Steve Kellmeyer makes some excellent points here. When the Mass was taken away from Christmas why should we be surprised that Christ is stripped also?

InsightScoop links to a video of Fr. Fessio and Fr. Martin on PBS's News hour. As you would expect Fr. Fessio accurately talks both about the document and Church teaching and Fr. Martin (America Magazine) is less accurate.

What Fr. Martin said was that the document would force seminaries to drop people who are already there. So I guess he is saying that some seminaries knowingly have seminarians who have deep-rooted homosexual tendencies and/or support the homosexual culture since this is what the document actually bars. He also goes on about the good and celibate heterosexual vs. good and celibate "gay" priest comparison and that people are born that way. Fr. Martin then went on to say that the document explicitly related the need for the document to the sexual abuse crisis. Obviously there is a causal link to this document, but the document in no way explicitly or even implicitly make any correlation to the abuse scandal and does not even address the subject at all.

I am sure that there are many like me who were already tired of the reactions to this document way before it even came out. I really wished it hadn't been published pretty much at the start of Advent, though I guess the typical reactions are pretty penitential. Though the distracters can at least be thankful that it wasn't published on Feb 21 - The feast day of St. Peter Damian.

I really don't like the terminology of "homosexual person" used by both this document and the Catechism. I think this wording plays into the whole homosexual orientation where their sexual attraction is almost put on the same level as their personhood. The Catechism does not talk about the adulterous, alcoholic, or the fornicating person. Personhood should not be equated with a fault and especially to a grave disorder. Terminology means something which is why it is problematic when Catholics throw around terms like sexual identity, gay, and orientation. Fr. Martin always used the word gay and talked about orientation, whereas Fr. Fessio used much better terminology.

Presenting the Politically Correct Eye Test where you can check your vision.

Holiday Tree	Christmas Tree
Fetus or tissue mass	Unborn Child
Cultural Hero	Murderous Thug
Delayed Success	Failing

Theoretically there are differences between each set of images since these images present a moral optical illusion based on a persons moral vision. If you selected one or more captions on the left then you might need contacts. That is contact with reality since you must be currently wearing ruse colored glasses.

The Master's Card.

Acknowledging a growing priest shortage in the Belleville Diocese, Bishop Edward K. Braxton has released a letter that says parishes may begin having "Sunday Celebrations" led by a deacon or layperson instead of a Mass celebrated by a priest.

The Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest rite can be used in emergency situations.

The rite may include reception of Holy Communion, which fulfills the Sunday obligation for parishioners. However, the Eucharistic Prayer, including the consecration at a regular Mass, is not part of this rite.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. A communion service does not fulfill the Sunday obligation. If a Mass in unavailable because of a lack of a priest the Sunday obligations is automatically dispensed. Saying otherwise is misleading. I would think for example if there is a parish that is reasonably close that does have a real Mass then going to a Communion service instead would be wrong, especially if the person knew they should go to the Mass instead. In this situation the Bishop is aware of this and it is just lousy reporting by the newspaper.

"According to the directions we have received from the Bishop, this won't be used that often," said the Rev. Mark Stec, a priest who serves four parishes in Southern Illinois. "The bishop must approve its use every time and its use will be very restricted. It will be used during an emergency situation only."

And then there is:

Ann Harter, a member of St. Luke's parish in Belleville and a member of the Fellowship of Southern Illinois Laity, believes the restrictions on who can be a priest has created the priest shortage and the need to implement Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest.

"The fact is, there aren't enough priests and the ones we have are stretched to the limit, but the church won't open its eyes to the wealth of highly qualified men and women eligible for ordination," Harter said. "The problem is, they will not consider the possibility of priests other than celibate males."

Even if Sunday services at her church were performed by a deacon or layperson instead of a priest, she would still attend, because she believes it's not the priest who makes the celebration, but the congregation.

Even odds she went to a Catholic school. Such bad theology unfortunately is all too common where so much emphasis was placed on the communal aspects and about zero on the sacramental aspects and the requirement of a priest to be able to offer a sacrifice.

"In my view, the people who are gathered there, ordained or not, are the ones who give the Eucharist its meaning," Harter said. "In my opinion, what makes the Eucharist the Eucharist is that the people gather and share."

