‘Parent One’ and ‘Parent Two'

Political correctness gone mad in America:

Parentage goes ‘gender neutral‘ on passport form.

The Washington Post reports:

Goodbye, Mom and Dad. Hello, Parent One and Parent Two.

The State Department has decided to make U.S. passport application forms “gender neutral” by removing references to mother and father, officials said, in favor of language that describes one’s parentage somewhat less tenderly.

The change is “in recognition of different types of families“…

And which ‘families’ might those be?

The new policy is a win for gay rights groups…

Fred Sainz, vice president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group, called the news “a positive step forward for all American families. It was time that the federal government acknowledged the reality that hundreds of thousands of kids in this country are being raised by same-sex parents.”…

Just look how far we have fallen!

This world is a very wicked and immoral place that is continually seeking to justify its sinful state…

Archbishop Timothy Dolan Rallies New York to Discourage Abortions

Catholic Culture reports:

Describing the abortion rate in New York City as “downright chilling,” Archbishop Timothy Dolan headlined a January 6 news conference in which religious leaders called for action to curtail the practice.

Last year there were 87,000 abortions performed in New York City. That figure accounts for 41% of all reported pregnancies. Although the number of abortions was down last year, the percentage of pregnancies ending in abortion in New York remained nearly twice the national average.

At the press conference, sponsored by the Chiaroscuro Foundation, participants pointed out that the abortion run among black women is substantially higher: over 60% of all pregnancies end in abortion.

Acknowledging the difficulty of changing existing laws that allow abortion on demand, Archbishop Dolan said that religious leaders would work to help women continue their pregnancies. “Let’s see to it that abortion is rare,” he said.

The archbishop noted that the New York archdiocese offers support to any women needing help with a problem pregnancy. That policy will continue, he said…

AOL News also covers the above news as does the Wall Street Journal.

Shocking statistics… absolutely shocking! We live in fallen times indeed…

St Anthony’s Monastery

CNN has a nice piece on the 1,700-year-old Christian monastery hidden deep in Egypt’s desert, with some great photos too:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ain Soukhna, Egypt (CNN) — On the day when much of the world was marking Christmas, I traveled with friends to a remote location deep in the Eastern desert in Egypt. Nestled in an oasis within the Red Sea Mountains is one of the world’s oldest inhabited monasteries: The Coptic Orthodox St. Anthony’s Monastery.

Festivities here were still some ways off; Christmas in the Eastern Orthodox tradition falls 13 days after the western one.

The founders of this monastery were disciples of St. Anthony the Great, widely considered to be the Father of Monasticism because he initiated Christian monastic life as we have come to understand it today.

Our guide was Father Ruwais Antony who helped us understand how this 4th century monastery made Egypt the origin for a movement that spread throughout Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia and ultimately Europe.

The story goes that St. Mark, one of Jesus Christ’s 12 apostles, arrived in Alexandria to spread the word. In a city rife with various schools of thought and religious beliefs, St. Mark was confronted with philosophers who were convinced his teachings were at odds with their own beliefs.

To defend his beliefs, St. Mark founded a theological school, teaching Christianity from a philosophical point of view. He lived a life modeled after Jesus and attracted many converts who ultimately became disciples.

These were the first monks.

The disciples followed a way of life that consisted of prayer, reflection, and fasting — all elements of an ascetic way of life, but not in total isolation.

They lived and practiced their ideals close to their communities and families, and in the next century these ideas spread throughout Egypt…

St. Anthony the Great was born in Upper Egypt to a family with considerable wealth but was inspired to adopt an ascetic lifestyle after coming into contact with the disciples.

In an effort to be closer to God, he chose to isolate himself for more than 40 years in a primordial landscape that is now the location for St. Anthony’s Monastery.

At the summit, surrounded by stunning views of the desert and the Red Sea, is the cave’s entrance and inside, a very narrow, dark, 10-meter pathway leading to a small shrine to St. Anthony. Small pieces of paper with prayers written on them were pushed into every crevice.

The monastery itself has five churches, a mill, and a water spring…

The full piece is here.