Amazing - the Bush campaign is refuting Kerry's claims with his own words, including video, while the debate is going on. They are really on the ball over there! Think of the all the info they had to have on hand in order to do this so quickly.
And there is some sassy coverage at the Corner.
Sizing up the 'wives of' at townhall.com.
Two quotable quotes, one from the beginning and one from the end, in this piece about how the First Lady, or the prospective First Lady, shows just what her husband is made of.
A schoolboy once asked Nancy Reagan how she liked being married to the president. "Fine," she answered with a wry smile, "as long as the president is Ronald Reagan."
...
A man marries a woman, not a prospective first lady, but how a first lady projects her husband's message tells us as much about him as it does about her.
I'd like this so I can use an aggregator to read the blogs. It's much more convenient than reading them in a web browser. I remember seeing some kind soul had exported a file with all the feeds but I can't remember who has it. If anyone out there knows who generated this or where I can get a list please let me know!
Thanks!
Bp. Kurt Krenn has resigned from his diocese in Austria in the wake of a seminary sex scandal.
The Alexandria Day School, where tuition is about $15,000 a year, accidently served margaritas to its students at lunch. The school had to issue an apology to parents.
I don't see what the big deal is -- if you're charging fifteen grand to teach multiplication tables to 8-year-olds, I think the kids should drink for free.
From Lifesite, via Amy:
Bp. Rene Gracida (retired, Corpus Christi) reveals his efforts to dissuade a "pro-choice Catholic" politician from his errors. After the politician gave no response to the bishop's letters of correction and warning, Bp. Gracida applied the penalty of "interdict", which forbids the offender from receiving the sacraments of the Eucharist or Anointing of the Sick.
If I understand aright, this is close to the approach Pete has recommended, and I can see why: the letters of instruction, the warnings, and even the choice of interdict rather than excommunication help to show that the bishop's aim is to dissuade, correct, and reform the erring Catholic, and not to 'expel' him from the Church. The bishop even goes so far as to keep the process private between himself and the dissenter, unless he finds that the latter disregards the penalty and insists on receiving the Eucharist.
Sad to say, the politician in this case died in 2001, apparently without recanting his errors. And what gain did his worldly-minded supporters give him in reward for his stubbornness? The power and privilege of being a member of the state legislature: which is to say, not much.
Thank you, Bp. Gracida, for your efforts to correct a sinner and defend the sacredness of human life and of the Most Holy Sacrament. May the Lord always keep us (or make us, to the extent that we are not) faithful to His Gospel.
Update: I previous had Bp. Gracida's title wrong, but have fixed it now.
What with four hurricanes pummeling Florida, Iran going nuclear, Iraq going nuts, an earthquake in California, and Mount St. Helens getting indigestion the end must be near. Oh, and I forgot to mention George Soros. He's a sign the end is near as well. I went to confession today and purchased seven years worth of canned goods at Costco. Got my absentee ballot application, too. For 2008. Hillary and Obama against whom?
In Eagle Pass, Texas, Border Patrol agents found a five-foot figure of our Lord washed up from the Rio Grande, and devout faithful are welcoming it.
"Buried Treasure - Can the Church recover her musical heritage?" in the online version of the Adoremus Bulliten
This includes such favorites as Tra le Sollicitudini by Pope St. Pius X and Mediator Dei and Musicae Sacrae Disciplina by Pope Pius XII.
An excellent article! Especially the conclusion which I have copied below.
Over on the Kerry Spot on NRO.
Blogger Slings and Arrows is on the "secret plan" beat, and has found that Kerry has accused Bush of having secret plans to privatize Social Security, wage nuclear war, cut social services, manipulate oil prices to benefit the Saudis, cut VA Benefits, cut Education Funding, and send jobs overseas.Meanwhile, Kerry has refused to specify some of his foreign policy and economic proposals... because they're secret, and "as president there's huge leverage that will be available to me, enormous cards to play, and I'm not going to play them in public. I'm not going to play them before I'm president."
Could this be a case of projection?
Cheryl Ford, the Registered Nurse who is assisting the Schindler family in their quest to save their daughter Terri from the Culture of Death, recently joined St. Blog Parish. As we have come to expect from Cheryl, it is spirited, professional and contains much compelling information. Please stop by Fight4Terri.blogspot.com and say hello.
Additionally, Fr. Rob Johansen is reporting that Terri's parents will be on Larry King Live tonight.
Surprised by Canon Law!
150 Questions Catholics Ask about Canon Law
by Pete Vere & Michael Trueman
Forward by Patrick Madrid
For centuries, canon law has been for most Catholics a mysterious and esoteric aspect of Catholicism, […] Not anymore. - Patrick Madrid, Envoy Magazine
Vere and Trueman have made canon law accessible to the average Catholic for the first time. - Karl Keating, Catholic Answers
From time to time, all Catholics have them: nagging questions about church life, often prompted by some personal encounter or challenging situation:
Is a layperson allowed to preach a homily?
Is a pastor required to report to someone regarding parish finances, or is he on his own?
It seems like the parish council is running your parish. Does it have the authority to do so?
Must a child be baptized in a church, or may the baptism take place at home?
Surprised by Canon Law tackles these and many other questions, all of which have been formally addressed by the Roman Catholic Church's Code of Canon Law. The Code-the internal legal system that governs the church's day-to-day workings-deals with far-flung concerns of interest to the person-in-the-pew. This practical guide to the Code provides answers to a range of questions, from "Can the pope resign?" to the more sensitive query "Do you have the right to tell your bishop what the diocese needs?"
In straightforward language the authors discuss the nuts-and-bolts of church life, making canon law accessible to the everyday Catholic.
