June 2002 Archives

If this blog had no readers I wouldn't get email like this:

The Arvo Pärt is a good idea: you hafta purify yourself
after all that gloppy Haugen-Dazs.

by Romulo Braschi, a former Catholic priest who now calls himself a bishop.

"If this ordination does not effectively conform to the laws of the church, it goes against tradition and not against faith," said Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, a former nun and the women's spokeswoman.

There is no question - the ordination doesn't conform to the laws of the Church. It goes against tradition and faith. A ceremony that goes against the Magisterium also goes against the faith. It's like a communist holding an auction.

The ceremony was performed by Romulo Braschi, an Argentine former Catholic priest who calls himself a bishop and a specialist in karma. His 13,000-member Jesus Rey Church is not recognized by the Vatican. He said today, "The Vatican is used to treating as sects anyone who differs with its dogma."

That's because former Catholics who form their own church and don't recognize the Magisterium and the authority of the Pope are a sect.

Was it Solemnity of Infernal Cheese or what? I can't get those shlocky tunes out of my brain. I've got to dig up some of the lyrics and post them but first I am going to put on some Arvo Pärt.

If you haven't checked out Gregorian Rant lately, you should. It's got bite-sized chunks of wisdom, humor and frustration.

"I want you to know class, I've got a touch of the stigmata today so I can't play kickball at recess. If I fall into ectasy please don't tape signs to me or clean the erasers in my hair. Just tell Fr. Preston to give me an obedience to snap out of it - that usually does the trick. He's going to come by at 1 to make sure I am giving you that test and not in spiritual rapture so you'd better be ready. I appreciate the velcro you've given me for my shoes - I know the levitation was a little hard to take during study hall. This morning I'll be explaining the development of Trinitarian doctrine and biolocating next door to do conferences with your parents. Billy, there is a devil sitting on your shoulder. His name is Juju and he's about to feed you another Twinkie. You'd better stop what you are doing and pray for some self-control."

President Bush will undergo a colonoscopy procedure this weekend. Let's pray it is not only successful but non-invasive.

The question of corporate greed came up in relation to the Cantor Fitzgerald TV commercials. I've been thinking about this a lot this week (since I find myself blessed in a wonderful new job with a company that has ethical, Christian owners) and with companies like Enron, WorldCom, and who knows who else we don't need terrorists to wage war against our economy. Lucky for us the US economy is more resilient than to be decimated by such corporate monkey business. Still, it makes you wonder if more Enron-like collapses do serious damage to the US economy. I hate to say this because it is against my nature, but we need more regulation. Mr. Reagan, please forgive me for saying that!

When kids can't play together without poking each other with sharp sticks or taping the cat's tail to the back of it's head you have to have rules. The adult world works the same way - the stakes are just higher.

Goodbye, Good Men

I haven't yet chimed in on Mr. Rose's book. I bought a copy of it at Borders and the cashier whose entire body had been pierced and tatooed except for the tip of his nose looked at me like I was a complete freak. Since then it has been sitting on a pile of other unread but less contentious books. A few friends have told me I absolutely must read it but I have been stalling. The negative press the book has been getting as well as the dueling letters I have read online have increased my misgivings. The fact is, though, that it is not fiction. As Fr. Richard John Neuhaus states in his piece on First Things "even if the situation in vocation offices and seminaries is only half as bad as he suggests, it is very bad indeed." That's what make me so apprehensive about reading it - I don't think I want to know even if it is almost as bad as Rose says.

What is also curious to me is that this book is getting a lot more criticism from the right as opposed to the left. Why not more from the left-leaning groups inside and outside the Church? Time Magazine caught rapture fever but there hasn't been a peep in the mainstream media about thing about the role of dissent or homosexuality had in causing this crisis. Some are saying Goodbye, Good Men is at worst a fabrication and at best bad journalism. Are we denying that there has been a problem in seminaries in this country for a several decades or is there a disagreement on the extent and nature of the problem? I have to take a practical approach - clearly there has been a problem. If this was the Titanic I'd be more concerned about the existence of a hole in the ship than it's nature.

Just took my final for my 2nd accounting class, completing 6 credit hours of amortized ecstasy that began in Jan 2002. That and the fact my job has been taking alot of extra time have kept me from blogging much. Now I'm back. After I take my wife on a picnic this weekend maybe I'll even have a new tidbit.

From foxnews, this is what I would call greed:

A British rival to bond trader Cantor Fitzgerald plotted to poach the devastated firm after it lost 658 staffers in the World Trade Center attacks, an explosive lawsuit charges.

The bosses at Garban Intercapital Management Services discuss their scheme to hijack three top Cantor staffers in an operation its parent company's CEO described as "a heist," according to secret e-mails cited in a London lawsuit filed by Cantor this week.

"This is the time I have been waiting for," gloated one e-mail.

London-based Icap, Garban's parent company, was blasted for making "a systematic and carefully planned attempt to poach leading brokers" from Cantor while the firm was struggling to rebuild and raise funds for its widows and orphans.

I can't fault the guy for making a television ad in an effort to "rebuild and raise funds for its widows and orphans. That's very different from what the firm above was doing in the wake of the disaster and what others did trying to profit from the attacks.

Have you ever thought about writing a priest an affirmation letter? I have lately because I feel our good priests are under a tremendous strain based on Current Events. I came up with the idea that the best affirmation letter was anonymous - there's no strings attached in terms of trying to get the priest to think, "Wow, that Jack Jackson is such a nice fella! And he likes my homilies!" And considering the contents of most anonymous letters, it's a double surprise: no author, but also no content about parking problems, homily length or the lack of flavored coffee at church socials.

If you decide to do one, talk about Jesus and His grace at work in that priest. Tell him that you will pray for him. Thank him for his service and example.

Everyone needs a pick me up, and a letter can be a combination of a prayer and a remembrance of the greatest of God.

on how those Cantor Fitzgerald commercials take him back to the greedy years some people call "the 80's." I for one don't think the greed ended there. Look at the news today - WorldCom "misstated" 3.8 billion greenbacks in transfers to make their bottom line look better. If you can't bring home the bacon, you have to cook the books. The CFO of my old company didn't like that joke. It hit a little too close to home. She was a forensic accountant who was hired to make our financials look good for potential buyers. The company got bought for a whopping $100 million in 1999. The company had 55 employees and about $10 million in annual revenue. The owner had become rich beyond his wildest fantasies. And we found out later the IRS was ready to take over the business just days before we got bought. The owner didn't pay payroll taxes for the whole year leading up to the sale. He was in deep weeds, he rolled the dice, and he beat the odds. I think he had a little help from way, way south of here. By that I mean from hell. He's always been very lucky. About a month after the company got bought a bunch of us are out to dinner with the owner. The check comes and he jokes that he can't pay it because he's living on a fixed income. "Yeah, we're the ones who fixed it for you," I say. The cachinnation occured with such gusto that everyone flailed uncontrollably and spilled their beers. Three people at the table laughed so hard that they threw up. The former owner of our firm was red-faced like a chubby little devil.

The culture of greed has been with us for a while. It's as much a poison to a company as it is to the soul of an individual. Of course none of us knew the IRS was about to shut down the company - we didn't know anything about the financials. We just did our jobs and took care of the customers. I imagine Enron was like before the unpleasantness there. Ditto for Worldcom. You put some tough-minded and greedy people at the top in companies and you get great results or you get calamity. The fallout from the Worldcom debacle is going to be felt in the markets for a long time to come. And for all us little people who invest in the stock market that pushes back the date we might one day retire.

I can't knock capitalism. As an economic system it's the best we humans have, but it's like a gun - what people do with it might be bad. Democracy can be described this way too.

I won't criticize the owner of Cantor Fitzgerald. I haven't seen the commercials, but seeing this company that was ravaged by the 9-11 attacks rebuild itself gives me hope. I think this is a different situation than the 80's. And the 90's. And today at Worldcom.

First space rocks start heading our way, then Pavarotti retires. Now the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. I expect all the canned goods, bread, bottle and TP to be gone from the grocery store when I get there tonight.

to pursue a career in fashion design.

That's a joke. I couldn't resist with that hideous vest thing he is wearing. He's looks like God's piñata in that outfit.

The real story is here. He is way past him prime in so many ways. The story of his divorce is so.. so... American.

I just started yesterday with a company I started doing business with in 1999. I'll get into more pedestrian details about it at another time. What is amazing is that everyone who works there is Christian - it's quite a little ecumenical community! They eat together, pray together, some of them go to church together and this has an amazing effect on the esprit de corps and their productivity. One guy is Catholic, there are several Evangelicals and one Episcopalian. The last is a young woman who is as sweet as pie and is quite an athlete. She gets up at 4 in the A.M. every day to swim for an hour and a half, then runs or bikes for a spell in the evening. One of the men told me she doesn't go to church because she feels so close to God when she is exercising. "To each his own," he says. I was thinking more like "To each His own!" Jesus founded a Church when he walked this Earth. He wants us to worship Him in a certain manner. He wished for His sacrifice to be celebrated in a sacramental fashion. Can I question anyone's love for Christ or their faith? I can't. But I can ask, "What happens when you are running and you don't feel close to God anymore?" Maybe when I get to know her better I will.

More on this later tonight if I am able. My brain is toast from acclimating to the new job - it's quite a learning curve. I do have to thank God for giving me this opportunity to work and grow with such a fine company. I am shattered by His grace.

According to this 15th century fresco in the San Petronio basilica in Bologna, Italy, Muhammad is. And who isn't too happy about that? Muslims - that's who!

I would like to see a picture of the whole fresco. This photo from cnn.com doesn't look complete. And the blue demon in the bottom left corner look remarkably like Shrek...

I had an original thought last week. Read now, alert the media later. The thought was this: one of us Catholic bloggers should create a list of reform groups that we can reference online. I mentioned that I didn't know what CFAR's "ecclesiastical shtick" was before I posted the link to them. I meant that I didn't take to time to read about their mission and make an informed decision about whether or it was one I agreed with or could support. Here is their position statement and statement of principles. I do agree with them! Most importantly this statement:

No man can be accepted into the seminary unless he believes completely in the fullness of the Church's teaching and lives in accordance with it.

If I have the time I will begin working on a list of such groups with links to their positions. I just started a new job today so it may take a bit to adjust to the new schedule and commute. Driving in Northern Virginia is a near occasion of sin unless it's 4:45 am Sunday morning. During the times that I am driving to and from work I wish I had a priest in the passenger seat. "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. But you saw how that dipstick cut me off in that Bondo-mobile he was driving! I'll bet he doesn't have insurance!" That is what as known as "imperfect contrition."

you might be asking the same question as I did when you read this article from The Washington Post. What is a priest doing qualifying the title of his vocation with a description of his sexual orientation? And if he is going to say "gay priest" why not "celibate gay priest" lest someone suspect he has one hand on the maypole? Actually, that's not satire, that is what is known as a euphemism.

