Month: June 2006

Teresa and I were blest last weekend to attend the ordination of 7 priests in Arlington, VA. Among them was Father Bjorn Lundberg, who sang in my choir seven years ago while his application was being considered. He’ll serve his first assignment at our cathedral. He has been a dear friend to us and will have many happy years of service.
He’s got a wonderful singing voice, and also does an amazing impression of Mother Angelica, the Papal Nuncio, his Rector Fr. Rippy, and our own Bishop Loverde.

AUSTIN, Texas – Customers craving fresh crustaceans will have to look beyond Whole Foods Market Inc. after the natural-foods grocery chain decided Thursday to stop selling live lobsters and crabs on the grounds that it’s inhumane.
The Austin-based grocer spent seven months studying the sale of live lobsters from ship to supermarket aisle, trying to determine whether the creatures suffer along the way.
In some stores, they experimented with “lobster condos,” filling tanks with stacks of large pipes the critters can crawl inside. And they moved the tanks behind seafood counters and away from children’s tapping fingers.
Ultimately, Whole Foods management decided to immediately stop selling live lobsters and soft-shell crabs, saying they could not ensure the creatures are treated with respect and compassion. …more

So what’s next? Beef? Pork sausage? Broccoli? Will Whole Foods stop selling cheese if they think the cows are under duress?
PETA is happy, of course:

“The ways that lobsters are treated would warrant felony cruelty to animals charges if they were dogs or cats,” said Bruce Friedrich, a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Note to PETA: we don’t eat cats & dogs. We eat lobsters, softshell crabs, steaks, chops, ribs, roasts, drumsticks, & nuggets. Beef, pork, chicken, duck, goose, buffalo, moose. And they are tasty.
If anyone needs some lobster tanks, I know where you can get them. Cheap.

New Catholic Mass translation OK’d
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops signed off Thursday on a new English translation for the Mass that would change prayers ingrained in the memories of millions of American parishioners. …more

Gay Brownshirts on the March
Of course Gov. Ehrlich of Maryland would throw a political appointee in front of a bus when he expressed his Catholic belief about homosexual behavior. He’s a Republican serving in a heavily democratic state.

Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. yesterday fired Robert J. Smith, his appointee on the Metro transit authority board, for referring to gay people as sexual deviants on a cable television show.
“Homosexual behavior, in my view, is deviant,” he said. “I’m a Roman Catholic.” Smith said his comments had been part of a discussion about a proposed ban on same-sex marriage. “The comments I make in public outside of my [Metro board job] I’m entitled to make,” he said. His personal beliefs, he said, have “absolutely nothing to do with running trains and buses and have not affected my actions or decisions on this board.”

I hope the Catholic League jumps all over this.