October 2007 Archives
Some kid started one of the big LA fires.
I shouldn't be too surprised: a few years ago, a bored kid waiting for his mom to come out of an AA meeting in a Boston suburb set fire to some leaves outside the church where it was meeting. The building went up quite quickly.
I spent some of last week with musician Michael Olbash and other singers, at this recent chapel (photos) in the "northeast kingdom" of Vermont.
It was built in 2006 by Richard and Joan Downing, a Catholic couple from Massachusetts, generous people who raised 35 foster children during Mr. Downing's long financial career. Now they spend part of their time in northeast Vermont on a property that includes a cattle farm, a comfy country inn, and a health spa.
Now, lay-owned oratories are uncommon, so I was curious to see this one. It is not regularly used for liturgical worship, but occasionally priests with retreat groups have received diocesan permission for celebrations of Mass there; in fact that just happened on the weekend after our stay.
We were there to record some chant performances, and the resulting recording should be ready for us some time in 2008. With the cattle farm next door, the microphones and our ears picked up some sounds of lowing from the newly weaned calves, so before the week was over, Steven Olbash quipped that the eventual CD would be titled either "Moosica Sacra" or "Angus Dei".
An artificial intelligence researcher predicts that robots will eventually simulate human appearance and personality so well that people will fall in love with them and marry them. It figures that he predicts Massachusetts will legalize this first.
This may prove appealing to a couple of the Mythbusters guys, but I can't imagine this would appeal to many women.
It's not a miracle, but it is a sweet way to express our nostalgia for the Servant of God, Pope John Paul II.
An announcement at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/calendar_90662_ENG_HTM.htm
Hip Hop Schoolhouse
Saturday, October 13, 2007 - Sunday, October 14, 2007
Location: St. Paul's (Episcopal) Cathedral, Boston MA
All are welcome at St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston, Massachusetts on October 13 at 5:30 p.m. for the HipHopEMass 'Big Bean' Celebration with the newest Hip Hop Bishop, 'Great Momma' Gayle Harris.
On October 14, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., the Cathedral will then host HipHopEMass Schoolhouse where the elements of Hip Hop, theology of Hip Hop, Hip Hop liturgy and evangelization will be introduced.
Hip Hop liturgy; what could that be like?
At the Entrance:
Priest: Yo, God's in da House!
People: Word!
At the Dismissal:Priest: Peace out!
People: A'ight!
(HT to the MCJ.)
Thanks to Bp. Robert McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts! His Excellency has publicly warned a college in his diocese against renting facilities to a conference on teen pregnancy with speakers from Planned Parenthood and NARAL.
This is not the first rebuke from a Worcester bishop to the Jesuit-run school: in 2003, the previous ordinary, Bp. Daniel Reilly, boycotted the college's graduation ceremonies because of honors given to pro-abortion journalist Chris Matthews.
Not hesitating to name the problem, Bp. McManus explicitly cites "the perception that the administration of the College of the Holy Cross supports positions contrary to the fundamental moral teaching of the Church" and warns that the College's right to call itself Catholic is at stake.
Ad multos annos, your Excellency! Let's hope and pray that the management of the college will take the opportunity to do the right thing and show stronger support for the right to life.
Here is Bp. McManus' statement:
A controversy has arisen at the College of the Holy Cross that has resulted from the College’s renting space for a conference sponsored by the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy. The conference involves workshops presented by members of Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts. Both organizations promote positions on artificial contraception and abortion that are contrary to the moral teachings of the Catholic Church.I have received numerous complaints from people who are shocked and outraged that a Catholic institution like Holy Cross would have anything to do with such groups. They have appealed to me to ask Father Michael McFarland, president of the College of the Holy Cross, to revoke the College’s agreement to rent space to the Massachusetts Teen Alliance. I have done so.
As Bishop of Worcester, it is my pastoral and canonical responsibility to determine what institutions can properly call themselves “Catholic.” This is a duty that I do not take lightly since to be a Catholic institution means that such an institution conducts its mission and ministry in accord with Catholic Church teaching, especially in cases of faith and morals.
