May 2010 Archives

Writer Genevieve Kineke of life-after-rc.com gave an interview to Boston's NPR station today about the Legion scandal. MP3 audio is on-line at http://streams.wgbh.org/online/cross/cross20100520.mp3
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Once again, my distaste for weekly network TV shows is confirmed.

An episode of "Glee" came on -- a show I've never watched -- and the plot is apparently about a threat to abolish the school's choir.

Who do the writers present as the bad guy of the episode? Who wants to do away with the group he formerly starred in? A "Christian" character, of course!

And to make the guy "worse", they throw in some unrelated stereotypes too: he's out to "convert" former choir members (it's a dig at ex-gay ministries). And he sells big SUVs and says he doesn't believe in global warming. That's one of the ultimate heresies to Hollywood, apparently. I wonder whether this episode was written before Climategate blew up in the faces of the East Anglia and Penn State experts.

If the writers are so desperate for material that they have to resort to a cheap cliché, this show must have jumped the shark already in its first season.

Life is too valuable to waste any of it on this.

Back in 2002, when this was a brand new blog, I wisecracked about a group of lay people with the ambitious project of building an enormous monument in honor of Our Lady's Immaculate Heart, in the form of a triumphal arch in Buffalo, overlooking Lake Erie.

This was the design concept they were working with at the time:

I suggested they expand on the theme:

But nobody's called to thank me for my contribution to the effort. '

Anyway, they're still working, and they've reworked the design.

I'm afraid it's still not very appealing; it's weirdly futuristic and geometrical. The stark structure rising up at the end of a promontory doesn't look welcoming; it doesn't have the gentleness, delicacy, or stateliness suitable to a Marian shrine. It's a blunt object -- well, actually it's round-ended -- and really rather masculine in form. The only sign of motherhood in it is the use of abstract-looking egg-like ovals.

As for the structure at the base of the arch, that looks more like a shrine cafeteria than an actual shrine:

And I have to wonder -- is this to be built on reclaimed land? Putting a 700-foot monument on landfill might lead to some engineering problems.

But I'm not a pro about this. Maybe someone with actual knowledge of architecture could look at these concepts and comment more insightfully.

As the Holy See released its statement in Rome yesterday vis-a-vis the recent apostolic visitation to the Legion of Christ, a strange meeting took place along the Canada/U.S. border. Two active Orangemen, an active Freemason, an active Knight of Columbus and an Opus Dei cooperator donned disguises, met secretly in a field, and under cover of darkness discussed in whispered tones how best to manipulate falsehood into real temptation, hoping to lure the unsuspecting into a deathly trap.

The Holy See has released its statement on the apostolic visitation to the Legion of Christ. To read Vatican Radio's English translation of the statement, please click here. I hope to provide a line-by-line commentary later today. For the time being, my thoughts are summarized in Deuteronomy 30:15-20:

"See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you this day, that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."