Quick Note before I get to the main post: I have modified the trackback code to include the same spam filter that was in the comment code. I have no way of testing this and only spam comes from trackback, so if I broke the trackback code, I will still consider this a success. In a week or so I will send it to http://www.bblog.com/ for upload.
My next entry will deal with Anti-Catholicism. Hopefully I can post that one soon.
This past Saturday was the Abbey Youth Festival. I also spent time on Friday helping set up. We had about 20 youth and adults attend and our Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Violet, LA which has not had a mass in 7 months. Pretty good accomplishment. It was a 12 hour event and was a bit exhausting, but we all enjoyed ourselves.
There were several great speakers and bands. Of course we were all looking forward to hearing Fr. Kyle speak who was from our Church B.K. (Before Katrina). Fr. Kyle spoke for about 10 – 15 minutes to open the Eucharistic Adoration. But the strongest speakers of the night were Jim and Kerri Caviezel. Jim Caviezel is the actor who played as Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. I did not have a video camera or anything and will post what I can remember to the best of my ability.
Kerri Caviezel spoke first. She opened with the story of how she and Jim met. She was friends with Jim’s sister and then they met in a mall where Jim worked. Her talk mostly focussed on Sex and Marriage. She asked how many people knew someone that had been married for over 50 years. Quite a lot of people raised their hands. Kerri said that she didn’t quite know that many people married for that long since she is from Washington and Jim is from California. (I may have gotten that reversed.)
She then asked what do you say during your Wedding Vows? Is it I promise to love you as long as your are beautiful? Obviously the answer is no. Fr. Frank mentioned something similar to Robin and I during Marriage Preparation. While a civil marriage can have strings attached, the Sacrament of Marriage has no strings attached. Kerri said too many people don’t mean it when they say I do to that. She then said that some people want to “sample marriage” by living together. She usually doesn’t like statistics, but one statistic that believes is the one that says couples who live together before marriage usually end in divorce. Again Fr. Frank said the same thing.
Kerri and Jim applied to adopt a child. They eventually received a phone call asking if they wanted to adopt a 5 year old Chinese boy with a brain tumor. They weren’t sure if they would be able to handle that type of situation, but they put their faith in God and accepted. Eventually the time came for the doctor’s to perform the surgery on the child’s tumor. The doctor had good news and bad news. The good news was there was a day available in May. The bad news was it was Friday May 13. But Kerri didn’t look at that as bad but rather the fact May 13 was the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima. The adoption was finalized on another Feast Day which was also considered a sign from God.
Kerri then talked a little bit about abstinence and so called “Safe Sex”. Africa has the highest HIV rate in the world. To help fight AIDS, most countries bean to push for condoms and “Safe Sex”. Well the HIV rate didn’t go down, it went up. Because condoms are not 100% effective and they still encourage sex use. But one country, Uganda, instead of pushing for “Safe Sex” pushed for absainence education. While other countries’ HIV rate went up, Uganda’s went down.
Kerri closed by talking about the Sanctity of Life. The Declaration of Independence guarantees the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. And that is a phrase that existed long before Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. They were put together in that order. Without Life, Liberty has no value, and without Liberty, Property has no value. Therefore one person’s life comes before another person’s liberty. She also said while many women come to say the regret their abortion, she does not know of any woman who says she regrets having her child.
She ended with four extreme cases of pregnancy that people who oppose abortion in most cases may accept it. 1. A mother has 16 kids and is pregnant with her 17 and is not very rich financially. 2. A woman with an illness has 4 kids, all with some form of disability or illness themselves, is pregnant and the child is like to have some form of illness or disability as well. 3. A woman is raped and a child is conceived. 4. A teenage girl is engaged to get married and is pregnant, but that man is not the father of the child, and they live in a country where this is punishable by death. Would you allow an abortion in each of these circumstances? 1. This turned out to be Benjamin Franklin. 2. This is Ludwig von Beethoven. 3. This was an opera singer and I can’t remember the name. 4. In case you haven’t figured this one out, it’s Jesus Christ.
Kerri introduced Jim who spoke next. I will cover what Jim said in my next post and the post on Anti-Catholicism will come after that.