This volume is readable, interesting, pastoral and completely faithful to Church teaching and discipline. – Fr. Peter Stravinskas, The Catholic Response
I recommend it as a valuable starting point for anyone interested in becoming familiar with canon law. + Adam Cardinal Maida, Archbishop of Detroit
To order your copy today, please visit SurprisedbyCanonLaw.com or call 1-800-488-0488.
That we’ve misunderstood the beheadings. Some snippets:
This is not about us — it is about them. The beheading films are recruitment tools. They've been around for a long time, part and parcel of the first generation of "jihad" home movies, circulated mostly in North Africa to excite homicidal fanatics and lure them into the Islamist bands. The main difference between then and now is that their marketing and distribution have improved, thanks to their comrades at al Jazeera and al Arabiya, and the Internet.
...
We cannot wage an effective war unless we understand the nature of our enemy. If we do not grasp that the terrorists' ranks are full of people who are there precisely because they are thrilled by the prospect of beheading human beings, we will fail to see the war through to its necessary conclusion. The beheadings are about them, not us. They show us very important things we need to know: What they are, what they want, what they will do if we do not stop them.
Read the whole thing!
Green vs. black by Thomas Sowell in the washington times today. This will make your head spin.
Among the many luxuries wealth can buy is insulation from reality -- the most dangerous luxury of all. Another dangerous luxury is a sense of being one of the wonderfully special people with superior wisdom and virtue. Environmental extremism flourishes among those who can afford both luxuries.Did you know people in the wealthy San Francisco suburb of Sausalito, across the bay, own 80,000 acres of land in Kenya? What are they doing with it? They are setting it aside as a nature preserve,to keep poor people in Kenya from hunting animals for food on those 80,000 acres.
As one of Zell's Angels (traditional Democrat supporting Bush), I find it laughable when certain people claim that Kerry has Bush beat on every social justice issue of interest to Catholics apart from abortion. So I'm happy to see the following website that shows where Kerry fails on a whole bunch of social justice issues of interest to Catholics.
FYI: An AP article on soldier bloggers in Iraq.
I mentioned some time ago that I was organizing a monthly chant Mass at my suburban parish in Stoneham, MA. Well, the project reached a milestone with our first such Mass Sunday evening, and everything came off just fine. Here's what we did:
Before Mass: the Introit Omnia quae fecisti
Procession Hymn: Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven
Kyrie XVI
Glory to God, recited
Psalm 146 (in English): verses on tone V; refrain to an OCP setting
Alleluia, on the simple tone from Jubilate Deo; verse in English on tone VI
Creed: recited
At the offertory: I transplanted the Gradual Oculi omnium and we sang it at this time.
Sanctus XVIII
Memorial Acclamation: Danish Amen Mass
Great Amen: Danish Amen Mass
Our Father: recited
Agnus Dei XVIII
Communion Hymn: Shepherd of Souls, Refresh and Bless
Communion Antiphon: Memento verbi tui, with verses from ps. 118
Hymn: To Jesus Christ, our Sovereign King
The propers were sung a cappella; everything else was done with organ accompaniment.
I haven't tried to recruit folks from the parish yet, but invited in some "ringers", volunteers mostly from the schola of the indult Mass in Boston, including our organist member Randolph Nichols. I'm exceedingly grateful to them all for coming out to spread the beauty of the Church's proper music (and not standing me up for the first such event I've ever organized!).
The congregation sang the ordinary well, especially the Kyrie; Shepherd of Souls wasn't familiar to some, but they did all right on the other hymns.
After Mass, a few people came by to thank us, including one very enthusiastic lady, a revert who has been watching Mass on EWTN and pining for something like that in a real parish. She was thrilled to hear "real hymns".
When the celebrant thanked us at the end of the Mass, he mentioned we'll be here again monthly: so I guess we're confirmed to be in.
Interesting. Even Newsweek is admitting that abortion is killing the Democrat Patry by driving Catholic voters -- a traditional Democrat constituency -- over to the GOP. Here are some interesting excerpts from the article in question:
The Democrats are likely to lose the Catholic vote in November—and John Kerry could well lose the election as a result. It’s about abortion, stupid. And “choice,” make no mistake, is killing the Democratic Party.
[cut]
It begins with the tale of Tom Ampleman, “a blue-collar union member who lives … just outside St. Louis, says he voted for Bill Clinton twice and then Al Gore, but … is now grappling with deep religious misgivings about the Democratic Party.” He says, “I’m not happy with the moral issues at all with the Democrats. The Republicans will hurt me in the long run in providing for my family, but it’s probably more important to watch out for the unborn and that kind of stuff.”
First, I find it wonderful that there are Tom Amplemans out there for whom voting is not only an economic calculation—a what’s-in-it-for-me? decision—but a moral exercise, a matter of trying to do the right thing.
But Democrats don’t seem to get that. And they don’t get Tom at all.
...that you've been thinking: where has Schultz been? I mean, even Pete has posted more than I have lately.
The answer is: I am up to my eyebrows in schoolwork. I have an eight page paper due on Monday at midnight on Competitive Intelligence and Agent technology. If anyone has access to an online library that has the "Competitive Intelligence Review" you can be my friend forever.
The good news - this is the last paper of the seminar. I start finance in two weeks, and I'm looking forward to the shift. I graduate in June 2005 and will be able to spend more time with my wife.
Nihil O: are you in the mood to proof read my paper?
which St. Blogs parishoner wrote this without clicking on the link?
I plan to kill some Ewoks later today.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
And, I might add, not a moment too soon. I doubt all the contemplatives on the planet couldn't hold back God's wrath with their prayer and mortifications if this were broadcast.
