My spiritual life has begun to take center stage in my life at the moment. So much so that I need to cut back on a few things until God's done molding me into the Christian He wants me to be. Which means that I will abstain from blogging, among other things, for the time being and return October 1st. In the meantime what you all can do instead of reading my blog is to pray for me that I will follow God's will. If you're still yearning to get your daily dose of Catholic news, analysis, and opinion I would suggest the following fine blogs located at the top left of my blog under the heading, Catholic Commentary: Catholic Report, Creative Minority Report, Pro Ecclesia, Inside Catholic, and The Inside Blog. And if that's still not enough to satisfy your appetite, just follow down on the left side of my blog all the excellent Catholic and news links for your reading pleasure. For my Houston Catholic readers I would suggest reading the list of all the Houston based Catholic and news links on the right hand of my blog. When I return to my blog I'll continue posting the top 7-12 Catholic news stories of each day 4-7 times a week as I have done in the past. I may even pick up one or two more writers that will contribute original news stories concerning our Catholic faith and the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston to my blog. Just to reiterate, I will return October 1st. God bless you all. In Jesus, Mary, & Joseph, Tito

CVSTOS FIDEI AFTERNOON EDITION The Coptic Conundrum - Raymond Ibrahim, American Thinker An Interview With A Crusader - Deborah Solomon, New York Times Homeschool Victory - Wall Street Journal We Want Real Catholic Schools to Help Form Saints - R. Kumpel, SJVB Polyphonic Propers, Chanted Ordinary - Jeffrey Tucker, New Lit Mov A Tale of Two Parties - Matthew Archbold, Creative Minority Report In Communist China, Echoes of Nazi Berlin - Michael Barone, RCP History's Back - Robert Kagan, The Weekly Standard Colorado To Vote on 'Personhood' - Ted Holteen, Durango Herald Bonus Video: Chinese Christians Arrested in Beijing - Leticia, Cs Nstr Ltt Bonus Commentary: Ukrainian Orthodox Parish turns Greek Catholic - Carlos A. Palad, RC Fr. Ernie Davis Sings Of His Conversion - Matthew Archbold, CMR Friday Abstinence - A Simple Sinner, The Black Cordelias $2M Award Against Planned Parenthood Doctor - T. Baklinski, LSN Bonus News: Christian Schools Demand College Credit - Susan D. James, ABC News Robert Downey Jr. A Papist? - Thomas Peters, American Papist Bonus Apologetics: Hitler's Pope: The Urban Legend - BFHU, The Black Cordelias Religious Commentary: The Sham of Women's Rights Under Shari'a - D.L. Perry, Amrcn Thnkr Secular Commentary: Chinese Root, Root, Root for the Away Team - Francesco Sisci, WaPo 'Path to 9/11' Release Blocked by Clintons - Rick Moran, Amrcn Thnkr Liberal Silence on Georgia - Jacky Kelly, Toledo Blade Hawaiian Extremists Occupy Iolani Palace - Suzanne Roig, Hon Advtsr (Biretta Tips: RealClearPolitics & Lucianne)

CVSTOS FIDEI EVENING EDITION Shea Takes Aim At Traditionalists (Again) - Steve Skojec, Cogito Ergo Mark Shea's Broad Brush - Patrick Archbold, Creative Minority Report Those Angry Traditionalists - Mark Shea, Inside Catholic Audibility of Prayers During TLM - Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, WDTPRS No More "Pick and Choose" - Christopher Zender, California Cthlc Daily Everything You Want To Know About Holy Days of Obligation - MfaCB Serious Catholicism For A Serious Election - George Weigel, ArchDen 2008 LA Religious Education Conference (ARGH!!!) - Jeff Miller, TCJ Huge Number of Clergy To Leave Over Women Bishops - Dly Tlgrph Anglican Bitterness Over Converts To Rome - Fr. J, The Blck Crdls Born, Breathing & Not a Person by Obama - Patrick McIlhern, Mlwk J-S Obama's Abortion Distortion - Kevin Vance, The Daily Standard Bonus Commentary: NYC: 72 Abortions for Every 100 Babies Born! - Matt Archbold, CMR New Mass Translation Accentuates Reverence & Awe - P. Lawler, OTR Anglican Diocese In Conversion Talks - Damian Thompson, Holy Smoke Bonus News: Tip: Ignatius Press Blowout Sale! - Thomas Peters, American Papist Secular Commentary: The Return of Wendell Willkie - Stephen H. Webb, First Things (Biretta Tips: Kevin Knight, PewSitter, & RealClearPolitics)

