The devastation in the south is just unbelievable. I'm really at a loss for words. Here's a link to Little Green Footballs for a list of relief agencies.
August 2005 Archives
CNN's Aaron Brown just interviewed EWTN's Raymond Arroyo, a resident of New Orleans, for several minutes. Mr. Arroyo got his family -- including his 10-day-old newborn -- to Birmingham in time but, alas, lost his family's restaurant; and his kids have lost the neighborhood where they lived.
Oddly, perhaps amusingly, Brown seemed unaware that Arroyo's the news director from another cable channel. Really, what good is the little earpiece Brown wears if nobody's going to fill him in?
Before anybody gets all outraged about the reports of looting in New Orleans, let's remember that some of the people doing it are hungry people who take food and water for survival and would be happy to pay if the store were open. Nothing wrong with that. Here's a helpful guide:
Soft drinks, chips, and diapers: OK;
Jewelry and DVDs: No.
Every now and then I glance at the Huffington Post via Yahoo's "news" listings just to feel better about myself.
Here's a whopper from today to show how disconnected some lefty nuts are from reality. (For any lefty nuts reading this, I meant no disrespect by that last comment.)
As Hurricane Katrina dismantles Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, it’s worth recalling the central role that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour played in derailing the Kyoto Protocol and kiboshing(more here...)
President Bush’s iron-clad campaign promise to regulate CO2.
Is everything political? Absolutely everything?
Perhaps the worst music video ever.
A seminarian writes on his website:
Tuesday, August 23, 2005Notice
Due to a new seminary policy, I will no longer be able to maintain the blog.
posted by [name withheld] at 12:10 PM
Interesting. Some new policy imposes burdens on the public writings of seminarians. I wonder if it has anything to do with the long-awaited seminary visitation, starting Real Soon Now.
Hey, somebody get your hands on that policy and send me a copy so I can post it here.
OK, pastors, it's time for a Homeland Security alert. Make a note of the story Kelly cites: thieves broke into a parish in Lynn, MA, skipped the sacred vessels, located the tabernacle key, and took the Holy Eucharist. Since Lynn is next door to Salem, Mass., a magnet for neo-pagan kooks, one has to wonder if there's some connection to any of the occultists.
But back to the security point: a lot of priests are pretty lax about storing the key, leaving it unsecured in a sacristy, and that's just not going to cut it anymore.
Kelly and Dom are wondering why the theft isn't being treated as a "hate crime", though it sure fits the definition. One reason is that we Catholics don't protest vigorously about bias crimes as smaller religious bodies often do. Perhaps the clergy are trained too well to avoid attracting public attention; this is a mistake. Protesting against theft and violation is an act of courage. I'd like to see our Abp. Sean speak publicly about this.
(I'll include the story here in case it should expire off the newspaper's site:)
Continue reading Crime.
The Pope met with Bishop Bernard Fellay of the Society of Saint Pius X and Cardinal Castrillon (Congregation for the Clergy) today. Papabile is watching the story. Since Pope Benedict has wanted to extend permission for the old rite more broadly, doing so at the Synod on the Eucharist in October may make a reconciliation easier.
Lord whose heart is full of love
Since you given yourself over to us entirely, by a love without limits, we want to consecrate ourselves to you, to open ourselves and give ourselves, without any reserve, to your heart.
We desire this consecration as an irrevocable act by which you may totally take possession of us, for everything your love demands.
We want to belong to you through the depth of our being, to offer you our thoughts, our desires, our actions, so that you may render them perfectly conformed to the thoughts, the desires, the decisions of your heart.
We want to abandon to you our past, our present, and our future, so that everything in us become your property, and that our life, at every instant, be placed under the influence of your love.
By ourselves, we would not have the strength to make our consecration total and definitive; we await from your heart that it take us in our depths, and guard us forever in its fidelity.
May this consecration, made real by you, fill us with the limitless generosity of your love!
--by Jean Galot, SJ
I'm not talking about Outlook, I'm talking about an old-timey Inbox - where things go that are high on the priority list.
