October 2004 Archives

Artist James Langley of Steubenville has painted an interesting study for a mural bearing the title Abraham, Isaac, and Sarah.

It's a curious image that seems to play off some of the most familiar Christian images we know. This holy family of the First Covenant receives a visit from a dove, who comes to rest on Sarah's hand. A book seems to be in her lap -- and don't mind the anachronism; it's OK. The dove bows low, perhaps in polite respect to humanity, perhaps to gaze upon the 'word' resting on her lap. Perhaps she is already in some way a Seat of Wisdom.

"My local post office leaves the front door open all the time now so that people can buy stamps through a vending machine in the lobby.

"I put a bulky envelope on the scale, punched in the zip code, slipped in a credit card, and got back a label to stick on the piece. Then the machine asked, 'Do you want to buy stamps?', and I figured, 'Don't mind if I do.'

"I pressed the button for 'yes' and got a packet of eighteen first-class stamps, at a price of -- uh, 18 times 37 cents, that's... $6.66. My soul shuddered.

"Later, the stamps squealed lightly as I burned them."

In a fit of dementia, I bought about 5 pounds of candy this morning. Teresa had mentioned something about having fun dressing up and handing out candy in the past, and I was at the grocery store and saw Kit-kats, Milky Ways, 3 Musketeers, M&Ms and Snickers on sale. Remembering that the "fun size" was always a big hit when I was a kid, I bought one bag of each.

I got home and informed my wife of the purchase. She frowned and said, "No one comes here. We should be in the basement watching a movie instead of waiting for the kids to show up. But now we have to because if we don't hand out the candy then you will eat it." I assured her I wouldn't eat it but she said didn't really believe me, sort of like Marion Barry telling the cops that the crack had been left in his car by the previous owner.

So around 4pm we started the setup: Candles in the windows (the kind that can light cats on fire), terra cotta pumpkins with candles inside in the walk, and a basket full of candy.

We had the following folks show up:
2 astronauts my wife tried to make small talk with: "Where's your space ship?" "We're just kids in costumes! We don't have a space ship!" (Stupid adults!)
1 tiger
3 teen agers dressed up as disgruntled youths.
1 sort of sailor looking person
A handful of witches.
A girl who described herself as "a gothic person." Even me, in my lame understanding of modern culture, know they are called "Goths" and they just need to be in all black, black hair and maybe an extra-white face. This girl had a black shirt, a little cross and some jeans on.

So Teresa and I started talking about Halloweens of ages past. "How many times did you go dressed as a Hobo" I asked. "At least seven or eight... I bet you can't dress like a Hobo these days... wouldn't be proper..."

I told her my mom used to make our costumes. I was Death one year. I was a hobo on several ocassions, but mom thought the hobo costume needed bells sewn on for some reason... I'll have to ask her about that.

Teresa said her best costume was that she wore her dad's sailor uniform from WWII, and a girlfriend dressed like the Sweetheart he meets dockside when the ship comes back to home port. And when they rang the doorbell, her friend would leap into her arms so that Teresa was holding her up. Now that's an interesting costume.

We've been getting grunts and half-done costumes, and it's not even the time
the high school kids show up.

Before I start sounding like that old dude from 60 minutes, I leave you with this.

I did get to spend some nice time with my wife talking about Halloween's past and I've gotten about 5,000 calories out of the house. Not a bad way to spend the evening, even if I have to answer the door for a "Gothic Person."

I figured I'd see someone come to Mass in a costume today...

One lady had her baby dressed up in a nurse outfit, complete with the red cross on the bonnet. At least it wasn't Baby Frankenstein or The WereBaby or a baby with a First Lady Therese Heinz-Kerry costume on (scary!)

On All Saints, kids are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite Saint. Eric, maybe you can dress Charlie up as St. Lawrence and hand him one of your All-Clad griddle pans...

I'll let you know what happens with it.

UPDATE: Wife.com is baking bread. She started while I planned music from next Sunday thru the 4th Sunday of Advent. It smells *great*

UPDATE 2: And it tasted great. We had a meal of pork loin, fettucine with home made pesto and fresh bread. What a woman I'm married to.

I got an invitation to the "Advent Celebration and Benefit" for the Georgetown Center for Liturgy today. It looked harmless enough, until I opened it.

The "Celebration and Benefit" honors "the 2004 recipients of the National Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Liturgical Life of the American Church"

(How about "Church in America?")

And who's one of the recipients? None other than the Canonizable Marty Haugen. He's giving a talk on "Writing Music for Today's Christians: A Composer Reflects in Word and Song On How It's Done"

Spare me. The man arguably most responsible for turning Liturgical Music into Liturgical Muzak gets to reflect in "Word and Song." Then there's a Mass (probably a Haugenfest) and a buffet reception.

