August 2003 Archives

Loving God leads us to love others for His sake: everyone who belongs to Him; which is to say, everyone. Here's St. Thomas on friendship:

When a man has friendship for a certain person, for his sake he loves all belonging to him, be they children, servants, or connected with him in any way. Indeed, so much do we love our friends, that for their sake we love all who belong to them, even if they hurt or hate us; so that, in this way, the friendship of charity extends even to our enemies, whom we love out of charity in relation with God, to whom the friendship of charity is chiefly directed.

Fr. Victor Brezik, CSB, in an article on Friendship with God, takes it a little further:

By this principle of loving not only a friend but also whatever pertains to him, we understand why charity obliges us to be disposed in our hearts to love all human beings, if not even other animate and inanimate beings comprising the environment, not that the latter can be loved as friends, since they lack rationality, but that as creatures they belong to God Whom we love as a friend....

(Thanks to Fr. Brezik for permission to post his article.)

It's Sunday afternoon, and time for the post-game wrap-up on how Mass went.

Today I went to St. Devotio's again, which had had a good preacher last week. I noticed they had a piano: a bad sign, and unfortunately, a musician came out and used it.

He played competently, but the instrument of torture apparently was not an acoustic piano, but a digital one that let him add other sampled instrument voices or even shut off the piano voice: something like this.

So on one piece it was piano and synthesizer, and on another guitar and harp were added. So phony.

At least at the end he played "Let There Be Peace On Earth", so I took the opportunity to sing my own lyrics.

It must be bad-liturgy season at Victor's parish too.

Update: And Jeff Miller's.

Mark Shea made a comment about the irony of blaming the Pope for the Holocaust when he had few material tools to end it -- or even interfere. Point well taken. I love Mark and his blessed blog, but he's incorrect in one respect. Here's the full passage:

"It is one of the weird twists of history that so many in both the Catholic and Jewish communities should survey the wreckage of WWII, a wreckage in Allied Leaders like Roosevelt and Churchill refused to bomb the rail lines to Auschwitz and in which Stalin did nothing as the Warsaw Ghetto was annihilated, and look past this to a man who had not a single gun to defend himself, and yet who was responsible for the rescue of more Jews than any other man in Europe--and condemn him as practically being the architect of the Holocaust."

America bombed lots of German rail lines (and railheads and railway yards), but the Germans were very clever about fixing them. It doesn't take any skill to fill a bomb crater, and it doesn't take hardly any skill to mend a rail. Bombing the lines only caused a few hours' delay, or a day at most. Given the horribly inaccurate bombs of the day (it took a squadron of planes dropping hundreds of bombs to destroy a single target), it would have been impossible to destroy the rails altogether.

The Germans, as everyone knows, are organizational geniuses. Their wartime production kept humming along until the Allies started conquering Germany proper; a big part of their industrial prowess was dedicated to killing human beings. Since we couldn't stopped industrial processes such as tank production or oil refinement, saying we could have destroyed the killing process is inaccurate.

It pales in comparison to the one million Jews they obligingly shipped to Nazi prison camps and gas chambers. And it only equates to a few hours' casualties at Ypres or the Somme. But still, one would think that the French would protest against 10,000 people dying from Europe's hot summer.

I couldn't believe it either, but the French regime has admitted that thousands of people died from the excessive heat in the last few months. Not to worry, though: they were mostly old pensioners, and therefore useless. That would explain the lack of coverage in the American press.

Still, one would think it might attract a little attention. I mean, these are white Western Europeans we're talking about -- it's not like we're talking about thousands of dead Slavs or Africans.

From news accounts, you can see the concerns of the French people, or at least the portion of the French people that make their voices heard:

1-5. Opposition to American "hegemony."
6. Stifling genetically modified foods.
7. The truffle shortage.
8. Increasing the number of years government employees must work to get their pensions, from 37 to 40. (This caused riots.)
9. Too many American movies in French theaters.
10. Declining baguette sales (that's not a joke -- the government ran ads encouraging its citizens to buy more bread.)
.
.
.
43. Ensuring that old people don't die from unseasonable heat.

This is socialist France, cradle-to-grave-nanny-state-protection France. They aren't supposed to have Third-World death tolls in civilized, tolerant Europe. That's the continent to which we always compare backward, violent America, and France is Europeanness incarnate.

Western European Man ceased to believe in God, so he shifted his faith to the State. The State's idea of egalité is that everyone is an equal chattel of the State. Useless poor women are given the chance to abort their future useless children; useless old people are tacitly encouraged to die and spare the State any further expense.

Socialism is not a cure for the culture of death. Socialism is an engine of the culture of death.

Good news from the FBI - an 18-year-old suspected of writing a variant of the Blaster worm and releasing to the general public has been arrested. The only sad part is when he gets out of jail he'll probably make some big money as a reformed hacker/security consultant.

One stupid thing - he's known online as "teekid."
The program that allegedly disseminated the virus is called "teekid.exe"

I guess that's the online equivalent of leaving your phone number at a crime scene.

Now that I got your attention, this is a very touching story of how an Iraqi couple named their recently born son after the president, in gratitude for Iraqi liberation. So the boy's name is George Bush Faris El-Hussein. The boy's father is quoted as saying he would have named his other son Tony Blair if the couple had given birth to twins.

Last June, noted moralist Al "What Am I Famous For, Exactly?" Franken sent a letter to Attorney General John "Hotpants" Ashcroft, asking him for the story of how he abstained from sex when he (Ashcroft) was young. Using Harvard stationery, Franken wrote that he had already received similar stories from other prominent Republicans.

Needless to say, Franken wasn't telling the truth, and he's issued an apology for his lame attempt at humor. He also misused the stationery, because he has no connection with the Harvard center on the letterhead, though he was a fellow last spring in the Kennedy School of Government. (Savor that fact for a moment: a mediocre comedian was a fellow at the Kennedy School. I'd love to know when it will bestow the honor upon P.J. O'Rourke.)

Aside: why do liberals hate John Ashcroft so intensely? At this point in her tenure, Janet Reno had already killed half as many Americans as Saddam Hussein did in the whole Gulf War, yet they defended her. Their accusations boil down to his preference for a flavor of religion they don't like, evangelical Christianity, and prosecuting laws they don't like, such as the Patriot Act. I checked, and it's still legal to practice any religion you like in the U.S. (this ain't Canada yet), and the Patriot Act was passed by 98 out of 100 Senators, including dangerous right-wing extremists such as Kennedy, Daschle, and the late Paul Wellstone. This obsession with Ashcroft says more about his critics than it does about him.

One senses that Al Franken's own teenage abstinence story has less to do with self-restraint than with the good taste of the girls where he grew up. His own abstinence was thus thrust upon him, so to speak, unless I'm wrong and the girls he hung around with were mentally unstable and/or acutely nearsighted.

The truest statement in the original letter to Ashcroft: "Kids can sense a phony a mile away." Adults can too, Al!

UPDATE: The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz wrote a story about Franken's tome. Kurtz, who covers the journalism beat and is one of the Post's best writers, calls it "a bit of a screed," and "strident." Franken comes off as a nasty jerk, a slightly slimmer Michael Moore.

I didn't know that he challenged Rich Lowry to a fistfight, and that Lowry turned him down. The next time Al comes to Washington, I'm going to see if I can get him to challenge me -- please, Al, please! I'm just as conservative as Rich! And I work for a conservative publication that you hate, just like him!

The clinching line at the end: "First of all, I'm funny....And I don't lie." But you admitted you lied, buddy, and to the United States attorney general...which Al Franken are we supposed to believe?

Although my sentiments are very much with the devout citizens of Alabama who want to keep a public monument to the Decalogue in a courthouse, Michael Williams is correct: Justice Moore's legal case was weak, and the demonstrations advance nothing, except for his budding career as a demagogue.

I just emailed one of Steve's fellow seminarians, he's been there about 4 years.

"... you take care of my bro, ok? Make sure he doesn't get his head flushed down the toilet by a transitional deacon."

The Dow lost 6.66 points today.
Coincidence? Dumb luck? Just dumb?
You decide.

Steve left for St. Charles in Philadelphia this morning. We're all delighted and happy, and even proud of him for taking the first step into a new life of service to Christ and His Church. Please keep him in your prayers.

I am really going to miss having him close via IM. That was always fun.

Regina Carter is a wonderful jazz violinist; she played with the Boston Pops at Tanglewood Monday night, in a triple-bill program with (Bronx) Celtic fiddler Eileen Ivers and classical violinist Lara St. John.

