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Posted on December 10, 2019December 10, 2019 by Msgr. Charles Pope Modern Problems File: Losing God as the Center of Our Worship “Mirror baby”. Licensed underCC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.I have noted before on this blog that one of the trends in modern liturgy is the shift of focus from God to “the assembly.” Too much of liturgy today is anthropocentric.Back in the 1990’s, in his book Why Catholics Can’t Sing, Thomas Day observed that modern liturgy often amounts to “the aware, gathered community, celebrating itself.” Many songs today go on at great length about how we are...

Wednesday, December 11, 2019 The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-eight percent (48%) disapprove.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is rushing the impeachment vote to the floor of the House before the Christmas recess to keep wavering Democrats in key battleground districts away from their constituents, the majority of whom are potentially uncomfortable with impeaching the president. “House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump over his contacts with Ukraine: Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress,” Breitbart News Network reported.

The DOJ Inspector General’s report disclosed a multitude of FISA violations by the FBI. As noted by John Solomon, there were 51 Woods violations and nine false statements made to the FISA Court. To understand just how shoddy the FBI’s work was in securing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant targeting the Trump campaign, you only need to read an obscure attachment to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report. Appendix 1 identifies the total violations by the FBI of the so-called Woods Procedures, the process by which the bureau verifies information and assures the FISA court its evidence is true....

Israel headed on Wednesday towards a third national election in less than a year with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing the fight of his life for political survival after a criminal indictment. After giving its preliminary approval, and barring last-minute progress in deadlocked efforts to form a new government, parliament was set to vote for its dissolution later in the day and approve a March 2 election date already agreed by the two major parties.

Francis X. Murphy was just 18 years old when he got married on Dec. 6, 1941. The next day, Pearl Harbor was bombed, and the United States was at war. Murphy joined the 83rd Airdrome Squad. He went to Europe and fought in D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge. To this day, the 95-year-old from Whitman remembers the bloodshed from what remains the third-deadliest battle in American history. “You either kill them or they were going to kill you, and that’s how it was,” Murphy said bluntly.

Assignment asks middle schoolers 'How many slaves would equal 4 white people?' KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — A local middle school social studies assignment is raising serious concerns. Students at Kannapolis Middle School were asked how many slaves would be needed to equal at least four white people. The question was asked as part of a lesson on the Three-Fifths Compromise, which is a 1700's law to count slaves as less than white people. Content Continues Below But, parents are wondering why a teacher would think the assignment was acceptable. [‘Set your price for a slave': Missouri teacher placed on leave after...

In April 2014, then-President Barack Obama signed a law authorizing loan guarantees for Ukraine. That same month, then-Vice President Joe Biden went to Ukraine and made these points: The Obama administration was going to guarantee $1 billion in loans to Ukraine, and the United States was going to help Ukraine develop its energy industry. "Just last week the United States government signed a bill proposed by our administration for a $1 billion loan guarantee agreement with Ukraine," Biden said in Kyiv. "With the right investments and the right choices," Biden said, "Ukraine can reduce its energy dependence and increase its...

Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vazquez just signed a new firearms law that greatly undoes severe restrictions in place for decades (facebook live at link just ended).

The probability of the amazing Horowitz coin toss is astounding. Every one of the 17 known improprieties in the FBI investigation into Donald Trump all came up heads, in favor of the FBI. Yet, the IG can find no bias. The likelihood of that event in infinitesimal. 17 coin flips all heads = .5 to the 17th power or .00000762939 Will some bloody Congress-critter ask him if bias is statistically certain.

The two people who stormed a kosher grocery store in Jersey City with rifles, killing three people inside and also murdering a veteran detective, have been identified as David Anderson and Francine Graham, four law enforcement sources familiar with the case tell News 4. Three sources say Anderson was a one-time follower of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, a group whose members believe they are descendants of the ancient Israelites and may adhere to both Christian and Judaic beliefs. There was a note with religious writings in the U-Haul he and Graham allegedly drove to the scene, but a motive...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem (Music in The Bible) Psalm 53 Psalm 53[a] For the director of music. According to mahalath.[b] A maskil[c] of David. 1 The fool says in his heart,     “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their ways are vile;     there is no one who does good. 2 God looks down from heaven     on all mankind to see if there are any who understand,     any who seek God. 3 Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt;     there is no one who does good,     not even one. 4 Do all these evildoers know nothing? They devour my people...

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, as he explains, is bound to assume good faith unless given “documentary or testimonial evidence” otherwise. Yet he has compiled a factually damning report that even a thick-headed and biased press will have to take account of. A shorthand version of his report: Here are 50 facts that can be explained only by FBI incompetence or political bias. We find no documentary or testimonial evidence of bias. The mystique of Christopher Steele has gone poof, along with the reputations of many pundits. The FBI saw that he was being paid to sell claims to...

Here is a chilling case of sanctuary chickens coming home to roost. Upon being convicted of armed robbery, kidnapping, home invasion and the brutal murders of two doctors on Tuesday, African criminal Bampumim Teixeira taunted the Massachusetts prosecutor who won the case and vowed to rape his wife. "You better hope I don't get out of jail," Teixeira threatened as he was dragged away in handcuffs by a quartet of court security officers. The killer appeared to greatly enjoy the media spectacle while striking fear into the hearts of innocents. He will be sentenced on Friday. I am outraged on...

Former Vice President Joe Biden has been signaling to aides that he would likely serve only one term in office if elected president in 2020, according to a report on Wednesday. Campaign advisers and some top Democrats have been debating whether he should publicly announce his intention not to seek a second term, but Biden is concerned that going public could make him a lame duck and rob him of political capital, Politico reported. “If Biden is elected,” a prominent adviser to the campaign told the news website, “he’s going to be 82 years old in four years and he...

A funny thing happened on the way to President Trump’s impeachment. Somewhere along the way, House Democrats lost the support of the American people. When they announced Articles of Impeachment against Trump on Tuesday, they did so with the support of just 48% of the American people (a number that is dramatically skewed by the fact that a near-unanimous 87.3% of Democrats want him impeached and removed from office), while the RealClearPolitics average of polls finds that 46.2% of the country does not want the President impeached and removed. Amazingly, support for impeachment has gone down as impeachment hearings have...

The shooting that unfolded at a kosher market in Jersey City, N.J., was a "targeted" attack, according to officials who say at least one of the suspects had published anti-Semitic and anti-police posts online before opening fire Tuesday. Mayor Steven Fulop would not commit on Wednesday to calling the shooting an anti-Semitic attack, but said after reviewing surveillance footage, investigators believe the attack was plotted against the Jewish deli. He told reporters footage shows the gunmen passing by other shops before getting out of a van and aiming for the market.

Oracle Corp. is pulling the plug on its annual San Francisco technology convention, relocating the event to Las Vegas in a major blow to the city's hospitality industry. The Redwood Shores company has signed a three-year agreement to bring its OpenWorld convention to the Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, citing rising hotel rates throughout the Bay Area as well as poor street conditions in San Francisco. An Oracle spokesperson confirmed the deal, first reported by CNBC.

A Naval air station in Texas is on lockdown and a suspect is in custody, officials said Wednesday, nearly a week after a Saudi national opened fire at a base in Pensacola, Florida, killing three and wounding eight more. Naval Air Station Corpus Christi issued a warning Wednesday morning at around 7:30, urging members of the base to “remain in place.”

The New York Yankees are back. Back to free-agent excess. Back to blowing away the rest of the market for free agents. Back to being at the head of baseball’s tycoon-class. And — pay attention because this is now the most pressing part — back to skyscrapers-sized expectations. Agreeing to a reported nine-year, $324 million contract with top free agent Gerrit Cole on Tuesday night signaled both a record free-agent deal for a pitcher (Stephen Strasburg’s record lasted a whole day) and a new reality for these Yankees. After a couple years of uncharacteristic scrappiness, in which they won despite...