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March -2010 Letter from Michael  Bird, President and Chief Volunteer at St. Michael Broadcasting

Dear Friends and Family of St. Michael Broadcasting,

One year ago, on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, ownership of one of Catholic Views Broadcasts’ stations, Channel 19, officially transferred to St. Michael Broadcasting.  Since we will soon change to Channel 16 and go digital, this seemed a proper time to provide you with an update on the station: what has happened, what is happening, and future plans--- a sort of “State of the Station” report.

First, some history: In the late 1980’s, the initial $90,000 contribution to Fr. Baker’s Catholic Views Broadcasts, for starting the station, came from out-of-state.  In recent years, the station has cost about $110,000 annually to run, and contributions have come to about $60-$70 thousand, for a shortfall of about $40 thousand.  This shortfall was made up primarily by Fr. Baker fundraising nationally for Catholic Views Broadcasts, and giving that money to Channel 19. If you have wondered how the station can always need money but somehow manage to stay in operation, this is how.  Short term, I am providing working capital.  The main point is that the station can no longer depend on Fr. Baker.  We must become self-supporting! 

One shortcoming of the station has been its broadcast “footprint,” which is the area effectively covered by our signal.  The station sends a reasonably strong signal to the southwest, but a very weak signal to the northeast.  People only a few miles from our antenna on top of the IDS: in northeast Minneapolis, St. Anthony, and New Brighton, cannot receive the signal.  The FCC would not permit us to send a strong signal to the northeast because there is a channel 19 in Duluth.  But the mandated change from analog to digital created opportunities. As some frequencies were vacated, openings appeared for smaller stations.  Our consultant advised us to use this opportunity to apply for Channel 16, as he thought this channel would allow us to have the broadcast footprint we desired.  We applied and received permission.  This was a glorious and happy day for your station.

TV station 'footprint' of coverage - Ch. 19 vs. Ch16

The small circle on the map above shows the footprint of our station as Channel 19 and the larger circle our new footprint as Channel 16.  As you can see, our new channel encompasses a much larger area.  The larger circle isn’t the outer range of our signal; it is the range in which 90% of the households can expect to receive our signal.  Depending on terrain and obstructions, people as far away as St. Cloud, or Owatonna, or Menomonie, might receive the channel.  Within the Channel 19 footprint live about 1.16 million people.  Within the Channel 16 footprint, live about 2.73 million people.  This is an increase of 135%!

Moving to Channel 16 has cost more than staying on Channel 19:  We needed a new antenna, a new transmitter and other costly electronics.  These costs run to about $300 thousand, about $200 thousand higher than had we stayed on 19.  But our fixed costs: rent, electricity, insurance, maintenance contracts, etc., will not increase very much.  If our contributions increase in proportion to our larger demographic footprint, this would imply we should exceed our $110-$120,000 survival expenses.  Most importantly, our signal will cover a much larger part of this archdiocese.  Bringing so many more people into our broadcast range for so little is a great bargain in the world of broadcasting.

There are other advantages to this move.  Going digital will allow us to provide, in addition to EWTN, up to four more “sub-channels,” such as 16.1, 16.2, etc., which would allow us to broadcast much more Catholic programming.  We could show more programs by Bishop Sheen, Fr. Corapi, Dale Ahlquist, etc., and locally produced programming.  These could include the Latin Mass (from St. Augustine Church), programs on manners, literature, virtues, local history, talks, home-schooling, children’s shows, entertainment, discussions of local issues--- there are many, many, possibilities.  We plan to use one channel as a bulletin board.  We might lease out one sub-channel.  If you have ideas, let us know.

As we add local programming, we should be able to get sponsors for those programs, which would improve our financial condition. When we have enough local content, we can ask the cable companies to carry the station, as the cable companies are supposed to accommodate a certain amount of local programming.  If the cable networks carry us, we would have excellent coverage in the metro area.  We also might begin to stream this local programming over the internet.

Assuming our finances improve as a result of more contributors and sponsors, we could begin to pay some staff.  The station needs some paid staff, as it would run more efficiently.  There is much to do: preview programs, create programs, pay bills, operate cameras, keep track of contributions, update the mailing list, advertise local events, cover local events, and comply with FCC requirements.  This is a lot for an all-volunteer staff to do.  Also, we should pay those who independently produce programs that we want to broadcast.  Programs such as those on apologetics by Michael Voris and St. Michael’s Media, or on issues like same-sex “marriage” by the Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, take a lot of thought and money to produce.  These people deserve compensation for their efforts.

