October 2002 Archives

Envoy Magazine joins St. Blog's

Well folks, I thought I would break the news. Envoy Magazine has now joined St. Blog's, and it promises to be as much fun as the magazine. The name of the blog is Envoy Encore and with a team of Pat, Caroline, Carl, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Mary Beth Bonacci and Catholic Light's crazy canuck canonist, it looks the be pretty good! No, I won't be giving up Catholic Light, the Petra Pundit, or Gratian's Commentary to take on this team blog, but it pretty much kills what's left of CLOG. Which reminds me, I've now got an email address just for blogging going at petevere@msn.com. How do I add it to everyone else's in the upper left-hand corner?

Proposal: Make a publication

I would send this question to the Catholic Light contributors privately, but what the heck -- I'll send the question urbi et orbi. The posts on this blog are getting to be a mixture of bite-sized, blogesque paragraphs and multi-hundred-word essays. I think we should consider starting a Catholic Light online publication, with the blog being one of the sections. We could divide up the essays into Arts & Culture, Faith, Apologetics, Politics, or what have you, and have a home page featuring several essays at once. We could also accept contributions from people who are outside the Chosen Few.

It wouldn't be a huge undertaking to write a content-management system to handle the site, and between the contributors we have more than enough talent to make a technically excellent site. Given the low cost of hosting, I'm sure we could figure out how to pay for it somehow (I don't think we'd need more than $50 a month or so).

We're generating a ton of material here -- I think it's quickly outgrowing the blog format. What do you all think?

The parting of friends

Next Monday I will say good-bye to the sweet kitten I recently rescued and named “Lisette.” I have found a great home for her. A little more than ten years ago I said good-bye to another woman named Lisette who is now a Poor Clare. She gave up that name for a religious name a long time ago. I'm somewhat ashamed to tell you that I don't know what it is. She left every bauble and empty promise of this world for a life of total poverty devoted to God. Her feet are bare feet now as are those of her sisters. The community is entirely dependent on God's grace and the generosity of others for the necessities. When I found this tiny kitten she was in the very same state though completely alone. After some thought I decided to name her “Lisette” in memory of my dear friend.

We exchanged letters only once after the entered the cloister. More than that I'm afraid would have been a distraction for her and too much for me. While in college we dated for about a year and a half before she became a religious. Actually we were best friends who kissed goodnight every now and then. Since we weren't kissing anyone else goodnight we agreed that we were dating. I loved her enough to give her the space she needed for the Holy Spirit to reveal God's perfect will for her. I knew God had plans for her. I was at peace with that. Looking back on our relationship I know the Spirit had to be at work. In my whole life I have never been as much at peace in a relationship as I was with her.

The time came very quickly that we would see each other for the last time. We said good-bye at her parent's house just days before she entered the cloister. We cried and embraced. I took a step back from her to look into her eyes.

“It broke,” she said.

“What broke?” I whispered.

“My heart.”

When I say good-bye to this kitten I will tell her what I wish I had told Lisette at that moment.

“When you die, Lisette, go straight to Heaven and wait for me there.”

I am also excited because...

My dear wife bought tickets to see the Washington Opera production of Samuel Barber's Vanessa and in 24 hours we'll be in our finery and situated in velvet seats in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Vanessa is an amazing work, it's a masterpiece of American opera 2nd only to Porgy and Bess. So this weekend will be a musical one: Vanessa tomorrow, a workshop on the GIRM on Saturday and The Dream of Gerontius on Sunday. Can anyone help walk my dog this weekend?

Call me a snob, but I'm attracted to the 5-course meals of music like Vanessa and Gerontius. They are "unsung" masterpieces - never to be heard on the radio right after Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, never to be covered by a marching band. My mom won't be whistling any ditties from either while she makes tomato sauce. They speak to the wonder of creation - that when you believe you've heard, seen, smelled and tasted it all there's still more that's come from God in the form of beauty.

More on The Dream of Gerontius

"The greatness of 'Gerontius' is in its profound sincerity rather than its originality, in the beauty and truth of the emotion rather than in the material skill with which heavenly rapture and hellish vision are portrayed. We are told that when the people of Verona met Dante in the streets of their town they pointed to him saying: 'There goes the man who has been to hell'. After listening to Gerontius we are apt to think that Elgar too passed through the dark valley before his time - and beyond as far as human thought or human imagination can reach."

-Ferruccui Bonavia, violinist, writer, composer and music critic
The Listener 22 April 1943

The Church in France has had it up to here with Halloween, and is waging a campaign against it:

Halloween in France took a new twist Thursday, with the Catholic Church sending protesters into Paris and launching a campaign with rock music to refocus attention on All Saints' Day — a religious holiday that falls a day after Halloween.

Television talk shows turned their attention to the subject. Bakeries passed out fliers about the holiday's patron saints, and a small group of protesters gathered outside Planet Hollywood on the Champs-Elysees to denounce the Halloween-mania.

Arnaud Guyot-Jeannin, president of "The No to Halloween Collective" was quoted in Le Parisien newspaper as saying his group was comprised of Christians opposed to the commercialism of Halloween, in which "the monstrous and the ugly is exalted."

The Rev. Benoist de Sinety of the Paris diocese said the main issue was not the domination of American culture or globalization.

"We wanted to take the occasion to get people to reflect on something more profound than Halloween — the meaning of life," he said.

According to the church, Halloween comes at the expense of All Saints' Day, which falls a day later and is celebrated in this majority Catholic country as a religious holiday and a day for families to pay respects to their ancestors by visiting cemeteries.

The Catholic Church has taken the lead in creating a variety of activities it hopes will distract from the costumes and trick-or-treating.

The Diocese of Paris — clearly targeting French youth — has organized a night of rock, reggae and R&B concerts to be held Halloween night in the square in front of Saint-Sulpice Church, which will be kept open all night to take confessions.

Reminder: Elgar's "The Dream of Gerontius"

This oratorio is some of Elgar's best work and happens to be the most "catholic" oratorio of all time. You can read about the content here and see what I mean.

2:30pm on Sunday at the Kennedy Center concert hall. Tickets start at $16 (hello, bargain!) and can be had at www.choralarts.org Teresa, Steve and I will be there.

God's Special Children

Many of you know I spend a lot of time with the Order of Alhambra, a Catholic fraternal organization dedicated to helping the mentally and developmentally challenged. Recently, Charley Collins and I taped a show on catechesis to God's special children for Radio Vaticana. The segment airs today, and will be archived on Vatican Radio's webpage until Saturday morning. It is a beautiful story (Thanks Charley for doing such a great job with it!) and to listen it, goto the Vatican Radio link posted above and click on Pure in Spirit.

Christmas in... well, in the Christmas Season

I would like to add my name to the long list of people who are seriously annoyed that various retailers have, for years, begun hawking their Christmas wares, hanging Christmas decorations, and running their Christmas ads in late May.

Now, before I start a rampage of (rightly) irritated emails agreeing with the above statement, I'd like to go one step further and suggest a remedy:

Let us all, all of us Litugically informed Christians out there, take it upon ourselves to celebrate the SEASON of Christ's birth in the way and at the time it should be celebrated.

1. Celebrating Christmas from Christmas Eve until the Epiphany (or even longer, as the Liturgical season of Christmas extends all the way into February) leaves us free to truly focus on the the 'period of preparation' that is Advent. Hymns like "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" will take on added meaning if we are actually anticipating (in our cultural festivities, at least) the birth of Christ.

2. Activities such as concerts, novenas, nativity plays and the like will take place during the school breaks, when children and their parents have more time to take part. A great revival of Catholic culture is possible here!

3. For many people, Christmas Day has become a day of getting, instead of a day of worship and thanksgiving. If we celebrated a long season of Christmas, presents could be given at any time up until the close of the season, and perhaps the day of Christ's Birth would become a celebration of more depth. A day that starts with the Mass, and then continues with caroling (remember caroling?) and the Nativity play... there are so many possibilities!

4. The cost-saving benefits should be obvious! A few days after the 25th of December, stores pile all of the lately coveted Christmas toys, decorations, clothes, foods and other items up on the shelves and slap up a 75% off sticker (I am particularly fond of Target... they have an amazing 'after Christmas' sale). All the wrapping, tree trimmings, lights and many many wonderful gifts are practically given away! The malls, so recently stuffed full of frantic shoppers, are mercifully empty (except for the returns departments, which you won't be going near anyway). Also, as a former member of the retail establishment, I can promise you that customers who are BUYING during the After-Christmas-Lull are treated like royalty (come on, do your bit for the economy!)

I know I have barely scratched the surface here... and, of course, we would all be a lot more inclined to this plan if we knew others were also going along with it, so let me know what you think! Let's take back Christmas from the Secular forces... they have done a pitiful job with it anyway!

Msgr. Michael Foster vindicated, resumes post

Former altar boy says Law told him to keep abuse quiet
If this one's true, it's over for the Cardinal.

Judge: Church risks contempt charges for withholding psych records

Canada?

I earn my living in the field of education. Sometimes, I am forced to attend conferences. The next one for me is in a couple of weeks in Winnipeg, Manitoba, (yes, just north of Mondale, Minnesota) where I can always freeze if I get bored with the conference.

Now, the problem is Mass. I have searched the homepage of the Archdiocese of Winnipeg for Mass schedules. I found listings for Mass in English, Polish, Italian, French, Hungarian, Tagalog, Spanish, German, and Croatian.

I did not find any listings for Mass in Latin.

I know I'm setting myself up for various slings and arrows, but why shouldn't I expect to be able to find a Latin Mass in any major city on the planet? It is still the language of the Church, and as interesting as Mass in Tagalog might be, I can't help being annoyed.

That said, I assume that it's possible that a priest would offer Mass in Latin without wanting to advertize the fact. If this is so, somebody will probably know about it. If that person is you, would you please let me know? If you have ever been to Winnipeg and can vouch for the orthodoxy of a particular parish (regardless of the language used), I'd like to know that, too...

I need to start carrying my camera...
Bumper sticker seen last night in (of all places!) Godless Tysons Corner:

Angry? Want A Weapon? Pray the Rosary!

Women who are (as I was) sick of all the pablum and wishy-washy morality offered to them in regular women's magazines should go to Catholic Faith and Family Magazine and select the free trial issue. As gorgeously photographed as Martha Stuart's Living, totally faithful to the Magisterium, with a calender of Saint's days each issue, excellent articles, and many Catholic advertisers!

Pro-life concerns are looking up, I think, with the advent of GE's new 4-D ultrasound. Have you seen it? The ultrasound now actually resembles a baby, instead of a gray, grainy 2-D image. You cannot look at the sceen and deny what is there. Even more encouraging, I have read that regular ultrasound technology is becoming so affordable that ultrasound 'Photography Studios' are actually popping up in malls... perhaps this is how we will win the war, by bringing the hidden into full view!

If you don't subscibe to Crisis, then you missed it: The special 20th Anniversary issue with the bold headline "The Glory of Catholicism". The very best article inside is "What's So Great About Catholicism" by H. W. Crocker III, who lists the Top 10 reasons it is so very cool to be Catholic. It should be availible for perusal next month on the website, but this is an issue every Catholic should own. I am thinking of copying it for all my Catholic students. Also good is an in-depth look at how our Government actually encourages divorce.

Schism

It is Halloween, a good time to purchase my ebook Schism.

Pete Vere, JCL and Shawn Tribe

If there is one element which unites the liturgical atmosphere of the Western Church at this present time, it is unfortunately that of conflict. More unfortunate is that this conflict is not absent amongst those who could be allies by reason of their mutual love of the Church and her traditions. Although both the Reform of the Reform and the Ecclesia Dei movement express concern over the present state of Catholic liturgy in the West, in the past much misunderstanding has arisen between these two schools of liturgical thought which has contributed to tensions between them.

However, this need not be so. CIEL-Canada, an organization rooted in the Ecclesia Dei movement, admires Adoremus’ work to improve the present state of liturgy. In carrying out CIEL’s work, we are hopeful for closer ties with the Reform of the Reform movement of which Adoremus is a primary proponent.

All that being said, it seems appropriate to first give a brief overview of CIEL’s nature and background. First off, CIEL should not be confused with ICEL -- as some have done in the past. The latter is the International Committee for English in the Liturgy, whereas CIEL is the French acronym for the “Centre International d’Études Liturgiques.” This loosely translates into English as the International Center for Liturgical Studies. CIEL is also the French word for heaven, of which the liturgy is a foretaste here on earth. Pope John Paul II upholds this relationship between heaven, earth and the liturgy as follows: “This is why the liturgy is heaven on earth, and in it the Word who became flesh imbues matter with a saving potential which is fully manifest in the sacraments…” [Orientale Lumen, par. 11]

From its roots within the Ecclesia Dei movement, CIEL promotes the usage of the 1962 typical edition of the Roman Missal. It does so exclusively in communion with the Roman Pontiff and the diocesan bishop. Nevertheless, CIEL is neither exclusive nor elitist in its liturgical view. Rather, in addressing the present debate over liturgy, CIEL recognizes both the good and the legitimacy of other liturgical movements within the Latin rite. These movements would include, but certainly are not limited to, the Anglican Use in the Latin Rite -- a movement originally born of Anglicans who desired to come into full communion with the Holy See, while retaining their own liturgical forms and ethos -- and Adoremus which proposes the need for a reform of the reformed liturgy according to the principles laid down in Sacrosanctum Concilium. In short, CIEL promotes the Ecclesia Dei Indult as one of many diverse, legitimate solutions to the current liturgical debates. As noted in CIEL’s introductory literature, such openness to liturgical diversity amongst those favoring a more traditional approach to the liturgy is clearly favored by Pope John Paul II:

“It is necessary that all pastors and the other faithful have a new awareness, not only of the lawfulness but also of the richness for the Church of a diversity of charisms, traditions and apostolates, which also constitutes the beauty and unity in variety: of that blended ‘harmony’ which the earthly Church raises up to Heaven under the impulse of the Holy Spirit.” [Motu Proprio, Ecclesia Dei.]

Nevertheless, this raises an important question, namely, how should one set about fostering a new interest in classical liturgy? Although CIEL approaches liturgy from the Ecclesia Dei perspective, it earnestly attempts to do so through scholarly and non-polemical dialogue, and always in a manner respectful of legitimate Church authority. “First and foremost,” Loïc Mérian forewarned, “the founder and organizers of CIEL in Europe and North America are Catholics loyal to the Church. Although our [personal] liturgical preference is for the traditional liturgy, this in no way separates or isolates CIEL from the liturgical mind of the Church. On the contrary, CIEL endeavors to present to the contemporary Church the multiple treasures of Catholicism. Church authorities have received CIEL and it’s published proceedings warmly.”

The proceedings to which Loïc Mérian refers are those of CIEL’s annual international colloquia on the liturgy. These proceedings feature the contributions of many scholars representing a range of academic disciplines -- all of whom share a common interest in the liturgy. Not infrequently, the speakers at CIEL’s colloquia have been comprised of curial officials, diocesan bishops, monastics and professors at some of the Church’s most prestigious Pontifical universities. In the months following each colloquium, the proceedings are collected into book format, translated into various languages, and published. Subsequently, CIEL makes a special point of officially launching the proceedings of the previous colloquium at the Vatican every year, during which time copies of the proceedings are presented to numerous curial dicasteries. The result of this effort, as noted by Loïc Mérian, is the following:

“Letters of support for CIEL’s work have been written by Cardinals Ratzinger, Medina, Mayer and Stickler, as well as many bishops, abbots, and priests. The liturgy should be a means of strengthening Catholics’ faith and charity, binding them closer to the hierarchy and the Church’s life. Toward this goal, CIEL works closely with ecclesiastical authorities to present the best information existing in the domain of the liturgy at its annual colloquium. […] The work of CIEL is respected because it is grounded in a solid approach to liturgical research. New contacts are opening up with university and seminary professors who are interested in CIEL. New lines of communication with Church authorities are being opened because CIEL carefully opens channels of communication.”

Here in the Americas, CIEL-Canada hopes to be the first of many national CIEL delegations to open the lines of communication with Adoremus. Having found Adoremus’ work towards a reform of the reform encouraging, the Canadian delegation of CIEL sees many issues where both movements share common interests and goals. Such issues include, but are not limited to, the preservation of Latin and traditional sacred music in the liturgy, the placement of the altar and the tabernacle, and the fostering of an interest in our western liturgical patrimony. These are issues which both CIEL and Adoremus have carefully researched and have interest in, and the Church could benefit if they were to share their findings with one another and work more closely together in a spirit of fraternity.