I'm normally not one to turn down a buffet, but after all that I wouldn't have an appetite.

My last thought is, I wonder who should get an award like that? James Chepponis, who writes music that is much more reverent and interesting? I really don't know any other giants of Catholic Liturgy in this age because the age seems to be the terrible long Era of Cheese. Just when some of those jokers should be sunsetted they trot them out for another Award, Mass and Buffet.

Mark Shea is on his rock-star tour of Australia, itinerantly teaching about the Faith and spending time with some dear Auzzies. He's speaking at an Anglican conference this weekend, and got to meet Anglican bishop Ross Davies, who affirms the Catholic faith, rejects heresies, and wants, together with his priests, to be in full communion with Rome. It looks like contacts with CDF are in the works. More from Mark here.

(Thanks to Jeff)..

Giant turd Michael Moore must be so happy — not only is "Fahrenheit 9/11" the favorite movie of Hezbollah and little Jimmy Carter, he's given Osama bin Laden new ideas, too! Moore was the first person to popularize the clever "My Pet Goat" critique, which criticizes President Bush for continuing to read to kids after he was informed of the World Trade Center attacks. Apparently, he was supposed to leap up, rip off his clothes, and fly through the air to stop the other hijacked planes, instead of waiting for the Secret Service to arrange an emergency trip to the airport.

Senator Kerry (D-Fallujah), running on behalf of angry liberals and jihadists everywhere, must be even happier. For most of the last year, he and the Democrats have been saying that President Bush has made America less safe because we've made the international terrorists angry at us, whereas if we hadn't invaded Iraq (and, many said, Afghanistan), the terrorists would have started making rugs or driving a cab or whatever it is that terrorists do when they switch careers.

Well, it turns out that Osama believes the same thing, and as a bona fide international terrorist, he ought to know. "Your security is in your own hands and each state which does not harm our security will remain safe," he says to the American people. In other words: act like Spain, back away from the war on terror, and we won't hurt you again.

We didn't find difficulty dealing with Bush [the elder] and his administration due to the similarity of his regime and the regims in our countries....Here he is being influenced by these regimes, Royal and military. And was feeling jealous they were staying for decades in power stealing the nations finances without anybody overseeing them. So he transferred the oppression of freedom and tyranny to his son and they call it the Patriot Law to fight terrorism. He was bright in putting his sons as governors in states and he didn't forget to transfer his experience from the rulers of our region to Florida to falsify elections to benefit from it in critical times.

Chris Core, a host on our local station WMAL (and a Catholic convert), said he was shocked that Osama seemed to be cribbing from the giant turd's movie. (If you doubt that he could get a hold of "F9/11," know that in the Mideast you can get any movie on a pirated DVD for about $5). I'll give Moore some credit: he isn't smart, but he is crafty. He's fooled a lot of people into thinking that his cheap shots are arguments, and now even a megalomaniacal mass murderer has endorsed his views. Now that's something to put on a résumé!

I'm sure this will be widely debated in the next few days, but I think Osama, even though he doesn't say it explicitly, has endorsed Kerry for president. He agrees with Kerry's approach to national security, which boils down to playing nice with people who want to slit our throats. There is nothing al Qaeda wants more than for us to "leave them alone," free to destabilize and then subvert Middle Eastern governments until they can set up gangster states fueled by oil money, and then realize their fondest dream: completing the Final Solution.

Maybe this is one endorsement that Kerry should refuse.

Showing the spunky can-do spirit that got him out of Vietnam eight months before he was supposed to leave, Senator Kerry (D-Fallujah) imagines that military wives are whiny and hopeless:

Conjuring up the image of a woman walking into a voting booth thinking about her husband fighting in Iraq, [Kerry] said: "On Tuesday, you have the choice to give her hope. You have the choice to give America a fresh start."

I've got a great idea, Senator: why don't you try selling that line at Fort Bragg or Camp Lejeune, in front of a group of military wives? Why don't you ask them what they think about a candidate who undermines their husbands' mission, thus encouraging the murderous thugs they're fighting? Maybe you could finish the trip with a visit to a military hospital, where you can explain to the Purple Heart recipients -- and I'm talking about men with real injuries, not the little boo-boos you got -- that their sacrifice was meaningless and wrong.

Gosh, she isn't even First Lady, and already she's tiresome.

In all likelihood, she's living in sin with her "husband," who refuses to document his supposed annulment, even though he says he's "in good standing" with the Church. (He does think annulments are funny, however.) Lord, deliver us from these proud, ridiculous people.

Click link. Print story. Give to next pilgrim who insists on shaking hands with you at the sign of peace during flu season. Repeat as needed.

Thanks, Bill!

An American living abroad recently contacted me to say he has located a statue of St. Lawrence for my newly-renovated kitchen. But first I'd like to tell you about a trip to Europe I took with four friends 14 summers ago, after we all graduated from high school.

