10. You panic when you think you’ve run out of shallots.
9. You know precisely how many days it’s been since you last sharpened your heavy European knives.
8. You refer to pre-ground black pepper as “grey dandruff.”
7. You call the “parmesan cheese” in the green can “white dandruff.”
6. You believe fresh garlic has sacramental qualities.
5. You can tell where an olive oil originated by tasting a single drop.
4. You have a quasi-erotic attachment to roasted pignoli.
3. You look down on people who don’t know that “pignoli” is Italian for “pine nuts.”
2. You think the first step for preparing “instant” mac-and-cheese is making a roux.
And the #1 way you can tell you’re a food elitist…
1. You would spend more on a truffle than a car payment.
Month: March 2004
New diocesan statement on Medjugorje
In February, Bishop Ratko Peric of the Diocese of Mostar-Duvno in Bosnia-Herzegovina issued a new summary of the Medjugorje case. At the end of the report, he lists the Holy See’s statements:
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has intervened four times through two of its Secretaries, while the Prefect, Cardinal Ratzinger, also made an important intervention.
In 1985, Msgr. Alberto Bovone notified the Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of Italy not to organize official pilgrimages to Medjugorje.
In 1995, Msgr. Tarcisio Bertone wrote to the bishop of Langres, Msgr. Leon Taverdet, and repeated the same to Msgr. Lucien Daloz of Besan�on, France, who were interested in knowing the position of the Holy See on Medjugorje.
Finally, in 1998, the same Secretary wrote to Msgr. Gilbert Aubry, bishop of Reunion. All these letters emphasized that pilgrimages, whether private or public, are not allowed if they presuppose the authenticity of the apparitions, since this would be in contradiction to the declaration of the Bishops’ Conference of Yugoslavia.
Ratzinger’s frei erfunden. In 1998, when a certain German gathered various statements which were supposedly made by the Holy Father and the Cardinal Prefect, and forwarded them to the Vatican in the form of a memorandum, the Cardinal responded in writing on 22 July 1998: “The only thing I can say regarding statements on Medjugorje ascribed to the Holy Father and myself is that they are complete invention” – “frei erfunden”.
44 years of Lent
L’Espresso‘s www.chiesa department presents an excerpt from the testimony of Romanian priest Tertulian Ioan Langa to the persecution of the Church under Communism.
(Thanks, CWN.)
The Loony Catholic’s Voter Guide
Maryknoll, back in the day, used to produce men like Father Vincent Capodanno, who was awarded the Medal of Honor when he dove into machine-gun fire to protect a wounded Marine. They sent missionaries to the furthest, most inhospitable places on Earth to bear witness to the Gospel. For administering corporal works of mercy, they were legendary.
Today, they are indistinguishable from any other left-wing organization, except they pretend to be motivated by Christian values. You won’t find any reference to abortion, or any other life issue, in their 2004 election guide. They favor
• Abolishing the “drug war”;
• Addressing the “root causes” of terrorism (how original!);
• Closing the “School of the Americas” (a boutique cause of the Left);
• Ending subsidies and tariffs that protect domestic industries at the expense of poorer nations. (Okay, I’m with them on that one.)
What any of this has to do with Jesus Christ, I’m not certain. Here’s a sure sign that their political commitments are more important than the poor: they’re against technology that will produce more food for hungry people.
Let them be as the fig tree in the Gospel.