"Popetown," featuring the voices of comedienne Ruby Wax as the pontiff and model Jerry Hall as a fame-hungry nun, was commissioned for the digital channel BBC3. The animation featured corrupt cardinals and an infantile pope who bounced around the Vatican on a pogo stick.Try blasphemous and sacrilegious, not "scurriously funny." What the hell is "creative risk" anyway? Why don't they admit they just want to sell ads and be done with it.BBC chiefs said Thursday it was too offensive to broadcast.
"After a lot of consideration and consultation, balancing the creative risk with the potential offense to some parts of the audience, we have decided not to transmit the program," said BBC3 Controller Stuart Murphy.
"Despite all the creative energy that has gone into this project and the best efforts of everyone involved, the comic impact of the delivered series does not outweigh the potential offense it will cause," he added. "There is a fine judgment line in comedy between the scurrilously funny and the offensive."
The Muslim formerly known as Cat Stevens was deported from the US because of potential links to terrorists. -link via Drudge
My older brother used to listen to his hippy crap. I always hated it with a burning passion. Even thinking about "Peace Train" makes me want to staple myself to a burning building so I might have something else to think about. I suppose I hate so much even to this day because a lot of modern liturgical music sounds like his banal style. Even the memory of Stevens singing "Morning Has Broken" gives me the urge to kill puppies and kittens. Yeah, it's that bad. Maybe I need therapy - music therapy even. I'm going to listen to "The Dream of Gerontius" three times between now and dinner.
Jesu, spes poenitentibus
Quam pius te petentibus
Quam bonus te quaerentibus
O quid invenientibus?
Jesus, hope of the penitent
How kind you are to those who ask
How good you are to those who seek
What must You be to those who find?
Beautiful! And An apt quote also for the memorial of St. Pio of Pietrelcina.
But why now? This should have been military policy long ago.
This whole unfortunate incident with [sic.] "Catholics for Free Choice" filing a complaint with the IRS against Catholic Answers' voting guide has got me thinking. In the heat of the election campaign, I think we Catholics have to pay closer attention to the truthfulness of our statements. For example, many of my fellow Catholics have accused John Kerry of being a flip-flop and of never keeping his promises. Well, what do the facts say?
In a 1984 interview, Kerry promised to vote against "Any restrictions on age, consent, funding restrictions, or any law to limit access to abortion." (John Kerry As Quoted In "Mass. Senate Candidates Quizzed On Women’s Issues," Sojourner: The Women’s Forum, 6/30/84)
To the best of my knowledge, Kerry has never broken his word in this regard. For twenty years, Kerry has consistently voted against any legislation that would limit abortion. I have yet to see anyone expose or bring to light an exception. So rather than being a liar and a flip-flop, Kerry has kept his promise when it comes to supporting the barbaric butchery of our children in the womb.
I heard today's vocabulary word from a pundit on Fox News; I hope you enjoy it too.
A couple of weeks ago, some former CBS exec derided bloggers who criticized that network's journalistic failings as a bunch of guys sitting at home in their pajamas, typing mere opinions -- definitely not worthy of the Tiffany Network's attention.
Today CBS acknowledged that the documents in the Rathergate case were indeed forgeries, and that they shouldn't have run the story. The PJ-clad warriors of the net turned out to be some competent fact-checking ninjas.
Gee, and I thought I had it bad with my 2001 KIA Sportage. (I'm still waiting, almost seven weeks later, for their customer service support to fax me a letter they claim to have sent out six weeks' ago. I need this before Friday to import the car if I wish to avoid a nasty fine.) This poor fellow allegedly hasn't even racked up 30,000 miles and his KIA has been in the shop nine times! (Mine has only been in the shop three times over the past year. And the second time was shortly within the first, so I'm tempted to count them as one breakdown.)
Here are some other horror stories with KIA cars. To be honest, mine has performed quite well since the first two visits (mind you, the car is in the shop having its brakes looked at as I blog this), but the customer service in trying to have this car imported has been horrible. For example, when I called KIA Canada today to complain, George at Extention 5085 said there was nothing KIA Canada could do because the car was purchased in the US. He would neither forward my call to a manager nor provide me with a last name. "I don't have a last name," he snapped when I ask. "It is just George at Ext. 5085."
Jason Cook at KIA USA was pretty polite this morning, but he couldn't forward my call to the department allegedly looking after this or wouldn't give me their phone number. But if I think he said some guy named Wayne Spencer was suppose to be looking after it, and Jason stated he would pass him along my name and phone number. I'm still waiting to hear back.
No, it's not a scene from an Indiana Jones movie or some hip-hop music video.
The Oriental potentate in the pic is the real-life Crown Prince of Brunei with his Swiss-born wife, a commoner, at their wedding service. The pièce de résistance in the bling department is, you'll note, the "bouquet" of gold and diamonds.
The sinister jazzy sound of the MIDI file embedded on this page is about as far as you can get from this pop duo's sweet version.
...and it is co-sponsored by none other than John Kerry's fellow MA senator. Here's pretty much what you can expect if this bill passes.
I’m reading a book by Dom Columba Marmion, O.S.B. called “Christ – the Ideal of the Priest.” Marmion had a number of great books published by B. Herder Book Co. but they have been out of print for years. A publisher should pick them up again. From what I’ve read so far all his works appear to be treasures.
“I find I am greatly helped in the recitation of the divine Office by the thought that I am really an ambassador sent by the Church many times each day to bear a message to the throne of the Most High. This message must be presented in the terms and according to the ceremonial prescribed by the Church.”
The same applies to Mass, of course. Someone please tell the libs!
When it comes to thugging our children, Team Kerry/Edwards/Fonda are equal opportunists...
