The Lion ROARS from Rome!

Once again, our (St. Louis) former Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, yet again, ROARS his Pro-Life Stance to us all the way from Rome. People, this is a WAKE UP CALL FOR US! We cannot continue to be silent about this as our former Shepherd continues to speak Loudly and BOLDLY to us from half way around the world. Here is an interview done with him!

We LOVE YOU and MISS YOU SO MUCH Your Excellency!

Qorban Ministries

By Hilary White

ROME, January 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Archbishop Raymond Burke, in an exclusive interview last week, told LifeSiteNews.com that the issue of pro-abortion politicians continuing to receive Holy Communion is still one of major concern and that it is the duty of bishops to ensure that they are refused.

He told LifeSiteNews.com, "I don't understand the continual debate that goes on about it. There's not a question that a Catholic who publicly, and after admonition, supports pro-abortion legislation is not to receive Holy Communion and is not to be given Holy Communion."

"The Church's law is very clear," said Archbishop Burke, who was appointed last year by Pope Benedict XVI as the head of the Church's highest court, the Apostolic Signatura. "The person who persists publicly in grave sin is to be denied Holy Communion, and it [Canon Law] doesn't say that the bishop shall decide this. It's an absolute."

Among the US bishops directly to address the issue, Archbishop Burke was one of around a dozen who vigorously supported a directive of the Vatican that said pro-abortion Catholic politicians "must be refused" Holy Communion if they attempt to receive at Mass. Others have refused to abide by the Vatican instruction and the Church's own Code of Canon Law, saying they would rather focus on "education" of such politicians.

Archbishop Burke called "nonsense" the accusation, regularly made by some bishops, that refusing Holy Communion "makes the Communion rail a [political] battle ground". In fact, he said, the precise opposite is true. The politician who insists on being seen receiving Holy Communion, despite his opposition to the Church's central teachings, is using that reception for political leverage.

In 2004, when self-proclaimed Catholic and candidate for the Democrat party, Sen. John Kerry, was frequently photographed receiving Holy Communion despite his vigorous support of abortion, the US Bishops Conference issued a document which said only that it is up to individual bishops whether to implement the Church's code of Canon Law and refuse Communion. The issue has remained prominent with the appointment of Joe Biden, another pro-abortion Catholic politician, as Vice President of the United States of America.

Archbishop Burke recalled previous experiences with Kerry, pointing to the several occasions when the senator was pictured in Time magazine receiving Communion from Papal representatives at various public events. Burke said that it is clear that Kerry was using his reception of Holy Communion to send a message.

"He wants to not only receive Holy Communion from a bishop but from the papal representative. I think that's what his point was. Get it in Time magazine, so people read it and say to themselves, 'He must be in good standing'."

"What are they doing? They're using the Eucharist as a political tool."

In refusing, far from politicising the Eucharist, the Church is returning the matter to its religious reality. The most important reasons to refuse, he said, are pastoral and religious in nature.

"The Holy Eucharist, the most sacred reality of our life in the Church, has to be protected against sacrilege. At the same time, individuals have to be protected for the sake of their own salvation from committing one of the gravest sins, namely to receive Holy Communion unworthily."

Archbishop Burke also dismissed the commonly proffered excuse that such politicians need more "education". Speaking from his own direct experience, he said that Catholic politicians who are informed by their pastors or bishops that their positions in support of pro-abortion legislation makes it impossible for them to receive Holy Communion, "I've always found that they don't come forward."

"When you talk to these people, they know," he said. "They know what they're doing is very wrong. They have to answer to God for that, but why through our pastoral negligence add on to that, that they have to answer to God for who knows how many unworthy receptions of Holy Communion?"

Archbishop Burke said that the issue had been debated enough. He rejected the idea that the matter should be left to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, saying the Conference has no authority in the matter. "This is a law of the universal Church and it should be applied."

"I think this argument too is being used by people who don't want to confront the issue, this whole 'wait 'til the Conference decides'...well the Conference has been discussing this since at least 2004. And nothing happens."

