huddled to hammer out any compromises necessary to achieve final passage of the bill. We watched in dismay as every day inched closer to the compromise that would seal the deal and put the bill on the desk of the President in time for the State of the Union. We had lost, there was nothing more we could do, but pray.

But God had other plans.

In a way that seemed almost impossible, the entire battle has turned. I need not go into detail here, you all know the story. We understand that the war on life is far from over, but today, at least for a while, by the grace of God, we have avoided institutionalized and tax-payer funded abortion. There will be other battles and perhaps they will be very soon, but it is incumbent upon all of us to acknowledge the great miracle that we have witnessed and to thank God for delivering us from this evil.

So what I propose is that we Catholic, Christian, and pro-life bloggers everywhere give thanks to God by way publishing the Non Nobis in gratitude for this wondrous day.

Non nobis, non nobis, Domine
Sed nomini tuo da gloriam.

Not to us, not to us, o Lord,
But to your name give glory.

I ask that any blogger interested in showing their gratitude for this victory, print the Non Nobis. I will also encourage you to also link or show your favorite version of the Non nobis. Mine is the scene from Henry V after the battle of Agincourt.



Giving Thanks!

Missouri bishop blames ‘mentality of sterility’ for crisis in family life

Finally some one with the hangy down things to come out and say it in plain english.
Good work Bishop,
God Bless
the Egyptian

Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau James V. Johnston

St. Louis, Mo., Oct 8, 2009 / 03:25 am (CNA).- A Missouri bishop has decried a “mentality of sterility,” naming it as a main factor in the present crisis of family life. He predicted that the renewal of the family and the Church would take place only when Catholics rediscover their “call to fruitfulness.”

Speaking at a Sept. 26 workshop for the assembly of the Missouri Catholic Conference, Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau James V. Johnston said that all love “tends toward an incarnation” and requires the “daily cultivation of the soul” in holiness.

“It is a call that we must respond to anew each day to God’s question, ‘Where are you?’”

According to the St. Louis Review, the bishop said family life is now in crisis because it is formed in a mentality of sterility. He compared contraception within marriage as the “sacrament” of this attitude.

Family life, the culture and the Church will only be renewed when the “domestic church” rediscovers “its call to fruitfulness at every level.”

In comments after his speech, Bishop Johnston said the Church can save the world by starting with the family. True love, freely given and unconditional, faithful to the end and fruitful, is revealed by Jesus on the Cross.

The bishop noted that in many dioceses the number of sacramental marriages is decreasing even as the numbers of Catholics increase.

But marriage and family is where a Christian “learns the discipleship of Christ and learns to say yes to God.”

Other topics at the Conference assembly included workshops on poverty, school choice, immigration, social networking, saving Catholic schools, pro-life legislators and Missouri’s response to the economic downturn, the St. Louis Review reports.

The assembly also honored five Missourians for promoting the common good. They included Cindy Finney of Mary Queen of Peace Parish in Webster Groves, a founder of First Friends of Immigrants and Refugees. She was given the Citizen Recognition Award for her work helping immigrants and refugees.

Copyright @ CNA
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com)

Return to Tradition or the Hippies are pushing up Daisies

New Nuns and Priests Seen Opting for Tradition

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

A new study of Roman Catholic nuns and priests in the United States shows that an aging, predominantly white generation is being succeeded by a smaller group of more racially and ethnically diverse recruits who are attracted to the religious orders that practice traditional prayer rituals and wear habits.

The study found that the graying of American nuns and priests was even more pronounced than many Catholics had realized. Ninety-one percent of nuns and 75 percent of priests are 60 or older, and most of the rest are at least 50.

They are the generation defined by the Second Vatican Council, of the 1960s, which modernized the church and many of its religious orders. Many nuns gave up their habits, moved out of convents, earned higher educational degrees and went to work in the professions and in community service. The study confirms what has long been suspected: that these more modern religious orders are attracting the fewest new members.

The study was already well under way when the Vatican announced this year that it was conducting two investigations of American nuns. One, taking up many of the same questions as the new report, is an “apostolic visitation” of all women’s religious orders in the United States. The other is a doctrinal investigation of the umbrella group that represents a majority of American nuns, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

The new study, being released on Tuesday, was conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, for the National Religious Vocation Conference, which is looking for ways for the church to attract and retain new nuns and priests. It was financed by an anonymous donor.

“We’ve heard anecdotally that the youngest people coming to religious life are distinctive, and they really are,” said Sister Mary Bendyna, executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. “They’re more attracted to a traditional style of religious life, where there is community living, common prayer, having Mass together, praying the Liturgy of the Hours together. They are much more likely to say fidelity to the church is important to them. And they really are looking for communities where members wear habits.”