Last Sunday, I walked out of Mass.

It was at St. Suburbia's in the next town, where Fr. Leo preached an inoffensive little talk with at least some connection to the Gospel reading. That was the end of the "Bread of Life discourse" in John 6. Fr. was saying that the Eucharist is part of God's ongoing message to humanity: "Do not fear: I am with you." And that was OK. If only he'd known when to shut up!

The ad-hoc lector had read the "short form" of the Epistle text from St Paul to "the Christian community at Ephesus". And so he had not read us the passage (is it chapter 5?) that feminists don't like: "Submit yourselves to one another, out of reverence for Christ": wives, "be subservient" to your husbands [ooh, that's bad], and husbands, love your bride and lay down your life for her.

Since that part of the text had not been read to us, there wasn't any urgent need for Fr. Leo to speak about it, but he couldn't leave well enough alone: yes, he went back and read it. He opined that "women have a problem" with it, and declared that that passage was the best proof there is that St. Paul hadn't written Ephesians.

Fr. Leo just didn't seem to have gotten the point of the Gospel pericope that he had also read to us.

Now, I'm not shocked to hear that some Scripture scholars say that Ephesians differs in vocabulary and structure from other letters of St. Paul, and they think that it may have been put together by a follower of St. Paul as a summary of his teaching. As a theory, I've no problem with that: but the homily is not intended as an opportunity for a priest to attack the teachings of Scripture that we find hard.

That very Gospel passage from St. John had focused on the problem of a "hard teaching": on the break between (on one hand) Jesus, who taught that he was going to give us His flesh and blood to eat and drink, and (OTOH) those disciples who decided they didn't believe any more, and left him.

A "hard teaching", when it comes, is a challenge to me, and it's a mistake to write it off as inauthentic -- when more often it is I who am inauthentic!

The Spirit sent me out into the wilderness, so to speak, and so I left.

There was still plenty of time to get to St. Devotio's, and it was worth it: Fr. Daniel Dharmu, SMA, a young Indian-born missionary, just five years a priest, was visiting, and spoke about his work in East Africa. He's doing evangelization on the front line, bringing the Gospel to people who haven't heard it before, and performing about 250 adult baptisms a year. His 40-mile-by-20-mile mission zone has so many mission stations that he can only say Mass at each one monthly. Now, that is doing the work of God. That is a faith response to the Gospel.

Update: That other priest must be getting around!

Is this a sign that the culture wars are getting people all worked up? One of my friends on the net sent me one of those e-mail petitions trying to save religious TV from being suppressed by Madalyn O'Hair and petition 2493.

Normally, I'd expect an experienced Internet user like Bob to spot that phony-baloney story a mile away. Maybe the current spate of stories about anti-religious and anti-moral moves in society has got him on edge and made him more willing to fall for such an appeal.

But there is no truth to it: poor old O'Hair is dead, and she never tried to get the FCC to ban religious TV. The real petition 2493 didn't involve her and was not an attempt to do that anyway. It sought to bar religious organizations from getting "educational" broadcast licenses. That petition was turned down: in 1975!

Let's stamp out these scare-mongering stories, folks.

Here are some movie plot elements that you won't see very often on the big screen:

1. After working really hard to win a sports competition, the underachieving underdog loses big time. Seeing how much he has embarrassed himself and his family, he realizes that hard work is much more important than raw talent.

2. The handsome rich guy in a romantic comedy turns out to be a well-read, sensitive man, and the poorer guy is a jerk who doesn't deserve the girl.

3. Braving the catcalls of people who say she can't succeed, the spunky girl tries to beat the boys in _____, but she can't hack it. She realizes that each sex has unique, unchanging strengths and weaknesses.

4. The (only) prominent black character is soft-spoken and reserved, and never offers any sassy comments or homespun wisdom. He neither dances nor sings. He likes harp music.

5. The fundamentalist Bible-thumping preacher is someone who truly cares about his congregation and community, not a skirt-chasing hypocrite. (Exception: John Lithgow in "Footloose.")

6. The wife of a good yet slightly boring husband rejects her would-be lover, because she thinks that "boring" doesn't justify betraying her spouse. Realizing that even the best sex in the universe won't make her feel any less unfulfilled, she dedicates her life to serving others. (Contra "Bridges of Madison County," "English Patient," ad nauseum.)

7. The setting: Suburbia USA, where underneath the facade of well-kept lawns and red-brick houses lurks a deep spiritual satisfaction, as well as familial bliss.

I'm a bit of a traditionalist about funerals. Burying people in a fixed place rather than taking their cremated remains home helps avoid this sort of thing.

The latest trend around St. Blog seems to be posting one's Myers-Briggs score. Here's mine:

Introverted (I) 54% Extraverted (E) 46%
Intuitive (N) 59% Sensing (S) 41%
Thinking (T) 80% Feeling (F) 20%
Perceiving (P) 59% Judging (J) 41%

Since a number of people have commented my personality changes when around other traditionalists, I retook the test after doing some traddy stuff. I was amazed at the change:

Introverted (I) 71% Extraverted (E) 29%
Sensing (S) 50% Intuitive (N) 50%
Thinking (T) 100% Feeling (F) 0%
Judging (J) 77% Perceiving (P) 23%

James Antle writes a piece on the controversy surrounding Judge Moore and the Ten Commandments. I don't agree with all of what Antle writes, particularly the conclusion, but he is spot on in his opening criticism when he writes:

If Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore were a self-styled artist who soaked his Ten Commandments monument in urine, he might have been allowed to keep it on display in the courthouse and gotten an NEA grant to boot. Instead, it appears to be on the way out and he has been suspended with pay. [more]

John Pacheco and Suzanne Fortin from Catholic Legate just sent me an update about the recent march on parliament hill to defend traditional marriage against the Canadian judiciacracy. (There were about 10,000 protesters on our side, and about a half-dozen counter-protesters on the other side.) As you can from the following slide-show, the Chinese-Canadians showed up in full force. Basically, anyone in a red shirt is a Chinese Christian.

This is great political news since the Chinese are one of the largest and most disciplined politically-active ethnic minority groups in Canada, and traditionally they have backed the Liberal Party (which is pushing through the gay marriage issue.) The Chinese Christians made a pretty blunt statement at the rally, namely, they will switch their political allegiance and vote against the Liberals if the latter attempt to change the definition of marriage to include homosexual couples. Reportedly, even Paul Martin (Liberal-Leader-and-Prime-Minister-in-waiting) became nervous by the presence of what's being called the tail of the political dragon.

Speaking to Pacheco (who was one of the organizers) on Friday evening, I know he was both stunned and grateful by how large and how disciplined the Chinese presence was. Here's the opening paragraphs of the news report he and Suzanne Fortin sent me:

They came by the thousands. On buses, on foot, in their cars and in their vans. They came from Montreal and Toronto, mostly. Driving to the Supreme Court where participants for National Marriage Day gathered, we saw them in their buses and on the street corners with their signs and banners boldly affirming traditional marriage. As my family and friends approached the grounds, you could not miss the seas of red in front of the Supreme Court. Organized. Efficient. Disciplined. Numerous.

And Chinese.

Some were Baptist. Some were Pentecostal. Some were non-denominational. It didn't matter here, though. They arrived to fight a war together as Christians, and they came prepared. All attired in bold red T-shirts with the image of a man and woman emblazoned on them, they were sending a message to Canada and its politicians: don't mess with marriage.

They organized themselves into what could only be described as military columns. Behind wide, red banners affirming traditional marriage, hundreds of Chinese Christians fell into formation. Each formation had a commander who telecommunicated with their field general. They moved only on his command. And when the command was given to begin the March to Parliament Hill, they marched - with precision and purpose. In total, I think they may have accounted for at least 40% of the entire crowd. It didn't matter, though. The rest of us knew leadership when we saw it, and we simply fell into line and marched with them.

"For every 10 births in Russia, there are still nearly 13 abortions." --Steven Myers, NY Times

Yet Russia's new law is a step in the right direction: it restricts the permitted grounds for mid- and late-term abortions to:

...rape, imprisonment, the death or severe disability of the husband or a court ruling stripping a woman of her parental rights. Being a single mother or a refugee [or divorced or in poor housing...--RC] is no longer reason enough to abort a pregnancy after the 12th week.

As before, pregnancies can still be aborted after 12 weeks on medical grounds, including severe disabilities of the fetus or a threat to the mother's life.