During my frisking of [sic.] Katholics for Dean earlier this year, I stated something to the effect that pro-abort John Kerry was prejudiced against our children in the womb. I now wish to retract this statement. As of last Thursday, the Democrats have proven themselves to be equal opportunists when it comes to thugging our children. Here's the photo along with the accompanying AP story:
Three-year-old Sophia Parlock cries while seated on the shoulders of her father, Phil Parlock, after having their Bush-Cheney sign torn up by Kerry-Edwards supporters on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W.Va. Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards made a brief stop at the airport as he concluded his two-day bus tour to locations in West Virginia and Ohio. (AP Photo/Randy Snyder)
Man, it has been a rough summer with two of my conservative heroes passing away. The first, of course, is former president Ronald Reagan. The other, last Thursday, is Johnny Ramone -- the godfather of punk. So I have spent most of the day listening to the Ramones while judging annulments.
Johnny, I hope you made your peace with Our Lord Jesus Christ before passing on. May your soul, and the soul of all the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Now that our phone line and internet is hooked up again, I have spent part of the day surfing the net. In so doing, I couldn't help but notice some of the debates over homeschooling take place. While nobody disagrees that the education usually is superior to that of public schools, there is some question as to how well adapted homeschooled children are socially after they graduate.
In my experience, it depends upon the parents. I have seen both good and bad. In one particularly egregious example, one of my friends roomed in college with a homeschooled fellow who grew up in a very sheltered environment -- to the point of social inneptitude. For example, he was clueless as to who Darth Vader was.
Another story takes place within the context of a particular post-conciliar traditionalist schisms, which has attracted many adherents to a certain geographical locale. As soon as the girls reach their late teens or early twenties, they marry guys in their late thirties to early forties. They simply cannot relate to guys their own age, as the girls find the guys their own age too socially immature and too sheltered to maintain decent employment and support a family. So, obviously, this is the downside.
On the other hand, some of the most socially well-adjusted young men I have met were also homeschooled. I'm thinking, in particular, of a friend of mine whom I met through the FSSP. His parents were both military officers and took the view that homeschooling was about raising their children to be tommorrow's Catholic leaders. Therefore, they didn't see homeschooling as sheltering their children, but as an apprenticeship to maintaining one's faith while venturing forth in the real world.
So besides the usual homeschooling activities of catechesis, reading, writing, mathematics, history, geography, etc... their kids also participated in sports, the arts, community service, choir practice, boy scouts and even scuba-diving (my friend's father explained that this wasn't just phys-ed, but a reinforcement of the lessons learned in mathematics and geography as well.) Another homeschooled friend of mine, who I met through the charismatic movement, did small-aircraft piloting rather than scuba-diving.
In each case, some of the other parents in the respective parish thought these parents were too libertine, wasteful and risky with the lives of their children. But their children have all turned out well. They came out from homeschooling well-adjusted young adults, with real life skills and capable of assuming responsibility. All have all kept the faith. They are all grateful for their home-schooling background, and remain close to their parents. One is about to graduate with a double-degree in fine arts and engineering. The other is a well-liked pilot and aircraft mechanic. Both are active in their faith.
On the other hand, a lot of my homeschooled friends whose parents sheltered them have turned out aweful. The one that breaks my heart the most is an ex-girlfriend who rebelled against her parents, got involved with a drug-addict, had a child that was given up for adoption, never finished high-school, and now works in the so-called "adult entertainment" field and is bitter against both her family and the Catholic faith. Others have become a variation, albeit not as bad.
So my point is that homeschooling depends upon the parents. If parents use homeschooling to shelter their kids from the real world, this is not good. But if parents use homeschooling to prepare their kids for the real world, then the results are much better than a public school education.
The same can be said about private Catholic schools. I know some traddy schools that simply shelter kids, and the kids graduate knowing all sorts of facts and figures, but still socially and emotionally immature. On the other hand, St. Gregory's Academy -- under the auspices of the FSSP -- openly has as its purpose not only classical education of teenage boys, but their formation and growth from boys into responsible young men. Thus the boys are expected to participate in sport, theatre, music and various social activities. When they graduate, it is a educated and well-adjusted young men.
Does the EU think adultery is some kind of human right?
Teresa Heinz Kerry on the hurricane relief efforts:
"Clothing is wonderful, but let them go naked for a while, at least the kids," said Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. "Water is necessary, and then generators, and then food, and then clothes."-link via Drudge.
At issue is Bishop Loverde's mandate that all priests, seminarians, nuns, church employees and lay volunteers who work with children be fingerprinted for a criminal background check per the Dallas Charter. If undocumented, meaning illegal, aliens are forced to be fingerprinted, is this going to "dry up" Hispanic volunteer participation? I suppose we'll see. I think the article is a fair treament of the issue by the Wash Times.
Some priests are objecting to the Bishop's mandate. Others, it seems, are waiting to draw a line in sand.
The fingerprinting doesn't trouble Leah Tenorio, director of Hispanic ministry at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Alexandria, as much as the requirement for Social Security numbers. She estimated that 40 percent of the Hispanics whom she ministers lack Social Security cards.Ms. Tenorio should take the Bishop at his word. According the Bishop's mandate, the answer is no, they can't minister unless they've had a background check. Bishop Loverde clearly wants to follow the Dallas Charter to the letter. Let's see what happens if parishes like Good Shepherd don't comply with this mandate. If they are not forced to comply with the mandate and fingerprint all volunteers it could create a tremendous amount of liability for the Diocese if, God forbid, any future case of sexual abuse came to light.
"If you can't complete a background check, what do you do? Does it mean they can't minister?" she said.
Photos of this year's "battle of the tomatoes", the "tomatina", held in the town of Bunol near Valencia. I'll summarize:
Over 40,000 people attended the annual event in which about 100,000 kilos of tomatoes were thrown. Not a single visitor or wall remained dry as the city was drenched in a reddish broth.
The origin of the annual spectacle is a matter of speculation: one story tells that during the famine of 1944, a political argument between two families turned into a tomato fight. Others claim that during the '50s some youths made fun of a street musician and threw vegetables at him. According to that tale, the musician was prompt to strike back.