I don't remember why we ended up in Lugano. I think Mike had been to Switzerland when his father was stationed in Europe, and remembered it was beautiful. It couldn't have been any worse than what we had experienced thus far.

We had slept in a churchyard in Wimbledon, in a grimy industrial area, the second night we were there. Mostly, we had slept on trains and marginal hostels. In Ireland, we stayed at the Kinlay House, where we discovered that the Irish government warehoused homeless drunks in youth hostels. One of them woke up Mike at 2 a.m., asking him if he wanted to share a shot of whiskey. Mike declined.

After leaving Paris, we planned to stay in Rome, but we couldn't find a room because the city was hosting the World Cup, and apparently soccer tournaments are quite popular with Europeans. So we had been traveling for about 24 hours straight without hardly any sleep when we dragged ourselves and our backpacks from the train station to the hostel.

Things were certainly looking better for us. It was a brilliant, sun-soaked day, with mild temperatures and a cool breeze coming from Lago di Lugano. The hostel rooms were sparse but clean, and since we were with about 10 other backpackers in bunk-beds, the place was cheap, too. That day, we all walked to the shopping district, and bought bread and cheese to eat while we strolled. For dinner, we splurged on a restaurant with outdoor seats, where we could eat our pizza, laugh and argue, and revel in being 18 years old.

I remember that a bunch of obnoxious Germans stole 80 marks ($50) from my wallet when I left our common room -- or at least I assume it was them, since nobody else was there.

I remember eating in a Burger King near the lake, and being shocked that a meal cost $10. Just outside the restaurant, I called my parents collect and talked to them for about three minutes. The call cost $37.

I remember Denis and Mike thinking it would be funny to jump out of the little boat we rented, even though it was forbidden. When he saw them swimming, the guy who ran the boat rental place yelled for us to come back. On the way there, the boat's propeller struck a rock and nicked one of the blades. The rental guy called the Swiss police, who calmed him down by having us write our U.S. addresses on a piece of paper, and promising we'd pay for the engine if it was broken. I remember the officers had Glock 9mm pistols in their holsters.

There is one last, luminous memory I have of Lugano. My friend Andy, whom I had known since the fourth grade, wanted to go to daily Mass near the hostel the next morning. I think they were having daily Mass, but I'm not sure. At the time, I was Lutheran, but I was happy to tour any church, particularly during a liturgy. That's what the building was built for, right?

I don't remember the Mass itself or the interior of the church, but I do remember it was one of the string of aesthetic experiences that lead me ultimately into the arms of Holy Mother Church. I have a vivid mental image of the emerald trees shuffling their leaves in the gentle wind, including the palm trees which seemed out of place, and the church's bell tower pointing skyward with its pointed dome, a suitable compliment to the green-carpeted mountains in the distance.

When I started typing this post, I was just going to post the images below of the St. Lawrence statue, and ask everyone your opinion about it. After shipping it to the U.S., this statue will cost about $400. It looks like a high-quality piece, but I wanted to ask people if they thought that was too much to spend. After spending $9,000 modifying our kitchen to accomodate our growing family of five, what's another few hundred dollars?

Then I was looking at the name of the place Jeff said he found the statue: Lugano. It took me a while, but I finally remembered that I had been there before. I wondered what the cathedral, named after St. Lawrence, looks like? Google showed me:

It was the same church, unless there's an identical one in the same town of 52,000. I looked up hostels in Lugano, and found the Hotel Montarina, a few minutes from the train station. A map of Lugano showed that it was close to the cathedral. The interior pictures showed it was the same place where we stayed in 1990.

To summarize: a kind stranger thousands of miles away sees my post on an obscure blog. He checks his cathedral, and sure enough, they have a 12-inch statue of St. Lawrence, the perfect size for the wall niche I'm going to build. That cathedral was one of the beautiful things God showed me as I turned toward his Church. (Incidently, the statue has been there for 12 years, unsold.)

I don't think I need your opinions -- I pretty much have to buy this thing, don't I? I mean, it's not exactly miraculous, but I did pray for guidance about whether to spend the money. If this isn't one of God's small signs, then tell me I'm crazy. Meanwhile, check out the statue:

Bishop Loverde writes a letter to the people of Arlington in the Arlington Catholic Herald this week upholding the culture of life and reminding Catholics of their responsibility to consider life issues above all others in this election. If you are an Arlingtonian you'd do well to read the whole thing.

Let me be clear: to vote for a candidate precisely because of his or her pro-abortion stance is an instance of formal cooperation in a grave evil. Such formal cooperation is, according to the constant teaching of the Church, never morally permissible.

I'd like Pete or others to comment on the canonical implications of this statement. What does it mean for a Catholic if he formally cooperates in a grave evil?

