Naumann To Governor Sebelius: STOP RECEIVING THE EUCHARIST!

Today, the Archbishop of Kansas City Kansas in his section of the Diocese news paper The Leaven, yet again reprimands Governor Sebelius for receiving communion at one of the Diocese parish's. He is pastoral, firm, and offers the gov'nr a chance to recant and repent. What more could a sinner ask for.

Please keep Archbishop Naumann in your prayers, as he is sure to come under attack for this latest action.

The full text is below:

LIFE WILL BE VICTORIOUS

Governor’s Veto Prompts Pastoral Action

On the day of my return (Monday, April 21) from the exhilarating experience of participating in Pope Benedict’s pastoral visit to the United States, I learned that Governor Kathleen Sebelius had vetoed the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act (HS SB 389), which had been passed by significant majorities in both chambers of the Kansas Legislature. Last week, an attempt to override the governor’s veto failed in the Senate by two votes.

Governor Sebelius in her veto message claimed: “For years, the people of Kansas have asked their elected officials to move beyond legislative debates on issues like abortion.” From her veto message, I received the impression the governor considered it a waste of the Legislature’s time to pass a statute that attempts to protect some women by making certain they have the opportunity to be well-informed: 1) about the development of their unborn child; and 2) about abortion alternatives available to them. Evidently, the governor does not approve of legislators devoting energy to protecting children and women by making it possible to enforce existing Kansas laws regulating late-term abortions.

The governor’s veto message demonstrated a lack of respect to the members of the Kansas General Assembly who had carefully crafted and resoundingly passed the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act, as well as to the many Kansans who find it more than an embarrassment, in no small part due to several previous vetoes by Governor Sebelius of earlier legislative efforts to regulate abortion clinics, that Kansas has become infamous for being the late-term abortion center for the Midwest.

What makes the governor’s rhetoric and actions even more troubling has been her acceptance of campaign contributions from Wichita’s Dr. George Tiller, perhaps the most notorious late-term abortionist in the nation. In addition to Dr. Tiller’s direct donations to her campaign, the governor has benefited from the Political Action Committees funded by Dr. Tiller to support pro-abortion candidates in Kansas.

In her veto message, the governor took credit for lower abortion rates in Kansas, citing her support for “adoption incentives, extended health services for pregnant women, providing sex education and offering a variety of support services for families.” Indeed, the governor and her administration should be commended for supporting adoption incentives and health services for pregnant women.

However, the governor overreaches by assuming credit for declining abortion rates in Kansas. Actually, lower abortion rates are part of a national trend. Our neighboring state of Missouri has actually had a steeper and longer decline in its abortion rate.

Governor Sebelius’ inclusion of public school sex education programs as a factor in the abortion rate decline is absurd. Actually, valueless sex education programs in public schools have been around for years, coinciding with increased sexual activity among adolescents, as well as increases in teen pregnancy and abortion. On the other hand, the governor does not acknowledge the significant impact of mass media education programs, such as those sponsored by the Vitae Caring Foundation, or the remarkable practical assistance provided by Crisis Pregnancy Centers which are funded through the generosity of pro-life Kansans.
What makes the governor’s actions and advocacy for legalized abortion, throughout her public career, even more painful for me is that she is Catholic. Sadly, Governor Sebelius is not unique in being a Catholic politician supporting legalized abortion.

Since becoming archbishop, I have met with Governor Sebelius several times over many months to discuss with her the grave spiritual and moral consequences of her public actions by which she has cooperated in the procurement of abortions performed in Kansas. My concern has been, as a pastor, both for the spiritual well-being of the governor but also for those who have been misled (scandalized) by her very public support for legalized abortion.
It has been my hope that through this dialogue the governor would come to understand her obligation: 1) to take the difficult political step, but necessary moral step, of repudiating her past actions in support of legalized abortion; and 2) in the future would use her exceptional leadership abilities to develop public policies extending the maximum legal protection possible to the unborn children of Kansas.

Having made every effort to inform and to persuade Governor Sebelius and after consultation with Bishop Ron Gilmore (Dodge City), Bishop Paul Coakley (Salina) and Bishop Michael Jackels (Wichita), I wrote the governor last August requesting that she refrain from presenting herself for reception of the Eucharist until she had acknowledged the error of her past positions, made a worthy sacramental confession and taken the necessary steps for amendment of her life which would include a public repudiation of her previous efforts and actions in support of laws and policies sanctioning abortion.