If finances permit, we would like to set up what are called “translator stations” across the state.  This means establishing stations near the outer limits of our broadcast range that would pick up our signal and send it on farther.  For example, a station in Faribault might pick up our signal and send it farther south, toward Rochester or Austin.  However, if our finances do not improve, we will downsize the station.  If our revenue hasn’t increased sufficiently by 2012, we will move off the IDS to a tower, which would bring the station very close to break-even at the current contribution level.  But this would also decrease the size of our broadcast footprint. 

This year we are trying to raise $500,000.  New equipment and fixed expenses will cost about $420,000.  The remaining $80,000 would allow us to purchase new programming, and provide a slight cushion for unanticipated expenses.

Why is this station important?

Malcolm Muggeridge said that the West is suffering from “the loss of a sense of a moral order without which no order whatsoever--- social, political, economic--- is possible.”  This station, your station, is trying to help our country recover this sense of moral order by bringing the Truth of the Catholic Faith to Catholics and non-Catholics alike.  We show how by responding to God’s love, by imitating Christ, we find the most sanity and joy in this life, and that part of that joy is the confident hope that, through God’s help and mercy, we will one day find eternal happiness in the presence of the Holy Trinity.

This station receives calls from those who want a newsletter even though they’re not Catholic.  A young convert has volunteered to help record local events.  We hear stories of older home-bound Catholics who like to watch our station almost exclusively.  So the station fulfills our mission, which is “to serve as an evangelization tool for the Roman Catholic Church in order to be an influential, educational and moral voice in our society.” 

Pope John Paul II exhorted us to evangelize using new media--- meaning broadcasting, and the internet.  This station is your apostolate.  Please support it financially if you are able, pray for its success, and tell people about it.  If you know people who have experience in television or radio, ask them if they could volunteer some time with the station to show us how to operate it more effectively.   We welcome your ideas for programming and otherwise improving the station.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Michael Bird, President

 The Paradox of Christian Freedom

 From the Homiletic and Pastoral Review by our founder Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J.

 

“For freedom Christ has set us free” (Gal. 5:1). St. Paul tells us that faith in Christ makes us free. In the contemporary world there is a universal demand for more freedom—personal, political and economic. Freedom, however, is a slogan word that has many different meanings. Today freedom is often understood in the sense of a lack of restraint, so that one is free to do whatever one wishes to do. That is a form of licentiousness, not true freedom.
Freedom understood as licentiousness is a false freedom. Actually, it is not freedom at all, but rather it is slavery to one’s selfishness, passions and pride.
Christian freedom is something totally different. The Christian who submits himself to the law of love in Christ Jesus is the one who is truly free. Only God has absolute freedom because his will is identified with his being or substance. So God is essential freedom—he can do whatever he wills because he has absolute power over all things. But since God is also absolute truth and goodness, he can do only what is in accordance with his essence—everything he does is good. So God cannot deceive and he cannot do anything that is evil since that is contrary to his nature.

On the other hand, created freedom is limited and relative. But the more a created person (man or angel) approaches the goodness of God, the more he shares in the freedom of God. We have here what seems to be a paradox. Man wishes to be free, but the only way he can become truly free is by submitting himself to Christ by faith, hope and charity. St. Paul calls it the “obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5). The saints who strive mightily to serve God in all things, whose whole being is centered on God, are human persons who are supremely free. Submission to the truth is what makes one free.

Sin is slavery because it is rooted in falsity, while the obedience of faith in love is based on truth and results in freedom. Sin is rebellion against God and glorification of self. Jesus expresses this truth in St. John’s Gospel (8:31-32), a text often quoted by Pope John Paul II: “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” So the saint is free and the sinner is a slave.

There you have it from the mouth of God himself: it is the truth that makes one truly free. The ultimate reason for this is that we are creatures made in the image and likeness of God. Why did God make us? What is our destiny? God made us to know him, to love him and to serve him in this life and to be happy with him forever in the next life. So since we were made for God and for truth and for goodness, nothing short of God will really satisfy us. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). That is also why the eye is not filled with seeing and the ear is not filled with hearing. In other words, no created thing can satisfy the human heart. St. Augustine put his finger on it when he said that our hearts are restless until they rest in God.