If Benedict does have an Inbox - this is back in it.
Pope studying document on gay priests
Vatican City, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI reportedly is now studying a proposed instruction that would ban the ordination of homosexuals as Roman Catholic priests.
"In the last hours of his life there was a great tranquility and peace. He knew that he was going to his destination, to the Lord," the archbishop said. "He had not one bit of fear," but was in "great peace the last day," Dziwisz said.
via FoxNews.
Catholic Universities & UNICEF
Officials at the six Catholic universities with UNICEF chapters seemed mostly unaware of either UNICEF's shift toward abortion advocacy or the Vatican's disapproval of same. From spokesmen and women at the six--Boston College, Fordham, Georgetown, Loyola-Marymount-California, the University of St. Thomas (Texas), and Villanova--I got many who answered "They do?" and "It did?" when I asked whether UNICEF's pro-choice stance and the papacy's reaction to it caused any conflict on their own campuses.
Editor: Pope John Paul II was 'martyr'
VATICAN CITY -- The editor of the Vatican newspaper said Thursday that Pope John Paul II was a "martyr" even though he survived a 1981 assassination attempt - the latest official comment suggesting a speedy path to sainthood for the late pontiff.Mario Agnes, editor-in-chief of the official Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano, told an annual pro-Catholic political meeting that the stones in St. Peter's Square where John Paul's blood was shed should be preserved because it was the blood of "an authentic martyred pope."
Seems to be a stretch of the definition of martyr...
It has been revealed: Cindy Sheehan, mother of war hero Casey Sheehan, is the fraternal twin of the Prince of Wales, His Royal Highness Charles Windsor Castle. Either that, or they are siblings, at the very least. Below is the proof (with links to the original sources, lest you think I photoshopped anything):
Previous entry about Sheehan here.
Many blog readers have probably seen the reports by researchers doubting that unborn babies feel much pain up to a certain point in their development.
I won't take JAMA to task for presenting an overview of academic research, though I would think that some of that research may be politically motivated.
The part that will make you crazy is this:
"One woman said she would pray for my soul," DeAngelis [the editor] said Thursday. "I could use all the prayers I can get." She said she is a staunch Roman Catholic and strongly opposes abortion, though she also supports women's right to choose.
and it gets worse, in the very last sentence of the article:
DeAngelis said she attends Mass at least weekly and is also a Eucharistic minister, which allows her to administer communion to fellow Catholics.
"There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers."
From the "Kyrie eleison" file:
CANTON, Ohio -- There are 490 female students at Timken High School, and 65 are pregnant, according to a recent report in the Canton Repository....Let that sink in: nevermind that the overwhelming majority of them are unmarried, there was at least one 11-year-old girl who had a baby in the last year -- and that fact wasn't even remarkable to the reporter.According to the Canton Health Department, statistics through July show that 104 of the 586 babies born to Canton residents in Aultman Hospital and Mercy Medical Center had mothers between 11 and 19.
Kyrie eleison.
Wal-Mart to offer non-denom Sunday services, says blogger "Maureen Martin".
Sacred Heart Media has debuted a Catholic-themed web portal. (Good job, guys.)
Kudos to Tony, who has invented a new high-tech device.
Golf pro Tim Kilcoyne is also an M.Ed. in Religious Education, but don't hold it against him: he's a committed Catholic anyway. He's an active catechist and apologist, and his Golf School Retreat combines instruction on the game's technique with coaching on biblical spirituality.
Getting a look at the scene of the closing events at the Marienfeld, a former fairground about 11 miles east of Cologne at Rhein-Erft-Kreis. Expected congregation: 800,000.
One of the ladies in my choir lamented Pope Benedict's election. "I don't think the Church's relationship with Muslims will get any better."
At the time I thought the comment was silly.
And here's my back-up.
Pope meets German Muslims in push for better ties.
Pope Benedict meets leaders of Germany's mainly Turkish Moslem community on Saturday to stress the importance he places, like his predecessor, on closer ties with other faiths.
