Lent is a time to restore what has fallen into disrepair over the past year.   Certainly the American Family has fallen into disrepair and needs a good bit of shoring up. Lent is an excellent time to strengthen our families by shared prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Return to praying the family rosary this Lent; enter the adventure of family fasting, especially on Fridays (“OK, everyone, we will not be having desert for the next forty days!”); learn to cultivate family almsgiving, guiding every child to give some gift to God from his or her allowance on Sunday.

   The California Family, in particular, needs strengthening. Our State is only as good as our families. This week after Masses I am asking all parishioners to consider signing a petition to get the Parental Notification Initiative (PNI) on the November ballot.

   What is the PNI? It is a change in our state law that would require a doctor to notify an “unemancipated minor” girl’s parents 48 hours before she undergoes an abortion. We are only asking that the doctor inform her parents, not obtain consent. California does 25% of all abortions in this country; 20,000 a year are on underage girls. While most states have laws requiring parental notification, we do not. This means that even a ten-year-old girl can undergo a surgical abortion without her parents’ knowledge. The same girl cannot receive an aspirin from a school nurse, go on a field trip, get her ears pierced, or enter a tanning booth without parental permission, but a doctor can perform a surgical abortion on her without her parents’ knowledge. Many such girls get pregnant through rape, but under current law her parents are not allowed to know or help her. PNI has lost twice in the past ten years, largely due to the millions spent by Planned Parenthood on TV advertising. But this year Bay Area Planned Parenthood, for example, is bankrupt. Let’s pull together to restore loving protection for our children through their own parents. You may sign a petition in the plaza, and take more home for other signatures.

There is an accelerating “climate change” in our country. In particular, Religious Freedom in America is eroding faster than the glaciers in Greenland. The founders of our nation saw the need to immediately strengthen our Constitution with the “Bill of Rights.” The first of those Bill of Rights is the free exercise of religion. This First Amendment guarantees citizens the free practice of the faith of their choice, without the interference of the U.S. Government.

   Two weeks ago the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandated that all employers will purchase insurance that provides sterilization and contraception, including abortion-causing drugs. That means that our parish, for example, will have to pay for the chemical abortions of our employees, should they request it. Catholic hospitals will have to provide for abortions. In a meeting with pastors last week, Bishop Blaire stated forcefully that the Obama Administration’s decision is “an egregious—an egregious—violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment.” Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference, wrote in the Wall Street Journal: “Coercing religious ministries and citizens to pay directly for actions that violate their teaching is an unprecedented incursion into freedom of conscience…. This latest erosion of our first freedom should make all Americans pause. When the government tampers with a freedom so fundamental to the life of our nation, one shudders to think what lies ahead.” As of this writing (February 1), 125 bishops and many other public figures of our nation have joined him in strong objection.

  Which way America? What freedoms of conscience will the government still permit us in the years to come? How much more will the Church be singled out for persecution? In 2010, Cardinal George of Chicago spoke these prophetic words: "I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square." Which way, America?

_ A Warm and Merry Christmas to all! Let this Christmas Message be my Christmas Card to all who read it. May it express my love and esteem for all of you at St. Joseph’s Parish.

   Today we mark, once again, the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today, or tonight, depending on which Mass you will attend, a Child is born to us, which is Christ the Lord.

   A week before Christmas we all were scrambling to buy gifts for our loved ones and finish those Christmas cards to dear friends. This year, as I was preparing the annual Christmas publications for the parish, I spent an evening going through twelve years of photographs from my time at St. Joseph’s. How many beautiful faces and how many precious memories did I uncover! What a grace every day has been! At the end of the year, and I hope at the end of life, we won’t remember the hard times, but we will thank God with undivided hearts for the good times. What a blessing this parish and this life are to me!

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   All of the good memories, and the lasting friendships, are from that small babe lying in a manger, hugging his mother’s arms tight, curling Joseph’s finger in his tiny hands. Let us thank the Good God for such a life as we will ever enjoy. Let us be good stewards of his gifts by recognizing all that He has given us, and thanking him for it. God bless you all for coming to Mass this Christmas, for thanking Him for the gift of Himself in Bethlehem, and in Modesto.

_ Today I turn 50. A friend shrugged and said, “just another day, father.” Aside from the fact that I can now officially join St. Joseph’s Seniors Group, I suppose turning 50 is just another day, although I did enjoy being a forty-niner last year. My Mom said the 50s were her favorite decade. She’s about to enter her 80’s, so she’ll let me know in a few years if they beat the fifties.