I am reminding you of the nature of Christian freedom because we are bombarded daily with the false notion of freedom in matters such as “freedom of choice” regarding abortion, contraception, same-sex marriage, assisted suicide and other moral issues. The assumptions of the secular humanists, who deny the existence of God and see man as descended from the apes with no immortal soul, have taken a commanding position in our culture and are proclaimed incessantly in the media and in the public schools and universities.

In order not to be infected with these false ideas, it is essential that we know our faith well, that we know the truth, and that we recognize and reject error and falsehoods when we encounter them. This is another reason why every family should have handy a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It offers a detailed index, and there you will find the truth if you spend a little time looking for it.

February 2010 - Letter from Michael  Bird, President and Chief Volunteer at St. Michael Broadcasting

  February, 2010 A.D.

 Dear Friends and Family of St. Michael Broadcasting,

 The first Western country to legalize abortion was The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1920 under Lenin.  The second was Germany in 1935 under the National Socialist Workers Party.  In our country, abortion was legalized in 1973 when socialist organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the ACLU prevailed in the ignominious Roe v. Wade decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.  In all three cases, these were undemocratic, top-down decisions.

 In our country, these socialist forces have repeatedly turned to the courts to impose what they could not win democratically.  Laws against contraception, pornography and sodomy have been struck down by activist judges.  Therefore, we must expect that they will similarly attempt to invalidate all laws against “same sex unions” by bringing a case before the Supreme Court.  Should such an attempt succeed, this will have disastrous consequences for Catholics and Catholic institutions across the country.

 Winston Churchill said, as he watched Nazi Germany snatch countries in Europe, “We must arm!”  So too, we must arm.  We must fight against these enslaving perversions of freedom.  Our arms are the Truth--- what John Paul II called Veritatis Splendor (the Splendor of the Truth) and laid out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church --- and our sustenance is grace.

This war is not just political, but supernatural--- against “principalities and powers.”

 Lent is a special time to grow in knowledge of the Truth, and to strengthen our wills through fasting and penance. Here we can learn from St. Thomas More.  It was learning and prayer and penitential practices that gave Thomas More the strength to be the “The King’s good Servant, but God’s first,” and suffer martyrdom.

 St. Michael Broadcasting can help spread this Truth, and encourage those striving to strengthen their wills.  To do this, we need your financial support.  Last year TPT 2 received over $5.2 million in taxpayer money in addition to viewer contributions and sponsorships.  We received less than $80,000 in contributions.  This year expenses will exceed $400,000.  So please help if you can, either by contributing, or by telling others about the station: “Many hands make light work.”

 We will add at least one “sub-channel” when we move to channel 16.  Please send us your programming suggestions for this channel in the enclosed envelope.  What would you like to see that isn’t there now?  What would you like to see more of?  We also welcome your ideas on how to increase funding for the station.

 God bless you this Lent,

 Michael Bird, president and chief volunteer

  

Penance and Reparation: A Lenten Meditation by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. (abridged)

In order to better understand the meaning of penance and reparation, we have to look for a moment at what happens whenever we sin. Two things happen:

•           First: we incur guilt before God for the self-will that caused us to sin. We become more or less separated or estranged from God, depending on the gravity of our sin.

•           Second: We deserve punishment for the disorder we cause by our sinful conduct. We become liable to suffering pain, again more or less pain, depending on how seriously we have done wrong.  Against this background, we can more easily see the meaning of penance and reparation.

•           Penance is the repentance we must make to remove the guilt, or to reinstate ourselves in God's friendship.

•           Reparation is the pain we must endure to make up for the harm we brought about by our self-indulgence when we sinned.

 

… We are our brother's keepers. We are mysteriously co-responsible for what other people do wrong. There is a profound sense in which all of us are somehow to do penance and make reparation, not only for our sinful misdeeds, but for the sins of our country and, indeed, for the sins of the whole human race. 
Indeed, the calamities that we have so far seen in this present (20th) century: two world wars with more casualties than in all the previous wars of history, and the threat of a nuclear holocaust that hangs over us like a tornado cloud. All of this is God's warning to do penance and reparation. Why? Because God is not mocked. The divine logic is simple, awfully simple, and all we have to do is learn what God is telling us. Either we do penance and reparation because we want to, or we shall suffer (against our will) the consequences of our sins in this life, and in the life to come.