When asked what the solution was, he responded, "Individual bishops and priests simply have to do their duty. They have to confront politicians, Catholic politicians, who are sinning gravely and publicly in this regard. And that's their duty.

"And if they carry it out, not only can they not be reproached for that, but they should be praised for confronting this situation."

Black History Month - Dr. Benjamin Carson

Dr. Benjamin Carson has written over ninety neurosurgical publications. He has been awarded 24 honorary degrees and numerous national citations of merit. Carson has written three bestselling books, Gifted Hands, Think Big. and The Big Picture. Currently, Benjamin Carson serves as the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 1987, he gained world-wide recognition as the principal surgeon in the twenty-two hour separation of the Binder Siamese twins from Germany.

Benjamin Carson was born into poverty and as a young child was doing poorly in school. His father abandoned the family when Benjamin Carson was eight, however, his mother encouraged him to learn, and he was transformed from a fifth-grade "dummy" into a top scholar.

Dr. Benjamin Carson obtained a scholarship to Yale University, then graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School. At 33, Benjamin Carson became the youngest ever chief of pediatric neurosurgery in the U.S., and developed techniques that have saved the lives of hundreds of children.

This pioneering surgeon has received many honors and is an extraordinary role model, who has, in his own words, "overcome rage, racism and poverty" to reach the greatest heights of his profession.

Black History Month – Dr. Patricia Bath

Dr. Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist from New York, but living in Los Angeles when she received her patent, became the first African American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical invention. Patricia Bath's patent (no. 4,744,360), a method for removing cataract lenses, transformed eye surgery, using a laser device making the procedure more accurate.

Patricia Bath's passionate dedication to the treatment and prevention of blindness led her to develop the Cataract Laserphaco Probe. The probe, patented in 1988, is designed to use the power of a laser to quickly and painlessly vaporize cataracts from patients' eyes, replacing the more common method of using a grinding, drill-like device to remove the afflictions. With another invention, Bath was able to restore sight to people who had been blind for over 30 years. Patricia Bath also holds patents for her invention in Japan, Canada, and Europe.

Patricia Bath graduated from the Howard University School of Medicine in 1968 and completed specialty training in ophthalmology and corneal transplant at both New York University and Columbia University. In 1975, Bath became the first African-American woman surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center and the first woman to be on the faculty of the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute. She is the founder and first president of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness. Patricia Bath was elected to Hunter College Hall of Fame in 1988 and elected as Howard University Pioneer in Academic Medicine in 1993.

Black History Month – Benjamin Banneker

Benjamin Banneker was a self-educated scientist, astronomer, inventor, writer, and antislavery publicist. He built a striking clock entirely from wood, published a Farmers' Almanac, and actively campaigned against slavery. He was one of the first African Americans to gain distinction in science.

Family Background

On November 9 1731, Benjamin Banneker was born in Ellicott's Mills, Maryland. He was the descendent of slaves, however, Banneker was born a freeman. At that time the law dictated that if your mother was a slave then you were a slave, and if she was a freewomen then you were a free person. Banneker's grandmother, Molly Walsh was a bi-racial English immigrant and indentured servant who married an African slave named Banna Ka, who had been brought to the Colonies by a slave trader. Molly had served seven years as an indentured servant before she acquired and worked on her own small farm. Molly Walsh purchased her future husband Banna Ka and another African to work on her farm. The name Banna Ka was later changed to Bannaky and then changed to Banneker. Benjamin's mother Mary Banneker was born free. Benjamin's father Rodger was a former slave who had bought his own freedom before marrying Mary.

Education and Skills

Benjamin Banneker was educated by Quakers, however, most of his education was self-taught. He quickly revealed to the world his inventive nature and first achieved national acclaim for his scientific work in the 1791 survey of the Federal Territory (now Washington, D.C.). In 1753, he built one of the first watches made in America, a wooden pocket watch. Twenty years later, Banneker began making astronomical calculations that enabled him to successfully forecast a 1789 solar eclipse. His estimate made well in advance of the celestial event, contradicted predictions of better-known mathematicians and astronomers.