Adventures of a choir director

I had an usher come up to me right after the first hymn: "There's a horn going off in the parking lot. See if you can make an announcement"
He handed me a note that read, "ZES 9652 merk blue-green sfatruigm" He walked away while I thought, "What the heck is a blue-green sfatruigm?"
He came back during the Gloria and said, "Ixnay on the nouncementay"

I bought the Adoremus Hymnal last week (choir edition) at the Shrine. My advice on this fine Monday morning is get one for yourself! What I like best about this hymnal is that version with accompaniment is called the "organ edition." Not "piano edition," "guitar edition," "C instrument edition," or "tablature edition." It's called the "organ edition." For playing on the organ. Your church might have one that is easier to find than the tabernacle.

hasn't clued in to the fact that this blog has two writers.

In his homily the padre talked about good-byes. He said he was dating a girl in high school and they broke up over the telephone. With tearful eyes he wished her well and told her he hoped she would eventually go to Heaven. "She thought I was a freak," he said. That is the the funniest thing I have ever heard in a homily. His point was a Christian lives his life longing for Heaven and wishes for others to get there. So he wished us well and told us it was his hope that we would all eventually go to Heaven. And of course we must participate worthily in the sacraments and pray in order to get there.

I spent about an hour practicing this reading from the Book of Kings so I didn't mangle the Old Testament names when I spoke. When I got to the ambo Father asked me to do the reading for the memorial of Aloysius Gonzaga instead. I had a good laugh at myself for getting worked up over the names in Kings.

Dr. Jacobson, the famed musicologist, chanted the Introit, the Gradual, and the Communion song. He was incredible. At the party afterwards I spoke with him for a while. He mentioned that he is looking for singers for his group, the Washington Capella Antigua, so I will be auditioning for him on Wedesday. I would be overjoyed if he accepts me - there wouldn't be a better way to learn early sacred music unless I had a time machine. My friend Linda, a fine soprano and choral conductor, will be joining the group for sure. She's doing doctoral studies in the field of early music so it's right up her alley.

I was doing some research on Church reform groups for our list and happened upon this.

In a system that cared more for its clerical image than it did for the people it purported to serve, theologians, canonists, scholars and women all went unattended with their questions, ignored in their concerns. The balance of hierarchy, laity and scholars, which Thomas Aquinas defined as the fullness of the church, seemed lost forever. The clerical culture of silence, exclusion and sacred domination simply stopped the church cold, struck questioners dumb, drew up the drawbridge on discussion after discussion: birth control, homosexuality, celibacy, married clergy, divorce, the role of women in the church. Those questions, we were told, had been answered once for all, were determined in heaven, were answered in male clerical synods, were not to be broached by the likes of the barbarians at the gates.

It was St. Teresa of Avila who said “God preserve us from stupid nuns.”

3:00 pm yesterday - my home computer becomes unbootable, looks like a hard drive problem
3:01 pm I reboot. I reboot a couple more times. I fiddle with the startup options a bit. Nothing.
3:30 pm I leave to meet a friend for a visit before Latin Mass. I try not to worry about the data I don't have backed up.
11:00 pm I get home after the Latin Mass and party for Father Chris. I turn on my computer and for no good reason I yell "Sursum corda!" Nothing. I begin to fret and pace around the house.
1:34 am The fretting and pacing ceases as I fall into a restless sleep.

6:54 am today. I resume trouble shooting. I buy and download data recovery software from winternals.com for 300 bones. I monkey with that for a long time. It don't work.
3:18 pm I investigate the return policy for the above company. "If not totally satisfied contact us for a refund within 30 days of purchase." Yippie. Make a note to contact them on Monday.
3:20 pm I download the trial version of more expensive data recovery program and determine that, yes, I can recover most of the data.
3:54 pm I fork over 500 bones for the software that will do the trick.
4:08 pm I am copying about 15 GB of files from the dead drive which hopefully contains all my documents, digital photos, email, my resume, etc. That will be done in about an hour.

If you are anywhere near by please come see me - I need a hug.

I think some of our friends in blogland are wondering if Nihil Obstat is a sour-puss. A blog created to point out typos and grammatical errors on Catholic blogs certainly sounds sour. Add that to the fact that "Nihil" is anonymously published and there's plenty of room for conjecture.

Here's a possible profile for Mr/Ms/Mrs/Dr Obstat, created by drawing on my recollection of several X-Files episodes.

N. Obstat is middle-aged with a small paunch developing around the mid-section because of time spent reading this book.
N. Obstat has a very old cat likes to curl up in inconvenient places like the kitchen counter, the bathroom sink and N. Obstat's mousepad.
N. Obstat's medicine cabinet contains 7 different kinds of analgesics.
In spite of post-graduate degrees at prestigious New England universities, N. Obstat pronounces the word "idea" as "idear" and the word "pudding" as "puddin"
N. Obstat rejected an invitation to join "Mensa" because the group is too hebetudinous.
N. Obstate raises his/her pinky when drinking a beverage.
N. Obstat does not listen to music because it would be too relaxing and enjoyable.
N. Obstat has been known to kick small dogs with his/her sensible shoes when no one is looking.
N. Obstat once slapped a student who defined irony as "a place where it's real hot and men make fences that are real costly"
N. Obstat decided to make the blog because it would be too complicated to keep up on the theological aspects of Catholic blogs with one called "Imprimatur"

That's all for now. Except - I'll be happy to withdraw this information once the cloak of anonymity is removed.

Like a block party - get it? I know there are a lot of local bloggers in the Washington DC Metro area and one that I know of whose heart is here most of the time even though she lives a couple of states away. We should have a gathering this summer. Now we just have to work out the logistics. Who is with me?

but I have to figure out how I am going to post it without using the parish name. It's still a somewhat touchy situation and I don't wish to create any difficulty for the reader and members of the parish. I'll try to post later today.

He's articulate, funny, insightful, and inspiring.

Two sayings that we used to have in the seminary come to mind. First, "These hands were made for chalices, not callouses." This is the attitude of many priests unfortunately who were ordained to be served, not to serve. And frankly. serving is hard, growing in virtue is hard. No wonder the Latin root of virtue is "vir" meaning man. It takes toil to grow in holiness, in virtue - and this is what the priesthood is all about, growth in ones own virtue and helping others to do the same. It takes callouses to get there. Then there is "It is the cross, not the couch." It is easy for priests and bishops to fall into a couch-centered spirituality. Heck, it is easy for me - I don't like to suffer. But I know that this attitude leads to a softness, a weakness that is not fitting for a priest.

His internal links are not working but don't miss the posts called "The Priest I Want," "Vestments for Women," and "A Priest Forever."

Kathryn Lively of Come On, Get Lively has set up a webring for virtual parish. We signed up and added the navigation bar to our blogs section. Now we need an opt-in mailing list, online Mass cards, St. Blog's coffee cups, perhaps an authentic Marian apparition.

Not if Angry Nordic Jesus has anything to say about it!

Your blog on the National Shrine caught my eye. I'm an Arlington seminarian who's assigned to the Shrine for the summer, working as an assistant to the Director of Liturgy, Fr. Andrew Fisher, a fine Arlington priest (class of '98). In fact, there's a good chance you saw me running around the lower level of the Shrine on some errand or another! :)

Anyway, in answer to your question... yes, hard as it is to believe, guitars have been played at Mass there. There was apparently a folk Mass there on Sundays when Fr. Dan Maher (2 liturgy directors ago, now our Episcopal Vicar for Finance in the Arlington diocese) arrived at the Shrine -- this would have been around 1994 or '95. He eliminated it, however.

The Catholic University of America campus ministry has Sunday Masses there as well. Though I've heard they've improved tremendously (when I first served at the Shrine before I entered seminary, about 6 years ago, I used to hear horror stories about their Masses), they may well play the guitar too. Yikes.

The good news: at any official Shrine liturgy, you're not going to hear a guitar.

What a blessing it must be to be assigned to the Shrine during a summer while you are in the seminary! I don't think I would ever want to leave! Well, unless God wanted me to leave in which case I would. This reader is a classmate of another seminarian friend of mine who is at Blessed Sacrament in Alexandria this summer.

I poached the expression "Angry Nordic Jesus" from Emily Stimpson. I happen to think that mosaic (link to a picture of it above) is wonderful and terrible. Terrible in the sense of awesome and frightening. It inspires the fear of God - awe and wonder in His presence. I don't know how anyone could play a guitar in the Shrine with him looking down!

Earth almost got pummeled by a space rock last week. It makes you think, doesn't it?

CNN trots out this artist's conception of an asteroid impact whenever someone with thick glasses and pocket protector tells us a very small chunk of the universe is headed our way. It looks pretty silly. Thank God we're still sitting here to joke about it.

And what does the possibility of such an event do to Robert Sungensis's position on the Earth being the center of the universe?

Amy Welborn linked to us about compiling a list of Catholic reform groups and my novel and nutty rating system for such groups. Here's a link to comments people have been making on her site. I told you that rating system was going to have a life of its own!

This reader is running a bad poetry contest of her own. She also wants us all to know that some other online poetry contests are scams. Imagine that. Scams on the inTARnet. Whodathunkit.

Wandering through the Catholic blogosphere, I encountered your call for bad poems. It reminded me of a contest that I started on my website, www.winningwriters.com . The Wergle Flomp Award is for the best intentionally bad poem that has been accepted by one of those dreadful amateur sites like Poetry.com. The purpose of our contest is to show that Poetry.com, the International Library of Poetry etc. are scams. I am currently judging the entries (alas, the vast majority did not understand the rules, and sent me poems that are just unintentionally bad) and will announce a winner on the site in August.

Wergle Flomp, by the way, is the nom de plume of UK poet David Taub, links to whose hilarious intentionally bad poems can be found on our website.

As David would say, "Yim yam widdley wooo" ---

Jendi Reiter
http://www.winningwriters.com
and
http://www.jendireiter.com

Here's my original post on this with the details. I will be singing in a schola and probably doing the readings. If you are a local and can make it, email me. It would be great to meet some readers so we can express our thanks in person!

has been named by this gentle reader.

I assumed his name was Neal Obstinate and the blog name was a typo.

Steve Mattson came to a similar conclusion but considered that our pedantic pundit might be female, not male.

The worst of the worst is what follows. The author's names are omitted so that our failed writers can't be mocked, scorned or otherwise chastised for participating. Recall that the winner is to receive a 15-decade rosary from me. Pray that you find something you actually have a gift for - poetry ain't it.

The winning entry combines concern for animals with commentary on society in such a despirited way that it only could have appeared in a High School literary magazine. The utterly futile compostional scheme of putting single words on alternating lines is remarkably bad.

