On December 17, around 300 local supporters, friends and neighbors of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) met at the group’s national headquarters in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania for its annual Christmas Open House.
At the same time TFP Member Norman Fulkerson was speaking on St. Thérèse in Kansas, TFP Washington Bureau Chief was lecturing in Miami on the precarious situation in South America.
The Department
of Theatre, Arts and Dance of the University
of Minnesota is planning to stage a blasphemous
play called The Pope and the Witch starting on March 1, 2007.
With the school year back
in full swing, TFP Student Action organized an informal weekend
event, from November 3-5 for around ten of its closer student
friends.
In the continuing debate on same-sex “marriage,”
proponents commonly highlight the 1,049 benefits
extended by the federal government to couples
united in marriage. They claim that such benefits
and those of the states should also be extended
to homosexual couples.
It only takes a few determined people to make
a difference. Concerned TFP supporters were
both shocked and disgusted to hear of an obscene
priest costume available at the store in the
local mall where children of all ages pick out
their Halloween costumes. They decided to do
something about it.
In complex times,
it is good to go back to simple basics. There
is a need to review fundamental principles,
methods of action and tactics. It is good to
gather together scattered friends across the
country to take stock and make future plans.
Everyone likes
to hear about big events. However, few measure
the full importance of the small ones. Little
by little, brick by brick, one builds the foundations
and walls of a building. So also an organization
builds its networks and makes its impact over
public opinion.
At a district
high school in Batavia, N.Y., one male teacher
returned this fall dressed as a woman. Students
will be required to address the “transgendered”
man as “she.” Parents have asked that students
be allowed to opt out of this class. School
officials have refused.
Where is the spirit of “tolerance?”
The
student newspaper of the University of Virginia, The Cavalier
Daily, published blasphemous insults against Our Lord, the Virgin
Mary, and Catholic Faith.
At
Lowenstein Castle in Germany, the TFP’s
2006 Sixth International Student Summer Conference
from July 23-30 discussed the theme: “What
are the Challenges that Await the Militant Catholic
in a Dechristianized World?”
America Needs Fatima has just republished John Haffert’s 1960 book, Meet the Witnesses, which contains the most complete collection of eyewitness testimonies to the Miracle of the Sun, in Fatima, ever made. However, since the unfortunate death of Sister Lucy in 2005, Meet the Witnesses has become even timelier.
The devastation wrought by
Hurricane Katrina is still overwhelmingly present
in New Orleans today. Such an event should at
least serve as a point of reflection not only
about the city’s physical but also its
moral devastation.
On June 2, 2006, America Needs Fatima launched the Sacred
Heart Badge campaign with the intent of flooding homes
across America with these blessed badges. The mailing,
which was sent to 80,000 people, includes three badges:
one for the addressee, and two to distribute.
A book titled: Missing From Action: Vanishing Manhood in
America explored the causes of the diminishing
role of manliness in society. This year’s
TFP Call to Chivalry camp could aptly be titled:
Back in Action.
Nearly 500 protesters
braved everything to join the June 24 rally
of reparation against The Da Vinci Code movie
at Sony offices in New York City. A similar
rally was held in Los Angeles.
After fighting blasphemy for four consecutive weekends outside theaters showing the Da Vinci Code film, American TFP members joined more than 1,000 groups and individuals around the nation in attending a holy hour of Eucharistic adoration on June 18.
Over 2,000 demonstrations
of protest and reparation against The Da
Vinci Code! People who never thought about
defending Our Lord and the Blessed Mother publicly
were suddenly leading the charge and making
a stand.
Catholics in
Rochester did not want to wait until the May
19 opening to protest The DaVinci Code movie. The local theater was already advertising
the film and so they decided to lead the way
by becoming the first of the over 1,000 planned
theater protests.
Many had trusted Notre Dame’s new president, Fr. John I. Jenkins, would restore moral order on campus. However, Fr. Jenkins issued an April 5 statement allowing pro-homosexual film festivals or events to continue at Our Lady’s university.
In the spirit of Catholic
militancy, the American TFP Choir is featuring a recording
of traditional Catholic choir music, sung in a masculine
and forceful style.
Something similar to what
happens in Communist countries appears to be developing
in the United States. The San Francisico Board
of Supervisors approved a March 16 resolution
publicly censuring the Catholic Church for its
position forbidding adoption of children by homosexual
pairs.
Friends and supporters
from all over Louisiana gathered for a one-day
seminar not only to study the secular attack on
the Faith but to plan future action.
In the late eighties,
efforts by victims' groups, recovered memory therapists
and lawyers tried to get legislatures to lift
the statute of limitations so that people could
file lawsuits no matter how long ago these things
had allegedly happened. A new effort is now gathering
steam.
State legislatures are introducing yet more bills to lift or extend retroactively statutes of limitations related to sexual abuse. The bills will permit thousands of civil tort lawsuits to be brought not against offending priests, religious or bishops but the Catholic Church.
The TFP statement, "Is it Fair that the Innocent Pay for the Guilty?" was published in the The Wanderer (February 8), The Washington Times (February 9 and 13), The Denver Post (February 19) and The Washington Times’ National Weekly Edition (February 20-26). To read this statement, click here.
O "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned..." These words of confession to a priest mark the lives of so many Catholics. However, that act of trust and healing is threatened by a third party, the State, which may soon have the right to listen.
On Tuesday, January 24,
the TFP Washington Bureau was filled with friends and
supporters in a reception for foreign friends who joined
the American TFP at the annual March for Life.
A cold penetrating rain poured down on the night before the March for Life. Many anti-abortion Americans looked at the bleak weather forecast and wondered what the next day’s march would bring. Dreary times not sunshiny days are when the true caliber and dedication of activists can be measured.