In a sense cooperation between the two movements has already begun. One comes across numerous individuals who support the efforts of both CIEL and Adoremus. One notes that two priests of the Oxford Oratory have given presentations at the CIEL colloquia in the past. As Oratorians, both regularly offer a liturgy similar to that being proposed by Adoremus, and with regards to their respective CIEL presentations, the topics chosen by these two priests are of interest to both the Ecclesia Dei movement and the Reform of the Reform. Therefore, future cooperation between Adoremus and CIEL is not only hopeful, but attainable as well.

Which brings those who support CIEL and/or Adoremus to the next question, namely how to go about achieving cooperation between Adoremus and CIEL on a wider scale? Is more formal dialogue between both groups possible, either in print or by means of a joint conference on the liturgy? What about co-operation in developing resources to assist dioceses in restoring the liturgical life of the local faithful? Granted, there will be those who oppose such cooperation, but does the will exist among the majority of grass-root supporters to promote further cooperation?

“Only time will tell,” is an all too common cliché, as is, “hopefully sooner than later.” However, both clichés are rather fitting given the present state of liturgy in the West. Simply put, both Adoremus and CIEL have found a common cause on many issues, have carefully researched these common issues in a scholarly manner, and in sharing their scholarship and jointly presenting their concerns, they would increase their potential to help stabilize the liturgical situation in the near future. For the sake of the liturgy and the Church, let us pray and work towards future cooperation between Adoremus and CIEL. More to the point however, let us hope for cooperation in general between the Reform of the Reform and the Ecclesia Dei movements.

[This is an edited version of the article “CIEL and Adoremus – Working Toward Beauty and Unity in the Liturgy” by the same authors which originally appeared in the vol. 15, n. 6 of The Catholic Answer, a periodical published by Our Sunday Visitor.]

Brine that bird!

I'm up late, way too late, the latest in a string of late nights laboring on stuff at work. I'm beginning to hate computers. The cathode rays are penetrating my brain and me no think good no more.

While I wait for my co-workers to get back to me about one of our systems, I want to talk about a very important subject this holiday season: brining your birds. If you're like me (and if so, I'm truly sorry), you start thinking about Thanksgiving dinner two months prior. I've been meaning to pass this advice along for several weeks, and now seems like a good time.

Primarily, we're talking about brining turkey birds, but maybe your holiday table includes duck or chicken. The advice applies no matter what avian friend you consume. The result will be succulent, evenly-cooked meat from wings to breast, a golden and crispy skin, and the enduring gratitude of your guests. I have cooked turkeys for the last three Thanksgivings, and the in-laws and relatives thought I was nuts at first. They still think I'm nuts, but it's for other reasons now.

What is brining? It seems to be catching on among food-loving circles, maybe because it's promoted by Cook's Illustrated, which is kind of like the Consumer Reports of food. Brining is similar to, but not exactly like koshering. The concept is to soak meat in a salt solution, which tenderizes the meat and makes fast-cooking parts cook slower, and slow-cooking parts cook faster.

For best results, brine your turkey overnight, or for about 8-12 hours at least. Use one cup of kosher salt for each gallon of water, and make sure the entire turkey is covered in water. Flip the bird (ha!) over every once in a while to ensure that it's getting evenly brined. Then, the evening before you eat, take the turkey out, dry it inside out with paper towels, and put it on a rack over a sheet pan in the refrigerator overnight. That will dry out the skin.

The next day, you can cook the bird as you normally do. Cook's Illustrated recommends roasting over high heat for a while, then lowering the temp. This personal site has a few suggestions for brining, some of which I can't vouch for. When brining chicken breasts, for example, using sugar in the brine solution works splendidly, but I don't know about using herbs -- does the taste really penetrate deeply into a turkey? The best thing is to buy a subscription to the Cook's site and download the brining articles.

Final thoughts:

• You might be saying, "How can I brine a 20-pound turkey? I don't have a pot or pan big enough to fit it." Look, when the going gets tough, the tough go to the hardware store. In this case, go get yourself a big plastic Rubbermaid tub, the kind used for storing clothes. It's only ten bucks or so, less if you get it at Wal-Mart.

• "But the bacteria!" you may be sputtering. "I can't fit a Rubbermaid tub in my refrigerator! My loved ones and I will die a horrible death from poultry! Boo hoo hoo hoooooo! I don't want to diiiiiieeeee!"

Get a hold of yourself! First, in most of the country, it'll be cold before Thanksgiving. If the temperature never rises much above freezing, you've got a remarkable refrigerator in the great outdoors itself. If you live in places where Jack Frost doesn't come, then work something out: put ice in the brine to keep it cold, then add more as the temperature in the tub rises (check the temp with a liquid thermometer.)

Second, the USDA will never tell you this, but if the internal temperature rises above 170-180 degrees, you've killed any harmful bacteria in the bird. (For Pete and all the Canadians, the metric equivalents of those temperatures are 4.3-76.54 deciliters, I think.) You could have left it out in the Arizona sun for two days, but if you cook it long enough, the turkey will not make you sick. It might taste funky, but there's no reason to think it will kill you. That being said, brine at your own risk.

Now back to the @#$$% servers.

In a miracle of modern medicine...

...the cure for insomnia is on the ballot in Minnesota for Senator. It's Walter Mondale, an ideological narcoleptic whose foreign policy expertise is based on his watching The History Channel in the decades since he's held elected office.

See these excellent, excellent articles from NRO by John J. Miller:

The Dinosaur - The bizarre return of Walter Mondale.

Where’s Walter?

From Mondale himself, rescued from a stone tablet his speech-writer must have buried before Moses hit puberty:

"One of the requirements of a healthy party is that it renews itself. You can't keep running Walter Mondale for everything."

Sal posts a letter below from someone considering becoming Catholic.

That letter reminds me how I had to puzzle about a certain question, somewhere along the way in the process of my conversion, namely:

Is it plausible that God has chosen to work this way, to reach humanity this way: through a real, visible community, a hierarchically-ordered community; through sacraments that involve human actions and real objects; through defined dogmas, church councils, and canonified scripture?

You'll notice I said "plausible", not "proven". There are plenty of Christian doctrines that can't be proven from prior knowledge, starting with the Trinity and the Incarnation. Why would the nature of the Church be any different?

At the time, the best I could say was -- and remains: such a Church is like the Incarnation writ large. It is a visible, tangible presence of Christ in the world today, where the Word took flesh 2000 years ago, and where practically everything takes on flesh now: the washing of sin uses real water, prayer is represented with incense and kneeling, and the invisible realities of Heaven become visible through the statues and the icons. Even Jesus continues to be, in a sense, concretely present to us in our neighbor and our brother: sometimes the big brother who helps us, and sometimes the poor and little brother needing good from us; present in the one spouse bonded with the other; audible in the teachers and pastors who are ordained to bring us the Gospel ("he who hears you hears me").

And I said, Yes, it's plausible, it's credible that God would work this way. We already know that He likes to work through matter: He invented it. In the Incarnation, He became it.

So here's the Church with her weaknesses and limitations, and failures. Also in His earthly life, our Lord subjected Himself to having weakness and limitation, and even failures in a sense, for not everyone recognized Him.

Why Professional Wrestlers Have More Class Than Democrat Politicians

As a canonist, I've often taken a little flack for being a professional wrestling (not WWE) fan. Commenting on the recent funeral in his home state, Governor Jesse Ventura just about sums up feelings that lead me to respect professional wrestlers more than professional Democrats (except former PA Governor Bob Casey, a Democrat whose funeral at the beautiful Cathedral in Scranton was nothing but reverent and dignified -- probably because Bill and Hillary weren't in attendance if I recall correctly). Anyway, read Jesse's following comments: "The Democrats ought to be ashamed."

For some reason, I find this expression sneaks under the radar screen of those who unthinkingly advocate the murder of children in the womb and forces thought rather than knee-jerk reactions. To be honest, I don't know why it works better, but my guess is that the expression "children in the womb" puts a human face on the youngest victims of abortion.

Shea vs. Dreher: Why Doesn't JPII Just Can the American Bishops?

Okay, I imagine a number of you are following the Shea vs. Dreher debate over on Mark Shea's Blog. Here's my own take on the situation. As reprehensible as the actions of many of these bishops were, I am against just firing them. Given the current mood in North American society after the Sexual Revolt of the 1960's, I feel removing these bishops would create another schism within history that would be difficult to heal. Basically, it is the same scenario as those polls that repeatedly come up with the following contradictory results: "Politicians are corrupt, fire all the congressmen and senators," and "my congressman and my senator are great people, and I will cast my vote for them again."

The same can be said about the current crisis. Most Catholics are disgusted with the bishops as a group, but the situation changes if you mention the name of their own bishop. Similarly, this is why the same average Catholic in the pew who was screaming for zero-tolerance a few months' ago is now protesting the removal of Fr. So-and-So, their wonderful and energetic pastor who in a lapse of judgment did something he should not have done thirty years ago.

But getting back to the bishops, most Catholics in the pew would love to see Rome depose the American bishops who covered this stuff up, provided the bishops remain in the abstract. Come their own bishop, human contact and emotions come into play. People suddently remember that Bishop John Smith is the same bishop who ordained Uncle Fred a permanent deacon at the Cathedral, confirmed little Joseph and Mary last year at the local parish, and when he was still a Monsignor, brought grandmother viaticum every day and administered extreme unction the night before she died from cancer. Except when the Holy Father visits for a week or two every couple of years, Rome, on the other hand, is for the most part an obscure entity across the pond. In fact, even more so than the bishop two dioceses over who covered up sexual misconduct among the clergy. Thus to depose a bishop is extremely dangerous, since it often provokes a long-term schism that becomes, with a couple generations, nearly impossible to heal.

If JPII has not removed any bishops, I would venture to guess it is because of the Church's prior bad experiences in this regard. Keep in mind 1054. Patriarch Michael of Constantinople was suppressing and persecuting the small Latin community in Constantinople, and he was also not to popular with the civil authorities. Numerous faithful were calling upon Rome to intervene. So Rome sent over legates to investigate, and one of them, who was as arrogant as the Patriarch, excommunicated Patriarch Michael as an individual. A thousand years' later, the personalities involved are now dead, the initial politics are long forgotten, but the Church is still divided. Only handful of individuals were mutually excommunicated, but communion between the West and the vast majority of Byzantium broke down as a result. Despite their dislike of Patriarch Michael, he was the local boy they all knew.

Remember that after the Arian crisis, which as a crisis wreaked more devastation on the universal Church than the current crisis with abusive clergy, Pope Liberius wanted to depose all the Arian bishops. He was stopped by St. Anthanasius, the most well-known and solid defender of the orthodox position during the whole crisis. St. Athanasius had suffered more than any other individual the wrath of the Arian heretics, but he nevertheless pleaded with and convinced Liberius to leave the vast majority of the formerly Arian bishops in office. Basically, he felt the majority were stupid rather than malicious, and deemed that having learned their lesson they would not make the same mistake in the future. However, to remove them would only re-ignite the heresy since they were the ones known by the locals.

Sister Nouveau Mary Rides Again!

("But does she ride on an earth-friendly bicycle? an anything-but-U.S.-made compact car? or perhaps a broom?" ~Sandra Molnar, author)

SISTER NOUVEAU MARY LOOKS TO THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH

Why, it's Sister Nouveau Mary, and she's charging down the street,
Nose a-twitch at scents of heresy and rumors far from sweet
That her very own disciples ("Future Leaders of the Church")
Are fomenting revolution and have left her in the lurch.
Now here it is First Saturday, and every girl in class
Has bugged out of enneagrams and gone to morning Mass.
It was Sister Athanasius (of all people!) with a grin
Who had told her of the dire straits her protegees were in.
For all the girls were making a novena! To Saint Ann!
"And we all know, Sister Mary, that's the way to catch a man!"
To catch a WHAT? The little brats! And here she'd spent her life
In saving her young charges from becoming justawife!
Not stifled slaves to One of Them, tied down to babes and home,
But her elite, her avant garde, crack troops for the Sack of Rome!
Now she puffs and trots the faster, lest that saint unreconstructed
Should smile on those petitioners ere their prayers could be destructed.
And she contemplates with horror (lo, her knees have turned to water)
Just how badly that same saint had failed in raising her own daughter.
And she seeks in vain for comfort: "It could be worse, after all--
The whole bunch could have gone to join the Daughters of Saint Paul."
Then her high heels click the faster, but no comfort can she find
For the worm of doubt is burrowing and whispering in her mind:
"Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, say, how does your garden grow?
With poppet pope-ettes, rootless plants not meant to bud or blow
And given not the Living Water and the Light they need,
But sterile potions you distill from silly books you read?
Or have they fled your circled chairs, your paper-bannered room,
Transplanting out in God's green world, where they'll be free to bloom?
And if you could form yourself anew, to which would you incline:
To be a dry stalk in the sand or a branch of the Living Vine?"

Catholic Right

No I don't have a speech impediment.

In case you haven't noticed I just wanted to forewarn: as politics go this blog leans to the right. And it's the time of year that politics is on the mind of many. If you disagree with what we post, there's always author emails and comment boxes.

Sen. Wellstone, campaign prop

You beat me to it, Sal -- I was about to post on the Wellstone funeral, too. This does illustrate the difference between political liberals and the rest of the world. I'm not talking about people who happen to be liberal, but about professional liberals: people who are employed by politicians or unions or government agencies, whose mission in life is to advance liberal causes. The whole event was thoroughly distasteful, though I had a large amount of respect for Senator Wellstone himself.

To them, even death can be politicized, and is worthy of being politicized, because all of life is political, and all justice must be achieved here on earth through politics. So if there is a groundswell of pity for the Wellstone family, the liberal politician thinks, "How can we translate this enthusiasm into votes?" (There are conservatives and Republicans who think this way, but they're the exceptions.) They see no contradiction in attacking Republicans for "playing politics" when they say that Mondale is a poor choice for senator, and then they turn around and hold a political pep rally at a funeral.

Liberals have a problem with sacralizing the secular. What I mean by that is that they treat contingent, transitory things like politics as if they are the most important things. Therefore, death is just one more thing that can be ordered toward gaining an advantage over one's political enemies. Want more proof? Look at the rhetoric of people like celebrities, columnists, and professors, who do not have to stand for elections, and see how they are not content to merely disagree with others' views. You get the sense that they think conservatives and Republicans are not merely horrible wrong, but unrighteous for holding contrary opinions, e.g.: if you want lower taxes, you hate the poor. If you want to govern your own retirement, you want to throw old people into dumpsters. If you're against abortion, you hate women. If you want to own a gun, you want to hurt kids. And on and on....

Again: I'm not talking about rank-and-file Democrats, just the pros. Please don't get offended, unless you're one of the pros, in which case you can get as offended as you want.

For the record

I don't want any jumbotrons at my funeral. I don't want the Clintons or Ted Kennedy there either. I'm talking about the memorial service for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone and five others.

State House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said it was disrespectful that the crowd cheered when former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., appeared on the big monitors and that the crowd jeered when U.S. Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and former GOP Sen. Rod Grams of Minnesota were on the screens.

AP reports:

Lowell, Mass. -- Alleged victims of the Rev. Joseph Birmingham said they hoped a meeting with Cardinal Bernard Law would bring home to the prelate the depth of the clergy abuse scandal.

Law met behind closed doors with about 100 people, including about 20 victims and their relatives, Tuesday night. Those in attendance said Law apologized and asked for forgiveness.

"It was a very emotional meeting. There was not a dry eye in the room," Bernie McDaid said. "I think he's beginning to see the immensity of this and how much damage it really has caused."

Fifty-four people have sued the Boston Archdiocese claiming they were abused by Birmingham starting in 1962. Birmingham died in 1989.

McDaid said the meeting was "only the beginning."

"He has to come out and address the people. There's no other way of healing," McDaid said.

Added Gary Bergeron: "It's a start. This is just a first step in a long process. It shouldn't have taken this long. I do give him credit for being here."

The lawsuits, some of which name Law as a defendant, allege that after parents raised concerns about Birmingham, church officials moved him among different parishes. Birmingham served at parishes in Lowell, Sudbury, Salem, Boston's Brighton neighborhood, Gloucester and Lexington.

Archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Morrissey said the archdiocese won't discuss Law's meetings with victims.

Victims said that despite the ongoing litigation, the 2.5-hour meeting was an open, question-and-answer session, with no ground rules.

"The lawsuit is about the past, the meeting tonight is about the future ... it's about where do we go from here," said Olan Horne, a spokesman for a support group for alleged victims of Birmingham.

Participants also hoped the meeting would help the parents of victims, many of whom have had difficulty accepting the damage done to their children, said Bergeron, a support group member.

"One of our main goals here is to get some healing for the parents," Bergeron said.

About six victims have already met with Law in one-on-one sessions since July, said Bergeron, who also met privately with Law.

Tuesday's meeting was organized as an attempt to bring Law to the site of Birmingham's alleged abuse. The support group is currently in talks with the archdiocese about having other meetings, and its goal if to have Law visit all the parishes where Birmingham allegedly abused children.

