Month: October 2002

Sister Nouveau Mary Rides Again!
(“But does she ride on an earth-friendly bicycle? an anything-but-U.S.-made compact car? or perhaps a broom?” ~Sandra Molnar, author)

SISTER NOUVEAU MARY LOOKS TO THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH
Why, it’s Sister Nouveau Mary, and she’s charging down the street,
Nose a-twitch at scents of heresy and rumors far from sweet
That her very own disciples (“Future Leaders of the Church”)
Are fomenting revolution and have left her in the lurch.
Now here it is First Saturday, and every girl in class
Has bugged out of enneagrams and gone to morning Mass.
It was Sister Athanasius (of all people!) with a grin
Who had told her of the dire straits her protegees were in.
For all the girls were making a novena! To Saint Ann!
“And we all know, Sister Mary, that’s the way to catch a man!”
To catch a WHAT? The little brats! And here she’d spent her life
In saving her young charges from becoming justawife!
Not stifled slaves to One of Them, tied down to babes and home,
But her elite, her avant garde, crack troops for the Sack of Rome!
Now she puffs and trots the faster, lest that saint unreconstructed
Should smile on those petitioners ere their prayers could be destructed.
And she contemplates with horror (lo, her knees have turned to water)
Just how badly that same saint had failed in raising her own daughter.
And she seeks in vain for comfort: “It could be worse, after all–
The whole bunch could have gone to join the Daughters of Saint Paul.”
Then her high heels click the faster, but no comfort can she find
For the worm of doubt is burrowing and whispering in her mind:
“Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, say, how does your garden grow?
With poppet pope-ettes, rootless plants not meant to bud or blow
And given not the Living Water and the Light they need,
But sterile potions you distill from silly books you read?
Or have they fled your circled chairs, your paper-bannered room,
Transplanting out in God’s green world, where they’ll be free to bloom?
And if you could form yourself anew, to which would you incline:
To be a dry stalk in the sand or a branch of the Living Vine?”

Catholic Right
No I don’t have a speech impediment.
In case you haven’t noticed I just wanted to forewarn: as politics go this blog leans to the right. And it’s the time of year that politics is on the mind of many. If you disagree with what we post, there’s always author emails and comment boxes.

Sen. Wellstone, campaign prop
You beat me to it, Sal — I was about to post on the Wellstone funeral, too. This does illustrate the difference between political liberals and the rest of the world. I’m not talking about people who happen to be liberal, but about professional liberals: people who are employed by politicians or unions or government agencies, whose mission in life is to advance liberal causes. The whole event was thoroughly distasteful, though I had a large amount of respect for Senator Wellstone himself.
To them, even death can be politicized, and is worthy of being politicized, because all of life is political, and all justice must be achieved here on earth through politics. So if there is a groundswell of pity for the Wellstone family, the liberal politician thinks, “How can we translate this enthusiasm into votes?” (There are conservatives and Republicans who think this way, but they’re the exceptions.) They see no contradiction in attacking Republicans for “playing politics” when they say that Mondale is a poor choice for senator, and then they turn around and hold a political pep rally at a funeral.
Liberals have a problem with sacralizing the secular. What I mean by that is that they treat contingent, transitory things like politics as if they are the most important things. Therefore, death is just one more thing that can be ordered toward gaining an advantage over one’s political enemies. Want more proof? Look at the rhetoric of people like celebrities, columnists, and professors, who do not have to stand for elections, and see how they are not content to merely disagree with others’ views. You get the sense that they think conservatives and Republicans are not merely horrible wrong, but unrighteous for holding contrary opinions, e.g.: if you want lower taxes, you hate the poor. If you want to govern your own retirement, you want to throw old people into dumpsters. If you’re against abortion, you hate women. If you want to own a gun, you want to hurt kids. And on and on….
Again: I’m not talking about rank-and-file Democrats, just the pros. Please don’t get offended, unless you’re one of the pros, in which case you can get as offended as you want.

For the record

I don’t want any jumbotrons at my funeral. I don’t want the Clintons or Ted Kennedy there either. I’m talking about the memorial service for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone and five others.

State House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said it was disrespectful that the crowd cheered when former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., appeared on the big monitors and that the crowd jeered when U.S. Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and former GOP Sen. Rod Grams of Minnesota were on the screens.

AP reports:

Lowell, Mass. — Alleged victims of the Rev. Joseph Birmingham said they hoped a meeting with Cardinal Bernard Law would bring home to the prelate the depth of the clergy abuse scandal.
Law met behind closed doors with about 100 people, including about 20 victims and their relatives, Tuesday night. Those in attendance said Law apologized and asked for forgiveness.
“It was a very emotional meeting. There was not a dry eye in the room,” Bernie McDaid said. “I think he’s beginning to see the immensity of this and how much damage it really has caused.”
Fifty-four people have sued the Boston Archdiocese claiming they were abused by Birmingham starting in 1962. Birmingham died in 1989.
McDaid said the meeting was “only the beginning.”
“He has to come out and address the people. There’s no other way of healing,” McDaid said.
Added Gary Bergeron: “It’s a start. This is just a first step in a long process. It shouldn’t have taken this long. I do give him credit for being here.”
The lawsuits, some of which name Law as a defendant, allege that after parents raised concerns about Birmingham, church officials moved him among different parishes. Birmingham served at parishes in Lowell, Sudbury, Salem, Boston’s Brighton neighborhood, Gloucester and Lexington.
Archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Morrissey said the archdiocese won’t discuss Law’s meetings with victims.
Victims said that despite the ongoing litigation, the 2.5-hour meeting was an open, question-and-answer session, with no ground rules.
“The lawsuit is about the past, the meeting tonight is about the future … it’s about where do we go from here,” said Olan Horne, a spokesman for a support group for alleged victims of Birmingham.
Participants also hoped the meeting would help the parents of victims, many of whom have had difficulty accepting the damage done to their children, said Bergeron, a support group member.
“One of our main goals here is to get some healing for the parents,” Bergeron said.
About six victims have already met with Law in one-on-one sessions since July, said Bergeron, who also met privately with Law.
Tuesday’s meeting was organized as an attempt to bring Law to the site of Birmingham’s alleged abuse. The support group is currently in talks with the archdiocese about having other meetings, and its goal if to have Law visit all the parishes where Birmingham allegedly abused children.
In a related development, both the archdiocese and leaders of the Catholic reform group Voice of the Faithful said a Tuesday meeting between leaders of the two was “cordial and productive,” and may lead to a meeting between the group and Law. Previously, relations between the group and the archdiocese have been strained.