Of the new priests and nuns who recently joined religious orders, two-thirds chose orders that wear a habit all the time or regularly during prayer or ministry, the study found.

The study also showed that whites account for 94 percent of current nuns and priests but only 58 percent of those in the process of joining orders.

Asians and Pacific Islanders are disproportionately represented among the newcomers, accounting for 14 percent, far above their 3 percent share of the Catholic population in the United States, Sister Bendyna said.

Hispanics are 21 percent of the newcomers, compared with only 3 percent of the current priests and nuns.

Of women who recently entered religious orders, the average age is 32; for men, it is 30. But retaining new recruits is a challenge. About half of those who have entered religious orders since 1990 have not stayed, and almost all who left did so before making their final vows.

“People come to religious life because they feel they’re being called,” said Brother Paul Bednarczyk, executive director of the National Religious Vocation Conference, adding that the purpose of the church’s training process “is to discern that call before a commitment is made.” So “it’s not surprising,” he said, “that you would have people that would leave.”

Ben Stein, I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late ! !

This is ecumenicalism that is real and from the heart, not some dressed up crap put on by "Religious Leaders for show" Ben has always been a class act

The Egyptian

Remarks from CBS Sunday Morning - Ben Stein
I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late ! !

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday
Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does
not bother me even a little bit when people
call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't
feel threatened... I don't feel discriminated
against.. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I
don't think they are slighting me or getting
ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it.

It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time
of year. It doesn't bother me at all that
there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach
house in Malibu . If people want a creche,
it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think
Christians like getting pushed around for being
Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of
getting pushed around, period. I have no idea
where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country.
I can't find it in the Constitution and I
don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we
should worship celebrities and we aren't
allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that
I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of
us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the
America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a
little different: This is not intended to be
a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson
asked her 'How could God let something like
this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely
profound and insightful response. She
said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for
years we've been telling God to get out of
our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And
being the gentleman He is, I believe He
has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and
His protection if we demand He leave us
alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.. I
think it started when Madeleine Murray
O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she
didn't want prayer in our schools, and we
said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The
Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt
not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself... And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they
misbehave, because their little personalities
would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son
committed suicide). We said an expert should
know what he's talking about. And we said okay..

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they
don't know right from wrong, and why it
doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.
I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE
REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the
world's going to hell. Funny how we believe
what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you
can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they
spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the
Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny
how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through
cyberspace, but public discussion of God is
suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on
your address list because you're not sure
what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it...

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than
what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you
discard this thought process, don't sit back
and complain about what bad shape the world is in.


My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

What we are Missing

After the last post with the pita bread in a barbecue tongs benediction farce I thought this was appropriate, swiped with love and admiration, from the Cavemen, crap you guys are great!!!

Vatican II "Springtime" Update: True Mass or New Mass?

I know that this post will truly piss off many Conservative "John Paul II-We love you" type Catholics. But I figured, what the heck? Why not start the week off right!

TRUE MASS

NEW MASS

Does God Exist, Religion is knowledge, too

New Moment New Ideas Company TV commercial for the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, Ministry of Education and Science. Social campaign (series of commercials) aimed at promoting education.

Headline of commercial: Religion is knowledge, too. Bringing religion back to school. Headline of campaign: Knowledge is power.

A Return to Tradition is our only Hope

Even Sarah Palin, an evangelical PROTESTANT, gets it, but 4/5ths of our own bishops don't, this is the fruits of Vatican II, lukewarm teaching from bishops and clergy who are more interested in "innovation in liturgy" social justice, and being trendy. I am now more convinced than ever that Pope Benedict is correct, the only hope is a return to tradition in Catholic education and worship, if we lose some of the trendy "catholics in name only", including some priests, so much the better. Satan has done his job, splitting the Catholic Church from within, just as Mary predicted.
God have mercy on the souls of Fr Jenkins and weak kneed Bishops and clergy in the US

The Egyptian

From Gateway Pundit

Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, a strong pro-life advocate, weighed in on the issue with me by e-mail:

“My favorite grandpa, Clem James Sheeran, was Catholic. Irish to the core, his favorite place (other than church) was Notre Dame. I can’t imagine what he would think as the university recognizes someone who contradicts the core values of the Catholic faith by promoting an anti-life agenda. As we learned today, our nation is more pro-life than ever before; it is a very important time to strengthen the message that every baby is created for good purpose and has the potential to make this world a better place.”

While Palin understands this battle is about a fundamental value, Obama supporters trivialize it by suggesting it is about opening a dialogue with people of opposing views. Despite their belittling, this outrage is well deserved. By bestowing the degree on President Pro-Choice, a message is conveyed that he is a role model, someone deserving of recognition in the eyes of the university. Jenkins even said he is an inspiring leader.