… (W)e could talk for hours about the theology of penance and reparation and end up, wiser perhaps, but not holier. We must take the next and final step, and ask ourselves, practically, what am I to do about it? In order to come to the point immediately, let me give you what I call seven rules, three for penance and four for reparation. They can be expressed in seven words, where each word is a divine command as follows:

   Pray!  Share!  And forgive!  Work!  Endure!  Deprive!  And sacrifice!

 God is good. He gives us the privilege of not only expiating what we have done wrong, but actually becoming more pleasing to Him by our penance and reparation.

 

January 2010 -Letter from Michael  Bird, President and Chief Volunteer at St. Michael Broadcasting

In 1943, then Monsignor Fulton Sheen told this story of a German soldier in occupied France:  The soldier, and his French wife who was expecting a baby, were in a hospital.  The soldier noticed a crucifix on the wall and asked a sister to take it down.  She refused.  He insisted, saying he “did not want his child ever to look upon the image of the Jewish Christ.”  Under threat, the sister relented.  The child was born blind.

 This story seems a metaphor for our own times.  Public Television refuses to carry religious programming.  Discussion of whether we were created by God is verboten in public schools, and crucifixes have been removed even from some nominally “Catholic” schools.  Consequently, our culture suffers from blindness, and our countrymen grope for answers--- about the meaning of life, suffering, what constitutes moral behavior, their destiny.

 In grade school in the 1950’s, my teacher, a Dominican sister, told us that child sacrifice was a characteristic of pagan cultures.  It seemed so unreal, so unthinkable, then, sacrificing to Moloch and Baal.  But here we are, this month, mourning the ignominious Roe v. Wade decision of January 22, 1973, when our Supreme Court once again allowed child sacrifice.  Blind to a higher law, and to our own Constitution, they enshrined the unthinkable into law.

 It’s our responsibility to turn this around, to be “signs of contradiction.” This month we will focus on abortion and what we can do about it.  We will show the heart-rending pictures that other stations refuse to show, and how abortion harms those involved.  As Catholics, we neither hate nor condemn: “There but for the grace of God go I.”  Nonetheless, we must speak the truth with love, and try to help those women and men who have experienced abortion--- who suffer from inconsolable grief and debilitating guilt--- find forgiveness, healing and joy.  This redemption is found through our Redeemer, who died on the cross.

 Jesus says that some demons only come out through prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29).  If all of us who are part of this apostolate fasted for just one meal or a few consecutive meals this month, and joined that with prayer, this would help end abortion. 

 Please support St. Michael Broadcasting.  Monthly contributions are not meeting our monthly expenses of over $9000, and the move to digital will cost another $235,000.  If you can’t financially contribute, that’s okay.  Please pray for the success of this apostolate.

God bless you this new year,

 Michael Bird, President and Volunteer

Abortion as Pagan Sacrifice

(excerpts) by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

        …As believing Catholics, we know that behind the murder of unborn children is the superhuman mind and malevolent will of Satan and his minions. To know this is to also know that only divine power is a match for the demonic power behind abortion. This divine power is the power of the God who became man in order, as He told us, to conquer the devil as master of the world.

        How did Christ provide for the conquest of Satan and his agents? He did so by dying on the cross. The one who died on Calvary was man, but this man was the living God. On these premises, Calvary is the divine sacrifice because it was God who assumed a human body and a human soul which could separate in a human death on Good Friday. Except for this divine sacrifice of Jesus Christ there would be no hope for the human race…

       The graces which Christ pours out on a sinful world through the daily offering of Mass are the graces which a homicidal world needs to return to its worship of the one true God, and cease committing the crimes of abortion which are really acts of worship of the evil deities who we know are the evil spirits.

       The Sacrifice of the Mass, therefore, provides us with the light and strength we need to live sacrificial lives. But we must use these graces and really live lives of sacrifice. If we do, and in the measure that we do, we shall obtain for the agents of death the miraculous graces they need to abandon their idolatry and return to the worship of the one true God.

       Our faith tells us that the Sacrifice of the Mass is at once the sacrifice of Christ and our sacrifice, too. Christ has done all that He could by dying on the cross. We must do all that we can to follow in His footsteps and die to ourselves out of love for Him.

December 2009 -Letter from Michael  Bird, President and Chief Volunteer at St. Michael Broadcasting

Dear Friends and Family of St. Michael Broadcasting,

 Moral theologian Monsignor William Smith, who died this year, was notable for his wonderful aphorisms.  One of these was “God always forgives; man sometimes forgives; nature never forgives.”  Meaning, for example, God will forgive the drunk driver; the parent whose son the drunk driver ran over might also forgive; but nature will not bring the son back to life.  We cannot transgress the natural law without suffering the consequences.

