July 2003 Archives

The mostly black Baptist church in Louisiana that plans to pay white visitors for attending reminds me of the first time I went to a mostly black church.

When I was a catechumen, my sponsor and I visited various congregations' services, and one of them was at a "Jesus-only" United Pentecostal church. The congregation was small, maybe 30 people: just a few extended families, it seemed. During the sermon, the black minister looked down at us amid his flock and said, "You boys: don't think you're saved just because you're white!" We answered, "A-men!" and everyone laughed.

The Syro-Malankara diocese of Trivandrum is reporting a unusual Eucharistic manifestation in May 2001: markings appeared on a consecrated Host in the form of a face. The bishop writes:

...if we cannot find any human means active in the event, it would be reasonable and wise to believe that Our Lord has given us a special sacramental sign through a special intervention.

For us believers what we have seen is something, which we always believed. Our real attention should now be focused on the question why Our Lord gives us this unique and extraordinary sign. We must prayerfully reflect on the meaning of this sacred symbol. If Our Lord is speaking to us by giving us a sign, it certainly needs a response from us.

The Irish Elk wonders about today's archiepiscopal installation Mass:

One wonders what value sign-language interpretation at the front of the church has for any deaf worshipers seated at the back.

A German scholar of Near Eastern languages proposes a solution to the many incomprehensible passages of the Qu'ran. Since Syriac-Aramaic was the written language of Arabs in Mohammed's time, and written Arabic did not yet exist, Christoph Luxenberg (a pseudonym) re-interprets the existing Qu'ran as a document originally written in Syriac and finds that this approach clarifies puzzling passages.

It took 300 years until the Qu'ran's transcription into Arabic became stable and, as an academic reviewer puts it, one "cannot assume that the earliest Arabian commentators understood correctly the grammar and lexicon of the Arabic of the Qur’ān."

The popular implications of this approach are enormous: some of the most controversial passages in the Arabic Qu'ran are affected by the new interpretations this theory proposes. Would Wahhabi terrorists blow themselves up if they were promised a reward of "raisins" and "juicy fruit" in paradise instead of "72 virgins"?

Even more surprisingly, Luxenberg suggests that Mohammed may have been a Christian describing himself as a "witness to the prophets" rather than the "last of the prophets".

(Thanks to CWN for mentioning the story.)

Ever done the tourist rounds in New England? Made it to the monument at Plymouth Rock? Been... underwhelmed? Well, just imagine what kids on school trips think of it: no wonder it made a list of ten lame landmarks.

Come to think of it, I don't know why Indians come to protest here every Thanksgiving, all mournful-like. Why bother? They've got a memorial that, even unfinished, is already impressive.

First, an amusing bit:

After 38 years, being a Franciscan brother is still the great joy of my life. I wish that after so long I were doing it better, but God and my community have not given up on me. Although, when I have been bishop in lovely vacation spots, my Provincial used to say, “O’Malley, when will you get a real job?" Brother Paul, does this count?

The faithful interrupted the Archbishop's homily several times with applause, most notably at this passage:

In a community of faith, we learn to worship our God, to forgive one another and to serve those around us. We discover the true dignity of each and every person made in the image and likeness of God. No matter how small the unborn, no matter how debilitated, and unproductive the aged and infirm, we must take care of each other. No one is expendable. Each and every person counts in God’s sight. The Gospel of Life will always be the centerpiece of the Church’s social Gospel.

Here's the text. Just read it all.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush indicated Wednesday he opposes extending marriage rights to homosexuals, saying he believes marriage "is between a man and a woman."

Bush said it is "important for society to welcome each individual," but administration lawyers are looking for some way to legally limit marriage to heterosexuals.

"I believe marriage is between a man and a woman, and I think we ought to codify that one way or another," Bush told reporters at a White House news conference. "And we've got lawyers looking at the best way to do that."

Nihil Obstat has not seen my glaring typo in this post. Gordon Zaft gets the award for pointing out in the comment boxes.

To which I say: Yee-haw! Everyone loves Angus!

Fr. Sibley posted the other day about a weird little kitchen gadget called the Octodog.

I realized today that this looks like the ideal gift for one of those "Yankee swap" party procedures.

For the uninitiated, here's how they operate: the participants each bring a wrapped present. These all go into a pool. Each participant in turn then does the following:
1. Choose a package from the pool.
2. Unwrap it in plain view.
3. If someone else already has unwrapped another gift that one prefers, one may take it in exchange for the gift one originally chose.

It's a marvel that this little war-of-all-against-all became the central event of office Christmas parties. Well, maybe not.

Comfort and joy, everybody!

The seamy underbelly of St. Blog's is exposed by Jeff Miller: he says that some people listed as participants in group blogs rarely or never post. Obviously a case for some truth-in-labeling enforcement, eh?

Parish shopping is now a favorite pasttime in the AmChurch. In the suburbs, where proximity and Sunday morning traffic lend itself to traveling to another parish, all sorts of folks shop around before settling in and registering at a parish. Here in northern VA we have all kinds of parishes:
McParish - no organ, big piano, Marty Haugen all the time.
St. Schola Cantorum - "Verbum Domini"
Our Lady of K thru 8 - popular with parents of small children that don't want them in public school
St. Gerontius - mostly older folks with light organ music
St. Snugglepuss and Companions - the "When's Vatican III?" parish

You get the idea. And it's not uncommon for someone who lives in St. Schola's boundaries to drive 30 minutes to St. Snugglepuss. Similiarly - someone who could walk to McParish ends up driving downtown to get to St. Schola because they hate guitars.

And in some ways, I can't blame them. Particularly parents who want their kids in a Catholic school should explore those options. There's genuine issues that prevent active, prayerful participation at Mass. But at the same time there's some really bad reasons for not going to a particular parish.

Bad Reasons:
"I don't get a feeling of community at Parish X."
Feelings are for sissies. I'm only slightly kidding. There's a "U" in community and you need to engage people at a parish, pray and perhaps even get involved in some form of ministry. And you need to realize the primary function of a parish is the sacraments. Some people think the Mass is all about friendship and hugs and warmth and that's like being offered a 5 course gourmet dinner and telling the offeror you'd rather have a Happy Meal.

"That pastor/associate is too "
And that something is usually liberal, conservative or unfriendly. Meaning, it drives you nuts that the priest preaches about birth control. Or the priest messes with the text of the eucharist prayers. I have no patience with people who can't take getting preached at about moral issues. I have only a little patience with people that totally come unglued when a priest differs from the rubrics. Granted, I've been to Mass where the priest was all over the place. That's very bad. But are you really going to let Fr. Loosey-Goosey ruin your day? Make you drive to a new parish?

Those are the major bad reasons. Chime in if you have others.

From the comment box from my recent post about the antics of visiting priest:

I'm intrigued by the notion that the best way we can show support for the church is to ignore liturgical abuses. Why?

I don't believe this and didn't say it. Here's more detail to clarify.

Overall, I think there's some people that exhibit such anxiety about liturgical abuses and other quirky things that happen at Mass that it borders on sinfulness. I have a friend of mine who says if there's any latin at Mass, it ruins his day. Forget about a Novus Ordo Mass - he gets upset if you chant the Angus Dei. He fumes. He fusses. And it does ruin his day.