Bishop Loverde explains proportionate reason for voting for particular candidates, something that is lost on those who equate the death penalty with the terror war with abortion with ketchup being declared a vegetable with nose hair trimmers for the indigent. It's too long to quote here - just click above and read the whole enchilada.

I enjoy the same beer as Victor Davis Hanson.

I missed the news that Robert Merrill died last Saturday at the age of 87.

He was one of the greatest baritones of all time. Here's an appreciation.

Slate magazine thinks you do. Read my fisking of their novelists' forum on the election over on CommentaryPage.com.

As I was walking through the halls of the Nameless Entity that I work for, I passed by a TV tuned to CNN. The caption under the talking head read "STEM CELL RESEARCH," and the head was saying something about the quality of stem cell lines available to researchers. The head belonged to Mr. Jennifer Aniston, a.k.a. Brad Pitt, one of the world's foremost cell biologists.

God help us all.

I would like to find a statue of St. Lawrence to put in my kitchen. I'm going to carve a small niche out of the wall for him, and perhaps also flowers and/or another statue. Anyone know where I can get one? This is the only one I can find, and it's pretty good, but a little small (2.5").

An anonymous commenter at Barbara Nicolosi's blog summed the movie up well:

I saw the film and it's OK. The last half hour is excellent and I applaud them for taking this risk.

The last half hour has some wonderful moving moments, which make the flaws elsewhere in the film puzzling. The actors are at their best when they're conveying their characters' emotions, but at the beginning they're too understated. For that part of the movie, the girls seem less like living children rather than sedate figures from a series of tableaux, speaking Victorianese.

The film begins with the death of mother Zélie, so that we don't get to see what role she played in Therese's formation. It's a pity, since she's a Blessed along with her husband, and presumably a wonderful person, but the audience is left knowing virtually nothing about her. From then on, grief and sorrow take all their breath away, and only as the action starts to shift toward the Carmel of Lisieux does the movie come to life for the first time.

The best performance in the movie is that of Linda Hayden, whose Pauline provides the Marian, motherly, steadying complement to Lindsay Younce's Therese, as the saint is conformed to Jesus in her own 'Passion'.

Not in 96 minutes, and perhaps not in any one movie, can the story of St. Therese be told as it deserves. This film is however, a good companion to the 1986 Therese, which is the place to look for a better representation of Therese's thought and spirituality, but tells little about her early life. (Caution: it's not suitable for kids.)

For those of you blessed with worldly curiosity, figures on the box-office gross are on-line. The showing I attended Monday evening had about 12 viewers.

Two entries on the Drudge Report, as of 10:09pm:

Administration will seek additional billions early next year to fund Iraq, Afghan wars, WASH POST reporting in Page One lead story on Tuesday, insiders tell DRUDGE... Developing...

New legal opinion by Bush admin concluded for first time some non-Iraqi prisoners captured by US forces in Iraq not entitled to protections of Geneva Conventions, NYT set to lead in Tuesday editions, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE... Developing...

Can anyone make the case that the media are not biased? Those items are not news. Of course the administration wants more money for overseas operations -- do you think the military can get along without money?

All I have to say about the second item is: it's about freakin' time. Men who deliberately attack the innocent, who do not fight in uniform or obey the laws of war are not legal combatants. They are the "pirates and brigands" singled out in moral theology as those who wage private wars, and legitimate authorities have the God-given duty — yep, I said God-given, just like St. Paul said — to deter and punish them. Morally, they have no excuse. Legally, they are not entitled to Geneva protections and can be executed when they are caught.

Today, the NY Times published a story on some nasty explosives that disappeared because George Bush is an incompetent fool. (I'm paraphrasing.) Turns out they have no idea when the materials disappeared, and it's likely they were removed before the war started last year, because the site would be bombed at the beginning of hostilities.

This wasn't "news" in the sense of being new -- plenty of people have known about this matter since last year. Besides, the explosives were gone by the time American forces reached the storage bunkers, as NBC News reports.

Why are so many formerly prestigious news organizations willing to sacrifice themselves on the pyre of Senator Kerry's presidential ambitions? I can hear a voice in the back muttering, "Legal abortion...stigma-free extramarital sex...child-free consumerism...freedom from God's laws...."

Al Qaeda's favored presidential candidate speaks up against the little guys:

I know there are some Bishops who have suggested that as a public official I must cast votes or take public positions - on issues like a woman's right to choose and stem cell research - that carry out the tenets of the Catholic Church. I love my Church; I respect the Bishops; but I respectfully disagree.

My task, as I see it, is not to write every doctrine into law. That is not possible or right in a pluralistic society. But my faith does give me values to live by and apply to the decisions I make.

That's straw-man argument: the Church does not, has not, and will never teach that secular legislators are supposed to "write every doctrine into law." Either he's 1) misinformed; 2) stupid; or 3) setting up this straw man to mislead Catholics into voting for him.

