Category: Uncategorized

Our Faure concert went well last night – and a CL visitor came to the concert.
Dale – I’m glad you enjoyed it!
We video taped the concert – I’ll see about getting some clips on YouTube in between diaper changes.

“Enigma”
But applied to Pope Benedict? Bah.

Puzzling pope? – Author explores continuing enigma of Benedict XVI
CHICAGO (Commonweal Magazine) — Recently, Vatican postage stamps, adorned from time immemorial with the papal triple crown, conveyed a different note: “Episcopus Romae,” Bishop of Rome.
An ecumenist in the curia explained to Zenit News Service that it was a nod to the Orthodox, who prefer that title. Maybe it was and maybe it wasn’t.
Yet a year and a half after his election, Papa Benedetto remains an enigma. Who is he really? After the generally hostile reaction to his election in the European and American media, he does not seem to fit their initial fears. Nor does he fit the happy dreams of observers, like Father Richard John Neuhaus or George Weigel who waited eagerly for the purges that have not happened.
Instead, the pope suspended the founder of the Legionaries of Christ because of sexual-abuse charges, and replaced Joaquin Navarro-Valls, head of the Vatican Press Office, with a Jesuit, Frederico Lombardi of Vatican Radio, a change, one hears, stoutly resisted by Opus Dei.
Is Benedict the liberal conciliar adviser to Cologne’s Cardinal Joseph Frings? Or the disciple of St. Augustine who was horrified at the Vatican II document, The Church in the Modern World, because he believed modern secularism constituted the greatest threat to the church?

full article.

Somewhat old, but good news.

JERUSALEM (Zenit.org) — A “gay pride” parade destined for the streets of Jerusalem went no further than a university’s sports stadium.
Organizers backed down from today’s scheduled event following the pleas of Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders who called such a public display in the holy city offensive.
The Holy See sent an appeal to Israeli authorities to cancel the parade, explaining that “it constitutes a grave affront to the sentiments of millions of Jewish, Muslim and Christian believers, who recognize the particular sacred character of the city of Jerusalem and request that their conviction be respected.”
On Wednesday, the Apostolic Nunciature in Israel also sent a note that called on authorities “to prevent immodest parades and any overt actions which offend the sensibilities of religious communities that reside in Jerusalem and hold her dear.”
The Associated Press reported that the police had planned to post 9,000 officers to protect marchers. Authorities asked organizers to scale back the gathering amid reprisal threats after errant Israeli artillery shells killed 18 Palestinian civilians in Gaza on Wednesday.
Organizers agreed Thursday to turn the public parade into a rally, held inside a closed stadium.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, one of the most popular and powerful Vatican officials to visit St. Louis since Pope John Paul II’s 1999 visit, told more than 250 people at the Chase Park Plaza Saturday morning that Latin should be used more frequently in the Roman Catholic liturgy.
The Latin language now, he said “is in the ecclesiastical refrigerator … Mass today should be in Latin from time to time.” …more

Homosexuality on Catholic bishops agenda
BALTIMORE, Nov. 13 (UPI) — New guidelines freeing gay Catholics from trying to alter their sexual orientation is being considered by U.S. Roman Catholic bishops this week.
During their annual fall meeting in Baltimore the bishops will review guidelines for ministering to homosexuals, The Chicago Tribune reported.
Drafted by a conference committee, the documents may encounter opposition from some conservative bishops.
“We are trying to find a language that does not betray the teaching of the church, but will perhaps express it in ways that are not so offensive,” Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George, vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the Tribune.
Recent directives from the Vatican bar most gay men from pursuing ordination and prohibit priests with “homosexual tendencies” from teaching or running seminaries.
“They’re lost focus on the needs of the human race,” said Sam Sinnett, president of the gay Catholic group DignityUSA. “They’re much more concerned with whether two homosexuals are going to get married or not.”

Sounds some of the bishops are wordsmithing – but why? To try to get take off some of the heat they get from groups like DignityUSA? And when an item like that comes up for discussion on how they can make Church teaching more pastoral, they get flack anyway.
Hopefully the bishops keep focused on fundmentals:
A homosexual orientation is not a sin, homosexual acts are.
People with a homosexual orientation are called to celebacy, just like people who aren’t married.
Everyone is called to chastity according to their state in life.
What else needs to be said that would convince people that the can’t follow Jesus and lead an intrinsically sinful lifestyle?
Consider a Catholic couple who were previously married, divorced, and married outside the Church. Does the Church need to tweak their guidelines to try to be more pastoral and win them back to the Church? Or is the teaching crystal clear and you simply have the issue of folks needing to make immense lifestyle changes or sacrifices to get back in line with Church teaching?
I would say that the teaching on these items is clear, and attempts at being more pastoral have tremendous potential to muddy the waters rather than help people live in the manner Jesus is calling us to live.