Sorry the Eucharist is something more than just a meaning it is a sacramental reality and it is real whether the Mass is celebrated in private by a priest or within the context of the congregation. I wonder if she thinks that the more people there art that it then has more meaning it has. Wow those papal masses must have real meaning in her vocabulary.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 29 - The Catholic Church appears set to definitively drop the concept of limbo, the place where it has traditionally said children's souls go if they die before being baptised .
Limbo has been part of Catholic teaching since the 13th century and is depicted in paintings by artists such as Giotto and in important works of literature such as Dante's Divine Comedy.

But an international commission of Catholic theologians is meeting in the Vatican this week to draw up a new report for Pope Benedict XVI on thequestion. The report is widely expected to advise dropping it from Catholic teaching.
The pope made known his doubts about limbo in an interview published in 1984, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican's doctrinal department .

" Limbo has never been a defined truth of faith," he said. "Personally, speaking as a theologian and not as head of the Congregation, I would drop something that has always been only a theological hypothesis." According to Italian Vatican watchers, the reluctance of theologians to even use the word limbo was clear in the way the Vatican referred in its official statement to the question up for discussion. [Source][Via Zadok]

I guess the theological speculation of Limbo is now in Limbo. The question now is where do theological speculations go when they die?

A Catholic priest in Mesa has resigned as a pastor because of "aggressive anti-gay positions" coming from the pope in Rome and bishop in Phoenix.

The Rev. Leonard Walker, 58, who as pastor was chief executive of Queen of Peace church, is the first priest in the Phoenix Diocese to resign over church treatment of gay men, specifically a new Vatican document aimed at keeping gay men out of the priesthood.

Walker declined to disclose his sexual orientation, but he said he was no longer comfortable "wearing the uniform" of the priesthood.
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" It's like a Jew wearing a Nazi uniform," Walker said. "I could no longer stay in that institution with any amount of integrity."

His decision comes on the eve of the release of an instruction from the Vatican that limits entrance into seminaries primarily to heterosexual men. [Source]

And so it begins now that the document is officially out [PDF]. I don't want to see anybody leave the Church, but it is for the better for those who have internally already left the Church and are in positions of authority to admit the reality of their position until such time as they have repented. Much better than those who will act as saboteurs of Church teaching while in charge of the flock. The funny thing about what has been called a witch-hunt is that in this case the witches our outing themselves and I don't mean this is a derogative way to demean those with same sex attraction. The talk has been of inquisitions and purges, but it is the individuals that are resigning themselves. Once again they are only proving the need for the document when you have priests with SSA who obviously don't hold to Church teaching on homosexual activity in the first place. When you have a unreasonable reaction to what is really a very reasonable document you only prove the need for it. Especially since this is no hardening in Church position in any way and what he calls "aggressive anti-gay positions" is nothing different than what the Catechism basically says or any other documents in recent years.

This morning on the Laura Ingraham show Peggy Noonan was on to talk about her new book about our late Holy Father. I transribed it from my own recording of the show because I thought it was facinating some of the topics covered on national talk radio and how the suffering of our late Holy Father is still bearing fruit. The first part is on the war in Iraq but the second part was on John Paul II.

Growing numbers of educated Italian women are throwing away their high heels and lipstick and opting for the austere life of nuns in closed convents.

A surprising 550 women in Rome chose to withdraw to cloisters this year compared with 350 two years ago, it emerged at a conference organised by the Vicariate of Rome and Italy's Union of Mother Superiors (Usmi).

Most of the country's 7,500 cloistered nuns have traditionally come from regions such as the Marches, making the sudden rise in the city of la dolce vita even more surprising.

Until recently, most women entering closed convents in Rome were third world immigrants with little education. Now the recruits are all Italians with university degrees.

"They are realising that what the world has to offer to them is not all it is made out to be," said Sister Pieremilia Bertolin, the secretary general of Usmi.

"They are starting to reason with their heads and not just believing the messages advertising throws at them." [Source]

This is pretty interesting, though it should be no surprise. All the promises of a materialistic culture are always unkept and ultimately unsatisfying. Though it doesn't keep us from endlessly trying again that perhaps the next time it will work. We keep telling Rocky that this time we are going to pull that rabbit out of the hat.

