What Catholics Do NOT Believe!

The year 1884 is the date when my beloved Grandmother was born, so I'm always interested in HOW the Catholic Church taught its eternal truths during that period. EWTN reprints from a 1884 discussion by the Very Rev. Joseph Di Bruno, D.D. on what Catholics do NOT believe.

Two of the total list of seven items include:

4. Catholics do not believe that a man can by his own good works, independently of the Merits and Passion of Jesus Christ and of His grace, obtain salvation, or make any satisfaction for the guilt of his sins, or acquire any merit.

...

6. Catholics do not believe that it is in the power of the Church to add to the truths contained in the "deposit of faith," that is, to frame or enforce any doctrine which has not for its source the written or unwritten word of God, or authority from the same. Nor do they believe, when the Church makes a Definition in matters of faith, that this definition or article of faith is a new doctrine; it is only a solemn declaration and a clearer statement of what was believed, at least implicitly (that is, in an implied way, or inferentially), in the time of the Apostles, though some private persons might have doubted of it.

Now, read the remaining five here.

Cures Without Cloning

The good Missourians who worked very hard and almost stopped the multi-million dollar juggernaut financed by James Stowers to pass the pro-cloning amendment have no intention of failing again. Their new website, MoCuresWithoutCloning.com, should be checked often. WolfTracker gives more information on the new anti-cloning initiative.

Patron Saint of Weight Watchers

St. Mochta is a good patron saint for all of us who wish to curb their appetites for spiritual advantage and control their weight for physical motives. Butler's "The Lives of the Saints" notes that St. Mochta (Mochteus) never ate a morsel of fat as a way of curbing his appetite for such foods. [Note: some liquid oils are necessary for good health.]

The result was that the Abbot Mochta lived a very long life, fabled to be three hundred years (but the evidence is that he lived to be about ninety). St. Mochta was a contemporary of St Patrick, who is said to have built the original church in Louth, Ireland and to have appointed St Mochta the first Bishop of Louth.

Search on the word "eat" and note that Google keeps bringing up the word "death", in which "eat" are the middle letters. Now search on the two words together and see that Americans Eat Themselves to Death:

...inactive Americans are eating themselves to death at an alarming rate, their unhealthy habits fast approaching tobacco as the top underlying preventable cause of death, a government study found.

In 2000, poor diet including obesity and physical inactivity caused 400,000 U.S. deaths - more than 16 percent of all deaths and the No. 2 killer. That compares with 435,000 for tobacco, or 18 percent, as the top underlying killer.

Obesity is highly related to health problems such as daily stomach acid reflux, knee replacements, feet problems, heart attacks, and diabetes. Should the government then partially subsidize weight loss programs for obese persons? Private health insurance companies usually do not cover obesity treatments, even those known to be highly effective, yet costing as little as $12/week, such as Weight Watchers. Until 2004, the government-sponsored Medicare did not consider obesity to be a disease or illness and would not authorize any payments or services to treat obesity.

I wonder if more health bang for the buck wouldn't be generated by allowing deductions for taxpayers' enrollment in programs similar to Weight Watchers. Should the government allow individuals to subtract expenses for an approved weight loss program from their gross income, before paying income tax? Why? Or why not? I'd like to hear your opinion.