The moral teaching of the Catholic Church on respect for life at all stages of its development is manifestly clear. Life is a fundamental good that must be protected and respected from the moment of fertilization to natural death. This teaching is so basic and important that it provides the foundation upon which much of the Church’s moral and social doctrine rests. It is beyond modification and compromise.
Both Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice are notorious for their policies and practices that directly reject the Church’s teaching on artificial contraception and abortion. The College of the Holy Cross should recognize that any association with these groups can create the situation of offering scandal understood in its proper theological sense, i.e., an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. Certainly it is understandable how people of good will could interpret the college’s allowing presentations to be made by such groups as truly scandalous.
I strongly contend that the confusion and upset to the Catholic faithful and others that flow from the perception that the administration of the College of the Holy Cross supports positions contrary to the fundamental moral teaching of the Church must be avoided. To deny Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice a forum in which to present their morally unacceptable positions is not an infringement of the exercise of academic freedom but a defensible attempt to make unambiguously clear the Catholic identity and mission of the College of the Holy Cross.
It is my fervent wish that the administration of the College of the Holy Cross will unequivocally disassociate itself from the upcoming conference sponsored by the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy so that the college can continue to be recognized as a Catholic institution committed to promoting the moral teaching of the Roman Catholic church.
A couple of years ago, Rod Dreher was a Catholic, distressed to the max over corruption in the priesthood, and worried about the spiritually polluted Church. He eventually talked himself out of the Church, on the grounds that if he were to stay, then his kids might not remain Christians at all. He did it for the children, not because of any doctrinal issues.
Now, Rod's a member of one of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and writing about the mysterious workings of God's grace -- about how some phony Orthodox monks in Texas, in spite of the spiritual frauds and sex crimes they committed, had accidentally brought about some good in the late '90s: that Rod met a young Protestant lady who would eventually become his wife. They were, despite everything, once a means of grace, he says.
To some extent, I'm pleased to see this attitude in Rod: a recognition that God accomplishes some good even despite sin and corruption. Here he seems to lack the harshness and anger with which he suffered for years.
Rod admits he was conned: he had his ears tickled by claims of a weeping icon, and he was fooled by the pseudo-monks there who blessed him and his fiancee. But if he's admitting that he didn't have good discernment then, doesn't that call into question his more recent discernment about leaving the Catholic Church? Wouldn't it be proper for him to go back to the status he had in 1996? Or is he going to switch to a pre-Chalcedonian Church now?
The Mass. Alliance on Teen Pregnancy is scheduled to hold a conference on the campus of Jesuit-run Holy Cross College in Worcester.
Not everything in the conference is bad: there's apparently going to be a "critical look" at Depo-Provera, for example. But is this enough to justify bringing this event on campus, with several Planned Parenthood representatives and other pro-contraception, pro-abortion speakers -- in the middle of the week, when students are likeliest to be on-campus? Does the pro-abortion Governor of this immoral Commonwealth deserve to be getting an award on Holy Cross' campus? [The conference brochure has more details, if you're not outraged enough yet.]
The Holy Cross Cardinal Newman Society has the college's double-talk public statement on the issue: the PR spokesman denies the college's responsibility for hosting the event, but does acknowledge that Holy Cross “evaluates all requests by individuals and organizations to the College to rent facilities."
It's not exactly my taste, but this Canadian monk is rockin' the Gregorian chants:
More at his web site: click the album images to get to the MP3 links.
(HT to Catholic Church Conservation.)
Is it too much to ask that Catholic charitable organizations stick to activity that supports the mission of the Church rather than political activitism that is supposed charitable?
Pope John Paul II visited the US on October 1, 1979, starting here in Boston. Post your recollections of the visit in the comments.
Update: for the "young adult" readers who don't remember the occasion (Hi, John!), here's a post from five years ago with my recollections.
