Today is the memorial of Pope Sixtus and his companion martyrs. A little known fact is that Pope Sixtus along with these four deacons were as inseparable in life as they were in death. They did everything together and were always seen together around Rome at the time. In fact the slang for a close group of friends became known as a Sixtus pack.
I recently came across the following while listening to Gilbert Keith Chesterton by Maisie Ward and it is quite appropriate for today.
I am so glad to hear you say . . . that, in your own words "it is good for us to be here"–where you are at present. The same remark,if I remember right, was made on the mountain of the Transfiguration.It has always been one of my unclerical sermons to myself, that that remark which Peter made on seeing the vision of a single hour, ought to be made by us all, in contemplating every panoramic change in the long Vision we call life–other things superficially, but this always in our depths. "It is good for us to be here–it is good for us to be here," repeating itself eternally. And if, after many joys and festivals and frivolities, it should be our fate to have to look on while one of us is, in a most awful sense of the words, "transfigured before our eyes": shining with the whiteness of death–at least, I think, we cannot easily fancy ourselves wishing not to be at our
post. Not I, certainly. It was good for me to be there.
11 Warwick Gardens (postmarked July 11, 1899.)
George Sim Johnson have a very good and more indepth overview of the Galileo’ affair then you normally see even in apologetics circles (published in 2003). We seldom hear the fact that Galileo got more in trouble for his dipping into theology then for proposing heliocentricism. That he was condemned more by the scientists of the day than by the Church. Nor is it ever mentioned that proof of the theory was not seen till centuries after his death and yet he wanted to teach it as more than a hypothesis. There are also a couple interesting facts in the article of items that Galileo contended that turned out not to be true such as that planets orbit in perfect circles and that comets are exhalations of the atmosphere.
The article does not mention the fact that Galileo famous expression of Eppure si muove (And yet it moves) has no historic reliability and was later added to the myth of the Galileo affair.
Interesting article on this group during their biennial national convention in Minneapolis July 17-21. Looking over their resolutions it is nice to see a good balance of issues and not the one-sided mess you see from so-called social justice types.
Wesley
Smith posts an excellent letter that was written to the WSJ about "potential" human beings in response to an editorial.
When Dale Price fisks it is a thing of beauty. A verbal slugfest with no rope-a-dope subtlety. His target is Fr. Larson’s critique of the Mass on EWTN which I noted previously.
SF author S.M. Stirling also commented on his post. Dale had previously reviewed his book Dies the Fire and the author had commented on his review. I finally got around to reading that book myself last week based on Dale’s recommendation. I just wish I hadn’t waited over a year to get to it. Though at least it means I can now read the second in the series (The Protector’s War)and won’t have to wait long for third one (A Meeting in Corvallis) to be released in September.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) _ Twin girls no taller than Jesus’ chest squeal with delight, fingers pointed at the figure of the Son of God being lashed by a Roman soldier a few feet away.
Across the dusty courtyard from Pontius Pilate’s administrative complex, Jesus crouches pathetically inside a minuscule prison cell. Elsewhere, Jesus is betrayed, crucified, condemned, worshipped. His head is crowned with thorns, his dead body cradled by the Virgin Mary. And twice every hour he is resurrected — all 50 feet of him.
At Tierra Santa, billed as ”Jerusalem in Buenos Aires,” Jesus is quite literally everywhere. And the faithful come in droves, with 10,000 visitors on Easter weekend alone and more than 2.5 million since the park opened in 1999.
It is a Holy Land made almost entirely of plastic, from the camels to the temples to Jesus himself. The effect approximates the original ”Batman” TV show, with the surf-rock theme replaced by choral music and Arab dirges blaring from speakers hidden in fake palm trees.
Costumed sentinels (security guards) mingle with tourists guided by robed men and women through the history of the savior’s days in Jerusalem. Arab vendors peddle keffiyehs and ceramics in the park’s souk.
From the top of Mount Olive, where Jesus is permanently nailed to the cross, you can glimpse a disused water park. Planes from the adjacent airport roar overhead every couple minutes, tactlessly reminding visitors which century they are in.