   I don’t think I’ll make it to a hundred, especially the way this old world’s going, so I suppose I’m about two thirds the way “there.” Now where is there? “There” is Heaven, we hope. I’m two thirds the way to Heaven, with a stop in Purgatory, I imagine. The sooner I get to Purgatory, the sooner I can get to Heaven. Let’s just hope your dear old pastor doesn’t get to Hell, and none of us for that matter. For that, we must depend entirely on the grace of God.

_But to return to my subject (it’s my birthday, and it’s my fiftieth birthday, so I get to ramble a bit in this laptop). My Subject: Growing Old. We all complain about getting older, but really, it’s not bad at all. Remember how we used to complain about being too young? Every age has its joys and sorrows, but I think getting older is a beautiful gift from God. Because the older we get, the younger we get. The older we get, the closer we get to rebirth, to real living.

   In 1997 I took a group to World Youth Day in Paris. We took the train to Lisieux to see St. Therese. In her basilica, at the altar depicting her death, was written in French, “I’m not dying. I’m entering into life.” I smelled beautiful roses at that altar, and was filled with a certain conviction that death, and growing older, is a gift. That day, death lost its sting for me. St. Therese obtained this grace for me. Growing older is simply letting God have more of my life, day by day. Life doesn’t slip away as we grow older — we give it to God. Death will be like resting secure under the skillful hands of a perfect surgeon. I’m glad to be fifty, 50 years closer to that day.

_ On November 16, both Penn State University President Graham Spanier and legendary football coach Joe Paterno were fired for not taking proper action against an assistant coach who sexually abused children. Overnight the Media demonized Penn State as an evil empire that did not hesitate to sacrifice even children to its football program.

    What happened at Penn State is unconscionable, and Coach Paterno is responsible for his Athletic Department. What happened at Penn State happens in many other institutions. We know that it happens even in the Church. But sexual deviance is thoroughly accepted, even promoted, at almost every American University, in the Entertainment Industry, and in much of Government itself. Why are only certain institutions singled out?  

   Sexual predation on Capitol Hill is legendary — recall Modesto’s own Chandra Levi, or President Clinton’s Monica Lewinski. The news and entertainment industries are rife with sexual crime. Where was media scrutiny at Michael Jackson’s “Neverland Ranch” activities? Why are activists who promote pedophilia not criticized? It is precisely the entertainment industry that brought soft-porn into America’s living room, and the government that protected this porn. “Soft-porn” leads to hard-porn, and hard-porn leads to sexual crime. When pornography merchants point fingers at their customers who act on that pornography by committing sexual crimes, we have a fine example of rank hypocrisy.

  Consider our Supreme Court. While seven justices ruled in 2008 that dissemination of child pornography is illegal, two of the justices ruled to permit computer-generated child pornography. The New York Times attributed this opinion to Justice David Souter: “Possession of pornographic images that do not depict real children is constitutionally protected, and offering them should not be a crime.” And the media smiled approvingly at Justice Souter’s opinion.

   What has happened at Penn State must be reformed. But politically-protected institutions like the Media and the Government must be held to the same standard. I don’t expect they will, at least not anytime soon. But we must pray.

    This it the last Sunday of the liturgical year, and the Feast of Christ the King. Despite the anguish with which we see our culture declining, we must put our hope in Jesus Christ the Lord. His Kingdom shall prevail, and every eye shall behold it. Let us pray.

_ Monday is Columbus Day, and I am privileged to be the chaplain of our local Council of the Knights of Columbus. The Knights are the largest Catholic fraternal men’s order in the world, with over 1.8 million members in 15,000 councils. Of course, not all members are as active as others, but the active members of our St. Joseph’s Council are quite active. I would say that the Knights are the single largest and most influential organization in our parish.

   Columbus Day falls in the month of October, which is also Respect Life Month. Mostly women have provided leadership in our Respect Life apostolates over the years, but almost all these women are married to Knights of Columbus. I think it’s a team effort, especially because the Knights themselves put so much emphasis into prolife work. Our Supreme Knight, Carl Anderson, has written and spoken extensively about building a culture of life and love (his A Civilization of Love is well worth the reading). The Knights partnered with the Sisters of Life to provide the “Love and Life Center” in Madrid at World Youth Day this year, which provided excellent events for English-speaking pilgrims. Our group spent every morning at the center listening to top-notch speakers. Our local Council, too, has always shown a delicate concern for the unborn, the needy, the handicapped, and the elderly. Our Council raised the funds to purchase a $36,000 ultrasound machine for the Modesto Pregnancy Center last year.