Banneker's mechanical and mathematical abilities impressed many, including Thomas Jefferson who encountered Banneker after George Elliot had recommended him for the surveying team that laid out Washington D.C.

Farmers' Almanacs

Banneker is best known for his six annual Farmers' Almanacs published between 1792 and 1797. In his free time, Banneker began compiling the Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanac and Ephemeris. The almanacs included information on medicines and medical treatment, and listed tides, astronomical information, and eclipses, all calculated by Banneker himself.

Letter to Thomas Jefferson

On August 19 1791, Banneker sent a copy of his first almanac to secretary of state Thomas Jefferson. In an enclosed letter, he questioned the slaveholder's sincerity as a "friend to liberty." He urged Jefferson to help get rid of "absurd and false ideas" that one race is superior to another. He wished Jefferson's sentiments to be the same as his, that "one Universal Father . . . afforded us all the same sensations and endowed us all with the same faculties." Jefferson responded with praise for Banneker's accomplishments.

Benjamin Banneker died on October 25, 1806.

Keep on Keepin' On!

Qorban Ministries

www.CatholicEvangelist.net

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Black History Month – Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr…

Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (November 29, 1908 – April 4, 1972) was an American politician and pastor who represented Harlem, New York in the United States House of Representatives between 1945 and 1971. He was the first African-American elected to Congress from New York. He became chairman of the Education and Labor Committee in 1961. As committee chairman, he supported the passage of important social legislation.

For more information please see this link.

God bless you and remember,

"KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON!"

Qorban Ministries

Article courtesy of Wikipedia

Black History Month – Hiram Rhodes Revels…

Hiram Rhodes Revels (September 27, 1822 – January 16, 1901) was the first African American to serve in the United States Senate. Since he preceded any African American in the House, he was the first African American in the U.S. Congress as well. He represented Mississippi in 1870 and 1871 during Reconstruction. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Hiram Rhodes Revels on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.^[1] As of 2009, Revels is one of only six African Americans ever to have served in the United States Senate.

For more information, please see this link at Wikipedia.

God bless and Keep on Keepin On!

Qorban Ministries

www.CatholicEvangelist.net

www.RLaneConsultants.com

Information courtesy of Wikipedia

Black History Month – St. Louis’ own Sister Antona Ebo…

"During the past few weeks Sister Antona Ebo, a Franciscan Sister of Mary, has been making national news—again. She and a number of Catholic sisters were pioneers in the struggle for civil rights in Selma, Alabama, back in 1965. Now a PBS documentary, Sisters of Selma: Bearing Witness for Change, is telling their story, 42 years later. The film, produced and directed by Los Angeles filmmaker Jayasri Majumdar Hart, is a look at the events that led to the protest. Along the way, it sets the context of Church renewal that led the sisters to take a controversial, public stand for civil rights.

Six sisters were part of the St. Louis delegation to Selma on Wednesday, March 10, 1965. It was three days after a peaceful protest march had been brutally attacked by white-supremacist local authorities, a shocking, widely publicized event that caused the day to be forever known as "Bloody Sunday." The sisters' appearance among the protesters in the following days—and especially African-American Sister Antona—made worldwide headlines.

St. Anthony Messenger caught up with this amazing 82-year-old at the world premiere of the film at the University of Dayton late in 2006. We spent some time with Sister Antona and producer Jayasri Hart. Here is the remarkable story of the woman who, when it was time to "put up or shut up," as Sister Antona says, flew on what she calls "a rickety plane" to Selma.

Introducing Sister Antona

The civil-rights struggle in Selma, Alabama, seems like ancient history to young people today. The Sisters of Selma film premiere at a University of Dayton auditorium drew a standing-room-only crowd of theology-class students at the Marianist university, most of whom—though attendance was mandatory—seemed fascinated by this old woman before them who had actually played a hand in history.

"They said they read about all this stuff," says Sister Antona, speaking of one of her many college audiences, "but they really didn't know anybody that really could tell them about the story." One of her young friends back home in St. Louis, Missouri, calls her "Grandma Sister," she quips. "I love to hear that."