It won't have a big effect on the raw numbers, and it leaves several obviously immoral reasons undisturbed, as well as all abortions up to the 12th week -- but removing some of the "reasons" is a good step that will save a few lives.

Law school dean Nabil Helmy of Egypt's Zagazig University thinks he's got "the Jews of the world" right where he wants them: according to the newspaper Al-Ahram Al-Arabi (cited by MEMRI), he's suing them -- all of them -- in Switzerland, to get back the goods that the Israelites took with them in the Exodus.

Obviously this is a publicity stunt. Professor Helmy must think he's pretty clever to base his claim on the Hebrew Scripture -- they can't wiggle out of that one, huh?

Fortunately, Prof. Helmy's unusual legal theory would seem to open the plaintiff up to a countersuit: how many hundreds of years of Hebrew slavery would Egypt have to pay for?

The media love "moderate" Republicans. All you have to do is favor abortion under just about any circumstance, and you get to be a moderate. You could be in favor of nuking gay black homosexuals, but if you're pro-abortion, you're a moderate. Arlen Specter, Bill Weld, and Christie Todd Whitman are prominent members of this species. They get showered with acclamations about their intelligence, prudence, and superiority over your normal, gun-toting, snake-handling GOP politician. Quite often, the "moderate" Republican favors gun control; he will make frowny faces about high government spending and high taxes, but will usually support both in the end.

Then when election time comes, the "moderate" Republican finds that his buddies in the press, along with previously friendly Democrats, have turned against him. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the latest to find out that just because you favor abortion, gun control, and scads of money for "the children," you're not immune from being lumped in with the snake handlers.

According to this article, lots of Hollywood people are lining up against him in his bid to become governor of California. You can guess most of the names mentioned: Tom Hanks, Woody Harrelson, Martin Sheen, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds (still alive, apparently), Cybill Shepherd, Barbra Streisand (natch), Steven Spielberg, Warren Beatty, Susan Sarandon, and Al Franken. (Good golly! Not Franken!)

Note to liberal Republicans: you should certainly follow your conscience and act on your beliefs. However, if you're thinking of adjusting your positions to make yourself popular, you might as well be conservative. Having that (R) next to your name makes you a target. The media and the Left will see it, their Pavlovian response will kick in, and they'll automatically hate you anyway.

I sent Steve Schultz a note today:

While you're at it, what's your paper-mail address going to be at the seminary?

("Snail mail" isn't a very nice term: I like to think of it as "Mail Classic".)
--RC

Mississippi Supreme Court Expands Wrongful Death Law to Cover Unborn Fetuses - foxnews.com

JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi Supreme Court, in a decision criticized by one of its members as an assault on Roe v. Wade, held Thursday that a fetus is a "person" under state law and wrongful death claims can be filed on its behalf.

The justices upheld Tracy Tucker's right to pursue a wrongful death claim after she alleged emotional distress and a mistake by her doctors caused her to have a miscarriage in 1997. The fetus was 19 weeks old at the time, according to doctors.
...
The 6-2 ruling expands the definition of a "person" in wrongful death statutes to include an "unborn child."

Notice the ruling doesn't make any distinction between the wanted unborn child and the unwanted unborn child.

For the Arnold quote contest we have two winners.

The quote that Arnold didn't say was:
E) "California doesn't need a tax hike. It needs Gray Davis out of office and teaching politics at a community college."

I made that up. I just like the thought of Gray Davis teaching Civics 101 at the Tumbleweed Campus of Chico State Community College. He could start wearing those blazers with the elbow patches like in the old Spiderman movies.

So here are the winners:

Robin (looks like a Shea from the e-mail address) &
Chris of Maine Catholic

Congrats! The other quotes were found on FoxNews in various articles and on We Love Arnold, a site from the same people that brought us We Love The Iraqi Information Minister.

My latest piece concerning the homosexualist threat to the institution of marriage is up at Enter Stage Right. Given ESR's strongly libertarian bent, I'm grateful that they allowed me to publish paragraphs like the following:

As previously mentioned, marriage is no mere private contract between individuals. It concerns the good of the individual, the good of the family and for the good of society as a whole. While the marital contract is entered into as an exclusive relationship between a man and a woman, marriage nevertheless possesses a social dimension into which children are born, nurtured and educated. Subsequently, marriage is unequal to other to other contracts between humans; by its very nature, its effects are not merely restricted to those who contract the marriage. Rather, marriage both profoundly and directly impacts upon the lives of others, namely, the children born into the relationship. For this reason, a society can never exclusively define marriage in terms of individual rights without placing its stability at great risk. Unlike other relationships that merely concern private individuals, marriage cannot be left to succeed or fail upon the merits of the individuals who contract it.

Also, please keep John Pacheco (who helped me with the above piece) in as he is one of the key promoters. of today's pro-marriage gathering on Parliament Hill.

Zenit reports on Mirabilandia, the theme park in Ravenna with a spiritual side: it even has a church on the grounds! Here's the park's official site, and an unofficial one, with some English pages. Hold tight on the roller coaster!

It's simple - guess which quote was not said by Arnold Schwarzenegger and you will get your name in Catholic Lights. Use the comments box below.

A) "Like I told Warren, if he mentions Prop 13 one more time, he has to do 500 situps."
B) "I have inhaled, exhaled everything."
C) "I am trained to get along with Democrats."
D) "I will not change. Because if you are successful and you change, you are an idiot."
E) "California doesn't need a tax hike. It needs Gray Davis out of office and teaching politics at a community college."
F) "We have to make sure everyone in California has a great job. A fantastic job!"

This post is so, like, 15 minutes ago, but I have some thoughts on the Great Blackout of 2003, which didn't affect us Virginians a bit:

-- The blackout represents a huge failure of American journalism. I realize that our aging power transmission infrastructure isn't nearly as important as a basketball player getting arrested for rape, but isn't our watchdog press supposed to be reporting on things such as the potential for gigantic, potentially disastrous failures of public utilities? Covering an expectant mother's murder in San Francisco just isn't as important.

-- The majority of Americans are decent, helpful people. The news from around the country didn't report any crime wave, much less rioting. People got through the trouble without a lot of complaining, and assisted others in need. Why didn't anybody talk about that?

-- It took Hillary about ten minutes before she started running her mouth about how the blackout was President Bush's fault. Her husband was in office throughout the 1990s. Does anyone recall him making a big push for electrical infrastructure reform? No? Then will no one rid us of this meddlesome Queen of the Harpies? (Two points for identifying the king and the "Simpsons" reference in the last sentence.)

-- What the heck happened to 'acts of God'? There seem to be a lot of people who can't accept that "things fall apart," as Yeats wrote: fallible humans create fallible objects and systems. (Yeah, he was writing about the Antichrist, but you get it.) It would seem that we need to fix a few things, but this isn't Haiti. Not very many people have generator backups because of unreliable electrical supplies. The only people who got really excited about all this are people who want to spend more taxpayers' dollars (see the Queen reference above.)

This would have been on The Onion along with articles like

Curious George Implicated in Library of Congress Break-in
"Hey - I'm Curious. What else can I say?"

Schwarzenegger to Hold Economic Summit

Deal Hudson is setting it up for our Lady's day (September 8).

John Allen updates us on some recent news stories: CBS's would-be "smoking gun" document; the inter-communion abuse in Germany; the cloning debate.

Found a cool net-toy: according to Google, these sites are similar to ours. The graphic is from TouchGraph. It's fun to just watch the thing draw.

Drudge reports that GQ will publish a controversial depiction of GW Bush as Jesus.

It feels great to be back at Catholic Light after holding down the fort at Envoy Encore last week while the rest of my Encore blogmates were away. That being said, I want to weigh in on the current St. Blog debate over husbands, wives and mutual submission to one another in marriage. As I mentioned to some of you, my thoughts on this subject were expressed in an article I co-authored with my friend Jacqueline Rapp, who is also a parent and a lay canonist. Here are the relevant paragraphs:

We are all familiar with St. Paul’s following injunction: “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Saviour. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.” (Eph 5: 22-24.) In the past, this scriptural passage has unfortunately been used to excuse everything from domestic violence to the subjection of women within the institution of marriage.

Yet within the context of St. Paul’s writings, it touches upon the matrimonial theology of partnership, mutual welfare of the spouses, and communion of life and love. The verse prefacing this passage is clear; “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Eph. 5: 21.) As is the passage that comes afterward: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her [...] Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church...” (Eph. 5: 25, 28-29.)