 The legalization and acceptance of contraception is a violation of the natural law.  The use of contraception, by separating sex from procreation and marriage, fosters the mentality that sex is more about self-gratification than self-giving, and the materialistic belief that my body is mine to do with as I please.  In Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI foresaw these ill effects: 

 --- Increased conjugal infidelity.

--- Debasing of all standards of human morality.

--- Lowering of respect for women and of woman’s dignity.

--- State legislation against human fertility.

--- Desecration of the holiness of marital intimacy.

--- Breakdown of personal responsibility.

--- Cultivation of selfish individuality.

--- Destruction of the family as the foundation of civilized society.

--- Promotion of an utterly materialistic understanding of human existence.

 We see the results: Abortion, using human embryos as research materials, euthanasia, increased out of wedlock birth, increased divorce, the difficulties of those brought up by just one parent, the acceptance of pornography, an aggressive homosexual movement seeking to redefine marriage, and a government growing ever larger as citizens trade liberty for security.  Our most fundamental institution, the family, is foundering.

 The current economic crisis is related to this mentality of selfish pleasure without responsibility.  We are missing the financial and intangible contributions of those millions who should have been born.  Citizens spend beyond their means.  Despite an already formidable national debt, our leaders increase spending and the money supply and incur more debt with no plan to ever pay it back, thereby raising the specter of hyper-inflation, and saddling those who can’t vote and haven't entered the workforce with the responsibility of servicing overwhelming debt.  None of this bodes well.

 But the cross is our hope.  The Word made Flesh is our hope.  The Light of the World, who has charged us to “let our light shine before men” is our hope.  Jesus, who said “Man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” has charged us to “go forth and teach all nations.”  This is the mission of St. Michael Broadcasting, to bring the Good News to others.

 You are part of this apostolate.  Please support it by telling others about the station and ask them if they would like to receive a newsletter.  If they would like to, please send their name and address to us in the enclosed envelope. The move to digital will cost approximately $235,000 in equipment and labor.  If you can financially support this apostolate, please do so.  If you cannot, please offer up this suffering for the success of the station.

 God bless you in this joyous and holy season.

Michael Bird, President

November 2009 -Letter from Michael  Bird, President and Chief Volunteer at St. Michael Broadcasting

Dear Friends and Family of Channel 19,

There are numerous events of interest to Catholics in the Twin Cities area that many of us never know occur.  For example, the Cathedral has a “Faith and Reason” series of lectures that recently featured Fr. Brian Mullady and Dr. James Hitchcock.  Frs. Groeschel and Corapi have also spoken locally in the past.  In October, Debra Braun, from Pro-Life Action Ministries, spoke at the University of Minnesota on sidewalk counseling. 

St. Michael Broadcasting could record and broadcast these events if we had the funds to do so.  But we do not.  If there is some event such as those above that you would like to sponsor, let us know.  The cost to professionally record and edit such an event comes to around $1000. 

We have received approval to move to Channel 16.  However, we cannot move at present because the station currently occupying this space has asked for and received an extension that expires in February.  So the changeover may not occur until May.  We will then have more “channels,” such as 16.1, 16.2, etc.  If you have ideas on how to use this increased broadcast spectrum, tell us your ideas.

If you are still having trouble receiving Channel 19, please give the station a call at 612-724-2265.  We will try to help you resolve reception problems.  With the right adjustments, and maybe a few inexpensive electronic accessories, anyone who received Channel 19 before the digital changeover (for the large stations) should still be able to receive Channel 19.  It is even possible to receive Channel 19 if you have cable TV by buying and hooking up an A-B switch and adjusting your TV reception from cable to standard. 

September was the first time we have “broken even,” or received more than $12,000 in monthly contributions, thanks to several generous donors. Still, we need contributions.  Thus far in October, we have received less than $2000. So contribute if you have the means.  If you don’t, don’t worry!  God will provide. Please tell others about the station.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Michael Bird

P.S. This month we begin a series that will counter the specious arguments for same-sex “marriage,” from both a Catholic and natural law perspective.  Tune in.

Without God All Is Meaningless

          “God made us and all things of nothing.  We may look, and feel, pretty substantial, so much flesh and blood and bone; but the matter of our body God made of nothing (as he made our soul), and it has nothing but what God has given it.  God holds us and all things in being… if he withdrew his will for our existence, we should be nothing.  I do not mean that we should die; I mean that we should be nothing at all.

