Could we hear this from the pulpit please?!? Have Lots Of Children. It’s Good For The Planet

Sean & Rachel Duffy and their 8 children know what's good for the planet

The problem with environmentalists isn’t merely that they have destructive ideas about the economy, but that so many of them embrace repulsive ideas about human beings.

Take this recent NPR piece that asks: “Should We Be Having Kids In The Age Of Climate Change?” If you want to learn about how environmentalism has already affected people in society, read about the couple pondering “the ethics of procreation and its impact on the climate” before starting a family or the group of women in a prosperous New Hampshire town swapping stories about how the “the climate crisis is a reproductive crisis.” [embarrassing, considering the long history of failure by over population fear mongers]

There are, no doubt, many good reasons a person might have for not wanting children. But, certainly, it’s tragic that some gullible Americans who have the means and emotional bandwidth — and perhaps a genuine desire — to be parents avoid having kids because of a quasi-religious belief in apocalyptic climate change and overpopulation.

Then again, maybe this is just Darwinism working its magic.

continue at The Federalist

HT Vicki

Pope Tells Young Couple ‘Have a Lot of Children’

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — She was 29 years old with a dream to see Italy before she turned 30.

So Miranda Emde convinced her mother, Martha, to go with her, and off they went. In October 2013, they toured Rome, Milan, Venice and Assisi for three weeks. But Miranda fell in love with Rome. She went to Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica every day while she was there — and she didn’t want to leave.

The day before they were to return home to California, Miranda had an idea. “I’m single still. What if I could live here [in Rome] for six months and do something for the Vatican?”

She and her mom asked around, but ended up wasting a few hours without finding out how to get a job at the Holy See. At that point, Miranda wanted to give up. “I said, ‘Let’s just go back to the hotel.’ My mom said, ‘No we are getting the information before we leave. We are going to walk by St. Anne’s Gate. Talk to the Swiss Guard who is there.”

......

Their relationship progressed, and Miranda made several more trips to Rome. After meeting his family in Switzerland — the homeland of all Swiss Guards — they started to discuss weddings plans. They even received a special blessing from Pope Francis after attending a private Mass. The Holy Father told Jonathan, “Have a beautiful family with a lot of children,” according to OCRegister.com.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/pray-trust-love-california-woman-will-marry-vatican-swiss-guard-this-fall/#ixzz3c0SmMCKI

HT Fr. Rocky

We Can't Stop ... Having Babies

HT LA

NYTimes profiles Michigan twin brothers who leave family farm for priesthood

FOWLER, Mich. — Aside for the mole grazing his right eyebrow, it is difficult to distinguish Gary Koenigsknecht from his identical twin, Todd, four minutes the elder.

Growing up, the twins, now 26, milked cows side by side on the family farm. They both graduated at the top of their high school class. And with their ordination on Saturday, they have begun careers as Roman Catholic priests, two of 477 men in the United States expected to be ordained this year.

They demonstrate that priestly vocations are not evenly distributed by family or geography: they are among six priests in their extended family, and among 22 from their hometown, Fowler, Mich., population 1,224. They officially tie up the leader board with the neighboring village of Westphalia, population 938, which has also produced 22 priests, making for a robust rivalry in both football and Roman collars.

In an era when the number of priests in the United States continues to dwindle — declining by 11 percent in the past decade and crippling the Catholic Church’s ability to meet the needs of a growing Catholic population — this rural patch of Clinton County offers a case study in the science and mystery of the call to priesthood.

continue at NY Times

Really well done.

HT MP

Rep. Sean Duffy and Rachael Campos-Duffy welcome seventh child into the world

Post by Congressman Sean Duffy.

God can work miracles

"[Our one year old] had a little baby.  Then the volcano got so hot and started burning.  Then the volcano exploded.  Then the volcano exploded some more.  Then all the people died.  Then they couldn't get up.  Then Saint Francis of Assisi made them all alive again because God can work miracles through other people and Saint Francis is another people."

- A story from my 5 year old son

My new response when asked if these are ALL MY kids...

"The world must be peopled!"

- Benedick - Much Ado About Nothing

NYTimes article on Catholic comedian Jim Gaffigan: Five Children. Any Questions?

Comedian Jim Gaffigan Takes Sundays Off From Stand-Up

On Sundays, the comedian and actor Jim Gaffigan, 46, takes a day off from stand-up. Instead of performing, he collects new fodder during family outings with his wife, Jeannie Noth Gaffigan, and their five children, Marre, 9; Jack, 7; Katie, 4; Michael, 22 months; and Patrick, 7 months, and time spent at their home, a fifth-floor walk-up on the Bowery. Some of this material can be seen and heard in Mr. Gaffigan’s Grammy-nominated, downloadable comedy special, “Mr. Universe,” and on his national tour. It also fills the pages of his new book, “Dad Is Fat,” which was released last week.

HOMECOMING Being a stand-up comedian, often I will be flying back very early on Sunday. I’ll fly back into La Guardia or J.F.K. or Newark, and then I will head home and maybe I’ll cook breakfast for the kids. I’ll make them scrambled eggs and toast and kind of destroy the place. Then we will do, like, a handoff where my wife will wake up at say, 9:30, 10, and then I’ll hand off to her and then I’ll go back to bed. 

CHURCH PREP Then we’ll valiantly attempt to get our five children to church on time at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. We try and get them out the door and bring stuff for them to do at church. Church is the last thing that a kid wants to do, sitting quietly and listening to a guy talking about metaphors, so getting them motivated to do that is a pretty big task.

continue at New York Times

HT The Wife

Become a 1-percenter!

My wife and I are part of the 1 percent — so we’re used to criticism. We’ve made a bundle — heck, a number of bundles — and while the rest of the nation seems to be in a slump, we’re just making more. We’re part of the false cult of quantity at the expense of quality. Our consumption hurts the environment. Our ridiculous tax breaks reward our selfishness at others’ expense. To give us larger breaks is so ridiculous a suggestion even the Wall Street Journal calls us tax “gangsters.” But we, I reply, are the makers. It’s right that our tax burden is lower, since we ultimately provide the raw material for jobs, innovation and future tax revenue.

Of course, when I say we’re in the top 1 percent, I mean kids. I can’t prove conclusively that we’re 1-percenters, but given that 2010 census data showed that only 1.9 percent of American homes had seven or more members, I think it’s likely. Many seven-plus households are surely multigenerational, and 2012 census data shows the average number of children under 18 per household living with parents was 1.88.

We ended 2012 with five. No. 6, God willing, will emerge from the womb in late summer.

continue at MN Catholic Conference

I haven't had a chance to post on it, but if you missed it a Gay Marriage bill is storming through MN legislature.  It has no exceptions for adoption agencies so it will likely shut down Catholic Charities in MN like it did in Illinois. It will probably come down to court challenges which will likely enshrine it into law.  Prayers. 

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Large families and holiness

"Large families can foster holiness for many reasons. For the parents, here are three: less sleep, higher costs, and more work. Three great reasons, some might say, for avoiding children altogether. And many do. But not if your aim is heaven. Indeed, the fruits of conjugal love produce the conditions by nature that monks and nuns have to impose upon themselves by grace."

From Crisis Magazine: The Long War Against the Family

HT Sam G

Image: NYT