For you black helicopter people, "closer ties" doesn't mean interfaith services where the Pope rubs shoulders non-catholics. It means the Pope witnesses to the eternal truth of Christianity given to the Catholic Church.
Everything gets turned into an entertainment, a media presentation, a show; even the sacred, even the dead.
Funerals used to be religious events in which one would pray for the repose of the deceased and the good of the bereaved; then it became fashionable to turn them into "memorial services" of a celebratory quality in which family and friends tell stories and jokes, and sing or listen to inspirational songs. That is, to turn them into shows presented for a human audience, rather than acts of worship offered to the divine, who deigns to grant us an audience. Is the TV tombstone part of this trend?
I'm wondering what will happen when the tech hobbyists start figuring out how to "hack" these devices and replace Aunt Becky's Kinkadian five-minute video with a clip from MTV. Already I know what video should appear on Bill Gates' screen.
Writer Elizabeth Sandoval has a good take on abstinence in the McPaper today.
Catholic youths flock to centuries-old Latin Mass
DUESSELDORF, Germany – While hundreds of thousands of young Roman Catholics sing and dance their way through World Youth Day festivities, some start each morning in silent prayer attending the rarely celebrated old Latin Mass......The traditional liturgy, almost forgotten since the Church switched to vernacular tongues for its services, is full of reverent rituals and ornate vestments which were put aside as outdated after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
But these traditions are making a quiet comeback among a tiny minority of young Catholics who find the strict Roman rite more sacred and prayerful than the loud guitars and chatty priests they see in their local parishes.
There was a flurry of international activity last week regarding speculation that Eveline Herfkens, a pro-abortion Dutch bureaucrat connected to the UN, would address World Youth Day in Germany. This was first reported by Catholic World Report and followed up by Lifesitenews.org. Tom Ward, president of the Catholic Family Association of Great Britain, spent a part of last week alerting American and other pro-life leaders of the impending speech by Herfkens.
From TheFactIs.org
Ukrainian Catholic Church says move to Kyiv not aimed at other churches
(AP) - The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said Aug. 18 that the church's plans to move its headquarters from the western city of Lviv to the Ukrainian capital were not aimed against other churches."The move is not aimed against anybody and it is motivated by real needs and the development of the Greek Catholic Church," Cardinal Lubomir Husar said in a statement posted on the church's official Web site.
The Greek Catholic Church plans to move to Kyiv by this Aug. 21, Husar said.
Russian Orthodox Church's Patriarch Alexy II warned on Aug. 17 that the move would affect relations with the Vatican and would stoke tension in Ukraine. Protests staged by minor pro-Russian organizations were expected on Aug. 21.
The Russian church has long accused Catholics of poaching for converts among the Orthodox since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 Soviet collapse.
For those of you who think the EU exists to give politicians who are unelectable back home something to do, I offer this:
EU spends €1.5m on world youth day
That's $1.8M at today's exchange rate.
The European Commission is contributing €1.5 million to the Catholic festival known as the World Youth Day currently taking place in Cologne, Germany.The money comes from a special event budget line and will go towards "elements which correspond to the European Union's values and focus on solidarity and active citizenship", the commission said in a statement.
Ranty Islam of DW-WORLD.DE
Not sure if "Ranty" is male or female, a journalist or some wild-eyed progressive zealot, but here's what he/she's got for us:
Reformers Turn Up Heat on Church
Critics have been present at World Youth Day, bringing up issues such as the role of women, family planning and gay rights. There are signs that the gap between them and church leaders is narrowing.
Of course, that's because some jokers from the Women's Ordination Conference set up shop to peddle things like condoms, married priests, and their favorite: women priests.
This section of the piece seems particularly dubious:
One of the few events WYD organizers put on to engage young people in an open debate focused on precisely these themes called "YouthHearing."Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Archbishop of Tegucicalpa (Honduras)
Held at a community center in Cologne on Wednesday afternoon, there was rapturous applause from the floor when critics brought up the ban on condom use, which in their view undermines the fight against HIV/AIDS in poor countries.In their response, German Bishop Reinhard Marx and Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez from Honduras stopped just short of actively endorsing condoms, but acknowledged that they can play an important role.