In a related development, both the archdiocese and leaders of the Catholic reform group Voice of the Faithful said a Tuesday meeting between leaders of the two was "cordial and productive," and may lead to a meeting between the group and Law. Previously, relations between the group and the archdiocese have been strained.

Gates of Hell shall not prevail?

I got this email from someone who is considering becoming Catholic. Please share your thoughts in the comments.

I have been studying the catholic faith for almost a year now. I have read many books and watched a lot of EWTN. I have found the study very interesting and enlightening when compared with the faulty teaching on the Catholic Church that I have recieved in the past. Yet I am not sure how much progress I am making. At times I am almost sure that I will become Catholic and at other times after discusion with a protestant friend or after watching a program on some Catholic Saint, with their sometimes very mystical almost unbelievable stories I begin to think I am foolish to even entertain the idea. Some of my biggest concern of late has to do with the current condition of the Catholic Church now and in the past 50 years or so. I am not the list bit concerned about the crisis with the wayward priests, that is just part of the human condition and I am confident that the Church will deal with it. My concern is that if the Catholic Church is the fulfillment of Christ's ministry, in my eyes (and granted they come from a protestant church view), it does not appear that the Church has done a very good job of teaching its followers the tenants of it's faith with the focus on a relationship with God through Christ as the central foundation of the Sacrements. My wife who is a cradle Catholic has learned so much from my study of the Church that it leaves me questioning how the people who worship in the Catholic Church could be left to be so ignorant of her teaching. I realize that EWTN and the protestant converts have focused many onto some of these central issues and onto the scriptures, but this appears to be a very recent occurence. I discuss Catholic apolegetics with an ex-catholic co-worker and this is one of her arguments. She argues that she grew up in the Church and will agree that maybe since Vatican II the Church has turned over a new leaf and there is now a focus on the scriptures and the importance of a relationship with Christ as the foundational building stone, but she states that it is her belief that prior to this time and even now that there are millions of catholics who have died in ignorance of the grace of Christ due to the Church's failing to teach its people. I can understand and except many if not all of the teaching that I have recently recieved on Sola Scriptura and the like, but if what she argues is even partially true how can we believe that the gates of hell have not prevailed against this church. Don't get me wrong I want to believe. I see many things that make sense in the Catholic Church that did not make sense before. But if I am going to believe and promote the Church's teaching I have to be sure of the truth. Give me some feedback.

My first thought is that the promise that "the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it" means that the Church will not err in the teaching of faith and morals. This means the Church does not teach error with regard to faith and morals, it doesn't mean members of the Church are perfect teachers. I can't speak to catechism before Vatican II. The catechism of my youth was abysmal but I had it while Reagan was President which was some time after Vatican II. I didn't began to better understand the faith until I was challenged by some Protestants in a Bible Study. That was when I began doing a great deal of study on the teachings of Church. That is one of the beautiful things about the faith. It is simply enough that you can explain it to a child (see Eric posting on Charlie's questions below) and deep enough that you could study it for your whole life and still find new things. I think our local churches have a lot to do in this area, but I'm not going to give up hope. Converts like Scott Hahn and Mark Shea (and many others) have done great things in recent years to wake up Catholics to the richness of truth in the Church. I understand that you are challenged by the shortcomings of the Church, but if you believe the truths the Church teaches, the relationship with Christ through the Sacraments, the totality of Scripture, it could be that you are going to be one of those converts who will be a powerful witness to all Christ has shown you.

Scripture alone is not a complete picture. Christ instituted the Sacraments so that His grace would be truly and substantially present to us in this life. The nature of His sacrifice and the Eucharist were absolutely necessary for the Jews to understand it at all. Think of Moses - he sacrificed a lamb. Christ is the Lamb of God. The Jews had manna from Heaven to sustain during their long years in the desert. We, in the desert of this life, have the Eucharist to sustain us. This should be a huge comfort to us. God's plan for the salvation of mankind has unfolded over the course of thousands of years. Christ insituted a Church that cannot fail, it's member can fail and often do. Don't give up hope!

If you've ever taken a basic academic course on Scripture, you've probably heard of the "documentary hypothesis" that identifies four different "authors" (or groups of authors) for the Torah. It arises from the application of literary-philological analysis techniques to the ancient text.

At Sheffield University, some author proposes his own Documentary Hypothesis on another well-known body of literature in a paper called New Directions in Pooh Studies:

the dogma of unitary authorship for works of literature must be totally abandoned. In all confidence we may say that a priori we may expect the Pooh corpus (viz. Winnie-the-Pooh, hereafter abbreviated W, containing traditions of higher antiquity than the Deutero-Pooh book, The House at Pooh Corner, hereafter abbreviated H) to be of composite origin; even if there were such a person as A.A. Milne, traditionally the 'author', we may be sure that he did not write the Pooh books....

Canadian Invasion

Listen up all you Catholic apologetics junkies, guess who is back after gathering a great team of Catholic apologists from Canada? My buddy John Pacheco. John is probably one of Canada's best and most well-known Catholic apologists, and he's now put together an exciting new apologetics' apostolate called Catholic Legate. It is definitely worth checking out.

Canonist Rev. Kenneth Kaucheck of the "Detroit Four" case has apologized to his parish for a previous statement and reaffirmed that Catholic politicians have a duty to protect human life at all its stages. Kudos to Fr. Kaucheck for doing the right thing.

Spotted at Jesus Gil's weblog ibidem: Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, about to retire, warns that the Anglican Communion is "on the brink of disintegration" as the growing and evangelical Anglican churches of Africa and Asia stand off against liberalizing moves in the affluent but shrinking churches of America and Britain.

". In it, I propose seven criteria -- four canonical and three pastoral -- for evaluating whether something is potentially a legitimate liturgical custom or simply a tacky liturgical gimmick.

The four canonical criteria I propose are:
1) Are the majority of the faithful within the community favorable, or at least not opposed, to the proposed custom? (cf can. 23)
2) Is the practice contrary to the Divine Law? (cf. can 24, par. 1)
3) Is the practice reasonable? (cf. can 24, par. 2)
4) Has the practice been expressly forbidden by the competent legislator? (cf. can. 26)

Additionally, the three pastoral criteria I propose are:
1) In the common estimation of most people, would such a practice be a gimmick to entertain them, or a custom from which they could draw spiritual significance?
2) Is the proposed custom fitting for the community in question?
3) Does the proposed custom facilitate and/or enhance the liturgy, drawing people deeper into the liturgy? Or does it simply draw attention to itself, limiting its appeal to a select few within the community, while leaving the majority of the faithful cold as to its meaning?

Now, excuse me while I return to my research...

Jesus, Savior of the World, now with Kung-fu grip! Site contains a host of Biblical characters - white and dark meat available! Link via Chez Shea.

This kitten needs a good home

how YOU doin'?!

I'm hoping one of our kind readers in the Washington Metro area will adopt this kitten. Her name is Lisette. I think she is about eight to ten weeks old. Please email if you can give her a home!

Hmm....Stephen King a Prophet?

I was just reading the King of Horror's Needful Things when I came across the following line which, given the most recent controversy to overtake the apologetics movement, left me wondering.... He's so Catholic he finds the Pope kosher.

How I Motivate My Employees

This is another good one:

go ahead. get one.

Christian music and the people who love it

I'm curious to know what the vast, teeming throngs of Catholic Light groupies think of contemporary Christian music (CCM). I could guess, I suppose, but I want to hear it from you, because a) I'm interested; and 4) I'm trying to get out of work soon, and I don't have time to type a whole lot. There's an article on National Review Online about a CCM band called Lifehouse. I've never heard of them, but the author says about the band's style, "One could do worse than to have one's music described as a cross between Jesus Christ and Kurt Cobain." Not much worse, in my estimation. It's the Son of God and the pop god of nihilism -- together, at last!

Jesse to control the Senate?

Something to ponder: now that Sen. Wellstone is dead, then the Carnahan precedent says that he can be elected posthumously (contrary to the Constitution's stipulation that you have to be a resident of the state in which you are elected -- dead men are not citizens). That means if the results of the other elections are a 50-49 Democrat-Republican split, Gov. Jesse Ventura could appoint a Republican and throw the Senate to the GOP. Something to think about.

One of the "Detroit Four" priests who defended Jennifer Granholm's "pro-choice" policies in a letter to the Free Press has sent out a profuse apology.

I would never endorse Granholm nor ever compromise the position of my church, nor my Archbishop. This has caused scandal or fractured unity I must bear responsibility for that sin.

(Viva Doug Sirman, and props to Victor for the title above.)

How long until he's misguided?

I've already registered my opinion that for particularly sadistic, cold-blooded murders, children forfeit their childhood and should be executed just like adults. If the duo they just arrested turn out to be the sniper team, that makes 17-year-old Lee Malvo an accomplice to ten first-degree murders and three attempted murders. If he was there for the Alabama liquor store shootings, you can add one to each of those totals. I'm not a lawyer, but I believe that if someone abets a murder, he faces the same charges as the guy who actually committed the murder. This kid might be in some big trouble, to put it mildly.

The question: how long will it take before we see the first round of stories describing Lee Malvo as a misunderstood youth who fell under the influence of a bad guy, or a group of bad guys? Chris Wavrin, my colleague, says a day. I'm guessing three days, as people start to get over the shock of the entire sniper episode.

The whole question turns on free will, as Pete said below about the death penalty. My speculation is based on how people reacted to John Walker Lindh, who was a "boy" of 21 who freely chose to run off into the hills of Afghanistan to join a band of murderous, hand-severing, woman-beating thugs. Many people reacted by saying "He was just a kid!" American "kids" are old enough to get contraceptives in many public schools at the age of 12, but they aren't supposed to be responsible for joining a foreign militia. It's my guess that Malvo won't be held responsible, in the minds of many, for helping to murder innocent strangers. Watch for the sentence "He made a mistake" in the next few days.

DC Sniper suspects nabbed!

DC Radio station WTOP reports that a rifle and scope were found in the suspect's car. Thanks be to God!

Which is pretty amazing by itself. Some of the things said there are pretty amazing too:

Law assured the clerics at the end of the session that the policy is ``canonically correct'' - meaning under church law it is acceptable to suspend an active priest pending an investigation into abuse.

"The Vatican's day of shame"

I have no time this morning to take a stab at this. Nearly the entire piece has this tone:

In its Oct. 18 official rejection of the U.S. Bishops' proposals pertaining to sexual abuse, Vatican bureaucrats sent a disturbing message to Catholics everywhere: Child sexual abuse is no big deal.

It was written by Paul Steidler and Mark Serrano, members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Is this righteous indignation or just plain wrong?

by Matt Abbot, Art Sippo and Pete Vere

To celebrate the 24th anniversary of his pontificate, Pope John Paul II recently promulgated Rosarium Virginis Mariae. In this work, the Holy Father dedicates the year 2003 to the Rosary and proposes five new Mysteries to be contemplated while praying this most popular of devotions to the Blessed Mother. These optional Mysteries, called Luminous, are all taken from the life of Our Lord. As Peggy Noonan so aptly points out, in the sunset years of his pontificate, Pope John Paul II has shown the world what truly matters most, namely prayer. And thus as Catholics faithful to Tradition, the present authors look forward to meditating upon the life of Our Lord as seen through the eyes of Our Blessed Mother.

After all, the five Luminous Mysteries emphasize the great mysteries of Christ's life that are in the Gospels but not noted in the previous mysteries. For example, the Transfiguration is the major event in Christ's life in the Church’s Eastern Tradition and merits inclusion in order to make the Rosary more of a universal prayer for all Catholics. The miracle at Cana is also a Marian event of great importance that supports the overall theme of the Rosary. The preaching of the Kingdom is critically important in Catholicism because it emphasizes the Kingship of Christ and the fact Our Lord founded a visible messianic community, and not merely an invisible secret society of elite individuals. Finally, the inclusion of the Baptism of Jesus and the Last Supper helps to link the rosary to the Church's liturgical tradition – a tradition that has suffered greatly in the last forty years.

Yet not all folks share our enthusiasm for these optional Mysteries proposed by Holy Father. As usual, the ever-vigilant and lidless eye of integrism has turned its pitiless gaze toward the Luminous Mysteries. “How dare the Pope tamper with the Rosary,” they exclaim in sanctimonious outrage. “Isn’t the Rosary fine as it is? What good can come from changing it? It must be some sort of subtle modernist plot.”

Forget that the Rosary is a private devotion and that these new Mysteries are optional. Forget that Our Lady’s purpose is to bring us closer to her Divine Son, and that these Mysteries assist us in contemplating the life of Our Lord. Forget that over the nine-hundred-year period since the first introduction of the Rosary, it has continuously evolved as a popular devotion. For example, in time the Glory Be and the Fatima Prayer were added after each decade. While the Hail, Holy Queen and Pope Leo XIII’s Prayer to St. Michael were added to the Rosary’s concluding prayers at a date much later than this pious devotion’s first introduction. And since the following prayer is at the very heart of the Rosary, dare we mention that the entire second half of the Hail Mary is an addition? Read St. Thomas Aquinas’ commentary on the prayers of the Rosary, and you find no mention of the following incantation when he reflects upon the Ave Maria: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at time of our death. Amen.” All these practices, which pious Catholics today take for granted when praying the Rosary, are additions that arose throughout the years from the pious popular expressions of good Catholic men and women. In short, the Rosary is an evolving devotion subject to organic growth.

And thus as one individual recently commented on an email discussion list, perhaps the lidless eye reactionaries would have been happier if, in lieu of the five Luminous Mysteries, the Holy Rosary would have evolved toward the five Gloomy Mysteries. These could include the following: 1) Our Lord preventing the Pharisees from giving the adulteress the stoning she so richly deserved. 2) The five foolish virgins being told, "I know you not". 3) The rich man goes to hell and is denied a drop of water. 4) The blood curse of the Jews of which Pontius Pilate washes his hands. And 5) Judas betrays Our Lord with a kiss, hangs himself, and his stomach bursts open.

I saved a very, very small part of the planet today

Twice in as many days I witnessed a guy who works next door throw his empty soda can into the sewer right outside my office window. The sewer drains into a gulley that drains into a large pond across the street. A gaggle of geese lives around the pond. Yesterday I vowed if I ever saw him do that again I would give him a biodegradable piece of my mind. Today I did. In the nicest possible way I introduced myself, told him what I'd seen him do and kindly asked him if he had a can he wish to dispose of he should come into my office, ask for me, and I would see that it was properly recycled. I asked his name, shook his hand firmly, and told him it was nice to meet him. He was embarassed and, I think, somewhat frightened.

No one is ever going to mistake me for Captain Planet because I drive a Ford Explorer, I smoke rather large cigars, and I can eat about one fifth of my weight in veal before losing consciousness. I don't chain myself to trees much less hug them, but I believe that God has given us as a race stewardship of this planet in the same way he has given us as individuals stewardship of our mind, body and soul. Some times doing good simply means not doing bad.

However, he doesn't confirm rumors that he offered to resign.

An editorial in today's Washington Times

We don't have any armchair advice for the police. We don't care whether they hold press conferences once an hour or once a day. We don't think we know better than them how to do their job. We are disinclined to criticize any part of their job performance. We only have two words for the police, sheriffs, FBI, ATF, and other law-enforcement men and women in our communities: Thank you. Thank you for doing the best you can. Thank you for trying to find one clever killer out of a population of 4 million. Thank you for working overtime and missing your families and home. Thank you for dashing to the scene of the most recent outrage at all hours of the day and night. Thank you for standing in the middle of the Beltway stopping traffic — never knowing whether in the next car you will be looking down the nose of a grumbling commuter or down the barrel of the killer's gun. And thank you for doing all this at a pay substantially below that of most of us whom you are risking your lives to protect.

He's still got all these sinners hangin' around with him.

Government to citizenry: vote for us!

I hesitate to post this, because 1) it's a local thing; b) it's not directly relevant to Catholicism; and 4) John might get mad at me. But since he posted a critique of the Food Network a few weeks ago, I figure I'm okay.

What I want to preach about is (wait! don't click away! this is relevant to you, even if you don't live around here!) the Northern Virginia Transportation Referendum. In a nutshell, the NVTR would raise sales tax one-half of one percent in northern Virginia and spend the money on roads, buses, and subway lines. Like all taxes, this one is supposed to be a teeny-weeny tax that no one will feel, like the federal income tax in 1913, which was originally a one-percent tax on millionaires. (Don't you feel like a millionaire on April 15? I know I do!)

Sales taxes are inherently regressive, because poor people consume almost all of their income, and therefore sales taxes are proportionately higher for them. That isn't my primary problem, though. What's vexing me are the ads covering Metro buses, trains, and stations, encouraging us to vote for the referendum. They're not saying "vote," of course, they're just saying they "endorse" the measure, and tell us that it would bring $2 billion to Metro. (The ads never mention that it's our money we're voting to spend; perhaps public imagines that the Funds Fairy will descend from the heavens with bushel bags marked "$$$".)