NUT

i stand at the
zoo
and feel the rail in my
hand
as the elephant cries a great pachyderm
tear
large enough to hold the world and with a
blink
it falls and turns to mud upon which the
zookeeper
steps never even realizing or if he does he keeps it deep within his
heart
with who knows what pains caring for these
prisoners
bring that he grinds the world to mush under his dung-crusted
boot
and i wish i could give this great thick-skinned brother of mine
a peanut
but the sign says don't

humans can read and so say they're better than
animals
which can't but if i couldn't read i would give the elephant
a peanut

who is the
beast
here can you tell me

Next is honorable mention for a concept piece the author didn't actually wish to enter. Its brevity and use of a word that I had to look up in the dictionary made it necessary for me to consider it.

But is causing someone to read poetry like THAT a near occasion of sin? 14 out of 20 casuists say 'yes'!

This writer needs to work out some anger management issues but the end of his piece made me laugh out loud.

Luscious
Rage, rage
I yell unceasing
To expose the hegemonic nature
Of all discourse
Truly rage, but luscious
Like an interior decorator from
England
No, the other one
with the leather pants
Rage I tell you

The repetion of the "s" sound and its syllabic economy give this entry too much charm to be the winner.

Hodge Podge

Big Trees
Big Bees
Bigsby's
Busy Bees
Kids Knees
Kidneys
Lost Keys
Louder Please
Corn and Peas
No More Sleaze
Popcorn and Cheese
Fill with Ease
World Peace
The "You and Me's "
High Seas
High Seize
Hi-C
Don't Sneeze

God Bless You.

This one is on the cusp, cusp, cusp of being at the top of the country charts but it doesn't rhyme.

Cusp, cusp,
cusp of vacation;
sweet rim of a Tuesday night
lipp’d edge
of freedom
momentary as a a dandelion’s flower
black asphalt’s the answer:
tarway to heaven.

I want to thank all of you who entered but I just can't. I'd rather have Christopher Walken read the collected works of James Joyce to me in the shower than have another contest like this.

liked the idea of Church reform groups sprouting up to so much that he has sprouted his own.

a reader writes:

I'd rate CFAR as "does not contain nuts". The spokesmen are - at least the ones I've heard of - orthodox lay Catholics who have done respectable work.

Not that they're perfect: I think that essay by Tom Hoopes ("Smoke and Mirrors...") is quite weak. He complains because the Dallas News reporter rounded 62% off and called it "two-thirds". That sort of pettifoggery is, if anything, anti-persuasive.

Reader is referring to this piece that I linked to yesterday. The rating system, which I meant only as a joke, is posted here. Regardless of my original intent I think it's going to have a life of its own!

That has the time to check spelling, grammer and point out any literery phoibles in St. Blogs.

How bad a problm could we have here? So we're tpying at all hours, not enough coofee, not enough sleep. Babies crying even after we laid them down.

Well, I'm glad someone is keeping up with all the misspellings and sintax errors.

I know a priest who insists that every verse of every hymn is sung for hymns/songs picked for the liturgy.
Does anyone have any informed thoughts on the benefits/drawbacks of that?

I believe the reason he does it is that he considers most hymns to be complete prayers, if sing only a verse or two, you've missed out on some of the richness of the rest of the text.

Let me know if you have any thoughts, please.

put his email address on the site I would write to tell him to kiss my moose.

    ___            ___

   /   \          /   \

   \_   \        /  __/

    _\   \      /  /__

    \___  \____/   __/

        \_       _/

          | @ @  \_

          |

        _/     /\   

       /o)  (o/\ \_

       \_____/ /

         \____/

My sarcasm aside I want to say with all respect and charity I think he would do well to show some integrity and honesty by posting his name and a means by which he can be contacted. Even those of us that write with a nom de cyber publish our email addresses. Pretentiously jabbering about grammatical mistakes a blogger made more than a month is obtuse. I'm done wasting bits and bytes on ye whose name may not be spoken!

Has anyone thought of writing up and profiling these start-ups and up-starts and posting the list online? I mean in a non-biased way - just stating the facts and letting readers decide for themselves if they are nuttier than something that is chock full o' nuts. That would be a good project for someone with a bit time on their hands. Actually if you are reading this and in one of those groups please email me some info and I'll try to pull this together. Contact info and URL would be ideal. If you know of any other groups please email me.

I am asking about this because I posted a link to Catholics for Authentic Reform without really looking into their ecclesiastical shtick. I'm not knocking them, I just didn't have time to look and I should have. I want to be a bit more careful in the future and make sure I am not linking to Kreative Katholic Koncepts (thanks for that phrase, Alexandra!), The Peoples' Front of Rome, the Roman Peoples' Front, Catholics for the Liberation of Space Cabbage, or some such group. More on this later.

And if we must rate them we'll use the following scale:

Does not contain nuts
May contain nuts
Slighty nutty bouquet with fruity overtones
Somewhat nutty and fruity
Flaky and nutty
Exceedingly fruity and nutty
Nuttier than a cheese log
Nutrageous

Steve - you need to add the spam first so all the healthy spam juices can escape and mingle with the potatos. I saw Alton Brown do it on Good Eats.

and let us know if you tried the recipe. I think the shredded potatoes would take too long to cook compared with the shredded spam and I'm not going to waste a perfectly good can of spam proving my theory!

Today Louder Fenn writes about a new term he's heard for overweight people - "people of size." May I also suggest one of the following:

people of girth
massive persons
fleshy ones
someone of corporeal abundance

Looks like park rangers and state employees are bad for the environment.

According to cnn.com, state biologists were using firecrackers to ward off an aggressive cow moose. The fire started last month and has burned 92,000 acres. You know what I think might be better at scaring aggressive cow mooses and less likely to start devastating forest fires? A gun. Or maybe an air horn if you don't want to pack heat in the wilds of Alaska.

Here's a press release from Catholics for Authentic Reform. Is the crisis as bad as we think it is? Is it worse? Is it going to get worse before it gets better? Is it going to get worse before it gets worse?

I first saw the link to these pictures on Ad Orientem. It's the renovation of St Joseph's Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown, KY. I was confused at first because I thought the "before" picture was on top while the "after" picture was on the bottom. I was mistaken. The top picture is what the church looks like now. It appears to be devoid of crucifixes or anything of the symbols that existed previously. What is the sacrifice of the Mass without the symbol of our Lord suffering and dying? It is still the sacrifice of the Mass, but the congregation does not see what earned our redemption. I believe they would not be as mindful of the price of our redemption without those symbols present.

Here's something you don't hear often: suffering matters. Christ's suffering matters most of all. There is no rising without dying, no Glory without the Cross. For each one of us that means a true cross. I'm speaking of a "true cross" in the sense of the cross Christ gives each of us to bear, not a cross we build for ourselves. What a silly burden the planners of that renovation took upon themselves - the old sanctuary "was deemed unworthy of the 'new liturgy' and needed to be made adapted to 'the spirit of Vatican II'......."

What folly it is to remove the symbols of that which unifies the world in the love and mercy of God in the interest of being inclusive. I suppose that's what they meant by "the spirit of Vatican II." The world has known nothing more inclusive than Christ's sacrifice. That is the spirit of Vatican II. That is the Good News.

First-class postage is set to go up at the end of the month to 37 cents. This stamp is funny on so many levels. It's as though Porky Pig is saying "I can bring home the bacon if you buy more stamps!" Or he could symbolize the bloated bureaucracy that employs the rank and file who sort and deliver the mail. Maybe the original stamp said "That's all Folks! Until the next rate hike!"

Regardless, email and smiles are still free!

looks like a cranky grammarian has joined our parish. I know I am inviting scrupulous scrutiny from our unnamed orthographer, but for the love of all things holy will you take something to remove the blockage in your lower intestine?

in cases involving the sexual abuse of minors.

is a wonderful place to pray. I was there yesterday afternoon for a few hours. I came away with a pile of books, a wood and string rosary that won't be confiscated by airport security, and a Miraculous Medal on a chain that is way too small to fit over my fat head. The problem is you can't try them on when you are in the giftshop. I guess I will give it to my niece who is eight and has a small head. I got in a conversation with a very nice security guard named Don. He's an army vet who retired and was sitting around the house for a few weeks before his wife told him to "Get a life!" He got a job at the shrine seven years ago and he says Mary has been his boss ever since. What a powerful witness he is!

Look at the pictures on this site - they are stunning. I might just drop the music director a line and ask if a guitar has ever been played at a Mass there.

More from the same reader who used to attend St. Anthony's Parish.

[regarding] The schismatic DRE: Her comment to me just gives a tiny flavor of it. I watched her coldly and systematically destroy a young woman's faith during an RCIA class; then she boasted of it. A year or two later, the girl turned up in a Washington Post article about a "WomanChurch" group in the diocese. She was photographed standing at an "altar" and quoted about consecrating in this (fake) eucharist as part of a community that welcomed women's experiences. (I believe the DRE was also quoted, but she had the canniness to say something relatively bland about women needing a greater role in the church, etc., etc. And she stayed out of camera range.)

Currently I go to St. Philip's; Fr. Spychala is the greatest! I still go to St. Anthony sometimes, because they have more Mass times that St. Philip does. And you're right about the African priests at St. Anthony's -- they preach from the heart. Sometimes I think JPII should turn us back into a missionary country. It might be a salutary surprise for those who think America is the Most Important Church in the World!

Rome, we have problem. Please send reinforcements!

I recommend it for anyone who has read or been exposed to the "Left Behind" series of books. I think just about everyone who is in the mere Christian Bible study I participate in believes in the rapture. When we finished the Gospel of Matthew there was even a suggestion we read one of those books. Not as Scripture, of course, but as something we could all discuss. Thank goodness that got squashed and we're doing Acts.

The modern idea of the rapture came from bad theology in the mid 1800's and has been zealously preached in recent decades. Whatever Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins motives were in writing the "Left Behind" series it's clear they have made piles of greenbacks while scaring the bejesus out of people. I saw once a woman in church with one of the books. Another time I noticed the whole series of books displayed across the top shelf of the "Religion" section in a bookstore. I thought that was odd since right next to the "Religion" section was the "Inspirational Fiction" section. I should have told manager those books belonged in the "Fiction" section, not even in the "Inspirational Fiction" section, but I just purchased some Chesterton and walked out. The problem, I suppose, besides bad theology being easy for people to buy into, is that Jesus sells. Not in all markets but in predominantly Christian and consumeristic countries the topic of Jesus, however flawed the theology, the writing, the movie-making, sells. Now if Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins wrote instead about a galaxy far, far away in which the people believed what the humans do in the Left Behind series, only about another diety and religion, they would have used their original manuscript to wrap fish. Give it a Christian context and it's a different ball game.