CVSTOS FIDEI EVENING EDITION "Shadow" Over the Marian Days - Rocco Palmo, Whispers in the Loggia Revival & Traditional Creativity in Liturgy - Shawn Tribe, NLM Solzhenitsyn & The Battle For The Soul - Robert Kraynak, First Things Galileo, Science, & the Smirking Chimp - Thomas Woods, Insd Cthlc Bp Refutes Article On Catholics Voting With Their Conscience - CNA ACLU & PP Fight Against S. Dakota Prolife Bill - Elana Schor, Grdn Catholic Magazine Accused of Hate Crime - P. Vere/J.H. Westen, LSN Doug Kmiec Claims Dems Pro-Life - Jay Anderson, Pro Ecclesia A Conversation With Bob Novak - Deal Hudson, The Inside Blog National Catholic Register Interviews PZ Myers - Jeff Miller, Crt Jstr A Catholic Case Against Obama - Pat Buchanan, Creators Syndicate Map: Largest Non-Catholic Denominations by State - Fr. J, TBC Bonus Commentary: Henry VIII Couldn't Be Reached For Comment - Matt Archbold, CMR Bonus News: A Vote of No Confidence in 'Bishop Arthur' - Damian Thompson, HS Catholic Pilgrims Seek Asylum in Australia - Reuters Dems to Officially Oppose Defense of Marriage Act - J. Anderson, PE Archbishop Chaput's New Book, "Render Unto Caesar..." - CITPS Secular Commentary: Russia, Putin, and Kosovo - Ellen Barry, New York Times Obama Claims to Have Been Talking About S. Ossetia - Ed Lasky, AT Meet Obama's Newest Middle East Advisor - Rick Moran, Am Thnkr (Biretta Tips: Kevin Knight, Pro Ecclesia, & PewSitter)

I am fascinated by the language of Latin. I don't know it at all except when I attend the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite (Gregorian Rite). It is part of our Christian heritage and I plan (if time allows) to try to teach myself rudimentary Latin someday. Enough can be said that it is the sad state of the public (and Catholic) school system that Latin was eliminated as a core curriculum. Joseph Bottum, the editor of First Things, wrote about this fact in today's feature article of First Things: Cum Mortuis in Lingua Mortua If you took an opinion poll, you’d probably find that the large majority of America’s Latin professors are fairly standard-issue liberals, politically indistinguishable from the rest of the nation’s academics. But, somewhere along the line, the public praise of Latin seems to have become mostly the province of curmudgeons and grumblers. Of romantic conservatives and hopeless nostalgics. Of the fussy old men who stroll along the beach and conjugate, alone, stray tenses of the Latin verbs—amatus sim, amatus sis: I should have been loved, you would have been loved. Amavi, tamen non amatus sum: I loved, but I was not loved. Ah, yes, there’s a picture that expresses the pointlessness of classical languages these days: Latinity as a consolation prize for Victorian bachelors whose unrequited loves are pressed, like faded violets, in one of those nineteenth-century copies of Catullus, bound in limp, purpureal leather. Except, of course, that some of the things that Catullus wrote about weren’t much talked about by the Victorians, unless they used such Latin phrases as peccatum illud horrible, inter Christianos non nominandum. And that’s to say nothing of the elegies of Ovid and even less of the epigrams of Martial. In truth, the nineteenth-century translations of ancient writers were not as bad as twentieth-century caricature would paint them. Whenever the narrative of Petronius’ Satyricon got a little too racy, the book would simply switch to the untranslated text—on the principle, I suppose, that if your Latin were good enough to catch what was going on, you were too well educated to be corrupted by it. That’s a principle I wish were still imposed, when I see the magazines in the back rack at the convenience store. But, then, I find I am becoming more and more of a curmudgeon as the years go by. Besides, think of the increased enrollment in classics courses if all sex ads had to read something like tutela valui, the Latin phrase reportedly sported as a belly tattoo by the meretrix honesta with whom Eliot Spitzer recently passed some time in a Washington hotel room. The decline and fall of Latin is so nearly complete that it’s hard to remember just what it is that we have lost. In a radio interview this spring, Silvio Berlusconi remarked, “My Latin is good enough that I believe I could even have a lunch with Julius Caesar.” It’s appropriate, I suppose, that the prime minister of Italy has luncheon-level Latin. The pope’s command of the language is pretty good, too, I hear, despite the fact that he started out life as a German. But outside of this pair in Rome, does anybody else still know the language of the Caesars? I mean, anybody on a prominent public stage? There was a time, and not so long ago, when knowledge of Latin was taken as a fundamental mark of culture: that which distinguished genuinely educated people from, say, journalists and sociology professors. But those days are as gone as gone can be. When Rudyard Kipling published descriptions of Latin classes in his school stories, Stalky and Co., in 1899, he was writing of a time when the entrance exams for the British imperial service and officer corps still gave thousands of marks for the mandatory Latin section. Nobody is held back now for anything by a lack of classical languages. Which is good, I suppose. And yet, Latin was dropped from Western culture’s picture of education for a number of reasons, none of which seem to have turned out particularly well. Thus, for example, practicality was often claimed as a reason to drop the Latin curriculum, but, in the end, concentrating solely on practical things turns out not to be particularly practical. Algebra isn’t practical for most people—when was the last time you were asked to derive the quadratic formula?—but without it in the notion of general education, we’d lose large swaths of the people who go on to higher math. Latin was dismissed, as well, in the name of democracy and anti-elitism, though the objective standards of a classical education actually provided a path for social mobility. Latin was dismissed, for that matter, as unnecessary in the great advance of liberalism that would free us from the dead weight of the past. Something like this seems particularly to have infected Catholic schools, which preserved the Latin curriculum longer than the public schools—only to fling it overboard in the 1960s and 1970s with even greater abandon than some public schools. There’s a superior command of English granted by the study of Latin, but even to make that argument is to admit that Latin requires some practical result. For that matter, there’s plenty to learn from the ancient world’s experience of politics, social life, and art, and yet, again, that’s not, in itself, a reason to demand that students study Latin. Translations will do as well, if that’s all we want, and the real argument for Latin runs deeper than mere practicality. In fact, Latin was a measure of education, not a portion that could be added or dropped. Admittedly a somewhat arbitrary measure, though it kept us tied to the continuity of Western civilization. But without some such measure, the entire idea of education becomes vulnerable to the skeptic’s relativistic question of “Who’s to say?” Who’s to say what’s right or wrong? Who’s to say what’s true or false? Who’s to say what knowledge we should share?

