67th Lourdes Cure Officially Recognized

Anna Santaniello suffered from a lethal heart ailment known as Bouillaud's Disease, a rheumatic condition which causes trouble with speaking and walking, as well as acute asthma attacks, cyanosis (discoloration) of the face and lips and swelling of the legs. It was the same illness that had killed one of her brothers and a sister. As Anna grew older, her condition had degenerated to the point where she was confined to bed, barely able to breathe. Her doctors had given up hope.

In 1952, against the wishes of her family, Anna made a pilgrimage to the shrine at Lourdes. "I was always devoted to the Madonna and I felt that she was calling me to go to Lourdes,” said Santaniello, quoted in an ANSA report (Nov. 14, 2005). “I told my brother that it was my last wish to visit the shrine. My family didn't want me to go but I insisted.”

After that visit, Anna’s life would never be the same again. She described that day:

I arrived at Lourdes on a stretcher because I was unable to walk .... The sisters there submerged me in the spring. The water was icy cold but I immediately felt something hot explode in my chest, as if life was being restored to me .

After a few minutes, I was able to get up by myself. I refused the help of the stretcher carriers, telling them to help the other sick people because I could now manage on my own.

Anna visited a heart specialist upon her return to Italy. The specialist pronounced her perfectly healthy. Following her recovery, she returned several times to Lourdes as a nurse. In 1961, the International Medical Committee of the Lourdes shrine classified Santaniello’s case as "extraordinary.”

On Sunday, November 13, 2005, Archbishop of Salerno, Gerardo Pierro, made the announcement that the Church has now officially recognized the healing of Anna Santaniello as a miracle, making her the 67th person to have “officially” been healed at Lourdes. The announcement was made during a special Mass at which Santaniello, now 94 and residing in southern Italy, was present.

Comment: There are some diehard “Trads” out there whose anger and mistrust (most of it well-founded) towards anything associated with Rome has progressed far enough to cloud their judgment, causing them to tune-out automatically any “good news” that might emanate from the “mainstream” Church. I still remember the sinking feeling that commandeered my stomach as I sat in an independent chapel not too many years ago and listened to a renowned Traditional priest (a pioneer of the Traditionalist movement) lament that the Vatican had just canonized someone who “had never existed.” He was talking about Juan Diego, the recipient of the messages of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

Today, canonizations (and the miracles accompanying them) are rushed through the process faster than Fed Ex packages, and skepticism is not only a result, but a necessary stance in the face of wide scale apostasy at the highest levels of our hierarchy. The fact that it took over 50 years for the Church to recognize Anna Santaniello’s miraculous healing is a throwback – a throwback to a saner time, and a saner Church. According to Dr. Theodore Mangiapan, President of the Medical Bureau of Lourdes, at least 2,000 of the cures effected at Lourdes have been classified as “extraordinary or inexplicable” by doctors since 1858. Only 67 have been officially recognized as “miraculous.”

A little “good news” never hurt anyone. Just ask Anna Santaniello. Or St. Juan Diego.

Planned Parenthood’s New “Chaplain” Gets  Cold Reception in Kentucky

On March 8, 2005, Gloria Feldt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), announced that she had appointed the Rev. Ignacio Castuera to the newly created post of “National Chaplain.” A Planned Parenthood press release stated that Castuera would be available “to provide advice to volunteer and staff leadership on moral and ethical issues around our mission.”

According to PPFA, Rev. Dr. Ignacio Castuera is a graduate of the School of Theology at Claremont University and became the first Mexican-American district superintendent of the United Methodist Church in the Los Angeles District before becoming the pastor of Hollywood United Methodist Church, where he created “a positive religious response to the AIDS pandemic.” He has served on the National Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission and on other boards and task forces as a representative of his denomination. His book, Dreams on Fire: Embers of Hope: From the Pulpits of Los Angeles After the [Rodney King] Riots, became one of the top 10 religious books of 1992, and he has preached in a variety of venues, including The Protestant Hour and The Riverside Church in New York City. Castuera, the father of three daughters and a son, is currently the senior pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church in the Watts community of Los Angeles.

 PPFA’s Lexington, Kentucky affiliate recently brought Rev. Castuera to the area to speak with religious leaders. According to Life Site News (Nov. 11, 2005), the response to Castuera from Protestant ministers was  less than welcoming. David Bowman, board chairman for the pro-abortion group, complained that few would meet with Castuera. "Most church organizations would not give me names and e-mail addresses for their clergy," he said. "There were many organizations, both denominational and ecumenical, that didn't want to get involved." Bowman is himself an elder in the Presbyterian USA church, and he believed that the meetings with Rev. Castuera were only for those ministers who were "thoughtfully and cordially pro-life," not those who are "indignantly and self-righteously pro-life."

Rev. Castuera told The Lexington Herald-Leader that few would meet with him because he is doing what Jesus would want him to do. "The closer Jesus got to the cross, the smaller the crowds got," the chaplain said. "This is pretty close to the cross because [pro-abortion] people have to take derision, ostracism, all that."

Local Methodist leaders said that they were embarrassed by Castuera’s visit and his agreeing to become a representative of a business that participates in the killing of unborn children.

Comment: In the Planned Parenthood magazine, Clergy Voices, Rev. Ignacio Castuera is quoted as saying the following: "We can extrapolate from all the other life-affirming stories about Jesus ... to conclude that Jesus would indeed support a woman's right to choose. More important is that his followers today continue to support choice, without seeking to impose such views on others."