Here's an interesting article from Catholic.net about the books. I had no idea 30 million copies of these books have been sold. It stinks that some people can't separate fiction from theology. This, from the article on Catholic.net, is quite amusing:

The most successful end-times movie franchise may be the series produced by Peter Lalonde and his brother Paul. It got off to a shaky start with the shabby Apocalypse (1998) but picked up with Revelation (1999), which hatched a plan by the Antichrist to steal souls through virtual-reality helmets, and Tribulation (2000), in which Gary Busey comes out of a coma to find himself stranded in the tribulation. Judgment (2001) stars Corbin Bernsen, along with Mr. T who plays an underground believer who has had enough of that turn-the-other-cheek stuff. The Lalondes also produced a spin-off video, Vanished (1999) meant to be seen by non-Christians after the rapture.

I can see it now. Mr. T says, "Don't give me any of that Jesus was just a dude jibbah-jabbah - accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior!"

After a long vacation, the tidbit has returned. It's in the right side bar, just scroll down a bit. This will please small children, men and old men. This will frighten dieticians, wives and vegans. Don't blame me, blame my imagination.

I really like your blog and read it most every day, but I was having some
kind of posttraumatic syndrome flashback when I read about your inadvertent visit to St. Anthony's 50th anniversary extravaganza. Was it your first visit there? I belonged to the parish for about 10 years. Where do I begin....

* the Palm Sunday when the choir processed to "Ride On, King Jesus," with much swaying and clapping, etc. (It might have worked, too, if they had been a gospel choir, instead of a bunch of elderly white women....)

To answer your question, I have been there before for daily Mass. I never noticed the drumset by the piano though.

We do that hymn on Palm Sunday but we don't clap and sway - It's good walking music for the procession. It's fine if you are not trying to give the congregation a cultural experience. If, as eldery white women, you do try to give the congregation a cultural experience it makes them uncomfortable and embarassed for you. Now on Easter we do "My Lord, What a Morning" and a choir of twenty or thirty people can do that without making a spectacle of themselves. All you have to do is relax the vowels a bit and you are being true to the spirit of the composition. It sounds like music that way instead of making in an auditory and visual extravaganza. Note that the composer doesn't write in the score "Sway to the left and right, clap on beats 2 and 4."

* or the Easter when the music director, after playing the preludes, ceremoniously removed his sport coat and replaced it with a sort of ivory brocade smoking jacket...

Yikes. I need a minute to fully grasp the absurdity of that action. What liturgical purpose could that have possibly served?

* or the time Bishop Loverde had to explain to the pastor that, although Bp. Keating had dropped dead, it was somewhat premature of Fr. Tuck to act as if the prohibition on altar girls had died with him. According to the pastor's tirade in the bulletin the next Sunday, the part that really stung was not the cease-and-desist order, but the fact that it was apparently parishioners who turned him in. He actually said something like "I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been some of these mindlessly conservative priests we have in Arlington, but I thought you people would be more progressive..." (Appreciate me, darn it! I'm painfully hip!)

Wow and yikes. Not a good wow - a wow as in "he said mindlessly conservative priests we have in Arlington."

* or the director of religious education, who found out I was a convert from the Episcopal church, and said, "Why in the world would an intelligent woman leave the Episcopal church to become Catholic? The Episcopalians are doing such wonderful things for women!!" (My response: "That's why I left.")

*Sigh* All those folks are still in place.

Now that was such an indescribably moronic statement I can't believe a Director of Religious Education said it. Do you want someone in charge of RE to say, "Go worship in whatever Church matches your relativistic values and social agenda!" If I ever have children I would like to belong to a church where the DRE is not a schismatic.

I guess I'm being uncharitable, because St. Anthony really does have some good social programs. And the letter of the liturgical law is usually
obeyed. However, it isn't a bilingual parish. It's more like an English parish and a Hispanic parish sharing the same facilities. Other than the kind of extravaganza you witnessed, there's no interaction between the two.

It's regrettable that they don't interact. As for being uncharitable don't sweat it. I just called the DRE a schismatic and a moron. I began today promising myself and all our gentle readers that I would be more charitable. Well tomorrow is a new day, I suppose.

On one side there is outrage, frustration, moral indignation, and fear for the future. On the other side hope and trust the Holy Spirit will guide the Church clear of this crisis. It's hard to know what to think some days. I've decide to tone down my rhetoric on something of these topics rather than bleat my gut reactions to headlines. Why? Hope and trust in God is in the realm of faith. Fear of anything but God is outside of the realm of faith. I hope some of my new blogger friends and our readers have the fortitude to deal with all this in an spiritually more mature manner than I have lately. I know we can be frustrated and angry without losing faith but me it has been a slippery slope. That's why John and I have decided to change the format of the blog to all country music reviews and pictures of llamas all the time. That's a joke. We're not changing the format at all - I'm just going to make an effort to write in the spirit of hope and trust that Jesus calls us all to.

Pax vobis!

The winner be announced this Thursday. Thanks to all who have sent in their irredeemable entries!

The Parochial Vicar at St. Mark Parish in Vienna, VA is offering one more Latin Mass before he is transfered at the end of the month. It's this coming Friday the 21st @ 7:30 PM. Musicologist Dr. Patrick Jacobson, who has his own musical group, the Washington Capella Antiqua, and also sings with the Washington Chorus, will Chant various parts of the Mass. Dr. Jacobson has forgotten more about chant than almost anyone will ever know. He is remarkable. If you can come please do.

St. Mark Catholic Church
9970 Vale Road
Vienna, Virginia 22181
703-281-9100

Email me if you are coming or if you need directions.

While the Bishops were debating their important policies, rules, and position papers, the real Work of the Church was going right along, in obscure, unknown situations like me anointing that dying man. All of the policies and rules and Important Debates are just so much wind compared to that.

And I began thinking about my new blog, and blogging, and about all of the indignation and anger and feelings of betrayal expressed in blogdom about our corrupt and incompetent Shepherds. While it's important that we discuss these things, if they distract us from the Real Work of the Church, then we're part of the Problem.

All the bloggings, bleatings, and bloviations in the world don't amount to beans against the Sacrament by which I helped usher that one soul into eternity.

Blogging is fun, but Anointing that old man is why I Became a Priest.

On second thought, just go read his site. I think I have become part of the problem!

the priest and mystic fomerly known as Padre Pio.

San Pio de Pietrelcina, pray for us!

is hopeful that the question of the role dissent and homosexuality in The Crisis will be addressed in the upcoming Apostolic Visitation.

See this post from NRO's Rod Dreher on The Corner.

...the mood among orthodox RCs here is grim. This "hapless bench of bishops," as Bp. Bruskewitz called them tonight, couldn't even agree that the role of dissent and homosexuality in this catastrophe was worth studying.

More to come from Rod on Monday.

This is not what we were hoping for from our Bishops. At least not what me and my Catholic friends and family in communion with the Church were hoping for. I applauded Bishop Gregory's statement at the beginning of the conference. However, there were not only bad decisions that led up to this conference, there were also bad ideas, beliefs and practices. We discuss them all the time. They include dissenting ideas and practices regarding such things as:

Liturgy
Confession and Sacramental participation
The Church teaching on human sexuality
The role of the clergy
The role of the laity
Abortion

It all comes down to what the Catholic Church teaches and what dissenters believe should be taught. This includes the voices of dissent inside and outside the Church. Let's remember that in centuries past dissenters were called "heretics" and "schismatics." I am shocked and dismayed that the Bishops couldn't agree the role of dissent was worth studying. How is it not worth studying?

More from another piece by Mr. Dreher:

The ideological schism within Church ranks will likely only intensify, particularly if the sense grows among orthodox Catholics that the bishops do not want to address the homosexual problem, and the "lavender mafia" corruption of the seminaries, where much of this abuse starts. Similarly, as Phil Lawler points out, the bishops have said nothing about the Vatican's recent mandate that the bishops recommit themselves to Catholic teaching.

That is also at the heart of this scandal. The liberal Appleby made an excellent point in his address to the bishops, saying that the crisis began, in a sense, with the 1968 papal encyclical Humanae Vitae, which forbade artificial birth control for Catholics. A large majority of American Catholics rejected the ruling, and a large majority of American bishops (and priests) declined to defend and promote the teaching. This event, Appleby said, marked the beginning of the bishops and the laity living in bad faith.

As Lawler, who agrees with Appleby on this diagnosis (if not the solution), wrote yesterday, the bishops "have, in short, 'looked the other way.' Over the years the habit has become ingrained. On one issue after another — contraception, homosexuality, abortion — bishops have developed the practice of looking the other way, papering over the gap between teaching and practice. Meanwhile, the ordinary Catholic faithful became accustomed to this mode of behavior, so that they began to view bishops as distant, abstracted figures. And so we come to today's scandal.

"Yes, the path leads back to Humanae Vitae. And we wish to address the fundamental causes of today's distress, we cannot avoid that history."

This is why anybody who thinks the Friday vote on sex-abuse policy will be the end of the matter is dreaming. The battle for the Catholic Church in America has only just begun.

Perhaps I should be hoping and praying instead of blogging.

Only Michael Tinkler would use "historian" and "cranky" in the same sentence.

Not that I'm opposed to the Latin mass, but it was the suburbs that broke down cultural barriers.

When I moved to Geneva, NY (pop. 14,000) I was amazed to find that there were still 2 parishes *within sight* of each other in winter time (in summer the trees get in the way) which people still refer to as the Irish and the Italian parishes. Yes, one could go to Mass at those churches and do o.k., but remember that sermons were in the vernacular - which in America didn't always mean English. As was confession.

Now I tend to think that the Paul VI Mass in Latin reverently celebrated would be one of the best things going, but let's not idealize the cultural barrier situation of the church in America.

Point well taken, Professor. Clearly I wasn't communicating very well. Bilingual Masses can be wonderful when the faithful is equipped to understand the prayers and readings. I don't know many parishes who can afford to print translations in the form of a program, even for infrequent bilingual Masses. At the Cathedral they do one reading in Spanish and the English version is printed in the program. The rest of the Mass is in English with the exception of a blessing the Bishop might give in Spanish. That's marginally a bilingual Mass. The Mass at St. Anthony's was alternating English and Spanish all the time. It didn't have any translation in the program. That wasn't ideal.

I just read this on Emily Stimpson's joint:

They're Not Going To Deal With The Homosexual Question

Voted no on an amendment to study the relationship of homosexuality and the pederasty crisis. Voice vote. No record of who stands where. Can't come back and bite them in the butt quite so easily that way.

Big mistake.

Why not do a study? Do they think the role of homosexual clergy in this crisis doesn't matter? If they think the root cause of this is the absence of a zero-tolerance policy for such abuse they are mistaken. Why else would they not want a study? Perhaps because the media is stapled to the back of their chasubles? I am not sure I can bring myself to write about this any more.

See Mark Shea's comments on this as well.