CVSTOS FIDEI EARLY MORNING EDITION 17 Dead, 30 Hospitalized Heading to US Marian Festival - Hstn Chron Let Us Pray in Latin, Priests Take on Libs - Damian Thompson, Times ...Fr. Zuhlsdorf comments on Damian's article... N.C. Reporter's Shameful Article on Priestesses - Fr. Z, WDTPRS ...Jeff Miller comments on National Catholic Reporter's article... The Compendium on Steroids - Rich Leonardi, Ten Reasons More Benedictine Arrangements - Shawn Tribe, Nw Ltrgcl Mvmnt Archdiocese Allows Controversial Religious Group - GM Corrigan, HE Protestants Learning NFP - Eileen Flynn, American-Statesman NOVA Magazine 1970’s - It Speaks For Itself - The Black Cordelias Saints in Beijing Olympics - Matthew Archbold, Crtv Mnrty Rprt The Betrayal of Loyal Catholics - Damian Thompson, Holy Smoke Bonus Video: HLI Video: Pro-Life Counselors Homosexually Assaulted - Fr. J, TBC Book Review: Jesus & 1st-Century Christianity in Jerusalem - Jeff Miller, Crt Jstr Bonus Commentary: California Court: Homeschooling Constitutional - Matt Archbold, CMR The Underpopulation Problem - The Catholic World Report Priest: Olympics are a Human Rights Disaster - Matt Archbold, CMR Germany Declares War on Homeschoolers - Dale Hurd, CBN News Bonus News: Pope Benedict XVI Appeals for Peace in South Ossetia - Vatican Radio ...Catholic Relief Services Readying Response In Georgia... Bonus Apologetics: Why Does the Catholic Church Accept Traditions? - BFHU, TBC Secular Commentary: Is Amazon Deleting Conservative Book Reviews? - Warner Huston, NB 'Why Georgia Lost the War' - Rick Moran, American Thinker Georgian Conflict Driven by Fear - Peter Wilson, The Australian FNC Discusses NBC's Coverage of China - Brad Wilmouth, NewsBusters Secular News: Fears of Russian Advance Into Georgia Grow - The Telegraph Cheney: Russian Action 'Must Not Go Unanswered' - Associated Press (Biretta Tips: Kevin Knight & PewSitter)