Castuera’s blasphemous position on abortion is basically that of every politician, spiritual leader and activist who has tried to maintain some facade of common decency while attempting to square the circle of necessary infanticide. "It's always a tragedy," said the PPFA’s National Chaplain. "I don't think it's a sin." He doesn’t think it’s a sin. What more perfect “chaplain” could one find for Planned Parenthood?

Raimundo Rojas, Director of Hispanic Outreach for National Right to Life, believes that “the fact that [Rev. Castuera] is a Mexican-born Hispanic, and that this pro-abortion anointing comes during a time when Latinas are having a disproportionately larger number of abortions, is no accident.”

Magaly Llaguno, executive director of Human Life International's Hispanic Division agrees. "The hiring of Castuera by Planned Parenthood as its national chaplain is another link in the endless chain of deceptions of this pro-abortion organization," she said. Mrs. Llaguno also observed that the Hispanic community "is a community where the majority is pro-life."

Raimundo Rojas placed Castuera’s appointment as National Chaplain into the historical context of Planned Parenthood’s ongoing mission:

We read that Rev. Castuera has been lauded as a hero and honored with several pro-abortion laurels for his "work in the Latino community." In truth what Rev. Castuera is doing is contributing to the demise of his people by perpetuating the lie that the best thing a Hispanic woman can do for her family and community is to abort her child. This appointment is just one more transparent attempt at targeting minorities and is in keeping with the words of PPFA's founder: Planned Parenthood has indeed found a minister who "can straighten out that idea."

Mr. Rojas makes a reference here to the famous quote by Planned Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger: "We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs."

Well, at least one can never accuse Planned Parenthood’s founder of ever having been “indignantly pro-life.”

Tel Aviv Is Going “Pink”

According to the Israeli news agency, Yedioth Internet (Nov. 15, 2005), “Tel Aviv is known throughout the world as ‘The White City’ due to the many Bauhaus-style structures that adorn its streets, but the city may soon be called ‘The Pink City,’ as tourism industry heads are planning on transforming the city into the gay capital of the world.”

The idea was born when Israel Hotel Association (IHA) Director-General, Eli Ziv, visited London recently to participate in the 2005 World Travel Market exhibition. During the exhibition Ziv met with representatives of the “homo-lesbian travel industry,” and discovered an audience that would travel just about anywhere for a good party, even to the Middle East. “The gay community has amazing consumer power, and Tel Aviv has a lot to offer to this community,” Ziv explained. “We have the beach, sun, culture and nightclubs. To our knowledge, gays are capable of hopping on a plane and traveling to the other side of the world just to participate in parties and events that are related to the gay community.”

The IHA in Tel Aviv, along with a local “gay rights” group, turned to European travel agents who focus on the “gay community” and requested they prepare vacation packages to Tel Aviv. “We are drafting plans to encourage gay tourism from Germany, England and Holland,” Ziv added. “We plan on approaching travel agents who are aware of the gay community’s needs, launch a special website for gays and advertise Tel Aviv in gay European websites as well.”

Meanwhile, Tourism Ministry Director-General, Eli Cohen, said he would offer any financial assistance necessary to turn Tel Aviv into the gay capital of the world, and he is not alone. After TUI, Europe’s largest tourism conglomerate, recently decided to offer charter flights to Tel Aviv, Israeli tourism officials said they believe the decision would facilitate the travel of thousands of gays to the country.

“It will be helpful to our initiative if they increase the number of flights to Tel Aviv,’ Ziv said. “Now the occupancy rate on these flights already stands at more than 80 percent for the next few months. In February they plan to increase the number of flights to three a week. If this will indeed happen, we will see an airlift of gays to Tel Aviv.” 

Comment: You almost have to admire their initiative. What better way to overrun a small country with homosexuals than by airlifting them in? Perhaps, next, transvestites will be parachuting into Israel under cover of night.

This tactic is nothing new. Last March, when it was still believed that the 2005 World Pride Parade would take place in Jerusalem, the United Jewish Communities (UJC) posted a press release announcing that “hundreds of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in North America will travel to Israel this summer on the United Jewish Communities Pride in Israel Mission, August 14 to 21, one of the first-ever missions of its kind and scope.”

And whatever happened to that 2005 World Pride Parade? According to The Jerusalem Open House, the parade’s sponsors, the mammoth homosexual extravaganza was postponed until August of 2006 on account of the Gaza pullout:

However, in view of the potential timing of the Gaza pullout, we want to openly state that we feel that holding World Pride exactly on the dates that coincide with the pullout would be highly inappropriate and would do a disservice to the values World Pride is about: tolerance, pluralism, and equality.

What they didn’t mention was the overwhelming opposition to the parade by Jerusalem's citizenry and its various religious leaders. 2006 World Pride Parade organizers are already promising, among other things, “the first ever Interfaith LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered] Clergy Conference,” an academic conference on “Sexuality, Religion, and the Nation State,” an exhibit on “the theme of David and Jonathan,” “a feminist themed exhibit at the municipal gallery” and “a male nude photography exhibit.” No doubt, the battle for the city’s soul will be engaged once again next year.

The one thing that Israel has going for it in such a battle is the simple fact that its people have no qualms about wearing their religion on their sleeves. One can expect opposition to the forces of social destruction to be vigorous.

Meanwhile, in America, the juggernaut of political correctness slouches onward, accusing opponents of the “gay” agenda of hate-crimes. In fact, the next presentation of the Academy Awards will probably offer a particularly ridiculous example of just how thoroughly homosexual propaganda has saturated American society. Hollywood insiders are already screaming “Oscar!” over a new film titled Brokeback Mountain. The film is touted as a “gay cowboy love story set in 1963.” Just what we need.