I thought it would be neat to go to St. Anthony since it was his feast day. I also thought it was going to be a quiet daily Mass. I had no idea it was their golden anniversary. So rather than a sparsely-attended, brief daily Mass it was a two-hour bilngual Eucharistic shindig. Now I am concerned about being uncharitable (since I probably just did) so I will say this. We must separate the fact that Christ becomes present in body, blood, soul and divinity from everything else. Christ is there whether the homily is boring, the altar boys are wearing sneakers, the music is irreverant or not. Even if there is an awards ceremony during the Mass Christ is still there. "Awards ceremony? What on Earth is he talking about?" you say. After Communion before Mass ended there were some speeches and the pastoral council gave out awards to the order of priests who founded the Church in 1952, the sisters who founded the school, and to one of the previous pastors. In all fairness, when you plan an event like this I suppose you don't have many options. I suppose they could have done speeches then Mass rather than what they did. Maybe a 30 minute awards ceremony with speeches then a Mass, instead of a two-hour Mass with this non-liturgical stuff.

There were two very memorable occurences besides the drumset that was playing along on every sung prayer with the organ, the rhythmic clapping during the Lamb of God, and the readings that alternated one sentence in English and one in Spanish. The first was Representative Tom Davis making an ass of himself in a speech after communion. He opened by saying "Blessed are those who are brief, for they shall be re-elected." har-har. Not with your record on abortion, buddy. Some Catholics pay attention to that when they vote - especially when our tax money is used to fund abortion and contraception overseas. When he was done speaking he put the wireless microphone on the altar. Oops. I guess he's not Catholic. Next was something said by one of the previous pastors. To the best of my recollection it was, "I like to think of the pastor as the coach of the football team and the members of the church as the team. You've got to pick who can best throw that pass, who can catch it, who can keep score, etc." Golly - I always thought of the pastor as ministering the sacraments and providing for his flock. Maybe I'm just being churlish again.

Oh, the hymn books were from OCP. The drummer really did play along with everything ever when the organ was playing, and he had windchimes that he used gerenously for effect. I'm sure they effect was different on me than on the drummer who was chiming then. They weren't the kind you hang up in your back yard that has five innocuous tones but a whole rack of them. It was a very happy-sounding abomination. I was impressed with the piano/organ player though because he was fluent in Spanish and English. If you've got a big hispanic community that is a must. The clapping during the Lamb of God can go, though. Bilingual Masses are wonderful. It's important to recognize the diversity of congregations and celebrate it. You know what really breaks down cultural barriers and allows everyone to worship in the same spirit and language? Masses in Latin.

Hi, All - I'm defering to the likes of Amy Welborn on discussing IT. IT being the thing that is the complete focus of everyone's attention these days.

I will say that I heard the reverend McBrien from Notre Dame on WMAL in DC this morning and it colored my day charcoal gray. Can someone tell me where in the Vatican II docs it says there should be lay involvement in the minute details of Church governance? Please do. Because if he is right, I am ignorant. If he is wrong, he's a liar with an agenda - he's a theology professor and should know better, I'm a lay person who hasn't had a chance to read all the docs just yet. Them's fightin' words, I know - but I could really use an answer.

After this I won't criticize anyone's taxonomy.

The Situation is not "mealy-mouthed". It's typically Welbornian droll understatement. Like the Eurocrat Brit who referred to Pim Fortuyn's "recent difficulties".

On this we disagree. That and $13 will get me a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

By the way, thanks for the vote of support. I find the dishonesty of the gay apologists simply breathtaking.

You are most welcome. I doubt your detractors have found their way over here but if so I am telling all of you that must discuss these matters with intellectual and spiritual integrity, not by flinging pernicious insults at people we don't agree with.

This has an actual prize so keep reading. All you bloggers need a short break from The Crisis, The Conference, and from reading about people hammering Mark Shea just because he is right. I'm looking for the worst free-verse poetry you can heave onto the page. It has to be original - don't send me any William McGonagall or Yoko Ono you pulled off the net. Any topic is welcome but please avoid the near occasion of sin for your sake and mine. The jongluer whose poesy is so bad that it makes me want to grate cheese will get a handsome 15-decade rosary. You can use it to pray unceasingly that I don't come to your house and read you all the entries I received. Remember, poetry doesn't have to be long to be bad. Here's my entry:

don't call your mother-figure

collect or mine

rather say to the piano       

    it is very

               very 

 

                             very

 

 

                                    very bad for having 

black and

white keys instead of 

paws like a cat or a mongoose

lunch

write this guy about his greivous misunderstanding of Marian Doctrine.

His website - http://www.aloha.net/~mikesch/omnip.htm
His email address - mikesch@aloha.net

From THE DIGNITY AND DUTIES OF THE PRIEST, St. Alphonsus Liguori.

"With regard to the power of the priests over the real body of Christ, it is of faith that when they pronounce the words of consecration, the incarnate God has obliged himself to obey and come into their hands under the appearance of bread and wine. We are struck with wonder when we find that in obedience to the words of his priests - hoc est corpus meum - God Himself descends on the altar, and that He comes whenever they call Him, and as often as they call Him, and places Himself in their hands, even though they should be His enemies. And after having come He remains entirely at their disposal and they move Him about as they please from one place to another. They may, if they wish, shut Him up in the tabernacle, or expose Him on the altar, or carry Him outside the church; they may, if they choose, eat His flesh, and give Him for the food of others."

For real this time. Please don't send any more email to me about this. Karen Maria Knapp of From the Anchor Hold writes:

Sorry, Steve, but "crisis" is already taken by our extortionist problem; find something else.

I must admit, I don't like "the Situation" either, the term or the thing.

And lastly - I mean it folks - a brief discourse on nomenclature from Michael Tinkler, the crankiest of professors.

'The Situation' bothers me because it's mealy-mouthed
- it sounds like a term used in press conferences. At
least we could say 'The Pedophilia Situation' or 'The
Unchaste-clergy Situation'.

'Crisis' is dangerous because we think of Crises as
Passing away, and we don't want to levae them the
option of waiting it out.

'The Babylonian Captivity' is a great name for a
'situation', but I'm not sure how early that name
comes out. I wonder what Catherine of Siena actually
called it - 'La Situazione'?

I'm with you, Michael, I just didn't think to call the expression mealy-mouthed.

at a church in Alexandria. I arrived very early for the 7:00 pm Mass and knelt in a pew to pray. The priest walked up to me and told me he was about to offer Mass and asked if I would do the reading and the Psalm. I agreed. I didn't realize it was just going to be the two of us. I was an altar boy again for the first time in 13 years! It was wonderful to celebrate Mass so quietly and peacefully. Afterwards we spoke briefly. It turns out the regular evening Mass was going on the in chapel next door. He was saying his obligatory Mass as he was passing through on his way to Rome to see the Holy Father and the Canonization of Blessed Padre Pio. I didn't properly thank him for allowing me to serve. Please pray for him in his ministry and his travels. His name is Father Peter. For that matter, let's pray for all our newly-ordained priests. Don't forget to thank God for calling good men to the priesthood for giving them the grace to answer.

I have some pictures of the tabernacle in this church. I might post them tomorrow along with some commentary. The tabernacle wasn't in the church. It wasn't in the chapel. It was in a small room with kneelers in it on the side of the church. What do you call a room like that? Is there a name for it?

"The Crisis" or "The Situation?" Steve Mattson wrote me the following in response to my email.

Whenever there's a problem in the Church, it's dubbed
a "crisis." The "vocations crisis" is just the most
famous example. People use the term about social
problems all the time, so it loses its value--at least
that's my sense.

Maybe I don't hear the word "crisis" as much as he does. If that's the case I'm stunned because I am a lay person living in the Washington DC metro area and he is in the seminary.

This mess we're in is just too complicated to be called "The Situation." For decades some of the abuse and priest-shuffling went on. Certainly for decades the notion of a maleable, relativistic truth has been part of our culture and infected the Church in this country. A billion dollars has been paid out to victims already, most of it quietlyd. Take Archbishop Weakland for example. He turned a beautiful Cathedral into a modern "worship space" contrary to explicit directives from Rome to do otherwise. He had one homosexual affair that we know of. He paid 450 large to keep it on the down-low. His lawyers squashed someone who brought a lawsuit against the Archdiocese and then went after them with statutory verve to get $4500 in legal fees out of them. Take all those things together and they were more than a situation, they were a crisis. This is The Crisis. The culmination of a whole lot of things like what Weakland did. The scale of it boggles the mind and the heart. The weight of it has crushed the spirits of many, many people. We must put our trust in Jesus. We must glorify Him by accepting His love and mercy. We must pray for our shepherds with all our hearts and trust that Christ who founded the Church will restore it.

chooses to continue to refer to this boat that we're on as "The Situation." I'll write more on this topic later and then I will put it to bed. Though I have very strong opinions on the matter I know it doesn't do us any good to argue semantics.

For Doug Sirman of Sirman on the Mount per Mark Shea.
For a miracle for William Gagnon per Tim Drake.
For a speedy return to health for Mike Shirley and a smooth move for him and his family this Sunday.
For our Bishops in Dallas.
For our Bishops in Dallas.
For our Bishops in Dallas.
And for whom else shall we pray?

from the WSJ on June 7. Read it then drop Norm Mineta and your representatives in Congress a line.

from a reader in Boston.

Mark Shea's term "The Great Enema of 2002" is memorable;
however, I find it too optimistic.

My _Random House Word Menu_, under "fusses and troubles", has several dozen possibilities, among which are:
commotion and crash
flap, fracas, and furor
imbroglio
megillah, mess
screw-up, snafu, stink
wreckage

Among these, I prefer "crash" and "wreckage".

I hope they will be followed by The Purge.

As far as the Bishop's conference goes, I'm not sure we can hope for anything resembling what you and Mark have described so... colorfully. We have to pray and trust that the Holy Spirit is going lead our shepherds. Emily said it best yesterday:

We need to remember that the Holy Spirit is the one in charge of making sure this conference blesses the Body. And frustrating as it may be, He does not always work in ways that make sense to us or that we can easily and quickly evaluate.

over at Oremus.

...the Tabernacle itself could only have been made by cutting down the hood of an El Camino, adorning it with slabs of molton glass and painting it with thick layers of encaustic.

Mind you this was after they actually found the tabernacle in a side chapel. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't think we as Catholics should have to walk into a church a ask, "Where do you keep God around here?"

Mark Sullivan writes:

"Kettle of Fish." This has a certain cultural resonance, carrying with it connotations of Friday fasts and mackerel-snapping, no?

Doug Sirman appreciates my comments, saying:

THANK YOU! Although I prefer "That Damned Mess!", 'crisis' should do.

And Emily Stimpson agrees with me:

No argument here -- and I don't think you're cranky. I stopped calling it The Situation awhile back. You'll notice I now always refer to it as the crisis. Well, almost always.

Mike Shirley writes:

I think "crisis" works well, given that it combines "danger" and
"opportunity."

"Kettle of Fish" doesn't properly convey the gravity of it all. I wonder what Jesus is calling it.

Read this on Emily Stimpson's site. She is so, so, so right.

