August 2006

Gerald posts on the Catholic Theological Society of America honoring Sister Sandra Schneiders. His post is in depth with lots of background. As you would expect with the CTSA the Sister is the typical radical feminist with the normal laundry list of where the Church must change to match society. The typical talk about the"institutional church." You know like when Jesus told Peter on this rock I will build my "institutional church." Or Matthew 18 when we are told when all efforts fail to take it to the "institutional church." How exactly did the word institution become ominous a kind of progressive four letter word? Or is it just the aspect of institutions that are related to authority? Since she wants to get rid of the Pope and the bishops this could be it. People against any kind of authority truly just want to replace some form of authority with their own. To quote G.K. Chesterton "In truth there are only two kinds of people, those who accept dogmas and know it and those who accept dogmas and don’t know it."

For my own part I rejoice that Holy Mother Church is an institution. It would be pretty hard when attempts at rebuking your brother fail to take the matter to some amorphous body of all believers. If you think you have problems with the Curia as a bureaucracy, try getting something done with a whole body of believers. Speaking of Holy Mother Church have you ever heard that term used by these feminists in theologians clothing. The divine feminine is applied to everything, but the Church. Mother is applied willy-nilly to God, but not to the Church. As Cyprian put it, "He who does not have the Church as Mother cannot have God as Father." Though I guess they are not really thrilled with the language of the second part of the equation anyway.

The article Gerald points to compares the Sister to Saint Catherine of Siena. The only real comparison that I can come with is that they are both women and they both don’t have their heads firmly attached.

As to this honor Kevin Miller puts it very charitably:

It certainly isn’t impossible to find, among well-known (nominally) Catholic theologians whose scholarly output is fairly prolific, someone whose work has been less intellectually, morally, and religiously serious, someone less deserving of such a high honor. It takes a bit of work, though.

…What, exactly, is Catholic about the CTSA, except for the fact that a few of the regulars happen to be Catholic?

Sister Sandra Schneiders has also been a speaker at Call to Action. CTA recently has given its leadership award to Cindy Sheehan. Now I can understand why they might be attracted to her. Her idea of a fast is appealing. Recently she went on a one day fast that included Jamba Juice and Vanilla ice cream. Obviously choosing Vanilla over other flavors is quite penitential. Though you would think that after Mel Gibson’s unfortunate remarks that they might not want to back Cindy Sheehan who has talked of Jewish cabals and dark conspiracies theories and is closely associated with groups that call for the elimination of Israel. Unlike Mel she hasn’t blamed all war on the Jewish people, but definitely blames the Iraqi war on them, "My son joined the Army to protect America, not Israel".

Gubernatorial candidate Mark Green says it’s "just plain stupid" that the Knights of Columbus is no longer a recognized student group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The university told the group this summer that it cannot be a recognized student organization because it does not allow all students to participate, the group told The Associated Press.

Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s fraternal benefit society, has been a recognized student organization for 30 years. But this summer, the university said that because the group only allows Catholic males as members, it violates university policy. The group has been told it may not recruit members on campus or use university buildings for their meetings.

Another Christian group on campus, the UW Roman Catholic Foundation, has also been told it will not be recognized. That group is preparing to challenge the decision.

The groups are citing a recent 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that forced Southern Illinois University to recognize the Christian Legal Society despite its requirement that members pledge to adhere to Christian beliefs.

So I guess to be consistent they will also be canceling football this year. Those all-male Badgers really need to taught a lesson about tolerance.

I was thinking more about the whole women ordination movement and some further thoughts came to me on the subject. Groups like the Women’s Ordination Conference who advocate for priestesses within the Catholic Church are really missing key components. Say for example that you buy the premise that women can be ordained as priests, which I certainly don’t. Then why would the process for women entering the priesthood be so different from men then? Why aren’t they building seminaries to train them first? Shouldn’t there be some kind of discernment other than just the feeling of a call? Do they believe that all women who feel this call are always being called by God to the priesthood? Jesus said in John 15:16 "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you." So there has to be a process of discernment to determine if someone is called to the priesthood or not. There has to be a sifting out to determine someone’s vocation. In Catholic seminaries not every male who enters goes on to be ordained. Ultimately it is the bishop of the diocese or head of a religious order that makes this decision.