The spectacle, which takes place on the last Wednesday in August, has become an international attraction since 1970.
Vienna's die Presse reports that the crisis in that country's St. Pölten diocese is likely to be resolved shortly. The apostolic visitator Bp. Klaus Küng, appointed to investigate the diocesan seminary where "gay" parties and a child-porn scandal were exposed in July, is expected to report his findings to Vatican officials in Rome Thursday. According to the word in "undisputed church circles", says die Presse, diocesan bishop Kurt Krenn signed his letter of resignation on Friday in a 15-minute one-to-one meeting with Giovanni Cardinal Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. Since Bp. Küng arrived in St. Pölten, he has ordered the seminary closed and has met with former students for personal interviews.
Update: Kathpress denies die Presse's story Wednesday, with a statement from someone "near to Bp. Küng" that he will not be going to Rome this weekend and that the visitation will proceed in a "peaceful and orderly" manner.
Correction: The first story in die Presse stated that Bp. Küng would be going to Rome "tomorrow", which I erroneously interpreted as Wednesday. It should have been Thursday, so I have corrected it in the text above.
Rod Dreher, reporter for the Dallas Morning News, and a frequenter of many Catholic blogs, says the bishops and the Pope himself are a bunch of liars in a comment on Bettnet:
...the Pope’s asking for Krenn’s resignation “for reasons of health” is also a form of lying. They lie to maintain the great facade. They lie by habit. They lie “for the good of the Church.” They lie. I don’t believe a thing they say anymore, about anything. If the Pope said tomorrow that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, I’d double-check that too, or at least wonder what kind of angle he was pushing.
Rod, you called the Holy Father a liar. I do not think he is a liar, unless you can prove that he deliberately stated something that he knew was untrue.
Nor do I think defending him from the charge of lying is "idolatry." Contra Joseph [in another comment], I'm not offering a "reflexive defense," nor do I go looking for opportunities to play Defender of the Pope. (I find most discussions of The Scandal to be almost completely unedifying.)
Listen to what you wrote: "If the Pope said tomorrow that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, I’d double-check that too, or at least wonder what kind of angle he was pushing." That is breathtakingly cynical, and cynicism, as Chesterton said, is mere intellectual laziness: not everyone is corrupt, and not everone has an "angle" to push.
You are drifting off into the darkness, my brother in Christ, and I beg you to abandon your despair and trust more fully in the Holy Spirit, who will renew and refresh the Chuch whose life he sustains.
UPDATE: Dreher has retracted his "liar" claim, which is admirable, although he seems to maintain that certain bishops do lie, or at least do not tell the entire truth.
My friend Jonah Goldberg of National Review has been "outed" as one of the neoconservative puppetmasters of the Bush Administration. According to a review of Pat Buchanan's new book "Israel's Amen Corner: How the Zionists Betray the American People and the Will of God," Goldberg is on Buchanan's enemies list:
His enemies list of neoconservatives has unsurprising names: Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Irving and William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer and Jonah Goldberg.Hmm...what do those men have in common? Are they all from New York? Are they all left-handed? No, that's not it. Hmm...
When I was a lad, I loved reading Buchanan's columns for their pungent prose and full-strength opinions. Now, I wish this obnoxious windbag would leave the stage for good, taking his "the 1950s were the Golden Age of America and Catholicism" shtick with him. He's an embarrassment to Catholics, Christians in general, and political conservatives.
(Before you ask: do I think Buchanan is an anti-Semite? No, I've not seen any evidence of that. Do I think he loves to play "bait the Jew"? Oh, yes.)
This is one of the many reasons why I love writing for the Wanderer -- Al Matt, Jr. is pretty open about me sharing my submissions on Catholic Light beforehand. That being said, here`s a rough draft of my September submission for Of Canons and Culture:
Of Canons and Culture...
X and Y stand for OrthodoXY
Pete Vere
Where are all the young Catholics? Admittedly, I feel a little sheepish asking this question. I just turned thirty. If I recall correctly, this puts me somewhere near the end of Generation-X and the beginning of Generation-Y. According to various pollsters, my participation each Sunday at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is somewhat of a statistical anomaly.
Yet I hardly feel alone as one who is both young and Catholic. Nor should I according to a forthcoming title from Sophia Institute Press. As a quick aside, most of our readers at the Wanderer should already be familiar with this publisher of orthodox Catholic books.
The title of the book is Young and Catholic: The Face of Tomorrow’s Church. This past weekend saw me blessed with the opportunity to review an advanced copy of the manuscript. Timothy Drake, the author, is a regular correspondent for the National Catholic Register. “In preparation for writing this book,” Tim states in the introduction, “I spoke to more than 300 young people from across the U.S. and elsewhere.” What becomes apparent in reading the book is that each of these young people takes an orthodox stance towards the Catholic faith. Thus orthodoxy is on the rise among Catholics who fall within Generations X and Y.
Undoubtedly, Tim’s analysis seems optimistic. Yet his book proves that such optimism is well-founded. Reflecting upon my own experience as a young Catholic, I agree with the author. For instance, I attend a parish across town where the FSSP administers the sacraments according to the old Latin liturgy. Many envision our parish as a refuge for both the elderly and the nostalgic. However, this stereotype of the traditionalist movement is probably as outdated as the membership of Call-to-Action and the editorial positions espoused by the National Catholic Reporter. Our pew count on any given Sunday easily shows young families outnumbering both the Boomers and the World War II generation Catholics.
Moreover, this phenomena is hardly restricted to the traditionalist movement. Our local (Novus Ordo) parish is administered by the Companions of the Cross – an orthodox society of priests that grew out of the Catholic Charismatic renewal. The Companions have never shied away from preaching Humanae Vitae to young families. Thus parish functions are bursting with children.