Here's another view of what we're getting from WYD:
Young Catholics want Pope to uphold Church sex stand
Quote like this must send the Women's Ordination Conference people into fits of despair:
"Why should the Church change with the times?" asked Mexico City student Ibanez Monserrat, 19. "What it says works for all kinds of people."
Dashing young priests turn heads at Youth Day
The article has the typical snarky reference to "chastity" when they mean celibacy.
The killing of Brother Roger, the 90-year-old founder of the Taize monastery, is a shock. May the Lord of eternal life bring all consolation to the friends of Taize.
At Catholic Light, we have occasionally been accused of being shills of President Bushitler and his merry band of oil-stealing fascists in league with the neocon Zionist intergalactic conspiracy. Point well taken, although if we are shills, we demand a raise, or at least a vacation home in the Gaza Strip.
So it is with great regret that I must disagree with my Republican puppetmasters, who are objecting to the creation of an .xxx top-level domain for the Internet. Cities used to have red-light districts, and the authorities looked the other way as long as the smut stayed within strict limits. If the pimps or pornographers oozed out of their little box, the cops would make sure they were smacked back in.
When I lived in San Diego for a summer, I noticed that the "gentlemen's clubs" and filth peddlers were located in normal-looking business and residential neighborhoods. Even in my local area, there is at least one "adult" movie store on a well-traveled highway, though it is reasonably discreet. Personally, I like the red-light districts better. You know where to avoid if you aren't looking to indulge your perversions, and if you are, you have to make a conscious decision to enter.
I would say the same about the .xxx domain. It would be fantastic to simply block those sites at my firewall/router and make sure my kids don't stumble across them. This wouldn't "legitimize" pornography any more than allowing second-level domains that contain the f-word.
This is entirely in keeping with Church teaching, which holds that it is sometimes prudent for a lawful authority to permit an evil if suppressing it would unleash greater evil. There will always be pornography, because of the effects of original sin and the devil's hatred of sex, which causes him to seek its corruption. The question, then, is how to minimize porn's prevalence and effect, and making it easier for parents to protect their children, and creating a virtual red-light district for adults to decide whether they want to enter, would be a step in the right direction.
Maureen Dowd has resumed writing her column, thus reclaiming her title as America's Stupidest Columnist at a Major Newspaper. Richard Cohen of the Washington Post, the runner-up for that title, performed the official SCMN duties during her absence, but Cohen will occasionally surprise you by being thoughtful or non-ideological. Dowd is pitch-perfect, reflecting the views of the elite journalistic world with not a trace of critical thought.
Almost all of her columns are truly masterpieces, because we know that her zig-zagging logical paths and tortured sentences are intentional. She isn't a nobody with a Typepad account, she is somebody with a huge newspaper's full panoply of resources behind her -- there are copy-desk editors, the editorial-page editors, the senior editors who, one assumes, will at least occasionally read what appears in their paper. The New York Times employs research staff, administrative assistants, and other literate persons. Yet not one of them has the guts to tell Maureen Dowd that she writes unreadable dreck, and she should thus make a concerted effort to re-learn how to compose a polemical essay, if indeed she ever knew how. To wit:
The Bush team tried to discredit [Cindy Sheehan] by pointing reporters to an old article in which she sounded kinder to W. If only her husband were an undercover C.I.A. operative, the Bushies could out him. But even if they send out a squad of Swift Boat Moms for Truth, there will be a countering Falluja Moms for Truth.How to unpack this three-sentence paragraph? Cindy Sheehan did meet with the president and she did not sound angry after she emerged; nobody "outed" any CIA operatives except at least one journalist; the White House didn't send out the Swift Boat Veterans -- the vets sent themselves. But if you are Dowd, that doesn't matter, because your goal is to make at least three venomous anti-Bush attacks per column inch.