The most important things that happen in Dallas, the things that God cares about the most, will not happen on TV. EWTN cannot show us the hearts of the bishops or of the victims who will attend the meeting. The television cameras won’t be present during the hours of quiet private prayer. We won’t hear the confessions these men make before God. We won’t see the rekindling of the Holy Spirit in their souls. We won’t know if one simple act of courtesy by a bishop will start the renewal of faith in the life of a victim.

Tell everyone about the Baptism this weekend, Alix!

I might add that the good people at Foxnews.com are calling it a scandal rather than a situation:

The scandal began enveloping the church after revelations that the Archdiocese of Boston had shuttled now-defrocked priest John Geoghan from parish to parish despite repeated allegations that he was a pedophile.

We do need a catch-all term but "The Situation" isn't cutting it. "The Crisis" is an apt description. Would you prefer another word perhaps?

straits, exigency, emergency, turning point, urgency, necessity, dilemma, puzzle, perplexity, pressure, embarrassment, pinch, juncture, pass, change, contingency, plight, imbroglio, impasse, deadlock, entanglement, predicament, corner, decisive turn, decisive moment, critical juncture, critical situation, trauma, quandary, extremity, disaster, trial, crux, climacteric, moment of truth, hour of decision, crossroads, climax, clutch, pickle, stew, fix, mess, big trouble, kettle of fish, hot water, crunch

See also my earlier post on this and John's response.

Steve - I think you are being cranky. We need some sort of catch-all term for what's going on because you can't constantly refer to it as "Priests abusing kids and teenagers" "Bishops convering their tracks and shuffling priests around" "High-dollar hush money and settlements" "Some still in office even though they've obviously not been good shepherds" "More concerned about the priest-perpetrators than the victims" "Hiring PR Company to try to sort things out" etc.

Now do you understand why "The Situation" is the catch-all term? Everyone knows what's going on. It's so huge it has it's own name that packed with the issues above.

with my fellow bloggers calling the present crisis "The Situation." It's such an American thing to ascribe an enigmatic yet vacuous name to such an crucial state of affairs. It sounds like something defense lawyers would call it! Decades of abuse in the church heirarchy, vile crimes perpetrated against innocents then covered up, seminaries turned into pink palaces, and the decay of the Church's moral authority boiled down into two words - "The Situation." Calling this "The Situation" is miserably inadequate and I dare say insulting to the victims. The causes are many, the crises are ongoing, and the effects will be felt for decades if not centuries to come. God's Church, the Body of Christ on this Earth, is bleeding and suffering. I humbly say we can do better than calling this "The Situation."

I just saw "Spiderman." Not the superhero himself, just the movie. How long has it been out? A month? Anyhow, I loved the movie except for Danny Elfman's score and the shameless Sony product placement throughout. I know Sony Pictures made the movie, but Aunt May's kaboose had a Sony logo on it! Elfman's music sounded like the same crud he's been writing for movies since Beetlejuice. I honestly didn't notice the music after the title sequence. When Elfman's name flashed across the screen I thought, "This is the same crud he's been writing for movies since Beetlejuice!" and I just tuned it out. The effects helped.

Twice I've seen "Star Wars: Attack of the Nobodies Who Can't Act." Like it I didn't. I came out of the theater talking like Yoda. Next on my list is "The Sum of All Political Correctness" wherein Hollywood takes the Muslim terrorists out of Clancy's novel and replaces them with Neo-Nazis and relics from the Cold War. My cat Fred is a more talented actor than Ben Affleck - he's just not as well-connected.

An answer to my question - why don't priests sing?

"Perhaps it's a habit, developed in years of wanting to spare the congregation their miked but imperfect voice."

And I'm sure that's true. Which is why I am not a proponent of the type of microphones that make the priest sound like he is speaking from a location one micron away from your ear drum. I think that if sound system output is at a medium level, it makes people have to concentrate just a bit more to listen. And it's nice to be able to get away from the mic or turn off the mic if you'd rather not be heard singing, telling the deacon his homily was too long, or asking the altar boy to please get the sacramentary instead the binder all the announcements are in. "Tommy - I need the big red book. The red one. Over there. Gold ribbons. Tommy - not over where the lector talks - the little table... c'mon Tommy, turn around and go to the little table..."

I can't say it better than Amy Welborn did today. Pray for our shepherds and our Church.

Eternal Father, look upon us through the pierced heart of your Beloved Son and have mercy. We have neither hope nor help apart from Him who suffered so grievously for our sins.

Can any of our readers suggest the best Spanish course on tape? Please email me if you can! Tape, CD or Tape/CD/Software combination is fine. Thanks a million!

Has some great stuff today. See the link at the right. Or if you are facing the other way it's on your left.

G. Thomas Fitzpatrick has joined our burgeoning virtual parish with Verus Ratio. Who doesn't like a former lawyer who quit because the professional is "too liberal?" He even writes for the New Oxford Review! Read the following:

Liturgical Abuse, part 1 - I can't wait for subsequent posts on this.
Cigar time - I gave up those railroad spikes of death but I know what he means.
Israeli/Palestinian Conflict - I am in complete agreement with you, Counselor!

to tell me about a drug that will cure the common cold. The reason the FDA won't approve it is disturbing. From the Touchstone Magazine website.

Infobeat News reports that the FDA has rejected a medicine, called Picovir, that will cure the common cold. Americans, it says, suffer one billion colds each year. Why would the FDA reject a medicine that will make nearly every American feel a lot better, keep people working untold thousands of days, make social contact much less, um, sticky, and keep millions of children in school? The FDA says that "the drug's potential side effects . . . make it unacceptable to treat what is mostly a nuisance illness rather than a serious medical condition." Does it cause cancer, hurt the heart, ruin the kidneys, what? Reports the story: "Most notabl[e]" of the side effects is . . .

Wait for it.

You're not going to believe this.

Really.

"cutting the effectiveness of birth control pills."

Because some women with a cold might not pay attention to the warning label, the rest of us -- all 200 million-some of us -- have to sniffle and snort and ache and lay in bed feeling awful when we could be doing something useful. It is more important to the FDA to ensure that some people can have sex without having babies than to let everyone else feel a lot better and do a lot more. We live in a very strange world.

The Cathedral of St. Thomas More has a stunning architectural feature. High above the altra is a huge glass dome. Not stained glass, just your average window glass. Today during the consecration with the Bishop and five newly ordained priests at the altar the sun was shining brilliantly on all of them straight down from the dome. What kind of miracle is that that on exactly this day at this time the sun would be lined up in that manner? It was like Heaven poured out on the altar at that moment. When the bread and wine became the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord it was as much of Heaven that we can experience on this Earth.

I've got one of those dreaded summer colds. There is nothing wrong with me from the neck down but my nose is stuffed up, I'm coughing, and my eyes are watering as though Satan was cutting onions in front of me. I shouldn't joke like that because I just got back from Mass - the Ordination Mass for a number of priests for our Diocese. I just couldn't miss it so I ventured out to St. Thomas More to glorify God in my infirmity. No suffering should go to waste, right? It is truly awesome to witness the ordination of priests. If you've never been to an ordination Mass in your Diocese please go.

The choir sounded wonderful. They had a small brass quartet or quintet and timpani that was terrific. A Benedictine monk happened to sit next to me in the very crowded pew and when I turned to him and smiled he said, "You look familiar - are you a Dominican?" Wherever I go people ask me if I work there. Whether it's Old Navy, the grocery store, Borders, Home Depot, or Staples people think I work there. The only place that never happens is 7-11. Maybe the monk wondering if I was a Dominican is the same phenomenon. I almost showed him my 15-decade rosary but decided against it. Anyhow, I made a new friend of this monk. He needs our prayers because he's in the Richmond Diocese. He says they really do have a priest shortage unlike Arlington. He came up for the ordination because he was in the seminary with a couple of the ordinandi. I never knew of the word "ordinandi" until today, but now I am resolved to use it as often as possible.

At the reception I introduced myself to the Dappled One, Fr. Jim of Dappled Things. I recognized him from his picture on the website and figured I'd shake his hand since we've traded some email. Over email I asked him to pass along a prayer request to the Poor Clares for me. He said he told the Sacristan, Sister Jose Maria, that he met someone on the internet who used to date one of the sisters. She raised an eyebrow but he said she had nothing to worry about. It was great meeting him and I am comforted by the fact that the dear sisters are praying for me. It is a treasure to have them in this Diocese.

I'm blog on more about today later. Right now I'm going to look up the patron saint of watery eyes, stuffy noses, and persistant coughs.

Don't mess with God's plan, OK?

We discussed Chapter 8 of Acts this week in our ecumenical Bible study. After Philip has proclaimed the Messiah to and baptized the Samarians, Peter goes to lay hands on them to that they will receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. This is clearly the one of the origins of the sacrament of Confirmation. I spoke of the importance of recognizing that Grace is conferred on individuals through a minister. In this case it's Peter, who was ordained by Jesus. Another participant read from a study Bible that Baptism, laying on of hands, and receipt of the Holy Spirit don't always occur in the same order in Acts. The reference was from Chapter 10, where a the Holy Spirit is poured out on a group of Gentiles:

44 While Peter was still speaking these things, the holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word.
45 The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the holy Spirit should have been poured out on the Gentiles also,
46 For they could hear them speaking in tongues and glorifying God. Then Peter responded,
47 "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the holy Spirit even as we have?"
48 He ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

We can say that the Holy Spirit falling upon a group of people doesn't mean that they have received sanctifying Grace in their souls, but what does it mean when Peter says, "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people, who have received the holy Spirit even as we have?" If you have any thoughts on this please email me.

It's because he says things like this, from a post earlier today:

I stand by my comment around the use of the term "sexual terror" as demagoguery. Show me where that phase has been used in the English language prior to the widespread terrorist attacks of the latter part of the 20th century to present and I will concede the point. Otherwise - in the context of the interview with it's inaccuracies, vitriol and sloppiness, that phrase is merely a rhetorical flourish that punches up the inaccuracies and vitriol.

Or at least he used to be.

I now disagree profoundly with the party on positions that its leadership and most vocal and influential constituencies have come to decree -- since 1972, anyway -- as litmus tests.

I always found the democrat's position on abortion counter-intuitive. Defend to the last man the rights of every differently-abled physically-challenged transgendered albino little person of color with a speech impediment in their native language and no desire to learn English to be free of second-hand smoke from three states away, but ignore the most fundamental right of all - the right to life. Fight against all kinds of discrimination but never you mind about discriminating against Christians. Choose whatever you want to do with your body but forget about choice in schools, where your tax dollars go, and what happens to the money from your paycheck under the heading "FICA." When you think of the "big tent" the democrats have been it makes you wonder how they got there. It is no surprise they might become an endangered species. Mark goes on to say:

This space hasn't agreed with every position taken by Pat Moynihan, but has always respected and quite enjoyed the illustrious statesman from New York, whose loss to the Senate is rendered all the more grievous by the choice voters made on his successor.