Brian Cahill, of San Francisco Catholic Charities CYO, couldn’t be more pleased now that his group has found a way to stay in the adoption business.
Earlier this year, the Vatican announced Catholic Charities could not longer pair children with adoptive same-sex parents.
"Fortunately though our new archbishop did not say shut it down," Cahill said. "He said find a way to continue to serve these children and at the same time not contravene church teaching."
So the solution approved by San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer was for Catholic Charities to team up with California Kids Connection, an Oakland-based adoption network.
Even though California Kids does work with same-sex couples, Catholic Charities feels it can help because that’s all it’s doing – helping – not actually finalizing the adoptions.
"We would see ourselves as educating, informing, linking, and then we’re going to try to recruit parents," Cahill said. "We simply will not be, for reasons that we mentioned, doing the direct work."
Jill Jacobs, California Kids Connection Executive Director, says the match will work: "We’re not being asked nor pushed to compromise any of our principles or values."
Next month, Catholic Charities will send three paid staff members to California Kids to work to match up families and foster children.
California Kids could use the help, according to Jacobs.
"Last year this program was responsible for 200 children finding permanent families and we hope the first year to double or triple that and we think after that it will be even greater," Jacobs said.
The solution seems to have been a way to keep all sides happy, including proponents of same-sex parents.
Something is quite backwards when it is the director of an adoption agency that works with same sex couples is the one to say "We’re not being asked nor pushed to compromise any of our principles or values" and the director of Catholic Charities in San Francisco is almost gleeful in finding a seeming loophole.
In contrast, San Francisco’s Catholic Charities will assign three staff members to work with California Kids Connection, a nonprofit statewide organization that compiles an Internet database of children available for adoption and assists with adoption referrals. The staff will help all prospective parents, including gays and lesbians, Cahill said. If that work ultimately leads to a match between a gay parent and a foster child, that is fine, he said.
“God loves them all," he said.
Not being a moral theologian I wonder what others might make of this statement?
When asked if the new plan still puts Catholic Charities in a position of assisting with gay adoptions, San Francisco Archbishop George H. Niederauer said he thought it was a form of potential “remote" cooperation that does not conflict with Catholic moral teaching. He said he has consulted his predecessor, Cardinal William Levada , the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, on this plan.
I am sure the question of whether this comes into the category of remote material cooperation is debatable. The German bishops use to be involved in a government program where they would give counseling for women considering abortion. They were not promoting abortion, but were involved in a process where a women could get an abortion. Then-Cardinal Ratzinger was finally able to end this process which it seems the majority of the German bishops endorsed. This situation seems similar to this situation and that the material cooperation is not just remote.
There is also another component of cooperation and that is moral cooperation. The current and passed statements of the Director of Catholic Charities in San Francisco show that he morally supports this grave sin. Even if an act truly entail remote cooperation it is still sinful if the person morally cooperates with the end. Mr. Cahill should be removed from Catholic Charities immediately. Since this has not been done it is hard to take seriously a good faith attitude by the diocese. It appears more like seeking a loophole than an attempt at diligently defending the faith.
The latest Cardinal Arinze Podcast has a video Podcast with the subject being Pope John Paul II’s The Theology of the Body. If you don’t already subscribe to this podcast, I would recommend at least that you get this episode. Cardinal Arinze was recently in my city for a conference on this subject which I was unable to attend. He also said Mass at my parish church during his visit and unfortunately I missed that also.
I have also recently started listening to another of Familyland’s podcast called the Weekly Roman Observer has guests like Mike Aquilina to discuss weekly events and highlights of the L’Osservatore Romano. Highly recommended.
MUNICH – Pope Benedict XVI is to give an unprecedented interview Saturday to four German TV journalists invited to his summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, with the discussion set to air worldwide on August 13.
The German-born pope has already given a couple of one-on-one television interviews in his year-long papacy, but no head of the Catholic church has ever gone before the cameras to handle a panel of questioners for a full hour.
"Nothing like this ever occurred with Pope John Paul II," recalls Father Eberhard von Gemmingen, head of the German section of Vatican Radio, who is to be one of the four interviewers.