A smarter columnist would try to feign intellectual honesty; she would throw in a few statements like "Bush might think he's doing the right thing by doing _____, but he's not," or "It's understandable that Rumsfeld might say _____, but he is incorrect." But Dowd, and her many, many compatriots on the left, have two explanations for any action of the Bush administration, or anyone on the right: they're either evil or dumb. The prose they generate could be distilled into simple binary patterns which newspapers could print, e.g., "evil, dumb, dumb, evil, dumb, evil, evil, dumb," to spare us the trouble of having to read their rubbish.
This would shield us from the stylistic mistakes, too. Dowd writes about "the more than 13,000 wounded, many shorn of limbs," apparently unaware that the word "shorn" is the past tense of "shear," and is used in connection with cutting, not explosions or bullet wounds, which is how most amputees lost their limbs. The only people "shorn" of anything in Iraq are the decapitated victims of terrorists, for whom Dowd shows no recollection or outrage.
Luckily, we have Christopher Hitchens as an antidote. Hitchens, an erratic and indispensible commentator, addresses the case made by Dowd and Cindy Sheehan and reduces it to rubble:
Sheehan has obviously taken a short course in the Michael Moore/Ramsey Clark school of Iraq analysis and has not succeeded in making it one atom more elegant or persuasive. I dare say that her "moral authority" to do this is indeed absolute, if we agree for a moment on the weird idea that moral authority is required to adopt overtly political positions, but then so is my "moral" right to say that she is spouting sinister piffle. Suppose I had lost a child in this war. Would any of my critics say that this gave me any extra authority? I certainly would not ask or expect them to do so. Why, then, should anyone grant them such a privilege?I am inclined to ignore Sheehan's words and actions, except to note two things: first, her opinions are indistinguishable from the bleary-eyed hysterics who post things on Daily Kos and the other left-wing blogs. She has drunk deeply from the poisonous brew of "no blood for oil/Halliburton/those filthy Jew neocons," and her paranoic rantings should be dismissed, though we should heap contempt on those who exploit her grief and loss for their own desire to score the cheapest of political points.
Second, Cindy Sheehan demeans her son by treating him as something less than he was. Casey Sheehan was a 24-year-old man who voluntarily re-enlisted in the military, and volunteered to go on the particular mission in which he was killed. He was not a child in need of protection. He knowingly risked his life on the field of battle against a vicious enemy that slaughters the weak and the innocent in the name of God.
But our news media glamorizes a risk-free protest by an unhinged mother, instead of the heroism of her dead son. Such is the debasement of our national culture.
Bishop stops ban on jazz in church
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Arundel and Brighton has intervened in the row over a Petworth Festival jazz concert held at a church in Duncton last Saturday. Bishop Kieran Conry, who has just returned from a pilgrimage to Lourdes, said he had no intention of stopping the show going ahead, despite pleas from a Petworth parishioner, Christopher Savage, a worshipper at the parent church in Petworth, the Sacred Heart."There would be no difference between a Beethoven quartet and jazz. You cannot make a judgement on the style of the music," the bishop said.
Bold part - discuss below.
Harvard university for funding a study on the origins of life.
"My expectation is that we will be able to reduce this to a very simple series of logical events that could have taken place with no divine intervention," said David R. Liu, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard.
It won't be biased or anything though.
Seems to me the "Intelligent Design" debate is fundamentally a mathematical probability problem. You'd think someone at Harvard would be interested in that angle...
I had around 12 singers for choir last night and we had a congregation of around 80 people. It was about 85 degrees in the church - likely some technical issue with the AC.
My choristers wanted me to turn the fan on, but I didn't know how much noise it would make. I had to turn the lights above the choir area down since they generate heat. One of my basses saw I was getting a little exasperated and looked at me and said, "John - can you get me a cold drink?" We laughed and made the best of it.
Our pastor didn't mention the heat until the very end of Mass, when he invited people to pray in the chapel because the AC was working there. We sang the Arcadelt "Ave Maria" - a simple piece that works fine with a small group.
Asked if she thought the people making the film would care about her protest, she said: "I don't suppose they do, but that doesn't matter tuppence to me. It matters to me what God thinks, not what the film crew think."When I face Almighty God, at my final judgment, as we all will, I can say, I did try my best, I did try my best to protest..."