The flip side of it is the folks that go nuts when there's any deviation from the norm. These people have dog-eared copies of Mass Confusion at the ready. The appendix of that book is very helpful if you want to tally the score at any given Mass.

So here's point number one: if you are really focused on tallying the score one way or another, you are probably not having effective prayer time, and you are less disposed to receive the grace of the Eucharist. I say "focused" because it's the liturgical gladiators that go to Mass in order to critique it. And anyone who is as involved in the liturgy as I am (in my capacity as a choir director) is in danger of becoming a liturgical gladiator.

The gladiator lives for the fight. Either the GIRM is at the ready, or Environment and Art in Catholic Worship has been committed to memory. Toe to toe, the traditionalist doesn't want hands held during the Our Father and "When's Vatican III?" person gets all upset that a gaggle of ladies from the parish isn't carrying rainbow banners in the procession. This focus makes the liturgy an ocassion of division. I could list many, many things that annoy me at liturgies. That could be fun, but if I'm focused on that at Mass, it's not good prayer time.

I know a music director and liturgist who lives by this rule: don't say anything about the liturgy or the music for a given Mass for at least 30 minutes after. If it's still important to you after that, go ahead and have the discussion. It's a good rule that keeps people from being at each other's throats.

I'm not saying that problems shouldn't be pointed out, discussed, and resolved or it's ok for some parishes to differ from the GIRM. I am saying that the liturgy can be the golden calf of the folks who want to have it their way. The reason I didn't complain too much about the visiting priest was I wasn't willing to walk up to him after Mass and say - "Hey, Father. The GIRM specifically states that the Orans position is reserved for the priest. Teaching small children to do that during the Our Father is ill-advised and something we don't do at this parish." or "Father - we don't even let the extraordinary ministers of the eucharist enter the sanctuary until communion time. So it's odd that you'd have all the children come up for the entire Eucharistic prayer." He's a visiting priest. He'll be gone in a week or so and we'll be back to the norm.

And maybe I should have said something. I was angry but also knew it would be over for us when he gets on a plane to go home. I would have approached the situation in a totally different way had it been a priest that was here to stay (that's why we have monthly Worship Commission and Liturgy Committee meetings.) And at those meetings I need to choose my battles depending on how severe the situation is.

More clear?

Related topic: Parish Shopping. More on that another time.

Writing in the Weekly Standard, Stanley Kurtz has an excellent piece entitled "Beyond Gay Marriage - The Road to Polygamy". Definitely a good read, as Stanley does not so much prophecy the future as present evidence of what is currently being done by polygamists and polyamorists to mainstream their movement on the backs of the gay marriage movement. I particularly enjoyed the following response to Andrew Sullivan, who has more or less insinuated that social-conservatives are playing Chicken Little with the slippery slope argument between gay marriage and polygamous/polyamorous marriage:

------------

DURING THE 1996 congressional debate on the Defense of Marriage Act, which affirmed the ability of the states and the federal government to withhold recognition from same-sex marriages, gay marriage advocates were put on the defensive by the polygamy question. If gays had a right to marry, why not polygamists? Andrew Sullivan, one of gay marriage's most intelligent defenders, labeled the question fear-mongering--akin to the discredited belief that interracial marriage would lead to birth defects. "To the best of my knowledge," said Sullivan, "there is no polygamists' rights organization poised to exploit same-sex marriage and return the republic to polygamous abandon." Actually, there are now many such organizations. And their strategy--even their existence--owes much to the movement for gay marriage.

Scoffing at the polygamy prospect as ludicrous has been the strategy of choice for gay marriage advocates. In 2000, following Vermont's enactment of civil unions, Matt Coles, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, said, "I think the idea that there is some kind of slippery slope [to polygamy or group marriage] is silly." As proof, Coles said that America had legalized interracial marriage, while also forcing Utah to ban polygamy before admission to the union. That dichotomy, said Coles, shows that Americans are capable of distinguishing between better and worse proposals for reforming marriage.

Are we? When Tom Green was put on trial in Utah for polygamy in 2001, it played like a dress rehearsal for the coming movement to legalize polygamy. True, Green was convicted for violating what he called Utah's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on polygamy. Pointedly refusing to "hide in the closet," he touted polygamy on the Sally Jessy Raphael, Queen Latifah, Geraldo Rivera, and Jerry Springer shows, and on "Dateline NBC" and "48 Hours." But the Green trial was not just a cable spectacle. It brought out a surprising number of mainstream defenses of polygamy. And most of the defenders went to bat for polygamy by drawing direct comparisons to gay marriage.

---------------

On another note, my prediction is that the next attack against marriage and the family in the culture wars will likely come from the legalization of prostitution. Especially in light of the growing pornography industry, and the striking down of anti-sodomy laws, how can the government now hope to regulate a business transaction between two consenting adults? Sooner or later someone is going to point out the discrepancy between legality of pornography and the illegality of prostitution, which are essentially the same thing except that the former is somehow made available for public viewing.

Civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate reviews the Massachusetts Attorney General's report on the sex-abuse scandal. According to him, Reilly's demands are unreasonable and unconstitutional.

The only president to have joined the Ku Klux Klan was a Democrat, Harry Truman.

washtimes.com - Inside Politics

Democratic presidential candidate Dennis J. Kucinich has called for $60 billion to provide universal preschool and proposes paying for the plan with a 15 percent cut in Pentagon spending.
"The Pentagon budget has just gone through the roof," the Ohio congressman said at a forum in Ottumwa, Iowa, on Sunday. "We need a critical analysis and a real effort to claim back money from the Pentagon."
The Democratic presidential candidate from Ohio didn't specify all the spending cuts he would push, but did single out missile defense, the Associated Press reports.
"I'm not talking about trimming around the edges here," he said.

washtimes.com

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican, alarmed by growing legal acceptance of homosexual "marriage," is issuing instructions to bishops and Catholic politicians in an effort to halt the trend.
The instructions, which call on politicians to oppose extending rights granted to traditional couples, are in a document prepared by the church's guardian of orthodoxy, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The document — "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons" — will be released Thursday, the Vatican said.

Brought to you by a Schultz who used to write on this blog.

If your religion teacher had been a mystic, she would have said....

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

I was having lunch with a spirit-filled co-worker and we were talking religion. He mentioned that Jesus was the New Adam. I said, "If you say Jesus was the New Adam would you accept that Mary was the New Eve?"

"I don't know what Mary has to do with it," he replies.

"Mary's obedience as the New Eve was instrumental in healing the wound that Eve caused by her disobedience," I said.

"Hmmm."

"Saying Mary is the New Eve doesn't take one bit of glory from God, in fact, it's shows how much of His glory he would share with us by allowing one of us to play such an important role in our redemption. How about that?"

"Hmmm."

Oops, did I use the acronym for "same-sex attraction disorder" instead of the word "gay?" You betcha. These are kids who should be taught something other than their very being hinges on their sexual inclinations.

Let's hear it from Nurse Bloomberg himself:

"I think everybody feels that it's a good idea because some of the kids who are Christians and Catholics have been constantly harassed and beaten in other schools," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday. "It lets them get an education without having to worry."