I love Metrorail. I've never been on a better subway system -- it's clean, safe, and relatively cheap. Furthermore, I think it would be a good idea to expand it. But don't you think it's dangerous to have a government entity ask us to vote a particular way? The American system is predicated on self-government, the idea that the public ought to decide how we are governed, and who will govern us. By all means, let's argue about the proper means and ends of government. But should government itself try to get in on the act, especially when it's asking for more government?

This isn't the first time we've seen this in Virginia. The public university I attended sent out a letter from the president's office two years ago asking us to support another referendum. It was on JMU letterhead, and signed by the university president. Supposedly, the letter was paid for by the alumni association, but the clear implication was that the university wanted us to vote for the issue. Right now, JMU is trying to get people to vote on a bond referendum that will provide $100 million for the school, and they've held on-campus rallies complete with a band, cheerleaders, and the Duke Dog. The university president has sent another endorsement letter so he can get the extra cash. I don't think any of this was paid for by the alumni association.

Isn't that a little shady? What's the next step? Will Metro endorse pro-Metro candidates? Does anyone else see anything wrong here?

Over in the comments at Amy Welborn's, a news report about the arrest of some ex-seminarian (thank Heavens it's ex-) has become the occasion for the usual misguided souls to blame the shortage of priests on celibacy. They assert such a causal linkage again and again.

However, there is reason to question it: the 2000 Catholic Almanac reports 478 ordinations in the U.S., for a church of about 60 million members. In comparison, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, a jurisdiction which of course ordains married men as standard procedure, reports only 8 ordinations in its 2002 yearbook for a church of about 1.5 million members. That is unfortunately a comparable or perhaps even lower rate than that of Catholic ordinations. (I say "perhaps" because one mustn't put too much weight on the figures of a single year.)

Verdict: the Church's critics have not proven their case.

The DC Sniper

A telling article appears in the Washington Post today. The sniper is holding the area ransom, threatening more shootings if he doesn't get $10 million. He left a three-page, handwritten letter for police after the attack in Ashland, VA. The last line in his missive read "Your children are not safe anywhere at any time."

Please pray for those of us who live in this area, for the authorities who are desparately trying to catch the sniper, and for the sniper. He has chosen to be an instrument of great evil. Christ suffers with those who do not even know they are suffering. Pray for him.

Shameless Catholic Light Self-Promotion Classified

Wanted: Copy of Rossalind Moss' Home at Last autographed by contributor Eric Johnson. Will trade for copy of Pat Madrid's Surprised by Truth 3 autographed by contributor Pete Vere. If interested, please email for details.

Why orthodox Catholics Disagree

As a few readers have noticed, over the past week I have found myself disagreeing with Eric Johnson a couple times on this blog in terms of a couple of social issues. Since judging from a couple emails I've received a few people are reading too much into this, I would simply paraphrase something either Belloc or Chesterton once said. Basically, only faithful Catholics can have a good disagreement. After all, Protestants and Liberals cannot agree on enough common principles to disagree on anything worth noting.

So I continue to highly respect Eric as a competent and orthodox Catholic writer, especially after he voiced the discomfort many of us have come to feel about New Oxford Review's direction in the last couple years. Also, I'm looking forward to reading his contribution to Home at Last, which knowing Eric and Rossalind Moss, ought to be excellent!

Here's one out of left field: North Korean kakistocrat Kim Jong-Il says he'll approve the construction of a Russian Orthodox church in Pyongyang.

, something frowned on by death-penalty abolitionists. According to the lightweight Justice Breyer, it "is a relic of the past and inconsistent with evolving standards of decency in a civilized society," dontcha know. Leaving aside the perennial question of how unelected lawyers with unlimited terms of office have the capacity to judge shifts in pubic opinion, I don't know how death-penalty abolitionists can make this case with any moral consistency. If the death penalty is wrong, it's wrong -- on anybody. Are they saying that it's particularly heinous to execute a 17-year-old minor for a brutal murder, but not quite as bad to execute an 18-year-old for that crime?

Yes, that's exactly what they're saying. Here's an excerpt from the UPI story about the four justices who dissented from the refusal to consider this particular case:

Monday's dissent came in the case of Kevin Nigel Stanford, who was convicted in 1981 of a murder committed in Kentucky when he was 17 years and 4 months old.

Stanford and an accomplice repeatedly raped and sodomized a 20-year-old woman during the robbery of a gas station where she worked. The men took her to a wooded area, and Stanford shot her point blank in the face, then in the back of the head, to prevent her from testifying against him.

If you ask the American public if they think the death penalty is appropriate for minors, you'd likely get a far different result than if you asked them about the case of Kevin Nigel Stanford. I bet there are many people who say they're against a juvenile death penalty in general who would be willing to throw the switch for that particular "boy."

The argument is particularly specious because we're not talking about the violation of some arcane tax law, but about hurting and killing innocent people. Toddlers know it's bad to hurt people. Little kids know it's wrong to kill the innocent. A 17-year-old does too.

The court also refused to consider the case of sad, suffering Charles Kenneth Foster, who has been on Florida's death row since the Ford administration. Justice Breyer, "If executed, Foster, now 55, will have been punished both by death and also by more than a generation spent in death row's twilight...It is fairly asked whether such punishment is both unusual and cruel." Justice Thomas would have none of that dreck:

Long delays are simply part of the death penalty jurisprudence imposed by the courts, Thomas said....Foster "could long ago have ended his 'anxieties and uncertainties' ... by submitting to what the people of Florida have deemed him to deserve: execution," Thomas said. "Moreover, this judgment would not have been made had (Foster) not slit Julian Lanier's throat, dragged him into the bushes, and then, when (Foster) realized that he could hear Lanier breathing, cut his spine."

Lest we forget the business of a newspaper is selling newspapers rather than providing timely and accurate information, Mark Shea reminds us.

Speaking of Illegal Immigration

In response to Eric's post below, I'm in favor of legalizing illegal immigration. Not for Biblical or theological reasons, mind you, but rather self-interest. Keep in mind the largest number of illegal immigrants to the United States comes not from the South, but from North of the border. Yep, we Canuck form the largest group of both legal and illegal immigrants to the United States. However, since we tend to be highly educated, speak English well and are culturally similar to Americans, people seldom mention us in the immigration debate. In case you're wondering, both my wife and I are legal. However, it reminds me of a funny incident that took place at the indult in Washington about two years' ago. At the coffee hour afterward, I was introduced to Pat Buchanan who was going on and on about immigration, how it should be stopped, and how it was creating problems for good young men like myself (he pointed me out.) My friend and I laughed. He gave me a rather surprised look, and I showed him my Ontario birth certificate. In fairness to Pat, he laughed as well. "After all," someone quipped, "we cannot have all those illegal immigrants from South America coming to America and taking good jobs from Canadians."

It's a local truism: the name of our nearby Jesuit institution, Boston College, is a misnomer. First, it's not in Boston; and as it's a university, the title "College" doesn't really fit either. Sometimes it's not clear whether it can even be fairly described as Catholic, since a certain amount of the thinking and activity there is at odds with a Catholic ethos.

There are some fine Catholics there, of course. However, they are probably not the people writing a sex column for the undergraduate student newspaper. I won't impugn the Catholic commitment of the foolish administrators who let such a rag be distributed on campus, but it would seem they are excessively tolerant of certain evils.

When I read about this in today's Herald, it was clear that somebody would post about it: Fr. Bob Carr won the race.

Perhaps this is all to be expected: the local cynics remind us that "B.C." stands for a world not yet influenced by Christianity.

If you read any Web-based discussion forums, you'll see this a lot. It's a simulation of slow, laborious talking, to wit: "time that you can never. Get. Back." Or, "I was eating some of their chocolate cake (so! good!)." The first few times, that was novel. The 4,054th time, you should get a spanking. And not the playful, birthday-type of spanking.

2. "Well." This is a mildly sarcastic interjection that has gotten way, way out of hand on the Web. Here's one common usage: "The trouble with terrorists is, well, they terrorize people." It used to be a way of calling attention to the meaning of a word or a phrase by pointing to its derivation. Great. But it's become a way of avoiding a real explanation, such as "The problem with terrorists is that they're effective in doing what they do."

3. "Uh" and "um." Verbal pauses, exported to written language. Not bad in themselves, but again, they're overused. "Uh, Bert, we knew that already." "If you want my opinion, I say...um, no." Grrr.

I know others out there feel the same way I do. Please contribute your. own. pet. peeves.

Mister Victor Lams and his whoopin' stick are just one click away.

My favorite bad boy of the Left says Yes, please do bomb Saddam in my name.

Maybe we should ask Evelyn Waugh or Malcolm Muggeridge to pray for poor Hitch's conversion. Or Mother Teresa for that matter; considering he wrote a nasty book about her, it would be the perfect way for her to get even with him. Even he would appreciate the irony.

I'm starting to like that proposal (discussed below) about building a huge arch on Lake Erie and a shrine in honor of Our Lady. Of course I'm not saying that it can't be improved one way or another.

Keeping people poor by importing poor people

I have nothing against immigrants. My grandparents were immigrants; my youth was spent working side-by-side next to immigrants in most of my dirty jobs (restaurant worker and construction laborer, to name two). There are plenty of immigrants, or their children, in the Marine reserve unit in which I serve. That many recent immigrants have contributed valuable things to American culture is indisputable; many if not most of them are patriotic in a way that would embarrass your average college professor. In the days after September 11, I was touched at how many Salvadorans had proudly mounted the American flag on their humble vehicles.

My suggestion that follows, then, is not in a spirit of fear or malice. I believe it's a bad idea to turn illegal aliens into legal aliens just because they've managed to evade the INS for a sufficient amount of time. The idea of "legalization" is supported by a substantial number of bishops, as described in a recent Catholic News Service article, "Immigrants rally for legalization; bishop calls issue 'justice'". (A summary is here, but you'll have to check your local diocesan paper to see if they ran the full article.) The key quotation, from Bishop Wenski of the bishops' migration committee, is "As pastors, we witness the moral and spiritual consequences of a system which decries the presence of the undocumented and at the same time it benefits from their hard labor."

The "system" to which the bishop is referring is, presumably, Federal law. I don't know that it "decries" anything, but it does say that if you come to this country, you have to ask permission first. Is the bishop (or his brother bishops) saying that it's unjust for a nation-state to control its own borders? It's not as if the "undocumented" forgot to fill out a few forms so they'd be "documented." They broke the law in coming to the U.S., and they continue to break the law by working and living in the country without permission.

If my choice was between a chancy existence in my hometown in Peru or Mexico, I might consider breaking American immigration law, too. I don't blame the illegal immigrants themselves too much. The people I blame are the politicians and other leaders who look the other way when the laws are broken.

Juxtapose the bishops' opinions on this matter with their calls for a "just wage," and neither position makes any sense. You can't complain about the stagnant wages of low-wage occupations, then encourage the importation of more low-skilled or unskilled workers. If there are more workers competing for the same jobs, the price of their labor goes down. If the number of workers remains the same, but demand for their labor increases, wages go up. It's that pesky law of supply and demand, and like the law of gravity, it cannot be repealed by wishful thinking.

Why should American citizens -- inner-city blacks, Hispanic farmworkers, or poor rural whites -- have to pay the price because our elites are squeamish about enforcing any law that might possibly offend an ethnic minority, or because they like the cheap labor that serves them their food and cleans their houses? Drastically lower levels of immigration would make the low end of the labor market tighter. Employers would invest more in training and equipment for those workers. Training and equipment make workers more productive. When workers are more productive, employers can afford to pay them more. Isn't that more "just"? What's wrong with helping our poor that way?

Then there's the uncomfortable fact that lax immigration enforcement killed 3,000 Americans last year, as reported by National Review. The State Department should have rejected 15 of the 19 hijacker-murderers, but they let them through without any serious scrutiny. (You'll recall that the 20th hijacker was only caught when he started yelling at his flight instructors that he didn't care about taking off or landing, he only wanted to know how to fly a plane through the air.) That isn't related to the high immigration levels, but it does reflect the elite consensus that immigration isn't really a serious problem, or worthy of vigorous law enforcement.

Encouraging contempt for civil law, lowering the wages of the poor, and exposing the country to terrorist attack -- what's the positive aspect about our immigration policies? One of the officers in my unit, who runs a construction business in civilian life, jokes that the government will wake up when the kids of the immigrants get law degrees and start charging $20 an hour for legal work. Then the fancypants yuppies will think immigration is a problem!

Upcoming Musical Event in DC

I don't often recommend musical events to you but Teresa pointed out to me something in today's paper that I feel you all might find enjoyable and inspiring.

Nov. 3rd at 2pm at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall
Edward Elgar's "The Dream of Gerontius"
Chorale Arts Society, Norman Scribner conducting
www.choralarts.org
This is an Oratorio based on the text poem written by John Cardinal Newman.
The chorus, soloists and orchestra should be wonderful (I've heard the tenor
on a Robert Shaw recording and he's magnificent.)

The work is outstanding in several ways:
The text is truly Catholic in how it communicates the passing of a soul from death to judgement.
The work is some of Elgar's best work and is highly regarded as his best Oratorio.
The work is groundbreaking in terms of the setting of the text in Elgar's time (it was somewhat frowned upon by the English because of how "Catholic" it is.
Finally - the work is just complicated & obscure enough that it's notperformed in public very often.

Tickets are $16 to $48.

Here's some related links:
The Elgar Society has a great deal of info on the work here.

The Spooky Prophesies of St. Malachy

Today I read Peggy Noonan's wonderful column on the Holy Father and the Luminous Mysteries. It was linked by Mark Shea on his blog and Greg Popcak at HMS Blog. She mentioned the prophesies of St. Malachy:

In the pope's letter he used the words luminous or light 29 times. That reminded me of something. In the unofficial but ever-interesting prophecies of St. Malachy, mystic of the Middle Ages, each coming pope is named with a phrase that seems to denote his work. The nicknames seem uncannily accurate. The pope's predecessor, John Paul I, who reigned for a month, from waning moon to waning moon, got the nickname "Of the Half Moon." John Paul II is "Of the Labors of the Sun." Which is of course the brightest, most luminous star, the bringer of light to the world. I used to wonder what his nickname meant, but not now.

I did a little digging on the internet and found this article on the prophesies of St. Malachy. It is worth reading. According to the article the prophesis are now believed to be "elaborate forgeries, probably perpretrated by a school of Jesuits in the 1600s." I assume this was before they developed an avid interest in American musical theatre. Hilarity aside, St. Malachy shows two popes serving after "De labore Solis," the last to be named "Petrus Romanus." Here is an explanation of that from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 edition:

The last of these prophesies concerns the end of the world and is as follows: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End." It has been noticed concerning Petrus Romanus, who according to St. Malachy's list is to be the last pope, that the prophecy does not say that no popes will intervene between him and his predecessor designated Gloria olivoe. It merely says that he is to be the last, so that we may suppose as many popes as we please before "Peter the Roman". Cornelius a Lapide refers to this prophecy in his commentary "On the Gospel of St. John" (C. xvi) and "On the Apocalypse" (cc. xvii-xx), and he endeavours to calculate according to it the remaining years of time.

This sounds quite a bit like the end-times kookiness that has been embraced wholeheartedly by Fundamentalists and Evangelicals in recent decades. The "anti-Pope" in the theologically backward "Left Behind" series takes the name "Peter II." The previous pontiff in the books was "caught-up" with Mother Teresa and a bunch of other people who found Christ before the Rapture. I honestly don't think a future Pope would have the audacity to take the name "Peter." But what if one did? The poor souls who have been taken in by the rapture crap put forth in books like the "Left Behind" series would have a conniption.

USS City of Corpus Christi

The Navy has managed to avoid simultaneously offending Catholics and the ACLU by changing the name of this sub from "USS Corpus Christi" to "USS City of Corpus Christi." This could be really, really old news - I can't find when the name of the boat was changed. If one of our readers knows when the name was changed please tell us in the comments. Other ships in the class are named after cities without the "city of" disclaimer.

One detail I missed in yesterday's announcements from Rome is how fast the new Mixed Commission proposes to work; Cardinal Law pointed it out during a press conference:

Almost as an aside, Law expressed surprise that the glacial pace at which the Vatican normally moves has been quickened so that the review will be completed by the time US bishops gather again in Washington on Nov. 11. ''I frankly am amazed,'' Law said of the three-week window in which the Vatican plans to resolve the issue.