Hillary Rodham Clinton. I thought only Republicans had three names.

Though I go only by two names I have been a Republican since way before I could vote or fit into Florsheims. I think Capitalism run amok is letting China into the WTO. A strong national defense and tough foreign policy is better than a thousand treaties, especially if the treaties involve things you can't see like air. I used to smoke big topedo-shaped cigars to keep bugs and liberals away. Sure I care about the environment - I want to open my door every day to pick up my copy of the Washington Times and have the world still be there. A girl once broke up with me because she found out I voted for Bob Dole. That was after he became the poster boy for geriatric erectile dysfunction. Why am I a Republican? Because they don't think the government can fix everything, they know how to win wars (they just can't finish them), they believe individual responsibility, and generally speaking they are not pro-abortion. They understand and appreciate the Christian ethos that this country is founded on rather than discount it as archaic and backward. Oh, and they give me rides on their big boats.

Just think what a pickle we'd be in if Al Gore was President. The Chinese would be sending their laundry our way, he'd be snuggling up with Arafat, and he'd be funding research for vehicles that run on alternative fuels, like cars that run on Republicans.

for the American Bishops to whom this applies:
We haven't heard a "mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa."
I'm 30, grew up at the poster-Parish for the "Zero Tolerance for Latin" craziness right after Vatican II, and I know what that means.

It doesn't mean "Mistakes were made."

Over on Sirman on the mount there's a response to my previous post.

Here's a little tidbit back.

First - I'll summarize my logic. I'm into Truth. Truth is good. The Truth is a gift from God, and acting in truth here on earth is our calling. There's no question that many priests and bishops have either participating actively in or turned a blind eye to evil. Criminal and civil courts will no doubt address those matters in great detail. There's not a single person who isn't outraged, shocked and shaken by the fact that priests and bishops have been a party to and encouraged evil acts.

My problem with the interview on WMAL was that both the journalist and the man interviewed stepped outside of discussing the truth and made an indictment against the entire Church. I'm not using "hostile media" or "person with an axe to grind" as a "caveat." Fact is, statements were made that were both sloppy and inaccurate and I think it's appropriate to not only point that out, but express some consternation *and* express concern about the motives.

I'm Catholic and believe all that the Church teaches. That's my bias. But this isn't about bias - it's about truth, and it's wrong to vilify the entire Church and American Bishops in this context.

Now - here's a small point, but it needs to be said: I stand by my comment around the use of the term "sexual terror" as demagoguery. Show me where that phase has been used in the English language prior to the widespread terrorist attacks of the latter part of the 20th century to present and I will concede the point. Otherwise - in the context of the interview with it's inaccuracies, vitriol and sloppiness, that phrase is merely a rhetorical flourish that punches up the inaccuracies and vitriol.

As a result I am here for the weekend. I'll have to do some reading and see what to blog about. I think we should all ask Alexandra why she hasn't been blogging lately over at Oremus!

When I was singing at the diaconate ordinations last week, I had a bird's eye view of about 30 priests during Mass. I was amazed at how many didn't crack open a hymnal, program or even move their mouths during the acclamations. Singing during Mass has something common with tithing - give anyone an excuse not to and they won't. So Father - grab a hymnal, turn off the wireless mic and let it rip! And the cranky folks in the congregation won't be able to say, "Well, Father doesn't sing, so why should I?"

I have many more thoughts on congregational singing but will save them for later.

John will have to take up the slack while I'm gone. Pray that I have a safe weekend, pilgrims!

A former cop from Siberia has said he is Jesus since 1989. That's only part of the problem. The other part of the problem is that people believe him.

"It's all very complicated," he starts quietly. "But to keep things simple, yes, I am Jesus Christ. That which was promised must come to pass. And it was promised in Israel 2,000 years ago that I would return, that I would come back to finish what was started. I am not God. And it is a mistake to see Jesus as God. But I am the living word of God the Father. Everything that God wants to say, he says through me."

Someone please get the devil out of this guy! They call him "Vissarion Christ" - pretty scary.

"We're not allowed to smoke, or swear, or drink," laughs Larissa, a glowing 28-year-old mother of three who arrived here from Moscow with her mother as an 18-year-old. "Everything is banned here. We're not allowed to do anything except fall in love."

Sounds like Orem, Utah to me!

and tell you that I find it much easier to follow all the blogs with NetCaptor. It installs and uses IE as the browser engine but puts all the sites you open in a single program with tabs to arrange the windows so you can click back and forth between sites with relative ease. You can save all your favorite blogs as a group and open them all at once when you want to read. You can even reload ALL the pages at once to get updates. It is worth a look. Unfortunately, they want money for it. Maybe as St. Blog's Parish we can get an institutional discount?

The discussion is Canon Law between Amy Welborn, Mark Shea, and others. It is worth following, but that pesky comment feature is like giving your house keys to every kook in the world with a PC and a phone line. I'm going to change my template so all the email links say "anger management."

Why it's the Cranky Professor, of course! I happen to agree with him, though I am neither as cranky nor as learned as our crotchety sage. That post was very thought provoking.

Yes, Popes 'can' depose bishops. I tremble to think of it happening. Please see: "History". There are usually horrifyingly painful schisms after depositions. You think this is undermining pastoral care? What about an authoritarian pope (not the one the liberals think we have, but an ACTUAL authoritarian) who deposes bishops left and right.

Among the Bourbon Barons by Matt Labash.

A good bourbon is the ideal slow-and-steady pick-me-up. First, it bites you with its sweet burn. Then you learn to like it, when your tongue picks off the oaky vanillas and caramels, or perhaps the more subjective flavors of "cedars of Lebanon" or "new-mown grass," at which point, you know you're drunk. Bourbon is the spirit most likely to put you in an easy sipping rhythm with all its attendant benefits: the relaxation and conviviality, the brief waylay in that magically lucid state that resides somewhere between stone-cold sobriety and intoxication.

Mark Twain, who harbored no such animus against Scotch (he liked his drinks one way: strong), took a simpler view of bourbon: "Too much is barely enough."

but a pal forwarded me this story about The Rahman-Holyfield fight. Holyfield hit him so hard he practically grew another head!

I am always amazed at the simple faith of athletes:

Holyfield showed he has enough left to beat a man who was heavyweight champion only seven months ago and is 10 years younger.

``Don't tell me what God can't do,'' Holyfield said. ``Don't tell me he can't revive a 39-year-old.''

and I'm proud to say I had two entries that made it on Brian's list of NFP Alternative Meanings. Thanks for not posting my name next to them, Brian.

[He quotes me first] "The anti-Catholic rhetoric in the media is heating up. I heard Mark Serrano of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests this morning on WMAL in Washington DC and he calling the Bishops "pathological" and a "secret society" and changing the phrase "sexual abuse" to "sexual terror against our children." And the radio anchor merely repeated what he said, adding, "So you're saying the bishops are hypocritical, correct." There's lots of talk in Blogland about how Weakland, Egan, Law, etc. have abused their power or turned a blind eye to abuse. Just remember that the media is taking a thorough and one-sided approach to telling the story which includes a great deal of vitriol."

Not really sure just what you're objecting to here. Mark Serrano calling the Bishops "pathological"? That's certainly too-broad of a brush for ALL the Bishops, but the pattern of cowardice, venal cover-ups and depraved indifference to children being raped is indisputable.

You also seem to take issue with Serrano changing the phrase "sexual abuse" to "sexual terror against our children." Why is this? Not antiseptic enough? Too uncomfortable? In the words of SO MANY Bishops, "We're so terribly sorry for the ways in which some have failed you."

You did make one point for me already: "That's certainly too broad a stroke for ALL the Bishops." I take issue with broad strokes when we have a small number of Bishops (like the ones I mentioned) who have been irresponsible to the point of grave sin.

Re: the "sexual terror" comment - it's not an issue of it being to "difficult" to deal with. Sexual abuse describes the problem. The use of the term sexual terror is meant to elicit the same horrified response you get when discussing terrorism, suicide bombings, etc. It's a common tactic for someone who is more interested in stirring up emotions than being truthful and accurate in a discussion. It's pure demagoguery.

Finally - where's the equal time? Why did the anchor just agree and repeat what the person said rather than playing devil's advocate like a journalist should? Why not have another person on to add some perspective to the matter?

All in all, the discussion was inaccurate and biased against the Church - what more needs to be said than that?

Don't misunderstand my point - I am not defending abusers and the Bishops who have defended them. But many are happy to use the situation as a way to crucify the entire Church. That I don't accept and I'll continue to discuss it when I see it.

This is totally off the topic of scandals, bishops, crises, and Catholics. I have lost 35 pounds since the beginning of April. No one pray to St. Anthony that I find them again. I'm not telling the world in order to get a pat on the back. I'm writing about this to convince all of you that the Gap is run by a bunch of skinny fascists. For a while there I crept up to the tippy-top of their sizes, this is when their clothes were conservative rather than grungy and hippified. I bought at the Gap because they sold baggy jeans and the "Big Oxford." I need roomy clothes to be comfortable. I also like a casual but polished look. Actually I just want clothes that fit and don't make me look like a hooligan or a woman. I've never been one to wear tight jeans like cowboys and Callista Flockhart. That seems now to be all they sell. Even when I was thin (before my decadent college years) I couldn't stand tight clothes. I'm not sure if anyone who is not Drew Carey-sized and up would notice, but the selection gets pretty slim as you get into the large-and-in-charge sizes. As the sizes get larger the selection gets smaller. It got so that I couldn't find what I wanted without going to the website, and even there plain old blue jeans in my size were almost always out of stock. There seems to be plenty of denim for you little bric-a-brac people but for brick outhouse people like me they can't make pants. I was hoping that the Gap would open a store that would have only big and tall sizes and call it "the Gorge." If they want to stay in business they should do just that. Those skinny fascists who market towards slackers who have no cash and relegate shlubby sizes to cyberspace where people who have money can't try clothes on.

You'll be glad to know I'm back in the realm of normal-sized pants. Women whom I have never met ask me to go dancing. Subway is begging me to eat their sandwiches as part of my diet so I can replace that melvin who is presently in their commercials. Unfortunately the Gap is floating belly-up in the pond of capitalism. I can't shop there anymore - they have nothing on the shelves. It's not unlike grocery shopping in the old Soviet Union. The people who work there are a little peppier though. That's strange considering they have tumble-weeds rolling down the aisles. Old Navy, on the other hand, is a fabulous place to shop. The selection is great and the clothes don't look like someone else has been wearing them for the past five years. Old Navy even has enormous sizes. You could wear the pants or you could cover your car with them. Jabba the Hut is a satisfied customer. Omar the Tent Maker couldn't make bigger pants.