Oops, did I replace the original words in Mikey's quote with "Christian" and "Catholic"? You betcha. Christian and Catholic kids are getting harassed with the atheistic, morally relativistic, and secular humanistic garbage that passes for public school education these days. Give a kid a fish and he has a meal. Teach a kid to fish and he'll tell you it's mean to hurt fishes. Oops, I mean he'll be able to eat all the time. You betcha.

I'm sure there's enough "liturgical abuse" stories out there to keep the traditionalists up all night with the shakes.

I had decided a few weeks ago to try never to complain about a liturgy because in the grand scheme there's many more things out there that should have our attention and help bring more souls to Christ. Still, I need to vent and get some feedback... Read on if you're interested...

Presbyterian, you say?

From CNN.com

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysian (Reuters) -- Malaysian Muslim men can divorce their wives through text messages on mobile telephones, the New Straits Times daily reported on Saturday, quoting a religious adviser to the government.

Hamid Othman, adviser to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, said divorce via SMS or short messaging service was in accordance with sharia law if it was clear and unambiguous.

"SMS is just another form of writing," the daily quoted Hamid as saying, following an Islamic court decision on Thursday that ruled in favor of a man who served divorce on his wife using SMS.

Islamic law permits a man to divorce his wife by declaring "I divorce you" three times.

The Cathedral's music director, Leo Abbott, has pulled in about 40 singers from several choirs, including ours, to help with the Archbishop's installation Mass on Wednesday, so I've got the list of music. It runs quite a gamut from the beautiful to the banal. Leo knows how to cover all the bases.

As you might expect on such an occasion, the Mass itself will be multi-culti with readings in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, and supposedly will fit the whole thing within two hours. To achieve that, the procession starts 20 minutes before the scheduled time of the Mass.

Nicely enough, His Excellency popped in during the rehearsal to greet the faithful and thank us for coming.

Now, the list:

A lot of St. Blog parishoners -- not just my blogmates on Catholic Light -- have asked me to comment on the document Careful Selection And Training Of Candidates For The States Of Perfection And Sacred Orders. This is the 1961 document that prohibits homosexuals from being admitted to religious orders and ordination.

Okay, I will be upfront; I've deliberately avoided commenting on this on-going controversy up until now. Basically, in reading it over, there are a number of variables I am uncertain about -- variables that would admittedly affect the proper interpretation of this document, how much weight it should be given, etc... Without being able to clarify these issues, as a canonist the best answer I can give fellow St. Blog parishoners is that I cannot give a good answer.

Anyway, allow me to share some of these questions: 1) What is a homosexual in the context of this instruction? Is it someone who has same-sex attraction or someone who has same-sex attraction and acts upon it? The context for this instruction would seem the latter, or someone in great danger of the latter. However, the chaste individual who occasionally finds himself tempted toward same-sex attraction, but who has never acted upon it because he recognizes that such acts are sinful, does not appear to be the target of this instruction. Yet this is where a canonist who is also a psychologist would come in handy -- I'm not one of these. 2) What type of approval did the Holy Father give this instruction. If it was general, then the instruction would clearly be an act of executive power and not law in the sense of legislation. In short, there are two Latin words for law -- one lex and the other ius. While this was definitely ius to some degree, I'm not certain to what degree, nor am I certain that it was ever lex -- meaning that it would have legislative force. Of course, if it was approved in forma specifica, it would likely have legislative force. Does anyone have access to the Latin original?

That being said, I really cannot give a good answer.

Chimp Art - painted by chimpanzees - for those liturgists who just don't care anymore. Click below, please.

No, I don't mean this type of odd "icon": we've already talked about that artist.

I mean the images designed by a "Brother Simeon" and sold under the name of "Monastery Icons". Maybe you've seen them in religious gift shops or even in parishes. The vestibule of my mother's parish** in New Hampshire has two large panels from them, each about 4' x 6'. They're a fairly popular source for icons of Western saints: they've been churning out images of St. Francis and Ste. Therese and Padre Pio (even before he was beatified) for years. Whatever's popular, they'll produce.

They don't look like classic Orthodox icons: the colors used are different, and some of the decorations are foreign to the tradition. Is this "Sacred Heart" image (sorry, the link's broken now) an icon or a sort of mandala?

Ever wonder where they come from? You'd expect that a monastery producing icons would be most likely Orthodox, or maybe Eastern Catholic. This group has had several different names over its history, as it moved from one state to another, and it's actually belonged to several religions. The term they used for the longest time -- and maybe they still do -- was "Gnostic Orthodox". According to their "abbot", the real teaching of Christ is "an esoteric interpretation" of Christianity that includes a belief in reincarnation and "magnetic therapy" healing.

Just to let you know where they're coming from. I personally wouldn't buy anything from them, but it's your call. Somebody's given me one of their images, and writing this reminds me that I oughta get it blessed real good.

** (another Stupid Vosko Church [tm])

Those Dominican religious who vandalized some equipment at a missile base have been convicted; their sentence is jail time and restitution. But they'll get even: if the US doesn't do away with its nuclear weapons, they'll cow the government into submission with those fierce expressions.
They only dress Puritan when on scowling duty. Here's their usual habit:

they spilled containers of their own blood into shapes of crosses on the tracks and on the wall of the missile silo.

"I've been tested. I don't have AIDS," Gilbert told the court. "We brought the blood in baby bottles. "

Then, with the bloody crosses drying in the autumn sun, the nuns sang a song about the sacred Earth and chanted, "Oh God, teach us how to be peacemakers in a hostile world."

After about 40 minutes of this, several soldiers driving Humvees crashed through the fence and, with their weapons drawn, surrounded the gray-haired women and handcuffed them.

Update: Occasionally they do wear something more conventional. Fr. Sibley spotted them in their decontamination suits.

The good folks at the National Park Service have reversed themselves and restored three bronze plaques with Scripture quotes to their places in the Grand Canyon. Somebody must have realized that they weren't legally obliged to roll over and take them down immediately when the ACLU complained. One neat thing about this story is that the plaques are a gift from the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, a group of Lutheran nuns (!) that's not well known in the US.

Is it a celebration of the seven deadly sins? A gentle caution about them? You decide.

Mark Elgar of the Univeristy of Australia makes a comment that we might resonate with modern feminists.

"A constant stream of suitors wanting to participate in a polygamous free-for-all could possibly lead to greater harassment, leading to the female expending more energy and placing herself at greater risk of harm than if she doted on just one male," Elgar said in a statement.

Mr. Elgar is actually referring to a species of beetle with rather asymetrical mating habits.

A young lawyer and youth minister joins a dwindliing, maybe dying, religious community: the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston (CSJ) are mostly over 70 years of age; only seven are under 50. For now, she's tutoring immigrants in English, and she plans to assist them by returning to the practice of immigration law.

What motivates Deirdre Griffin? In this profile, it's a desire to be involved in "her causes", a generosity to the underprivileged, a sense of "vocation" -- but since it's filtered through the lens of the writer, one can't assume we have the whole picture. The writer doesn't mention the words "Jesus" or "Christ". It does, however, describe the young lady twice as a "feminist". Are socio-political categories the only ones a newspaper writer can understand? I have to hope that the gal who was the president of a college Catholic student group has a personal faith life and some sense of a personal relationship with Christ.