In short, the marital partnership is implicit in St. Paul’s injunction that husbands and wives be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Similarly, communion of life and love is implied within this passage. St. Paul teaches that a husband’s love to which a wife subjects herself should be a self-sacrificing reflection of how Christ loves the Church. For just as Christ laid down His life for the Church out of a deep love for us, so too should a husband lay down his life for his wife if love requires it. Obviously, such a tremendous love rules out domestic violence, belittling and other forms of marital abuse. For one should never abuse and belittle one’s own flesh.

Before I go to bed, I have to comment on this story about a Reuters cameraman accidently killed in Iraq. He was killed in the middle of a combat area, and Reporters without Borders is essentially saying he was murdered. The soldiers involved said they fired on a man who looked like he had a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

In the absence of any contrary evidence, I'll believe the soldiers. They were in the middle of an attack that caused 66 casualties, and when they saw a man in "a house with a vantage point" -- a classic sniper position to hide -- they fired. How can a camera look like an RPG? Shadows, a flash of movement, the way it's carried on the shoulder. The soldiers who fired had maybe a second or two to evaluate the threat and act on it. They were possibly negligent, but the idea they woke up this morning and said, "I'm gonna kill me a journalist," is far-fetched.

Grovel Week has arrived on PBS, and they're begging us for money to keep their Very Special Programs on the air. Lord knows we watch a lot of public broadcasting in our house, but it's limited to fare like Clifford the Big Red Dog. I don't feel guilty about watching their shows and not paying for them, because we gave at the office -- the tax office, that is. On average, tax-paying households "donate" $6.40 to the IRS every year for PBS funding, and in gratitude for your cooperation, the congenial folks at the IRS refrain from confiscating your home, freezing your bank accounts, or throwing you in jail.

Quick "Simpsons" moment:

Marge: What are you gonna spend your money on, kids?

Bart: There's a special down at the Tacomat: a hundred tacos for a hundred dollars. I'm gonna get that.

Lisa: I'm going to contribute my money to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Marge: Tacos? Public broadcasting? I will not have either of you waste your money.

To convince recalcitrant viewers to cough up more clams, PBS re-ran "The Power of Myth," a conversation between LBJ advisor Bill Moyers and Professor Joseph Campbell of Sarah Lawrence College. They filmed the six episodes of the series back in 1987, so this is probably a re-re-re-re-re-re-rerun at least....

Hey, John, here's a new taste treat for you guys on the Atkins diet!

Here at MeatShake Corporation, we have a simple vision:

Meat. Lots of meat.

We bring you our vision in the most amazing and scrumptious forms imaginable. Our dedication to meat is nothing short of mighty.

That's our promise to you, the valued customer.

Mm: the (Christmastime) Vanilla Ham Shake sounds gooood!

- foxnews.com

NEW YORK — When news surfaced that Harvey Milk High School, a fully accredited public school for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students, would open its doors next month, many education experts were surprised to learn that classrooms could be legally segregated based on sexual orientation.

Fametracker is a site devoted to demotic pop-culture analysis. The featured essays and comedy bits are often hysterically funny, if you pay attention to the entertainment industry even a little. Their forums often direct a stream of invective against the fraudulence of our cultural icons, and so they are a refreshing departure from the usual butt-kissing-party you see in People magazine. A recent forum topic tackled the subject of Fox News and right-wing bias. Most of the people posting to the forum agreed that it skewed the news and it was awful; I took the opportunity to discuss liberal bias and the mainstream news industry's freakish death wish.

[Another forum participant asked:] Exactly how the hell is network news "liberal biased?" My answer:

1. The selection of news stories. Here's one example: self-identified homosexuals make up about 3% of the population. Something like 30-40% of the American population go to a place of worship once a week; a similar proportion goes at least occasionally. Yet the number of stories about homosexuals is far higher than for religious topics.

2. The people who make the news. The journalists comprising the upper tier of the profession (at big-city newspapers, weekly newsmagazines, and television networks) are about as liberal as any identifiable segment of the population. (sources) Throughout the industry in general, journalists are twice as likely to call themselves Democrats as Republicans, though that percentage has decreased in the last decade (as it has in the population as a whole). A person's worldview affects what one considers important; it is naive to think that it wouldn't affect the selection of news....

Man Shoots Six at His Surprise Party

In case you were wondering...
The party was canceled.

'How to be Gay' course draws fire at Michigan

In 2000, the Michigan state legislature fell just four votes short of passing a measure to cut off all government funds for the courses.

Other courses slated for the fall include:
Binge-drinking - a Primer (featuring a $500 lab fee for "supplies")
Playing to Win at the Roulette Table
Human Sacrifice - A Hands-on Approach to an Ancient Art
Clubbing Baby Seals

Victor Lams gives the Congregationalist Pied Piper a good fisking.

A reader takes me to task
for taking some ex-Jesuit to task,
after he took a Cardinal to task,
because he took contemporary moral errors to task: clear?

No, it wasn't to me, either. I had to look up the original post to know what he was talking about. It's linked below.

The anonymous reader opines:

i find it breathtaking that communicants of the roman church continue to defend an institution that has lost virtually all its moral authority. your attack of ed ingebretsen was particularly offensive. i suppose all of this must be put in a realistic context: the roman church has always had problems with intellectual honesty. ed was... yikes.. honest. at least with the rise of secularism, your church was not able to stick him on a stake and burn him. that said, your organization continues to exclude so many, so unbelievably many from society. the irony though is that your church is so dominated by hopelessly neurotic, self loathing gay people. but i trust in god. eventually your church will find itself again on the wrong side of this issue, just as it did when confronted with scientific, intellectual and moral truth. now that the emperor is running around naked, the church is being watched very closely. and the picture is not pretty is it? your people represent the derriere guard of christianity.. could you please pick up the pace??

Well, at least the guy is consistent: first this Professor Ingebretsen gets three of his fifteen minutes of fame by insulting the honesty of a cardinal ("These things are exactly what he's paid to say"), and now the writer of the above fan mail impugns the "intellectual honesty" of the Catholic Church. Neither of them seems to realize what a weak argument that is: instead of openly disputing Catholic doctrine as erroneous, they evade the subject by suggesting that we don't really, truly believe it: if we would just be honest with ourselves, we'd agree with them.

Shall I tease the guy for not knowing his French? The term is garde arri�re, not "derriere"; and, given the context, the temptation to make a wisecrack about that is great.

But no, I will forbear: this irate reader has a soul too, and although I think he's inappropriately angry, I don't really want to hurt his feelings. We're all sinners here, and he needs instruction as all of us do sometimes.

The Church's teaching on sexual ethics w.r.t. homosexuality is just not understandable without The Big Picture, the noble and beautiful Catholic vision of sexuality and marriage. Maybe that's one more reason for me to point people to Bishop Galeone's pastoral letter. Until people understand the central meaning about the body, spousal love, and marriage, they'll regard the rest of Catholic sexual ethics as arbitrary.

Update: Back in July, CWN posted the text of Cdl. Arinze's praiseworthy speech at Georgetown that drew all this attention, with analysis by historian James Hitchcock.

Why wait in long lines at church when the confessor will come to you?

Go face-to-face in the passenger seat or behind a privacy screen in the back.
Tinted rear windows to protect the anonymity of the pentitent.
Plenty of trunk room to leave your scrupples behind.

Search on Google for "Catholic", and you'll probably get this ad:

Are Catholics doomed.
Did you know that most people in
the Mafia are Catholic? Worried.
www.Dont_Worship_in_Vain.com

Click through if you want to see the site: it only costs them -- oh, I'd guess about $0.15 each time.

By the way, folks, we don't often talk about this, but our traffic is up! A year ago we averaged around 150 visits/day, and this month it's over 450/day.

We know we'll never be competition for the Drudge Report or even Instapundit, but it's a pleasure to know that somebody out there is dropping by. Aw, shucks.

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, who died on August 4 aged 89, was the senior Russian Orthodox archbishop in Western Europe, and the best known Orthodox cleric in Britain.

The archbishop was well known for his books on spirituality, including Beginning to Pray.

Although a loner and difficult to work with at times, Anthony was never aloof. Like all Orthodox bishops he was easily accessible to his flock, and this could have comical results. When one parishioner rang to say that "Peter" had died and asked for prayers, the Archbishop immediately complied, later asking when the funeral would be. "Oh, there won't be one," he was told. "We flushed Peter down the loo." Peter turned out to be a budgerigar.

Would you pray for two families who got sad news about their kids this week?