And later in the article:
The Very Rev Alec Knight and the cathedral chapter are said to have agreed to let filming take place after the film's producers made a £100,000 donation. Sister Mary accused the Cathedral of the sin of simony - conducting financial transactions involving spiritual goods."The Church should not be accepting money for something that is not a true story," she said. They should be praying more, and then the money would come in. To a believer, any believer, what is happening is blasphemous."
The happy event of Dom and Melanie's wedding reminds me of Michael Medved's 1996 piece recommending that new couples look to a Jewish wedding tradition. The new couple doesn't take off for a fantasy honeymoon in isolation, but spends the first week being installed in their new home and being welcomed by the community they'll live in.
Like some other bloggers, I received a review copy of Bill Kassel's This Side of Jordan, which I just finished reading. FOr the most part I concure with Curt Jester's review, although I did find it a tad sermonizing in parts (even though I agreed with the content of the sermons). Nevertheless, I must agree that I found Kassel a much smoother novelist than Bud MacFarlane.
Some of the parts I found most humorous in this novel are his observations about modern nuns. Kathy Shaidle would probably concur with Kassel's description of how modern nuns dress and groom -- that is, despite getting rid of the veil and habit, you can still tell a nun in an airport by the way she dresses.
The other enjoyable part is an exchange between an old conservative priest and a boomer modernist priest, where the latter claims homophobia is the greatest threat facing the church. The old priest responds something like "No, I think the greatest threat is homophobephobia -- or the fear of being called a homophobe."
From my little computer in Canada's capital, I wholeheartedly concur. In fact, just blogging this thought is technically a felony in our country, if I am not mistaken. One punishable by up to two years in prison.
Michael Schiavo is honored for serving his master well.
Monks run out of the world's best beer
"Our shop is closed because all our beer has been sold out," said a message on the abbey's answering machine, which it calls the "beer phone."
The beer phone. That's brilliant.
While Drudge reports that NARAL is planning to falsely accuse Judge Roberts of supporting abortion-mill bombers....
Planned Parenthood's SF branch has been presenting on its web site a cartoon in which a "superhero" blows up pro-lifers. Today the item disappeared, but here's a screenshot of the site from yesterday. Dawn Eden has the details, including stills from the eight-minute (!) cartoon.
(Thanks to Rae Stabosz.)
Resumes That Didn't Work
*Compiled from actual resumes by Robert Half International*
I demand a salary commiserate with my extensive experience.
I have lurnt Word Perfect 6.0, computor and spreadsheat progroms.
Received a plague for Salesperson of the Year.
Reason for leaving last job: maturity leave.
Wholly responsible for two (2) failed financial institutions.
Failed bar exam with relatively high grades.
It's best for employers that I not work with people.
Let's meet, so you can ooh and aah over my experience.
You will want me to be Head Honcho in no time.
I Am a perfectionist and rarely if if ever forget details.
I was working for my mom until she decided to move.
Marital status: single. Unmarried. Unengaged. Uninvolved. No commitments.
I have an excellent track record, although I am not a horse.
I am loyal to my employer at all costs. Please feel free to respond to my resume on my office voice mail.
I have become completely paranoid, trusting completely no one and absolutely nothing.
My goal is to be meteorologist. But since I possess no training in meteorology, I suppose I should try stock brokerage.
I procrastinate, especially when the task is unpleasant.
Personal interests: donating blood. Fourteen gallons so far.
Instrumental in ruining entire operation for a Midwest chain store.
Note: Please don't misconstrue my 14 jobs as job hopping. I have never quit a job.
Marital status: often. Children: various.
Reason for leaving last job: They insisted that all employees get to work by 8:45 every morning. Could not work under those conditions.
The company made me a scapegoat, just like my three previous employers.
Finished eighth in my class of ten.
References: None. I've left a path of destruction behind me.