A Worthy Cause

Wow, today is turning into a great day. First the Holy See put a stop to Dallas fallout, and now I discover that the cause is open for Catherine de Huek's canonization. As many of my readers know, Catherine is my favorite Canadian, Eastern Catholic and female author. Originally a Russian Baroness, she escaped the Communist revolution, came to North America and was received into the Catholic Church. She then became a popular speaker, made a fortune, and in answer to God's call gave it all to the poor and founded numerous apostolates -- the most well known of which is Madonna House. Heck, she even brought an ex-Catholic turned liberal Chicago reporter back to the faith. His name was Eddie Doherty, and he was so captured by Catherine he proposed to her. She was also a prolific writer. Among my favorite of her writings, you will find Sobornost, Not Without Parables, and The Gospel Without Compromise. Anyway, check out the new Catherine de Huek Doherty Webpage.

Let's all pray for a miracle

I have a friend who is a passionate triathlete. She wakes up at 3 am every morning to swim, runs 2-3 miles at lunch, goes home and rides her bike and/or runs again. She is having knee problems and is very afraid that she'll have to stop running for good. If you would please pray to St. Roch, known to help those with knee problems, for his kind intercession.

Prayer to Saint Roch
Dear medicant Pilgrim, you once took care of sufferers from the plague and were always ready to help others by kind service and fervent prayers. You yourself had no home and you died in a dungeon. No wonder countless invalids have confidently invoked your help. Please grant a cure to Meg, and help us all become spiritually healthy.

I am in love. Film at 11.

Rome says No

First off, let me thank everyone for welcoming me to Catholic Light. It is much appreciated and I look forward to future fun here.

Having said that, I guess everyone has seen the following by now?

--

The Most Reverend Wilton D. GREGORY
President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Your Excellency,

With your letter of June 26, 2002, you forwarded to the Ho1y See the document entitled "Essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests, Deacons or Other Church Personnel" ("Norms"), approved at the Plenary Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops which took place in Dallas (Texas) from June 13-15, and for which you requested the recognitio.

The Holy See, above all, would like to convey full solidarity with the Bishops of the United States in their firm condemnation of sexual misdeeds against minors and is deeply concerned about the distressing situation that has arisen in recent months in the Church in the
United States. Likewise, the Holy See wishes to encourage the efforts of the Episcopal Conference in assisting the Bishops to address
these difficult problems.

The sexual abuse of minors is particularly abhorrent. Deeply moved by the sufferings of the victims and their families, the Holy See supports the American Bishops in their endeavor to respond firmly to the sexual misdeeds of the very small number of those who minister or labor in the service of the Church. But such a very small number cannot overshadow "the immense spiritual, human and social good that the vast majority of priests and religious in the United States have done and are still doing" (Pope John Paul II, Address to the
Cardinals and to the Presidency of the Episcopal Conference of the United States, April 23, 2002).

The Apostolic See likewise acknowledges the efforts which the Bishops of the United States have made through the "Norms" and the guidelines contained in the "Bishops' Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" ("Charter") to protect minors and to avoid future recurrences of these abuses. Such efforts should also help to preserve or restore the trust of the faithful in their pastors.

Despite these efforts, the application of the policies adopted at the Plenary Assembly in Dallas can be the source of confusion and ambiguity, because the "Norms" and "Charter" contain provisions which
in some aspects are difficult to reconcile with the universal law of the Church. Moreover, the experience of the last few months has shown
that the terminology of these documents is at times vague or imprecise and therefore difficult to interpret. Questions also remain concerning the concrete manner in which the procedures outlined in the "Norms" and "Charter" are to be applied in conjunction with the requirements of the Code of Canon Law and the Motu proprio Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela (AAS 93, 2001, p. 787).

For these reasons, it has been judged appropriate that before the recognitio can be granted, a further reflection on and revision of the "Norms" and the "Charter" are necessary. In order to facilitate this work, the Holy See proposes that a Mixed Commission be established, composed of four bishops chosen from the Episcopal
Conference of the United States, and four representatives from those Dicasteries of the Holy See which have direct competence in the
matter: the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Congregation for Bishops, the Congregation for Clergy , and the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

On behalf also of the other Dicasteries involved, I look forward to your response. With the promise of prayers for your important work in serving the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, I remain

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Giovanni Battista Card. Re
Prefect Congregation for Bishops
October 14, 2002

--

It never ceases to amaze me how Rome always outsmarts her opponents -- in this case, the US Bishops and the US media. Darn that was smooth. Moreover, it looks like Rome will now exert its influence in fixing the problem.

It's not the sniper. It's the man who cried wolf. If convicted he could get six months in the joint, the slammer, the big house. What kind of Oprah nation do we live in? It seems some people will anything to get on television. Maybe this guy can get a band together when he's doing time and get a show on VH1. One thing is for sure, guilty or not, this cat will never work in this town again!

Today's Catholic spam

Isn't it something? Even people promoting pious causes sometimes use spam to spread their messages. It's still a sleazy and annoying medium, as far as I'm concerned, the tool of scammers and pornographers, so any cause sending out spam is not likely to get any support from me.

A piece came in today from an attorney named Laurence Behr about a project that sounds, well, frankly, a bit grandiose. His group proposes to build a 700-foot arch near Buffalo in honor of Our Lady, "seven being the mystical number of perfection", don't-cha know.

The concept of the proposal is to combine an attraction (the arch that tourists will presumably want to ascend) with a shrine promoting pro-life themes, and do it all in the name of the "triumph" of our Lady's Immaculate Heart - a fulfillment of the Fatima message. All they want is $100 each from a million Catholics.

Now, if you look carefully at your screen, you'll notice that I have raised one eyebrow in an arch of my own at the mention of our Lady's "triumph", because every phony mystic and seer in the past 20 years has been peddling his would-be messages from our Lady as part of said "triumph". Since about a quarter of the people endorsing the project have some connection with phony apparitions, I have to wonder if this idea came from some would-be messenger from Heaven, or at least wonder about the prudence of the well-intentioned people involved.

To be fair, I should note that the site disclaims: "Laurence Behr is not claiming an apparition from the Virgin Mary. But he and many others do believe that his inspiration comes from God."

Using the Catholic Light rating system, I'll give this one a 2 on our 0-7 scale, which is a "slightly nutty bouquet with fruity overtones".

Myth! Oh, myth!

No, no, I don't have a speech impediment.

I'm just ticked to see a formerly respectable writer fall for an old anti-conservative canard. Over on the HMS blog, everybody's favorite Catholic radio shrink Greg Popcak is engaged in a dispute about Bp. Gregory's cautiously anti-war letter.

Here Greg responds with an erroneous example to one of his co-bloggers' statements:

#1. The bishops made a prudential judgement. We are free to disagree with it by making our own prudential judgement.

Here is my struggle with this statement. The "prudential judgement" argument is overused, mostly by liberals, to disagree with everything that they don't like about what the Church says. Conservatives use it this way too (Bill Buckley's famous article, "Mater Si, Magistra, No!" for example), usually about Capital punishment, but there are other issues, and when they do, they lose any and all credibility--with me at least. [sic]

This myth has been floating around for a long time, and the original quip has been inflated beyond all reality. It appeared 12 August 1961 in National Review as an unsigned item:

Going the rounds in conservative circles: 'Mater si, magistra no'.

Greg, you know you can't believe all the stuff liberals say about us Catholics.

Yesterday a coworker of mine was telling us he thought he was getting sick. I forgot myself for a moment and said, "You know who helps me when I get sick? The holy souls in Purgatory!" Oops. I had to explain that one to this mere Christian and another person there, a fugitive from the Church since her college days. "The saints and the souls in Purgatory are our friends - they can pray for us just like we pray for each other!" The Fugitive said, "I don't think they can hear us!" I left it at that.

Later that day I found I was missing my PDA. I hunted for it around the office and couldn't find it. When I got home I looked all and turned up nothing . I asked St. Anthony to help me. This morning I got into my car and thought to search the back seat. I reached in back without even looking and put my hand on it immediately. I thanked St. Anthony for his gracious assistance and started off to work. I told the Fugitive about it.

"Remember yesterday when I was talking about the saints? I prayed to St. Anthony to help me find my PDA," I said.

"Who is St. Anthony?" the Fugitve asked.

"St. Anthony of Padua. He's traditionally prayed to when you need assistance finding a lost object." I told her how I had prayed to him and found my PDA.

"I like stories like that," she said, smiling.

It's the cooking, eh?

Woohoo! I finally got my invite to join Catholic Light, and I sold 1.7 million copies of Schism in the process! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to autograph a copy for Stephen King when I ran into him at the corner store last night (his winter residence is about a mile down road, in the filthy rich part of the suburb.) That being said, Sal asks the following question in the comment's box below: "Maybe [Pete] can explain what the deal is with that canadian bacon. I mean, isn't it just ham?" My dear Sal, ham doesn't taste nearly as good sauteed in beer and onions, eh?

Pete Vere, famed Canon Lawyer of the CLOG blog, is now on the Catholic Light team. We're all pleased as Passionists to have him on board! Of course we didn't buy 1.7 million copies of his book to get him to join, but you could get just one copy for a buck. How often do you get to make a canonist happy?

When I read this headline, I thought this article was about me.

My comments in italics.

• While outside, try to keep moving. A moving target is more difficult to hit than one that is standing still.
Just don't move toward the sniper - you'll get larger in his scope.

• If you must remain in one place in an area where you feel vulnerable, select the darkest part of the area to sit or stand in.
This is why I've been sitting in my closet with the lights off.

• When moving outside, walk briskly in a zigzag pattern.
This worked great for our Pacific Fleet during World War II. Make sure your look-outs have coffee and your depth-charges are loaded and armed as well.

• If you must stand outside, try to keep some type of protective cover between yourself and any open areas where a sniper might be located. For example, if you are fueling your car, stand between your vehicle and the gas pump and bend your knees to lower your profile.
Very important: other people are not "protective cover."
Also, don't get hung up on the fact that you look like an idiot crouching while pumping gas.
And, don't tease the sniper by standing in a parking lot going: "SNI-per! SNI-per!" (This is a Simpson's reference: "DARrell! DARell!")

• If you are fired on in an open area, drop to the ground and roll away from where you were standing. Look for the closest protective cover and run toward it in short, zigzag dashes.
This is good advice, unless you want to be a hero and try get the license number of the truck.

One out of one wife of John Schultz says she likes the idea of the new mysteries.

Interview: Why Latin?

Munich's Süddeutsche Zeitung interviewed retired bishop Max Ziegelbauer, 79, who calls in his new book Die alte Kirche ist mir lieber ("I like the old Church better") for the return of the Latin language in divine worship. Fittingly, the interview was conducted in Latin. The following English translation is rather free, and any errors are mine.

SZ: In this era, when nobody speaks Latin any more, why do you claim that the Church should appreciate this ancient language more and restore its dignity?

Ziegelbauer: First of all, because the Second Vatican Council declared that the Latin rite should be celebrated in Latin; also, the International Union of Church Musicians has deplored the abolition of Latin as insane. If something has been handed on happily for centuries, you can't throw it away rashly without causing harm.

SZ: So do you consider the modern languages as not suited to communicate the Mystery of the Cross?

Ziegelbauer: By all means, they are suitable, but somehow the use of Latin in worship seems more appropriate for the august mysteries, because in this earthly age the mystery of our salvation must necessarily be clothed and as it were veiled in signs, images, and words.

SZ: In your book, where you say you prefer the Church as she used to be, you recommend that church services be mainly about God and reproach the Second Vatican Council for giving too much place to man. I wonder why you see it that way.

Ziegelbauer: Some people who want to support their own opinions with the authority of Vatican II, do, without a doubt, make too much of man. That's why we should hesitate when man and all things human are being venerated as holy, but they may diminish the majesty of God himself. See what happened when they turned the church altars around versus populum: Although this was never approved by the Council, this practice was imposed everywhere, even on unwilling people, as if by force. The Pastoral Council wasn't to blame, but rather those who abused the Council's decrees in many cases afterward.

For some the question is "What would Jesus do?" For others it is "What would Jesus drive?"

For the latter I have the answer.

I'm in with the 'in' crowd...

I had no idea how fashionable this site was becoming! But apparently Pete Vere, the revert author of works fictional and canonical, and advisor to Gen Y, is asking where to send his application.

John, do we have any policy to handle this sort of thing? I presume you know where he's from. Maybe it's just part of his insidious plan.

I'm all in favor of the new Luminous Mysteries for the simple reason that I've often prayed the Joyful Mysteries, then the Sorrowful Mysteries and wondered why there's nothing in between the finding of Jesus in the temple and the agony in the garden.

I see only one downside: John XXIII Publications has an absolutely horrendous version of the new stations of the cross with "adaptations" psalms that replace masculine references to God with phrases like "Holy One" and "Mighty One." I'm sure we'll see some other clap-trap out there disguised as legit publications around the new mysteries.

The reaction to my cancellation letter to New Oxford Review has been surprising, both in its intensity and the lack of anyone stepping forward to defend the magazine. (Please, as I said, tell me why I'm wrong about the magazine if you disagree.)The oft-visited Mark Shea blog now has a link to the thing, which brought it to the attention of a many.

Here are my follow-up comments. As in many things, the details are often the most convincing, and I'd like to talk about two of them that may be illuminating. Some may think the issues are petty. Maybe they are. You be the judge.

NOR has consistently shown an aversion to technology. Years ago, it published an article by a man who was co-founding a Catholic community modeled on the Amish model -- intensely communal and exclusive of any technology not invented in the last hundred years or so. It was one of those pieces that made NOR so great in the old days -- it was provocative and thoughtful, and while I didn't agree with its conclusion that modern technology per se was harmful to human society, it did provide a useful critique of how our culture embraces technologies without considering the unintended effects.

That's not what I'm talking about, though. I have no problem with techological skepticism, and I count myself a skeptic as well -- even though my family's food, clothing, and shelter depend on my Internet-related job. If you've ever sat through dubious sales pitches from computer companies, or bought software that didn't deliver what it promised, you're probably a skeptic as well.

To explain what I'm getting at, a personal anecdote: four years ago, I offered to create a Web site for NOR. That's the kind of thing for which I would charge a business several thousand dollars, but I'd do it for free, and I even said I'd update their site every month with new articles. One editor was enthusiastic about it, but the "reply" was a short essay in the magazine saying that they didn't have a Web site, that Web sites were a waste of time and money, and that other magazines could pour their time and money down the rathole of the Internet, but they were not. (I don't think this was just directed at me -- they had apparently received many inquiries about starting a Web site.)

"A ha!" you might be thinking. "This guy is just angry because they rejected him!" I don't think that's the case. It was a long time ago, and I've been rejected by others without any massive damage to my psyche. I bring it up because last year, NOR effectively reversed themselves, announcing that anyone could republish their content on a Web site, subject to certain conditions. They also pointed out one site that was doing precisely what I offered to do -- posting the contents of the magazine online after the print edition comes out. That site was (and for all I know, still is) their de facto Web site.

The second little tidbit is NOR's typography. "Now that's really superficial," you retort. Not really -- in the visual world, form and content aren't separable. (Distinguishable yes, separable no.) I work in the news business, and have experience with newspaper layout, though I'm not an expert in type. It doesn't take an expert to see that the overall look of NOR is painfully dated, starting with the pseudo-futuristic headline font they use. It looks as if it was set up on a Mac using PageMaker in 1987, with no real updates since then.

Yeah, yeah, who cares? It's not like we're talking about Vogue or Tiger Beat (my apologies for not providing links to those august journals. ;) ) The layout could be overlooked if the editors didn't choose to attack Envoy magazine for using attractive colors and photographs. Seems to me, if you're criticizing others for their aesthetic choices, your own choices are fair game. Another major problem with NOR is that they often break the page into three columns of text, which is too many for their large, curvy main font (Cheltenham or a similar one, I think). You're supposed to shoot for 9-16 words on a line, but with three columns they can only get 4-7.

The management think they've discovered a superior way, and not because they embrace the Creator and Redeemer of the world, or drink from the grace of the sacraments, or listen to the teachings of the Church. They believe their personal charism of infallibility extends to minor things like the value of Web sites and desktop publishing, and they defend their opinions on relatively unimportant matters with the same tenacity as the really big things. Such an approach doesn't make the small things more important, it makes the big things seem less important. A well-intentioned non-Catholic would find himself bewildered by the vehemence with which the writers and editors attack communion in the hand, to cite one recent fracas. I agree that receiving in the hand is significantly different than receiving on the tongue; I see no special value in receiving in the hand, and to our individualistic, narcissistic culture, people might be thinking that the Body and Blood of Christ is something they "posess" when it is placed in their hand, when the opposite is true.

Nevertheless, three-quarters of my countrymen do not receive communion at all, as they are outside of the Church. A majority of American Catholics do not go to Mass on a given week, and therefore they deprive themselves of the Eucharist. Why should we confuse the outsider and the marginal Catholic with such internicine disputes? If NOR really wanted to convert people, they'd focus on changing the larger impediments to faith like consumerism or sexual license. If people's hearts are converted, the smaller things will fall into place by themselves.