This now-grandmotherly Franciscan Sister of Mary was 41, working at a hospital in St. Louis, where the community is based, when the Selma protest happened. What brought her to the Franciscan sisters is a story in itself, one that helps explain how she wound up in Selma. She tells her story not without humor.

Elizabeth Louise Ebo became Sister Mary Antona in 1947 a year after she entered the convent. She took the name Antona from a Sinsinawa Dominican sister who had taught her algebra and geometry. "When I got finished with her, she gave up teaching and went to a cloister out in California!" she says with a mischievous grin, and adds that another of her teachers followed to the cloister soon thereafter (they were starting a new foundation).

She credits her conversion to Catholicism as a young girl to a dare from a friend and the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Her mother had died when Elizabeth was only four, and the Great Depression had left her illiterate father unable to support his three children. So the three siblings grew up in McLean County Home for Colored Children, in their hometown of Bloomington, Illinois. When she was about nine, one of her childhood friends, Bish ("he was nicknamed Bishop because he wore his beads around his neck and told me that that was his rosary," she explains), convinced her to go with him inside St. Mary's Church (staffed by Franciscan friars of St. John the Baptist Province).

The young girl was fascinated and felt drawn to the Blessed Sacrament. Little could she imagine that, decades later, she would receive Communion directly from Pope John Paul II, during his 1999 visit to St. Louis. That's getting ahead of the story, but it shows what a gift her friend Bish was in her life. While she was waiting to receive Communion from the pope, she says, "I could only think, Bish brought me to this."

She recalls of the distant past, "When Bish and I were sent downtown to pick up the day-old bread from the bakery, on the way Bish said to me: 'If I go in that church, will you tell on me?' And I said, 'No.' Honey, and I went in that church! Bish went straight up to the Communion rail, knelt down and prayed.

"Then we had to run all the way to the bakery and run all the way back, but meanwhile, he's huffing and puffing and telling me why he was kneeling before that altar." She looked later in her "Baptist Bible" and read the words of Jesus offering his body and blood as real food and real drink. "As an adult," she says, "as I reflect on that story, I think we were on the way to pick up day-old bread for our body. And this child taught me about the bread of life that was on that altar."

A few years after that, young Elizabeth contracted tuberculosis and her thumb became badly infected. "I lost the thumb and got religion," she quips, because while she was isolated in the TB sanatorium, she took classes and ultimately became Catholic. Her love of the Eucharist and her desire to work as a nurse led her away from Bloomington to a segregated St. Louis convent, one of the few that would accept blacks. "We have a song that says, 'He's preparing me for everything that comes in my life'—and he prepared me."

Keep on Keepin' On!

Qorban Ministries

Article courtesy of AmericanCatholic.org

Foundress of the first religious order for women of African Decent

Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange was born to a wealthy family around 1784 in what is now Haiti. She, along with hundreds of others, fled that country in the late 18th century when a revolution occurred. By 1818 and perhaps even earlier, Mother Lange was educating Black children in her own home in Baltimore and at her own expense with another female refugee. At the time, there was no public education for Blacks in Baltimore. In 1828, with the help of Sulpician Father James Joubert, S.S., Mother Lange and two other Black women started the first Black Catholic school in the Catholic Church in America. A year later, three Black women and Mother Lange pronounced vows to become the first religious order of women of African descent. In 1829, Mother Lange became the first mother superior of the order. Despite facing discouragement, racism and a lack of funds, Mother Lange continued to educate children and meet the total needs of the Black Catholic community. She died on February 3, 1882 and is buried at the New Cathedral Cemetery on Old Frederick Road. Today the Oblate Sisters of Providence now number 125 sisters, 20 associates, and 16 Guild Members. Their motto: Providence will Provide.

Keep on Keepin' on!

Qorban Ministries

Black History Month – First African-American to earn Ph.D. from Harvard…

W.E.B. DuBois – was the First African-American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1895.