Thank you, Cardinal Arinze!

The rules of the 2000 Roman Missal are taking some time to implement correctly, and Rome has had to correct some misinterpretations. For example, clergy in some parishes and dioceses have been troubling Catholics by telling them that they are now to remain standing after receiving Holy Communion. To the relief of the faithful, Cardinal Arinze has confirmed that the rules in the new GIRM are not intended to forbid kneeling or let it be forbidden.

(via Adoremus)

In principio erat verbum. At least that's what I think it says. It really looks like "verbu", with the "m" turned into a sort of squiggle above the "u". "Et de9 erat verbu~." Apparently this guy Gutenberg was into that sort of IM spelling the kids all use, in which u swap in a digit occasionally and shrtn th wrds s mch s psbl. Gotta be economical about the paper: it doesn't grow on trees, you know.

BOSTON — Clergy members and others in the Boston Archdiocese probably sexually abused more than 1,000 people over a period of six decades, Massachusetts' attorney general said Wednesday, calling the scandal so massive it "borders on the unbelievable."

Now that I'm back and rested, I had the opportunity to pick up and read the July 28th issue of The American Conservative. This is a great paleo-conservative magazine edited by Pat Buchanan. In this particular issue, there's a wonderful article written by Peter Wood under the heading "Sex & Consequences -- An anthropologist vindicates the traditional family." In it, Professor Wood discusses various societies that are built around either polygamy or male homosexuality. Ultimately, according to Professor Wood, they end up male dominant societies.

Here's an interesting observation on homosexual societies: "When such relations are subject to cultural elaboration they almost always fit into a pattern of initiation into secrets, male exclusivity, and a low status for women. Why this should be so is a complex question, involving both biology and the underlying nature of human society. A short answer is that heterosexual marriage is shaped by the complicated interplay of marital sex, pregnancy, childcare, and the sustained dependence and interdependence of husband, wife, and children. Male homosexual relations, because they are sterile and because they channel relations of male dominance, are built on a narrower base of sex, subordination, and control."

Another interesting observation: "The link between homosexual desire and erotic interest in children is especially contentious. Gay activists and their supporters frequently point out that most child molestation is perpetrated by heterosexual males. And they emphasize that homosexuality had no necessary link to pedophilia: a great many gay men are primarily interested in other adult gay men. I grant both points, but we are also left with the stubborn empirical fact that societies that have indeed institutionalized something akin to 'gay marriage' have done so in the form of older men taking adolescent boys as their partners. To imagine that we could have gay marriage in the united States without also giving strong encouragement to this form of eroticism is, in light of the ethnographic evidence, wishful thinking."

We did.

Like Mark Shea is always saying, we have the shepherds we want.

Let me paint a picture for you. We'll keep it in the attic and the image will age and decay over time while the actual subject of the painting never seems to age. Sound familiar? I'm not talking about Oscar Wild's Dorian Gray or Ted Kennedy's liver, I'm talking about sacred liturgy in this country post-Vatican II.

Dress the Mass up in the faux-glitz of OCP toonz and the sacred becomes mundane. Instead of being comported for communion with Our Lord we are prepared for an encounter with subjective sentimentality, shlock, and shmaltz. It's one thing when people experience the Mass this way because they don't know any better. It's another entirely when the priest approaches the Mass in this way.

I went to Mass yesterday at a parish I don't normally attend. The church was jammed - standing room only with people packed into the narthex. When we got the homily the priest began, "I was a little worried about getting a seat in here the place is so crowded, but I have this nice green chair up here on the altar. I thought it had a slot I could put a quarter in to make a vibrator."

I'm not making this up. I wish I were.

Yes: a five-foot-long knitted tableau of the Last Supper.

Take this, all of you: knit one for the Father, purl two for the Son....

Bill Bright helped many people find faith in Jesus Christ. May he receive the reward of a good servant.

Now that Pete's back from Lost Wages, let's have some canonical trivia. Be forewarned: even I think this is a boring post, so skip down to the next entry if you have a low threshold for ennui.

Mark Shea's blog and other blogs (and other sites) have been discussing same-sex attraction and priestly vocations, and in all the back-and-forth, a certain document has been much cited: a strong statement against taking risky cases into religious life.

The document is an instruction on "Careful Selection And Training of Candidates For The States Of Perfection And Sacred Orders" from the Sacred Congregation for Religious, dated 2 February 1961. Here's the relevant passage:

Advancement to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers.

Here's what I could find: the English version seen on the web comes from an old edition of the anthology Canon Law Digest, whose editor Fr. Bouscaren observes that the instruction was never actually published in AAS. Rather, it was sent privately to religious superiors.

That's unusual for a Vatican document, since (correct me if this is wrong, Pete) a law isn't in force until it's published, and the conventional means of publication is its appearance in AAS. Yet despite the apparent lack of publication, an April '61 announcement from the same Sacred Congregation for Religious called the February instruction "public law".

So go figure: is it in force, or isn't it? I have to wonder whether the Instruction's content -- the very mention of these unfortunate tendencies -- might have been considered too frank and shocking to publish in the usual way. In the end, it doesn't matter much, since other more recent documents don't differ much from this one.

A wealthy Colombian movie producer pays peasants to be sterilized:

...he asked to be identified as William Tell after the Swiss patriot who was ordered to shoot a small apple off his young son's head.

Explaining his choice of name, he said his parents were Swiss. While the historic Tell fought against the tyranny of the occupying Austrians, he said he does battle with the tyranny of fertility.

Worried sick but too late to call off the operation, Colombian peasant Marquelis had a panic attack and passed out at the clinic.

Fainting won him only a brief reprieve, and the father of three was soon under the knife. After a few delicate snips, Marquelis became the proud -- if sterile -- owner of acres of land under a private Colombian program that gives plots to men in two Caribbean coast towns who undergo vasectomy operations.

"When the moment of truth came, I almost called the whole thing off. But then I decided: I have to do it," he said.

Well I'm finally back from the Order of Alhambra convention in Las Vegas, where I was elected Supreme Vizier to our international executive. Besides a whole lot of extra work, I now get to wear a gold tassle on my new gold trimmed fez. This is indeed an honour, as I'm the youngest member to hold the title of Supreme Vizier in recent years. I also got to meet and hang around with Cardinal Maida and Msgr. Bob McClory from the Archdiocese of Detroit, as well as William Cubbage, our new Grand Commander for Fatima College Caravan #265 at the Catholic University of America.

While I was in Vegas, the whole media scandal about Bambi hunting in Las Vegas was just breaking. Although it now appears to be somewhat of a hoax, bambi hunting is when a prostitute or so-called adult entertainer is paid to run around the Nevada desert in the buff while rich men shoot at her with paint ball markers. I will be honest. I find this so-called sport extremely distasteful.

What I cannot understand, however, is the relief many of socially liberal elite now feel in discovering that this whole sport was just a hoax to sell a line of pornographic videos in which men dressed as hunters shoot naked women prancing about the Nevada desert in the buff. So let me get this strait, if rich businessmen pay to shoot naked prostitutes or adult entertainers with paint guns, this is morally reprehensible and a social outrage. On the other hand, if the average Joe buys a video of men carrying out the same action, this is a First Ammendment issue and social conservatives like myself have no right to try and censor it.