Earlier this evening, our family attended the local parish’s family soccer night. Everyone who attended was under the age of forty. While the men and children played soccer, the moms sat on the sidelines and chatted among themselves. A baby and carrier accompanied each mom. The only exception was my friend’s wife who carried their baby in utero. And with only two children in tow – Sonya and I would like to have more, but we’re waiting for God to do His part – we happened to be the smallest family in attendance.
In reviewing Young and Catholic, I discovered these experiences have become common across North America. Whether the purpose is prayer, catechesis or socialization among young Catholics, Tim documents several examples of young orthodox Catholics banding together. “Teens gather by the hundreds to attend special youth Masses in parishes around the country,” he shares, “often on Saturday or Sunday evenings... Young adults get together to discuss theology on a Saturday night in Newark, Ohio, and to study the Holy Father’s encyclicals in New York, Minneapolis, and Kansas City. Young Catholic leaders gather annually in Chicago and in Canada to network and collaborate with one another...
“They are converting to the Faith in large numbers on both secular and Catholic college campuses in California, Texas, and Illinois. They are swelling the ranks of religious orders in Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, and New York -- to such an extent that some orders don’t have space for all of the new members. They are also being ordained priests in dioceses such as Denver, Baltimore, and Lincoln, Nebraska.”
In what will no doubt give Andrew Greeley ulcers, Tim spends the rest of the book documenting and supporting the above claims. Thus I cannot recommend Tim’s book highly enough. Young and Catholic gives hope to Catholics who have spent the last couple years suffering from the scandal caused by sexual misconduct among the clergy. It also provides the perfect rebuttal to Fr. Greeley’s nostalgic jeremiads against “Young Fogeys”, which have become as predictable as the plot to his novels.
At some point, the Archdiocese of Boston needs to set a limit on payments for sex-abuse claims. Since last year's settlement of over 500 allegations, another 140 cases have appeared, with a potential tab of up to $20 million. Similar old claims could continue to arrive for years as the numbers trail off.
So far the archdiocese has been settling the cases with amounts much larger than they are legally obliged to pay. The archdiocese has not exercised its right under Massachusetts law, as a charitable institution, to cap the damage payments at $20,000, but at some point, I think they should consider invoking that limit. The aim of setting a deadline would be to motivate any remaining claimants to present their information sooner rather than later. Let's get this done. Let's do justice. And let's not drag out the pain and the payments for the next decade.
The primary abuse victims have a right to consideration, but the whole diocese is also hurt by these cases, bearing burdens that the perpetrators created -- burdens that in some cases were worsened and multiplied by the failure of victims and their families (and yes, the bishops too) to report the crimes when they happened. The Church is an injured party, and deserves to get the cases resolved in a reasonable time.
This sounds good: a lecture and slide presentation on the Eucharist as represented in art.
Date: Saturday, September 25
Time: 3 - 4:30 pm
Location: Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, Harewood Road, Washington
Presenter: art historian Judy Scott Feldman, Ph.D.
More info at catholicartists.org.
The Protestant ethic, long a subject of great interest to numerous generations of scholars (including the esteemed sociologist Max Weber), is one of the most debated subjects within the field of sociology. This recent report authored by two sociologists at the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center brings to light the fact that for the first time in the history of the United States, members of the Protestant faith will no longer constitute the majority of the population within the foreseeable future. The 23-page report, authored by Tom W. Smith and Seokho Kim, notes that the percentage of Protestants in the national population shrank from 63 percent in 1993 to 52 percent in 2002. Another interesting finding of the report notes that from 1993 to 2002 the number of people who said they had no religion rose from 9 percent to nearly 14 percent.(From the Scout Report internet newsletter.)
The church closings in Boston are underway, and it's getting harder to see them through. Some congregations are being transferred in their entirety to neighboring parishes, so at least they have somewhere to go -- a "welcoming parish" that will take in the people and some of their church furnishings -- serving at least as a commemoration of the old parish.
In contrast, members of some ethnic parishes - churches unique in the Archdiocese for their ministry to a specific nationality group - are being told: your parish's ethnic-specific mission is completed, so you should join your geographical parish.
Of course, there is a problem with this. Regardless of whether we think separate ethnic parishes were ever a good thing at all, these communities exist. They are real groupings of the faithful with a shared history. And unlike the parishes being merged into specific neighbors, they are being told: your community is to be dissolved. This is about as far as you can get from "strengthen your brethren".
No wonder the faithful of the Lithuanian, German, and French parishes are distressed: those communities are not experiencing the change as closing one door and opening another. For them, it's just a closing.
If I remember right, the rebellious non-ethnic parish in Weymouth whose parishioners are occupying their old building is in an analogous position: instead of being merged into some other parish as a group, their territory has been carved up and dispersed.
I guess this can serve as a "lesson learned" on how not to set about closing parishes.
Jimmy Carter, the most ex of our ex-presidents, doesn't like Senator Zell Miller (D-Olympus) anymore. In his speech to the Republican convention, Miller ripped Carter for being a "pacifist," and so Carter zings Miller for being "disloyal."
As the AP article notes, Miller placed loyalty to his family (and to his country, it's fair to imply) over party membership. Carter's santimonious words remind us that old age doesn't necessarily bring wisdom:
By now, there are many of us loyal Democrats who feel uncomfortable in seeing that you have chosen the rich over the poor, unilateral pre-emptive war over a strong nation united with others for peace, lies and obfuscation over the truth and the political technique of character assassination as a way to win elections or to garner a few moments of applause.
"The rich over the poor." Bleech. Doesn't he know how many homes John Kerry owns? (All right -- how many homes his wife owns.)
