Wow! I'd better take my temperature. Hugo Chavez, that anti-Catholic tinpot Commie dictator-wannabe, is saying something that sounds laudably sensible!
Apparently some Venezuelans have turned plastic surgeries into routine quinceañera gifts, an idea which is, on the CL scale of foolishness, "nuttier than a cheese log". Hugo agrees with me.
Good job, Hugo! I'm sending a whole "peace sign" your way today; usually, I'm only willing to give you half.
Genevieve Kineke, the Catholic writer on authentic femininity, has news about a noteworthy anniversary for Catholic lay life:
It is our great joy to learn that the Pontifical Council for the Laity is encouraging the faithful worldwide to observe the 20th anniversary of Mulieris Dignitatem in the coming year. This Apostolic Letter (signed August 15th, 1988) was written by John Paul II to encourage women in their vocations, to highlight the essential feminine genius that they provide to the world, and to restore spiritual and physical motherhood to a culture that was quickly losing sight of the very meaning of nuptial love.
The Catholics of North America have been asked in particular to consider the document in light of one overarching theme: The Dignity of Women in a Technological and Consumeristic Society. To that effect, a website has been created in order to provide a comprehensive resource for those looking for ways to reflect on this timely anniversary. Dignityofwomen.com will point to books, speakers, study guides, and other initiatives that will bring the beauty of this document to as many people as possible, while constantly integrating suggestions, additions, and a bulletin board of events for women to access over the coming year.
Your help would be greatly appreciated in spreading the word, contacting the appropriate persons at the parish and diocesan level to alert them to this anniversary, fostering the publication of articles on the topic for various periodicals, encouraging local women to gather and discuss the theme in various settings, and to pray for the message in Mulieris Dignitatem to be studied and lived. This is also a marvelous opportunity to reach out to women of good will in other denominations and faiths, inviting them to prayerfully consider its themes and to see if common ground could be found. We invite qualified speakers to submit a request, and thereby add their names to the site. Similarly, relevant books and organizations are welcome to provide their links.
The timeliness of this observance cannot be overestimated. With debates raging over the nature of marriage, the sanctity of human life, the needs of children, and how the gifts of women are best promoted, what better way to form ourselves than by returning to the foundational questions of who women are and why the divine plan hinges on their cooperation.
Kindly help us share this good news with as many as you can and please pray with us for a fruitful observance. Any questions, suggestions, or submissions of resources should be sent to gskineke at feminine-genius.com. May Our Lady, in whose fidelity the entire world rejoices, bless this coming year and all our efforts to understand the richness of the feminine vocation.
[addendum: I will be discussing this with Teresa Tomeo Wednesday morning on EWTN Radio at 9:45 EST]
Happy Assumption Day!
Reuters cites the Roman Rota's annual report on annulment appeals:
Smoke got in his eyes. Too much of it, so he asked the Roman Catholic Church to annul his marriage when his wife refused to kick the nicotine habit.
That is just one of the, well, hazy cases that wound up before the
Vatican's Sacra Romana Rota, a top court which hears the most complicated of marriage annulment requests. [...]In the case of the non-smoking husband, the health and physical fitness enthusiast asked his girlfriend to marry him on condition she would eventually quit smoking.
She said yes and after they tied the knot she tried her best but her addiction was stronger than her and the marriage went up in smoke -- at least from the husband's point of view.
A first diocesan marriage tribunal granted him the annulment but a second tribunal overturned that decision. They are still married in the eyes of the Church and the case is now before the Vatican's Rota.
Hey, Pete, what do you think of this one? Is it even possible for someone to validly vow marriage when his or her consent depends on a future condition?
Philosopher John Haldane:
One thing that I would point to as a looming crisis -- which is also an opportunity --is the disintegration of the family... In Italy by 2050, halfway through this century, 60 percent of Italians, almost two thirds of Italians, will have no brother, no sister, no first cousin, no uncle, no aunt. In 45 years time... people will just be isolated atoms with no familial relationships. When that happens it will be a disaster and a tragedy, and we should be preparing ourselves, trying to warn people, trying to say that “Look what you’ve chosen, your lifestyles, haven’t enriched your lives. It has impoverished your lives. You’re poorer than you were, not richer than you were, and the only richness that you cannot recover is the richness of deep personal relationships, of family, intergenerational relationships and so on...