Surely not John or Steve, no! They have a "T" in their name and they don't drink gigantic amounts of beer and gorge themselves on fried potatoes. They drink gin and eat fried cheese!

Would you rather have live bombing exercises conducted by the US Navy on a remote, desolate part of the island, or $250M in the local economy driven by the presence of the Navy base there?

Don't think too long, because the choice was made due to a powerful lobbying effort made by people who don't live there.

From the Washington Times: End of live bombing at Vieques makes base, jobs expendable

After a long plane ride back from the middle east, Eric is at a Marine base in the USA! I wonder if he can use those airline miles on United...

He should be home to Paige and his 3 kids in the next day or so. Keep them all in your prayers please.

I just got a Dr. Watson error that was generated by drwtsn.exe. That is a very bad sign.

Thanks to the Claretian Fathers in the Philippines, you can download a Powerpoint-format presentation of the readings in the Sunday liturgy. Here's how this week's looks when converted to HTML pages for the web. I'm impressed to see the missionaries of our day using modern technology to express the Word of God with such tasteless and unattractive results.

Sometimes an announcement in the Catholic press sounds so bland, so routine, that you might think nothing unusual or even interesting was involved. For example, this ZENIT item sounds like a routine bit of bureaucratic functioning: a certain bishop has been appointed to some position as the "pontifical commissioner" to a certain religious community, whatever that means.

This is actually one of the weirdest cases of phony mysticism I've heard of, in an era when false mystics and apparitions are "the scourge of the Church" (in the words of E. Michael Jones). What does the Church do when a visionary attracts followers - and even inspires the founding of new religious communities - but the founder turns out to be a fraud with a heretical message? In this case, the Church suppressed the visionary's lay movement but let the religious community continue, provided that it accept direct supervision by a bishop appointed by Rome.

What did the founder do or say that was so bad? Oh, she's alleged to be the reincarnation of Our Lady, that's all.

The number of asteroids likely to collide with Earth and cause huge damage is smaller than expected, scientists said this week.

A computer simulation developed by scientists in Britain and Russia shows that asteroids with a diameter of 200 yards will hit the Earth's surface about once every 160,000 years, instead of every 2,500 years.

What does that do to the Rapture Index?

A friend who works in radio sent this over: "Here's my vote for the best line in Blair's speech today!"

Robots in your pants, marriage in Space, and a row at the House.

(I'm not making this up, you know.)

From Jewsweek. As Nancy writes on her Hello, Failure blog, "Some Jews who apparently have a LOT of time on their hands have begun bar and bat mitzvahing their dogs," sometimes with the co-operation of their rabbis! Oy.

When conservative Jewish pundit Dennis Prager talked about this on the radio, he got a lot of letters from Christians thanking him for mentioning the item: they were grateful to know that religious silliness wasn't just something turning up in their churches!

I just received word from Eric's wife that he's on a plane home. He'll be refueling in Spain and making a day-long stop at a Marine base before arriving home. Congrats to our very own marine, who made a huge sacrifice to help the cause of freedom!

That's French for "e-mail" - a word banned for use in French government documents. - cnn.com

The Culture Ministry has announced a ban on the use of "e-mail" in all government ministries, documents, publications or Web sites, the latest step to stem an incursion of English words into the French lexicon.

The ministry's General Commission on Terminology and Neology insists Internet surfers in France are broadly using the term "courrier electronique" (electronic mail) instead of e-mail -- a claim some industry experts dispute. "Courriel" is a fusion of the two words.

Those Viet Commies got this one right.

You can find out here.

More on funerals: Dom mentions the story of the Santa Fe priest being sued because he allegedly said that the faithful departed, an 80-year-old gentleman, (1) wasn't very faithful and (2) had departed for -- well, somewhere other than paradise.

That beats the other case of funerary denunciation I knew about: when Bishop McGann criticized the late CIA chief William Casey at his 1987 obsequies.

A friend sent in a bit of oral history that circulates among the Discalced Carmelites:

Then there was the OCD in OK City that agreed to say the funeral for the mafioso at the request of the widow. He began his homily by saying, "You are comforted by the thought that your husband, your dad, grandpa, your friend and business associate is now in Heaven with Jesus. Well, he isn't. He is in Hell and in the deepest pits of Hell, which is where all of you will wind up if you don't repent."

The provincial transferred the priest shortly thereafter.

(EXTRA) Questions for class discussion:
What do you think about these situations? If the deceased appeared to die impenitent of serious sin, does it make sense for a priest to say (in some way): this guy probably went to Hell; do not follow him. Or should the deceased simply be denied a Catholic funeral?

Illustrative examples (especially from the lives of the Saints) are welcome.

Missing Girl Found Asleep Under Toys

According to this article, Most Democratic Presidential Candidates Oppose Gay Marriage but Support Civil Unions, the Reverend Al Sharpton says federal law should approve same-sex marriage. Um, Rev, where is that in the Bible?

It's the article from the Arlington Catholic Herald about the big, big game last week.

On a warm, muggy afternoon last week, seminarians from the Arlington Diocese and Archdiocese of Washington battled each other at the "Potomac Challenge," held at St. Leo the Great Church in Fairfax.

The game, sponsored by Fr. Francis J. Diamond Council No. 6292, was won by Arlington, 15-8.

Arlington was led by Robert Wagner of St. Lawrence Parish in Alexandria. Wagner cracked three home runs with one of them clearing the trees in right field. When asked by his teammates how he hit the ball so far, Wagner simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "I swing as hard as I can."

Inter-seminary sports are just not getting the coverage they should in the media! ESPN Sunday morning, 4:30 AM - "Sem Sports."

Mark Sullivan on summer apparel for Vatican tourists.

Here's an upcoming event for us New Englanders; Genevieve Kineke from Canticle Magazine sent the announcement over:

A Day of Prayer
35th Anniversary of Humanae Vitae
25 July 2003
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Portsmouth Abbey, Portsmouth, RI

NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING
Questions? Reflections? Concerns?
Bring them to "A Day of prayer".

For details, read on...

Coming soon: a device that interprets your cat's meows! How hard can it be? (1) "feed me" (2) "I gotta go" (3) "pet me" (4) "leave me alone; I don't want to take a bath".

Deacon (and attorney) Keith Fournier, together with the founders of "Catholic Online", Michael and Sandy Galloway, is announcing a movement to foster "a new Catholic Action" in the US, or rather, a pair of movements: one educational in nature, the other activist. It looks like they're good people doing a good work.

I'm not sure they've picked the right man to head the political side of the movement, though. Ex-Boston mayor and ex-Ambassador to the Vatican Ray Flynn's an OK guy in my book (we crossed paths one day outside a confessional), but I don't see any evidence that he's been effective in his US political work since coming home from Rome.

I don't think he's ever really recovered his standing among pro-lifers since he gave his support to the sleazy Bill Clinton, and his image tends toward adjectives like "peevish", "whiny", and "self-promoting", in addition to local papers' portrayal of him as a habitual imbiber. But there are plenty of second acts in American life, and maybe this is Ray's.

Congratulations to all.