   Perhaps more than anything, though, the Knights build up respect for human life by building up men. The Knights are one of the few organizations left whose membership is restricted to men. The men get together once a month for a meeting at which they encourage and challenge each other to live their manhood to the fullest. If women and children are not respected in our culture, if their rights are not upheld and their persons not cherished, it is because the men in their lives are not exercising their manhood. “Fatherless America” is certainly one of our greatest social problems, as President Obama wrote on Father’s Day this year. People sometimes denigrate the Knights of Columbus, and other men’s organizations, but any time men have the courage to get together as brothers, to encourage each other in their role as fathers and husbands, it is a hopeful thing for our society.

Many people are wondering when the recession will end. I don’t think anytime soon, and I will tell you the reason. Let’s go back to 1968, when Pope Paul VI said that that a new technology, the oral contraceptive, was gravely evil. Few believed him, because this new thing promised freedom and prosperity. The Pope said that oral contraceptives would drain love from marriages, promote promiscuity, and so lead to wide social damage. The “sexual revolution” (along with the drug companies) were bending all their might to promote contraception, and most people trusted the wisdom of the “sexperts” over that of the Pope.

   Contraceptives have so thoroughly soaked through our social fabric that we cannot imagine life without them. Most people would rather live without TV or smartphones than contraceptives, for we have accepted as a fact that life without carefree sex is unbearable. But Pope Paul pointed to an eternal truth: sex can never be “carefree” or “casual” anymore than having a baby is “carefree.” If we engage in sex without thinking, it will hurt us, even more than, say, playing with dynamite. Sex is more powerful than dynamite. It is meant for procreation, and the enduring love between a mother and father who beget children together. It is not a toy. Abusing this gift will eventually catch up with us. The deteriorating economy is one result of playing with sex as a toy rather than using it for its proper purpose (building stable and fruitful families).

   Let me explain the economic consequences of contraception. Economies are driven by two factors: labor and capital. The younger generation builds up its wealth (capital) by working (labor). When it gets towards retirement, that generation then invests its capital into the labor of the upcoming generations (children and grandchildren). The problem today is that, for fifty years, world populations have amassed capital but have been contracepting and aborting what should have been the next generation. Half the labor force is missing, and capital has nowhere to invest. It just sits there, useless and fruitless.

  The experts are coming up with all sorts of reasons why the world economy is faltering. These are contributing factors, but not the main reason. The main cause of our global economic crisis is demographic. Economic decline always follows demographic decline, and demographic decline always follows family decline. The recession we are in will not end anytime soon. Until we begin rebuilding our families, we will not have a healthy economy. This is the real inconvenient truth that the elites do not want to face.

Today Pope Benedict will be offering the Holy Mass in Madrid with 44 young people from our parish. It is the 12th International World Youth Day, and although I cannot provide you with a real-time report in this laptop, I am indeed in Madrid as you read this. Even though I wrote this ten days ago, I can give you a report on the beginning of our pilgrimage. Fr. Mark and I brought our 65 youth to the major basilicas of Rome before going to Madrid, offering Mass in St. Peter’s, the catacombs and at an altar at which St. Maximilian Kolbe offered his First Mass. Our highlight, though, was to see the Pope at close range. We managed to get a bus out to Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer refuge. Our bus was the first to arrive, but chanting, singing, flag-waving youth from Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia were close on our heels. As the Holy Father entered the courtyard at 10:30am, a sustained chant of

“A-mer-i-ca!” rang out across the flagstones to greet him.

  Our young people were able to see and hear the Pope about 50 feet away. One of them said that when Benedict came into the courtyard, she was confused by a strange emotion and began, inexplicably, to cry. I’ve had the same experience. We have an unconscious longing for our fathers, for Our Father, and the Pope’s presence, at times, uncovers that.

   It has been a beautiful pilgrimage. Young people search for meaning with disarming transparency. We older folks are able to acknowledge our own longings through their hearts. Only God, though, can fully meet these longings. So a meeting with the Holy Father, in the presence of young people, is a particularly powerful experience. Once again, thank you all, St. Joseph’s, for helping our 44 young people spend some time with Benedict XVI and the Church.