When you fight on all fronts, you're guaranteed to lose most of the time, and eventually you'll lose the war, too. It is my fervent hope that the editors of the magazine will steer their ship to rejoin the fleet, instead of fighting their own battles somewhere else.

Jihad group "disbands"

Will Christians in Indonesia get some relief from their persecution by Jihad fanatics? Maybe so. One group has decided to skip town:

JAKARTA -- Laskar Jihad, Indonesia's most violent Muslim extremist group which is blamed for the slaughter of thousands of Christians in a sectarian conflict in the Maluku islands, has disbanded, the group's legal adviser announced on Tuesday.

The claim, which could not immediately be confirmed, appeared to be the first sign that Indonesia was getting serious about cracking down on Muslim extremism in the wake of Saturday's bombing in Bali.

Efforts to contact Jafaar Umar Thalib, the group leader in Ambon -- the capital of Maluku province about 2,600 km east of Jakarta -- were unsuccessful. He is currently on trial for inciting violence in Maluku.

Mr Achmad Michdan, the group's legal adviser, said that the move was not connected to Saturday's blast.

He said: 'It has nothing to do with the bombs. There was no pressure on us from military.

'It is an internal matter. The clerics in Indonesia and in the Middle East have disagreed with Jafaar Umar Thalib's teachings and have asked him to disband the group,' he said.

A book about young orthodox Catholics

Reviewed in the WSJ:

24-year-old David Legge seemed to have the world by the tail. Blessed with Tom Cruise-ish good looks, he had just finished his second year at Yale Law School and was a summer associate at a big New York law firm. Making more money than he could spend, he painted the town red four or five nights a week with lavish parties and big bar tabs. A bright future beckoned.

There was only one problem. He wasn't happy....

The spiritual emptiness he was feeling that summer in New York led him to apply to his own faith the kind of intensity he had previously reserved for his legal studies. The result was a revelation.

In Hawaii, spacious, bright, and brand-new appliances with a great view. Priced to sell immediately. I'll throw in the condo next door, too. What the heck - you can have the whole building. Why? Because it's on the side of an active volcano.

Stories of faith among the fighters of World War II

The celebration of World War II veterans as "the greatest generation" for their courage and duty paid little attention to their Christianity, a vacuum filled by a new collection of war stories from a faith perspective.

The book, "Faith Under Fire," recounts the Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox experiences of men on the front lines and how they and their families overcame the fear and bitterness of war — and in many cases took up religious work afterward.

"I could have filled five books with the stories," said Colorado author Steve Rabey, who settled on 21 representative accounts....

Mr. Rabey said his research showed that while the young men and women of that era willingly took on the burdens of war, they were not necessarily a more pious generation.

"These young people had been raised with at least a minimal knowledge and respect for the teachings of the Christian faith before they had been plucked from the farm and sent off to serve in faraway places," he said in an interview.

"For some, Christianity only became real to them when they faced the prospects of sudden annihilation," he said.

The following is a letter to New Oxford Review, which used to be one of my favorite magazines. I welcome any comments about the magazine, even if you want to tell me I'm off-base.

To the Editors:

With profound regret, I would like to cancel my subscription to New Oxford Review. I have subscribed for almost a decade, starting a few months after my conversion to Catholicism. At that time, I found NOR to be a boon to my spiritual life, and I looked forward to reading every word of every article. The magazine had a literary flair and a spiritual depth that few other journals possessed; it was a gem, and it fueled my knowledge of, and zeal for, the faith. I reveled in the quirks and intricacies of your eclectic group of writers.

Over the last few years, you have published a few of my writings (one letter and several book reviews.) I enjoyed working with Jim Hanink, who was a good and encouraging editor. However, the change in tone and substance in the last four years has been hard to miss. At first, I was excited to see you directly engage the world, though I had appreciated the meditative tone of many articles. As time passed, though, I realized that NOR’s new doctrine of combative orthodoxy had morphed into intolerance. I don’t mean “intolerance” in the post-modern sense of calling falsehoods false, and rejecting the idea that all value systems are equal. I like that kind of intolerance. What I’m talking about is your willingness – even eagerness – to attack anyone who does not share your exact views on Catholic life and belief, whether in essentials or non-essentials.

Calling the faithful back to essential Catholic truths is a desperately necessary task in these times, and that isn’t what I’m concerned about. It’s that if these truths aren’t implemented in exactly the way you recommend, you want to cast the people you disagree with into the outer darkness. Instead of looking for common ground, you seem intent on finding reasons to bludgeon anyone who disagrees with you in the slightest matter. While we admire St. Athanasius for fighting contra mundum, he was forced into battle, and had the world rejected the Arian heresy he would have been content to teach and feed his flock. You seem to enjoy a fight for its own sake.

Take economics, as one example among many. Reasonable, faithful Catholics can disagree about the role of the state in economic affairs. As the nature of economics changes, the teachings of the popes will naturally evolve, though the principles underlying those teachings remain solid as a rock. To hear NOR talk, you would think that distributivism is the official Catholic economic program, even though the popes (especially the present one) have stressed that many economic models are compatible with the faith.

Other recent targets have included Father Richard John Neuhaus, National Catholic Register, and other orthodox Catholic persons and institutions. You’ve even started referring to them as “moderates.” For me, the final straw was that article attacking the leadership of a Catholic high school. Were there no Catholic nursing homes to beat up on that month? Even if the article was true – and it was sharply questioned in a subsequent issue – was it charitable to use your pages in that way?

Less important but still significant, NOR just isn’t that fun anymore. Reading it has become a chore, and as the magazine has expanded the writing quality has dropped. There are other problems as well – the tone of mockery has crept into far too many house editorials; the attempts at satire are strained and unfunny; and (yes) the ads in other publications have grown strident and tiresome.

I understand that you see your new role as a popularizer of Catholic orthodoxy, a champion of the true understanding of Catholicism. But whereas you used to cajole and convince, now you thunder and denounce. Who do you imagine will be swayed by this approach? Surely not the vast numbers of marginal Catholics, who will never pick up NOR. Our harried priests? The ones who agree with you probably already subscribe, and those who don’t will be put off by your new tone. You are only preaching to the converted, and paradoxically, your influence with English-speaking Catholics will continue to shrink as you attempt to increase it. Better that you should remain a small-circulation magazine doing much good in a quiet way, than a small-circulation magazine doing only a little good, loudly.

Please do not refund the remainder of my subscription; consider it a very small gift for all the years of good reading you have given me. If you recover your earlier voice, I will be quick to revive my subscription. I thank God for what I received from you, and I wish you well.

Regards,
Eric M. Johnson

Inquiry exonerates Abp. Pell; both sides claim vindication

Here was a scene to haunt the memory for ever – a kind of Dante's Inferno – but on ice....Outside the white building were stacks of long pieces of ice – each about three metres long – melting away in the noon heat.

Beyond the ice pile was an open pergola, with piles of body parts in plastic bags surrounded by puddles of water from melted ice. Occasionally, soldiers would slide the bars of ice into the white building through open doors over a white tiled floor where you could see stacked rows of whole body bags.

You know, the Australians fought alongside the U.S. in every war we fought in the 20th century. I hope our government is doing everything it can to help Australia in any way they need, though I'm sure it already is. As for our countries' intelligence services, I hope they patiently assemble the evidence and find out where the murderers are. If they can be apprehended, then arrest and try them. If that would put too many innocent lives at risk, then kill them. If you think that building a coalition is a prerequisite for morally upright warfighting, I'd say that Australia is a definite "yes" when the time comes to invade Iraq.

I used to think that Pax Christi and their sister "peace" organizations were simply misguided. Now I think they're dangerous. Reflexively opposing any use of force is just as morally obtuse as reflexively approving the use of force. When their "solutions" of prayer and non-violent persuasion have run their course, murderous men will still be able to prey on innocent lives.

Here's a quotation from their solution to stop international terrorism:
"Since Slobodan Milosovic was brought to trial for crimes against humanity, though he had a whole country for hiding, why can’t others?" Our moral betters at Pax Christi didn't notice that we bombed the crap out of Serbia for two-and-a-half months, then threatened his regime with a land invasion. If it hadn't been for that, he'd still be directing his goons from Belgrade. (By all means, read that quotation in context. Read their whole site.)

These people are idiots. I'm sorry I can't dress that up in more nuanced language, but anyone who thinks terrorists will be deterred by "international law" is willfully ignorant of reality. To clothe such rhetoric in the mantle of the Christian religion, and to use the name of Jesus Christ to promote their fantasies, is repugnant.

Not that I'm minimizing the usefulness of prayer; indeed, I pray in the words of Psalm 58:

The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked,
So that men will say,
"Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
Surely He is God who judges in the earth."

Help me out, pilgrims, my new clothing store for big and tall clergy needs a name. Latin could be funnier than English. Think not only diocesan clergy but orders too.

Some men just know that marriage is good for them.

However, there's a strict limit of one per person.

Rosary letter coming Wednesday

An e-mail from Catholic World News reports that Pope John Paul II will issue an apostolic letter on devotion to the Virgin Mary October 16.

Sources indicate that "the Pope will introduce five new mysteries to the Rosary", focusing "on the public life of Jesus Christ.... They will be: the Baptism in the Jordan, the temptation in the desert, the proclamation of the Kingdom, the Transfiguration, and the entry into Jerusalem."

I got gas in Vienna, Virginia on my way to work today.

My posts have mostly been about firearms or my kids, so I thought I'd better move on to other subjects, lest someone think that all I do is sit around the house cleaning my guns and making babies. (What a life that would be!)

It struck me why so many people don't like contemporary art. I used to think it was because "naturalistic" and "representational" are dirty words in the visual arts, which means that art that looks like something in the natural world, or that could possibly exist in the natural world, is frowned on by our cultural "betters." Given the choice between looking at sailors trying to stop a shark from eating a man, and gazing at a painting of three colored bars, just about everyone is going to pick the shark. We know what sharks are, and we can look at the painting and understand it on some level without knowing who the artist was, what his intention might have been, etc. You can't say that about most contemporary art -- you have to know what was going on in the artist's fetid mind if you want to know what those three bars are about.

That's part of it, but even more than that, I believe that people seek an encounter with Beauty when they visit an art museum. The main purpose of contemporary art is to spark an emotional reaction in the observer. The experience is confined to the observer and the art object, with the final end located inside the observer. How different that is from the great masters of the past, who used art to direct the observer's attention to things outside the observer and the object. Chances are, when you look at Michelangelo's David, you're not just thinking about the sculpted marble in front of you. You're probably thinking of the biblical text that inspired the story, the peculiar proportions of the head and what that might mean, the magnificence of the human body...the focus isn't just on your personal reaction. Your emotions heighten your intellectual and spiritual reaction, but they are not center stage.

You can't tell someone that their emotional reaction is right or wrong, any more than you can say that the color red is right or wrong. That's one key to the appeal of contemporary art (besides the Gnostic pleasures of esoteric knowledge): the value- and fact-free zone it occupies. If you have an opinion on a representational art object, it can be located in the gamut of possible interpretations. If you say that Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" in the Sistine Chapel is an expression of his increasingly pessimistic view of man at that point in his life, that's defensible. If you say that the painting means the artist liked poached eggs, you're wrong. But if you said the same thing about a Jackson Pollack canvas, who could tell you you're wrong? Maybe Pollack's id liked poached eggs that day, who knows?

I don't think your average person wants to walk out of a museum thinking that he's had a great encounter with himself. I know who I am -- if I want to have an encounter with myself, I can do that anytime without leaving the house. People want to walk out thinking that they've become better as human beings, even if it's just a teeny bit better. Beauty, not private, subjective emotions, is the only thing that can satisfy that need.

Toward a civilization of love: "We live in a broken world"

On October 13, 2001, Professor Bainard Cowan of Louisiana State University spoke at Thomas More College in New Hampshire on what literature has to say to us after the terrible events of last year. While some of his talk goes over my head, I find the whole thing evocative.

Aristotle taught that poetry is more universal than history. Poetry - and by poetry I mean any good work of imaginative literature - is not only therapy for media-bruised souls; it reconnects us with the deep experience of the human race, which has lived through so many wars yet kept the dream of peace and freedom alive.

Surprisingly, however, we turn to our trusted poets and find that the resonance of their words has changed. And this in turn is a reconfirmation that something significant has taken place. I was giving a lecture to my core curriculum freshmen at LSU on the day after the attacks, speaking to them of the recurrent characteristics of epic in all traditions, and I came to the point that the epic often contains at its beginning - the image of a burning city - the ruin of the old order out of which the call to a new and unknown destiny arises. I was stunned at the unwished-for aptness of this observation for our moment; and I think the students were stunned, too; they did at least seem to be awakened. This image of the burning city is a poetic image and so a reflective one, and I want to get back to it later as a possible interpretant for our time.

Since the late 1980s and the significant changes in the world then, it has seemed the world was being freed up to become what it is meant to be in the new human dispensation. Francis Fukuyama announced the "end of history" in a much-discussed book. As we look around at the changed world of October 2001 we realize that that view was lacking in drama. A new role for danger, for antagonism, for "evil," as it is being called, had not yet been envisioned until the larger moral canvas was unrolled on us by force.

Yeats writes in the poem titled "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen":

We too had many pretty toys when young:
A law indifferent to blame or praise,
To bribe or threat; habits that made old wrong
Melt down, as it were wax in the sun's rays;
Public opinion ripening for so long
We thought it would outlive all future days.
O what fine thought we had because we thought
That the worst rogues and rascals had died out.

Yeats speaks here of his own historical moment of emergence from the late Victorian era, when it had been believed that civilization and gentle ways had triumphed. Yet more deeply he is speaking of that acedia, that numbness of the soul born of a narcissistic fascination with one's own vision of utopia.

And, more telling, in the poem "Meditations in Time of Civil War" he speaks of the false romantic hopes at the start of wars:

We had fed the heart on fantasies,
The heart's grown brutal from the fare;
More substance in our enmities
Than in our love; O honey-bees,
Come build in the empty house of the stare.

Troubling indeed if that line "More substance in our enmities / Than in our love" should apply to our time. Before September it seemed unquestionably true, but in a game with smaller stakes. Now the times try our hearts as to which will dominate, with immense consequences....

The brutal blows of September constitute a violent awaking out of a decade of self-absorption.... It does remind us, however, of that profound truth that we live in a broken world. The last decade has produced too much forgetfulness of the world, the awareness of which could scarcely interrupt our dizzy fascination with electronic technology and the wealth it brings, and our self-absorption in petty quarrels[....] America can no longer feign boredom at the state of the world that is in shadow while we are in sunlight.

Violence and suffering are the crude tools that history uses to refine the vision that is sheltered in the hearts of the just. For the vision is not a brief dream that will dissipate. We encounter it as soon as we turn to anything real that our new conflict has forced upon us. Not the chessboard of counterterrorism, but the faces of Afghan refugees. Faces of the world's poor that have flooded our TV screens for a decade but that we have not known what to do with, how to make those images square with the vision of bright interconnection of every happy consumer. The vision has needed a leap of imagination. It needs a realist phase, tightening and toughening.

There is a time when a vision must be held to in the darkness. In the bright day of its early celebration, the vision may imperceptibly become the worship of a golden calf. Vision is tested by the pitch black of real historical contingency, the incontrovertible reality of the other, the recalcitrance of the real world whose resistance is not so much made of matter as it is of mind - the minds of others who do not think like us. In these times the vision is held on to by holding on to its opposite: not seeing - not knowing what the plan is, not having a plan for a peaceful new world order, but holding on to the old verities in the new encounters we are forced into: courage, justice tempered with mercy, compassion, understanding.

America must take the lead in this work.

This quotation combines two of my pet peeves:

The power of the media has taken center stage in the hunt for the shooter -- or shooters -- who has used a high-velocity rifle to slam a single bullet into 10 victims since Oct. 2....

1. What's a "high-velocity rifle"? That means a rifle that travels fast, right? Just like at the beginning of the old "Superman" TV show, "Faster than a speeding rifle...More powerful than a locomotive...."

2. The JFK assasination conspiracy nuts love to talk about the "magic bullet" that tumbled through President Kennedy and Governor Connolly, and how one bullet couldn't have gone through both. Well, they can be quiet now, because now that "shooter" has "slam[med] a single bullet into 10 victims." One bullet...10 victims...some of them 50 miles away from each other. This sniper is a much better shot than people are giving him credit for.