I'll start:
Helen is saying, "Ari - my car is parked right outside... now that you're free from professional obligations I think it's high time we have a date. You've been giving me the eye ever since you started here 3 years ago."
Ari is thinking, "Can I have my job back?"

3 democratic presidential candidates couldn't make it to the NAACP Convention for a debate. You know what that makes them?

"persona non grata" in the black community, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said... "Your political capital is the equivalent of Confederate dollars," he added.

Just goes to show that some folks are not above using racially-charged rhetoric any time it suits them.

Imagine if they had skipped the Culture of Poland Festival:

"Their support of the Polish-American community isn't worth the leftovers of my kielbasa sandwich" said John Barkowowski, the Festival Chairperson, as his cousin Lenny snatched the plate from Mr. Barkowowski's hands and devoured the leftovers in one bite. "Hey! I was going to eat that!" John exclaimed. "It's like the Panzers overran my hopes of advancing the interest of Polka dancers everywhere."

We don't have to guess at what will happen if marriage becomes a mere private matter. Maggie Gallagher looks over to Europe.

From a friar pal of mine at the Franciscan Monastery in DC:

I ask that you say an extra prayer for my older brother whose boss's daughter committed suicide yesterday morning. My brother and his boss grew up together and graudated from high school together and have been close friends all these years. His boss's daughter has been very sick for many years and has attempted suicide on many occasions. This time she succeeded. Her grandparents also committed suicide so there may be something genetic in all this. At any rate, say a prayer or two for him.

Please say the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for this poor woman who commited suicide. Also for her family and friends - that they recieve the grace they need in the pain of this loss. Thank you very much.

(Link via it's a mystery)

A good little article over at shipoffools.com.

I BECAME A CHRISTIAN because of the rapture. When a youth leader told my 12-year-old self that he would "stake his faith on it" that Jesus would soon return preceded by cars and planes crashing as the holy inhabitants were taken to heaven in a flash of light, it was only sensible to agree and take the red pill. It would have been rude to turn down the offer of eternal life for those who agreed, burning flesh for those who didn't.

After this seminal experience, I lived in fear of the future moment when all of us would meet our good Christian friends in the sky (and never asked who would be controlling the air traffic).

Thank God I found a way out.

A sex toy "workshop" in a Catholic Church. (Link via Dom)

Why not call it was it is - a sexual deviancy workshop. It's not like this woman is going to give a presentation on the virtue of purity or overcoming same-sex attraction.

Dom is right, the Archdiocese of New York should hear about this.

Over on the Catholic men's mailing list I operate, the question of women and work came up, and as you might expect, Pope John Paul has written on the subject in his encyclical Laborem Exercens.

His teaching obviously does not correspond to some bumper-sticker slogan about individualistic "women's rights" or a repressive notion of "women's place". Instead it's about how people are more important than money, about the dignity and value of child-raising, and yes, about motherhood as a distinct role and a vocation, whose value society needs to respect and foster.

Let me summarize the main points:

• the working world should accommodate itself to the variety of workers, men and women, to their special talents, and to their family responsibilities;


• a "family wage" should enable a father to support his family, so that the mother has the freedom to care for the development of her children.

Here's the passage:

John Paul II "for Dummies": a little guide on how to read the papal prose.

Rob Diaz has posted a link to the trailer for Mel Gibson's "The Passion". You could probably just play it as a stream off that link, but I'd suggest you download it to your own machine first. You're gonna want to see it more than once.

I'm off to a summer-school reunion day in New Hampshire. I'm pleased to see that the winter school at St. Paul's has finally added a Catholic chaplaincy and a Sunday Mass at their beloved chapel. But I won't be staying for the whole day's program in Concord; there are country bookstores to be shopped, all the way to Sunapee.

In another summer excursion, I've signed up to attend the Thomistic theology conference next month at Ave Maria College. It'll probably be over my head technically, but at least it'll help as an orientation to the subject. Fr. Bryce expressed some interest in the conference too, and Victor's not far from there: will it be safe to bring all of our eccentricity together in one place?

...does anyone know whether the rumor that the New York Times hired Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf (the former Iraqi Information Minister) as their new fact checker is correct?

What's with all these error pages? This one from the New York Times...

Dear PETA:

I love animals. They're delicious!

Regards,

John Schultz

Goto Google, type in "Weapons of Mass Destruction", then hit the "I'm feeling lucking" button. Read the error message closely.

Steve Martinovich, an old friend from our undergrad days together in the student press, tipped me off at Enter Stage Right about the hilarious Republicans for Sharpton website!

Here's a hilarious quote from one of their stories: "Former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont, a doctor, said his fellow Democrats should not speak in abstractions. Instead, Dr. Dean said, they should talk about what it was like for that Colorado family who ended up in the emergency room because the city of Denver ran out of air. They were eventually able to get some air from Boulder but for a major city to run out of breathable air is unthinkable. 600,000 city residents were gasping for hours."

My wife Teresa is in the cosmetic and fragrance business. One of the products her company makes is a lotion that helps relieve razor burn. Every now and then, she looks at my neck and says, "You still using that Razor Burn Relief? Because right now, you're not a good advertisement for me."

I normally don't think of myself as an advertisement, it seems a little cheap and cheesy. But the business of advertising and sales is alot like evangelization - it's something that can be lost of some of the most sincere Catholics. Every day is an opportunity to meet and have an impact on people that are not living fully in Christ.

I'm writing these tips because I've been running into people who are good, active Catholics but aren't going to get people to buy what they are selling. It's not a holiness issue, it's a communication issue. Here's Tip one:

From January: Robert Epstein, the editor-in-chief of Psychology Today tells how he found "a dark, intolerant, abusive side of the gay community" after the magazine dared to publish a small ad for Joseph Nicolosi's book, A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality (excerpt). Dr. Epstein seems to hold pretty liberal views, but let's give him two cheers for his willingness to let ideas contend on their merits.

Chris Reilly, our sensible Catholic friend up in Maine, is starting a blog, and even though it's not hosted here at stblogs.org, it will definitely deserve your patronage!

Welcome, Chris!

When seminarians from Washington and Arlington get together for an inter-Diocesan softball tourney whose side is God on?

A piece in today's WSJ (subscribers only) looks at the popularity of funerary eulogies and mentions the new regulation in Newark:

Religious leaders are looking for ways to make eulogies more appropriate and to give verbose eulogists the hook. (A minister's consoling hand on a eulogist's shoulder really means, "Enough.") Earlier this year, Roman Catholic Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, N.J., caused a furor by decreeing that eulogies don't belong at a funeral Mass. Too many eulogies are more about "how grandpa was a great pool player," without any mention of religious significance, says the archbishop's spokesman, Jim Goodness.

Archbishop Myers would prefer that "words of remembrance" be given at funeral homes or gravesites, but says priests may consider allowing brief comments before Mass begins. His decree, which went into effect July 1, has already sharply reduced church eulogies among the 1.3 million Catholics in the area. Other dioceses are fine-tuning their own eulogy guidelines.

Understandably, many mourners argue that eulogies are the most meaningful part of a service.