Miller, a brother leatherneck, proved an old saying: you can only push a Marine so far, and then he'll start to push back. Hard.
Hindu militants who burn down churches and mosques, Muslims who kill Hindus and Christians in the name of Allah, Evangelicals asking "Are you saved?" to bus passengers &mdash all pretty much the same thing. Or so Algore tells us.
Gore’s mouth tightened. A Southern Baptist, he, too, had declared himself born again, but he clearly had disdain for Bush’s public kind of faith. “It’s a particular kind of religiosity,” he said. "It’s the American version of the same fundamentalist impulse that we see in Saudi Arabia, in Kashmir, in religions around the world: Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Muslim. They all have certain features in common. In a world of disconcerting change, when large and complex forces threaten familiar and comfortable guideposts, the natural impulse is to grab hold of the tree trunk that seems to have the deepest roots and hold on for dear life and never question the possibility that it’s not going to be the source of your salvation. And the deepest roots are in philosophical and religious traditions that go way back. You don’t hear very much from them about the Sermon on the Mount, you don’t hear very much about the teachings of Jesus on giving to the poor, or the beatitudes. It’s the vengeance, the brimstone."By the "tree trunk," Gore (probably inadvertently) brings up an allusion to the lignum vitae, the cross on which Jesus hung. Is that really a bad thing to hang onto, whether we're in a time of "change" or stasis?
Gore seems to be attacking religion as an independent standard for measuring whether or not a "change" is desirable. He doesn't bother to refute this idea: he just condescendingly implies that Evangelicals such as President Bush are scaredy-cats who need their faith-blankies to make it through this life. Not like strong, virile Alpha Male Algore, who is unafraid of change. (Except climate change. That scares the crap out of him.)
Were we saved through the Sermon on the Mount? Nope. The Beatitudes, which Gore apparently thinks is separate from the Sermon on the Mount? Again, no. Are we saved by giving to the poor? Well, in a way: if we unite our wills to God's, and perform works of mercy, that's part of how we "work out our salvation," as the Bible says.
Salvation begins, is sustained, and ends in the person of Jesus Christ, crucified for our sins on the "tree" which Evangelicals, like other Christians, hold onto for dear life. Algore was a divinity student for a while -- maybe he skipped class the day they covered this topic. And why is he saying such nasty things about tree-hugging, anyway?
Fr. Rob Johansen reports some extremely disturbing news over at Thrownback. It appears that Terri Schindler-Schiavo's exit protocol (aka detailed execution order) has been leaked.
Whatever other -isms they believe, most professors believe in postmodernism. My definition of that term is: "The belief that there is no absolute Truth, there are only 'truths' that are constructed in our minds. Dialogue is, therefore, not a tool that can be used to discover Truth, but merely a word-game that people use to construct 'reality' in their minds."
That isn't an exhaustive definition of postmodernism, but I think that's a fair summary. Where does this idea come from? I'm sure Beregond can give us its supple, nuanced intellectual history, beginning with Decartes' revolutionary idea that knowledge begins with one's intellect and not the senses, and extending through his (Beregond's) bete noir, Immanuel Kant.
However, I am not an intellectual, and although I do not doubt the role of ideas in the formation of the postmodern critique (for it is surely not a philosophy), often I look to more concrete things when I ask why someone thinks a particular way. I submit that one of the reasons is the university library.
Not just the library, to be sure -- there is also the Registrar's office, the deans, the Faculty Senate, and all the other little rule-making and -enforcing entities on campus. But the library is the entity I am mad at tonight, so the library will be my example.
You may know, if you've read Catholic Light before, that I'm finishing my M.A. thesis project (Open Source Shakespeare). To accompany the site, I am writing a substantial paper, and so I have checked out books from the library. Tonight, I realized that 13 of them are overdue, and I owe the library $32.50.
I figured I'd pay the fine and renew the books. Not so fast! the library Web site said. There is a hold on my library privileges. I called the library, where a recording told me that I would have to bring in the books before I could renew or check out books.
"That's got to be a mistake," I thought. "I'm done with classes, and I'm rarely on campus. Surely they aren't going to make me physically go to the circulation desk."
I called the circulation desk. A nice young lady confirmed that yes, indeed, I would have to drag 13 books halfway across the county in order to get my records cleaned up.
"Is this some kind of collegiate hazing?" I asked. She didn't get the joke. "Let me get this straight: if I come in, I can renew the books, right?"
"Yes, absolutely. Come to the desk, and we'll check them in, and check them back out to you," she explained.
"And why can't we do that over the phone?"
"They have to be checked back in, because they're late."
"I know they're late, and I'll pay the fine. I have no problem with that. But I'd rather not have to make a 40-mile round trip just to renew some books."
"Hold on for a moment, please." Sound of a brief, muffled conversation. "Yeah, my supervisor says you have to come in person. Otherwise, we'd have to do an override."
I thanked her and hung up, without asking the obvious question: what's bad about giving me an "override"? Would it disturb the balance of the universe if they simply said, "Yes, Eric, you can keep the books you need. Don't worry about using your vacation time at work, or leaving your family for most of an evening. We'll renew the books and you can pay the fine the next time you're on campus"?
Nobody else has requested any of the overdue books. I'll pay the fine, or else they won't give me a diploma. Either this is a petty punishment for forgetting the due date, or it's a dumb rule that nobody has thought about but must be followed unquestioningly.
Library book regulations are a small thing, to be sure. But they are part of the web of intricate, arbitrary rules that make up the modern university. Other American institutions (except governments) actively try to make things easier on the people they serve. Not universities, which are run like medieval fiefdoms, complete with their own legal systems.
It's unsurprising that academic professionals — who know no other life, having spent their adult years in this milieu — would think that Truth is a construct and words are weapons used to advance one's personal will. That is precisely what their workplace teaches them.