3. It ain't the velocity that gets ya, it's what it does when it's inside. Imagine if there were a gun that fired a projectile one atom wide at nearly the speed of light, and someone shot you with it. Maybe it would do a little damage as it passed through, but it wouldn't kill you. A typical .223 bullet (which might not be what the shooter is using) is designed to tumble once it hits a target, which can cause massive internal injuries. Likewise, a low-velocity weapon can be just as deadly, if not more -- the reason most Civil War soldiers had their limbs amputated after being shot wasn't because of the primitive medicine of that era, but because the slow, heavy rounds would shatter bones when they hit.

Bonus pet peeve: twice I've seen references to "police wearing flak jackets" and "gas station attendants donning flak jackets." There are some new military flak jackets that can stop pistol rounds, but in general, flak jackets are used to stop battlefield shrapnel, and are useless against bullets. What the reporters mean is "body armor" or "bulletproof vests," unless the policemen and gas guys think the sniper is going to start using mortars or artillery pieces to attack.

Right in the middle of Mass, we heard the far-off ring of a cell phone. And I was thinking, "ok - turn it off, moron!" ring, ring. "c'mon! just turn it off" ring, ring. "oh man this is nuts" RING, RING - the culprit had pulled it our of her purse: it was a member of the choir.

Teresa and I went to a parish last night that has no hymnals - just a handout that had the readings and words. Here's one particularly helpful section.

GREAT AMEN
A - - men, a - - men, a-men, amen, amen

Two steps forward, one step back?

Archbishop of Boston Bernard Cardinal Law has decided to impose restrictions on meetings of the protest group VOTF, but has issued a split decision. His letter, announced Saturday, forbids any new groups from meeting in parish properties, whereas he permits existing groups to continue, and reverses the ban Auxiliary Bishop Emilio Allue imposed in one parish October 1. AP tells us:

''Given the present state of the group as a national organization, I decided it would be inappropriate for new chapters to use church property until I had received further information about the Voice of the Faithful,'' Law wrote in a letter made public Saturday.

However, Law has also reversed a decision to ban Voice of the Faithful from meeting at a church in North Andover, about 25 miles north of Boston.

The Archdiocese of Boston said it [sic] asking new chapters to not meet on church property while discussions continue with Voice of the Faithful leaders. But the group says those talks have stopped. [...]

While [VOTF interim executive director Steve] Krueger said there are no scheduled meetings between the archdiocese and VOTF, archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Morrissey said a dialogue with the chancery is continuing.

''Whether or not a meeting is scheduled I don't know,'' she said.

Law expressed regret for the ban in a letter to the Rev. Paul T. Keyes of St. Michael Parish in North Andover and has apologized, the pastor said.

In Arlington we say, "Bishop Loverde has spoken - causa finita est."

By decree, Bishop Loverde has mandated that during November all weekend homilies need to cover formation on the new General Instruction on the Roman Missal (GIRM)
November 2-3: The Theological Vision of the General Instruction
November 9-10: The Worshipping Assembly at Mass: Postures, Gestures
November 16-17: Signs and Symbols at Mass
November 23-24: Ministries and Roles within the Mass

The Arlington Chancery has provided very detailed talking points to each parish to cover each topic.

Here's a couple of nuggets from the talking points with their GIRM references:
The responsorial psalm must be proclaimed/chanted/sung from the Ambo.
Silence - "even before the celebration itself, it is praiseworthy for silence to be observed in the church, sacristy and adjacent areas" (GIRM 45) It also recommends brief periods of silence throughout the liturgy.
Music: Songs or Hymns may never be substituted for either the Agnus Dei or other chants of the Mass (GIRM 366.) During Advent the organ and other musical instruments may be used with moderation. During Lent organ use is permitted for accompanying sustained singing. (GIRM 313)
Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist do not participate in the entrance procession.
The blessing of children or infants should not be encouraged during communion - they are blessed with the full assembly at the end of Mass.

November 2, 2002
Cathedral of St. Thomas More, Arlington VA
Speakers:
Monsignor James Patrick Moroney, Executive Director of the Secretariat for the Liturgy of the Uinted States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Dr. J. Michael McMahon, President, National Pastoral Musicians Association
9:15am Registration
9:45am Morning Prayer
10:00am First Speaker: Mon. Moroney on the new GIRM
11:15am Second Speakers, Dr. McMahon on Liturgical Music in the new GIRM
$7 if you are not an NPM member, $5 if you are
Need more info: contact David Mathers at 703.393.2146

Miss Tibet?

Well, don't we all.

I never knew all this about Jimmy Carter. I think the only good thing Carter did was give us Reagan!

Tinky Winky, call your office

In the best of times, God would be the all-pervasive reality that reaches every corner of men's minds and hearts, and is linked to every part of culture.

That's gone. Now sex and its aberrations seem to have taken on that all-pervasiveness. Little remains untouched from their invasion. But we can resist sometimes. We can try to preserve some bits of innocence.

So I don't care what the WSJ says, let alone Max Baucus; I still believe you're a regular guy, SpongeBob.

Mark Shea has a post today that has a couple of interesting nuggets.

One nugget has to do with with theologians and their view of the people like Mark, Karl Keating, Peter Kreeft, etc. My feeling is that too many theologians they can be so caught up in their ivory towers that they forget about the ignorant masses of Catholic who are hungering for Truth and need it to be expressed to them in a simple way. Karl Keating's book "Catholicism and Fundamentalism" and Alan Schreck's book "Catholic and Christian" both, literally, changed my life at a point where I had begun to wonder if the Church had made a bunch of stuff up. Without the "new apologist" approach I would probably be in a bible church and have abandoned key parts of the Truth of what the Church teaches.

Mark also mentions his experience with RCIA, I have one anecdote that to me typifies what's wrong with some RCIA programs. I was at a Mass once where the prayers of the faithful had been drawn from what the RCIA candidates had said were sins and areas of their life where they needed the grace of God. The sins were named in the prayers: abortion was among them. So was arguing and yelling. And I thought - someone gets it, someone doesn't. There's a person who has been thru and repented from the sin of abortion. There's another person who thinks that arguing and yelling were where they needed God's grace. I don't know their hearts and perhaps my thoughts on it were not appropriate, but I thought the juxtaposition of something so trivial and something so grave was very telling about how the program was reaching into the souls of the candidates.

Europe's thought police: It's easy to forget at times the benefits of being a writer or polemicist in the United States. The First Amendment protects everyone — from the hate-monger to the well-paid purveyors of conventional wisdom. Not so in Europe. Last week saw two truly disturbing consequences of the combination of leftist do-goodery with the force of the state. A British man got into a verbal fight with some Muslim Brits on the street when they averred that the Americans who perished on September 11 "deserved to die." Provoked by that obscenity, the man burst into what was an unfortunate diatribe against Islam. He now faces jail time under a new British law that forbids the insulting of anyone else's religion. The Muslims face no such liability, of course. Hating Americans is not forbidden under the new religious hate-crime laws. I guess if it were, there'd be precious little space left in the jails. Meanwhile, in Paris, the lively liberal polemicist, Oriana Fallaci, is also facing criminal charges for writing a book highly critical of some of the more extreme currents in contemporary Islam. A while ago, it was just the Ayatollahs who issued fatwas against writers challenging Islam. Now it's Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac. One small but wonderful detail: Miss Fallaci's lawyer is the exquisitely-named Christophe Bigot.

You cannot serve two masters

VOTF is preparing for another round of the publicity game, offering $55,000 to Cardinal Law provided he not spend it on running the Church. Now that sounds pretty stupid to me, but then I'm not one of the smart people who run VOTF.

After that, they'll try to tempt the board of Catholic Charities with it.

Y'know, if all they could raise in their anti-diocesan Appeal was $62K from 267 donors, even in the comfy suburbs where VOTF started (area code 781), maybe their membership isn't as gung-ho or as big as they've been claiming. But that's just a speculation on my part.

From zenit.org - the address that professor Gerhard Ludwig Müller of the University of Munich delivered during a videoconference organized Sept. 28 by the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy. On Oct. 1 John Paul II appointed him bishop of Regensburg.

Liturgical scholars during the first half of the 20th century worked in an excellent manner for the renewal of the liturgy, because they were theologians. These new narrow-minded characters instead, who consider the liturgy a playground for their fixations, simply consolidate the liturgical crisis, because they create a liturgy which is aimed at exterior effects and not at transmitting the contents of the faith.

Read the whole thing! I think we'll be blogging about this for quite a while. Would it be too much to expect a similar statement from an American Bishop?

I took a day trip with a friend and her sister to the Eastern Shore of Maryland this past weekend. Since we had a three and a half hour drive each way, we had ample time to talk. I found that they were both "recovering" Catholics. This was after I related to them my story about defending the faith at work. They were both raised Catholic and received the Sacraments through Confirmation. One goes to Church on Christmas and Easter. The other isn't practicing at all. The first one is drawn to pray at a Church near her home in front of the Blessed Sacrament. When she goes she feels at peace. I told her it was because God is there in the Tabernacle. Her sister said until she grew up she went to Church every Sunday and she "spun the beads" each night before she went to sleep. She finds the Church confining now, both for the people and for God. "You can't put God in a box," she said. She says she is much happier now than she was as a practicing Catholic. "I think people should just be good and kind - they shouldn't have to worry about all those rules to go to Heaven," she said. "My God doesn't work that way."

"You and I have different Gods," I said. There was an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. Our next topic was the weather.

Our blogging brethern have spent a lot of bits and bytes on the canonization of Saint Josemaría Escrivá and Opus Dei.

Amy Welborn and Mark Sullivan link to an article on The Spectator from a former member of Opus Dei.

The comments on their posts are not particularly illuminating. We find those who are supportive of the movement and many who are vehemently against it. In terms of its exclusivity or the allegedly "cult-like" recruiting tactics, the movement could be doing the opposite of what St. Francis did when he founded the Friars. He welcomed thousands into the Friars. I've heard it said by Franciscans today that many men joined in those days who should not have. The hairshirts, poverty and celibacy just weren't what they were called to. Opus Dei could be at the other extreme.

Whether one personally supports Saint Josemaría Escrivá's canonization, this is a matter where the Church does not err. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote the following about the infallibility of canonization:

Since the honour we pay the saints is in a certain sense a profession of faith, i.e., a belief in the glory of the Saints [quâ sanctorum gloriam credimus] we must piously believe that in this matter also the judgment of the Church is not liable to error.

"But in Virginia, anybody can publish a newspaper without asking permission from the government." Imagine if the Washington Post published a statement like that -- the ACLU types would be all over them. "You don't have to ask permission to exercise your rights!" they would holler. And they'd be right.

As I predicted below, we're now seeing the Washington-area sniper attacks blamed on guns. Nevermind that they don't know who committed these murders (am I the only one bothered by people referring these murders as "killings," as if they might be accidental or committed in self-defense?) Nevermind that we don't know where the murderer(s) got their rifle(s), or if they were legally purchased. If you dislike guns, any gun-related crime is an excuse for a new round of gun laws.

What the Post actually said in a house editorial today was, "But in Virginia, anybody can go to a gun show and buy a weapon with no questions asked." That isn't necessarily true -- if they bought a gun from a registered dealer, then the dealer would have to perform a background check. Private individuals do not have to perform the background check. Think of it this way: you've probably bought or sold several cars during your lifetime. Does that make you a car dealer? Should you register with the state DMV, put balloons in front of your house, dress in plaid, and take out ads that say "TREMENDOUS SALE!!!" in your local paper? Of course not. You're just somebody who occasionally buys or sells a car for your own personal use. Likewise, someone who sells six shotguns at a gun show isn't a gun dealer, just somebody selling a few things they don't need.

And then there was the obligatory technical error in the editorial: a .223 caliber rifle is not particularly "high-powered," unless you're comparing it to a dinky little .22. A .223 rifle is a standard, mid-range rifle, used to hunt deer or smaller game, but not bear or moose or anything big. There's usually some kind of laughable misstatement in every gun-related editorial they write, like the time they got upset because some rifles have bayonet lugs, apparently because of all the gang-related bayonet charges in the streets of Washington. Maybe they thought Civil War re-enactors were responsible for the 400+ murders that year in D.C.

Because they are a multi-billion-dollar company, I'm sure these "mistakes" weren't inadvertent -- it's a little "find the error" game they like to play with their readers, who win fabulous prizes by identifying them in letters to the editor. (They like to play the same game with the Church -- last year, they published a letter I wrote when they called the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception a "cathedral," which is like calling a consulate an embassy.)

Doing the Post one better, Jonathan Cowan of Americans for Gun Safety explicitly makes the link between the sniper and gun control in a guest column: "A sniper has taken aim, spreading death and fear in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Yet despite this terror campaign, there is no movement from Congress or the administration for tougher gun safety laws." Maybe our legislators are waiting for a few facts to come to light before they start proposing new "gun safety laws." They don't write new laws based on extraordinary cases, or at least they shouldn't. Does Mr. Cowan think that a mandatory trigger-lock law would have stopped this guy?

The debate over gun rights pits the Judeo-Christian view of humanity against Enlightenment rationalism. (Stay with me here.) If you support the right to bear arms, you probably believe that people commit murder because of personal sin. You know that the law is only a deterrent to the law-abiding, and for the non-law-abiding, it's better to have a more convincing deterrent. You probably think that, with the Catholic intellectual Lord Acton, that "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely," and that governments tend to be much more polite when their citizens can shoot back.

If you don't think private citizens should have firearms, or you think they should have them only for hunting the occasional deer, it's probably because you believe in the perfectibility of man: evil is something imposed by society, and therefore if we can fine-tune our laws, we can regain that perfection on earth. If it weren't for this external force (the presence of guns in society), there would be very little crime because it's the objects that are to blame, not the darkened souls of the criminals.

More baby talk

Mark Maier and Victor Lams have been raving about a handy tool for finding baby names, but in my hardly-ever-humble opinion, the coolest baby-name tool is the Name-O-Meter. It shows the popularity rankings of 4,139 names as they have varied over the past 100 years.

But that's not all: want the latest list of the top 1000 baby names in the US? Here ya go.

Data! I just love data!

As you read down that top-1000 list, you'll notice more and more, ahem, variant spellings. For example, #998 is "Dontae", but that's presumably intended to be pronounced like "Dante". It's a pity we're so libertarian here in America, 'cause I wish we could prevent parents legally from saddling their kids with names that look like typos.

In some countries a little paternalistic restriction is par for the course. A few weeks ago, German authorities forbade a Turkish couple from naming their baby "Osama Bin Laden". Good thing too. Unfortunately, the Kiwis haven't reached that level of progress yet, so their child-welfare advocate can only protest in vain when a child is named after a criminal gang.

A writer down in Tennessee occasionally sends me examples of odd names. Once, she wrote, she met a girl named Dinette. "What's her brother called: Armoire?"

Postscript: A judge in Florida says there actually are some limits on what you can call yourself. Maybe the man involved ran afoul of the "Truth in Advertising" rules when he tried to change his name to "God".

I received this email from from a staffer, a relative and staffer actually, on Frank Creel's campaign. For the record, Eric, I post it as reader comment, not an endorsement for Mr. Creel's campaign.

While perusing Catholic Light blogspot archives,(http://catholiclight.blogspot.com/2002_09_29_catholiclight_archive.html), I thank you for mentioning Frank Creel's (my father) campaign website, http://frankcreel.org.

I've recently posted a summary of Davis's voting record that may interest you as well (http://frankcreel.org/archive/davis_record.html). Indeed, "We need an unabashedly pro-life representative in that seat."

In addition, though a state issue, Dr. Creel is against the proposed sales tax hike in Virginia, whereas, Davis has been heavily promoting this referendum's passage with the two Warners.

Please keep my father and all the hard-working 'Creel for Congress' volunteers in your prayers.

Please pray for Erwin, the uncle of a friend of mine, who passed on last night after suffering for years with cancer. The Chaplet of the Divine Mercy would be wonderful, but any prayers for the repose of his soul in Heaven are appreciated.

The Tax Man is not earth-friendly

This deserves a prize for stupidity in government: the UK places a high tax on diesel fuel, but drivers who switch to cheaper recycled vegetable oil in place of it are being punished. Apparently reducing your use of fossil fuels makes you a tax-cheat!

How much would you bet that the tax was originally justified on the ground that it would encourage conservation?

A new gadget promises to interpret babies' cries

Now that'll be a handy invention. Hey, I'd be lucky if I could figure out my cat's noises.

Planned Parenthood's contribution to Respect Life Week: some good news

The PP-funded research organization, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, has announced that abortion rates are down in the U.S. The report contains some bad and some good news for pro-life advocates; here's the good part:

The study also showed a steep drop — nearly 40 percent — in the abortion rate for women 15 to 17 years old. It fell from 24 per 1,000 young women in 1994 to just 15 in 2000.

Those figures do not necessarily mean more teens are carrying pregnancies to term. Other key indicators of teenage sexual activity — including teen pregnancy and births to teen mothers — also fell steadily in the late 1990s.