No wonder they hate her so much.

Cure for the Obama Hangover

Here is my favorite Evangelical Preacher, Doug Giles, yes he is rough but but hits the point with sledgehammer, yes this is a Catholic blog, but in the spirit of Vatican 2, here he is

Newt Nails It

How can a new convert get the idea and Priests, Bishops and life long Catholics not? Newt has a great idea, instead of protesting at ND, give a listen

The Egyptian

FSSP gets it right and takes the Holy Fathers back

from Ulster Taig

At least some one has the hangy down things to stand up and defend the Holy Father and expose the truth, mark up another one for the Traditionalists, all the libs are too busy worrying about peace and justice to see ( or care) that their General is being attacked, popularity is more important than reality, lets all just hug and kiss and it'll all get better, Bullcrap !!!!

The Egyptian

Friday, March 20, 2009

FSSP France responds to politicians

In response to the recent attacks on Pope Benedict for his recent restatement of Catholic doctrine on condoms, the French District of the Fraternity of St Peter has issued a robust defence of the Holy Father and the reasoning behind his approach to AIDS prevention:

During the first prevention campaigns against AIDS, one of repeated slogans assured: "The condom protects against everything, everything except love".

By daring to say that the condom is not a solution but that it may even aggravate the spread of the problem, the Pope has simply told the truth.

It is recognized that when it comes to the subject of contraception, condoms are far from being 100% effective. How could they then then be a barrier against AIDS?

It is criminal to believe that the use of condoms truly protects against contamination. How many of our young people have fallen into the disease when they believed they were being protected "against everything, everything except love". Would they have adopted the same behaviour if they'd known that the condom only diminishes the risks of contamination during sexual intercourse? If they had understand the repetition of so-called protected experiences was nothing other than a form of 'Russian Roulette'?

French politicians before howling with the wolves against Benedict XVI should remember the blood contamination scandal: at that time the public authorities closed their eyes in knowing of a marginal risk of infection. But after this marginal risk, there were a good number of people dead.

In the face of a risk of being poisoned to death or transmit the cause of death, the only responsible discourse is the one that tells the truth, all the truth, that does not hide the risks and which remembers that only abstinence and fidelity are the only ways of fighting AIDS. In an era where one glosses so much on the 'precautionary principle' in the context of supposed nuisances for public health, should that not also apply in a case as serious as AIDS?

One ought not play with the lives of men. One ought not create a false sentiment of security by deceptive propaganda which trains people to adopt an ultimately suicidal as 'at risk'. One ought not play with moral and physical health of young people who totally ignore the shortcomings of condoms. On the contrary, one must educate them with a sense of responsibility.

If tomorrow the victims of AIDS who had contracted it through the use of condoms turn against the Ministry of Health, that would only be fair.

Those who lecture the Pope should be wary of a possible 'boomerang' effect of their murder charge.

Contraceptives and the Economic Collapse

I am a hopeless cut and pastier, but when I read such articles as these, so much better than I could write, I feel that I must do so, Fr Dwight Longnecker really nails it this time, I am posting his latest two posts together, they compliment each other too well to not do so.

The Egyptian

Contraceptives and the Economic Collapse


Everything is connected and it may sound absurd to link contraception with the economic collapse, but think about it:

History will look back and decide that artificial contraception was the most radical and earth shattering invention ever devised by mankind. When the link between the sexual act and procreation was broken it not only changed our sexual behavior, it changed everything.

Most importantly, it changed the way we think about ourselves and our actions. The links between our actions and their natural consequences were broken. We began to expect that we could have whatever pleasure we wanted when we wanted and how we wanted and that we could avoid all the consequences of those actions. In sexual behavior it seemed to be so.

We became gods. We could do anything and have anything and we could avoid the cost. Extrapolate this mentality to the economic sphere and you'll see what I mean. We told ourselves that we could have anything we wanted instantly simply by taking out another loan. If we were the lenders, we insured ourselves against loss in case those loans were not re paid.

The responsibility could always be shifted. The 'problem' could always be solved. Paying the price could always be delayed. We could just re-finance. Just as we got instant sexual gratification for free, so we thought we should have everything else instantly for free.

How different our mentalities would be if we still understood that every time a man and woman come together a baby might be made. If we lived that way we would have to grow up and be more sober about all things. We would have to take responsibility, and if we did not the consequences would meet us very soon.

Instead we have become a society of spoiled brats. Stamping our feet and demanding instant gratification and entertainment and pleasure, and believing that somebody else somewhere will pick up the tab.