Senator Kerry can't possibly be misinformed — he keeps telling us he was an altar boy, which means he knows every jot and tittle of Catholic doctrine, and has never forgotten any of it. We know he isn't stupid, because he's managed to become a senator and marry not one, but two mega-rich heiresses.

That leaves misleading. I have little doubt that Kerry knows what the Church teaches; I am less certain that he knows why she teaches it. His forays into Biblical exegesis, Catholic catechetics, and recent Church history (remember "Pope Pius XXIII in the Vatican II"?) leave one with the impression that he sees the doctrines of Holy Mother Church as obstacles to be avoided.

Kerry's public words and deeds indicate that his morality is guided by his own personal political advancement. In contrast to President Bush, who has shown that he can apply extra-political reasoning to moral issues (read his August 2001 stem cell speech), I defy anyone to show an example where he took a potentially unpopular view and stuck with it for any length of time.

Defending the unborn against direct assaults on their lives, is not (for the millionth time) a "Catholic" issue. It has nothing to do with the faith revealed by Jesus Christ and passed down through the apostles and their successors. Neither is embryonic stem cell research. Both involve the willful eradication of innocent human beings, and these truths are fully knowable to anyone with an adult. No divine revelation required.

When the Catholics of Massachusetts were busy betraying their faith by voting out pro-life Democrats in favor of pro-abortion Democrats, if John Kerry had stood up for the unborn, I'd respect the heck out of him. Instead, today not only will he ignore the Church and natural law, he promises to nominate only judges who are committed to allowing abortion under every circumstance. The hollow man lurches on, seemingly untroubled in his imitation of Judas (using Christ when it's convenient, then selling him out when it looks like fidelity might endanger your own fortune.)

Maybe someday in my lifetime, one of the major parties will nominate a good Catholic presidential candidate. Until then, I'm sticking with the good Protestant over the bad Catholic.

One of my pet theses is that journalists generally treat non-white people as forces of nature, not as morally accountable human beings. Thus, the Associated Press can repeat an outrageous statement like this:

"Last election, 27,000 of us voted, most of us for brother Al Gore," said Rev. Tom Diamond, of the Abyssinia Missionary Baptist Church. "The Republican Party threw out 27,000 African-American votes. By all rights brother Al Gore is the president-elect."

The Rev. Diamond is, of course, one of the Darker People, so reporter Mike Glover doesn't even bother to explore this "fact." Under normal circumstances, a journalist would start asking questions such as: Where does he get the number 27,000? Does he have 27,000 parishioners? When did the Republican Party "throw out" those votes, and when did they do it? Who did it? Et cetera, et cetera.

White politicians (and the good reverend is nothing if not a politician, at least part-time) get those kinds of questions because they're, y'know, normal people. Republican minority-group members get treated like normal people too, because they forfeit their privileges. But the Darker People aren't normal. They have emotions (they are often "angry" or "outraged"), but asking them to back up their statements with facts is nonsensical. To most journalists, that's like like asking the wind why it's blowing northeast, or the clouds why they are raining today.

No time for Kerry's Europhile delusions - read the whole thing! But if you can't read the whole thing, read these excerpts.

The war against the Islamists and the flu-shot business are really opposite sides of the same coin. I want Bush to win on Election Day because he's committed to this war and, as the novelist and Internet maestro Roger L. Simon says, "the more committed we are to it, the shorter it will be.'' The longer it gets, the harder it will be, because it's a race against time, against lengthening demographic, economic and geopolitical odds. By "demographic," I mean the Muslim world's high birth rate, which by mid-century will give tiny Yemen a higher population than vast empty Russia. By "economic," I mean the perfect storm the Europeans will face within this decade, because their lavish welfare states are unsustainable on their shriveled post-Christian birth rates. By "geopolitical," I mean that, if you think the United Nations and other international organizations are antipathetic to America now, wait a few years and see what kind of support you get from a semi-Islamified Europe.

So this is no time to vote for Europhile delusions. The Continental health and welfare systems John Kerry so admires are, in fact, part of the reason those societies are dying. As for Canada, yes, under socialized health care, prescription drugs are cheaper, medical treatment's cheaper, life is cheaper. After much stonewalling, the Province of Quebec's Health Department announced this week that in the last year some 600 Quebecers had died from C. difficile, a bacterium acquired in hospital. In other words, if, say, Bill Clinton had gone for his heart bypass to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, he would have had the surgery, woken up the next day swimming in diarrhea and then died. It's a bacterium caused by inattention to hygiene -- by unionized, unsackable cleaners who don't clean properly; by harassed overstretched hospital staff who don't bother washing their hands as often as they should. So 600 people have been killed by the filthy squalor of disease-ridden government hospitals. That's the official number. Unofficially, if you're over 65, the hospitals will save face and attribute your death at their hands to "old age" or some such and then "lose" the relevant medical records. Quebec's health system is a lot less healthy than, for example, Iraq's.