This from the Boston globe
The pope and a puzzling African king
Another prominent feature of the pope's new crest has also attracted attention: the picture of the ''African king" facing left on the coat of arms. For one thing, the portrait is practically a caricature of an African male, with exaggerated lips painted ruby red. ''It's not good," says Holy Cross professor of religious studies Matthew Schmalz, who has written about the crest for the Catholic magazine Commonweal. There is little doubt why the image of the African king appears on the crest. It symbolizes the Pope's commitment to rallying Catholic worshipers in Africa, the fastest-growing province of the church. (In June, Benedict said he would summon a special synod of African bishops, the first since 1994.) ''For me, [the African king] is an expression of the universality of the Church," the then-Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in his 1998 book ''Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977." He also wrote that he did not know where the African image, which appeared on his coat of arms when he was archbishop of Munich-Freising, came from.
Caput Aethiopum. According to the website of his former Archdiocese:
"The shield, which is divided into three sections, displays the “Moor of Freising." The Moor’s head, facing left and typically crowned, appeared on the coat of arms of the old principality of Freising as early as 1316, during the reign of the Bishop of Freising, Prince Konrad III, and it remained almost unchanged until the “secularization” of the Church’s estates in that region in 1802-1803. Ever since that time the archbishops of Munich and Freising have included the Caput Aethiopum, the head of an Ethiopian, in their episcopal coat of arms."
Bishop ban targets pro-abortion, gay rights politicians
Catholic move mutes speeches at churches
Frances Kissling, who heads Catholics for a Free Choice, said the ban represents a change from the past, when politicians frequented church dinners and the like.She said the church risks isolating itself politically and religiously if it continues to restrict who may address Catholics at church facilities.
Arizona Rep. Collette Rosati, a Catholic and a Republican, said she supports the bishop.
"You can't give a bully pulpit to politicians who don't support church teaching," she said.
I'm glad some bishops are working hard to keep Catholic events Catholic.
A case of alleged supernatural messages in Amsterdam in the 1950s reportedly had our Lady presenting herself to the faithful under the title of "the Lady of all Nations" and asking the Pope to make a declaration of dogma about her as Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix, and Advocate. These titles are already well established in Catholic thought, and have an interesting application to the role of the Church as a means of grace and salvation, but with so many cases of false mysticism about, one has to be careful about signing on to some particular movement's proposals for the Church.
This May, the CDF (the Vatican's doctrinal office) has given a warning about one aspect of that "Lady of All Nations" devotion: a prayer associated with the messages, and found on Catholic sites such as EWTN's, raises the CDF's caution and is not to be used.
Abp. Angelo Amato, SDB, the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote on May 20:
With regard to the devotion known as 'Lady of All Nations' and the Marian apparitions experienced by the late visionary Ida Peerdeman, I wish to advise Your Excellency that although the said apparitions have received approval from His Excellency the Most Rev. Joseph Maria Punt, Bishop of Haarlem (Holland), in his Communications of 31 May 2002, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has expressed concern regarding one particular aspect of that devotion whereby official prayers invoke the Blessed Virgin as Lady of All Nations 'who was once Mary'.....[The CDF] does not permit any Catholic community of Christ's Faithful to pray to the Mother of God under the title of 'Lady of All Nations' with the added expression 'who was once Mary'.
(Thanks to Mark Waterinckx for the tip.)
Speaking of faith and culture, here's a genre I had no idea about: the Christian dance/electronica music scene. As DJ redsavior points out, this phenomenon is so small as to truly deserve the name 'underground'. Is Victor Lams up on this?
Web's Wikipedia to tighten editorial rules-founder
"There may soon be so-called stable contents. In this case, we'd freeze the pages whose quality is undisputed," he said.Citing a recent example of vandalism, Wales recalled how following the election of the new Pope Benedict in April, a user substituted the pontiff's photo on the Wikipedia site with that of the evil emperor from the Star Wars film series.
Jem Sullivan spoke with OSV last year about the catechetical effect of art and how we need to recover its role in the Church:
One of the ironies of the past 40 years is this: As American culture becomes increasingly focused on the visual image through television, the Internet, and advertising, our churches are being stripped of images.Here's the interview.
