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Fr. Wade Menezes Gives Good Information
The George W. Presidency Followed by the Obama Presidency Teaches Congress Important Lessons


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Fr. Wade Menezes Gives Good Information - On Jan 8th Fr. Menezes delivered the sermon during EWTN daily Mass. His presentation was full on interesting information about the break down of society that has occurred during the last half century.

He mentioned the decline of faith brought on by all the societal currents. Fr Menezes mentioned several from this list: the Vietnam War, the civil rights movements, draft dodging, the challenging of authority, the sexual revolution, legalized abortion, no fault divorce, etc.

However, in all these listings of disruptions Fr. Menezes left out the disruptions caused by the changes to the Catholic Mass brought on by the mis-interpretations of Vatican II.

These disruptions and misunderstandings included the following: 1) confusion about the meaning of the Mass as the sacrifice and memorial of Christ’s death on Cross , 2) loss of the mystery and majesty that had characterized the Mass for centuries, and 3) the confusion in young people’s mind about whether Christ is truly present in the Host. This latter item was exacerbated by the fact that the faithful no longer knelt to receive.

Over the last qtr century 23 million Catholics have given up going to Mass. That means that fallen away Catholics now comprise the largest religious group in America after Catholics who still practice their faith. This fallen away group represents 5 to 10 percent of the entire population of the US. In other words Catholics, who have given up the practice of their faith, are a major cause of the increased dysfunction in America.

Fr. Menezes might have mentioned that people particularly need stability in their religious practice when so much outside of religion is rapidly changing.

............. (prepared by Hugh Murray on 03/27/2013)


The George W. Presidency Followed by the Obama Presidency Teaches Congress Important Lessons - Obamacare regulations, the War in Iraq, the Dodd Frank regulations, adding codicils to bills during signing ceremonies, etc. have clearly sent a message to Congress that the President (regardless of party affiliation) has to be reigned in.

The founders intended that the Congress would decided what the country would do, what wars would be fought, what regulations and laws would be promulgated, etc. Additionally the founders intended that the President faithfully administer the laws Congress enacted.

However over the years Presidents have been taking opportunities to capture more and more power. Lincoln was the biggest offender in the 19th century. He used difficulties with the South to escalate the situation into a Civil War. With the Southern legislators absent from Washington he got nearly everything he wanted from a compliant Republican controlled Congress.

In the 20th century, Wilson and FDR, both Democrats, took up the Lincoln legacy. They had World Wars to deal with and in FDR’s case a depression as well. The delegations of power to the executive from Congress were huge. Wilson was given the power to jail people who criticized his war making program, FDR was given agencies that could write regulations by the hundreds to implement Congress’s intent.

Because of the income tax, which came in the early 20th century, the Federal government’s take from the overall economy increased. It passed 10% by the 1930's and moved steadily toward 20% of all economic activity (GDP). The Income Tax augmented the excise tax and import tariffs that the founders had granted to Federal government. The people in Washington had a continental sized country pumping huge amounts of money their way. No wonder the DC region became the city with the highest average family incomes.

Arrogance followed the money and soon the politicians and bureaucrats in DC began telling the whole country how to behave in greater and greater detail. States received mandates, sometimes with some matching money but mostly without. Businesses were the recipients of detail rules that micro managed many areas of their operations.

There was “no way” Congress could actually write detail, specific laws that spelled out all these mandates the “geniuses” in DC wanted to impose on the country. So they got in the habit on putting in each piece of legislation the phrase “the administration shall promulgate implementing regulations”.

An example here might illustrate. There was general legislation passed that said Congress wanted “the country to have clean water”. This then lead to regulation that required old cities, like St Louis, to install a completely new parallel sewer system so storm and sanitary water could have their own pipes. This was felt necessary because in flood times the old combined sewer (carrying both sanitary and storm water) became so full that the sewage treatment facilities could not handle the volume. So regulators required that these old cities spend billions digging up streets, sidewalks, parks, and yards to solve the “problem”.

Of course, the times when overflow occurs are exactly the same time the flow in rivers, like the Mississippi, rises dramatically and the overflow domestic waste from the city is hardly detectable.

The forgoing is worrisome but only involved wasted time and money.

However, in the twenty first century the Presidents have been going further and further. Obama’s HHS Department has issued regulations that actually require Catholics and Baptists to violate their deeply held religious beliefs. Obama says religious belief is only relevant inside a physical church, but activity motivated by religious belief, such as education or health care, that are performed outside the physical church building lose their protection under freedom of religion claims. This position will be tested in the Supreme Court and will probably be rejected. But the fact that Obama would even attempt such a move clearly indicates that general grants of power from Congress to the executive have been excessive.

A second example from the twenty first century is also instructive. Pres George W. Bush when signing legislation got in the habit of writing “his understandings” of the meaning of the legislation on the document before signing it. These understandings oftentimes changed the thrust and meaning of the legislation. The founders did not give the President the power to do a line item veto. The President must accept the bill as is or veto it. Obviously Pres. Bush’s actions amounted to something like a line item veto, and this should concern Congress greatly. ............... (prepared by Hugh Murray on 03/28/2013)

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This page hopes to bring a common sense, old fashioned view to today's news. The comments displayed on this page were prepared by Hugh V. Murray, who can be reached at hvm@aol.com