CVSTOS FIDEI EVENING EDITION I (Benedict) Was Once 'More Severe' Than Today - John Allen, ATC San Francisco Homosexual Fest Features Public Sex - World Net Daily Losing the Human Rights Olympics - John Nichols, The Nation Mainstream Media Evidence of Bias - Matthew Archbold, Crtv Min Rep Review: 'Population Controllers' by Steven Mosher - Dc. Fournier, CO Casey Jr. at Dem Convention to Appease Catholics - Jay Anderson, PE Fair to Say Obama Supports Infanticide? - Deal Hudson, Inside Cthlc Obama: Premature Babies Aren't People - Human Events Pelosi Insists Again That She’s "Catholic" - California Catholic Daily Bonus Video: Irena Sendler: Profile In Christian Courage - Matthew Archbold, CMR Shameless Blog Plug of the Day: The S.I.C.L.E. Cell (via Creative Minority Report) Secular Commentary: Liberals & Profanity, a Perfect Match? - Matthew Sheffield, NwsBstrs (Biretta Tips: Pro Ecclesia, PewSitter, & RealClearPolitics)

CVSTOS FIDEI EVENING EDITION On Mediocre Liturgy - Mark Shea, Inside Catholic "Men" is Back in the New Missal - Rich Leonardi, Ten Reasons Bloggers Examine the New Missal - Dc. Greg Kandra, Deacon's Bench ...English Translation of The Order of Mass I... Homosexuality & Societal Suicide - Robert Kumpel, St. John's Vldst Blg Masses of Reparation - Jeff Miller, The Curt Jester Quote Bible, Go To Jail - Patrick Archbold, Creative Minority Report AIDs Progress: No Credit to Abstinence - Tom Blumer, NewsBusters Obama's Heart of Darkness - Tito, Custos Fidei Vatican: Benedict XVI and Alexy II Meeting Possible - Interfax Coldplay is Anti-Catholic? - Margaret Cabaniss, The Inside Blog Abp of Canterbury Adds to Misogyny - Damian Thompson, Hly Smk A Christian at the Movies - Anthony Sacramone, First Things Bonus Commentary: Uncertain Economy? Blame the Babies - Patrick Archbold, CMR Combox Trolls - Brian Saint-Paul, The Inside Blog Transcending Anglicanism - David Mills, Inside Catholic Priests Secrets - Fr. Erik Richsteig, Orthometer The Theory of Anarchy - Zachary, Civics Geeks Catholic Flashback: 1989 Empress Zita of Austria Passes Away - Feddie, Southern Appeal Religious Commentary: Publisher Drops Novel of Mohammed's Wife - Matthew Sheffield, NB Secular Commentary: 'Saturday Night Live' Makes CNN Rethink - Scott Pierce, Deseret News Secular News: Mexican Soldiers Enter U.S., Hold Agent Briefly - Associated Press Obama Campaign Blog is Hotbed of Anti-Semitism - Israel Today (Biretta Tips: Kevin Knight, PewSitter, & Dale Price)

Children are a gift from God: Lo, sons are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

-- Psalm 127:3-5 Who then does a Catholic vote for in the 2008 American presidential election? It's easy, definitely not Barack Obama, the man with possibly the heart of darkness. Sources: Holy Bible and Priests for Life

CVSTOS FIDEI AFTERNOON EDITION Double Standard Coverage of PB16 & Obama - Dave Hartline, Cth Rep ICEL, Copyright, & the Core of the Problem - Jeffrey Tucker, NLM 'Peace and Justice' Catholics - Bill Donohue, Inside Catholic Tomorrow: 30th Anniversary of Death of Paul VI - Fr. Z, WDTPRS The Communication of Idioms & the Eucharist - Robert, Blck Crdls Recycling the Myths of Abortion History - Joseph Dellapenna, FT The Knights Templar of the Holy Hard Cash - Matthew Archbold, CMR Glorifying Heresy - Robert Kumpel, St. John's Valdosta Blog Bonus Commentary: Raleigh Bishop Issues Diocesan Norms for Liturgy - Fr. Z, WDTPRS Pout Like A Pope, Baby! - Matthew Archbold, Creative Minority Report Waugh Answers the Culture Question - Sarah, Rcptrng Our Cth Ptrmny Peaceful Pro-Lifers Arrested in Maryland - Jean Heimann, Cthlc Fire Tolerance? Lesbians Gone Wild in San Diego - Robert Kumpel, SJVB 18 Tips For Being a Great Dad - Leo Babauta, The Art of Manliness Bonus Video: Do You Want Their Blood on YOUR Hands Too? - Robert Kumpel, SJVB Religious Commentary: Dawkins' Attack on Islamic Creationism - Damian Thompson, Hly Smk Many Democrats are of Little Faith - Shaunti Feldhahn, Tucson Citizen Tyson Plant Drops Labor Day for Muslim Holiday - Associated Press Antichrist Accusations Abound for Obama - Ed Stoddard, FaithWorld Secular Commentary: Forgetting the Evils of Communism - Jonah Goldberg, LA Times Political Power Flowing from the Pump - Timothy Birdnow, Am Thnkr Anti-Obama Bloggers Say They Were Silenced - Anna Phillips, NY Sun Terror Tactics of PETA Activists - John Cote, SF Chronicle (Biretta Tips: Kevin Knight & Lucianne) (Pic: Jill Stanek on BAIPA)