Recently, it came to my attention that the governor had received holy Communion at one of our parishes. I have written to her again, asking her to respect my previous request and not require from me any additional pastoral actions.

The governor has spoken to me on more than one occasion about her obligation to uphold state and federal laws and court decisions. I have asked her to show a similar sense of obligation to honor divine law and the laws, teaching and legitimate authority within the church.
I have not made lightly this request of Governor Sebelius, but only after much prayer and reflection. The spiritually lethal message, communicated by our governor, as well as many other high profile Catholics in public life, has been in effect: “The church’s teaching on abortion is optional!”

I reissue my request of the faithful of the archdiocese to pray for Governor Sebelius. I hope that my request of the governor, not to present herself for holy Communion, will provoke her to reconsider the serious spiritual and moral consequences of her past and present actions. At the same time, I pray this pastoral action on my part will help alert other Catholics to the moral gravity of participating in and/or cooperating with the performance of abortions.

Im Back with a Good Prayer After Communion

I have been gone for quite some time, but now I return to you with much more time on my hands now, so maybe there will be an influx of good posts coming your way from me.

To ease back into the world of blogging I want to share with you this prayer after Communion.

Prayer of St. Augustine


Before Thine eyes, O Lord, we bring our sins, and we compare them with the stripes we have received.
If we examine the evil we have wrought, what we suffer is little, what we deserve is great.
What we have committed is very grievous, what we have suffered is very slight.
We feel the punishment of sin, yet withdraw not from the obstinacy of sinning.
Under thy lash our inconstancy is visited, but our sinfulness is not changed.
Our suffering soul is tormented, but our neck is not bent.
Our life groans under sorrow, yet amends not in deed.
If thou spare us we correct not our ways: if thou punish we cannot endure it.
In time of correction we confess our wrong-doing: after thy visitation we forget that we have wept.
If thou stretch forth thy hand we promise amendment; if thou withholdest the sword, we keep not our promise.
If thou strikest, we cry out for mercy: if thou spareest, we again provoke thee to strike.
Here we are before thee, O Lord, confessedly guilty; we know that unless thou pardon we shall deservedly perish.
Grant, then, O Almighty Father, without our deserving it, the pardon we ask; Thou who made out of nothing those who ask Thee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

V. Deal not with us, O Lord, according to our sins.
R. Neither reward us according to our iniquities.

Let us pray.
O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified ; mercifully regard the prayers of thy suppliant people, and turn away the scourges of Thy wrath, which we deserve for our sins. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Meaning of Life (pt 1)

This is a Three part series of posts that will Deal with the Meaning of life

We are called to Know Him, to Love him, and Serve him in this world and spend eternity with him in the next.

This is the meaning of life, plain and simple. It is through living our vocation and persevering through the struggles and tribulations of daily life that we praise and honor God. This post will consider ways that we can better serve our Lord.

Firefighter, Pilot, Solider,Homemaker,Lawyer - You get the Idea we all have a role to play, the path that we choose to follow may vary but we all hope to be heading to the same destination that is the Beatific Vision. No road heading in this direction is easy, this road is one of great difficulty, if we are so lucky. It is in the times of greatest struggle that we really may have a chance to get to really know and serve the Lord.

While the acts of our day may often seem mundane, we must remove our initial reaction and perception. It is quite easy to get frustrated or angry at a screaming toddler, the gut reaction is usually one of haste and immediate gratification to silence the child. Instead of these instances of frustration we should learn to treat the child and his tantrum with total love and calmness, if the issue can not be resolved with tenderness and compassion the issue must not be resolved with the opposite emotions of anger and frustration. It is in acts of love toward the most unappealing situations that we can serve God.

Whether its a toddler, working late in the office, In the line of fire - this the Cross God has asked us to carry. God never gives us more than we can handle, in thinking we know what we can or can not handle we only do injustice to God, as he knows us better than anyone. Is life Fair? NO! Some have what we perceive to be no large yolk around their neck, we then sin by envying the light load of others. Whatever we are called we can serve better when we embrace our Cross like Jesus and continue along our way.