L., at eight months of pregnancy, found out on Friday that her baby is stillborn: "I had a heartbeat (normal) on Monday, and on Friday I noticed that I hadn't experienced any fetal movement. Today I went in and found out the bad news." She has the delivery ahead of her.

B. writes that "God in His Providence has put a heavy cross on our shoulders to carry: His and our beloved 8 year old son P. has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. All this is happening during our job transfer, thousand of miles away from family and friends. We're begging for prayers for his cure and also for grace for all of us to cooperate with God's holy Will in these dark hours of our lives."

Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins, and for those of the whole world.
For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world....

We're all in this together.

Bishop Victor Galeone, the new ordinary of St. Augustine in Florida, has written an admirable summary of Catholic doctrine on marriage and sexual ethics in his pastoral letter, "Marriage: A Communion of Life and Love".

The bishop knows that the Gospel of Life runs counter to secular thinking, and he makes a point of saying so:

The vast majority of people today consider contraception a non-issue. So much so that to label it a disorder sounds like a gross exaggeration. And to revisit it seems analogous to studying a treatise from the Flat Earth Society. But contraception is an issue, an absolutely vital issue. To comprehend why it is wrong, it’s first necessary to understand what God originally intended marriage to be. In the opening chapters of Genesis we learn that God himself designed marriage for a twofold purpose: to communicate life and love.

(Thanks to Jeff and Alicia for the link.)

It's conventional to give Protestantism the credit for fostering virtues and attitudes conducive to economic advancement, but Michael Novak points out the Catholic roots of capitalism, in the inventiveness of monastic communities and the stability fostered by the Church's legal system.

In spite of his personal fondness for Stalin and Stalinism, Saddam Hussein Al-Tikriti apparently wasn't quite the perfect dialectical materialist: he had a superstitious side and patronized several consulting magicians. That will provide some interesting stories when it all comes out.

Leviticus 14: 34 When you have entered Canaan, which I am giving you to occupy, if I inflict a fungous infection upon a house in the land you have occupied, 35 the owner must come and report to the priest that there appears to him to be a patch of infection in his house. 36 The priest must order the house to be emptied before he goes in to examine the infection or everything in it will become unclean. After this the priest must go in to inspect the house.

37 If on inspection he finds the patch on the walls consists of greenish or reddish depressions, apparently going deeper than the surface, 38 he is to go out of the house, and at the entrance put it in quarantine for seven days. 39 On the seventh day he must return and inspect the house, and if the patch has spread in the walls, 40 he must order the infected stones to be pulled out and thrown away outside the town in an unclean place. 41 He must also then have the house scraped inside throughout, and all the daub they have scraped off is to be tipped outside the town in an unclean place. (REB)

More amusing Scripture verses and cartoons at Breadwig.

Broadway Shuts Down During Blackout

Hello, everyone --

This is my first post after a long absence. I've been back in the country for about three weeks after being in the Middle East for almost all of 2003, on a goodwill tour with the U.S. Marine Corps. It's good to be back to see my wife, children (one more arrived while I was away), home, etc., and it's good to be able to write things here once again.

I've thought of many things to comment upon, but I wanted to begin with one topic that's been troubling me for some time. A couple of weeks ago, PFC Jessica Lynch went home after months of physical therapy. For those of you who haven't watched the news this year, PFC Lynch is the U.S. soldier injured in an attack on her convoy in Nasiriyah, Iraq, on March 23. Initially, reports based on intercepted Iraqi radio transmissions said that she fought her attackers, but later evidence revealed that she was almost certainly unable to fight because of the massive injuries she suffered in her vehicle's collision.

So you probably know who Jessica Lynch is; you probably know that she has received a Bronze Star medal, as well as magazine covers, offers of exclusive, in-depth interviews, and all the attendant glories of saturation-level media coverage. She has a boyfriend who is a sergeant (in violation of Army fraternization rules). Her recovery looks like it will be complete.

I don't wish PFC Lynch ill -- quite the opposite. I was in Nasiriyah when special forces teams stormed the hospital where she was being kept, and as we knew the raid was imminent, I prayed for her safety. Our task force carried out an attack to divert attention away from the Lynch rescue. My civil affairs team, attached to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine infantry regiment, contributed to the intelligence that identified her location. (Several civilians came forward to tell us where she was being kept, and Marines on my team found evidence of her previous location which indicated that she was still alive. I had nothing to do with these efforts, as I happened to be carrying out other duties when these things happened.)

What bothers me isn't that she's famous. What does bother me is that two Marines laid down their lives trying to save her and her comrades, and nobody knows who they are. I don't even know their names, though I've spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure it out. They are two of the nine Marines who died on that sunny, mild day, but none of the news accounts or Pentagon reports that I've seen mention how each one died. Perhaps they think it's not important; I happen to think it is. The only reason I heard about them at all is because of two news stories that mentioned in passing that two Marines died while trying to get to Lynch's convoy, where several soldiers were dead or seriously wounded.

They were young men racing to the assistance of their countrymen, plunging themselves into imminent danger along with dozens of others. Unfortunately for them and their families, they were unlucky enough to be in the path of a bullet or the blast radius of a mortar shell. "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," Jesus said. These men gave their lives for complete strangers. And nobody knows their names.

It's possible that those news reports were wrong, though I did talk to Marines with that battalion who confirmed the details. Even if they are wrong, there were nine Marines and several soldiers who perished the same day. They weren't "news," though -- it's not counterintuitive for a 19-year-old guy from Brooklyn to die in battle. A pretty, wholesome-looking blond girl from a rural town makes for a much better profile in People magazine, and it has the novelty factor going for it. Also, news editors -- almost all of whom are parishioners at the Church of Diversity Uber Alles -- adore story lines involving women doing activities that men used to monopolize. From the moment the Iraqis dragged Lynch's unconscious body away from her wrecked Humvee, she was destined to be a media star.

This speaks volumes about our culture: the mass media not only have a warped sense of proportion and values, so do large numbers of media consumers as well; the media know their market, and they know lots of people are interested in stories like Jessica Lynch.

A part of my motivation is because on a few occasions during the battle for that city, my team could have met the same fate. Mainly, though, I believe at least some of the glory given to Lynch rightfully belongs to others, too. So if you know the names of the two Marines who died while rescuing that convoy, let me know. I'd like to pray for their souls by their names, and for their families.

A mathematician and a psychologist have devised a 94% reliable method for predicting whether couples will divorce.

[...] the couple's ability to communicate was marked using a scale that gave positive points for good signals and negative points for bad signals.

For example, jokes, a positive tone of voice, smiles and affectionate gestures all resulted in positive scores. Bad signals such as rolling of the eyes, criticism, mocking and coldness led to a negative score.

Rolling of the eyes, criticism, mocking, and coldness? Uh-oh: going by what's in this blog, I don't think I have any other modes of communication!

Check out da tings da Bible say!

(Thanks, eje.)

Being, as you know, the sole licensee of the well-loved ‘Kreative Katholic Kuisine with Sister Nuevo Mary’ cook- (kook?)book, I was appalled, yes, appalled to see the following recipe for Eucharistic Bread lifted from the above mentioned publication and pinned ostentatiously on the bulletin board of Christ the King Church in Abingdon, VA:

Sift Together: 2 c. stirred whole wheat flour
½ c. sifted white four
¾ tsp baking soda

Cut into above until crumbly: 2 rounded Tbsp. Crisco

Mix into above: 1 c. cold water
1 Tbsp. Honey (generous tbsp.)

(The directions for baking follow. *N.B. for N.O.: Blame them. I just copied it down as I found it.)

Now, I am sure that you have as many questions as I do. First, let me ask the question that all you armchair Mr. Wizards are thinking right now: How DO you make unleavened bread with baking soda? Oh, and is it really true that Crisco was widely available to the Jews when they were first directed to make the Passover bread? What is a generous tablespoon?

Now, of course, for those of you who have some sort of problem with ‘illicit’ and ‘invalid’ matter (what’s wrong with you?) you can see from the pop-up photo below that I took before Mass that BOTH kinds of matter (you know, the valid and the invalid) are available. But how would you make sure you got the Consecrated Host (and not just some bread) when you went up for Communion? When the Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion (which, for those of you who attend Christ the King and other such churches, is the CORRECT term) holds up that crumbly piece of Harvest Cake and says: “The Body of Christ.” Do you say (politely, of course): “No, its NOT.” Or do you simply say, as if you were at a fine restaurant, “No, I believe I’ll have Jesus, please.”