I was going to make the whole quote bold and write "(EMPHASIS MINE!!!!!!!!)" at the end, but you get the picture.

In the comments' section below, Dr. Ed Peters responds to two of my blog entries. As previously mentioned, I greatly respect Dr. Peters as a voice of orthodoxy and moderation within the canon law community. I would also urge you to check out his excellent blog, In Light of the Law.

That being said, concerning the first point, which is my criticism of Dr. Peters' analogy, I still hold to my initial position but appreciate Dr. Peter's clarification as to the limits and intention behind his analogy. Concerning the second point, however, I appreciate Dr. Peters' gentle rebuke and hope he will accept my mea culpas.

That being said, in respose to my criticism of his analogy, Dr. Peters writes:

You are a cruel task-master, driving my little analogy beyond its ability! My point then was simply to show people that gross contempt for a doctrine is not necessarily "heresy" about the doctrine, which is where this discussion was at that time. Remember, even the Devil is not a "heretic". My analogy has nothing to do with (and hence cannot fail over) whether Kerry has been personally involved in abortion. Kindest regards, edp.

Thanks for the clarification. I apologize if I gave the impression that I thought this analogy was over whether Kerry has been personally involved in abortion. This was not my intention. Rather, like you, I was trying to point out the difference between heresy and contempt for the faith (or denying the Real Presence and committing a sacralege while still believing in the Real Presence.)

As an aside, I was trying to point out that Kerry doesn't fall under the automatic excommunication of canons 1398 and 1329, par. 2 because to everyone's knowledge he has never directly participated in procuring an abortion. Thus canon law would have to address his pro-abortion record by some other means. Nevertheless, I still think my initial question remains, namely, is contempt for the faith the same thing as asserting one has a right to carry out an intrinsically evil act?

What causes scandal is not that Kerry has personally participated in an abortion, but that he asserts abortion is a private action with no connection to public morality or the common good. Consequently, he also asserts that the individual has a right to procure an abortion and that as a Catholic politician he has no obligation to limit or work towards bringing an end to the harm done by abortion.

Is this heresy? That's the question that needs to be explored.

Concerning my second post, in which I speculated Marc was set-up as a scapegoat by the CDF, Dr. Peters responds:

Say it ain't so, Pete, say it ain't so! Say you don't REALLY think CDF/Cole set up Balstrieri as a scapegoat, that it is obvious the Vatican wanted Cole's letter leaked, and that it planned on consequent deniablity. Say you don't REALLY think they are that callous, conniving, or stupid. Say yours was just a unguarded exercise in conspiracy theory...

Now that I've calmed down, I appreciate you calling me on this one. You're right. For the record, it wasn't so much an unguarded exercise in conspiracy theory as a knee-jerk venting of my frustration with how this has played out. I hate seeing the pro-abort Catholic politicians win again while Marc, who sincerely and in good faith tried to do something to address this scandal, watches things blow up in his face because of his innexperience dealing with the media combined with some mistakes on his part that were not committed out of malice.

Nevertheless, I should have shown more prudence than to post it -- especially when I don't seriously believe this whole blowup is a conspiracy by Cardinal Ratzinger or high ranking curial officials. Additionally, Marc understood the risks when he began this venture, and he freely chose to accept them.

...but that, in retrospect, the simpler explanation is to be preferred: that Balestrieri got carried away with Cole's letter, some Catholic media seized on B's version as a ray of light in the abortion darkness, and between them they raised a hornets' nest of confusion among the faithful, that others among us have had to come along behind and try to clean up to the best of our poor abilities.

My honest opinion, and this is just me speaking personally, has nothing to do with canon law, but I think it's a combination of factors -- none of which involves a large-scale conspiracy, but rather an excess of zeal on the part of B, a handful of people within the US hierarchy who reportedly urged him to leak it, and the Catholic media, combined with damage control by di Noia and Cole when more weight was attributed to the letter than what it possessed. I also agree with Rich Chonak that it seems likely there was some sort of miscommunication between di Noia and his assistant with whom Marc had met in Rome, and possibly a miscommunication between di Noia and Cole.

But again, this is mere speculation on my part. As Marc is a friend of mine and I admire what he was trying to accomplish, even though I believed he had a very difficult road ahead of him, I freely admit I am probably not gonna have an objective view of how things panned out. Which is probably why, my knee-jerk initial reaction aside, I now prefer to believe that this whole meltdown is the result of mistakes and miscommunication between several good people acting in good faith (including Marc, di Noia, Cole, the Catholic media) than believe anyone engaged in this affair behaved dishonestly or out of malice.