I had been thinking recently about how we react to the reduced numbers of people answering to their vocations. Most progressives groups talk about this problem of the shortage of priests and and coming up with the solution of married and women priests. I have noticed though that there is never any talk about the shortage of those answering calls to the religious life. Priest in the U.S. are now at 73 percent of the level as 1965. Religious brothers and sisters are now at 35 percent of the 1965 level. [Source Data]. The bigger crisis really concerns religious life and yet all the talk is mainly focused on vocations to the priesthood. Religious life is open to both sexes and yet there is still a major decline. Unless you want to advocate for male sisters and female brothers for progressive argument consistency sake. Why has there been no call to open up religious life to the married to solve these problems? Or do they recognize that a married life would get in the way of those religious who are purely contemplatives? This is not to say that all of us can't become contemplatives cooperating with grace since we are all called to holiness, just that those with less distractions and more time for prayer can do more to hold up the Church. I had wondered why progressives seem to not be concerned about the decline in religious life and then I realized that we are all guilty of this to some extent. Think of a vocations program and we pretty much associate this with only priests and not for also those vocations to religious life, single life, and marriage. Contemplatives in many ways are the furnace that run the Church. We so easily forget that St. Terese is a patron saint of missionaries even though she lived a hidden life in a convent. We always focus so much on physical activity. We see the actions of priests via the sacraments, but do not recognize the effects of the prayers of those in religious life. Why do we not recognize the signs of decline in the Church without seeing that one of the reasons is the lack of the prayers holding it up? Of course not all orders are pure contemplatives, but the best ones are grounded in contemplation first. Blessed Mother Teresa has her order spending at least an hour each day before the Blessed Sacrament. She use to say that when she would get really busy she would have to then spend two hours instead.

There has always been a Martha/Mary dichotomy where we see Mary as doing nothing and not that she has chosen the best part. Secular life sees contemplative religious as a wasted life and we are in danger of doing the same. This is not to let ourselves off in praying for the Church. We can all do our part, but let us add prayers for an increase answering of the call to the religious life.

This year I decided to roll my own Advent Wreath graphic instead of just using the normal animated gif that I used previously (same as the one on Amy Welborn's blog). If you would like it for your own blog you can download the graphic to post on your own server space or you can use the html code below which uses some homepage server space that won't effect the bandwidth for my blog. I will replaced the graphic each week so that it correctly shows the number of candles that should be lit.

<img src="http://home.comcast.net/%7Ecurtjester/curtjester_advent.gif" width="170" height="189">

If you need the graphic at a smaller size use the following dimensions.

Being that this is the first Sunday of Advent I thought it might be useful to give some information about this season. Advent is a shortened form of the the word Advertisement, of course you probably already knew that. This time of year we get blasted by advertisements day and night to buy gifts and to attend sales. There are some groups that contend that Advertisement actually starts on Black Friday and that this is in fact the first day of the Celebration that merchandiser consider Good Friday. During the season of Advertisement we are suppose to be of good cheer for some amorphous reason that is never quite mentioned. Rumor has it that it all leads up to the event of some child born a while ago that takes place on Christmas Day. Who this child was is not important just that we should know that the season is all about family and buying stuff. During Advertisement people say Happy Holiday's to each other. The reason for this is that during this time Malls decorate with lots of Holly so people have considered this to be Holly days. There are also other joyful greetings like Season Greetings and 40 percent off. People spend time in thanks that they have not yet exceeded their credit limit and they might forget that they have a Savior, but they will remember the savings. During the season of Advertisement the days are still 24 hours but are measured in shopping days instead. It is also a tradition for this season to be some what penitential. Penances such as having to park in overflow parking two miles away from the mall are common. After Christmas comes Advertisementide. This is the ad season of after Christmas sales and even more discounts. Later on in the shopping season comes the season of Lent. This is because you have to get money lent to you to pay off your shopping bills.

There are also some customs associated with Advertisement such as the Advertisement Wreath. Each week you take all of your junk mail and roll it up and tighten it with a rubber band and place it in your Advertisement Wreath. The third week it is traditional to use advertisements from red tag sales. You can also make or order a Advertisement Calendar, though most calendars come advertisements this is a special edition where you mark off shopping days so you know when to panic when you haven't got everything on your list. So relax and have a happy Advertisement for whatever reason we are suppose to be sellebrating.

Washington, Nov. 15 - A leading Catholic cardinal is warning Catholic parents to be careful when buying iPods and other wireless devices as Christmas gifts because they could be used by minors to access pornography.

Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, who co-chairs the Religious Alliance Against Pornography, said iPods, PDAs and video cell phones can easily send and receive pornography, much of it unsolicited.

"Sadly, unwanted pornography often leads to wanted pornography," Keeler told members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Tuesday. [Source]

Well that is not quite technically accurate. There is currently no way that iPods and probably PDA's could receive unwanted media of any sort. In the case of iPods they would first have to put it into iTunes before they could upload it to a video iPod or graphics to a photo iPod. Plus these devices can not send media that is not already on the user's computer. PDAs also sync to a computer to get any media delivered to them. I haven't heard that unsolicited porn was being sent to cell phones either. Though parents should always be quite aware of the potential of any devices and how they can be abused, though in this case it would be willed abuse and nothing accidental.

"The technology itself is not dangerous, in fact technology in itself is good," Keeler said. "The danger lies in the fact that there are not safeguards or regulations in place to protect children or teens from being exposed to unwanted pornography."

Keeler spoke the same day that The Washington Post reported that users had downloaded 1 million images of naked models from one pornographic Web site within a week. The Post also reported that a wireless industry trade group is exploring rating standards to help prevent underage access to pornography.

Of course underage age access should be considered as anybody younger than say Methuselah.

Seminarian Bryan Jerabek sent me this photo of a Pope Benedict XVI ice statue in Oberhausen, western Germany made for the Ice and Snowstatue Festival.

This photo is worthy of some good captions so I will start off.

• How progressives view the Pope.
• I told you not to excommunicate Mr. Freeze.
• I think we need to fix the heater in the papal apartments.
• Vatican document on homosexuals in the seminaries meets very cold reception.
• Cold and chill, bless the Lord. Ice and snow, bless the Lord -- Daniel.

SYCAMORE - In an effort designed to benefit any Catholic, regardless of the amount of Catholic education one has received, the parish of St. Mary's Church of Sycamore has joined the Rockford Catholic diocese in the “Why Catholic?” faith series.

“Why Catholic?” is a four-part faith program designed to help adults connect the teachings of the Catholic faith to their everyday life.

While the program is geared toward practicing and nonpracticing Catholics, program co-coordinator Jim Fitzgerald said the series also welcomes those considering adopting Catholicism as their faith.

Fitzgerald said that even though he was born and raised Catholic and attended four years of Catholic grade school and Catholic high school, he doesn't know or understand his faith as much as he would like to. “Why Catholic?” will allow him to do so.

Too bad his statement is not an exception. Getting a Catholic education while attending a Catholic school seems to be what is the exception.

The four-part program will kick off the 2006 Lenten season. According to the pastor of the parish of St. Mary's, Father Frank John Timar, M.S.C., this is the perfect liturgical season to start.

“It's a great time because we are more reflective of our faith during the Lenten season,” Timar said. “It's all about getting back to basics. We'll ask, ‘What does my faith ask of me?' and, almost more importantly, ‘What is it that I believe in?' ”

In addition to a way to strengthen faith, the program is seen by some members as a great way to involve their family in the faith.

“We desire to have a deeper knowledge of our faith and gain more wisdom so that we, along with the Church, can guide our children, family and friends into a better understanding of what it means to be Catholic,” Terry and Andrea McGuire said. [Source]

Sounds like a pretty solid idea especially since it appears they will be using the catechism as the grounding point. I recently saw another great idea in parish evangelism. This church had a rack by the door as you exit that had a variety of free CDs. It included talks by Scott Hahn and others. This is a great idea and much better than the majority of pamphlets you will find sitting in a rack. A good talk especially by people such as Scott Hahn can help people to go deeper into their faith and helped to point the way for them to explore further.

I have seen several reports around the blogs on Tom Cruise and his buying an ultrasound machine.

Walters then asked him, "So what do you see?" and he answered "a little baby."

I think that the ultrasound machine is the Rorschach test for the Culture of Death. Some can look at the ultrasound picture and see a baby, while others can see a tissue mass. Though this isn't consistent. Some can see a baby at one time while seeing a fetus at another. This seems to be contingent on the element of wantedness. Just the right amount of wantedness and the picture automatically transforms from just a tissue to a baby with no adjustment of the controls required. Of course NARAL which once called the 3D ultrasound a weapon, because people can't handle the truth (yes mandatory Tom Cruise movie tie in).