Analysts have credited a broad set of factors for those trends, including fears of HIV and AIDS and a booming economy that may have led young people to put off raising families in favor of high-paying jobs.

I didn't need my equalizer this time because I had the right answer. One of my co-workers apparently didn't believe me last week when I told him I was Catholic and happy about it. Around the lunch table he asked again, "You're Catholic??" I told him, yes, I am Catholic and happy about it.

"Do you think your works save you?"

"No, I think Jesus saves me," I replied.

Nods and smiles all around. An "Amen!" was heard. Maybe they have never heard a Catholic say something like that. Maybe they think they are slowly converting me.

Wait until I tell them the Bible is a Catholic book!

I found this article while searching for something else. Patricia Heaton, who plays the wife in "Everybody Loves Raymond" is a mother of four, pro-life, and is thinking of adopting another child. My favorite quotes: "As a Christian, it will not be Barbra Streisand I'm standing in front of when I have to make an accounting of my life." [link]

I can't figure out if Heaton is still Catholic -- she grew up that way, and she says she had a wonderful childhood. Still, even if she isn't, it's refreshing to see an unabashed pro-life viewpoint from a successful actress. In the same article are the pro-life views of Kathy Ireland, who makes her point quite forcefully to the pro-abortion Alan Colmes. It must anger the pro-abortion crowd to see a pro-life supermodel, since they love to portray pro-lifers as dowdy, repressed stooges of their hypocritical, snake-handling religious leaders.

Usually, when there is an outbreak of senseless, nihilistic gun-related violence, many people start wailing about how many guns Americans have, and can't we do something about this? Strangely enough, even though a cowardly pair of D.C.-area snipers have shot eight people, those voices aren't being heard. Maybe the Sept. 11 attacks affected people's views of armed self-defense; hard to say. You'll recall that after the Columbine massacre, the air was thick with gun control schemes, but three years later, the anti-gun lobby is still trying to sneak their sad little "gun-show loophole" bill through Congress.

Nevertheless, we will start hearing calls for firearms restrictions of some kind, I'm willing to bet. I have often toyed with the idea of starting a group called "Catholics for the Second Amendment," which would attempt to bolster support among Catholics for our civil right to bear arms. Here's a short case for gun rights, from a Catholic perspective:

Every person has the right to defend his life, even to the point of using lethal force -- i.e., an action against another person that could reasonably be expected to kill that person. Moreover, everyone has not just a right, but a duty to protect the weak from the depredations of the strong, and lethal force can again be employed. (I'm going to spare you the references in the Catechism, because I'm too lazy to read them for the eleventh time.) You don't have to be a policeman or security officer in order to justifiably employ force -- you can be a private citizen. This right to self-defense is a part of natural law, and is inalienable. You may not choose to exercise it, but that's your choice.

We also have the right to freedom of worship under natural law (and again, the Church recognizes this as a fundamental right.) What would happen if a government told us that we have the freedom to worship, but we cannot build or use churches? Or hold religious gatherings in public spaces? We would complain that freedom of worship, while primarily spiritual, has an implied, essential material aspect. So it is with any other true freedom you can name, like freedom of speech -- if the government said you couldn't own a printing press, Web server, or any other device to publish your views, then your right is effectively nullified.

You probably see where I'm going with this. It is patently absurd, given that serious criminals use guns as their everyday tools, to tell people who wish to defend themselves that they can't have the object that makes their right to self-defense meaningful. With her bare hands, a 110-pound mother can't defend her kids against a drunken 200-pound man. A 78-year-old man wouldn't have a chance against a 20-year-old thug with a knife. In either case, the victims need an equalizer: a gun. Nothing else will stop someone intent on harming the innocent, and most of the time you don't even need to shoot the attacker -- merely pointing the gun at him is an effective deterrent.

Given that, I wish I knew why the bishops persist in their support -- albeit tepid and de rigeur -- for gun control. It's a question of justice: should we let the bad guys victimize the innocent, or should we arm ourselves to repel such attacks? Fewer guns won't mean a more peaceful society, because depraved monsters like those snipers will find weapons. (We can't keep drugs out of the country, so how could we keep guns out?) In my personal judgment, responsible gun ownership is fully consistent with the Gospel, and indeed, for people in many circumstances, I would say it is an obligation.

Two religious art exhibits

Washington, DC area readers can choose between two presentations of religious art this week: Christendom College in Front Royal, VA has its fourth annual Sacred Art Exhibit underway through next Sunday, October 13.

Also, the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center is presenting a sculpture exhibit, "Visions of One Another: Works by Christian and Jewish Sculptors" now and continuing through November 12.

Thanks to sculptor Scott Sullivan for the information. Scott is co-founder of the Catholic artists' fellowship Artists for a Renewed Society.

(That last link is a shameless plug, as I'm ARS' webmaster.)

The Quickening of St. John the Baptist

Why do you fly from the drowned shores of Galilee,
From the sands and the lavender water?
Why do you leave the ordinary world, Virgin of Nazareth,
The yellow fishing boats, the farms,
The wine smelling yards and low cellars
Or the oilpress, and the women by the well?
Why do you fly those markets,
Those suburban gardens,
The trumpets of the jealous lilies,
Leaving them all, lovely among the lemon trees?

You have trusted no town
With the news behind your eyes.
You have drowned Gabriel's word in thoughts like seas
And turned toward the stone mountain
To the treeless places.
Virgin of God, why are your clothes like sails?

The day Our Lady, full of Christ,
Entered the dooryard of her relative
Did not her steps, light steps, lay on the paving leaves like gold?
Did not her eyes grey as doves
Alight like the peace of a new world upon that house, upon miraculous Elizabeth?

Her salutation
Sings in the stone valley like a Charterhouse bell:
And the unborn saint John
Wakes in his mother's body,
Bounds with the echoes of discovery.
Sing in your cell, small anchorite!
How did you see her in the eyeless dark?

What secret syllable
Woke your young faith to the mad truth
That an unborn baby could be washed in the Spirit of God?
Oh burning joy!
What seas of life were planted by that voice!
With what new sense
Did your wise heart receive her Sacrament,
And know her cloister Christ?

You need no eloquence, wild bairn,
Exulting in your heritage,
Your ecstasy is your apostolate,
For whom to kick is contemplata tradere
Your joy is the vocation
Of Mother Church's hidden children --
Those who by vow lie buried in the cloister or the hermitage
The speechless Trappist, or the grey, granite Carthusian,
The quiet Carmelite, the barefoot Clare
Planted in the night of contemplation,
Sealed in the dark and waiting to be born.

Night is our diocese and silence is our ministry
Poverty our charity and helplessness our tongue-tied sermon.
Beyond the scope of sight or sound we dwell upon the air
Seeking the world's gain in an unthinkable experience.
Waiting upon the first far drums of Christ the Conqueror,
Planted like sentinels upon the world's frontier.

--Thomas Merton, from The Tears of the Blind Lions

Vatican II on the relation of the laity and the bishops of the Church

The Church teaches us:

Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church)

Section 37:
Like all Christians, the laity have the right to receive in abundance the help of the spiritual goods of the Church, especially that of the word of God and the sacraments from the pastors. To the latter, the laity should disclose their needs and desires with that liberty and confidence which befits children of God and brothers of Christ. By reason of the knowledge, competence or pre-eminence which they have the laity are empowered -- indeed sometimes obliged -- to manifest their opinion on those things which pertain to the good of the Church.

If the occasion should arise this should be done through the institutions established by the Church for that purpose and always with truth, courage and prudence and with reverence and charity towards those who, by reason of their office, represent the person of Christ.

Like all Christians, the laity should promptly accept in Christian obedience what is decided by the pastors who, as teachers and rulers of the Church, represent Christ. In this they will follow Christ's example who, by his obedience unto death, opened the blessed way of the liberty of the sons of God to all men.

(translation from the Flannery edition)

Part Two

Since the sensible Gordon Zaft posted an eloquent but brief comment to ask, more or less, "what's the point, RC?" I'll expand on the above.

The Council indicates that we laity should express our opinions and criticisms through the Church's own institutions and with reverence toward the bishops.

I wanted to bring this up simply because it's not a popular teaching right now; I haven't lived up to it, and neither have a lot of us lay folks. The various voices engaged in daily condemnation of various bishops must not be aware of it.

Notice the two points: (1) with reverence and (2) through the Church's own institutions. I mean: can you believe that? The Church wants us to give our opinions to the bishops through the Church's own institutions. It sounds as if we should not be denouncing them publicly. I don't know if we can get used to that!

Of course, this raises some questions, such as: what are those institutions -- I really don't know what the Council is referring to.

Now, I don't mean to make an argument that it's immoral to criticize Church problems in public: the right specified in canon 212 to make one's views known to the faithful rules that out. But I do wonder what the Council had in mind.

Move over, Sweden

Boston has the Ig Nobel Prizes, recognizing dubious scientific "achievements that cannot or should not be reproduced." The Ig Nobel Laureates for the year 2002 were announced last night in a riotous ceremony at Harvard's Sanders Theatre.

The "honored" researchers, several of whom attended the ceremony (at their own expense), had reported their studies in scientific papers such as

"Courtship Behaviour of Ostriches (Struthio camelus) Towards Humans Under Farming Conditions in Britain"
"Demonstration of the Exponential Decay Law Using Beer Froth"
"Estimation of the Total Surface Area in Indian Elephants"
"The Effects of Pre-Existing Inappropriate Highlighting on Reading Comprehension"

Since we need a detail of Catholic interest to justify this post: pro-life doctor Micheline Mathews-Roth of Harvard Medical School opened and closed the ceremony with the traditional "Welcome, Welcome" and "Goodbye, Goodbye" speeches. I quote her two addresses in their entirety:

Welcome! Welcome.

Goodbye! Goodbye.

You simply cannot imagine how silly an affair this is.

From the Northern Virginia Journal Online comes a story about Frank Creel, an independent candidate running on the Constitution Party's ticket against four-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-11th District. Mr. Creel is Catholic, pro-life, and sings in the Latin choir at St. Mary's in D.C. His campaign's website is at http://www.frankcreel.org/

Mr. Creel will surely be annihilated in the election but God bless him for trying. We need an unabashedly pro-life representative in that seat. NOW describes Tom Davis's voting record on abortion as "mixed" - I wish we could elect someone they really hate!

October 4: St. Francis of Assisi

One way to observe St. Francis' day is to visit your local Franciscan friary or Poor Clare convent and attend its "Transitus" service, commemorating the "Passing" of St. Francis into eternal life. These are usually held on October 3 in the evening; contact the community for time and location. Not all Franciscan communities will have the service; sometimes two or more houses in an area will hold one service together.

Doing the right thing

Barbara and David Thorp are a couple of my favorite Catholics. He's a long-time evangelist who has served the Church across the country through the Charismatic Renewal movement; she's a licensed social worker who built the Boston archdiocese's Pregnancy Help service from the ground up. This year she accepted perhaps the toughest job a layman has in the archdiocese: bringing the Church's help to victims of abuse by clergy.

After hearing the stories of 150 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse, Barbara Thorp said the hardest part of her job is simply listening.

``I can't tell you the number of men I've sat across from, weeping, and how disturbing it is to have a 40- or 50-year-old man shedding the tears of a 12-year-old boy. It's heartbreaking,'' said Thorp, head of the Office of Healing and Assistance for the Archdiocese of Boston.

As a follow-up to my earlier review about unsolicited comments about incoming babies(http://catholiclight.blogspot.com/2002_09_22_catholiclight_archive.html#85500136), here's the latest one. My wife Paige and I were at the radiology office today, looking at our latest offspring, and the radiology doctor is amazed that we have two little kids with another on the way. "You'll have three kids under five!" she says. "Actually, three under four," Paige corrects. "You're crazy!" saith the doc. She repeats this assertion several times.

The doctor then tells us that she's got an eight-month-old who doesn't sleep through the night, and who always throws her food over the side of her high-chair. She can't bring herself to discipline her daughter, and she won't let the baby cry herself to sleep. Our daughter, Anna, is two years old, and has a willful streak you wouldn't believe. However, if she does something bad, we scold her. If she does something really bad, we spank her. When she was about eight weeks old, we let her cry herself to sleep when she went to bed -- and like magic, she's slept through the night ever since. Who, ladies and gentlemen of the world, are the crazy parents?

My point isn't to gloat about our superior parenting skills, but rather to say that making little kids behave isn't horribly difficult. I hang with a lot of toddlers these days, and Paige hangs with many more, and in our experience there's a stong correlation between good behavior and judicious encouragement and punishment. When they are tiny, they respond to, "If you eat your dinner, you get to eat a cookie," or "If you draw on the wall again, you get a spanking." I'm told it's harder for teenagers, who have allegedly reached the age of reason.

The doctor represents many who love to over-dramatize their childrearing struggles. It really saddens me to hear parents roll their eyes and go into their sob stories about how hard it is to raise their two darlings. I think to myself: two kids? With clothes washers, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, power locks in cars, and non-rectal thermometers, two kids are kicking your parental butts? Your great-grandmother probably raised at least four or five, and she probably didn't have any modern convenience except for indoor plumbing, maybe.

The reason it's sad is because they're using their exhaustion -- which probably comes at least in part because they consider leisure activities like television as if they're holy obligations -- as an excuse not to have more children. Don't misunderstand: I know how hard it is to run a family even with labor-saving devices. Some kids are worse-behaved than others; some are born with disabilities; some families aren't materially blessed. My heart goes out to anyone bringing up children under truly difficult circumstances. Most people around here don't fit into that category.

When I hear stories like the doctor's, I think, at least she has to deal with the consequences and I don't. But I'm forgetting that someday her kid will be released into the world, and we will all have to live with the brattiness.

(By the way, somebody should give me a remedial class on Blogger, and tell me how to make my dang URLs into gen-u-wine links.)

The Apostrophe Protection Society

Making compulsive proofreaders' lives a little easier since 2001.

John's earlier comment brought to mind a Jonah Goldberg column last April that said Martin Luther was, in many respects, a forerunner of the Islamic fundamentalists of today. I won't repeat his points, because he did it so well, but it's interesting that a man who is neither Catholic nor Protestant can see why authority is inescapable when settling religious matters. He seems to be something of a Catholic sympathizer these days (Goldberg, not Luther).

I've read that some non-political Islamic groups want to re-establish the caliphate, so maybe the CIA could support them. Then again, within the first few decades of Islam, there were two competing caliphates, Muslims starting warring against each other, and it was off to the races!

http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg040302.asp

23 years ago today, on the feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Pope John Paul landed in Boston for his first visit to the United States after his election. As a Cardinal Archbishop and professor of theology, he had already been across the river in Cambridge where he had lectured to the eminences of Harvard Divinity School, but now he was coming to his own. And his own received him in a big way, filling Boston Common with a hundred thousand souls, a big crowd for a city of 500,000. We college pals who arrived on foot at 7:30 am -- making a little pilgrimage of it -- were rewarded with a place close enough so that we saw the Pope -- that is, if we had our glasses on -- and that was enough for us. He told us as the rain poured down on us all, Catholics and catechumens alike, and even a few Evangelicals: "Do not be afraid to follow Christ!"

Like most Virginians, I believe that Maryland exists to make Virginia look good. High taxes, low morals, bad crime, and the most pro-abortion politicians outside of Massachusetts -- they're all there. Squishy, feel-good Catholic parishes? Got plenty. Want to start a business? You must be some kind of oppressor. Don't want to join a union? Go talk to Bruno in the alleyway for a little while and see if you change your mind.

But there is a ray of light from that side of the Potomac: Kathleen "The Middle Name I Use Is Kennedy" Townsend is not looking like a winner this year. She may yet pull it out, and in a state where the Democrats control the political machinery, I wouldn't bet against her. In the meantime, at least she's not being handed the governorship. As a convert, I have never understood the Svengali-like hold the Kennedys have on Catholics above a certain age. Yes, I understand JFK was the first Catholic president (his tastes in women were certainly catholic, as well as his taste in "election coordinators" in places like Illinois), and I know that Catholics saw his election as validating their existence. Aside from some members of the family who stick to charitable work, most Kennedys have been public nuisances. Has any other family done so much to promote abortion on demand? Or family-destroying welfare programs? Or contraception and loose morals?

Remember: whenever a Kennedy goes to jail or loses an election, an angel gets his wings.

A long-time Lutheran joined the Church at my parish on Sunday. His wife was Catholic and after 50+ years of marriage he finally decided to become Catholic. I almost had the choir sing "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" just for the sake of irony.

Well, I guess that makes up for it

OK, I admit it: I was holding Pop Greggy's episode of ungentlemanly behavior (toward Miss Stimpson) against him, but after reading his new Rodgers and Hammerstein song, I'm willing to relent, grant him an indulgence, and say all is forgiven.