My husband and I usually go into North Carolina for Mass on Sundays whenever we are visiting in the Diocese of Richmond, but my father had assured us that Christ the King had a new priest.

Well, they didn’t.

The pastor there is still, but not for too much longer, Father Bob Krenic (he’s moving to some other lucky parish at the end of this month. I wonder how his new flock will react to his bag of tricks, such as: skipping the ‘Gloria’ every Sunday, changing the words of the Liturgy to suit his mood, encouraging everyone to join hands as if they were at an ‘Up With People’ rally, generally denying the Catholic faithful their right to the Mass, etc.)

Usually I wouldn’t name the priest or parish involved in such ridiculous and pitiful Liturgical shenanigans, but when I wrote Bishop Walter “French Leave” Sullivan about Fr. Krenic’s kooky Liturgical predilections a few years ago, he assured me (rather frostily too, I might add) that he, the bishop, stood behind him, Fr. Krenic, all the way. So, I figure, if Sullivan is pleased with the big doings in Abingdon, he’ll be happy to have them posted up on the Internet for everyone to see.

View image

Records from the Archdiocese of Boston appear to show that even after diocesan officials started tracking the sexual-abuse problem closely in 1993, they didn't face it:

"That is a fair thing to say: It wasn't until 2002 that we came to look at the depth of the problem that we had and we really began to address it," [spokesman Rev. Christopher] Coyne said.

Even as late as 1998 or '99, there was a time to bite the bullet and expose the problem, because the jubilee year called upon us in the Church to admit faults and seek pardon before God and man. There were some such confessions and apologies, mostly for faults committed hundreds of years ago: a good thing as far as it went; but there was a spiritual opportunity to go further, to acknowledge sins and failures that affected people living now, and the Cardinal let it go by. One can only wonder how different things would be now.

As Mark Shea has noticed, the Venice (FL) diocese has a puzzling poll question on its website this week. They're asking whether bishops should be appointed by the Pope or elected by the people of the diocese.

I think the answer is obvious. In an era when 70% of U.S. Catholics don't understand the doctrine of the Real Presence, we should regard the Catholic population here as in need of mission: in need of re-evangelization, conversion, and catechesis. It makes no sense for the recipients of mission to elect the missionary.

It's not the first time, either, that the Venice web site people have stuck their neck out with a strange question. It's conceivable that they may be doing so with the aim of encouraging an interest in apologetics, but the results of these unscientific polls are not much to be sanguine about.

On the other hand, there are some really good things going on in the Venice diocese: the opening of Ave Maria University this fall, the Monks of Adoration who moved there from Massachusetts, and the scholarly and prudent fez-wearing canonists who serve in the diocesan tribunal.

Parents Blame Selves for Children's Obesity

"My kid is lazy and overweight. I'm a failure... a terrible parent. I'm so depressed... where are my twinkies?"

Ninety percent of those surveyed were either very concerned or somewhat concerned with child obesity, the survey said.

And the other 10% said, "Get in the car kids, the Hot Donuts Now sign is flashing at Krispy Kreme!"

Because of homilies like this.

When you try to explain away the miraculous you end up with happy crap. And people can't grow spiritually from that. So they actively search out and grasp at anything that is other-wordly.

Shame on priests who turn miracles into coincidences and happy stories about sharing and being nice! Nice is not the password to get into heaven. If I ever hear a homily like that at my parish I will hang the priest up by his rainbow suspenders and not let him down until he says "Dominus vobiscum!" Seriously.

Moses Blah

Imagine the campaign signs (if there's ever an election)
"Blah for President"
"More Blah"
"Blah Blah Blah"
"Blah More Years"

Could I call having 3 eggs and 6 sausage links a "reasonable breakfast" ?

It seems that Democrats in the U.S. Senate are officially in favor of judicial candidates of Catholic background who have only "shallow" feelings about their faith, at least if one is to make any inference from their warnings to Attorney General William Pryor from Alabama that his "deeply held" feelings trouble them.

...

In short, Pryor's convictions on abortion and Roe are not merely personal to him, but socially very widely shared. No American majority has ever voted for our current abortion regime.

washtimes

CATONSVILLE, Md. — When the Rev. Steven R. Randall learned that his denomination had consented to the first openly homosexual bishop in mainline Protestantism, he decided he could no longer trust the Episcopal Church and its leaders.
...
Comparing the denomination to a hijacked airliner, Mr. Randall said the Episcopal Church "will carry more people to hell than it will save. It is a flying coffin doomed to destruction and despair."
"People will say I am just bailing out, but I am following God's call as best I can. I don't have a golden parachute. I will lose my pension, insurance, paycheck and all my benefits."

Is it just me, or is Mark Steyn's comments on the whole Episcopal ratification of Gene Robinson just the absolutely best piece that has been written on this whole fiasco? (Thanks to the web-elves at CANN for tipping me off.) Here's a few choice comments:

So now the most celebrated symbol of Granite State manhood is the Great Gay Face, the Reverend Gene Robinson. And, although I'm feeling a little gayed out these days, since folks insist on pressing me, let me say a couple of things about the Episcopal Church's and the Anglican Communion's first gay bishop. And by gay, I don't mean one of those fainthearted CofE "celibate gays" like poor doomed Jeffrey John. Personally, I thought the much touted celibacy of Canon John and his friend had a whiff of the old "but I didn't inhale" about it: as my colleague Barbara Amiel summarised Clinton's defence in the Monica business, "But I didn't impale."

By contrast, Canon Robinson, a proudly "practising" gay, decided to shoot for the whole enchilada - daring the dithering nellies of his Church to take not one small tentative first step but a giant leap for mankind. He had the courage of his concupiscence, and he has been rewarded for it.

Yes, Victor's blog has proof that he and Fr. Sibley are for real. Or at least are real.

Over lunch today Professor Russell Hittinger gave a lecture at the conference about Pope Leo XIII (Gioacchino Pecci). He mentioned that before Leo XIII's papacy, his predecessor had issued the famous "Syllabus of Errors", a wide-ranging list of doctrinal errors Catholics were to shun, and Bp. Pecci had contributed to the document's draft. For better or worse, the Pope didn't adopt his suggestion for the document's title: "Mary, Exterminator of Heresies".

On hearing that, the folks at our table, including Fr. Sibley, exchanged the thumbs-up sign: we think it was a great title: it would sound good, say, in the name of a religious order, or even just a local church ("I go to Mass at Mary Exterminator of Heresies Parish")!

(Posting from Ypsilanti this weekend at Ave Maria's Thomistic Theology conference.)

Here's one for the "Credit where it's due" department:

I used to think that "Soeur Sourire" was just the lamest thing possible: a nun with a guitar back in 1964 singing some silly song she wrote. It made the top pop-charts -- one of the rare times a foreign-language song did so well. But I have been writing her off as a symbol of the whole disaster of trendy nuns falling for pop culture and losing the faith.

On the other hand, have you ever seen the lyrics -- the original ones in French? They're quite faith-filled: they're all about St. Dominic preaching to (and against) the Albigensian heretics: and the song even calls them that. It sounds all happy-clappy, but the text is quite triumphal.

(Ignore the English version on the page linked above: it's not the real thing.)

Alas, poor Soeur Sourire and her vocation did end up on the rocks: she did leave religious life, like so many others, and came to a bad end in 1985, another washed-up one-hit wonder. If only she'd stuck with St. Dominic!

Genetically Modified (GM) foods are creating a stir as advocates for feeding the hungry and the Don't Mess With Nature crowd go at it.

This article signals that the winds of change may be fluffing up some cassocks at the Vatican.

But the quotes attributed to what looks like a homily given by JPII don't specifically address GM foods:

In 2000, for example, Pope John Paul II, speaking at a special Vatican mass dedicated to agriculture, called on farmers to "resist the temptation of high productivity and profit that work to the detriment of the respect of nature," adding that "when (farmers) forget this basic principle and become tyrants of the earth rather than its custodians ... sooner or later the earth rebels."

This could easily have been referring to farming practices that have nothing to do with genetic modification.

The best quote from the article:
It's "easy to say no to GM food if your stomach is full."
That from Monsignor Velasio De Paolis, professor of canon law at the Pontifical Urban University.

O'Reilly would admire its pithiness.

And here's the snarky last paragraph that seems to have at least some truth:

Although views from the Vatican usually do not have an impact on policy in developed countries, it's opinions are thought to be taken into serious consideration when laws are developed in Catholic parts of the developing world, such as South and Central America, and parts of Africa and southeast Asia.