      Not to know these two truths is to be wrong about everything.  If we omit God, we do not see anything as it is, but everything as it is not--- which is the very definition of insanity.

      God is the explanation of everything.  Leave out God, then, and you leave out the explanation of everything, you leave everything unexplainable.  Science studies the constitution of matter--- what things are made of.  But no science can study the two far more vital questions--- by whom they were made, for what were they made. 

    … truth means seeing reality as it is.  Men who do not know what God is, what man’s soul is, what the purpose of life is and what follows death, are simply not living in the real world.  They need to be shown the truths about God, the spiritual order, the world to come, for men cannot live according to a reality which they do not see--- nor dare we blame them for failing to live according to a reality which we have never shown them.

Above all they must come to see and know Christ Our Lord in whom all truths are contained and by whom they are announced to men.

      Who is to show them these truths?

There is only one voice that can be heard, the voice of one person speaking to another--- speaking to the people next door, the people he works with, plays with, travels with…. The laity must convey the message one by one, to unbelievers one by one.”

                    From Theology for Beginners, by Frank Sheed, (1958). pages 51 and 178.

 

First National Day of Thanksgiving Proclamation (1789)

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

G. Washington.                  (You may wish to read this at your Thankgiving meal.)

October 2009 -Letter from Michael  Bird, President and Chief Volunteer at St. Michael Broadcasting

Dear Friends and Family of St. Michael Broadcasting:                                                                     October, 2009

 In 1866, in Dakota County, Pierce Butler, the sixth of nine children, was born.  Though Catholic, he attended Carleton College, and for his graduating oration spoke on “the greatness of the Roman Catholic Church and its good influence upon the world.” He went into law, and brilliantly argued several high profile cases.  In 1915, in a speech to the National Catholic Educational Association titled “Educating for Citizenship,” he said:

 “The Catholic Church holds that religion cannot be separated from morality, that morals rest upon religion, and that without it character will not be secure against the attacks of selfishness and passion…  The educated man, whose character is not sound, whose conscience is not well instructed and whose conduct is not guided by religion and morality, is a danger to the state and to his fellowmen. ” 

 In 1922, Butler was nominated for the Supreme Court.  Columnists objected, calling Butler “reactionary” and “intolerant.”  The Socialist dominated Minneapolis City council passed a resolution calling his nomination a “crime against the people.”  Nonetheless, Butler was confirmed.

 In 1927, the Supreme Court was asked to rule whether a state could forcibly sterilize a “feeble-minded” girl, Carrie Buck, before releasing her to live independently.  Buck’s attorney argued: “If this Act be a valid enactment, then the limits of the power of the State to rid itself of those citizens deemed undesirable have not been set… even races may be brought within the scope of such regulation, and the worst form of tyranny practiced.”  Before the case was decided, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said regarding Butler, “I wonder whether he’ll have the courage to vote with us in spite of his religion?”  Holmes later wrote for the majority: “…the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives.  It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the state for lesser sacrifices…   It is better…, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime… society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind… Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”  Only Pierce Butler dissented.  Carrie Buck was sterilized.  

 In 1933, the Nazis modeled their “Hereditary Health Law” upon U.S. law, and began their program of sterilizing and even killing the “genetically defective.”  They expanded the “power of the state” to “races” as Carrie Buck’s attorney had warned.  After the War, the Nuremberg Trials began, and the Nazi doctors were accused of “crimes against humanity.”  Their defense counsel quoted Holmes’ words.  This incident is preserved in the movie Judgment at Nuremberg.   Buck v. Bell has never been overturned.

 Like St. Thomas More, Pierce Butler developed his God-given talents, allowed his faith to guide his conduct, and had the fortitude to stand up for what was right.  He died November 16, 1939, and is buried at Calvary Cemetery in St. Paul. 

 St. Michael Broadcasting is “Educating for Citizenship.”  Please continue to support this apostolate with your contributions, through prayer, and by telling others.