Winston was a young cowboy who lived near The Kitchen Madonna, so she gave him some advice about finding a good woman.
It figures that such a capable lady would live in the Heart of Dixie.
If any of our readers happen to be family lawyers in the state of Arizona, would you take a moment to look into a family that needs help?
Nancy Sandrock is a practicing midwife and mother of twelve in Maricopa County. Seven of her children live at home, but they were removed by the Arizona CPS recently in connection with a complaint against her 18-year-old son.
Our blog neighbor Alicia the midwife (May archive) has visited the family in the past and knows the mother well, so she's been posting about the case.
What they need most now is legal help to stop apparently abusive state social workers from bulldozing their family.
The L.A. Times tells us that "Sex is essential, kids aren't," in an editorial by David P. Barash, professor of psychology at the University of Washington. It seems that the psychiatric profession, or at least this guy, embraces the idea of free will wholeheatedly:
And evolutionary biologists (including me) are asked, "How can this be?" If reproduction is perhaps the fundamental imperative of natural selection, of our genetic heritage, isn't it curious — indeed, counterintuitive — that people choose, and in such large numbers, to refrain from participating in life's most pressing event?Ignore (if you can) the smug, facile cheerleading for the culture of death, and the blithe disregard for what German depopulation will mean for the world's future. (Hint: no beer, no pork sausages.) Isn't this the perfect argument against those who argue that homosexual behavior is pre-programmed into certain people? Even if it is, David P. Barash, professor of psychology at the University of Washington, says that homosexuals don't have to obey it.The answer is that intentional childlessness is indeed curious — but in no way surprising. It is also illuminating, because it sheds light on what is perhaps the most notable hallmark of the human species: the ability to say no — not just to a bad idea, an illegal order or a wayward pet but to our own genes.
When it comes to human behavior, there are actually very few genetic dictates. Our hearts insist on beating, our lungs breathing, our kidneys filtering and so forth, but these internal-organ functions are hardly "behavior" in a meaningful sense. As for more complex activities, evolution whispers within us. It does not shout orders.
People are inclined to eat when hungry, sleep when tired and have sex when aroused. But in most cases, we remain capable of declining, endowed as we are with that old bugaboo, free will....
Taking this a bit further, we often hear that teenagers "are going to have sex anyway" so we might as well equip them with condoms and pills to protect against the consequences. But if David P. Barash is right -- and I think he may be -- young, unmarried people don't have to get it on! It's just an urge, and they can say "no" to it!
Wait...you say the professor might not agree? But those are the clear implications, aren't they?
Columnist Betsy Hart is on C-SPAN's Book TV tonight:
"We live in a culture that doesn't want to admit that the greatest danger to a child is the foolishness of his own heart."
"...even when it comes to caring for kids, too many parents idolize their children — almost, it seems, wanting something FROM them in the form of their accomplishments and achievements. Or they are spending so much time pursuing the golden ring of achievement themselves so they can give their kids stuff (and be liked in return) that they don't give their kids what they really need: Time. And an effort to reach their child's heart — not just an effort to get the child to Harvard."
"My goal for my kids is Heaven, not Harvard. Now, if they get into Harvard on the way to Heaven..., that's marvelous. But that's not my goal."
My grandmother, Rose M. Schultz, passed away today. She was very old and infirm.
I remember fondly that she was a daily communicant, and had stacks of prayer cards she would use to guide her prayer each day. She raised a ruckus at her parish when all the saint statues were moved to the cry room in the back of the Church.
Rest in peace, Nana. We will miss you as we miss all those who have cared for us and helped guide us toward the truth.
Writer Elizabeth Sandoval has a good take on abstinence in the McPaper today.