If this report on the local news in Detroit is right, one priest is begging for a smackdown.

Fifteen families who complained that their pastor let his defrocked brother say Mass at his parish got letters telling them the were no longer welcome at the church.

Something tells me that correct canonical procedure was not quite followed, and parishioner Adam Nguyn seems to know that:"Whatever happened, I'm not going to leave until the pope come and say to me, Adam, you cannot participate in the church."

You tell 'em, Mr. Nguyn!

An article from the Canada Family Action Coalition about a teacher who was canned for criticizing B.C. sex-ed courses.

The courses failed, he said, to show that homosexual relationships are demonstrably unstable, that homosexual activity poses a health risk, and that many religions consider homosexual conduct immoral. Kempling made no such comments in class.

It goes on to say:

Meanwhile, a Commons committee is considering a bill that would make the reading of biblical injunctions against homosexuality in a church a "hate crime" under the Criminal Code.

God help us all.

Ignoring the smell of brimstone and the tongues of flame scorching their khakis, Espiscopal church leaders passed a resolution giving dioceses the option of blessing same-sex unions. From the WaPo:

The church's House of Bishops approved the measure by an overwhelming voice vote after removing language that had called for developing a nationwide official liturgy for same-sex commitment ceremonies.

While gay rights advocates were giving each other high-fives, others criticized the vote that come on the heels Rev. V. Gene Robinson's confirmation as a bishop in New Hampshire.

"They passed a local option, and a local option translates into anything goes," said the Rev. David C. Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council, a group devoted to biblical orthodoxy. "Of course yesterday they voted to break 2,000 years of biblical faith and mores, and we're just beginning to grapple with the fallout from that." Some delegates to the church's General Convention here wore ashes on their foreheads and others walked out of today's legislative sessions...

...one deputy read a vociferous protest, repeating a call made by 19 bishops Tuesday for intervention by the archbishop of Canterbury, the communion's spiritual leader, and the heads of its member churches.

"We believe this is a profound misstep contrary to the word of God and the traditions of the church Catholic," said the Rev. Kendall Harmon, a theologian from South Carolina. "But understand this clearly: We are not leaving the church. It is rather the church that has left the historic faith and has fractured the Anglican Communion, for whose restoration we pledge our faithful and loving efforts."

I pray for the conversion of those who have been duped into believing the "I'm ok" theology of our time. Maybe it's a lack of faith on my part, but I'm not hopeful that the order of the Episcopal church will be restored.

NR's John Derbyshire, an eminently reasonable and tolerant Episcopalian, is having second thoughts about tolerance itself. With this week's approval of Canon Robinson, he has realized that the homosexualist lobby is not as willing as he is to leave others a broad sphere of private opinion, but demands approval and aims to silence opposition. In such a situation, truly libertarian tolerance is not possible: one side or the other -- the normal or the abnormal -- will dominate.

Perhaps our grandfathers were wiser than us. Perhaps there are some things that we, the normal majority, SHOULD, deliberately and consciously, disapprove and marginalize.

My favorite lesbian, the iconoclastic Camille Paglia, was interviewed for three hours on C-SPAN last Sunday, and offered a relevant insight. Although she's in a ten-year-long relationship, and her partner recently gave birth, she is not a supporter of "same-sex marriage". Paglia understands that marriage is essentially a religious rite, and as she is an atheist, it does not correspond to her beliefs. She observes that societies that give official sanction to homosexuality through "marriage" are generally decadent, and this worries her, because she wants Western civilization to survive. She argues that the principal civil effects gay people want (the ability to inherit, to be involved in medical decisions, etc.) can be achieved through wills, power-of-attorney agreements, etc., so the clamoring for marriage is unnecessary -- and even sometimes hysterical.

Back to Derbyshire: he worries that the same trends wrecking the Episcopal Church are underway in the Catholic Church. He's right: but Catholics have a reason for hope. Unlike Episcopalians who believe as a matter of course that Church councils can err and have erred -- that the official teaching Church is fallible -- Catholics believe that the official teaching Church is protected by a gift of the Holy Spirit who keeps her from accepting and embracing error in her doctrines. If this doctrine is true, the Catholic Church will always survive, preaching the Gospel, and the gates of Hell shall not stand against her.

A number of you have asked what happened to the Catholic march John Pacheco was attempting to organize in Canada with regards to the legalization of so-called same-sex marriage. It is still on, but has subsequently merged with an ecumenical effort being put together by Canadians Against Same Sex Marriage. Please note the new URL.

Lane Core has put together his Suggested Reading for Episcopalians Troubled in Conscience. All of these books are available on the internet. I encourage you to check them out.

"Remember: every sect in the world feeds off of the Catholic Church. Our Holy Catholic Church is like a great and extremely precious unpolished diamond, from which every so often somebody takes a particle and polishes it-not without the help of the evil one-so that it begins to shine better than the great unpolished diamond. And this shine draws men, dazzles them and deceives them, so that the particle necessarily is worn out and comes to nothing. This is the game of deception, which appears and reappears with time. Jesus warned us to watch out for it!"

A quote attributed to St. Pio of Pietrelcina in the book Stories of Padre Pio by Madame Katharina Tangari.

Episcopal leaders approve gay bishop

Miss Welborn has announced that she'll be moving soon to a new blog service.

Update your links, folks.

Church to Vote Today on Gay Bishop-Elect - foxnews.com

MINNEAPOLIS — The investigation into misconduct allegations against a priest seeking to become the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop has concluded, and a vote on his confirmation will take place late in the afternoon, the head of the church said Tuesday.

If yes, what are you going to do about it?

The Catholic Test
Two hudred years after the Framers renounced them, Senate Democrats have reinvented the Test Act.
by Hugh Hewitt

Dave Kopel in The Corner today:

In Canada, "hate crime" cases have been brought against conservative religious spokespersons who have quoted what the Bible actually says about homosexuality. Criticism of gays has also been censored in Sweden. Gay marriage is an important public policy issue which should be broadly and vigorously debated, and every side in that debate should receive full protection of their freedom of speech. As I've argued elsewhere, "hate crime" laws amount to improper discrimination. Rather than expanding the American "hate crime" laws to include gays, all such laws should be repealed, and everyone should be guaranteed the equal protection of the law, without regard to sexual orientation, race, or religion. Never have Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, or the other leaders of the "religious right" supported criminalizing the mere advocacy of gay marriage. Yet in many Western nations, the freedom of speech for persons who do not support the gay agenda is being eliminated.

A spiritual Hallmark moment.

A longer preview from Harvest Online - the internet arm of Harvest Christian Fellowship.

Now a bit about HCF.

Review their "Statement of Faith" which is about as close to a creed as one can get. Here's how it begins:

WE BELIEVE
the Bible to be the only inspired, infallible, and authoritative Word of God. [emphasis mine]

Oops. That's not right. Hmmm.

This is what Pastor Greg Laurie of HCF has to say about the screening:

It was recently my privilege to view an advance unedited copy of Mel Gibson's new film "The Passion". Mr.Gibson was present during the viewing and welcomed input as he is now in the editing process. Let me just say that "The Passion" is the most powerful and effective portrayal of the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus Christ I have ever seen. I was moved to tears a number of times and was on the edge of my seat for the entire film.

I'm happy that Gibson is reaching out to our mere Christian brothers and sisters. This film could be a great tool for evangelization and ecumenism.

Judging by the search-engine hits that lead people to our site, some of our readers are probably wondering why we haven't commented on the current fuss in the Episcopal Church. Poor things: they only seem to attract public attention when they're in the process of jettisoning another element of the Christian faith.

This time, as you know, the fracas is over whether they'll approve as a bishop a (1) openly gay (2) divorced minister, who is (3) in an active non-marital sexual relationship. Once upon a time, those would have been three disqualifications for the Biblical office of bishop, but that is no longer the case.

The story took a soap-opera turn today, when a male accuser from the past popped up to call the Reverend Canon, in an interesting choice of words, a "skirt-chaser".

What will happen? Will conservatives sway some last-minute votes and keep the status quo in place? Will Robinson slip through anyway? Will Canterbury try to hold things together with a "two province" solution that lets the Episcopal Church split, but keeps both parts in the Anglican Communion? Will Third-World Evangelicals go along?

The outcome doesn't affect the Catholic Church much at all: the ECUSA has not been a reliable partner in ecumenical relations for some time, and whether they stay together or break up, the resulting bodies don't seem likely to be much more internally coherent than the current EC. But I could be proved wrong.