 Sincerely yours in Christ,

 Michael Bird, President

From "Educating for Citizenship" by Pierce Butler (1916)

“Growing extravagance in appropriations for supposed public purposes, heavily burdens the property and industries of the country ... Contemporaneously with the ever increasing activities of government, there is a tendency toward a kind of State socialism, which is destructive of individual initiative and development… (T)hey urge that the government should protect every individual against all the trials and vicissitudes of life.  If doctrines such as these gain a substantial foothold, individual initiative will be dangerously impaired; the family, which is an essential unit of our society and the very cornerstone ...of the foundation of the republic, will cease to be the motive for morality, industry, thrift and independence; the State, transgressing the limits of its true functions, will undertake to stand in place of father and mother, husband and wife, brother and sister, and become one vast charitable machine to furnish employment and to dole out supplies to meet the needs of the people. Need we here suggest that any such  program would, more than war, work the ruin of the nation?

 It would weaken character and leave the individual man and woman without the motive or hope or inspiration necessary to freedom and morality.”

 … It is even suggested that if the parents are unwilling to support their children, this burden should be borne for them at the public expense, and that if in any instance the marriage relation shall be found to be irksome, the bonds are freely to be dissolved...

September 2009 Letter from Michael Bird President and Chief Volunteer at St. Michael Broadcasting

Dear Friends and Family of St. Michael Broadcasting,                                      September, 2009                                                    

 In 1924, a “crime of the century” occurred in Chicago that riveted the attention of the nation.  Two brilliant Jewish teenagers, 19 year-old Nathan Leopold and 18 year-old Richard Loeb, both homosexual and from very wealthy families, brutally murdered 14 year-old Robert Franks, “for the thrill of it.”  Both were atheists.  Both had been influenced by Nietzsche.  Leopold had written to Loeb: "A superman ... is, on account of certain superior qualities inherent in him, exempted from the ordinary laws which govern men. He is not liable for anything he may do."  The famous attorney Clarence Darrow said this in the boys’ defense: “Is any blame attached because somebody took Nietzsche's philosophy seriously and fashioned his life upon it? … it is hardly fair to hang a 19-year-old boy for the philosophy that was taught him at the university."  The film Rope, by Alfred Hitchcock, is based on the “Leopold and Loeb” murder.

 At the same time, the National Socialist Workers (Nazi) Party was growing in power in Germany.  Nietzsche had influenced their “master race” philosophy.  The head of their thug-like military wing, known variously as “brown shirts,” the “storm troopers,” or the “SA,” was Ernst Roehm, a homosexual, whose militia, which was larger than the German army, intimidated and bullied Jews.   By 1934, Hitler recognized that his old friend Roehm had become a threat to his own power, and in an event called “Night of the Long Knives” murdered Roehm and the top SA officers, many of which were also homosexuals.  Nietzsche’s philosophy had influenced murder: by Jews and of Jews, by homosexuals, and of homosexuals, by atheists and of atheists.   

 The late William Marra, a philosophy professor at Fordham, once remarked that people tend to think of philosophers as quaint people whose work is inconsequential, but that in fact they can exert a profound influence, the effects of which aren’t apparent until about 50 years after they have published.  Such was the case with Nietzsche.

 Nietzsche’s philosophy is still taught and poorly refuted at our universities, as the acceptance of abortion and the utilitarian use of embryonic stem cells will attest.  And Catholic higher education, as a rule, has done a poor job of imparting the Catholic response to Nietzsche’s “God is dead” philosophy.  This job has fallen to individuals: preachers, philosophers and theologians, who try to reach others through the communications media.  Channel 19 can help them reach you and others with the Truth.  In the words of Fr. Corapi: “God isn’t dead, He isn’t even tired…” We are “made in the image and likeness of God.” 

 Contributions in July came to over $8000, much improved over the $3200 received in June.  Still, it costs about $12,500/month for this station just to break even and $17,000/month to grow a little.   Please continue to contribute regularly and tell others about the station.

 Sincerely yours in Christ,

 Michael Bird, President

The Pillar of Personality, by Abp. Fulton Sheen

“One could go through history and find a dozen historical instances to prove that, as men lose their belief in God, the State becomes an Absolute.  Men must have a god, and if it will not be the God of Hearts, it will be the State god….  What are the effects of the absoluteness of politics?  The most general is the dehumanization of man.  Once man became loosened from his divine moorings, he became “autonomous,” or an independent god…  But no state could survive if every man was a god and a law unto himself…

            In democracies, the dehumanization of man has taken an academic or quasi-scientific background.  The whole tendency of our thinking for the last seventy years has been to destroy man’s dignity by identifying him with nature, i.e., with the stones and the beasts.  Evolution, for example, made him one with the animal in his origin; Behaviorism made him one with the animal in his actions and in his nature; Freudianism identified him with the animal in his mental processes; Pragmatism identified him with the animal in his goals and purposes.  What follows?  If man is one with nature, then why should he not be treated as nature, i.e., as a thing, or as a means to an end?  Human rights and freedom lost their outside purchase in God, where the Declaration of Independence put them.  In fact all rights and liberties disappeared, for nature has no rights.  The result is that a new system of law, or political theory, has arisen which makes law merely a positive fact like a poker or a broom.