St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, NH runs a community outreach program called the "Parish Nurse Center for Wellness". The hospital reports:
2003 Accomplishments:Former "new age healer" Clare McGrath Merkle tells what Reiki is about and why it's not really a good idea for Catholic hospitals to offer it.
(1) Continued program development including screenings, classes, health fairs, held at the Parish Nurse Center for Wellness. Expanded current program offerings and increased total class enrollments 10% over prior year.
(2) Partnered with NH Technical College massage therapy students to begin offering free massage therapy services at the Parish Nurse Center for Wellness.
(3) Completed Reiki training, became certified Reiki providers, began offering Reiki twice per month at the Parish Nurse Center for Wellness....
Especially not from German nuns.
...expectations.
Cremated Man Unexpectedly Tries Skydiving
Vreeland was in the kitchen of her Forest Grove, Ore. home when she heard a loud crash from the roof. It turns out that ashes of a 46-year-old man, who died of natural causes, had fallen out of a small plane and into Vreelan’s house.
One of the enduring mysteries of St. Blog's Parish has been revealed, and quite by accident, it seems. Film writer Barbara Nicolosi has disclosed the name of the anonymous proofreader Nihil Obstat. He's the editor of an anthology of 20th-century Christian poetry. Ah, well, there goes the mystique.
(Via Victor the first.)
Hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend. Sonya, the girls and I are now moved into Ottawa and I begin the JCD coursework this Thursday. Spoke with the telephone guy this past Thursday, and our phone and internet access should be hooked up on the 17th, at which point I will begin blogging and answering email again. In the meentime, here's a little something to keep you going if you're looking for a canon law fix: Surprised by Canon Law.
Maybe I'm being a bit too much of a snooty Yankee, but I'm sort of disappointed that there even is a town in Florida with this name.
Hundreds of Catholic pro-lifers made their message heard at a Kerry rally on Saturday. More from Fr. Wilson at the CWN blog.
Ralph Peters, unlike secular liberals, is angry about the mass murder in southern Russia and wants to fight the murderers:
"If Muslim religious leaders around the world will not publicly condemn the taking of children as hostages and their subsequent slaughter — if those "men of faith" will not issue a condemnation without reservations or caveats — then no one need pretend any longer that all religions are equally sound and moral....""Negotiations are the heroin of Westerners addicted to self-delusion...."
"A final thought: Did any of those protesters who came to Manhattan to denounce our liberation of 50 million Muslims stay an extra day to protest the massacre in Russia? Of course not.
"The protesters no more care for dead Russian children than they care for dead Kurds or for the hundreds of thousands of Arabs that Saddam Hussein executed. Or for the ongoing Arab-Muslim slaughter of blacks in Sudan. Nothing's a crime to those protesters unless the deed was committed by America."
Amen, brother. As President Bush astutely saw very soon after the September 11 attacks, the world is dividing itself between those who want to fight international Islamic terrorism, and those who support it or appease it. For all countries, the options are either Austria (let yourself be co-opted by it) Switzerland (pretend to be neutral, but bankroll the murderers), or Britain (fight until victory, or the last Briton is choking on his own blood, as Churchill put it.)
So this slaughter of the innocents was just like the Columbine massacre, times ten. What do you want to bet that liberals won't get as angry at Islamist terrorists as they did at American gun owners? Will Michael Moore's new movie be "Bowling for Chechnya," blaming the whole thing on radical Islam's penchant for indiscriminate violence?
Nah. Because as I've said many times in this space, to liberals, Islamist terrorism is just a force of nature, and you cannot ascribe any blame to the perpetrators: because they're essentially sub-human, and we shouldn't have provoked them in the first place.
News of the Weird spotted this item for the woman who want to dispense with all that rubbish about courtship, marriage, and lovemaking, so that she can get on with producing only the best high-quality progeny:
Among the reality-TV series being batted around in London, according to recent reports in the Daily Telegraph and The Independent, is "Make Me a Mum," in which a woman reduces a field of men to the two whom she believes will make her the genetically best offspring. At that point, producers will inseminate the woman with sperm from both men and, using intravaginal micro technology, will attempt to record a "race" to see which sperm gets to the egg first.
 | Occasionally local governments get embarrassed when they let unsavory private organizations sponsor roadside clean-up projects. I guess it happens to parishes too. What's going on when one of the landscaping sponsors at a Catholic parish is some outfit called "Spiritual Readers"? |
A gentleman bandit returns a stolen laptop.
These are available from a company with which I had to transact business (we had to outfit a Don-Jose-goes-into-the-mountains drum major). Having never actually seen L.D., I thought the movement had given up the ghost, but apparently it's alive and well somewhere. I find it intersting that most of the items for sale seem to be made of polyester. I also find it interesting that I didn't see a model who could have been alive when all this craziness began.
My favorite quotes:
Your dancing is a form of praise and you should look your very best!
A liturgical basic that meets so many of your performance needs!
Here's the plan for expanding my parish church in suburban Stoneham: the long rectangle on the left is the current nave, and the square on the right is the addition. The church interior will be reoriented, with the new sanctuary along what is now the left wall.
There are some good things about the design: the tabernacle will be restored to its rightful position on the center axis, whereas it is currently on a side altar. The setting of the organ console and choir in the former sanctuary puts them in an unobtrusive location.
On the downside, the wrap-around seating and the far-forward placement of the altar on its, um, peninsula are a disappointment. The design lacks a visibly distinct and well-defined sanctuary and nave, the classic symbol of divine-human encounter and of earth-to-heaven pilgrimage so suitable for the Holy Mass. The new church will be in some ways a missed opportunity.
Going by a recent parish newsletter, the celebrant's chair will not be on the center axis as this diagram depicts, but will be set to one side. That's a good change.