This Nawlins crack-up could have come right from his pages.

Here's the intro to my latest over at Enter State Right:

Less than two months ago, Prime Minister Jean Chretien was assuring Canadians that the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada would not lead to religious persecution. Various religious bodies in Canada would be permitted to continue holding and teaching their beliefs. My how things changed have changed over the summer. According to a recent article in the Globe and Mail, Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe of the Diocese of Sault Ste Marie is now under attack by some among Canada's political and social elite. Why? Because he had the audacity to take the Prime Minister at his word and clarify Catholic teaching for Catholic politicians who prefer to fudge the issue. [continue]

Boy, this is an odd case. How did I miss it when it happened last year?

Observers of the ecumenical scene will recall that there are currently three substantial Orthodox bodies competing for legitimacy in Ukraine.

Last year, one bishop of the Kyivan patrarchate apparently decided to advance ecumenical relationships in his own way: by getting involved in another church's fringe groups. He paid a visit to a schismatic traditionalist Catholic sect in the US, went through some sort of ceremony, and signed some sort of document; and they announced that he had "abjured his errors" and entered into full communion with them -- in effect, become a sedevacantist Catholic. I don't know about you, but to me that doesn't necessarily look like a move upward.

A few weeks later, Bishop Yurii was back at home denying that he had had any intention of doing what he appeared to have done, and agreeing to the appointment of another bishop to watch over his eparchy.

The links above show all the information I have about this case, so it's hard to tell what was really going on, but I'm guessing that there was some medical explanation for all this.

Father Benedict Groeschel, CFR was presider and homilist today at the noon Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. I had the blessing of attending the Mass and the book signing afterwards. I got my copy of Listening at Prayer signed. Here are some photos. Click on the images to see them full-size.

Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe of the Diocese of Sault Ste Marie has come out with a pretty strongly-worded statement against Catholic politicians who advocate so-called same-sex marriage. (Thanks to Mark Cameron for tipping me off.) As many of you know, I hail from Sudbury, Canada. Growing up, Mgr. Plouffe was my diocesan Bishop. We had some good times together, since my father was one of his deacons, as well as some tense times -- Bishop Plouffe tended to be on the progressive side of things, while I'm definitely conservative. Regardless, Bishop Plouffe has been very supportive of me in my journey as a canonist -- he too is a canon lawyer -- and thus it pains me to see him come under attack for stating the Catholic position, both clearly and concisely. I pray that he will hold the course, and ask you to pray for him as well.

Can you believe this one: here's how the CBC's international service spins a bishop's criticism of the Government's "gay marriage" proposal:

CALGARY: COUNCIL OF BISHOPS WON'T CENSOR HENRY
There will not be any reprimands for an outspoken Canadian Catholic bishop who suggested last week that Prime Minister Jean Chretien's soul was in jeopardy over the legalization of same-sex marriage. Peter Schonenbach of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops says the bishops don't have the authority to reprimand Calgary Bishop Fred Henry. Bishop Schonenbach says Bishop Henry is entitled to his opinion. Bishop Henry appears unrepentant. He says Catholic people have been asking when someone is going to remind Catholic politicians of their responsibilities. A spokesman for Mr. Chretien says his primary responsibility is to the Canadian people, not to his religion.

The mere suggestion that Bishop Henry be reprimanded is galling.

But there is good news: Toronto's archbishop has directed priests to preach the Church's teaching on the subject.

Well the side-bar is not completely accurate. I finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and went on to finish the much longer fourth book as well. Then last Thursday, I broke down and purchased Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix in hardcover (although between the sale price and my discount card, I only paid 60% of the cover price for it). Initially, I was going to wait for the soft cover to come it. Believe it or not, I finished it this morning -- over 800 pages of it!

I find it amazing that J.K. Rowling is still as fresh in fifth book as in the first. Definitely worth the three-year wait. Yet I found it much more of an adult novel than a children's one. Whereas the first book was simply a fun children's tale of good vs. evil -- in itself refreshing in this age of relativism -- I found the fifth book much darker as Harry struggles through adolescence, various shades of gray and some of his heroes begin to show weakness or character flaws.

That being said, and I am sure this is probably not the intention of the author, but in many ways the book struck me as a metaphor for the culture war and the current attempt of the homosexual movement to legalize same-sex marriage. The Weasley family definitely strikes me as having a Catholic outlook on things, especially as it concerns the family. With seven children, the second most important thing to Arthur and Molly Weasley are their family, and the various sacrafices they make for their marriage and for their children is a constant theme throughout the series. While the younger kids sometimes grumble about being poor, the parents find their hapiness in making these sacrafices for their children. And even when they cannot afford to do so, they also take in Harry (an orphan) and others in need. There is no bitterness over their poverty; their pleasure lay in stretching the budget to provide as warm a home to their children (and other children in need) as possible.

Which leads me to the one thing they won't sacrafice for the financial welfare of their family -- namely, their belief in doing kindness unto others and the difference between right and wrong. What's interesting is that emotionally this becomes very for Mrs. Weasley at three points during the book. At the first point, she must sacrafice her relationship with one of her children to do the right thing. At a second point, she realizes that doing the right thing could endanger the lives of her children. At at the third point, she discovers her husband is bordering on death in the hospital because of serious injuries that arose from a situation in which he was fighting evil.

On a similar note, Prof. McGonagal has all the qualities of a mother superior from a Catholic teaching order. She has sacrificed her prospects for marriage and family for the education of students, with whom she is strict but fair. The students may not always appreciate this, but for her teaching the students the difference between right and wrong is much more than a career -- it is a vocation. This can be seen through her loyalty to the school and its headmaster, even when it endangers her future. The same cannot be said for the new Defense Against Dark Arts teacher, who is definitely has all the qualities of a career-orientated radical feminist.

And of course, Dumbledore has all the qualities of a wise and cunning Jesuit. He possesses a lot of power, but only wields it when necessary -- and always in the cause of good, even if it costs him worldly honors. In fact, some of the funniest lines in the book involve Dumbledore for this reason. One example is when he's stripped of most of his worldly honors and positions of authority for telling the truth, despite the fact that the truth is not popular. "He said he doesn't care," one of the students remarks, "as long as they don't remove him from the Chocolate Frog Cards" (the wizarding world's equivalent to baseball cards.)

On the other hand, the Death Eaters have infiltrated the Ministry of Magic reminds me of how the agents of the culture of death have infiltrated our cultural and political institutions. Notice how Mr. Malfoy, one of the richest wizards and principle followers of the Dark Lord, only has one child. He and his son are also always mocking the Weasleys over their poverty, their kindness to others and the size of their family. Mr. Malfoy denies in public he's a follower of the Dark Lord and basically uses his money to exert pressure over various institutions in the wizarding world. In a sense, the rise of the Death Eaters in the fifth book reminds me of how homosexual activists have risen to push through their agenda of gay marriage. Anyway, these are just a few parrallels I see between Harry Potter and the culture wars.

This is my dog Eva (the black one) with her best friend Chaka. Both are very pretty muts.

I snapped a picture of Sprit-filled Christian Guy wearing a St. John t-shirt.

I asked him, "Which St. John does your shirt refer to? John of the Cross? John the Baptist? John Vianney? John the Great Sinner?"

"Um - St. John one of the Virgin Islands?" he replied.

Gays hit back at Vatican

Episcopalians face divisive issue of gays at convention

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (AP) -- No one said a thing during the Episcopal service when two men wearing earrings and full liturgical dress kissed each other on the mouth while other worshippers exchanged less personal greetings.

Gay Episcopal bishop candidate receives panel's OK

Hustler Publisher Flynt to Run For California Governor

Traficant committee announces a presidential exploratory committee

"Someone buy the Washington establishment a bottle of Maalox." -- Marcus Belk

The US diocesan appointments came out on Friday this week.

The Pope has appointed Bp. Nicholas DiMarzio of Camden, NJ to succeed 75-year-old Bp. Thomas Daily in the country's largest non-archdiocese diocese. For readers wanting to get to know Bp. DiMarzio better, here's a collection of his columns for the Camden diocesan paper.

Elsewhere, Bp. Sam Jacobs is being transferred from Alexandria (LA) to Houma-Thibodaux, succeeding Bp. Michael Jarrell (now in Lafayette). Also, Msgr. Peter Jugis is being appointed to Charlotte (NC). May God prosper their work!