Do they believe that these women require zero training in theology, philosophy, the pastoral life, etc first? If they do and they believe in equality then why aren’t they demanding that the Church drops seminaries and that any man who feels he should be a priest is immediately ordained? That these men should just seek out any sympathetic bishop regardless of the church they belong to and be ordained immediately.

If they did start seminaries exactly what would be their ecclesiology. I have often mentioned that dissenting Catholics have no rational ecclesiology. That the Church is the true except the parts you disagree with is not exactly a deep ecclesiology. That the Holy Spirit guides Holy Mother Church in all truth except when he doesn’t. I think they would have a difficult time determining what to teach in the first place. Martin Luther soon found out that that everybody has a "pope in their belly" and so would these women find out the same thing. When you cut yourself of from the magisterium there should be no surprise that you start to drift. The magisterium is the anchor of the Bark of Peter. How do you settle theological arguments when each individual is their own magisterium? No surprise that the women’s ordination movement would have the same problems of Protestantism, they are just less honest than Martin Luther was. By their own actions they believe that you can just get ordained and setup shop where ever you want. So I guess you also don’t need a diocese with a Bishop in the first place since you don’t really need any sort of permission from the local ordinary. You can also do away with the Pope since if you don’t have to be obedient to him, then he is just a figurehead that can be done without.

Now another question I have is that if these women can just determine of their own volition that they are called to the priesthood, then why can’t I just show up there and tell them that I was called to be their bishop and start ordering them about ? Do you think that they would buy that one? I think not, but I don’t see how they could discredit my argument without invalidating theirs. Again it is hard to appeal to authority or tradition when you yourself deny such an appeal by your actions. Dissent is in the eye of the beholder. When you are the one dissenting it is a wonderful and brave thing, when someone dissents from you it is not quite viewed the same way.

"My sister Teresa and I attended his talk and a few other TOT talks. After we heard how heretical and mocking of Church teaching these speakers were, we decided to make a couple of signs to hold out in front of Holy Name Cathedral for TOT’s concluding Mass. Our signs simply read ‘FOR TRUE CHURCH ANSWERS READ THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH’ and ‘QUESTION THE AGENDA OF THEOLOGY ON TAP.’

"We remained on the sidewalk, out of the way of pedestrians, and spoke to people who wanted to chat with us about their experience with TOT. We had the Catechism of the Catholic Church with us and showed it to those with whom we spoke. The associate director of the Young Adult Ministry, Kate DeVries, came out and demanded to know what we were doing there; she stomped off while we were answering her.

"The Chicago police arrived shortly after and ordered us off the sidewalk. They said there is an ordinance prohibiting demonstrations near church services. Remember, however, that SNAP and Rainbow Sash demonstrations — or those by any other group that wants to protest Catholic teaching and practice — are always seemingly ‘welcome.’

"The police made us go to the other side of the street where our signs couldn’t be seen by those whom we were trying to influence. Father John Cusick, director of the Young Adult Ministry, came out after Mass and gave the police a big ‘atta-boy’ pat on the back and hand shake for making us move. This whole program is nothing but political conditioning.

"Pay Byrnes and another speaker, Friar John Paul Cafiero, both ridiculed and dismissed the Catechism as ‘their’ rule book. Somehow the suggestion of the Catechism in any way at TOT really hits a nerve.

"We are currently composing a letter to Cardinal George about our experience. We thought you would like to hear our story; and we thought you would appreciate that there were others who also were uncomfortable with the TOT program."

This program is hot – that is Heterodoxy On Tap. I guess though it might take a few beers for this type of theology to start to make sense.

Waukesha resident Kathy Sullivan Vandenberg faces excommunication for seeking the priesthood in an unsanctioned ordination ceremony, Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan said in a statement handed out at weekend Masses at Vandenberg’s home parish.

Dolan wrote to parishioners at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Waukesha that it was his duty to notify the Vatican of Vandenberg’s action. Dolan said her excommunication could come soon. The Roman Catholic Church prohibits women from becoming priests.