I've been around canon law ministry long enough to experience the truth
of Mgr. Pat Powers' statement to us as canon law students that "If you don't
make mistakes, you're not engaging in ministry." And thus I want to thank Dr. Peters for calling me out on one of mine, for which I offer our readers my most sincere mea maxima culpa!

On another note, regardless of how things turn out, I think we are further ahead now in terms of using canon law to redress the scandal caused by pro-abort Catholic politicians. Let's be honest here. Before Marc launched this action, the majority of bishops and canonists questioned Archbishop Burke's use of canon 915 to deny Holy Communion to pro-abort Catholic politicians. Granted, a growing minority (of both bishops and canonists) supported Archbishop Burke's decision, however, it was still being called into question.
It is now taken for granted that a bishop can invoke canon 915, and a recent example of a bishop placing a pro-abort Catholic pol. under interdict has also come to light. Additionally, Marc's broken some new canonical and doctrinal territory that can hopefully be used more efficiently in future against pro-abort Catholic pols.

Link via Drudge to TSG.

Two dorks throw pies at Ann Coulter during a speech at the University Arizona. They say they're "throwing pies at her ideas not at her." And they call themselves "Al Pieda."

This is so moronic I think I've suffered permanent brain damage just reading about it. Instead of rational discourse we have neanderthals throwing pies at someone they disagree with. How long, Lord?

The long-awaited movie Thérèse opened at a few more theaters Friday, and will start at others next weekend.

Going by film critic Steven Greydanus' review, it sounds as if the filmmakers are still on the learning curve, as Barbara Nicolosi worried a few weeks ago.

You can check locations and showing times on-line. I'll be seeing it Saturday.

The blue looks like our blue. Imagine that.

I'm a couple of days behind on the news. Bill Cork comments on Jimmy Carter's latest failure to keep his mouth shut - Carter: Revolutionary War Was "Unnecessary"

Why not just blame the religious nuts with guns?

Linked on the Corner earlier this morning, this is an op/ed piece that speaks to the contention over Kerry's Katholicity and the orthodox Catholics who engage in the political discourse. This is a must-read for everyone, especially for those small number of you who think we work full-time for the RNC and club baby seals on our day off.

We don't club baby seals on our day off from the RNC, but Eric does run a secret empire whose sole aim is to pave rain forests to make parking lots for Walmart. When he gets a free moment at work he opens the window and discharges an entire can of hairspray in order to deplete the ozone layer. I have also heard him speak of the need for us to re-intern the Japanese. His car runs on low standardized test scores - a clean, renewable resource produced in abundance by inner city public schools. He prays the Rosary daily with his family. They implore Mary's intercession to impose a Catholic theocracy on America.

Listen, don't take me seriously. I make a caricature of these bugaboos to make this point: Our faith informs our politics. It isn’t the other way around. Eric doesn't do all those things I so ridiculously wrote above. Marines don't buy hairspray! He rides his bicycle to work - how’s that for environmental stewardship? And we don't all work for the RNC. We are faithful Catholics who believe with the Church that the cause of life must be defended. Bush is not the perfect pro-life candidate but since Roe v. Wade our only option has been to try to win by degrees.

Contrary to what one of our commenters thinks, Pete is well within his rights to write whatever he wants about what he believes is the canonical implication of Kerry's support for abortion. As a canonist he's eminently qualified to do so.

Read Archbishop Chaput’s excellent article. Read “The Participation of Catholics in Political Life,” a statement by the CDF that Chaput mirrors.

The life of a democracy could not be productive without the active, responsible and generous involvement of everyone, "albeit in a diversity and complementarity of forms, levels, tasks, and responsibilities".[6]

By fulfilling their civic duties, "guided by a Christian conscience",[7] in conformity with its values, the lay faithful exercise their proper task of infusing the temporal order with Christian values, all the while respecting the nature and rightful autonomy of that order,[8] and cooperating with other citizens according to their particular competence and responsibility.[9] The consequence of this fundamental teaching of the Second Vatican Council is that "the lay faithful are never to relinquish their participation in ‘public life’, that is, in the many different economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural areas, which are intended to promote organically and institutionally the common good".[10] This would include the promotion and defence of goods such as public order and peace, freedom and equality, respect for human life and for the environment, justice and solidarity.

Don't be fooled by the moral relativism and subjectivism of liberalism. Just becuase you want something to do be true doesn't make it true. And we all know liberalism is a sin. So don't be a liberal, you'll go to Hell.

Bill Clinton wants to be U.N. Secretary General. Link via Drudge.

Can I hear from visitors to this blog if the flu shot shortage is a concern to them? I'm having trouble understanding the whole bruhaha around the shortage, Dick Cheney getting a shot, shot lotteries, etc.

This could be the worst newspaper sentence I've ever read.