The rocky road of our life can be endured much more easily, and we can serve much more effectively when we live in an abundance of Grace. Grace from God overflows in the Sacraments, all of them bestow great amounts of grace. Since only two of the seven can be given continually, participating in the Eucharist and Confessing our sins regularly we can affirm all the total grace that has been given.

I leave you with the response we should all have when we are called to serve God even in the most dire circumstance:

And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.

Luke 1:38

Eat Jesus Again for the First time

While attending the mass at Conception Mo. (See the previous post) the Archpriest of the ceremony stood at the ambo and gave a short speech. He wanted to emphasize the real presence of our Lord in communion, he wanted to remind people that it was only 1-Catholics, 2-that had observed the Eucharistic Fast, 3-and were living without MORTAL sin- as we are all absolved from venial sin during the mass- were allowed to come forth and receive communion,

To those that met the requirements set forth by that Church He said come forward and get the Most Holy Communion you have ever received come Kneel down, the priest will bless you with the Blessed Sacrament and then you must receive on your tongue, he said dont reply anything, just realize what you received and meditate on the fact that you received Jesus Christ, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity!

So I have been thinking, why do so many Catholics today either a) Not Believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, or b) are totally ignorant of this fact - even in all Novus Ordo parish's when you go to receive Jesus, you are told, and in a way almost asked to confirm " THE BODY OF CHRIST", then you respond "AMEN", Amen means YES!, so if a Catholic that chooses not to believe in the real presence of Christ goes to communion why do they respond AMEN? Why would the priest say "THE BODY OF CHRIST" if it was not so.

Why has catechesis of the true presence of Christ declined? I don't have the answer for you, I can only think of a few factors that may perpetuate the issue, one possibly being the continuation of the indult of Communion in the Hand, maybe priests are not preaching enough of how Jesus is present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, he wanted to let us know that we are all called to be saints and that certain saints only received communion maybe a total of 5 times in their life, if 5 times was enough for them to be saints then we must adhere to the churches instructions.

Once we have everyone believing in the truth of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist then the next problem I foresee is stopping the outrageous amount of sacrilege, Catholics whom use birth control, and that are not validly married seem to be the most common offender of this sacrilege, not to mention the scores of people that only attend confession once or twice a year when they are constantly living in a state of mortal sin. I am not here to judge, but I do feel called to protect Jesus in Most Holy Communion.

The wife and I are very close to completing our convalidation in the church, we have not been receiving communion for quite sometime, it has been somewhat of a penitential time preparing to re-enter a state of sanctifying grace, As I have been making my spiritual communion each week at Mass and as the time comes to re-enter this state of grace, after the convalidation is finalized and after a good heart felt confession, I truly feel as if I will be making my First Holy Communion for a second time. I'm not sure if I will be able to hold back the tears of joy.

Are we All Welcome?

A Catholic man has written into a Catholic online forum, he had an amazing "day dream" during communion the other day about how, "whereby Christ in the Flesh walked into the Church. Everyone filing up to Communion stopped dead in their tracks, turned around towards Him and began pressing back to reach Him. I, however, remained sadly rejected in place." he continues, "At that moment, someone in the crowd grabbed my arm and said, "C'mon! It's the Lord"! I explained that I couldn't go to Him because I was in sin. At that, many of the people who were pushing their way back to Him, had overheard me and began explaining that it's for the worst sinners that He came, and that He didn't want anyone kept from touching His garment. No one held me back from receiving Jesus. I was urged to go right up to Him and touch his garment, to be nourished, to be cleansed."


This man brings up a good question....
But Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P. provides a better answer:


"The Church doesn’t hold the worst sinners at arms distance, the sinners themselves do. The Church isn’t forcing them to sin. They are doing that quite on their own.

The Church does not withhold the Lord’s compassion any more than He did. But He was only compassionate with those who were repentant and then He warned them not to engage in such activity again.

Actually when you were waiting for an annulment, you could have received Holy Communion if you were not having marital relations with someone with whom you were not validly married. Perhaps you didn’t know that to do so is a mortal sin. One cannot profess one’s unconditional love for the Lord while at the same time engaging in sinful activity. THIS is where it can’t be both!

The Church wasn’t politely holding your arm. You could have gone to Confession and determined to live celibately until you were validly married—and then received Holy Communion. Many do. Unfortunately, often priests fail to tell people this."

Quotes Taken From:
SOURCE: Do we really want unity among the faithful?