An article at The Fact Is relating to no fault divorce and the Macfarlane's. This article shows that what the state first legally allows must next be psychologically accepted or else you will be punished. That no fault divorce is not just a law but is also now a psychological fact. Strange how their would be a massive outcry if there was ever no fault laws with regards to consumer products or malpractice that the law would not be allowed to stand. But pass a law that destroys families and erodes a basic building block of society you can cue the crickets instead.

A Wing and a Prayer inflicted the Gospel verse birthday meme on me where you find the verse in the four Gospels based on your birth date.

Matthew 10:10 "no bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor a staff; for the laborer deserves his food. "

Mark 10:10 "And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter."

Luke 10:10 "But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, "

John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

Well I guess the message is "Whenever you enter a town - and in the house - the laborer deserves his food - abundantly" Wow just in time for Thanksgiving! So I will pass this on to Jumping Without a Chute since he has been meme free.

Amazingly I have actually not commented on the new document from the Congregation for Catholic Education concerning seminary admissions up until today. Nor have I blogged on all the rumors of what the document first said one day and then another. I was going to try the novel approach in St. Blogs and write about it when it actually came out. Being though that it appears that the leaked text this time is the real thing I will give my take.

[Tentative and very unofficial English translation]
Unofficial translation from Italian by Robert Mickens, THE TABLET
This text was received by the Italian news agency, ADISTA

This document will solve all the problems in the seminary. The Church especially in recent times has been real faithful to documents published by the Vatican. Remember how after Ex Cordia Ecclesia was published and the Catholic universities fired the theologians who didn't sign the mandatum? Remember how liturgical abuses stopped after Redemptionis Sacramentum was published? Remember here in the U.S. how pro-abortion speakers stopped being invited at Catholic institutions after Catholics in Political Life was issued?

Wait, it didn't happen quite like that. As Dale Price once posted this document will gather dust in a filling cabinet sitting next to Ex Cordia Ecclesia.

The document though does seem to go along what I would consider prudent guidelines. I am not a big fan of zero tolerance programs for the most part. They seem to be in effect zero-prudence programs where every situation is considered the same and injustices can easily result in this approach. Though I can understand how sometimes a zero tolerance approach might be prudent to correct situations that have totally run amok. If the document had been a zero tolerance statement for those who have had some level of Same Sex Attraction in the past I think that would have been a mistake since it would really only bind those who were faithful to the Church in the first place. Those involved in seminary admission who might actually be able to discern and to prudently determine if a candidate to the priesthood who was had previously has some level of SSA was now a good candidate would be barred from making that decision. Those involved in seminary admission who were mushy in the first placed on the Church's teaching on homosexuality probably wont give a darn about this new document anyway.

Does anybody actually believe that if this document had been issued over a year ago that Cardinal Mahony would then not have ordained the openly homosexual Eric Stolz to the deaconate? The new document affects not only seminary admission but those being admitted into Holy Orders. Just as after Redemptionis Sacramentum was published Cardinal Mahony surveyed the liturgical landscape and determined there were no liturgical abuses to correct in his diocese. With the new document it appears the Cardinal has taken the same approach as Captain Renault in Casablanca: "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"

Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, "has said over and over that he chooses potential priests by focusing on their ability to lead a holy, chaste life and the ability to lead other people closer to Jesus," archdiocese spokesman Tod Tamberg says.

"The seminary application process should treat all people and their gifts distinctly, with no variation based on orientation," he said.

When a diocese has no problems using some homosexual activist charged words such as "orientation" you just know that a new document isn't going to change things much. Too many in Church leadership seem to have no problem using the terms as defined by homosexual activism. For example the president of the USCSB Bishop Skylstad recently wrote about "gay orientation", "witch hunts" and "gay bashing." Respect for persons who have SSA does not flow from the usage of terms that primarily identify them by their disordered sexual desires. True respect for these persons is not to diminish that fact that active homosexual acts are gravely disordered. The document of course makes the correct distinctions.

As regards to deep-seated homosexual tendencies, which are present in a certain number of men and women, these also are objectively disordered and are often a trial for such people. They must be accepted with respect and sensitivity; every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfil God’s will in their lives and to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter.