Du Bois was the most prominent intellectual leader and political activist on behalf of African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century. A contemporary of Booker T. Washington, he carried on a dialogue with the educator about segregation, political disfranchisement, and ways to improve African American life. He was labeled "The Father of Pan-Africanism."

Along with Washington, Du Bois helped organize the "Negro exhibition" at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. It included Frances Benjamin Johnston's photos of Hampton Institute's black students.^[15] The Negro exhibition focused on African Americans' positive contributions to American society.^[15]

In 1905, Du Bois, along with Minnesota attorney Fredrick L. McGhee^[16] and others, helped found the Niagara Movement with William Monroe Trotter. The Movement championed freedom of speech and criticism, the recognition of the highest and best human training as the monopoly of no caste or race, full male suffrage, a belief in the dignity of labor, and a united effort to realize such ideals under sound leadership.

The alliance between Du Bois and Trotter was, however, short-lived, as they had a dispute over whether or not white people should be included in the organization and in the struggle for civil rights. Believing that they should, in 1909 Du Bois with a group of like-minded supporters founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

In 1910, Du Bois left Atlanta University to work full-time as Publications Director at the NAACP. He also wrote columns published weekly in many newspapers, including the Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle as well as the African American Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier and the New York Amsterdam News. For 25 years, Du Bois worked as editor-in-chief of the NAACP publication, The Crisis, then subtitled A Record of the Darker Races. He commented freely and widely on current events and set the agenda for the fledgling NAACP. The journal's circulation soared from 1,000 in 1910 to more than 100,000 by 1920.^[17]

^{God bless you and Keep on Keepin' on!}

^{Qorban Ministries}

 

^{Courtesy of Wikipedia}

Black History Month 2

General Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.

"Born on July 1, 1877, in Washington, D.C. Breaking new ground, Davis became the first African American general in the United States Army. He began his military career as a volunteer during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Receiving his commission in 1901, Davis was made a second lieutenant in the regular army. Despite the widespread prejudice against African Americans, he rose up the ranks, becoming a brigadier general in 1940.

During his decades of military service, Davis spent much of his time teaching others as a professor of military science and tactics at Wilberforce University in Ohio and the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He also served tours of duty around the world, including in the Philippines and Liberia. During World War II, he held many posts, including assistant to the Inspector General. One of his most crucial roles at this time was an advisor on African American issues in Europe. Many black soldiers were upset by the discrimination they encountered from white soldiers and by their exclusion from combat duty. A well-regarded military officer and an important member of the black community, Davis offered his advice and counsel how to improve this tense situation and lobbied for a full integration of U.S. troops. The army agreed a limited integration of the forces in Europe.

Leaving the military in 1948, Davis had spent fifty years serving his country. During his exemplary career, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and the Distinguished Service Medal. Davis died of leukemia on November 26, 1970. Twice married, he had three children. His son, Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., followed his father's footsteps, also becoming a general in the U.S. Army."

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Article Courtesy of Biography.com

Black History Month

"Who was the first African American to win the Congressional Medal of Honor? Claims have been made for several soldiers. Some claim that Private Wanton won this honor in the Spanish American War. But Buffalo Soldiers won a Medal of Honor before that in the Indian Wars. Others make the Claim for Sergeant William Carney.

William Carney was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was a member of Company C, 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry. On July 18, 1863, during the Battle of Fort Wagner, South Carolina, which involved the all-Black 54th and 55th Massachusetts Colored Regiments, Commander Robert G. Shaw was shot down. A few feet from where he fell laid Sergeant Carney. Summoning all of his strength, Carney held aloft the colors and continued the charge. Having been shot several times, he kept the colors flying high, and miraculously retreated his regiments. Although he made it out alive, many of his comrades did not. For in the deadly battle, over 1,500 Black troops died. On this day in 1900, Sergeant William H. Carney was issued the Congressional Medal of Honor; some say this made him the first Black to ever win the coveted award. It should be noted that sixteen other Black soldiers and four Black sailors eventually received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their heroics during the tragic epic in American history."

God bless you and Keep on Keepin' on!

Qorban Ministries

 

Sources for this article – www.medalofhonor.com