The Curse of the Bambino, that amalgam of jinx, superstition and despair that has dogged the Boston Red Sox for nearly a century, was reduced to just so much human imagining on Wednesday night by a scruffy lot of ballplayers who cared more about their hair than they did about history, except for the kind they were determined to make.

And you might be surprised from whence it comes.

NRO has an essay attacking Senator Kerry (D-Fallujah) for his ham-handed use of the Book of James. The Protestant writer, Quin Hillyer, assails the Cafeteria Catholic senator for equating "good works" with spending Federal money. In this, I agree with Hillyer (although I am uncomfortable with his view that almsgiving is per se an individual and not a corporate endeavor. The Old Testament prophets, to name one example, collectively excoriated the Chosen People for not taking care of widows and orphans.)

However, I think he misunderstands James, for the formulation "faith without works is dead" isn't a comment on a person's quality of faith — rather, it says that a faith which produces nothing is no faith at all, that it does not exist.

Mr. Hillyer says, "St. Paul's repeated assertion that men are 'justified,' or saved, through faith alone." Show me once in the Bible where it says that. It's true that a famous Christian said that we are saved "by grace, through faith, apart from works of man," but that Christian was Martin Luther, as I learned in my Lutheran confirmation class. Nobody thought that before he did.

Now, Hillyer is certainly free to accept Luther's formulation, but he also wants to drag the Catholic view of salvation into his argument. He's better off sticking to the meat of his critique, which is that wealth-transfer programs are a secular project that are unlikely to produce any spiritual benefits for the recipients.

This weekend's fuss about the "pro-choice = heresy" letter was three yards and a cloud of dust, but the dust is beginning to settle.

Canonist Marc Balestrieri reports that his version of events and Fr. Gus DiNoia's version are in agreement on an important point: that Fr. Basil Cole wrote his "excellent and solid" account of the relevant doctrines at DiNoia's request. Get the details in Marc B.'s press release (October 20).

(Via Dom.)

Kudos to Ray Flynn: he's appealed to Gov. Schwarzenegger to reconsider his support for abortion and for research which destroys human embryos.

(Thanks, Amy.)

At least a few laughs:

From the director of "Airplane!": "Indecision"
The new JibJab cartoon "Good to Be in D.C."
Bohemian Political Rhapsody

I was listening to an interview with a Boston sports writer today who said if the Sox win, the fans will go crazy. They'll drink. They'll roll over cars. They'll install a fire hydrant back in front of the Heinz-Kerry mansion.

Actually all he said was, the city would burn. RC - can you let us know if you see a glow on the horizon or smell the smoke?

This from the McPaper but none the less telling:

A question asked of Therese Heinz Kerry:

Q: You'd be different from Laura Bush?

A: Well, you know, I don't know Laura Bush. But she seems to be calm, and she has a sparkle in her eye, which is good. But I don't know that she's ever had a real job — I mean, since she's been grown up.

Between this and the "Cheney's daughter a lesbian, pass it on!" comments, I am just left with one thought:

The democrat ticket and their spouses have no class.

Someone just forwarded me, strangely enough, the following excerpt from an interview I did with the Northern Light. I've edited it a tad, but it explains rather nicely why I believe the pro-choice position to be heresy:

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

“Choice” equals heresy

What is John Kerry’s heresy? Kerry’s heresy does not concern his reception of Holy Communion. This is a separate – albeit not unrelated – issue. Rather, Kerry’s heresy concerns his affirmation that abortion is a matter of private morality with no public responsibility on the part of Catholic politicians.

For example, the presidential hopeful recently appeared on Larry King Live. When questioned about bishops threatening to deny him Holy Communion because of his voting record on abortion, Kerry responded: "Well, there are some bishops who have spoken out, but that’s not the position of the Church, and as you know, we have a separation in America of Church and state. My obligation as a Catholic is to examine my conscience, under the freedom of conscience under Vatican II, Pope John XXIII, and Pope Paul […] I mean, being for choice does not mean you are for abortion...”

Marc Balestrieri alleges that John Kerry is a heretic because Kerry maintains a pro-choice position, that is, that abortion is a matter of private morality that is left to the individual. The Catholic Church has always maintained that abortion is a matter of public morality since it involves the fundamental right to life. This is in keeping with articles 2270-2275 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

I would particularly draw your attention to article 2270 which states, "Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent to life."

With regards to the political responsibility of every Catholic toward the child in the womb, article 2273 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: "The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation…”

I was on my way to a client this morning and pulled up to the corner of Route 50 and Annadale Road in northern VA to see a ragtag gaggle of Kerry supporters wearing stupid hats, swinging "Unidos Con Kerry" signs in the air and waving passionately at the passers-by.

I was perturbed. Where are the Bush supporters?

And then I thought: they going to work.