Sometimes the efforts of a eulogist can backfire:

Even noncontroversial eulogies can be problematic. [One funeral director] recalls a funeral in which eulogist after eulogist said glowing things about the man who died, leading an exasperated audience [sic] member to stand up and say, "Let's stop joking. He was a no-good S.O.B.!" The room went silent, and the priest quickly concluded the Requiem Mass.

...Sausage!

Michael Coren, Canada's most well-known social conservative media commentator, finds himself a victim of homosexual hatred. Don't hold your breath waiting for charges to be pressed against the brownshirts (Coren's Jewish father barely escaped the Holocaust) at EGALE, however. What's wierd is that I had lunch with Michael about seven or eight years ago at a Pro-Life convention, and he pretty much predicted that militant homosexualists would eventually triumph through the judiciary....

One of my friends at Catholic Exchange emailed me the following interesting article that recently appeared in the National Post: We built an altar, but will they come? Here's a couple of hi-lights:

The Field of Theory is landscaped and ready. Where are the players? The answer is: The whole marriage-for-gays movement is a construct of the liberal imagination, a naked Emperor on parade, and the cheering throng -- blindfolded by choice -- are the activist judges, timorous politicians and anti-establishment intellectuals who have co-opted what should have been a national debate on an issue whose unknown social consequences have not been considered in the rush to eradicate history.

The gay-marriage-rights issue has been fabricated out of whole cloth by social revolutionaries who have run out of traditional social institutions to mow down. The fact is: The overwhelming majority of heterosexuals want to marry because in doing so they are joining a historical stream and are reinforcing links to the generation that came before as well as affirming the one to follow. The overwhelming majority of gay men do not want to marry because, by biological definition, they are not in the historical stream. Unlike heterosexuals, every generation of homosexuals must re-invent itself. This is why the spectacle of a gay marriage ceremony will never have the solemn impact or underlying meaning of a real marriage.

Does your parish only seat 150 people?
Does everyone seem to know everyone by name?
Is everyone in approximately the same age group?
Is everything sung as though it's the last selection before Christ returns in glory?
Does the congregation burst into memorized songs during Communion?
Does everyone pal-around before Mass and linger afterwards?
Does just about everyone participate in some form of ministry involving the general operation of the parish?

If you answered yes to more than one of the questions above, you probably attend a Boutique Parish.

A music director I know recently went to a Mass at St. Boutique's. She enthusiastically told me about it: everyone sang the roof off, everyone memorized the words, people were very friendly, it was so inspiring...

The boutique experience is great, but there's a problem:

Here's a story about how some Oakland Catholics got organized to let the Vatican know about problems in their diocese, with the use of a little technology.

The Frassati Scotch & Cigar Society

I'm in!

Filmmaker Mel Gibson, whose upcoming movie on the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus has drawn charges of anti-Semitism from Jewish and Catholic scholars, is shopping his film to a more receptive audience: evangelical Christians, conservative Catholics and Orthodox Jews.
...
One fan is Bishop Charles J. Chaput of the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, who defended the movie in the Denver Catholic Register.
"I find it puzzling and disturbing that anyone would feel licensed to attack a film of sincere faith before it has even been released," the archbishop wrote.
"When the overtly provocative 'The Last Temptation of Christ' was released 15 years ago, movie critics piously lectured Catholics to be open-minded and tolerant. Surely that advice should apply equally for everyone," he said.

I got this via an email list this morning.

NOW's annual convention is being held at the Doubletree Crystal City Hotel, located at 300 Army-Navy Drive in Arlington, VA July 11-13. Janet Baker is organizing a picket against their rabidly pro-abortion stand outside the hotel which will be held on Saturday July 12 from 3-5pm. Everyone willl meet down there. Some signs will be provided, but depending on numbers, folks may want to bring their own. (How about Pro-choice is no choice or Pro-choice = Poor choice or some of the website addresses: www.afterabortion.org or www.hopeafterabortion.com or www.lovematters.com ) There is meter parking on the streets (won't have to feed them since it's Saturday). City of Arlington guidelines include: 1) no bullhorns 2) no blocking sidewalk 3) no blocking entrances - none of which they are planning, anyway. Call Janet for more information at (301) 208-9180 or email her at jmbaker@erols.com. Janet would like to have an idea of attendance, so please, if possible, let jer know who's attending.

Unbelievable, especially after the situation that has plagued the Church over the past year. Paul Walfield at Enter Stage Right offers some excellent commentary:

"After the verdict, the ACLU attorney who represented the pedophile, according to the NWI Times said, 'These cases are symptomatic of what sort of discrimination follows people around.' Imagine that, convicted pedophiles who cruise city parks in search of children are 'discriminated' against because decent people who want to protect their children, get a restraining order to stop one in particular who literally admitted to his vile intentions."

"The pedophile was not banned from the park because of his thoughts, but rather because of his past deeds, known predilection, failure of treatment, and his actively going to the park to pursue his depraved compulsion. Yet, the ACLU and two Clinton appointees to the Court chose to narrow the case to being about the 'thought police.' And while no one wants to create an atmosphere of fear regarding our thoughts, it is no stretch whatsoever to simply give deferential treatment to our children in cases like this."

The gay Anglican priest recently appointed Bishop of Reading has withdrawn his acceptance of the post.

Talk about "burying the lead"! Sean Roberts must not have realized that a modest detail in his blog entry should really be the headline.

It is a case of bad news and good news. The good news is that Abp. Chaput has permitted the establishment of a Russian Catholic community in Denver sharing the building of an ordinary Roman-rite parish. That'll make a grand total of four Russian Catholic parishes in the US.

The bad news is that this came about because of some dissension in Denver's Ruthenian Byzantine parish, where the admirable Fr. Chrysostom Frank served for some years. Sean has that story too.

(via Amy)

Since I'm over-exposed as a writer, I thought you all might find it refreshing to read someone else for a change. The latest issue of Bread of Life, a small Catholic magazine that appeals to the charismatic movement in Canada, features pieces by my dad and John Pacheco (Godfather to one of our daughters). (I also wrote a short piece for the print edition, but it wasn't featured on-line.) You can read it here.

I read something on a Catholic message board the other that chilled my blood. The mother of one of a cognitively challenged brother in Christ had posted my piece "Special Love for Special Children" to the board, letting others know about the work of the Order of Alhambra does among God's special children. Nothing unusual about that.

Nevertheless, one of the homosexual activists (at least it appears that way) on the list replied: "If I had Down's Syndrome, I would hope that my parents would have the good sense to abort me because I could not lead a productive life." This made me sick. Not only can we not reduce God's creation to mere utility, but we Alhambrans know from our service to God's special children that there would be much less Christ-like love in the world if we aborted all our special brothers and sisters in Christ. Yet such is the way of the culture of death.

That being said, John Pacheco a good friend of mine (and future Godfather to the daughter Sonya and I are expecting in November) in Ottawa is trying to organize a Eucharist Procession on Parliament Hill in order to assert the Culture of Life against the continuous on-slaught from the culture of death. Of course, John is hoping our American brethren (including my fellow Catholic Light blogmates) will support us as well. He's got a number of local priests backing him, but still needs signatures to bring the Archbishop when he asks for permission. You can check out the petition here:

http://www.catholic-legate.com/main.html

"He's my husband, I married him for better or worse, thick or thin, ‘til death do us part. There was just no way I could give up hope on him."