CVSTOS FIDEI EVENING EDITION

Washington, DC (04 August 2008) – New statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics are adding more evidence to the body of research surrounding the link between abortion and infant death. "Here is another of the unseen consequences of abortion," said Leslie Tignor, director of American Life League's Associate Program. "We're seeing that abortion not only ends the life of a child; it also endangers the life of that child's future siblings. "Tignor is project manager of "Baby Steps," a DVD that features detailed 4D ultrasound pictures of preborn babies from eight to 34 weeks throughout their 16 stages of development. The NCHS' "Infant Mortality Statistics from the 2005 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set," (Vol. 57, No. 2) of the National Vital Statistics Report released July 30, shows that preterm births were responsible for over 36.5 percent of infant deaths in 2005. The NCHS' findings affirm past studies that show women who have had abortions are more likely to give birth to preterm babies. The 2007 Journal of Reproductive Medicine reported that nearly 32 percent of "very preterm" U.S. births – before 32 weeks gestation – are due to the mother's prior abortions. "American Life League will continue to work to make women aware of abortion's ripple effect," Tignor said. "Not only does abortion hurt women, preborn babies and their families, but it could also risk the life of future children. Abortion leads to death, not only for the preborn child killed by abortion, but also for the many children susceptible to preterm birth and infant death. American Life League was cofounded in 1979 by Judie Brown. It is the largest grassroots Catholic pro-life organization in the United States and is committed to the protection of all innocent human beings from the moment of creation to natural death. For more information or media inquiries, please contact Katie Walker at 540.659.4942. FOR MORE INFORMATION: LifeSiteNews: Abortion Linked Condition Contributes to Growing Number of Infant Deaths (30 July 2008) http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08073009.html National Center for Health Statistics: Infant Mortality Rates from the 2005 Period (30 July 2008) http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_02.pdf LifeSiteNews: Previous Abortion Linked with Preterm Birth and Cerebral Palsy http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/oct/07102602.html

CVSTOS FIDEI EVENING EDITION Knights Templar Heirs in Papal Legal Battle - Fiona Govan, Tlgrph P.Z. Myers Followers Missing the Point - Jeff Miller, The Curt Jester Formerly Christian Lebanon - Baron Bodissey, Gates of Vienna Fear Stalks Muslim Apostates in the West - David Rusin, Amrcn Thnkr Book Outlines Frightening Facts About Contraception - Blck Crdls Archbishop Sean O'Malley Interview - Dc. Greg Kandra, Deacons Bench A Catholic Mom of 10 Has Moved Her Blog Bonus Commentary: Bishops Ask Canterbury for an 'Orderly Separation’ - Telegraph I Kissed Dating Good-Bye - David Bennett, Per Christum A Blogalypse Now - Patrick Archbold, Creative Minority Report A Moving Letter from a Pregnant Nun Who Was Raped - Rl Clr Rlgn Pro-Marriage Forces Struggle in California - Charlie Spiering, NCRgstr Secular Commentary: Russian Author Alexander Solzhenitsyn Dies at 89 - Douglas Birch, AP PETA Terrorists Bomb Home of Biologist - Thomas Lifson, Am Thnkr

Catholic Fire A Catholic Mom in Hawaii The Deacon's Bench Vita Nostra in Ecclesia Happy Catholic The blogs listed above are but a small sample of the Catholic blogs that have been shut down since early this morning. Google has been systematically shutting down Catholic blogs all day beginning since last night. Starting this morning with Catholic Fire and A Catholic Mom in Hawaii and continuing nonstop throughout the day. I've gotten emails from bloggers and I've been gathering as much information as possible. The rumors that I have heard is that Obama supporters are targeting bloggers, in our case Catholic bloggers, by complaining to Google by devious mean such as labeling Catholic bloggers as pornography purveyors or racist(s). Other rumors suggest this is happening randomly as reported by Instapundit. Matthew Archbold of Creative Minority Report has been reporting on this since 8:47 am CST. I'll update the posting the more information I gather. If the rumor that Google is shutting down (blocking) Catholic blogs we may have to organize and call for a boycott on Google.