Where did it come from? I realize the causes are complex, but a contributing factor is artificial contraception which changed the way we think and respond at a very profound level.


UK Teens having Abortions Soar

Saturday, February 28, 2009
UK Teens having Abortions Soar
This article from the Daily Telegraph records the soaring rate of teen pregnancies in the UK. They have the highest rate of teenage girls getting pregnant in the developed world, and half of them now end by killing the baby.

The pro aborts actually say publicly that the 50% abortion rate is a good thing because the stigma of abortion is being lifted. Meanwhile the government ministers admit that the trend is 'disturbing' and believe the solution is yet more explicit sex education, more free condoms and other contraceptives.

It's madness: Keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. "Oh. Throwing that gas on the fire didn't make it go out!! I guess we didn't throw enough. Let's get that big barrel of gas over there and throw that on."

Even accepting the premise that contraceptives are ok (which I don't) the whole scheme is just about as stupid as stupid can be. Do these people not understand what it is like to be a teenager? Haven't they read all the studies that explain how the male teen mind does not have the chemicals to adequately connect actions with consequences?

It was summed up by a friend of mine, "Geesh, my teenaged son can't even put his socks in the laundry basket when he takes them off. Does anybody think he will remember to put on a doodad before jumping in the sack? Once he and the girl have had a couple of drinks the idea of responsibility is totally out the window

A key Vatican official has called for "bold and courageous" decisions to address liturgical abuses that have arisen since the reforms of Vatican II.

Finally maybe we can get somewhere with the reform of the reform, Pray for the Archbishop and the Holy Father, Satan and the Liberal Sandalnistas will not approve and will fight all the way. Made the mistake of proposing a Latin Mass at a meeting around here and was lucky to leave with my head and arse still attached, we have a long way to go

The Egyptian



Feb. 23, 2009 (CWNews.com) -

Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, the secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, cites a flawed understanding of Vatican II teachings and the influence of secular ideologies are reasons to conclude that-- as then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said in 1985-- "the true time of Vatican II has not yet come." Particularly in the realm of the liturgy, Archbishop Ranjith says, "The reform has to go on."

Archbishop Ranjith, who was called to the Vatican personally by Pope Benedict to serve as a papal ally in the quest to restore a sense of reverence in the liturgy, makes his comments in the Foreword to a new book based on the diaries and notes of Cardinal Fernando Antonelli, who was a key figure in the liturgical-reform movement both before and after Vatican II.

The writings of Cardinal Antonelli, Archbishop Ranjith says, help the reader "to understand the complex inner workings of the liturgical reform prior to an immediately following the Council." The Vatican official concludes that implementation of the Council's suggested reforms often veered away from the actual intent of the Council fathers. As a result, Archbishop Ranjith concludes, the liturgy today is not a true realization of the vision put forward in the key liturgical document of Vatican II, Sacrosanctum Concilium (doc).

Specifically, Archbishop Ranjith writes:

Some practices which Sacrosanctum Concilium had never even contemplated were allowed into the Liturgy, like Mass versus populum, Holy Communion in the hand, altogether giving up on the Latin and Gregorian Chant in favor of the vernacular and songs and hymns without much space for God, and extension beyond any reasonable limits of the faculty to concelebrate at Holy Mass. There was also the gross misinterpretation of the principle of "active participation."

The Sri Lankan prelate argues that it in order to carry out a "reform of the reform," it is essential to recognize how the liturgical vision of Vatican lI became distorted. He praises the book on Cardinal Antonelli for allowing the reader to gain a better understanding of "which figures or attitudes caused the present situation." This, the archbishop says, is an inquiry "which, in the name of truth, we cannot abandon."

While acknowledging "the turbulent mood of the years that immediately followed the Council," Archbishop Ranjith reminds readers that in summoning the world's bishops to an ecumenical council, Blessed John XXIII intended "a fortification of the faith." The Council, in the eyes of Pope John, was "certainly not a call to go along with the spirit of the times."

However, he continues, the Council took place at a time of great worldwide intellectual turmoil, and in its aftermath especially, many would-be interpreters saw the event as a break from the prior traditions of the Church. As Archbishop Ranjith puts it:

Basic concepts and themes like Sacrifice and Redemption, Mission, Proclamation and Conversion, Adoration as an integral element of Communion, and the need of the Church for salvation--all were sidelined, while Dialogue, Inculturation, Ecumenism, Eucharist-as-Banquet, Evangelization-as-Witness, etc., became more important. Absolute values were disdained.

Even in the work of the Consilium, the Vatican agency assigned to implement liturgical changes, these influences were clearly felt, the archbishop notes:

An exaggerated sense of antiquarianism, anthopologism, confusion of roles between the ordained and the non-ordained, a limitless provision of space for experimentation-- and indeed, the tendency to look down upon some aspects of the development of the Liturgy in the second millennium-- were increasingly visible among certain liturgical schools.