What's going to solve the Gap's problems? Here's my modest proposal. All the execs should eat exclusively and rapaciously from these food groups: beer, cheese, things wrapped in bacon, and anything you can pick up with a chip. After six months of that they should try to buy Gap pants. When they can't find pants big enough for their fascist fannies then they will turn it around. Then they can call me to help them get the weight off.

This one about Republicans running the Department of Labor and this about a writer so moronic he probably couldn't be a cashier at a dollar store in a state without sales tax.

The anti-Catholic rhetoric in the media is heating up. I heard Mark Serrano of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests this morning on WMAL in Washington DC and he calling the Bishops "pathological" and a "secret society" and changing the phrase "sexual abuse" to "sexual terror against our children." And the radio anchor merely repeated what he said, adding, "So you're saying the bishops are hypocritical, correct."

There's lots of talk in Blogland about how Weakland, Egan, Law, etc. have abused their power or turned a blind eye to abuse. Just remember that the media is taking a thorough and one-sided approach to telling the story which includes a great deal of vitriol.

Pray and continue to live & post the whole Truth.

skewers the French and the media. A tasty dish if you like salty things! For those of you who aren't familiar with Larry's work he's a fine comedian, actor and writer. You've probably seen him on the television if you happen to turn that devil box on during weekday evenings.

Looking at the Weekly Standard's website, I think we all need flattering caricatures of ourselves on our blogs. Or we could just steal the ones from their site and pretend they look like us!

has given up his blog. We didn't agree with him very much but we wish him well. We'll miss how he got into it all the time with Mark Shea.

Recall my post from Saturday morning regarding an ongoing discussion I'm having with a mere Christian friend of mine. We had lunch in the middle of a very hectic day but managed to squeeze in some great conversation.

I expressed the Catholic belief in the assurance of salvation in this manner. We are sure that Jesus will keep His promises but our fallible intellects can't be sure of our state of Grace at all times. It is not a failure of faith but rather a sincerity - a striving for sanctity and a trust in the boundless mercy of God.

On the nature of Christ's sacrifice. Rather than a "once for all" over and done event, it is a state. I compared it to marriage in that she got married and has subsequently been in a marriage. Maybe that anaology doesn't work on all levels but it's pretty good nonetheless. Redemption can be called a state of God's relationship with His people. I have to think about that more - any thoughts you have would be appreciated!

My friend said the Catholic description of Christ's sacrifice seems to fly in the face of the curtain of the temple being torn in two, allowing all of us to approach God where we were not permitted before. I said the Eucharist is just that - Communion with our Lord.

We discussed the notion of sola scriptura and I mentioned the importance of tradition to the earliest Christians who had no New Testament to read as well as how crucial Apostolic Succession has been with regard to the purity of teaching. She found those arguments compelling and wanted to do some research. She cited the passage in Timothy, "Scripture is useful for...." but here's the clincher - there was no New Testament when Paul wrote that. Even if there was you can't stretch the word "useful" to mean the sole source of Divine Revelation and Truth.

Lastly I spoke to her about looking at what the Church Fathers have to say. There is a pile o' stuff on newadvent.org including writings of the Church Fathers.

One last thing. This friend of mine works for Young Life and wants me to help out with the kids. I think I can help them if they suffer from insomnia but that's about it!

ME: The temporal aspect of Christ's sacrifice can not be expressed in terms of finality, rather it is a state, an accomplished event that is ongoing. It has a beginning in time but no end....
THE KIDS: .....zzzzzz......zzzzzzz......*SNORT*.......zzzzzzzz.........

regarding applause for Archbishop Weakland, as well as this one about withholding contributions.

I don't have to become a Dominican - here's a place that sells them.

Stephen V. Lewis III does not look too happy about running the family business.

THE THIRD EPISTLE OF ST. IGNATIUS

CHAPTER VII.

And my love is crucified, and there is no fire in me for another love. I do not desire the food of corruption, neither the lusts of this world. I seek the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ; and I seek His blood, a drink which is love incorruptible.

Mark Mullaney was ordained to the transitional diaconate today. I have never been to an ordination of any kind and it was just tremendous to participate in. There was a sizable contigent of priests from the diocese though most of them, I think, had June weddings today. The choir was larger than the congregation, which I found regrettable. Ordinations should be announced throughout the Diocese and the faithful should come to share in these sacraments with their future shepherds.

The organist at the Cathedral is wonderful and his bell choir is the best group of volunteers I've heard in the Diocese. He does a great job conducting from the organ - something that ain't easy. You're all waiting to hear what I'm going to complain about. Well, there was a number of people in the choir who turned around to look at the bell choir when they were playing alone. That's just bad form. Especially when one is bobbing their head to the rhythm. The choir sits above and behind the altar, so you can imagine that this was somewhat distracting. That's complaint number one. Complaint number two has to do with the guy sitting next to me. He had a good voice and if he got rid of two terrible but common singing mistakes I wouldn't be complaining. He revved up to each note beginning a phrase on a hum, like nnnngAAAAHMEEEEEEEEEEEN! He did that the whole time. That was pretty bad. The other thing is that he sang R's like we speak them. I wrote about this previously. Sounds likes this "LORRRRRRRHEARRRRRRRROURRPRRAYERRR." He are actual lyrics of a hymn we did today. "Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell." With R-man on the job that didn't sound so good. "Well, Steve," you say "why didn't you say anything to this guy?" If I was in some position of authority I might have, but I was just a volunteer like everyone else and no one showed up to listen to me tell them how to sing. So I just stood there and let The Growler go at it. Do you tell the lady on the art committee who can't cut fabric straight that she can't cut fabric straight? Well you do. But musicians are different. Which is why OCP is in business.

I've been a resident of the Washington DC metro area since Reagan was President so I have an interest in local politics and politicos. This article from The Washington Post caught my eye today. HBO is considering doing a biography of the former mayor and some-time ward of the Feds. That takes me back to a shot Jonah Goldberg invented with some of his friends named after the, uh, honorable Marion Barry. The ingredients are Jaegermeister, Khalua, bourbon, and Coke, because they wanted a drink, "So black, not even the man could keep it down."

tells me something I never knew about the Papacy.

In the Vatican after they have chosen a new pope, they lead him to a room off the Sistine Chapel where he is given the clothing of a pope. It is called the Crying Room. It is called that because it is there that the burdens and responsibilities of the papacy tend to come crashing down on the new pontiff. Many of them have wept. The best have wept.

The same friend who I mentioned below is trying to convince me we can all be assured of salvation. And that the Bible is the standard for "Truth" with a capital "T." And Christ's sacrifice ended on Calvary so there is no purpose in the Eucharist. And that we are saved by faith apart from works of the law. Well the last one is true, since what Paul was saying is that we don't have to become Jewish before we can become Christian. Why when a mere Christian sees that word "law" in the New Testament they think of the Catholic Church I have no idea. They equate "law" with a church that has rules. Christ gave us rules - what's wrong with rules? We all know Martin Luther inserted the word "alone" into the passage on being saved by faith apart from works in order to appease his own scrupulosity. It is a terrible sin of pride if when God has forgiven us we cannot forgive ourselves. It is insidious emotion, too - we think we are being righteous or penitent when we are scrupulous but we are not. Rather we should glorify Christ's love and mercy in the confessional by leaving our faults and trangressions there with Him, accepting His forgiveness and being renewed in our Christian lives. But I digress!

Putting the issues of sola scriptura and the assurance of salvation aside, it's clear that there is a failure here to understand the nature of Christ's sacrifice. She sent me this passage from John:

When Jesus had received the wine, he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:30
and said "The sacrifice is complete-finished, 'paid in full.'" Do we deny Christ’s sacrifice-and say, well maybe it wasn’t good enough?

Of course we don't say that. What we do say is that Christ's sacrifice wasn't over when he died on the Cross, it was accomplished. It is accomplished. Christ offers Himself to the Father perpetually for the redemption of our sins - what else would the eternal High Priest do? Christ appeared with glorified wounds as a sign of His perpetual sacrifice. The Lamb in Revelation is slain. And this from the earliest Christians:

The Didache
"Assemble on the Lord's day, and break bread and offer the Eucharist; but first make confession of your faults, so that your sacrifice may be a pure one. Anyone who has a difference with his fellow is not to take part with you until he has been reconciled, so as to avoid any profanation of your sacrifice [Matt. 5:23-24]. For this is the offering of which the Lord has said, 'Everywhere and always bring me a sacrifice that is undefiled, for I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is the wonder of nations' [Mal. 1:11, 14]" (Didache 14 [A.D. 70]).

How people can ignore what the first generation of Christians knew of the nature of Christ's sacrifice is utterly beyond me. It's going to take me a while to reply to her. I'll let you all know how it goes.

I'll be right back.

A mere Christian friend of mine is starting a new ministry at her church - a prayer ministry. We have discussed it at length this past week while we've been doing our daily walks. She is forming groups who will pray for those attending services at her church while the services are going on. I thought that was novel and asked her why do such a thing. "To pray for the visitors and new members that the Spirit would take root in them, to pray for everyone that they get something from sermon, basically just to cover everyone in prayer," she said. What a contrast that is to our worship where the Mass is prayer. Still, I wonder how many of us consciously pray for new-comers and visitors, or if those intentions are expressed in the prayers of the faithful. Or even for those whose hearts are not touched by faith. The next time you go to Mass you might be standing next to a saint on earth or someone whose faith has become luke warm. Pray for them regardless! And when you get to the Sign of Peace don't turn to them and say "Howdy!" Greet them with warmth and say, "Peace BE with you!" We are saying in essence "may Christ's peace abide in you" or "may you know Christ's peace" or "may you live in Christ's peace." That is a tremendous blessing we give each other in four words. Think of that the next time you are at Mass. It is He who is Peace who wants us to share His peace in prayer and action in our parishes. We have numerous opportunities to minister to each other and share Christ's peace, in smalls ways and big ways. Let's be mindful of that in our daily lives.

John is cantoring. His wife and I will be singing in the choir. I'll blog about all that later today when it's over. I just wanted to share my excitement at participating in a Mass where holy orders will be conferred on someone.

Priests are being transferred to other parishes this month, which means our associate pastor who does a weekly novus ordo Latin Mass will probably be packing up his Graduale Triplex (among other things) and moving on. I'm sad to see him go. He's been doing the Latin Mass for quite a while but just in the last two months he's recruited a schola. I am hoping and praying if he leaves we get another young priest who will continue the Latin Mass. If you are local in Northern Virginia and want to attend email me and I'll give you directions. For the month of June we'll still having this Mass on Friday evenings at 7:30 pm.

Steve Mattson gives his take over at In Formation. As for me, I am very glad Weakland is sincerely contrite:

Each day I will try to leave room for God to enter into my life more and more. Ultimately I understand that the humanity God so loved and sought to redeem, including my own humanity, will be transformed by his loving embrace and grace.

We must pray for more transformations in the hearts of our leaders. We must also pray for the victims of these scandals, the perpetrators, and all who have lost faith because of them.