Category: Uncategorized

I fell on the floor laughing when I read what Sean Gallagher wrote about combining priestly ministry with a Broadway career over at Nota Bene.

A very disturbing piece by Rod Dreher today on the human cost of our shepherd’s transgressions. What is the Church for? To bring souls to Christ, the only source of salvation. Look at the cost of this scandal in terms of the human cost and money doesn’t much matter. We need openess and accountability from our bishops and cardinals. We need to help the victims of this abuse heal fully. We need action on their part to eliminate this abuse in the future. We need to pray.

A reader gives his comments on my comments on Mark Jordan’s Freudian sloop. He also sent me some junk from Time magazine that I will comment on later.

You are spot-on with your analysis of Mark Jordan and others who share his view. It would be laughable if it were not so serious. I suspect you have seen this article from Time magazine. Not to put too fine a point on it, but persons who view the world primarily through the grid of their sexual attractions can’t see straight. This is, of course, true of heterosexuals as well as homosexuals. Sexual attractions ought not define us as persons. If they do, then there’s something terribly
wrong. The answer is not cultural change or new ways of seeing. The answer is the same as it’s always been: conversion of hearts and minds so we might experience the saving power of the Paschal Mystery.

Mark Shea is dead on today in his commentary on Islam and the Islamic world. We stand with you, Mr. Shea. Give them my number if they call.

This disturbing story from the Washington Times on the conduct of the Palestians and the Franciscans during the seige on the Church of the Nativity. Stockpiles of food were seized and voraciously consumed by the Palestinians. They boozed like sailors. Orthodox priests didn’t have anything good to say about their “guests” or their Franciscan brothers:

Angry Orthodox priests yesterday showed two reporters about 20 empty bottles of whiskey, champagne, vodka, cognac and French wine on a kitchen shelf and on the floor of two rooms.
“They should be ashamed of themselves. They acted like animals, like greedy monsters. Come, I will show you more,” said one priest, who declined to give his name.
He gestured toward empty bottles of Israeli-brewed Maccabi beer and hundreds of cigarette butts strewn on the floor.
The priest then took the reporters to see computers taken apart and a television set dismantled for use as a hiding place for weapons.
“You can see what repayment we got for ‘hosting’ these so-called guests,” said Archbishop Ironius, another cleric, as he showed reporters the main reception hall of the Greek Orthodox Monastery.
“All the media concentrated on the Franciscan [Catholic] quarter, where little damage was done,” the archbishop said. “Why? The Franciscans actually let the gunmen in, then guided the gunmen to our rooms.”

Is it true? If it is it appears my outrage wasn’t properly placed at only the Palestinians who occupied the church where Christ was born.