Today, Archbishop Ranjith writes, the Church can look back and recognize the influences that distorted the original intent of the Council. That recognition, he says, should "help us to be courageous in improving or changing that which was erroneously introduced and which appears to be incompatible with the true dignity of the Liturgy." A much-needed "reform of the reform," he argues, should be inspired by "not merely a desire to correct past mistakes but much more the need to be true to what the Liturgy in fact is and means to us and what the Council itself defined it to be."

Archbishop Ranjith's 10-page Foreword appears in the English-language edition of a book entitled True Development of the Liturgy is written by Msgr. Nicola Giampietro, who serves on the staff of the Congregation for Divine Worship. It will be available in September from Roman Catholic Books.

A Rabbi Who Gets IT,

A Rabbi who gets "it" Vat II happy clappy crap is the problem and the SSPX is part of the solution, with Fr Zs commentary in red, from Romish Internet Graffiti ,via Fr Z at WDTPRS

Is Rabbi Levin Papabile?

February 12, 2009 by Scott W.

By Hilary White, Rome correspondent
Wednesday February 11, 2009

ROME, February 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The dissident, leftist movement in the Catholic Church over the last forty years has severely undermined the teaching of the Catholic Church on the moral teachings on life and family, [fantastic!] a prominent US Orthodox rabbi told LifeSiteNews.com. Rabbi Yehuda Levin, the head of a group of 800 Orthodox rabbis in the US and Canada, also dismissed the accusations that the Holy See had not sufficiently distanced itself from the comments made by Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) on the Holocaust.

“I support this move” to reconcile the traditionalist faction in the Church, he said, “because I understand the big picture, which is that the Catholic Church has a problem. There is a strong left wing of the Church that is doing immeasurable harm to the faith.” [Peter was Jewish. Can Rabbi Levin be Pope after Pope Benedict? Maybe 20 years from now?]

Rabbi Levin said that he understands “perfectly” why the reconciliation is vital to the fight against abortion and the homosexualist movement. [The man-centered view of the left detaches morals from reality.]

“I understand that it is very important to fill the pews of the Catholic Church not with cultural Catholics and left-wingers who are helping to destroy the Catholic Church and corrupt the values of the Catholic Church.” This corruption, he said, “has a trickle-down effect to every single religious community in the world.” [What an admission!]

“What’s the Pope doing? He’s trying to bring the traditionalists back in because they have a lot of very important things to contribute the commonweal of Catholicism. [YES YES YES!]

“Now, if in the process, he inadvertently includes someone who is prominent in the traditionalist movement who happens to say very strange things about the Holocaust, is that a reason to throw out the baby with the bathwater and start to condemn Pope Benedict? Absolutely not.”

During a visit to Rome at the end of January, Rabbi Levin told LifeSiteNews.com that he believes the media furore over the lifting of the excommunications of the four bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X is a red herring. He called “ridiculous” the accusations that in doing so Pope Benedict VXI or the Catholic Church are anti-Semitic and described as “very strong” the statements distancing the Holy See and the Pope from Williamson’s comments.

Rabbi Levin was in Rome holding meetings with high level Vatican officials to propose what he called a “new stream of thinking” for the Church’s inter-religious dialogue, one based on commonly held moral teachings, particularly on the right to life and the sanctity of natural marriage.

“The most important issue,” he said, is the work the Church is doing “to save babies from abortion, and save children’s minds, and young people’s minds, helping them to know right and wrong on the life and family issues.”

“That’s where ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue has to go.”

Although numbers are difficult to determine, it is estimated that the Society of St. Pius X has over a million followers worldwide. The traditionalist movement in the Catholic Church is noted for doctrinal orthodoxy and enthusiasm not only for old-fashioned devotional practices, but for the Church’s moral teachings and opposition to post-modern secularist sexual mores. [And this is why progressivists will fight their reintegration in the mainstream Church.] Liberals in the Church, particularly in Europe, have bitterly opposed all overtures to the SSPX and other traditionalists, particularly the Pope’s recent permission to revive the traditional Latin Mass. [The TLM is the monster under their bed.]

The Vatican announced in early January that, as part of ongoing efforts to reconcile the breakaway group, the 1988 decree of excommunication against the Society had been rescinded. Later that month, a Swedish television station aired an interview, recorded in November 2008, in which Bishop Richard Williamson, one of the four leaders of the Society, said that he did not believe that six million Jews were killed in the Nazi death camps during World War II.

At that time, the media erupted with protests and accusations that the Catholic Church, and especially Pope Benedict XVI, are anti-Semitic.

Rabbi Levin particularly defended Pope Benedict, saying he is the genius behind the moves of the late Pope John Paul II to reconcile the Church with the Jewish community. [HO HO! The libs aren’t going to like that suggestion! They will attack the Rabbi especially on this point, suggesting that it was all JP II and had nothing to do with Card. Ratzinger… who is German, btw.]

“Anyone who understands and follows Vatican history knows that in the last three decades, one of the moral and intellectual underpinnings of the papacy of Pope John Paul II, was Cardinal Ratzinger.

“And therefore, a lot of the things that Pope John Paul did vis-à-vis the Holocaust, he [Benedict] might have done himself, whether it was visiting Auschwitz or visiting and speaking in the synagogues or asking forgiveness. A lot of this had direct input from Cardinal Ratzinger. Whoever doesn’t understand this doesn’t realise that this man, Pope Benedict XVI, has a decades-long track record of anti-Nazism and sympathy for the Jews.”

Source of orginal story: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09021112.html

Blunt, and to the point

Wish he could preach around here so many need a slap in the face

From; Overheard in the Sacristy

By Fr LW Gonzales On February 8th, 2009

There are times when a comment to a post speaks for many. Here follows Vatican 2 Catholic’s comment to my post of His Holiness bearing the title: Viva Il papa! Viva!

This article is going to be very blunt right off the bat. In regards to the recent numerous attacks on Pope Benedict and the lifting of the excommunications of the SSPX the critical priests, bishops, cardinals who are pledged in obedience to the pope quite frankly need to shut up.

What a bunch of self righteous tradition hating intolerant bigots. Talk about showing one’s true colors. Way to be true to the Gospels and imitators of Christ by reaching out and welcoming back a million plus Catholic souls who have been isolated from the Church for over twenty years. Great pastoral work there boys! To be frank you critics of the Pope are as just as light headed as the rest of these media junkies who couldn’t get a Catholic thing right if the Pope himself educated them. If you think one
stupid bishop’s comments in an interview done last fall changes the stance of the Church’s teaching and the efforts that Pope Benedict has made through his entire life to work against anti-Semitism then your just as blind as the rest of them.

We’re really getting sick and tired of half ass Catholics who are more so in name than in deed attacking the Church and the person God Himself has appointed as the Vicar of Christ (in case you forgot your theology in your bureaucratic politics).

Hardly one of you has done a blasted thing to condemn the sex scandals and hold your fellow bishops or priests accountable.

Hardly any of you has followed the documents of the Council in regards to the liturgy and ecumenism. As far as many of us obedient and orthodox ‘novus ordo’ Catholics are concerned you’re just as disobedient and on the verge of schism as the SSPX.

We have traveled to at least 15 western countries world wide since the release of Redemptionis Sacramentum and have hardly seen any implementation of the document who your so called ‘beloved John Paul the Great’ mandated to be implemented immediately.

Half of you have been a bunch of cowards in following the teachings of the Church in regards to abortion, politicians and the reception of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist.

We haven’t seen any unified public condemnation for the widespread dissent in your seminaries and convents. But in some of your seminaries the frequent occuring of online use of pornographic materials and child porn in some cases doesn’t seem to be a concern to you.

The disregard for adherence to the teachings of Humanae Vitae and holding your priests accountable are completely out of line with your ‘vocation descriptions’.

Your lack of excommunications or corrections for Catholics and Catholic Universities who out rightly defy or deny almost every sexual teaching that the Church holds including the open declaration of many of your priests to support same sex unions and participation in gay events is frankly disgusting.

Many of you continue to do nothing in correcting and dealing with the many priests, nuns, and laity who openly defy and disobey the teachings of celibacy and woman’s ordinations.

The European bishops have done a great job at keeping up the Churches as museums but in Church attendance they have failed miserably which shows a lack of doing what a bishop is suppose to do, teach the faith.

The lack of excommunications for ‘Catholics who have endorsed or enabled the availability of same sex unions.

The Canadian Bishops have yet to rebuke the 200 plus religious orders who in 2007 generated a report full of dissent in teaching, discipline, sexuality, celibacy, homosexuality, divorce, and female ordination.

The Canadian Conference of Bishops still refuse to allow the Vatican to investigate whether the Winnipeg Statement contains schismatic claims.

And you bishops world wide continue to question the authority of the pope and the huge dilemma he has to fix because of your failings. Look to yourselves before you criticize and condemn others.

Wake up priests and bishops and do your jobs. The pope is doing an excellent job of getting the Catholic Church back on its feet and unifying all Christians back into the fold. And you stand there like a bunch of hypocrites criticizing your leader. Maybe if you started following His example in teaching, example especially in regards to Ecumenism and Liturgy you would see a change in the world in which you have allowed to become so corrupt with sin. And if you had been as obedient and tolerable as you
claim to be then you would have never allowed this situation to get to where its at. Stop pointing fingers at the Pope and start pointing them to God in prayer. Your lack of charity with both the Pope and the millions of Catholics who adhere to the authentic teachings of the Catholic Church is no
longer tolerable. Either wake up and deal with the crisis of faith that you have allowed to occur for the past 40 years or as John Paul told the liberal regimists in South America “Silencio” .

Just look at the simple comments from the Pope on the Media recently released asking us to use the media to proclaim the Gospel and instead you use it to create friction, division and attack your leader. This goes just as well for the Bishop Williams fellow as well. Great example from our leaders and teachers of the faith!

To be a member of the Catholic Church means you adhere to the teachings and the Magisterium, Not attack it! If you’re not with the Church then you are against the Church. It’s that simple. Not our words Jesus’. These internal attacks on the orthodoxy of the faith and the papacy need to end now! This
nonsense has been going on for 40 plus years and quite frankly its sinful. The Catholic Church is not an organization running a Public Relations campaign. The Catholic Faith is not an opinion it is a way of life. The faith is not a Catholic buffet either you accept it in fullness or get out. Why do you distract those who have chosen the Church as their way of life with your spiritual garbage. Why are you in the Church if you are not here to build it up. Why are you still here if you hate orthodoxy and the Church’s teachings.

The Catholic Church is the One True Church of Jesus Christ in which is concerned only with the salvation of all mankind. If that is not your mission within the Church to cooperate with God’s mission and save souls including the million plus members of the SSPX then as Vatican II says ‘You are neither of use to yourself or to the Church’. If you attack the Papacy you are attacking the Church. If you are attacking the Church you are attacking Jesus Himself. It’s really time for the Church’s members to stop attacking the Church and start building it up. Your are the body of Christ. You are the salt of the earth. You are commanded to save souls. You are told to preach the gospel. “I give you a new commandment love one another as I have loved you”

Socratic questioning applies in abortion debate

Story available at http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/02/07/features/life/24-socratic.txt?submitted=true

Published on Saturday, February 07, 2009.
Last modified on 2/7/2009 at 1:17 am

Socratic questioning applies in abortion debate

By MONTY CASEBOLT
For The Gazette

Socrates (born in 470 B.C.) was called the savior of Western civilization.

He realized that knowledge and virtue are inseparable; so much so that virtue could be defined as right knowledge. Right thinking and right doing can be distinguished from each other, but they can never be separated.

Therefore, Socrates realized that the death of truth would mean the death of virtue and that the death of virtue would spell the death of civilization. Without truth and virtue the only possible outcome is barbarianism.

Socrates used an analytical method by which he sought the logic of facts. For him the logic is what is left after the facts are exhausted.

"Beauty remains," he said, "after the rose fades."

Using the Socratic method of discerning truth is to ask provocative questions.

Let's allow the reverse order of this proven method from the "gadfly of Athens" to probe deeper into the moral logic that opposes abortion:

Claim: Don't interfere with abortion unless you're willing to adopt the unwanted infants.

Q: Is that like saying, "Don't interfere with wife-beating unless you are willing to marry the victimized woman?"

Claim: Every child has the right to be a wanted child.

Q: Is a person's value determined by another person's desire or evaluation? What if aged parents or discarded lovers are "unwanted"?

Claim: Every woman should be allowed freedom of choice.

Q: Is that like saying, "I wouldn't abuse a child or commit rape, but I will grant freedom of choice to others in these matters?

Claim: Every woman has the right to control her own body.

Q: Shouldn't it have been exercised earlier? Proof of no control?

Q: Since when does anyone have absolute right of control over his/her body? Police will limit if drunk, naked, contagious, etc.

Q: When another body is involved, aren't rights restricted? (as with rape, murder, etc.)

Claim: Termination of pregnancy, fetus, embryo, product of conception, etc.

Q: Don't labels often deceive? Why not "poisoned," "mutilated," "shredded," "killed"? (The newest proposal is to inject preborn babies with a lethal dose of potassium chloride, used to execute death row inmates, into the baby's heart so as to steer clear of the federal partial-birth abortion ban.)

Claim: Some communities reportedly have extended a warm welcome to the idea of housing abortion clinics.

Q: Where are the voices of those who so adamantly denounced ills committed against puppies and kittens, dogs and cats? We're talking human life now.

Claim: There are increasing numbers of clergy, politicians and citizens who state that abortion, gay marriage, and other cited moral ills are a matter of religious freedom.

