To those who think they know more than God: Obey Him or you'll pay dearly! That's not a threat from us, that's from God Himself!

     In our local daily "rag" today - you know the secular daily newspaper - in the editorial page there were two columns that were on entirely different ends of the spectrum. One, by Los Angeles Times columnist Cal Thomas was right on target. Entitled "It's mourning time in America," he spoke of the moral fiber of our country, and how far we have fallen and are continuing to fall with the rash of immorality that permeates our land, fed through the media and encouraged by those who should know better - beginning with the President of the United States. Thomas cited what the prophet Hosea, also known as Osee, admonished the Israelites on - basically the same problems faced in the U.S. today only much worse in our times. He wrote the Lord's words, "Woe to them, they have strayed from Me! Ruin to them, they have sinned against Me! Though I wished to redeem them, they spoke lies against Me!" (Osee, 7: 13). Thomas likens the situation in America today to those times and, speaking of leaders, writes, "At the extremes, nations insensitive to their moral foundation get a Hitler or a Stalin. Short of dictatorship, they get sexually transmitted diseases, broken homes, abandoned children, overflowing prisons and dysfuncstional lives." He was of course talking about our country and the sorry excuse of leadership exhibited by Bill Clinton and his ilk in Washington. Thomas completes his excellent piece with the summation, "Hosea pronounced a verdict on another nation that lived like this: 'a people without understanding will come to ruin.' It's mourning time in America." Thomas is not the first nor the last to write about this or to pinpoint the problem. We have been reiterating this in our pages for years. Yet, rather than repenting, Clinton, the media, yeah even the people, flaunt their transgressions and approve of them - reflected in the highest popularity poll ever for Clinton. You figure it out. Thomas did by reminding us what President Ronald Reagan once said when asked what the people saw in him, "Would you laugh if I told you they see themselves?" Thomas points out that in the present administration "Bill Clinton reflects who we really are. To indict him is to indict ourselves. His is a mirror that reflects our darkened souls." No, Clinton has proved he is no moral leader, but he is leading us...leading us to the abyss as the Hidden Flower of the Immaculate Heart was warned numerous times in messages since 1992. One message Our Lady likened our country to a runaway train with Clinton as the engineer as the train careened at breakneck speed toward the abyss. Another occurred on the night he was elected when the bells rang out. Our Lord told Cyndi, "You hear the bells? They toll for thee. Woe to America." Yes, it truly is mourning time in America because we have failed to obey God's laws, failed to admonish those who transgress against Him, failed to realize only God has the answers and man's agenda is doomed to failure. Cal Thomas points out that we need to obey Him or we'll all pay dearly! That's not a threat from him or us, that's from God Himself!

     The other article was equally alarming for it was written in a secular paper by a professed "Catholic" writer by the name of Stephanie Salter, a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. She identified herself as a "Roman Catholic feminist" on the first line and you just knew where she was headed after that. First of all, how can a "feminist" be Catholic? Afterall, to be Catholic means to be united to Christ and obedient to Him and the Church He established. Ah, there's that "obedience" tag again - something feminists hate with a passion. They want their own way and they don't want to be obedient to men - men whom Christ designated. She rambles on, of course, about how unfair it is that women cannot be priests, attacking the Church for "sins" of the past committed by "men," specifically the Inquisition and some of the facts recently revealed when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger officially opened the Inquisition files to the public. Leave it to a feminist to find a needle in a haystack. By that we mean of all the good, she went looking for the bad and found it in the "Galileo event" which the Church has since apologized for. But this isn't good enough for Ms. Salter, rather she had to rub it in and dare hint that it would have been different had the other gender ruled. She rails at having to say the Nicene Creed which calls for her to say "for us men and our salvation," totally missing the point of the word "men" as referring to all mankind - men, women and children. If she doesn't like it or agree with it, there are always other churches she can go to. They're called Protestant and they came about because of this same attitude in which "man" - oops, we better add "and woman" knew more than God and decided to follow their own agenda. That's what Ms. Salter is doing and urging so many readers to do the same today. No wonder Our Lady is weeping so, no wonder she has said she can no longer hold back the hand of the Father. In Sodom - erh, San Francisco it would seem there is only one steady voice we can trust - Father Joseph Fessio, S.J. head of Ignatius Press; In Gomorrah - better referred to as Lost Angeles, there is one voice which speaks the truth - columnist Cal Thomas. In fact, he has a better bead on God's Will - and what we as Americans, as Roman Catholics, as people of God need to do - more than the cardinal of the Archdiocese. The latter might be in agreement with Ms. Salter when she complains that the Church censored the bible in the middle ages through enforcement of the Inquisition by not allowing Catholics to read the translated Bible other than the Latin Vulgate edition, which was reserved for the clergy. She failed to mention that - one, they weren't mass-produced on web presses back then - in fact, printed by hand through the tireless time and talent of the monks - and two, that only the Latin Vulgate was loyal to the Word of God. Afterall, it had been translated by a saint - Saint Jerome a thousand years before the question even came up. In light of the watering down of the true doctrine that was changed to suit their own purposes once other versions came into prominence from the King James version to Gideon's to today's ICEL editions, is it any wonder Holy Mother Church wasn't being protective of something so precious as the Word of God?

     Finally, Ms. Salter finishes her diatribe by exclaiming, "I must confront, each day, my second-class citizenship as a woman in my church. For all the hierarchy's insistence on the equal value of women and men, females are prohibited from performing the most fundamental and holy duties of the church, among them consecrating the host and preaching the gospel during Mass." We wonder if the Blessed Mother felt that way, Ms. Salter. After all, she was present during the institution of the Holy Eucharist; she was present when her Divine Son and, later, the Apostles preached. Do you think she felt like a "second-class citizen?" Not in the least for she endeavored always to obey God's Will. Do you think you know better than God? Think about it, Ms. Salter. It's called obedience. Obey Him or you'll pay dearly! That's not a threat from us, that's from God Himself!

Michael Cain, editor

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