Vandenberg, 64, said Monday that she was "startled" by the letter and surprised that Dolan had "spent so much time and energy" on it when "other important things" might demand his attention.

In his letter to the parish, Dolan said he was "disappointed because Ms. Vandenberg and I had begun a fruitful dialogue on the matter last fall. At that time, . . . I had advised her that any attempted ordination would affect her relationship with the church.

"I believed her sincerity when she assured me that she was unaware of such a consequence, and did not want that to happen."

Vandenberg said Dolan requested the September 2005 meeting, and in a letter the month before it, he told her that "in the interim, you should not be exercising any liturgical or pastoral ministry in the Catholic church lest confusion or scandal arise among the people."

The next day, she said, she resigned her positions as a eucharistic minister and lector. "I cooperated with the archbishop," she said.

Vandenberg called her meeting with Dolan "very cordial . . . very respectful. . . . I told him about my call to ordination . . . and he was trying to give me some reasons to stay" in the church.

She was stung that Dolan made details of their talk public. "We both agreed that the meeting would be private," she said.

Dolan and Vandenberg disagree on what happened after the meeting.

"She promised she would confer with me about her next step," Dolan wrote to the parish. "In two subsequent letters, I have asked for her decision. Her regrettable participation in the protest gives me her unfortunate answer."

I didn’t realize the definition of startled included being warned ahead of time of an action and then that action occurring. I also find it strange that these groups of women who crave publicity for their actions get perturbed when a bishop "spends time and energy" over their actions. And if she realized that he was working with her for reasons to stay then it is obvious she was leaving the Church. Thankfully Archbishop Dolan is acting like a true shepherd in this case in his concern for both her and his flock.

Via SF Author John C. Wright.

In the general war between the culture of life and the culture of death, I should note that the laissez-faire sexuality wing of the battle line has joined with the child-hating reserves.

In particular, I read in this month’s LOCUS magazine that famed cartoonist Alan Moore has penned a work called LOST GIRLS, starring Dorothy Gale, Alice Fairchild, and Wendy Darling, where the beloved girl characters from our childhood tales are depicted in acts of pornography on every page, including group sex, homosexuality, bestiality, and pederasty.

His reasoning? Mr. Moore claims our culture does not think and publish enough about sex. We’re repressed. Showing the girl from ALICE IN WONDERLAND having anal intercourse with a rabbit or something will be good for our mental health and emotional wellbeing.

I kid you not. I am not making this up.

http://www.cinescape.com/0/editorial.asp?aff_id=0&this_cat=Comics&action=page&obj_id=50999

Note how the humorless Mr. Moore wraps himself in the flag of moral sanctity to excuse himself. He is bringing enlightenment and culture to the rubes; honesty consists of glorifying sick perversions with all the wit and craft his art can bring to bear. What a smug jackass.

To think, I used to admire this man. Somewhere, bound in ice in the lowest circle of hell, the devil pauses in his gnawing on traitors, his tears of ice are checked, and he smiles a grim, lingering smile, and orders his lesser angels to prepare a place for someone who betrays his muse.

Show me a culture that hates virginity, and I’ll show you one that is bent on demeaning, and, yes, desecrating every pure and happy memory of childhood.

I originally found John C. Wright’s blog via Mark Shea and his last line echoes Mark’s line about a culture that hates virginity.

I also recently read his Golden Age trilogy which is one of those books that reminds me why a love SF so much. Despite the fact that this trilogy is based on a future of artificial consciences and the ability to be able to backup your own consciousness his own views on the subject are quite interesting in his post How long til the Singularity?

Update: I found John C. Wright’s conversion story to Christianity in a comment to a review of one of his books (scroll down to a couple of comments). Like myself he is a convert from atheism and his short conversion post is quite interesting. The post ended with this:

On a pragmatic level, I am somewhat more useful to my fellow man than before, and certainly more charitable. If it is a daydream, why wake me up? My neighbors will not thank you if I stop believing in the mystical brotherhood of man.

Besides, the atheist non-god is not going to send me to non-hell for my lapse of non-faith if it should turn out that I am mistaken.