Q: Could the words of the Roman philosopher and statesman, Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4? B.C. - 65 A.D.) be prophetic of this age in history, when he said that, when vice (an evil or wicked action) becomes a society's custom or accepted convention, it is almost impossible to remove?

Claim: This is a free country where people have the right to reject religious constraints and practice a new morality (such as sex while not married and the right to eradicate any unwanted consequences/pregnancy).

Q: Is there any truth to Ronald Reagan's quote, "If we ever forget that we are 'One Nation Under God,' then we will be one nation gone under?"

The Rev. Monty Casebolt leads the Livingston Bible Church.

The Faith & Values column appears regularly in the Saturday Life section of The Billings Gazette.




Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.

Boy the Libs will LOVE This

Remember, Papa Ratzinger helped write many of the documents of VII, even He says they were not viewed in the light of Tradition and have been used for erroneous purposes and ends

*NEWS FLASH! Vatican 2 is Not a Dogma of Faith

By Fr LW Gonzales On January 25th, 2009

What will the SSPX have to do?
“Vatican II is not a dogma of Faith,” Roman sources say

In her article on six questions related to the Decree which remitted the sanction of excommunication of the four bishops of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX), the Vatican correspondent for French newspaper La Croix (the Catholic-owned daily), Isabelle de Gaulmyn includes some well-known facts.

However, there is some new information in the text, which we present below.

1. Possible news conference by Cardinal Castrillón:

“This week, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, president of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, which is in charge of this reintegration, should explain it [the future possibilities] publicly to the press.”

2. Letter of Cardinal Bertone. Regarding the question on whether this “reintegration encompasses an acknowledgment of the teachings of Vatican II”, De Gaulmyn reveals that the decree was the object of a letter sent by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone, to Curial authorities:

“This is the whole problem. The decree published on Saturday does not speak of Vatican II, but it evokes indirectly the ‘problem posed at the origin’. Not more than, according to our information, the letter sent by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to the authorities of the Curia, in which he makes this gesture known.”

3. So, what about Vatican II? At least for the moment there does not seem to be any desire from those responsible for the discussions on the Vatican side to demand from the SSPX the express acceptance of one specific Council (the Second Vatican Council or, for instance, the First Lyon Council), since they may all be implicitly included in more generic expressions. In the words of De Gaulmyn:

“The refusal of the teachings of the Council is the true cause of the rupture of the Integrists. For the constitution of the Institute of the Good Shepherd [IBP] by former members of the Fraternity, in 2006, its members explicitly vowed ‘to have a positive attitude of study and communication with the Apostolic See, avoiding all controversy, (…) regarding certain points taught by the Second Vatican Council or regarding subsequent reforms of the liturgy and of the law, and which seem to us hardly reconcilable with Tradition.’

“Nothing of the sort this time, according to our sources: ‘Vatican II is not a dogma of faith’, they say. From the moment in which the bishops and priests of the Fraternity recognize the Church, and the Magisterium of the Pope, that will suffice as an implicit acknowledgment.”

At Least the Japanese Get It

And Pisslosie wants to stimulate the economy with more birth control? what an idiot.

(yes I did misspell her name ;>)

the Egyptian

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Even before one reaches the front door of Canon's headquarters in Tokyo, one can sense the virtual stampede of employees pouring out of the building exactly at 5:30 p.m.

Japan's birth rate of 1.34 is below the level needed to maintain the country's population.

In a country where 12-hour workdays are common, the electronics giant has taken to letting its employees leave early twice a week for a rather unusual reason: to encourage them to have more babies.

Japan is in the midst of an unprecedented recession, so corporations are being asked to work toward fixing another major problem: the country's low birthrate. Tell us what you think

At 1.34, the birthrate is well below the 2.0 needed to maintain Japan's population, according to the country's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Keidanren, Japan's largest business group, with 1,300 major international corporations as members, has issued a plea to its members to let workers go home early to spend time with their families and help Japan with its pressing social problem. Watch more on this story

One reason for the low birth rate is the 12-hour workday. But there are several other factors compounding the problem -- among them, the high cost of living, and social rigidity toward women and parenting.

In addition, Japan's population is aging at a faster pace than any other country in the world.

Analysts say the world's second-largest economy faces its greatest threat from its own social problems, rather than outside forces. And the country desperately needs to make some fixes to its current social and work structures, sociologists say.

The 5:30 p.m. lights-out program is one simple step toward helping address the population problem. It also has an added benefit: Amid the global economic downturn the company can slash overtime across the board twice a week.

"It's great that we can go home early and not feel ashamed," said employee Miwa Iwasaki.