While Pete gets to have the day off down in Florida, I'm hoping we can put him to work a little bit with a canonical question.

A notice on my local parish's bulletin board announces a day of recollection to be held at a shrine in a nearby diocese on a certain Saturday. The notice says that the 4 p.m. Mass that ends the day's program will be a Saturday Mass and will not fulfill the Sunday obligation.

My question is: is that right? Plenty of parishes will offer Sunday vigil Masses at 4 p.m., and those will fulfill the obligation; does observing the Saturday liturgy make a difference? If I remember right, a wedding Mass on Sunday afternoon fulfills the obligation, and of course that is not the regular Sunday liturgy either.

A reader of ours just got accepted as a candidate for seminary formation. He's got two great cats who need to find a home before he leaves in August. Their names are Mack and Fred. They are not related but they look quite a lot alike and they're best buddies. Click on the pictures for larger images. Email me if you can take these guys in. He says they've got a lot of love to give!

O Brussels, thou hast become a gushing fount of stupidity!

European Union privacy regulations now forbid hospital chaplains to be told the religion of a patient. (Merci, messieurs.) However, British ingenuity has stepped in: a Catholic women's association has invented a laminated ID card for Catholics to carry in case they should be sent to a hospital unable to speak.

In a praiseworthy feature, the card makes a point of rejecting euthanasia by dehydration: "I would like my nursing care to include fluids - however administered."

Beard.

I shaved my beard this morning while my wife watched in dismayed curiosity: "What will my husband look like without a beard? I've never seen him without a beard."

And the answer is: younger, rounder, whiter. I will need to get some sun on my face this weekend.

My wife says she's looking forward to spending time with her new man tonight... I guess that's good.

While I'm up at 3 am tinkering with my computer, EWTN is presenting a moving special about Courage, the spiritual support group for Catholics overcoming same-sex attraction. The program is built around members' experiences of conversion and recovery, including that of writer David Morrison.

It'll be on the air -- well, on the cable -- again tonight (Thursday, July 3) from 11 PM to midnight ET.

(By the way, folks, would you take a moment to say a prayer for "Bill", who struggled with this problem for a long time and has fallen away? Thanks.)

Thanks guys for wishing me a happy Canada Day yesterday, but with same-sex marriage and everything, the only good thing about our Canada Day yesterday is that I got to spend it in the United States. (Oh yeah, and my Wanderer arrived with the editorial in it that I had posted to Catholic Light a couple weeks ago.) Anyway, I flew my Canadian flag at half-mast since never before have I been more ashamed of being Canadian. Any hint of homesickness I may have felt was extinguished when a conservative website from back home posted a link to the following disgusting pics of this past weekend's [WARNING -- (PORNO)GRAPHIC CONTENT -- DO NOT VIEW WITH CHILDREN AROUND] Toronto Gay Pride Parade. Yes, this is what our Charter of Rights and Freedoms now protects. Please notice this is not taking place in a bath-house somewhere, but in public during broad daylight on one of the busiest streets in Canada's most populous city. As my buddy Steve Martinovich over at Enter Stage Right asked, "Anybody want to sponsor me for US citizenship?"

I would love to know what people think of this:

A Biblical Tax Policy? One Governor Says Yes

Alabama's conservative Republican governor has created a new convergence of faith and politics. Citing his Christian faith, he's calling for a $1.2 billion tax hike, largely on the backs of wealthier taxpayers, for the benefit of the poor.

"Alabamians are a faithful people who believe that creating a better world for our children and helping our neighbors are both sacred duties," Riley wrote in explaining his tax plan.

"If he continues doing the right thing, I could see myself going back to church one day.''

Finally. The attempt to build a mosque in front of Nazareth's Basilica of the Annunciation has been the subject of wrangling for years. Christian leaders considered it an act of aggression at one of the holiest sites in the Christian world.

[Minister of Construction Natan] Sharansky said two main reasons led to his committee's recommendation to ban the mosque's construction. He said that Muslim leaders had not honored previous agreements regarding the size of the proposed mosque and had antagonized Christian pilgrims arriving in Nazareth. In addition, Sharansky noted the united opposition of the worldwide Christian community.

"We have an obligation to safeguard the holy places and protect the rights of minorities and their freedom of religion," Sharansky said in defense of his recommendation to protect the Nazareth church.

Pro-abort group's survey says 51% of women favor restricting abortion to extreme cases. Thanks, Mrs. Wattleton!

(via Drudge)

Catholic Light has been at stblogs.org for a month now, and our statistics show about 50% more visits per day than we had at Blogspot. Thanks for coming by!

In last weekend's general assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, fittingly held in Boston and reported in the Globe, some startling language was heard.

I don't mean the common words that punctuate rap records -- no, these words really got the attention of the audience:

[Rev. Victoria Weinstein:] "I'm talking about the hot-button words, like `God' and `spirit' and `spiritual' and `soul' and `sacred'...."

...there was some audible gasping during [UUA president William] Sinkford's opening speech yesterday, when he remarked that 'souls are saved one at a time.'...

Prodded by a new president, a onetime atheist who had a conversion experience in a hospital room, the Unitarian Universalist Association is embarking on a freewheeling debate over whether to reverse its decades-long drift away from what...[the Rev. Mr. Sinkford] calls the ''language of reverence'' and instead begin to ''name the holy.''

At the office today, I heard one end of a phone conversation. A co-worker got a call from a friend, who started telling her the latest news about Jane, a student gal they know who is perpetually broke:

"I don't understand. Jane is gonna 'sell an egg' and get $4000?...
What is it -- Fabergé?"

Bp. Sean in Palm Beach and today in Boston.

And the same to all our northern neighbors. The French version of your national anthem has a lovely Catholic ethos.

The divergence between the two language versions makes me wonder, though: when French- and English-speaking Canadians sing it, are they singing about the same thing? The French text is about a valorous history of bearing the Cross to defend home and right, while the English version centers on patriotic love for a land that is rising strong, glorious, and free: a different emphasis.

In the USCCB's statement on Lawrence v. Texas, counsel Mark Chopko seems to think it doesn't lay the basis for sweeping aside marriage law: "This case was decided on the narrowest grounds. Justice Kennedy took pains to insulate this case from broader conclusions."

Here in blogdom attorney Dale Price is skeptical, so he poses a challenge: can anybody devise an argument to keep anti-polygamy laws?

(Thanks, Mark and Dom.)

Bishop Sean O'Malley named new Archbishop of Boston

I have met Bishop O'Malley several times as he is a great supporter of a community of Youth Ministers I used to be involved with, the Youth Apostles. I found him to be a very holy man. He speaks several languages. Squeaky clean. Possible Pope material, if I can be candid.

There are much, much better days coming for Boston.

This quote speaks volumes:

"The Rev. Richard McBrien, a liberal theologian at the University of Notre Dame, said despite all the kudos O'Malley has won for his response to clergy sex abuse, he is still a conservative priest who would be 'uncritically loyal to the Holy See and would not veer one millimeter from its policies and teachings on anything.'"

Despite all the kudos?

It's a wonderful vote of confidence when a liberal theologian calls another priest "uncritically loyal to the Holy See."

Here's the AP pic: