Ovary Transplant

A woman has become pregnant after having an ovary tissue transplant for the first time, it has emerged.

The breakthrough gives hope to thousands of cancer patients whose treatment can make them infertile.

It may also potentially help women who want to give themselves another chance at motherhood after the menopause.

Doctors from Universite Catholique de Louvain in Brussels are treating the woman. News of her pregnancy was revealed at the European Fertility Conference in Berlin.

The baby, a girl, who was conceived naturally, is due at the beginning of October.
[Full Story] [Via Chateau du Meau]

As Meau said this is true reproductive technology.

Affirmation of Faith

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam links to a Pastoral Letter by Bishop Robert Vasa of the Diocese of Baker in Oregon which was issued in April. This refers to an Affirmation of Personal faith that is required to be signed by those in ministry ( Catechist , Reader, Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, etc).

The summary statements which I have collected in the Affirmation of Personal Faith are all taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. They represent the authentic and authoritative teaching of the Catholic Church and acceptance of these tenets is expected of every Catholic. While it is sufficient for me to ‘presume’ that Catholics who attend Mass and receive communion adhere to these teachings (unless the contrary is clearly evident) such a presumption is not sufficient for those whom I commission to teach and act in some official capacity.

The whole thing is excellent and is kind of a mandatum for those in ministry. He will probably be labeled a grand inquisitor for this, but I think this is just great. On the Diocese site there is also a letter in the Bishop's Corner dated June 25, 2004 that says in part.

...It seems to me that the most effective way to end abortion is to vote for Pro-Life candidates. This is not a function of the Bishops, we have only one vote each, but rather a function of the laity who must be convinced of the power of their own vote and of their ability through the ballot box to effect a good or to perpetuate an evil. Unfortunately that vote has always been split between a multiplicity of 'goods', and with good reason, there are many 'goods' for our society which need to be politically pursued. We see such things as care for the poor, adequate housing, healthcare, education, economic prosperity, foreign policy and we hear the various political promises of how effectively these things are going to be managed by the members of one party or the other. These are tremendously significant human rights and human dignity issues about which we must certainly be conscientious. It would be evil and wrong to omit or to significantly neglect them. The persons who are the recipients of this assistance, however, already have that right upon which the other inalienable rights, liberty and pursuit of happiness, are based. They already have life. The quality of that life certainly needs to be upgraded and improved and as Christians we have a responsibility to work for those improvements. It seems there are many in our society, religious and non-religious alike, Democrat and Republican, who work and act on behalf of these persons. To some extent, however limited, these persons are even able to vote and speak and seek assistance for themselves. This is not true of the pre-born. They have no voice but yours and mine, they have no vote but yours and mine. If we do not vote for those who will act on their behalf, they have no other recourse. The Courts routinely recognize those who suffer but the Courts have refused to even recognize the existence of these most vulnerable of the neglected in our society. We need legislators who will propose and confirm justices who recognize with us the inviolable dignity of the pre-born human person. These have no voice but ours, they have no vote but ours. I, for one, will speak on behalf of all the needy and especially the pre-born for I have access to many words, but I will always vote for those who pledge to defend pre-born human life because I have only one vote and I need to cast it for those who have no vote but mine.

When my father was diagnosed with cancer he also needed open heart surgery. The question arose, which do we treat, the heart or the cancer. The doctors assured him that the cancer was slow growing and that he would die of lots of other things before he died of cancer. Thus the heart surgery was done and he was allowed a goodly number of years of extended life, all the while living with cancer. He could have chosen to treat the cancer but then he would have died many years earlier. He would have died cancer free but he would have died much earlier. Hardly a consolation for him or the family. He chose an immediate life saving operation and recognized that the cancer would still be there to be treated later.
In our society we have both a heart problem and a cancer problem. The heart problem continues to allow innocent human persons to be killed at will. The cancer problem continues to put the poor and needy at risk. I think we need, as in my father's case, to focus on the heart problem for it concerns life itself and not only the quality of that life. You have one vote. Use it for the greatest good.

Update: I had sent an email to Bishop Vasa thanking him for the clarity of his writing and I have already received a reply. Bpvasa@dioceseofbaker.org

Jeff: Thank you for taking the time to comment on "Giving Testimony". Isn't it remarkable that it is considered remarkable when a Bishop upholds the simple truth. Thank you +RFV

The further decline of Latin America

The Vatican's conservative policies on birth control have received a blow from one of the Roman Catholic Church's most loyal regions after opinion polls showed overwhelming support in Latin America for measures of contraception.

Contraception is not a conservative policy but part of the truth of human sexuality. The truth can never receive a blow, the blow falls on those who don't follow the truth.

The move also represents an assault on US policies which, under George Bush, have blocked aid to organisations supporting abortion.

The polls, released at an inter-governmental health conference in Puerto Rico, show at least three quarters of those questioned in Mexico, Colombia and Bolivia supporting contraception being made available to adolescents and even higher majorities in favour of the use of condoms to prevent HIV/Aids.

And every country that starts by legalizing contraception will also legalize abortion not long afterwards.

The surveys, carried out by separate polling organisations late last year, questioned at least 1,500 respondents in each country with surprisingly similar results.

Although in each case those questioned supported the church's humanitarian and spiritual roles, they also wanted liberalisation of its policies and claimed that using contraception did not prevent them from being good Catholics.

Help us with the poor and other humanitarian needs, but please don't force us to change our lifestyle. Latin America has often been economically poor and unfortunately they are now becoming spiritually poor.

...Roberto Blancarte, a Mexican sociologist of religion told the group Catholics for a Free Choice: "We are seeing a silent revolution among Catholics in Mexico and Latin America. This is the first survey on what Catholics really think about sexual and reproductive health and rights and it shows us that there is a big breach between Catholics and the bishops."

A US official at the conference was quoted as saying that criticism of the Bush administration's policies was unfair and that the president wanted to support reproductive health measures, including family planning, but abortion could play no part in that.
[Full Story][Via Wired Catholic]

Saying that there is a breach between Catholics and the Bishops is not much of a defense for supporting their views. After all there was a breach between Judas and Jesus. It is good that the Bush Administration is preventing funding for abortion but the code words family planning only mean planning to not have a family. G.K. Chesterton has put it so much better.

"What is quaintly called Birth Control . . . is in fact, of course, a scheme for preventing birth in order to escape control." ("The Surrender upon Sex" The Well and the Shallows)

"Normal and real birth control is called self control." ("Social Reform vs. Birth Control")

"Birth Control is a name given to a succession of different expedients by which it is possible to filch the pleasure belonging to a natural process while violently and unnaturally thwarting the process itself." ("Social Reform vs. Birth Control")

"We can always convict such people of sentimentalism by their weakness for euphemism. The phrase they use is always softened and suited for journalistic appeals. They talk of free love when they mean something quite different, better defined as free lust. But being sentimentalists they feel bound to simper and coo over the word "love." They insist on talking about Birth Control when they mean less birth and no control. We could smash them to atoms, if we could be as indecent in our language as they are immoral in their conclusions." ("Obstinate Orthodoxy" The Thing)

Blogging Geek

I updated to Movable Type 3.0d last night and it is pretty cool. I had intended to change over to WordPress which is publishing software totally based on PHP. WordPress installed very easily and has a lot of excellent features unfortunately when I updated the Admin password and it locked me out. Many other people had the same problems and the steps they gave did not help in my case. Another reason I decided to not change to WordPress is that it works by building the entry that is viewed as it is requested. This has some advantages in that it will use a minimum of web space since individual entries are not archived on the hard disk and changes made to the template are generated instantly and do not require any rebuild. The downside is that since there are not individual html pages, Google and other search engines can not find entries to link to. I get a fair amount of traffic from search engines and my referral logs show that some go on to reading other posts.

Originally when Movable Type 3.0 license agreement was first reported it said that the free version would allow one author and one blog. They must have changed it since the free version now allows one author and three blogs. This was ideal for me since event though I only run one blog through my server I maintain a test blog to test out and refine any template changes before applying them to the main blog. In the past I have also helped design and build the templates for other bloggers in St. Blogs, so the maximum of three blogs was fine for me.

MT 3.0 has greatly enhanced comments by more easily allowing you to review them. Previously you could only see the last five comments, now you can see all of them. You can also turn on authentication where people would have to use a Typepad generated pin (which you only need to register once to work on all MT and Typepad blogs). That feature would totally block comment spam. Even without authentication you can still approve/disapprove comments. The overall layout is sharp and easy to use and the added the ability to generate ATOM feeds in addition to RSS. In addition you can now choose to have archived post file names to be year/date and then text from the title instead of having a name generated like http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/archives/004874.php. I would like to change to this new format but I don't think I want to break links to my other posts. They have also speeded up tasks such as rebuilding by assigning them as background tasks.

So if you are using MT and have thought of updating I would strongly urge you to go ahead.

In other geeky news I have totally gone over to using the Firefox browser and the latest version has a lot of feature to make it easy to transition from Internet Explorer. This is a tabbed browser where you can have new windows open up in tabs instead of opening another window. This browser besides being 100% compatible with web standards is fast and easy to modify. They have extensions that easily allow you to modify its behavior to your liking and to add other features. This browser is also highly secure since it doesn't have the security holes that IE does. One of the extensions is the Sage RSS reader which will read RSS/Atom feeds and is totally integrated into the browser. When you update feeds it gives you an icon indicator of what feeds have been updated since you last checked. So if you grabbed this browser make sure you look through the various extensions to make browsing easier and more powerful.

Update: If you use the MT-Blacklist plugin and want to install MT 3.0 you must remove MT-Blacklist since it will not work with 3.0. To do this the author of this plugin says to simply delete plugins/Blacklist.pl. Otherwise it forces comment moderation where comments must be approved prior to them being seen.

Swimming in a sea of relativism, Bishop Morlino holds an eternal rope.

Here is an interview with Bishop Morlino. It is obvious that the reporter is not quite with the Bishop, but it makes for interesting reading anyway.

Priest returns to celebrate first mass

ONE of the oldest men to be ordained into the Roman Catholic Church returned to the Merrie City to celebrate his first mass at a Wakefield church.

Fr Don Forsythe, 71, jetted over from America to celebrate his ordination and read mass in the home city of his late wife and the place where he lived for 12 years.
A congregation at St Austin's RC Church on Wentworth Terrace heard Fr Don deliver mass on Sunday morning, just two weeks after he was ordained.
The grandfather, from Londonderry in Northern Ireland, told the Express how Wakefield held a special place in his heart because it was where he met his wife, Ann Dwyer.
" I wanted to come back to Wakefield because it holds some lovely memories for me", he said. "I met my wife, Ann, here and I was very happily married for 38 years.
" She died six years ago from bone leukaemia. I had suffered a stroke after she was diagnosed but she held on until I recovered because that was the sort of woman she was. She didn't want to go until she knew I would be okay to look after the family."
[Full Story]

Catholic schools fear they may be sued if they help a student secure an abortion without parental permission

When New Zealand's top Catholic bishop charged that liberal government policies are turning the country into a "moral wasteland" he unfortunately was not engaging in hyperbole. Judging by this article he is dead on.

The Care of Children Bill before Parliament re-affirms a 27-year-old law allowing girls under the age of 16 to have an abortion without their parents' consent or knowledge.

Catholic schools say the law may force them into a legally dangerous situation if they help a girl obtain an abortion without having access to her family's medical history.

"This legislation gives carte blanche approval to send a youngster down the road to get an abortion," New Zealand Catholic Education Office executive director Pat Lynch said.

"How does a guidance counsellor know whether a young woman might have complications from anaesthetic or clotting problems?" Brother Lynch said.

"It seems to me we are talking about a life or death situation, let alone the morality of it. Schools could open themselves up to litigation. Surely parents who brought a youngster into the world have a right to know (if their child is pregnant). It would be very unwise for schools to get involved in this."

Girls have been able to seek an abortion without parental consent since 1977 following a Royal Commission into contraception, sterilisation and abortion.

Brother Lynch said the new bill was an opportunity to have this clause overturned.

Christchurch's St Mary's in the City school principal David O'Neill said schools were being put in a "horrible situation" but were legally obligated to help a pregnant student obtain an abortion.

"It puts a huge amount of pressure on principals to make a decision like that," he said.

"Schools have to look at this and ask themselves what they will do in this situation."

I would like to see the direct quote of what the Catholic schools there are saying. I really hope that the view portrayed in this article is mistaken. That the only concern about a school helping a young girl get an abortion is the concern about family medical history and getting sued. For this Catholic school principal to say that they were in a "horrible situation" but were legally obligated to help is really scary. By the moral law we are obligated to fight against and to resist unjust laws and not to say "oh well, it's the law."

And another story from New Zealand School says sorry over students' pre-ball condoms

Teenagers at an Auckland high school were offered complimentary condoms when they bought tickets to their school ball.

The students, from Edgewater College in Pakuranga, were handed an envelope containing a condom, sexual health advice and pointers on sensible behaviour surrounding alcohol and transport home from the ball.

The ball was held last Friday night at Sky City and was a huge success, according to the school.

But some parents were left seething over the pre-ball freebie.

"What kind of a message is this sending out?" said one parent, who declined to be named.

Celibacy

Here is an article on HBO's hit piece on celibacy.

Roman Catholicism is not the only religious faith that extols the virtues of celibacy. But as Antony Thomas points out in his eye-opening documentary “Celibacy,” no other branch of any major world religion compels its clergy to abstain from sex.

The effect has been cataclysmic: 500,000 nuns and priests have left their orders since the 1960s, Thomas says. What's more, legal actions involving thousands of children abused by priests have been filed in 10 countries.

This has got to be one of the silliest arguments against the mandatory discipline of celibacy. If celibacy was the problem than why was it only after the 1960s that it became a problem? If you look at something was true before and after an event you surely can't say that it was the cause. Of course there have been zero celibate priests who have abused children, it is only those who broke their vows and were not celibate.

I can't speak for all of Buddhism but in Thailand Monks are required to be celibate. While looking up this information I found a rather interesting/funny set of questions asked during their ordination ceremony. The man is asked a series of questions, for which there is only one right answer to each:

• Do you have Leprosy? (No)
• Are you male? (Yes)
• Do you have boils? (No)
• Are you free of debt? (Yes)
• Do you have ringworm? (No)
• Are you released from government service? (Yes)
• Do you have tuberculosis? (No)
• Do your parents permit you to become a monk? (Yes)
• Are you epileptic? (No)
• Are you at least 20 years old? (Yes)
• Are you human? (Yes)
• Do you have your robes and your alms bowl? (Yes)

So I guess if your non-male and/or an alien or have other diseases, tough luck. Sorry E.T. The article continues:

...“Celibacy” begins by making the case that the sex drive is stronger than hunger. Thomas heads to the East, where he produces remarkable video of practices undertaken by other religions to sublimate the carnal urges of men. (I should warn the guys that one of the scenes here will make you squirm.)

His point is that the sex drive cannot be ignored or suppressed — and yet, Thomas argues, that is exactly what the church has done.

So by this logic those who are married I guess are allowed to ignore temptations to sin and can commit adultery. Or those before marriage can indulge in fornication so to keep from feeling suppressed. If you are going to use reasoning like this you are not just aiming it at celibacy but the whole order of the Church's teaching on sexual morality. Of course that is exactly the point. If you have pedophile urges would he encourage these people to suppress them?

...One brave priest, interviewed on camera, admits to having had two dalliances with women in 21 years. He says he is the rule, not the exception, among priests, many of whom have relationships with women. He says he understands why.

“I love being a priest,” he tells Thomas. “But as (my parishioners) are leaving, I see that big empty church. And that church is symbolic of the emptiness inside me.”

My definition of a brave priest is one who has braved temptations and has not broken his vows.

Terrorist's Hotel of Choice

Thanks to RC of Catholic Light for sending this suggestion for a spoof. I had previously thought up Ramadan Inn in a random thoughts post, but RC provided inspiration for this satire.

EU Slams Vatican

The above wasn't the headline used, but I thought it was fair play since every time the Vatican or the Pope makes a statement it seems they are slamming or attacking someone.

Mr Nielsen, EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, said: "This is where bigotry gets into the big discussion."

He condemned the Vatican's "lack of love for human beings" and "unwillingness to take their situation seriously".

Mr Nielsen said it forced people into "a terrible choice of abstinence or lose the blessing of the Church".

The Vatican refused to be interviewed for the programme.

But Bishop Rafael Llano Cifuentes, Auxiliary Bishop of Rio de Janeiro, told the programme "people are being deceived" by the message that condoms can prevent HIV infection.

He said: "The Church is a mother. What mother would allow her son to go on a plane if she knew there was a 15% chance it would crash?"

Carmelite nun enters life in monastery

TRAVERSE CITY - Rita Aune gave up her name, her family and friends, her possessions and the world.
She will live the rest of her life as Sister Perpetua Marie of the Immaculate Conception within the Carmelite Monastery overlooking Traverse City.
She has vowed to never leave.

“Solemn vows bind you irrevocably,” Sister Perpetua, 24, said.

Last week, the former Kankakee, Ill. resident became one of seven cloistered Roman Catholic sisters here. She’s the second in 10 years to do so and is the youngest of its inhabitants. The oldest is the monastery’s founder, Mother Teresa Margaret, 92.
The 75 people who attended her solemn vows could barely see her. She stood or knelt in the sisters’ enclosure behind a grate decorated with a garland of white flowers as priests performed the ceremony.

The whole article is worth reading.

And here is an article of three Sisters of the Immaculate Conception who have spent 75 years in religious life.

Song Encourages Violence Towards Pregnant Women, Group Says

(CNSNews.com) - A pro-life group is warning that a popular song advocates violence against pregnant women.

Black Americans for Life, an outreach of the National Right to Life Committee, said the remixed version of singer Usher's song "Confessions," featuring rapper Joe Budden, suggests violent action against a mother when she is unwilling to abort her child.

"These lyrics are demeaning and outright violent toward both women and unborn children," said Day Gardner, director of Black Americans for Life.

"It is appalling to suggest that a man attack a woman to cause the death of her unborn child. As women and as mothers, we simply cannot allow ourselves or our unborn children to be treated as objects of such abuse," Gardner said.

The song includes lyrics such as:

"....Pray that she abort that,
If she's talkin' 'bout keeping' it,
One hit to the stomach,
She's leakin' it..."

Gardner said the lyrics illustrate the need for legislation like the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, also known as Laci and Connor's law, which makes it a federal crime to harm or kill an unborn child when committing an act of violence against the mother.
[Full Story]

Archbishop Chaput continues to inspire

His lastest article about the Federal Marriage Admenment Catholics must proclaim, protect truth about marriage, family

Pro-life pregnancy center finaly licensed

California's Department of Health Services admitted it was imposing arbitrary rules to prevent the East County Pregnancy Care Center of El Cajon from being licensed, according to Scott Lively of the public-interest group Lively & Ackerman, which argued the case.

This was an important case, Lively said, since many CPCs seek to be licensed and have faced similar problems.

"The decision is a wonderful affirmation of the crisis pregnancy center's equal citizenship in the communty as service providers," Lively told WND. "The accusation in the past from the liberal side has been that CPCs are really thinly veiled attempts at shutting abortion clinics down, and that they don't have an actual standing in the community of their own."
[Source]

Commercial Monks

Ceremonial fans decorated with the logo of a fast-food chain are to be withdrawn from a renowned Bangkok monastery after a public outcry.

Buddhist monks hold the fans while chanting and one mourner told a newspaper that whenever she looked up expecting spiritual comfort during a funeral, she saw a sign urging her to eat at MK.

The fans, normally embroidered with images of temples or religious symbols, have been emblazoned with the MK logo - akin to putting the McDonalds's arches on Bibles in Westminster Abbey - since the chain's owners paid for four pavilions to be built at the Samian Naree temple.

"We might even see the logo of a massage parlour if they donate," said one senator, Kamphol Phumanee.
[Full Story]

I certainly hope this practice doesn't pass into the Catholic world.

Back in 2002 in response to the selling of private chapel's in the LA Cathderals I had some suggestions for other advertising possibilities.

1. One billion Catholics and there are no banner ads at the official Vatican website, ridiculous.
2. If the Superbowl can charge a million dollars for a 30 second commercial, we should be able to get 10 million for placing the Pepsi or Coke logo on the Pope's mitre.
3. The Popemobile has plenty of room for advertisements.
4. We could start Mass with "This Mass has been made possible by a grant from Exxon."
5. After the Gospel "This Gospel was brought to you by the King of Kings and also the king of beers.
6. Advertising in missalettes, seasonal sales can be precisely placed according to the liturgical season.
7. Liturgical vestments could be designed to carry ads like NASCAR drivers.
8. Owners have made tons of money by renaming a sports stadium after the sponsor. In the future we could have the Budweiser Cathedral or Our Lady of Domino's Pizza.
9. Rent out confessionals as office space, after all they are only used once a week for about 30 minutes.

Here is another story on the church and advertising.

The business community knows more than most that Southern Nevada is a fierce market for the charity dollar. Non-profit agencies in Nevada are fighting it out for public support and to capture the public's attention. Local advertising and PR giant R&R Partners is using its professional expertise to give one of those charities a hand in branding itself in this fiercely competitive market.

R&R, is most famous now for its wildly successful campaign promoting Las Vegas tourism. The firm has recently formed a pro-bono alliance with Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada. This partnership, however, may potentially offers strategies that for-profit agencies could learn from.

Will the real nun please stand up

Previously on my Thoroughly Modern Mary (progressive nun parody blog) I posted a comment that I found on Dom's site by a Sister M. Immaculata Dunn. In my parody alter ego as Sr. Mary Biko, PhD I agreed with it and wished that I had her email address so that I might praise her thoughts. What follows is her original comment.

Regarding the recent actions of Bishop Michael J. Sheridan of Colorado Springs, I have one question that, try as I may, I can’t seem to answer?

Where does the Pope find these guys?

Sheridan’s actions boogle the mind and surely must test the faith of his 120,000 church members much more than they do mine, but I have to tell you, it is getting a little scary out here.

What are we to expect next?

The rack?

Fingernails being pulled out?

Wholesale burnings at the stake?

I would like to ask Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, one of the few voices of reason to expound on this subject lately, how Sheridan will be able to tell the sheep from the goats when they present themselves at the communion rail?

Will they have halos and horns, respectively?

It appears that the bishops’ idea of their June meeting being one of prayerful reflection and retreat is quickly evaporating.

Must be all that fire and brimstone.

To save themselves from utter perdition, I recommend that Bishop Wilton Gregory, as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, issue a gag order, effective immediately, in the name of the entire membership of the USCCB, to be binding under pain of mortal sin - dare we mention excommunication - until the bishops’ meeting is called to order in Denver on June 14.

Here, here!

The comments for this post on my Thoroughly Modern Mary questioned whether she was a real nun and they had quoted some articles where letters to the editor under this name were by a real nun or not. Well yesterday it appears that I received an email from Sister M. Immaculata Dunn who says that she is a "real nun" (not scare quote, she used them) though the name given is not her real name. She first emailed me as to this fact (thinking she was emailing Sr. Mary Biko) of this fact and then later sent another email with references from newspapers and an article from a priest backing up her authenticity.

Now I find it really funny and ironic that a nun is trying to prove her authenticity to my non-existent Sr. Mary Biko. I had even placed a disclaimer on that blog that it was a parody, because I was getting too many emails from people who agreed with the parody views I expressed. To me it is a rather scary thought that people could agree with a parody of progressivism that should be over the top even for progressives. But to do good parody it has to be very similar to what you are parodying or it has no use.

Dear Thoroughly Modern Mary,

I just discovered your website. I am the Sister M. Immaculata Dunn, non de plume or pseudonym if you wish, but a "real nun" nevertheless. I see you found me on Dom's site. I do seem to have ruffled some feathers these last few years. I do try to do all that I can to support victims of clergy sexual abuse, girls and boys, young women and men, as well as vulnerable adults. We are talking about using one's position of trust and authority to sexually abuse individuals, remember, so that covers a wide area.

I sent a letter to the Dubuque, Iowa Telegraph Herald which was published on May 8, 2004. I think the Erie Diocese called them to say that I was not a "real nun." Subsequently Brian Cooper did an Editorial on men: Bogus letter forces stricter verification policy which was published on June 8, 2004. Then, my good friend, Fr. Tom Doyle, O.P. wrote to Cooper vouching for me. As far as I know, it was not published

And here is the letter she said was written by a Fr. Tom Doyle, O.P.

Dear Brian.

Your story about Sister M. Immaculata Dunn was emailed to several people who are associated with the clergy sex abuse survivor movement, myself included. I am a Catholic priest and a long time advocate for clergy sex abuse victims. In fact, I was ordained in Dubuque in 1970.

Sister Immaculata Dunn is a real person and a genuine religious sister. I have met her and know her. She has used a "pen name" since she began writing on behalf of clergy sex abuse victims and against various other forms of institution abuse in the Catholic church solely for reasons of self-protection. She has never intended to dupe anyone. However as a priest and a religious order member with vast experience in this field I can assure you that those of us who have spoken out publicly almost always incur serious retaliation from the institutional church. Every priest who has taken a public stand, and there are only 6 that I know of in the entire country, has been retaliated against in some way by his bishop, myself included.

Most of the email I get for this blog and the various sites that I blog for are positive and many have given me good suggestion for what to parody. Some though are just whacko. For a while I got a spew of emails from someone wanting to inform me of the perils of Opus Dei. Definite tin-foil hat stuff. Some radical traditionalists and Sedevacantist send me stuff complaining about other bloggers thinking that I might agree with their positions. I think that I am even more annoyed by Rad Trads than progressives. They seem to hold to every possible conspiracy theory and constantly whine about the pope and the Church and how Vatican II has destroyed the Church. Hey I love the Latin Mass, but I also love the new order of Mass when it is done reverently. If the Latin Mass was still the norm do they really believe that liturgical progressives would not have experimented with it? So if you fall in these categories and want to inform me via email, don't waste your time.

Dalai Lama doesn't want a KFC in Tibet

A reader sent me a link to this story.

NEW DELHI (AP) — The Dalai Lama has appealed to U.S.-based Yum Brands (YUM) not to open a fast-food KFC chicken outlet in his homeland of Tibet, according to an animal rights advocacy group.

The Dalai Lama says seeing plucked chickens hanging in stores hurts him.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released a letter it said was from the Dalai Lama, telling the restaurant chain that his people believe in slaughtering animals humanely — and eat larger ones such as yaks so that fewer animals will die. Most Tibetans are not vegetarians.

In Louisville, a Yum spokesman said the company had not received the letter.

There is just something cool about an article that contains both the words Yum and Yak. Now I just wonder what the Dalai Lama has against Yaks? Did one cross him as a child? Yaks are quiet creatures that never give you any lip -you know Yakity Yak, don't talk back. But still Kentucky Fried Yak just doesn't sound all that appealing, especially since a bucket could contain just one drumstick.

Lost in Translation

A reader send me a link to the following story. By now I am sure many people have seen the story about the "Good as New" Bible translation by a former Baptist Minister. The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams is reportedly backing this version and has said it is a "vehicle for thinking."

This version is pretty funny and I would have a hard time coming up with a better parody then was achieved. The St. Paul quotes are strait from Bizarro world.

"If you know you have strong needs, get yourself a partner. Better than being frustrated"

"There's nothing wrong with remaining single, like me. But if you know you have strong needs, get yourself a partner. Better than being frustrated,"

This version is so bad he could probably submit a resume to ICEL and be accepted.

In the past they were some unfortunate printer errors in the printing of Bibles. One of the most famous is the so-called “Adultery Bible” of 1641 where the printer left out the word not from Exodus 20:14. He was fined 300 pounds. Nowadays he would probably be given a 300 pound bonus. In 1702 a Bible was printed where Psalm 119:161 which read “Printers have persecuted me without cause.” (that should have been “princes”.) I think that Jeff Culbreath might have an opposite take on this passage.

I think the funniest modern translation is that of Psalm 23 in the New American Bible, which is owned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

A psalm of David. 2 The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack.

In green pastures you let me graze; to safe waters you lead me;

I have humorously heard this referred to as the "Cow Translation" Can you imagine King David grazing in the pasture? I guess he had been living too long among sheep and had developed bad eating habits. No wonder he wasn't at the dinner table when the prophet Samuel came to anoint him.

Actually you don't need an antenna to speak to Jesus

The latter crosses the line for some congregations, who are not willing to see Christ on a cross, with antennae sticking out here and there. The mayor of Schwabhausen, in deeply Catholic Bavaria, has come out against such an antenna in his village church. Mobile phone companies are hesitant as well.

"The churches actually don't like it so much," said Susanne Satzer-Spree, a Vodafone spokeswoman.

However, some houses of worship have managed to make their masts part of their identity.

"Everyone recognizes the church now," said Johannes de Fallois, pastor at a church in Neuburg.
[Full Article][Via Annunciations]

With the jutting antenna this kind of reminds me of a hi-tech Byzantine Cross gone awry. With the arms the way they are shown it looks more like Jesus is kicking back leaning on the antenna and draping his arms over it than him being crucified.

I do not think that when the Church talks about the discipline of mandatory celibacy for clergy that they meant cell-abacy for crucifixes. I could just imagine St. Paul walking all over the Middle East and Europe saying "Can you hear me now?" I guess we can be thankful that they didn't have modern technology then. It would really be difficult to meditate on Sacred Text Messaging or would it be Sacred Messaging Scripture (SMS).

A readN of a letta frm St. Paul 2 D Galatians

Response: thx B 2 God

Paul an apostle -- nt frm men nor thru mn, bt thru JC n God D dad, hu raised him frm D ded -- n ll D brethrN hu r W me, 2 D churches of Galatia:

Grace TU n peace frm God D dad n r Lord Gsus Christ, hu gave himself 4 r sins 2 delivA us frm D presnt >:) age, accrdng 2 D wl of r God n dad; 2 whom B D glory 4ever n evr. Amen.

And the words of consecration:

nw as dey wr e@tiN, Gsus t%k bread, n blessed, n broK it, n gave it 2 D disciples n z, "Take, e@; dis S my bod."

Morning-after pill blocked by politics

From the Atlantic Journal-Constitution.

Some government decisions are legitimately political; others are not. For example, politics should never play a role in the decision to approve or disapprove drugs for human consumption. By law, such decisions are supposed to be made solely on the basis of medical evidence that determines first whether the drugs are safe, and second whether they are effective.

That's no longer the case. The integrity of the nation's drug-approval process has been compromised by the Bush administration for crass political purposes, another in a long line of cases in which it has ignored or distorted scientific evidence.

Oh now this reporter finds interference in the FDA to be political. During the Clinton administration RU-486 was given fast-track approval. By the law fast-track approval was to be used only for development of drugs to save lives, like with cancer treatment medications. The only reason it was given fast-track was to get the abortion pill approved prior to President Clinton leaving office (another legacy).

We have long disapproved drugs for political reasons. Recreational drug use has longed been banned under law. Regardless of how safe and effective some hallucinogens, depressants, and amphetamines might be; a moral view on their use came into play. An FDA that would approve any drug based on zero moral concerns is not a government agency that protects the people. A suicide pill could rapidly be developed that was effective and safety wouldn't even come into the picture (long term effect studies would not be necessary). If a pill was developed that made people stronger and more violent and it effectively did this and had no side-effect on the body would this reporter see this as something that should be approved with zero political questions?

It is within the scope of government to not just look at the science of something but at the moral consequence of it. Cloning, embryonic stem-cell research, and other technologies all fall into areas that legitimately should come under government oversight.

Canon Law and Priests running for public office

Due to the post below some were wondering about priests running for public office. Here is the relevant section in the Code of Canon law (1983).

Can. 285 §1. Clerics are to refrain completely from all those things which are unbecoming to their state, according to the prescripts of particular law.

§2. Clerics are to avoid those things which, although not unbecoming, are nevertheless foreign to the clerical state.

§3. Clerics are forbidden to assume public offices which entail a participation in the exercise of civil power.

§4. Without the permission of their ordinary, they are not to take on the management of goods belonging to lay persons or secular offices which entail an obligation of rendering accounts. They are prohibited from giving surety even with their own goods without consultation with their proper ordinary. They also are to refrain from signing promissory notes, namely, those through which they assume an obligation to make payment on demand.

Catholic Priest Running For Pro-Abortion NDP

CORNER BROOK, NFLD, June 23, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Catholic priest Father Des McGrath is running for the NDP in the Newfoundland riding of Random-Burin-St. George's. Since the NDP are officially pro-abortion Rev. McGrath has been often asked about what he would do on abortion if elected.

The Globe and Mail reports today that Rev. McGrath told reporters who questioned him on abortion, "You people on the mainland seem to be more interested in that than any other issue in Canada -- and we got more serious issues right now." The 69-year-old priest is a celebrated figure for having started a union for fishermen.

While claiming to be pro-life, Fr. McGrath is quoted using well worn pro-abortion rhetoric in speaking on abortion. "I don't believe in stirring up the pot and stirring up old ashes on this," he said in response to dealing with abortion in Parliament. "Responsibility goes with the rights that women have over their own bodies and hopefully the decision that they make would be for pro-life."

Not only is Fr. McGrath taking a non-Catholic position on abortion, it appears he is also being allowed by his bishop to defy church discipline that explicitly prohibits Catholic priests from running for any public office.
[Full Story]

I wonder if he thinks that a woman's rights over her body extend to suicide? I wonder what issue he considers more serious than the plague of abortion or does social justice end at entrance of the womb.

Young pro-lifers a powerful witness at Chicago abortion facility

Here is a good article by Matt C. Abbott.

Accepting God as Father

The following is from today's readings in "A Conversation with God" from Scepter publishing.

Just as the man who excludes God from his life becomes a diseased tree that will yield bad fruit, so a society that wants to exclude God from its customs and laws causes countess evils and inflicts the most serious harm on its citizens. A state from which religion is banished can never be well regulated. 1 In it the phenomenon of lacism appears with the desire of supplanting the honor due to God. A system of morality based on transcendent principles is replaced by a merely human ideals and norms of conduct. These inevitably end up as less than human. God and Church become purely internal matters of conscience , and the Church and the Pore are subjected to aggressive attacks either directly or indirectly through persons or institutions unfaithful to the Magisterium.

Not infrequently as a result of laicism the individual citizen, the life of the family, and the of the commonwealth as a whole are all removed from the beneficent and wholesome symbols and symptoms of those errors which corrupted the heathens of old, declared themselves more plainly and more lamentably. And all this in parts of the world where the light of Christian civilization has shone for centuries. 2 The signs of this secularization can be seen in many countries. Even those of long-standing Christian tradition this process of secularization is making inroads: the decline is apparently invariable, the symptoms all too plain -- divorce, abortion, an alarming increase in the used of drugs even by children and young people, violence, contempt for public morality ... If God is not accepted as a loving Father, man and society inevitably become dehumanized.

1 Leo XIII Immortale Dei, 1 November 1885
2 Pius XII, Summi Pontificatus, 20 October 1939

Often we come to think of the modern culture as just something that deteriorated starting in the tumultuously sixties. Obviously the quotes from these the encyclicals show that the modern rot that has set into our culture has long roots extended back a century or two.

On as side note I find In Conversations with God to be and excellent resource for inspiring the contemplative life. After reading Morning Prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours I read from this book before praying. In Conversation with God is not to be confused with the crap under a similar title by Neale Donald Walsch. In Conversation with God is a multi-volume set which covers the whole liturgical year. Another great book for meditation is Divine Intimacy by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. and is undoubtedly a classic Carmelite work on meditation.

Oh! We missed a homily by Jesse Jackson

This is from a bulletin via St. Gertrude Catholic Parish in Chicago, Il.

We are happy to announce that the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., will speak at the 10am mass this Sunday, June 20th. Rev. Jesse Jackson will speak at the 10am mass this Sunday (June 20th) at St. Gertrude. He will reflect on the day's lessons for about 1/2 hour after communion, around 10:45am. Since the 10am mass will run a little longer than usual, we hope this reminder will help ease the flow between the end of the one mass and beginning of the other.

Mark Loveless, who participates at the gym mass and also at Operation Push, has been negotiating this event for a number of months. We are grateful for your effort, Mark

And this is from a letter from the Pastor of this same church.

Dear St. Gertrude,
Reverend Jesse Jackson joins us today at the 10am mass, thanks to the persistent effort of Mark Loveless. Mark and his son, Nathan, participate at the gym mass as well as at Operation PUSH. It was Mark’s connection there that led to the inspiration to invite Rev. Jackson to join us. Welcome, Jesse! No chance I suppose that you’d be running in November to get us out of the mess we seem to find ourselves in?

Arg! Where do i start. I was afraid to find out anything about the Gym Mass and I was prophetic on that wish because it is even worse than I imagined.

The hallmark of 10:30 a.m. Mass is the communal homily, whereby people share from their own experiences of living the Gospel. Art, drama, music, and liturgical dance also engage participants in a fresh look at the central symbols of our faith. Plan for a longer Mass (about 1 hour).

Oh my, liturgical dance and a communal homily. And with all this fun they have managed to schedule a whopping 30 minutes of time for confession once a week.

Jessie Jackson was once pro-life and like so many others has arranged a Faustian deal for political power in the Democratic Party. I always wondered how someone, especially a Reverend, could go from pro-life to pro-abortion. Do you wake up one day and realize that God did not ensoul that child at conception? That one day it was a human being in need of protection and the next a tissue blog to be excised when inconvenient. Regardless this Church offering Jackson a change to speak during Mass is beyond inappropriate. It would be bad enough allowing him to speak in an non-liturgical event, but as part of the Mass and after the Eucharist sacrifice is just plainly a scandal. I guess the pastor did not read the letter issued by the Bishops two days previous to this event.

It is the teaching of the Catholic Church from the very beginning, founded on her understanding of her Lord’s own witness to the sacredness of human life, that the killing of an unborn child is always intrinsically evil and can never be justified. If those who perform an abortion and those who cooperate willingly in the action are fully aware of the objective evil of what they do, they are guilty of grave sin and thereby separate themselves from God’s grace. This is the constant and received teaching of the Church. It is, as well, the conviction of many other people of good will.

To make such intrinsically evil actions legal is itself wrong. This is the point most recently highlighted in official Catholic teaching. The legal system as such can be said to cooperate in evil when it fails to protect the lives of those who have no protection except the law. In the United States of America, abortion on demand has been made a constitutional right by a decision of the Supreme Court. Failing to protect the lives of innocent and defenseless members of the human race is to sin against justice. Those who formulate law therefore have an obligation in conscience to work toward correcting morally defective laws, lest they be guilty of cooperating in evil and in sinning against the common good.

... The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions. (emphasis added)

The pastor's wish that Jessie Jackson would be running for president is pathetic. What isn't John Kerry pro-abortion enough? Exactly where does Mr. Kerry and Mr. Jackson depart on issues.

Movie Poll

The National Catholic Register Movie Poll now has just over 100 nominations and it is now time to make the final votes. So take this poll and vote for your top five.

Just another confused article on Politicians and Communion

In this article :

When Father Bruce Cecil walked up and down the pews during Sunday Mass, he shook all hands, extending an animated smile and his peace to everyone.

And when he held the host high above the altar, broke it and placed it in a goblet next to the wine, he spoke to all.

"Brothers and sisters," Cecil said in Spanish. "This is the sacrament of our faith."

Cecil, who’s been preaching at Our Lady of Soledad Catholic Church in Coach-ella for five years, didn't ask anyone for their stance on abortion, gay rights, stem cell research or corporal punishment.

Politicians, as of late, haven’t been so lucky.

Of course right off the bat we notice that Fr. Cecil was committing a liturgical abuse by walking up and down the aisles shaking everybody's hands. Redemptionis Sacramentum says:

[72.] It is appropriate “that each one give the sign of peace only to those who are nearest and in a sober manner”. “The Priest may give the sign of peace to the ministers but always remains within the sanctuary, so as not to disturb the celebration. He does likewise if for a just reason he wishes to extend the sign of peace to some few of the faithful”. “As regards the sign to be exchanged, the manner is to be established by the Conference of Bishops in accordance with the dispositions and customs of the people”, and their acts are subject to the recognitio of the Apostolic See.[152]

And of course the boilerplate for all articles that talk about Communion and Catholic politicians must include this part:

It’s not uncommon for politicians, even those who profess religious faith, to take stands that seemingly conflict with religious teachings.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Catholic, is also pro-choice. President George W. Bush supports the death penalty.

I always enjoy the unbiased journalism of using terms such as "seemingly conflict ." Supporting murdering a child in the womb only seemingly conflicts with thou show not kill. In reference to the Bishops statement on Catholics in Political Life:

Father Cecil felt it was a fair decision.

"If a politician, or anyone, wants to call themselves Catholic, they should adhere to the Catholic religion," Cecil said after his third Mass of the day. "A church is not a club where you get to pick and choose."

Cecil said that, according to the church’s teachings, issues like abortion and the death penalty are black and white.

Fr. Cecil gets the first part right and then calls the death penalty issue black and white.

Cecil said the church has an obligation to take a stand on these issues.

And some church-goers agreed.

"People learn from church," Raul Monroy of Thermal said about how denying lawmakers with contradicting religious and political views could teach Catholic morals. "Learning from the streets isn’t right."

California lawmakers’ beliefs also differed on how religious beliefs relate to political service.

Sen. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta, said Kerry’s conflict with the Church’s abortion teachings are of interest to voters.

"It tells you something about the man," Battin said. "I think it’s legitimate to talk about."

The relevance may come from a model politicians are meant to uphold, said Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City.

"If there are some guidelines within your religious faith I don’t think that should be a discussion in politics," Garcia said. "But if you hold yourself out as this type of person and you’re saying ‘do what I say but not what I do,’ then it creates a problem, whether you’re a politician, a teacher, a banker or whatever."

Schwarzenegger, however, disagreed. Through a press secretary, Schwarzenegger described the issue as a private matter between a Catholic and a priest.

For the most part, Cecil said the decision to take communion is, and always will be, a personal one.

"It should be up to the individual conscience," he said.

Now first Fr. Cecil says the Bishop's statement was fair and then he says it is up to individual consciences. If his Bishop decides as a pastoral matter that pro-abortion Politicians should not receive Communion in his diocese then it would not be up to just the individual conscience. The individual who is aware that they are not in communion with the Church should voluntarily refrain, but in the case of public sinners who persist in manifest sin it is then up to the priest in accordance with the official interpretation of canon 915.

..."The one that should judge is God," said Cindy Cazarez of Coachella. "Not the people or the priests."

Well then let us let everybody out of prison since according to her we have no right to judge people's actions. People often confuse the Jesus' statement to not judge with normal judgment of actions. We can not judge interior dispositions or a person's final fate, but we certainly must judge external actions when appropriate. I am sure that if someone holding a knife came running at her that she would immediately judge that person as doing something wrong that needed to be stopped.

And as far as Gov. Schwarzenegger goes it should be "Asta la vista, Sacraments," until he repents of his pro-abortion view. After that he can say " I'll be back."

Shouldn't that be demerit badges?

Young Norwegians can earn a merit badge in sex this summer. The pin, modeled on a popular summer swimming merit badge, is an offer from Swedish-Norwegian sex education group RFSU, also the main producer and importer of condoms to Norway, newspaper VG reports.

The badge, which displays sperm cells swimming in waves, can be won by correctly answering 10 out of 13 questions about sex.

"You need a license to drive a car and you should have a sex certificate that shows you don't take health risks. This is done seriously and with humor and the goal of course is to get more people using condoms," said RFSU manager Tone-Berit Lintho.
[Full Story ]

The only surprising thing in this article is the fact that there are still young Norwegians. Oh well, that won't last at the present trend.

Life is precious

TERESA Streckfuss will give birth to her fifth child tomorrow.

Her daughter Charlotte Mary will live for just a few hours before her life is claimed by anencephaly, a rare condition that inhibits brain development.

Teresa, 27, and her husband Mark, 28, have known of the condition and its certain outcome for six months.

Most babies with anencephaly are aborted, but Teresa and Mark decided to go ahead and give Charlotte life – no matter how fleeting.

The couple, from Creswick, in Victoria's rural northeast, never considered an abortion. They wanted the chance to say hello to their daughter before they had to say goodbye.

"There is no way to avoid the sad fact that Charlotte cannot live long after birth with this condition," Teresa said, "but causing her to die earlier will not stop this happening. Causing her to die earlier will only take from us the beautiful experience of knowing and loving her."

Tomorrow morning their family will be at the hospital with them: two sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins as well Charlotte's big sister Cecilia, 6, and her brothers Sebastian, 4, and Elijah, 17 months.

The family will sing to Charlotte, read to her, hold her, treasure her.

..."We believe the value of Thomas Walter, Benedict and Charlotte cannot be measured by the length of their lives. We don't apply this yardstick to adults, so why should we to babies?" Teresa said.

"Benedict made us slow down, savour life and treasure our other children even more.

"He made us realise that we cannot control or predict what will happen. And how often are we given the opportunity to really give another person true, unconditional love? It is a blessing to experience that kind of pure love."
[Full Story]

This is sad but also beautiful. Too bad there are those who think that those children who have such a limited life span should have it be even shorter through abortion.

The Importance of Stuff

The latest news on the God beat for the Kerry campaign is that they have sidelined its new religion adviser Mara Vanderslice and are closing journalists' access to her. The outcry seems to have had some effect, yet the consequences aren't much better. Now that the Rev. Robert Drinan is advising the campaign to "keep cool" on the subject of Communion and to clamp down on the use of any religious rhetoric. Rev. Drinan says he is part of a "kitchen cabinet" advising the Senator on religious matters. With those kind of adviser's shouldn't it be "Hell's kitchen cabinet?" Drinan, a Jesuit, is the only Catholic priest to be elected to Congress and was responsible for advising Catholic politicians with the "personally opposed, but.." excuse. Now I really can't blame the Kerry campaign for having to rely on a socialist activists/Act Up Communion protester and now the dissident Rev. Drinan. The pool of religious advisor's that have no problem with abortion/same-sex marriage/embryonic stem-cell research/etc is not exactly filled with faithful Christians.

I can understand the advise of Rev. Drinan to Kerry to not talk about the Communion controversy. I wonder if he was also advising the Bishops during their retreat this week since they seem to have come to the same conclusion. Kerry has nothing to worry about from the Bishops as a whole. Unfortunately as a group they are a den of Teddy Bears unwilling to come to a more forceful consensus that is more in-line with theology and canon law.

I found this paragraph to be informative.

The campaign source also said former Clinton aides Paul Begala, John Podesta and Mike McCurry have tutored campaign operatives on more aggressively using religion to appeal to voters.

"Why the campaign is not listening to any of them, I don't know," the source said. "Conservatives are about 20 years ahead of us on this stuff."

Stuff? We must appeal to the believers of stuff. This attitude in the Democratic Party I think explains it all. What I find most annoying is not the fact of these poor choices for religious advisers, but the fact that they need religious advisers. This is just an attempt to pander to religious believers. There is no solidarity with religious beliefs and concerns but just an attempt to gain a vote. Mr. Kerry when it comes to his faith does not have a vision but is willing to settle for a revision or anything that helps him to come out on top.

The View from Christ's Shoulders

For the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus the Mass readings our centered around Jesus as the Good Shepherd. The Gospel reading is the parable of the lost sheep. I find this parable as being one of the most beautiful in scripture and one that I readily identify with. Today at Mass our priest during the homily highlighted the fact that in the parable Jesus as the Good Shepherd would have gone out in the darkness to look for and to find that lost sheep. Because the sheep had not listened to or followed the shepherds voice it went off on it's own and separated itself from the shepherd. The sheep was lost in the darkness through its own fault yet when the sheep was found no recrimination or scolding ensued but only the simple lifting up and being placed on Jesus' shoulders and returned to the flock.

We should never be afraid to run back to Jesus even though our sins be black. As Jesus lifted up the sheep he will lift us up to himself and temper his justice with the mercy that we don't deserve. When we separate ourselves from Jesus we are truly lost. We mistakenly believe that we can wander off on our own and that any sustenance we find along the way is due only to our own efforts. Even those of us who were once lost and then returned to the flock we must be cautious that we do not become lost again. The sheep who both heard and obeyed the shepherds voice did not become lost. As believers we must daily evaluate ourselves to ensure that we still hear and obey the Good Shepherd's voice through his Church.

Sister Mary of the Holy Spirit

Here is a good article on Sister Mary of the Holy Spirit who is celebrating her 86th birthday and 60th year o religious life as a Dominican contemplative nun.

In a lilting soprano voice, Sister of the Holy Spirit begins singing one of the secular songs:

``With a song in my heart, I behold your adorable face. Just a song at the start, but it soon is a hymn to your grace.''

She marvels at how ``the words fit so beautifully, can you believe it? Who else has such an adorable face?''

She is speaking of God, for whom she's carried a song in her heart ever since her Catholic girlhood in Mount Vernon, N.Y. -- especially since 1944, after she wrote to her fiancé, Joe, overseas in the Navy, that she was leaving him ``not for another Joe -- but for God.''

Aida Rita Martignetti, who had dreamed of being a singer, became Sister Mary of the Holy Spirit in the order and entered into silence.

``I, with my great love for gorgeous clothes -- to cut off my beautiful hair,'' she writes in her self-published autobiography ``Memoirs of a Nutty Nun.''

``Jesus was really serious about wanting to know if I loved Him more than my singing. . . . But the joy He gave me was a song beyond the melodies of the Earth,'' she writes.

Amid this devotional silence, her creativity found voice in painting, writing and photography. ``I hold the camera,'' she says, ``and God snaps the picture.''

...This devotion to doing God's work, she says, is the true song in her heart.

She has a web site where she sells an album she recorded in 2002 and will display some award winning photos she's taken. There is a link to artist direct which has two of her songs. One of them being an unintentional recording of her singing Ave Maria with Canary. The canary does a pretty good job of singing along.

The article also mentions that she had written a biography called "Memoirs of a Nutty Nun." She also mentions on her site that when she went to her priest to get instructions on preparing for marriage, that the priest asked her if she had ever considered being a nun. Wow, some priests will do anything to get out of doing a wedding. But seriously that is a question that the majority of Catholics are just never asked.

Catholic Church May Fire Gay Workers Who Marry

BOSTON -- Catholic leaders in the only state that allows gay marriage are considering new employment policies that would call for the firing of workers who marry their same-sex partner,according to a published report.

The Boston Herald reported that the proposal has been circulated in memos to the state's four bishops and their staffs. No decision is imminent.

"It's obviously a very volatile issue," said the Rev.Christopher Coyne, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston. He would only say there have been "discussions about it."

The most annoying thing about policies and statements coming from different diocese is that the number one concern always seems to be political fallout. This is not a difficult decision when only weighing the teaching of the Church.

The church aggressively lobbied state lawmakers to vote for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, which became legal n Massachusetts last month. The amendment received initial approval from the Legislature and could go before voters in November 2006.

A second new employment policy proposed by the church is more lenient and would let workers follow their own consciences, the Herald reported.

Why do I have the feeling that this second proposal will probably win out?

The four dioceses in Massachusetts operate separately but are working together on a possible uniform employment policy. Catholic teaching prohibits homosexual relations.

Church-affiliated groups that operate in both the public and private realms are anxiously awaiting the final policy. Catholic Charities, an independent provider of social services, currently has no policy regarding same-sex marriage or whether to provide benefits or penalize those who marry.

"If the archdiocese adopts a formal policy, this will be a relevant consideration for us," said the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, head of Catholic Charities.
[Full Story]

The statement "this will be a relevant consideration for us" is just about par for Catholic Charities which has reportedly had no problem with adopting children to active homosexuals.

If they do issue a strong statement I hope they also include those who are cohabitation or have divorced and remarried without being granted an annulment. The fact that they have to deliberate and discuss whether to fire employees who have become "married" is a sign in itself. These issues should be a slam dunk unless you care more about the political aspects and nothing about the scandal caused.

Domenico Bettinelli has also just weighed in on this.

NKBC

Otto Clemson Hiss has a funny parody on Kerry and No King But Caesar. His Kerry Sanhdrin photo is perfect.

Religious Outreach

NEW YORK -- As the spiritual adviser to Brooklyn drug dealers, Mercedes Osario allegedly was paid to warn if police were in their future.

Prosecutors claim her mystical powers failed. Miserably.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes on Tuesday announced a 133-count indictment against 15 people, including Osario and members of a drug crew that used its own fleet of cars to make cocaine deliveries to regular customers.

Osario, 53, was charged with misdemeanor weapons possession, which carries a maximum one-year prison term. A woman answering the phone at her home on Tuesday said, "She doesn't know anything about this," but she declined further comment.

Authorities portrayed Osario as a practitioner of the Afro-Caribbean Santeria faith and "business adviser" to the gang. Santeria blends African spiritual beliefs with Roman Catholic traditions.

Osario was put on the gang payroll "to foresee the future," said chief gang prosecutor Deanna Rodriguez.

The crew, Rodriguez said, would inquire, "We're going to do this drug transaction. Is it the right time?"
[Full Story]

Maybe with a reference from her former gang she could get a job as John Kerry's "religion outreach director." After all Kerry's recent addition of Maria Vanderslice in this job is not much different. Christopher at Catholic Kerry Watch has the details on Maria Vanderslice and maybe she is what Democrats might consider as religious outreach.

Ultimately, I can't separate my Christianity from my values or my values from my politics. For me, being engaged in politics is an expression of my deepest held religious beliefs -- it is about actualizing a collective commitment to protect the integrity of God's creation, it's about meeting the needs of the "least of these," and about our nation being a generous and trustworthy leader in the world. There are certainly positions taken by leading Democrats with which many Christians won't agree -- and many Christians are appalled by what they see as the exploitation of religion for political gain on the part of the Republican Party.

"it is about actualizing a collective commitment to protect the integrity of God's creation." I just love progressive-ecological-mumbo-jumbo-speech.

Roundabout Comment

Ecce Homo had posted part of my post on Dismissives and the Old Oligarch had posted this comment on that blog.

"Maybe Progressives think the Holy Spirit should be fired for such mismanagement."

I'd go with you, but it's too right-wing an analogy for your intended audience. Instead, they usually encourage us to think of the Holy Spirit as the theological liberal of the Trinity, a marginalized junior partner who has some really good things to say. Like ordain everything that moves, and free love anyone that wants it for whatever duration, as long as it is committed right now.

Thinking back about that last remark, is there no end to their tendency to remake God in their own image?

Ordain everything that moves - classic!

Communion Litmus Test

We at Curt Jester Laboratories have made a startling development. Always wanting to remain on the cutting edge of Communion technologies our top research team have made a breakthrough. The preponderance of news articles on abortion as a litmus test for Communion has sparked the imaginations of our research team. After pouring through the Old Testament we found many cases where physical things such as holy garments, vessels, and ground were considered holy. Old testament theology also pointed out "whatever touches them will become holy" Exodus 30:29 and unclean things could remove these properties of holiness. This got us thinking about physical manifestations of holiness and the New Testament shift to personal holiness. We have now detected pheromones connected with holiness. The Pheromones of Holiness (PH) balance detected is directly proportional to the acting on an informed conscience. Our test groups included new priests, those who attend Eucharistic adoration, and the staff of the National Catholic Reporter. The NCR staff had a very low PH balance and the other groups tested much better.

Now introducing for immediate availability is the Communion Litmus Test.

The extraordinary minister of litmus testing places a strip in front of the communicants mouth where they then blow on it. The active chemicals in the strip then react to the amount of PH exhaled. The strip will change color or present an iconic reference.

Marian Blue - This is a "Let it be done according to thy will" indication and displays that the test is passed. This indication specifies that the subject adheres to Church teaching, but does not mean that the subject does not still have to increase in holiness. Perseverance to the end is required for continual passes of this test. All other indications reflect a failed test.

Fork Icon - Cafeteria Catholic.

Rainbow coloring - Subject supports homosexual activity and/or same-sex marriage.

No Fetus Icon - Subject is pro-abortion

Women Priest Icon - Subject supports womens ordination.

The graphic shown above is is only a representative sample. Other possible indicators are:

Turns one color than another and than keeps changing - Flip-Flop indicator, subject is most likely John Kerry.

Fuzzy Indication - Subject more than likely went to Catholic schools and is uncatechized.

You are confused by just what the indication means - Subject is a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA).

Luther or Calvin Icon - Protestant.

Pure White - Person is their own Pope.

Communion Litmus Test strips can be used in conjunction with the Facial Recognition Paten 2000

$19.99 per pack of 1000.

Federal Money = Monopoly Money

SPRINGFIELD -- At a time when the cash-strapped Illinois Department of Human Services can't pay its bills on time, the agency hosted a $78,000 conference to promote "spirituality and ritual" as drug-abuse treatments.

The two-day program this month at the Hyatt Regency Oak Brook was funded through a $70 million federal grant and designed to help drug-treatment groups reach out to communities of color, the agency said.

But the June 2-3 conference has drawn bipartisan fire for being held in a mostly white suburb far from the areas it was designed to reach and for its unusual theme when other human service programs face the possibility of major cuts.

"It's bad enough that we now have to scratch and claw for the money to help real people meet their basic needs," said state Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston). "These funds would have been far better spent supplementing the state's existing commitment to hospice care for the terminally ill and their loved ones.

"I resent the department wasting precious federal dollars on some touchy-feely, new-age, hot-tub conference," the senator continued.

I think the Senator nailed it.

A brochure sent to members of the General Assembly said the conference would begin with a Native American prayer, include an "African water ritual," and involve singing, dancing, Korean drumming and more.

"We will rejoice in music and dance and the healing powers it brings to our communities," the brochure read. "We will be serenaded by a Latina jazz singer and stirred by the youth of Culture Clash performing a traditional Cuban warrior dance."

Tracey Scruggs, a DHS spokeswoman, defended the program. She said it did not involve the use of precious state funds, enabled attendees to earn credit toward counseling and teaching certificates, and trained people to "incorporate spirituality and rituals to promote health and healing in the communities we serve."

As if wasting $78,000 worth of Federal money is alright. Of course this is indicative of the general attitude with Federal funds. Less thought is given to how to spend that money. The most thought is giving to making sure you spend all of it.

If your going through drug treatment and some counselor starts doing a Cuban warrior dance what is your first thought? Is this really encouraging you to stop avoiding reality or to perhaps to find stronger drugs?

Grave Sin

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) Mementoes and most decorations will be barred from grave sites at seven Catholic cemeteries, according to the Diocese of Providence.

''When we look at the thousands and thousands of people interred in our system and those families who come to these cemeteries, you want to make sure they convey a certain respect and dignity,'' says Arthur Lurgio, associate director of Catholic cemeteries for the diocese. ''Unfortunately what might seem wonderful to one may seem terrible to another.''

Increasingly, Lurgio told The Providence Journal, people are decorating their beloved's gravestones with plastic windmills, wind chimes, photographs, figurines and even balloons. The trend has generated more complaints, too, he said.

The diocese issued a statement Monday saying the policy barring all grave adornments except flowers was not new, but has not been enforced in recent years. It will be enforced as of July 1.

Some mementos are placed in the grass or they fall off the tombstones and break. ''There is a safety issue here'' if groundskeepers mow over them, Lurgio said.
[Full Story]

Pray for out Bishops

Bishops' June Meeting To Be ‘Special Assembly'

Corpus Christi

Sometime just before Lent I got an email from Zaccheus Press asking if I would like a copy of Abbot Vonier's "A Key to the Doctrine of the Eucharist." Asking me if I would like a free book is rather superfluous but I have finally gotten through a pile of books and to this one. I wish I had started with this one first. Especially now that the Pope has announced a Year of the Eucharist beginning in October. Abbot Vonier was a German who entered a French Benedictine abbey. A church-state crisis caused them to relocate to England and he went on to be the Abbot at the age of 31 and remained in office until his death. He preached and wrote from the early 1900's through to the inter-war years. His writing is heavily Thomistic and he draws much from the works and thoughts of St. Thomas Aquinas. Despite the depth of the theological understanding of the sacraments and his focusing on the Eucharist; these ideas are presented in a way that should be understandable to most.

Here is where he summarizes the first couple chapters of this book.

Three concepts belonging to the general theory of sacraments in the theology of Saint Thomas, more than any others, have made it possible for him to keep the Eucharist entirely within the sacramental circle. The first, so prolific in its consequences, is the representative signification in every sacrament of a past, a present, and a future; the past being the death of Christ on the cross, the present being the very thing which the external symbol signifies, the future being the union with Christ in glory. The second concept, belonging to the sacraments in general, and as fertile, is this: that the sacrament is not only man's healing but also God's glorification, i.e., the divine cult. It will be readily perceived that the Eucharist sacrifice which is radically a representative sacrifice of a past immolation, and which is essentially a supreme act of worship, moves easily withing such broad views concerning sacraments in general. The third idea, so dear to St. Thomas, that the sacrament actually contains what it signifies; that it is not merely an external symbol, but a true carrier of spiritual realities. This notion of containing, to which the Doctor clings with such tenacity in his general theory on the sacraments, makes it possible for hims to speak of the immolated Christ as being contained in the sacrament, "The sacrament is called a victim (hostia) because it contains Christ Himself, who is the victim of salvation."

I highly recommend this book because there is much to nourish you intellectually and also to nourish your contemplative prayer life in reflecting on this great gift that God has given us in the Eucharist. And I am not just saying this because the publisher sent me a free book.

We must lift the barriers that stand in the way of science and push the boundaries of medical exploration

Senator John Kerry wasted no time to subvert and use the death of President Reagan to start hawking stem-cell research. In his weekly radio address:

Yesterday, we said goodbye to President Ronald Reagan.

For his children and his friends, and most of all, for his courageous wife Nancy, this painful goodbye began almost ten years ago, with the diagnosis of a disease that took Ronald Reagan away before it took his life.

There is a moment after you get the call from a doctor that you or a loved one must face a disease like Alzheimer's where you decide that it can't mean the end - that you won't let it. So in our own way, we become researchers and scientists. We become advocates and friends, and we reach for a cure that cannot - that must not - be too far away. Some call this denial. But I'm sure that Nancy Reagan - the wife of an eternal optimist - calls it hope.

She told the world that Alzheimer's had taken her own husband to a distant place, and then she stood up to help find a breakthrough that someday will spare other husbands, wives, children and parents from the same kind of heartache.

Millions share this hope, and it is because of their commitment that stem cell research has brought us closer to finding ways to treat Alzheimer's and many other diseases.

In a recent article by a stem-cell researcher we heard the opposite.

"I think the chance of doing repairs to Alzheimer's brains by putting in stem cells is small," said stem cell researcher Michael Shelanski, co-director of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, echoing many other experts. "I personally think we're going to get other therapies for Alzheimer's a lot sooner."

Today, more than 100 million Americans have illnesses that one day could be cured or treated with stem-cell therapy. Stem cells could replace damaged heart cells or cells destroyed by cancer, offering a new lease on life to those suffering from diseases that once came with a certain death sentence. Stem cells have the power to slow the loss of a grandmother's memory, calm the hand of an uncle with Parkinson's, save a child from a lifetime of daily insulin shots, or permanently lift a best friend from his wheelchair.

Chances are that you love someone with such a disease. You may be that someone. So what can we do to make sure that doctors and scientists keep learning, keep discovering, and keep researching stem cells so that the incredible potential for discovery becomes a reality in people's lives?

We must lift the barriers that stand in the way of science and push the boundaries of medical exploration so that researchers can find the cures that are there, if only they are allowed to look. We can do this while providing strict ethical oversight.

His whole radio address is deeply dishonest. Not one time does he make the necessary distinction between embryonic and adult stem- cells. There are zero barriers for working with adult stem-cells. Researches are not prohibited in any way by using the more promising research into adult stem-cells. Currently there is only a federal ban on scientists from doing research on embryonic stem-cells other then those lines that already exist. Unfortunately there are hardly any limits on research on embryonic stem-cells by private researchers. The barriers he wants lifted are the ones currently protecting human life. He uses the words "allowed to look" and reality translates that to embryo farms where humans are experimented on and die in the process of "looking."

We must make the funding of stem cell research a priority in our universities and our medical community. And we must secure more funding for it at agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Above all, we must look to the future not with fear, but with the hope and the faith that advances in medicine will advance our best values. America has always been a land of discovery - of distant horizons and unconquered frontiers. But progress has always brought with it ethical concerns that this time we have gone too far. Believe it or not, there was a time when some questioned the morality of heart transplants. Not too long ago, we heard the same kind of arguments against the biotechnology research that now saves stroke victims and those with leukemia.

To compare heart transplants to the use of embryonic stem-cells is a ridiculous example. Sure some people initially had problems with the idea of organ transplants, but the Catholic Church has no problem with transplants in most circumstances. The only problem arises when organs are harvested prior to a person dying. Because of the short time-period some organs can be used doctors are tempted to remove organs prior to death. For embryonic stem-cells they take live human embryos and then destroy (murder) them when they remove the stem-cells. This is the moral equivalent of harvesting organs from healthy children. There is no difference between raising children for the purposes of an organ harvest and taking human embryos and harvesting them for stem-cells. Unfortunately this is what we have come to expect from John "My faith is important to me" Kerry.

I know there are ethical issues, but people of goodwill and good sense can resolve them. For I also know the fear that most Americans feel at some point - the fear of a diagnosis that may take our life or sentence us to a diminished life.

This is part of modern alchemist word-smithing. Transform the word morality to ethics and before long you can easily dismiss any qualms.

In the past few years, I have seen cancer and stroke take my own parents. Last year, because of the remarkable medical advances we have made, I was cured of prostate cancer. Now everywhere I go in America, people come up to me and tell me about their struggle with illness or the bravery of family members who faces it. They share their worries, but they also believe that this is a country of the future, a can-do country.

The medical discoveries that come from stem cell are crucial next steps in humanity's uphill climb. And part of this nation's greatness lies in the fact that we have led the world in great medical discoveries, with our breakthroughs and our beliefs going hand-in-hand.

If we pursue the limitless potential of our science - and trust that we can use it wisely - we will save millions of lives and earn the gratitude of future generations.

Except the generation of lives offered on the altars of unrestrained science. It is hard to find gratitude at the sharp end of a scalpel coming to kill you.

That John Kerry takes this position unfortunately does not put him in the minority. Recently a letter signed by 56 or 57 senators (reporting varied) asked President Bush to ease stem-cell research restrictions. We have come to expect the abortion-as-sacrament political party to ignore life at conception. Senators Trent Lott , Orrin G. Hatch, Kay Bailey Hutchison and 10 other Republicans also signed this letter. This is consistent for Hatch but previously pro-life Senators like Trent Lott and Kay Bailey Hutchison and other should be ashamed of themselves.

Update: Mark Shea has an editorial in the Dallas Morning News on using Reagan's death to advance embryonic stem-cell research.

Relevance over Reverence

"Praise dancing is a ministry," says 17-year-old Ariana Starks at a recent Saturday morning practice at St. James, where she shimmied her shoulders to vibrant gospel music. "Most young people go to church and find it boring. This is a way to attract people into the house of God who wouldn't normally want to come."

In recent years, dance clothing stores and mail-order catalogs have begun selling praise-dance garments and props. Praise-dance Web sites are popping up, churches are hosting praise-dance concerts and conferences, and dance studios are offering classes.

Dance worship, or dance ministry, involves prayer movement, sacred dance and liturgical dance. It has a wide range of interpretations depending on the church and the denomination.

Give me reverence over relevance anytime.

..."The Catholic Church has been somewhat more resistant to liturgical dance," says Susan Olsen, director of liturgy and music at Holy Family Parish in San Jose, which regularly incorporates dance into its Masses. "There are still some conservatives who wish we were still praying in Latin, and some who really want to keep the liturgy simpler."

Resistant? How about outlawed.

NATIONAL CONFERENCE of CATHOLIC BISHOPS, all dancing, (ballet, children's gesture as dancing, the clown liturgy) are not permitted to be "introduced into liturgical celebrations of any kind whatever." [NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS (BISHOPS' COMMITTEE on the LITURGY) NEWSLETTER. APRIL/MAY 1982.]

I have joked before that the only dance allowed is on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation is attendance. Outside of the Mass then you can dance as you like. King David did not dance in the Temple during the sacrificial offering. He danced in joy outside of a liturgical celebration.

Here is something from a site referenced in this article that specializes in Christian dance.

Give me pennants over penance! And for the brave of heart here is a Real Player movie of this.

Now I was not a Signalman when I was in the Navy, but during Boot Camp we did have to learn something about the use of semaphore for signaling.

So using this I was able to translate the MPEG video shown here.

It as all about me, look at me here. Direct your attention on the dancers and their choreographed movements. My jumping around waving liturgical flags really makes you worship God more doesn't it. Go ahead and admit it. You are now really deep in prayer, praying that I will stop and leave the sanctuary.

Four priests from 1 family celebrate anniversaries

This article by Steve Arney was so cool I included the whole article.

It's a simple explanation as to why there were 11 children in the Schneider family: Catholic. That four of the children became Franciscan priests merits discussion.

It also is cause for celebration, as the four Schneider priests celebrate their longevity in service with anniversaries of 60, 55, 50 and 45 years since ordination.

They will concelebrate Mass at Ric Schneider's church, St. Mary's Catholic Church in Bloomington, on Sunday.

Schneider, who is pastor of St. Mary's, said his parents, Otto and Anna, were an enormous spiritual influence on the family.

They set examples and taught the importance of prayer -- a lesson that included a daily after-dinner Rosary. Anna attended Mass every day, except when child-bearing physically prevented her from going.

Otto died when Ric was 10. His mother persevered in child-rearing and in the faith, Ric said, and she lived for 30 more years.

Two factors drew the Schneider boys to the Franciscan order:

• Three of their uncles were Franciscan friars. They frequently were in the Schneider home telling their stories of service and missions work.

• The family went to a church staffed by friars: St. Francis of Assisi in Louisville, Ky.

The Schneider's adherence to faith extends beyond the brothers, Ric said. All children, 10 of them still surviving, were strong churchgoers. None divorced. Two other brothers studied in seminary before deciding against the priesthood. Among the friars:

• Ric Schneider celebrates 45 years since ordination. He's been pastor of St. Mary's for 11 years. He's also been a school teacher and a ministry recruiter. His most famous recruit was Tom Cruise, who started studying for priesthood but instead became an actor.

• Quin Schneider celebrates 50 years. He is a hospital chaplain in Cincinnati and has served as secretary for the Cincinnati Provincial, the regional office for the Order of Friars Minor.

• Chris Schneider celebrates 55 years. He is a pastor in Cincinnati. He fought for school desegregation in Louisiana during the civil rights movement. His friary windows were shot out and his integrated school was bombed.

• Bernie Schneider celebrates 60 years. He's lived in Japan the past 52 years and translates the Holy Bible into Japanese.

Return of a Blogger

T.S. O'Rama has a long sprawling, but interesting post on his vacation and close encounter of the Scott Hahn kind. I especially enjoyed his comment about feeling holy.

Baptist Boot Camp

A Spencer church is using its own "boot camp" to help area children learn life skills and respect for authority.

According to Eyewitness News 5's Marianne Silber, the True Vine Baptist Church started the boot camp program to teach children from its congregation -- as well as children from across the nation -- about becoming better citizens and worshippers.

During boot camp drills, the church's parking lot looks more like an Army post than a place of worship.

Retired U.S. Army Sgt. Kenneth Williams teaches drill for the program. He said the children, some of whom are as young as 5 years old, are required to dress in fatigues, learn to march -- and follow orders.

"We want to teach them ... (to) be positive, have values, morals, (and) treat people like you want to be treated yourself," Williams said.
[Full Story][Via Catholic Ragemonkey]

Hey, they stole my idea!

In his own Hand

Lane Core Jr. offers a reflection today on President Reagan with Reagan's own words, pictures, and plenty of good links.

Props to a Priest

Today was the 30th anniversary for my parish priest at Immaculate Conception here in Jacksonville. He has been a priest for over 47 years and has spend a considerable amount of that time in this one church. This was the parish where I was received into the Church. The Church is close to a hundred years old and replaced a building that was the first Catholic Church in Jacksonville. The original church was ransacked and burned down during the Civil War by the North. I have read stories of troops carrying pieces of the pipes from its organ around town. It is quite a beautiful church with a high altar, communion rail, and stained glass windows all around it. They had recently completed a renovation before Easter and they enhanced an already beautiful church. I was quite surprised by the improvement since I already loved the look of the interior.

When my family first moved here, I was lost downtown one day and trying to find my way around I saw exactly what I had been looking for. A sign that said "Catholic Book Store." We had just moved from Norfolk, Va and I had never run across a specifically Catholic book store, but I had to confine myself to trying to find Catholic books in a Christian book store. I went on a book binge in this store and it is where I bought my first Catechism. Afterward we walked up into the church and I was awed by the beauty within. I was still not ready to enter the Catholic Church but this church and the people within it helped me on my way.

The first Mass I ever attended on purpose was there and it was a Latin Mass. Not only do they have the Latin Indult Mass on Sundays but on the first Sunday of each month they also have a Latin/English Mass as they do on EWTN. In addition on Sundays they have two vernacular Masses and a Spanish Mass. During the week they have two daily Masses and before every Mass confession is held. I slowly got to know the Pastor of this Church Father Leon from afar as I listened to his homilies and watched his reverence in the Mass. The first time I met him was when I was attending a Discalced Carmelite meeting. I was still going through RCIA, though intellectually I had already accepted the Catholic Church as true. The head or our Carmelite chapter introduced me and explained that I was still waiting to officially enter the Church. He told me he had noticed me at daily Mass and had wondered why I never went up to Communion. I had already been greatly drawn to Carmelite spirituality because of the writings of St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. I had wondered where I might be able to find a secular Carmelite group in my area. It turned out that in my RCIA group two of the instructors had started the Discalced Carmelite group there some years past. Quite convenient for me. Currently the main public library is being built only one block from this Church. Now if only I could build a house in between these two building I would be set for life.

Fr. Leon would give talks at each of these Carmelite meetings and from those talks I learned more about him. He had entered the seminary in Spain when he was 13 years old. It was a Jesuit seminary in the best sense of what the Jesuits use to be. While there he was already interested in the Carmelites and it is no surprise that he was attracted to those two great Spanish Carmelites St. John and St. Teresa. It must be wonderful to read them in their native tongue. He also developed a deep devotion to St. Terese. When he became a priest he volunteered to come to the Unites States and ended up in the Diocese of St. Augustine. He took courses in English and spent a period of time teaching and then becoming a principal of a Catholic school. He later became a parish priest in various churches until coming to Immaculate Conception. I can't express how much love and respect I have for this man. Listening to him explain the deepest parts of the spiritual life is amazing. It is obvious that his talks are not based on an intellectual outsider to the theory of prayer but instead the deepest love and the intimate pursuit of holiness. Two years back he was in a serious car accident where he was banged up a little. He explained to our group that he would use this pain to help mitigate the penance in the confession he hears. This was not said with a hint of pride but with a thankfulness to God that some small suffering of his could lead to the salvation of others. He was especially concerned about the teenagers that were in the car that hit him.

Whenever I go to Mass there I throw all my liturgical worries behind me. I only wish that I could go there everyday. The Masses are always conducted with reverence and there are absolutely zero liturgical deviations. Fr. Leon's guiding hand is everywhere in this Church. The choir there has been steadily improving and while there is not yet any Gregorian Chant the hymns are truly from the treasury of the Church with no OCP/GIA nonsense. The people Fr. Leon has selected to be around him reflect his faithfulness to the Church. The Director of Religious Education is an ex-Methodist minister and also a wonderful and humble man. He ran the RCIA class that I attended and him and all the instructors knew their faith well and taught the truths of the faith. This is a downtown Church and as you can imagine as the years passed there are less and less families in the vicinity. Yet this Church is filled with young families and their children. There are many homeschooling families who go out of there way to bring there children there. Since Fr. Leon has been there he has added a soup kitchen that feed hundreds of people on the weekends. The profits from the bookstore he added go entirely to help the poor.

Many times after I Mass when my wife and I are praying before the Blessed Sacrament I have seen him praying the Divine Office in the sanctuary. There is something about seeing this faithful priest that brings tears to my eyes and to thank God for working in this man. Besides leading the Carmelites he also works with the Franciscan and Cursillo.

So I just wanted to say something about this priest. Daily we hear disheartening stories about the activities of some in the Church. Yet all around us there are thousands of silent prayerful and holy priests even in the midst of scandals.

Perils of Inclusive Language

James of Catholic and Loving it! has some very funny cartoons he created on the perils of inclusive language.

Dismissives

Over at Disputations in Tom's fine post on Torture I had left a comment where I called justifying torture a form of relativism for conservatives. Often the ticking nuclear bomb scenario is used to justify torture. This is just relativism where you justify an evil act because of another evil act. In reply to my comment JCECIL3 said:

When Jeff Miller and I agree on something, those Catholics who disagree with us need to examine themselves.

I stand with Tom and Jeff above and all others who see it as extraordinarily clear that the Gospel and the Church do not condone torture under any circumstances.

I am about as liberal as Catholic bloggers get, and Jeff is pretty darn conservative. When you have both poles in the church calling something into question, along with Tom's fine quotation from an Ecumenical Council, it's time to admit you are not thinking with the Church.

We agree on this because I don't approach things via a conservative lens. Hopefully I see everything through a Catholic lens. Prior to entering the Church I would have had no problem with torture or the death-penalty used in almost all cases of murder. I try to take seriously what the Church teaches and where I have difficulties or personal preferences I research to find out why I am wrong (knowing that I am wrong). This has helped me to not only to understand these teaching, but also to fully accept them. There are too many that come to the Church with their own preferences and agendas and then start by arguing why the Church is wrong. You should be able to read through the Catechism without crossing out whole paragraphs with a black marker or adding your own paragraphs.

Steve on his blog on Homosexual Marriage in the Church said:

Personally, I think the first homosexual marriage in the Catholic church will be done by a female priest. Which means, don't look for it any time soon.

I agree with him. Of course since there will never be women priests, consequently they will also be no homosexual marriage accepted by the Church. Steve justifies this by saying the Church has been wrong in the past. I would be curious to know what he believes has been taught consistently through tradition and in scripture that we now deny? There have been issues that for a time were not settled in Church, but later were. Those who had contrary opinions prior to a subject being settled did no wrong. Those afterward who dissent do. Homosexual marriage in no way could be classed as development of doctrine. This would be a denial of one to be replace with another. The current view on the death penalty is an example of development of doctrine. We still don't see the death penalty in itself is not intrinsically evil but that If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means. This is clearly a deeper understanding of the death penalty and not a negation of it.

I just don't understand Progressive ecclesiology. If you believe that the Holy Spirit has been leading the Catholic Church and at the same time for 2000 years it has wrongly condemned homosexual acts and homosexual marriage. Maybe Progressives think the Holy Spirit should be fired for such mismanagement. This subject is not just some minor point, If homosexual activity was truly a good than the constant teaching of the Church would be a lie. If we can't trust the Church on a matter so important then how can we trust what it has said on anything? The divinity of Christ, the Trinity, our redemptive salvation could all be errors in this topsy-turvy theology of the Church. They mention that there are only five verses in the Bible that deal with homosexuality. Of course they don't mention the number of scripture examples of committed homosexual couples, which is exactly zero. How about the number of Church fathers who condoned homosexuality? Exactly zero again. So if we just totally ignore scripture, tradition and the magisterium then hey why not endorse homosexuality. What is the point of being Catholic if you can't know for sure if a teaching of the faith is true or not. This is closer to Gnosticism where only some people can attain to the secret knowledge of what the truth is.

In an article Steve links to from a typical suit-and-tie Jesuit says:

The experiences of homosexual persons also call for respectful consideration. These experiences include relationships of commitment and love, but also stigma and prejudice and even violence at the hands of persons and institutions.

What about the experiences and commitment of those who abandon there families and marry someone else. Should those adulterers also have our respectful consideration? After all there are currently in a loving relationship. How about the experience of those in incestuous relationships? Is everything fine as long as there is commitment?

I think the term Progressive is mistaken. More accurately the movement should be called Dismissives. Homosexuality a grave disorder. Dismiss it. Abortion morally wrong? Dismiss it. Contraception? Dismiss it. Submission to church teachings? Dismiss it. Of course if homosexual acts were moral then contraception immediately becomes moral to. To progress in the Church you must build upon the foundation of what already exists, not rip it away to install your own.

*Steve and some other of St. Blog's self-identifying Progressives are pro-life, yet the majority of those who use this label for themselves are not.

Killing with false compassion

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - An Australian woman who committed suicide two years ago surrounded by supporters and euthanasia activists was not dying of cancer at the time of her death, an official post-mortem report has confirmed.

The country's leading euthanasia campaigner -- who knew ahead of Nancy Crick's death that she was cancer-free but did not make that public -- said in response to the report's release that the point was immaterial.

"To Nancy's mind it didn't really matter and I guess to my mind it didn't matter either," Dr. Philip Nitschke told a commercial television channel.
[Full Story]

Sin, Chew Daily

While perusing the headlines I ran across this story.

THE Government has banned new political parties from registering under the name of religion to prevent confusion among the public, Sin Chew Daily reported.

Home Minister Datuk Azmi Khalid told the daily that the Government was concerned that certain parties were disguising their organisations in the name of religion while their activities were political in nature.

Azmi said the Government disapproved of such organisations and would beef up enforcement against those abusing religion for political gains.
[Full Story]

The name of the Chinese newspaper "Sin Chew Daily" caught my attention. What came to mind was - Sin, Chew Daily; to me a reference to the Eucharist. In the famous passage in John Chapter 6 the Greek word phago is initially used which is an ordinary word for eat. Jesus switches to the word trogo, which means to "gnaw or chew." One of the translations in the Douay-Rheims Bible that I like is from the Lord's prayer 'Give us this day, our super-substantiated bread' I prefer the emphasis on the supernatural aspect of our daily bread which is truly bread from above. We are all sinners and through the sacrificial death of Jesus we have recourse through the sacramental life of the Church to grow in holiness. So I guess that is my real short meditation on the name of a Chinese newspaper.

Brawling Buddhists

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Government and opposition lawmakers brawled on the floor of Sri Lanka's parliament Tuesday, in a fistfight that injured two Buddhist monks.

The scuffle broke out when members of the president's governing party tried to block Akmeemana Dayaratana - a member of a Buddhist monk-led opposition party - from taking his oath to become a member of Parliament, officials at the legislature said on condition of anonymity.

Dayaratana and another monk, Kollonnawe Sri Sumangala, were hurt in the fight and taken to a hospital.
[Full Story]

Kerry suspends campaign?

Even though Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry has canceled all public campaign events this week in honor of the death former President Ronald Reagan, the senator's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, is continuing her campaign appearances.
[Full Story]

Well this is consistent. Previously Kerry's reply in asking if he owned an SUV he said no, and then when requestioned said 'The family has it, I don't have it.'" So on his no campaigning pledge he can now say "The family is campaigning, I am not."

Passion Parade

This photo is from Roger Ebert's Cannes Photo Album

No this is not a float authorized by Mel Gibson but one by the company advertised on the truck. This sleazy site actually traffics in "sexy personals for passionate people." [Link via Industrial Something]

Confused conscience

Here is one of just another confused column on conscience and Communion. It goes on to pervert Catholic teaching on Conscience by dishonestly citing the example of some saints.

The Church is attempting to override the right of every individual to consider what is before him and then to operate according to the dictates of his own good conscience. The Church is mandating blind obedience which, even in the Middle Ages, was found objectionable by some of the Church's most prominent and revered saints, including the woman who would not yield to her inquisitors on matters of conscience, Joan of Arc.

The Renaissance martyr Thomas More spoke of matters of conscience, too, saying: "In things touching conscience, every true and good subject is more bound to have respect to his said conscience and to his soul than to any other thing in all the world."

More, who understood clearly what it was to safeguard one's moral integrity, was accused of treason for not siding with his king. He was harshly sentenced: "Sir Thomas More, you are to be drawn on a hurdle through the City of London to Tyburn, there to be hanged till you be half dead, after that cut down yet alive, your bowels to be taken out of your body and burned before you, your privy parts cut off, your head cut off, your body to be divided in four parts, and your head and body to be set at such places as the King shall assign."

The sentence was commuted and More was, instead, simply beheaded. To this day, he is revered for his insistence on honoring one's own conscience, no matter the price.

In the spirit of a whole parade of Christian saints and martyrs, including Joan of Arc and Thomas More, Catholics must insist on their right to say to their Church, "Not sorry. I must honor my conscience. I must vote my conscience. I alone know what my relationship to my God is."

St. Joan of Arc's conscience was formed and in accordance with Church Teaching. Those who questioned her were acting contrary to Church teaching. In fact they were acting more out of allegiance to England then to Rome. Sound familiar? The same goes in the case of St. Thomas More. He would not deny the papacy and did deny King Henry VIII sovereignty over the Church. His conscience was also formed and in accordance with Church teaching. To use the example of these two great martyrs as an argument to go on being unfaithful to the Church and to continue to receive Communion is an insult to their witness. Thomas More is the antithesis of the modern Catholic politician who places political concerns over their faith. No surprise that she gets this wrong since she appears to support both abortion and gay marriage.

These relativistic arguments always break down into absurdity. The columnist has no problem judging the actions of the Bishops who support a communion ban. She infers that they are wrong to do so. If they are acting on their conscience according to her belief then how can she at the same time criticize them?

Listening session

The Rainbow Sash Movement has just been notified that Cardinal McCarrick of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC has agreed to host a "Listening Session" on the weekend of the National Council of Catholic Bishops meeting in November. According to Joe Murray, spokesperson for the Rainbow Sash Movement, "I have been in direct communication with the Cardinal's representative since January 2004," trying to develop this "Listening Session," and I am thankful to God for this opportunity.

A Listening Session is an ancient practice of the Catholic Church. The goal is to listen to the faithful, thereby trying to determine the parishioners' pastoral needs. In Catholic Teaching this is referred to as a "Sense of the Faithful." One of the roles of a Bishop is to listen to the "Sense of the Faithful", and to respond accordingly. Murray further stated, "From my vantage point, we do a lot better to prefer persuasion over mandate; dialog over dictate."
[Full Story]

A Listening Session is an ancient practice of the Catholic Church? I would be curious as to what they might cite as an historical example. Since this is just a press release from the rainbow sash movement it is hard to determine what Cardinal McCarrick has actually agreed to and the bounds of what are to be discussed. This movement believes that the Church needs to accept and say that homosexual actions are moral so there isn't really anything for the Cardinal to listen to. There can be no dialog on this subject other than how best the Church can teach the message of personal holiness and chasity to those with same-sex attraction; a message that applies to all of us.

Update: One of the commenters mentioned something that I should have picked up. It is rather silly that a group that is unfaithful to church teachings would invoke "Sense of the Faithful" or to pull from my limited Latin lexicon "Sensus Fidelium." Yet in Church history there have been many such groups advocating the change of some doctrine to their understanding. From the Judaizers through the Arians and Albigensian to modernism which seeks to subvert Church teaching on the truth of human sexuality. They will always be around and they will never prevail.

Eternal Rest Grant Him Lord

This hit me harder than I thought it would even though I saw the news this morning that he was in his last days. I was one of those Reagan-Democrats that voted for him in his second term. I was disillusioned with Jimmy Carter after voting for him and from what my family had taught me Ronald Reagan was the equivalent of the anti-Christ in Oregon. I ended up not voting in that election cycle. Mr. Reagan totally won me over and I found myself agreeing more and more with the messages that he communicated. His efforts along with the Holy Father brought down the iron curtain and brought freedom to millions. He revitalized our military and made us proud to be in the Armed Forces again. He articulated his vision for America and the world and never left his principles behind.

He made me laugh and I loved him and I will deeply miss him.

Modern slave trade in America

WASHINGTON -- The small New Jersey towns of Brigantine and Plainfield tout themselves as family friendly places. The two towns also share the infamous distinction of being linked to the worldwide problem of trafficking young girls and women who are forced to work as prostitutes or domestic servants.

"Human trafficking has become a negative suburban phenomenon," Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said in a recent interview in his Capitol Hill office.

Smith, vice chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said millions of young girls and women are trafficked each year. He said many of these victims are smuggled into the United States to work in large cities and small hamlets, like Brigantine and Plainfield, two of several New Jersey communities where trafficking victims have been found.
[Full Story]

Rogue Catholics

A reader sent me a link to the following article. This article here entails a a story where half the Catholics at one church have signed a petition opposing Bishop Sheridan supposed ban on Holy Communion. What I thought was funny is that they are from "Rogue Valley", how appropriate. It contains the usual misunderstanding of not only Church teaching but also what Bishop Sheridan actually said. Again people are failing to distinguish between private and public sin.

"The implication of it (Sheridan's edict) is that, if you can't vote for a pro-choice Catholic (Democratic candidate John Kerry), you have to vote for (President) Bush because he's pro-life before you're born - but after that, you're anybody's target," Sack said. "Killing born children and their parents seems to be fine with him. I don't know how you can call him pro-life when he's put 10,000 Iraqi civilians in their graves."

Notice the helpful way the reporter helped us out by adding (Sheridan's edict) to inform us about what the person was referring to. The word edict was used multiple times in this article. Funny how this word is never used in reference to when a judge uses the law for their own end. This must be part of the style sheet reporters use to always substitute statement with edict when a Bishop writes something they disagree with.

"I signed it because I don't feel the Eucharist is a bargaining tool," said Jeanne Ellen Podolske, Our Shepherd's director of liturgy. "His (Sheridan's) actions are not consistent with what scripture and the church tells me. The state of the world now is so complex that you can't reduce it to one issue."

What a surprise that a Church liturgist is ignorant of what the Church and the scripture says. For example canon 915 says: "Those ... who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to holy communion." The Vatican specifically interpreted manifest grave sin to refer to objectively grave sin, not (only) to those subjectively guilty of grave sin.

Jesus said in Matthew 18 "and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." Jesus also separated the sheep from the goats. Both groups believed in Jesus but those who did not obey him were denied eternal communion with him.

St. Paul said "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself."

And this "can't reduce it to one issue" is just getting old. If someone robs you at the point of a gun you don't ask them what their opinion on welfare is. You are only concerned with their non pro-life view of wanting to kill you. To the Baby in the womb there is but one issue that ultimately concerns them. To those being experimented on in the lab there is only one issue that concerns them.

U.S.S. Jimmy Carter (SSN 23)

WASHINGTON (Roto Reuters) -- The Department of Defense announced June 3 that the Navy’s newest Seawolf-class nuclear-powered submarine Jimmy Carter will be christened June 5 during an 11 a.m. ET ceremony at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Conn.

The submarine, Jimmy Carter, honors the 39th president of the United States. Carter is the only U.S. president to qualify in submarines. He has distinguished himself by a lifetime of public service, and has long ties to the Navy and the submarine force. He is a 1946 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, served as an officer aboard submarines while in uniform, and served as commander-in-chief from 1977-1981. Carter's statesmanship, philanthropy and sense of humanity have made him one of the most influential Americans of the late 20th century.

Shown here is the artist conception of the U.S.S. Jimmy Carter at sea.

As specified by Jimmy Carter and his daughter Amy the submarine carries no tactical nuclear weapons. The missile system carried is the new Paci-Fist missile guaranteed to pack a punch to those with peanut allergies resulting in possibly wiping one percent of enemy combatants with anaphylaxis. The peace-not-warhead delivers delivers weapons grade peanut butter (P-232).

Mr. Carter initially requested that the submarine use solar power or an alternate fuel such as Billy Beer instead of a nuclear power plant. These ideas were rejected after explaining a submarine that could never submerge or where burps showed on on enemy sonar was of no use.

The Navy is especially glad to complete this project. During construction inexplicably inflations costs for all parts was between 19 and 20 percent. Mr. Carter himself negotiated deals for components from North Korea and Haiti which initially looked favorable but later fell apart. One effort to negotiate with suppliers in Iran fell apart when their Helicopters crashed in the sand.

Pres. Bush meets the Pope

The text of the speech does not match the headlines that preceded it such as " Pope To Fault Bush On Iraq" and "Pope expected to tell Bush he is wrong." This only showed how little these journalist know about the Holy father. They wanted the Pope to give President Bush a dressing down because that is what they wanted.

Planned Parenthood means ...

This is from a column by Jill Stankek, the nurse who witnessed and worked to stop "live birth abortion."

OPINION -- During a recent interview, I mentioned that I believe one of Planned Parenthood’s objectives is for girls and women to engage in illicit sex as often as possible, so as to increase the odds they’ll get pregnant and have to abort.

The show host was flabbergasted. I was flabbergasted that he was flabbergasted. I reminded him that Planned Parenthood makes the bulk of its deadlihood - hundreds of millions of dollars every year - from abortion.

My theory was obviously over the top in this guy’s opinion. The interview ended abruptly.

The interview reminded me that most people still don’t realize abortion providers are America’s true Monsters, Inc.

She goes on to call the 13 percent of hardcore abortion supporters monsters. I wouldn't use that rhetoric to describe those abortion supporters who are so greatly mistaken. They try to dispose of babies by calling them a fetus, but I would try to avoid calling them monsters or inhuman. Accompanying the article was as a picture of the front cover of a A 1940 Planned Parenthood brochure.

As part of my "War on Error" I had to correct the picture.

U.N. Termites

A report issued on May 18 by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) provides a strategy for undermining Catholic Church teaching on sexual morality and family life. The plan involves partnering with Catholic clergy and lay organizations that may secretly dissent from Church teaching. By choosing to work with such groups, UNFPA can appear to be in accord with the Church, even as it promotes such things as the legalization of abortion and the provision of contraceptives to adolescents.

The report, entitled "Working from Within: Culturally Sensitive Approaches in UNFPA Programming," is a 32-page examination of UNFPA's efforts in nine countries to change laws and establish what it calls reproductive rights and health - an ambiguous phrase that is used throughout the report and is never defined but in UN parlance includes abortion. In its section on Brazil readers are told that one lesson to emerge from UNFPA's work in the country was that the Catholic Church was not a monolith and that essential to fighting Church teaching was identifying dissenting Catholics. "Within the Catholic Church, certain progressive branches exist, including the Communidades Eclesiais de Base, whose Catholic clergy understand the harsh realities of the country's poor and are ardent advocates on their behalf."

In the report, UNFPA touts a collaboration it began in the early 1990s with Pastoral da Crianca, a Catholic nongovernmental organization that promotes maternal and infant health through a network of 150,000 volunteers. Both groups sought to promote the spacing of pregnancies, though Pastoral did so by teaching Church approved natural family planning, while UNFPA promoted contraception. The report calls the strategy "selective collaboration" with the Catholic Church, which it defines as "identifying and working together in those areas where objectives coincide, while respecting the boundaries inherent in each partner's mandate."

But it becomes clear that in reality UNFPA does not respect such boundaries. The case study reveals that UNFPA, with UNICEF, funded a radio program sponsored by Pastoral as well as other "materials dealing with various aspects of family planning." The report brags that "although the emphasis was on birth spacing through natural methods, modern methods of contraception were also introduced. Pastoral da Crianca provided all of this information to their volunteers, who, in turn, conveyed it to their clients during home visits."

Besides using Pastoral's vast volunteer network to help spread its message, UNFPA benefited from the relationship in another significant way: It gave them credibility. "For UNFPA, working with Pastoral lent a certain legitimacy to its efforts and facilitated its involvement with grass-roots communities." Following the visit of Pope John Paul II to Brazil during the Jubilee Year of 2000, Pastoral terminated its relationship with UNFPA.
[Source]

This is the same tactic Margaret Sanger used. For her "Negro Project" she got liberal black pastors to preach the message of birth control. That the UNFPA can publish a report like this just shows you what the culture of the UN is like. Could you imagine the outcry if a Vatican document was uncovered that planned to subvert UN programs to promote the moral views of the Catholic Church? This document should provoke anger by all, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

California Fronts Stem Cell Debate

...Believing Washington is too slow to act, the Zuckers are spearheading the initiative to have California put up $3 billion in state funds for stem cell research — far more than the federal government spends, reports CBS News Correspondent Bill Whitaker.

Backers say it will make California a Mecca for revolutionary research that already has helped a paralyzed lab rat to walk and promises cures for heart disease, MS, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's too.

Becoming a Mecca is no big deal. A run down city where once a year people trample each other is not exactly an ideal.

With Ronald Reagan suffering Alzheimer's, Nancy Reagan recently spoke out in support of the legislation.

"I just don't see how we can turn our backs on this," the former first lady said.

But a wide network of Christian and anti-abortion groups truly believes stopping stem cell research is a moral imperative.

"Church teaching is that we value life from conception to natural death. That includes embryos. We oppose the killing for their parts," says Carol Hogan of the Catholic Conference of Bishops.

Right now, clinics often discard the embryos, byproducts of in-vitro fertilization.

"Should we be throwing them out as medical waste or should we be using them to create cures? For our family that isn't a difficult decision," says Katie's father Jerry Zucker.
[Full Story]

I bet some industrious Nazi thought the same thing. "There being slaughtered anyway, shouldn't we use their remains for candles or something? What do you think Dr. Mengele?" "Why I agree entirely."

It is amazing how much faith people put in embryonic stem-cells. These people would be ripe suckers for the old medicine shows. The new medicine show though is much classier. Those in lab coats fighting to get funding are willing to jump on the embryonic stem-cell bandwagon.

Update: $3 billion stem cell bond measure qualifies for ballot

Transexual's divorce stalls when she refuses to be he

A transsexual's attempt to get a regular divorce stalled Wednesday after she refused to be certified as a man, leaving a Harris County judge presiding over a divorce trial between two women.

The refusal by Linda Gail Carter, who legally changed her sex from male to female in May 1998, came during the first day of her trial for divorce from Constance D. Gonzalez.

Carter's refusal to certify that she is a man undercut an attempt by her attorney, Elsie Martin-Simon, to try the case as a regular divorce before State Family Court Judge Lisa Millard.

Millard has imposed a gag order on the participants because of publicity surrounding the case.
[http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2606189]

Judge says law protecting unborn children can halt deportation of woman

Here is an update to a story I blogged earlier.

KANSAS CITY - A federal judge presiding over the case of a pregnant woman fighting deportation to Mexico cited a law enacted after the deaths of Laci Peterson and her unborn son to keep the woman in the United States.

Myrna Dick, 29, of the Kansas City suburb of Raymore, is five months pregnant and married to a U.S. citizen. Senior U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright ruled Thursday that the couple's unborn child was also a U.S. citizen and thereby entitled to legal protection.

During the hearing, Wright asked Dick if she knew the sex of the baby. She said it was a boy.

"Then I can call him 'he,' " Wright said. "If this child is an American citizen, we can't send his mother back until he is born."

In rejecting the federal government's request to lift a temporary stay granted April 30, Wright cited the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, which grants unborn children equal protection under the law.
[Full Story]

More prison torture

Oh wait, nevermind it's a Christian in Saudi Arabia. Don't stop the presses.

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 2, 2004 (Zenit.org).- A Catholic Indian citizen was arrested and tortured in Saudi Arabia because of his faith, according to L'Osservatore Romano.

The semiofficial Vatican newspaper, quoting sources of the Fides missionary agency and the Indian bishops' conference, said that Brian Savio O'Connor was imprisoned about six months ago by the Mutawa, the Saudi religious police.

Taken to the Ali Hira prison in Riyadh, the accused was threatened with death if he did not convert to Islam, his brothers, Raymond and James, said.

The O'Connor brothers confirmed that Brian "has been incarcerated for six months and tortured with the intention of obliging him to abjure his faith," L'Osservatore Romano's Italian edition reported today. Sources said the accused is now in the Olaya prison.

"Officially the Mutawa has accused O'Connor of using drugs and praying to Jesus Christ, accusations which imply he runs the risk of being punished with the death penalty," the Vatican newspaper stated.

"The family says that the proofs of his use of drugs have been fabricated by the police, while it does not deny that Brian is a good Christian," the newspaper added.
[Full Story]

Diocese appeals Charities contraceptives case to US Supreme Court

Here is an update to California's Supreme Court decision about Catholic Charities being forced to provide contraceptive coverage in their employees health plans.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CNS) -- The Diocese of Sacramento will appeal a California Supreme Court decision holding that Catholic Charities of Sacramento is not a religious institution and as such must provide coverage of contraceptives for its workers.

Sacramento Bishop William K. Weigand announced June 1 that he will take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to overturn a March 1 decision by the state's highest court, which requires Catholic Charities and other church entities to pay for contraceptives as part of employee health insurance.

The 6-1 ruling said Catholic Charities of Sacramento may not be exempted from a 1999 state law that requires all employers to include contraceptives when they provide insurance coverage for prescriptions.
[Full Story]

Durbin Touts Pro-Catholic Record

In April, the Illinois Catholic was stunned by the public statements of a priest in his hometown of Springfield who said he would refuse to administer Holy Communion to the Democrat over his support for abortion rights.

Durbin's scorecard gave him an overall score of just over 60 percent in support of positions taken by the bishops. They covered a wide variety of issues including not only abortion but such other matters as immigration and housing.

Durbin's score was the second highest of the 24 Catholic senators whose records were analyzed.

Durbin's staff says the scorecard covered a total of 48 votes or actions senators have taken regarding 24 domestic and international issues in the current 108th Congress, and one from the previous Congress on the Iraqi War Resolution.
[Full Story]

That 40 percent includes voting against:
The Unborn Victim of Crime Bill
The Partial Birth Abortion ban
Condemning China for forced abortions and sterilizations.
Amendment to prohibit abortion coverage through the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) program.

Voted for.
Making the Morning After Pill available in public schools
Public funding of abortion on military bases.
Passing foreign spending bills without reference to abortion

Here is the statement he tried to add to the Partial Birth Abortion ban: "The decision of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113 (1973) was appropriate and secures an important constitutional right should not be overturned."

And here is his statement on Human cloning.

"This has enormous potential for good, There should be no limits on human knowledge, none whatever. To those like President Clinton who say we can't play God, I say OK, fine, you can take your side alongside Pope Paul V who in 1616 tried to stop Galileo, they accused Galileo of trying to play God too. [...] I don't think cloning is demeaning to human nature, to attempt to limit human knowledge is demeaning. It's not legitimate to try to stop cloning. What nonsense, what utter, utter nonsense to think we can hold up our hand and just say "stop". Cloning will continue, the human mind will continue to inquire into it. Human cloning will take place and it will take place in my lifetime, and I don't fear it at all. I want to be on the side of the Galileos and those who say the human mind has no limits, rather than trying to stop something that's going to happen anyway."

This scorecard was the one devised by Rep. Nick Lampson and I believe that the areas used to make it up have never been publicly released. WIth Sen Durbin having the second highest score you can be assured that the methodology is highly questionable. I wonder how Hitler would have scored. He built roads and infrastructure and reduced health care costs through euthanasia. Surely that must be worth 60 percent. The 40 percent anti-life part is trivial compared to this by their assessment.

The fact that the Senator and his staff our touting this record is amazing. This reminds of something that St. Therese of Lisieux said.

You cannot be half a saint. You must be a whole saint or no saint at all.

Update: Here is a PDF document of the scorecard used. And the methodology is such that Medicaid and the Mercury Exposure Act count just as much as the Partial Birth Abortion Ban and Human cloning. The areas where Catholic Democrats scored were areas that are not a direct part of Catholic teaching. Gun Control and the Minimum Wage and other such issues are not in themselves Catholic Teaching. I was glad at least that they labeled the one section pro-life, of course in the normal parlance of these same Senators they would use the words anti-choice.

Church's Ability to Evangelize Is Diminished

Here are Cardinal George's remarks during his Ad Limina visit to the Pope. This is an excellent overview of the Church in America and I especially found this line dead on.

Culturally, the right to sexual freedom is now the basis of personal freedom.

As they say, read the whole thing.

[Via Mark Shea]

Science Fiction Museum

The world's first Science Fiction Museum opens June 18 in Seattle under the auspices of billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. A cast of Sci-Fi heavy hitters populate the project's advisory board, including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ray Bradbury and Sir Arthur C. Clarke. The Museum shares space in an architectural flight of fancy by Frank Gehry that also houses the Allen-funded Experience Music Project at the base of the Space Needle.

Sounds interesting especially to me as an avid SF reader and all around geek. Well maybe I am not a total geek. I have never been to a SF conventions or owned a book of blueprints for the Enterprise. Though I have know those who have. I remember one guy in particular. He was in the same avionics shop where I worked. One day he told me the reason he liked being out at sea on a carrier was that it was the closest thing there was to living on a space ship.

My one brush with a SF author was meeting Frederik Pohl. He was doing an interview at a local ABC affiliate and afterwords my father volunteered to drive him to the airport. I went along and we had a nice conversation. At that time he had just published the first book in the excellent Gateway series.

Counter Protest

I find this picture from the March for Women's Lives Lies interesting. That these protesters would be concerned about people praying the Rosary to end abortion. Of course mainly this is a slam towards the Catholic Church. I am glad that so many people realize that it is the Catholic Church which is the main foe of the attitude and agenda of these marchers. Besides George Bush many of the signs also attacked the Holy Father.

Seeing this sign and these protesters only reminds me to pray a Rosary for these women and women like them. Probably not the reaction they intended, but I hope it is the reaction of many Catholics seeing this.

On a more humorous side. I can't think of any possible prayer position or circumstance where my Rosary might encounter their ovaries. In fact I don't want to imagine any such circumstances.

Jesus on Jesus

A reader pointed me to this Resurrection Crucifix at Emmaus Catholic Church in Lakeway , Texas. A friend of his had dubbed it "Mermaid Jesus."

It is rather odd and it looks like the cross is slowly sinking into the ground and that Jesus had to climb on top to avoid touching the ground.

In my own diocese in the two parishes closest to me, at one time had only resurrection Jesus'. Sometime after our new Bishop was installed these figures were retrofitted. In one Church you can see the outline of the previous embedded cross underneath the newer crucifix. In the other Church I believe they added a crucified Jesus onto the previous one. When they moved into the newer church I carried the presider chair over to the new location. I was curious to see the interior of the new Church. I was not a happy camper. Besides the now mandatory olympic sized font, the tabernacle was was placed off to the side behind some columns. The tabernacle at that time looked like it was made of Bakelite and very plain in a 1920s Bakelite look. They have since replaced the tabernacle with one that was much more fitting. I am pretty sure that the Crucified figure of Christ was added later and is shown in the picture below.

The newer crucifix creeps me out. Jesus being crucified on Jesus seems strange. St. Paul said "I am Crucified with Christ." In this case Christ is crucified with Christ. I normally don't go to either of these parishes since they really lay the contemporary music on with guitars, electric bass, drums, tambourines, maracas; and of course neither Church has an organ. To me this is liturgy set on stun.

Attached to one of the previously mentioned parishes is a new school building. At the front of the building in large letters is 2001 C.E. I almost tripped when I saw that. A Church school building using Common Era (C.E.) instead of Anno Domini (A.D.) is just bizarre.

Apostasy and Pelosi

Here is a letter from the head of Human Life International, Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer. [link via AMDG]

Dear Congresswoman Pelosi,

Thank you for clarifying for all U.S. Catholics the meaning of the word "apostasy." Your May 10 letter to Cardinal McCarrick qualifies for what the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines as the "total repudiation of the Christian faith" (§2089). That, by the way, is a document you may wish to consult before writing another letter to a prince of Christ's Church.

Not only did your letter manifest an utterly infantile understanding of the Catholic Faith-the Blessed Sacrament is properly called the Eucharist, not the "sacrament of holy communion," please-it was intellectually dishonest in the extreme. Your lip service paid to the teaching office of the bishops while knifing their authority in the back is a treachery that deserves the scathing contempt of every honest person, Catholic or otherwise.

You have lost your faith. Just admit it. One either accepts the hierarchy of truths and the hierarchy of authority, or she doesn't. You obviously don't. In such case by continuing to call yourself Catholic you are gambling with the most precious of all birthrights, your own soul; and it's yours to lose. I can understand that it is not politically correct to care about your immortal soul-prescription drug benefits are more popular in Washington-but at least have the decency not to make the souls of others "twice as fit for hell" as you. Have you forgotten about the millstone? The Lord delivered that image to another group of sophisticated public officials who scandalized the weak in faith.

All those who dare call themselves Catholic while shamelessly advocating the death of Christ's "least brethren" will not have the Supreme Court to appeal to on the Day of Judgment. There is a Supreme Judge that you should be more concerned about. However, He obliges no one to remain in the Catholic Church. Membership is, above all, a free "choice." The door of the Church that opens wide to welcome every repentant sinner swings both ways. In the Name of Jesus, use it and spare the rest of us your perversity.

I hold out hope that some day you will see the light and want to reconcile with the Church you have so brazenly betrayed. If so, call me. I will hear your confession. But get ready to do some serious penance.

This letter is a good remedy after reading statements from Bishop James Moynihan and Cardinal Keeler.

Update: Tom of Disputations has some thoughts on this letter. What I enjoy so much about Disputations is that it helps me to sometimes reflect deeper on a subject and to help me rethink what I might rant about. In this case I think his analysis is correct and my initial positive reaction was just a response to desiring something stronger than the normal weak and pandering language we often hear on the subject.

Not so quiet

William Luse of Apologia explains why he has been quiet lately and lets loose a post that defines categorization but demands reading.

Magnifikid!

Ellyn vonHuben of Oblique House posted about receiving some copies of MagnifiKid at work. This is done by the publishers of Magnifcat magazine which contains excellent articles, daily readings, and morning and night prayers. This new magazine was previously called My First Magnificat.

Magnifikid! is more than just a complete missal for children between the ages of seven and twelve. It is also a personal guide that invites them each week to make their lives a true spiritual adventure by following the example of Jesus Christ.

For parents, grandparents, godfathers and godmothers, or simply those who are close to a child, Magnifikid! is a wonderful gift that will help that child grow in faith.

Cross, Altar Could Be Removed From Nursing Home

JEFFERSON, Wis. -- A Jefferson County nursing home will have a hearing this week to discuss whether it should remove a cross and altar from its multipurpose room.

"This is a sensitive issue with many competing interests," Jefferson County Board Chairwoman Sharon Schmeling said of the religious items at the Countryside Home.

She said the home's trustees will not take any action on the issue at the hearing Thursday.

"Its goal is to provide maximum opportunity for public discussion so we have a sense of what the community wants its elected and appointed officials to do in this very delicate situation," she said.

The hearing was scheduled after a Jefferson man questioned whether Countryside's chapel should have religious symbols on a regular basis. The chapel, when opened up with an adjoining community meeting room, becomes a multipurpose room that often is used by the public.

"We have to balance the public's input with our legal obligations to the nursing home's residents," Schmeling said.

"They have a constitutional right to the free exercise of their religion and since they are unable to leave the nursing home, we have a legal obligation to provide them with the means to practice their faith," she said.

Jefferson resident John Foust said he was shocked when he attended a Feb. 10 mayoral forum at Countryside and saw the cross and altar behind the candidates.

"It made this public place feel like a Lutheran church," Foust said, questioning the situation under the separation of church and state called for under the Constitution's First Amendment.
[Full Story]

I wonder if we could sue some of our churches because they make you feel like you are in a public place. This part of the article really made me laugh "Jefferson man questioned whether Countryside's chapel should have religious symbols on a regular basis." Why should a chapel have religious items in it? Does this guy also complain that there is art in an art museum.

Comical cleric is sought

A JOKE-CRACKING Catholic priest is still needed to take part in the Liverpool Comedy Festival.

A Methodist minister, an Anglican vicar, a rabbi and leaders from the Hindu and Sikh faiths have all already agreed to take part in the stand-up contest.

The comical clerics will be swapping their sermons for side-splitting one-liners, to star in their very own show at the festival in July.

They will begin their six-week training tomorrow .

Gillian Miller, chair of organiser the Liverpool Comedy Trust, said: "There must be someone who has them rolling in the pews every Sunday."

* ANY Catholic priest who wants to take part should ring Gillian Miller on 0151-706 0555.
[Full Story]

Sounds like a job for a Ragemonkey.