            If the moral basis of politics is rejected, the nation falls, for unless the electorate votes from an informed conscience rather than on the basis of propaganda, a democracy can vote itself right out of democracy--- as Germany did.”       From Seven Pillars of Peace, (1944), excerpts, pages 67-70.

August 2009 Letter from Michael Bird, President  and  Chief  Volunteer, at St. Michael Broadcasting.

Dear Viewers and Supporters of St. Michael Broadcasting,                   

 Some of you are still having trouble receiving our signal since hooking up your converter box.  Here are our suggestions for remedying this situation:

1 Check to see that your converter box has “analog pass-through.”   If you were able to receive Ch. 19 before hooking up your converter box, you should be able to receive it now.  We are still broadcasting in analog.  Make sure it is hooked up properly and perform an “auto-scan.”

2)  If this doesn’t work, you may need an “A-B switch.”  These are available at such places as Radio Shack.

3) You may need a better UHF antenna.  Another possibility is to just remove your converter box and leave your TV as before.  You will receive Ch. 19, but few other channels.

 If none of these work, call the customer service number that came with the directions for your converter box.  If you can’t find your instructions, call the studio and leave your phone number and the model and make of your converter box.  We will find the number for you and call you back.

4) You may also call Randy at Robin TV (763-533-1566).  He may be able to help you correct the problem over the phone (at no charge), or come to your house.  We believe he charges $60.00 for a service call.  If you use him, please call us at the studio and let us know if you were satisfied with his service.

Finally, if you have a digital TV you should receive us on Channel 19, not Channel 70.  If you are receiving us on Ch. 70, go through the menu on your channel changer and switch the cable option to “off” or “standard.”

 There is good news.  We have applied for a new channel.  After we hear back from the FCC, we will transition to digital.  Our best guess is that we will go digital late this year.  After this transition occurs, it will greatly expand our ability to provide programming.  We might have as many as five channels on our spectrum!  So if you’re not interested in what EWTN is showing at a particular time, you might switch to another channel and find Fr. Groeschel, Bishop Sheen, or programs featuring local speakers.  This will surely help us become a somewhat stronger voice in the desert.  

 Of course doing this will require us to buy some new equipment and new programming.  In June, our contributions came to about $3200.  This station needs $10,000/month just to subsist, and closer to $17,000/month to achieve our goal of modest growth.  Please send in a monthly contribution if you are able.  If money’s tight, don’t, and don’t feel guilty!  If on the other hand, you are in a position to contribute stocks, bonds, real estate, or even valuable items, please leave a message at the station: 612 724-2265, and we will call you back with directions.

 Sincerely yours in Christ,

Michael Bird, President and Chief Volunteer

 Volunteers Needed
Ch. 19 Studio #: 612-724-2265

We need volunteers for three projects:  First, we have a (1985?) Malcolm Muggeridge audio tape called The True Crisis of Our Time. Since the tape is still timely, we would like to make it available on our website in both the audio and transcribed form.  It is about 1 hour long. Please call the studio if you can transcribe, or post the audio.

Second, we need a volunteer to locate other Catholic TV stations in the country.  We have been told there are about 9.  If you have the time to locate them via an internet search, we might be able to use them, and they us, as resources.

Third, we need some one to investigate the business model of Minnesota Public Radio and/or Minnesota Public Television.  We need to know how they operate and how they generate revenue.  Knowing this might help us both lighten the burden on our individual contributors and improve the operation of St. Michael Broadcasting.

A Plea for Intolerance, by Bishop Fulton Sheen

 “What is tolerance?  Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience towards evil, and a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment.  But what is more important than the definition is the field of its application.  The important point here is this: tolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth.  Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.  Tolerance applies to the erring; intolerance to the error.

…America is suffering not so much from intolerance, which is bigotry, as it is from tolerance, which is indifference to truth and error, and a philosophical nonchalance that has been interpreted as broad-mindedness.”

From Old Errors and New Labels (1931), page 105.