Author: Pete Vere

I am Judgmental

I could not help but laugh at the Alexandra’s post in response to Connie’s comments about being judgmental. Like Alexandra says, there is a different between judging people’s actions, and the internal state of their soul. Only God can do the latter, but quite often we are called to do the former. In fact, I spent half the day judging people. It’s my job. I look at their actions, behavior and other factors pertaining to the individual. Then, along with two clerics, I judge whether or not they were capable of entering into a valid marriage, and if they are capable, whether or not their actions were consistent with so doing. If the answer to any these questions is no, then along with the two other judges I judge the couple’s marriage invalid. Occasionally, I also judge that the individual is not ready to attempt marriage a second time, and thus a prohibition is needed to prevent such from taking place until the issues that led to the invalidity of the first attempt at marriage are adequately dealt with. As you can see, throughout this entire process I am judging people; and I do this with a mandate from the Church to do so. Therefore, the prohibition “Judge not, lest ye be judged” is not absolute, but rather must be understood within its proper context.

Beer and Monks, Kevin and Shawn

This has been a good week on the beer front. First off, Kevin Fogarty posted a comment in response to the Five Gloomy Mysteries thread. Kevin and I first met through an Ecclesia Dei Indult email discussion group I use to moderate. This list was one of the first to go beyond theological and liturgical tradition, and advocate and discuss Catholic cultural tradition as well. As an experienced brewmaster who knew the entire history of Catholic brewing, especially when it came to monastic beer, Kevin proved indispensable to the list. We quickly became friends and, prior to beggining my studies in canon law, I had the opportunity to visit Kevin where he introduced me to many of the finer Benedictine and Trappist ales available on the market. My favorite was, and remains to this day, Chimay Grand Reserve. I still remember when Kevin tossed out the idea to Shawn Tribe, John Lacroix and me about organizing a Traditional Monastic Beer pilgimige through Europe. He proposed that we divide out time between the Ecclesia Dei monasteries and the brewing monasteries, and enjoy the time of prayer, beer and fellowship. After loosing touch with one another for almost two years, Kevin’s recent comment rekindled our correspondence as well as the idea for the pilgrimage.

Anyway, with this in mind I just happened to stop by Shawn McElhinney‘s blog. Somehow or another, Shawn came across the following interesting site:Michael Jackson’s Beer Hunter. Despite having the same name as the famous pop-thingy, Mr. Jackson does a wonderful job review micro-breweries. I would definitely encourage you all to check it out.

Hear! Hear! I agree!

As Catholic Light’s resident canonist and horror writer, I couldn’t agree more with the following excerpt Rich posted:

Arnaud Guyot-Jeannin, president of “The No to Halloween Collective” was quoted in Le Parisien newspaper as saying his group was comprised of Christians opposed to the commercialism of Halloween, in which “the monstrous and the ugly is exalted.”

Despite what other may think, I totally agree with what the good Arnaud says. Christians, and especially Catholics, should not tolerate the exaltation of the monstrous and the ugly. Er…wait a second…what do you mean we’re speaking of Halloween and not the cathedrals in Milwaukee and Los Angeles?

The French Bishops be Darned — Win a Free Copy of Schism

A Blessed All Saints Day to each every reader of Catholic Light. That being said, All Hallows’ Eve is now past, and it is time to begin writing next year’s collection of short and light horror stories with Catholic, canon law, folklore and Halloween themes. I already have ideas for five stories, some of which I’ve begun writing, but I need one more. So I decided to throw it out to my readers. Submit the title of a story idea (not the idea itself, just the title) in the comments box, and I will write a story around the title of the best idea. Contest closes Monday at 9:am and the winner gets a free copy of Schism.

BTW For you Catholic fans of science-fiction, FrancisIsidore Electronic Publishers (FIE) has just released their anthology of Catholic science fiction short stories. I haven’t read it yet, but it looks really good. The title is: Leaps of Faith.

Envoy Magazine joins St. Blog’s

Well folks, I thought I would break the news. Envoy Magazine has now joined St. Blog’s, and it promises to be as much fun as the magazine. The name of the blog is Envoy Encore and with a team of Pat, Caroline, Carl, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Mary Beth Bonacci and Catholic Light’s crazy canuck canonist, it looks the be pretty good! No, I won’t be giving up Catholic Light, the Petra Pundit, or Gratian’s Commentary to take on this team blog, but it pretty much kills what’s left of CLOG. Which reminds me, I’ve now got an email address just for blogging going at petevere@msn.com. How do I add it to everyone else’s in the upper left-hand corner?