Month: October 2002

Pundits who want to equate peaceable Christian fundamentalists with Al-Qaeda murderers do. But columnist Maggie Gallagher pokes a hole in the theory:

In a letter to the Buffalo News and in conversations with author Dan Herbeck, McVeigh said he had no firm convictions about an afterlife: “And he told us that when he finds out if there’s an afterlife, he will improvise, adapt and overcome, just like they taught him in the Army,” Herbeck said. In May 2001, Esquire published 13 letters of McVeigh’s. In them, he portrays himself variously as a patriot, a lover of “The Simpsons,” a “Star Trek junkie,” a fan of the movie “Unforgiven,” a reader of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” an enthusiastic consumer of Hustler and Penthouse magazines. His only direct religious reference (other than a Christmas card) was a letter dated April 11, 1998: “Yesterday was Good Friday; tomorrow is Easter; and it’s been so long since I’ve been to church (except Christian Identity) (kidding!).”

Amy Welborn quotes an article about the latest goofiness from the Lexington, KY diocese: Gay Couple’s Quadruplets Baptized in the Lexington Cathedral.
Now, contestants, you know how our game works: as we tell the story, we’ll count all sins, failures, and blunders, plus a point for each aggravating circumstance enumerated, even those that don’t increase the number of acts committed.
Hm: let’s see. Two guys in a gay relationship (one) brought in for baptism the kids produced by in-vitro fertilization (two) from a non-marital (three) donor (ahem, four) on a presumably paid (five) surrogate mother (six). The priest blessed both men as if parents (seven).
Actually, I don’t want to be too harsh on that last point: what on earth is the right thing for the priest to do? As Pete has pointed out, canon law requires that the kids not be denied baptism due to a parent’s irregular family situation, as long as the kids are going to be raised as Catholics. So the priest has to give the sacrament. Let’s also suppose, for the sake of argument, that both men have legally adopted the children. So in the rite of baptism, should the celebrant treat both as fathers?

Since today was the feast of Christ the King in the old calendar, my parish recited the beautiful Act of Dedication of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart today after Mass. Here’s an older version of the prayer.

Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly prostrate before Thine Altar. We are Thine, and Thine we wish to be; but to be more surely united with Thee, behold, each one of us this day freely dedicates himself to Thy Most Sacred Heart.
Many, indeed, have never known Thee; many, too, despising Thy precepts have rejected Thee. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to Thy Sacred Heart.
Be Thou King, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken Thee, but also of the prodigal sons who have abandoned Thee; grant that they may quickly return to their Father’s house, lest they perish of wretchedness and hunger. Be Thou King of those whom heresy holds in error or discord keeps aloof; call them back into the harbor of truth and the unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one fold and one Shepherd.
Be Thou King of all those who even now sit in the shadow of idolatry or Islam, and refuse not Thou to bring them into the light of Thy kingdom. Look, finally, with eyes of pity upon the children of that race, which was for so long a time Thy chosen people; and let Thy Blood, which was once invoked upon them, now descend upon them in a cleansing flood of redemption and eternal life.
Grant, O Lord, to Thy Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; unto all nations give an ordered tranquility; bring it to pass that from pole to pole the earth may resound with one cry: Praise to the divine Heart that wrought our salvation; to It be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The petitions for the salvation of Muslims and Jews which appear above are not in the most recently published version of that prayer (in the 1999 Enchiridion Indulgentiarum).
(Full disclosure: I edited a couple of words in the above text, making it conform more closely to the Latin.)