The new document will give new emphasis on admissions criteria and will have some positive effect for those less recalcitrant and more faithful to Church teaching. I think it is a sad statement that such a document even needed to be issued. To me it seems to be the theological equivalent of telling someone not to cross the street into traffic. To have to mention the fact that those candidates with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" should not be admitted should not even be necessary.

Of course homosexual activists will not be pleased in any way. They especially won't like the part about not displaying homosexual tendencies for three years prior to dioconal Ordination. Especially since the party line is that there are born with it and that nothing can change it. If they were honest with their position they would see this as a total bar. Those who believe that anybody that has ever had some level of SSA should be prohibited will also not be pleased. Though by doing this they would seem to agree in principle with what homosexual activists says about the permanence of homosexual identification. I believe through groups such as Courage that some of those those suffering with SSA can have their level of SSA reduced or totally overcome. Some percent might not ever totally overcome this, but can still live chaste and holy lives. The Church does call this a disorder and disorders can be overcome.

How effectively seminary rectors and others can discern "deep seated homosexual tendencies" in candidates is of course up to question. Psychological tests can only go so far. The document also mentions the real problem of candidates lying their way through.

It would be gravely dishonest for a candidate to hide his own homosexuality, regardless of everything, to arrive at ordination. Such an inauthentic attitude does not correspond to the spirit of truth, loyalty, and availability that must characterise the personality of one who considers himself called to serve Christ and his Church in the ministerial priesthood.

In our culture where pro-homosexual apologetics is surrounding us 24/7 it is so much harder for those with SSA to admit that homosexual acts are gravely disordered. So much easier to see themselves as being unfairly persecuted by the Church and coming up with excuses why it would be alright to lie to get into the priesthood.

I seems that this document has been coming out for the last two years and the repeated rounds of news stories has really been tiring. It will only get worse. If only other documents issued by the Church would get this type of attention. Our previous Pope's encyclical s deserved this level of attention and not a document issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education. Where will be the news stories about our Holy Father's first encyclical due on December 8th? Sure it will get a little blip, but will be largely ignored if "controversial topics" are not covered.

Amy Welborn has a great post on the subject today that covers various points.

...Oh, and word to the self-identified "gay priests" who are all over NPR today. To right off the bat self-identify as "gay" is to indicate, pretty clearly, that something else other than Christ is at the center of your life. If your priest got up in the pulpit and proclaimed "I am a heterosexual priest," wouldn't you go, uh...okay. Wouldn't it indicate to you that something besides devotion to Christ and His Church was the lodestar, the guiding and motivating force in that guy's life? This is not about denying and repressing our sexual natures, blah, blah, blah. Here's what celibacy is supposed to be: it's supposed to be a life of eschatological witness, an extreme sign of what, in the end, we are called to be, and will be in the fullness of the Kingdom: for God alone...

As David Morrison noted before these self-identified "gay priests" are only proving the point of the problem. He also posted some other thoughts about self-identified "gay priests" here.

The article below (that I post each year) shows that the first Thanksgiving was actually celebrated in St. Augustine, Florida on September 8, 1565. This was the first community act of religion in the first permanent European settlement in the land and it also included both Spanish and natives. This article originally appeared in my diocese magazine. I am just sparing you looking through the pdf file for it.

When on September 8, 1565 Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and his 800 Spanish settlers founded the settlement of St. Augustine in La Florida, the landing party celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving, and, afterward, Menéndez laid out a meal to which he invited as guests the native Seloy tribe who occupied the site.

The celebrant of the Mass was St. Augustine’s first pastor, Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, and the feast day in the church calendar was that of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. What exactly the Seloy natives thought of those strange liturgical proceedings we do not know, except that, in his personal chronicle, Father Lopez wrote that “the Indians imitated all they saw done.”

What was the meal that followed? Again we do not know. But, from our knowledge of what the Spaniards had on board their five ships, we can surmise that it was cocido, a stew made from salted pork and garbanzo beans, laced with garlic seasoning, and accompanied by hard sea biscuits and red wine. If it happened that the Seloy contributed to the meal from their own food stores, fresh or smoked, then the menu could have included as well: turkey,venison, and gopher tortoise; seafood such as mullet, drum, and sea catfish; maize (corn),beans and squash.

What is important historically about that liturgy and meal was stated by me in a 1965 book entitled The Cross in the Sand: “It was the first community act of religion and thanksgiving in the first permanent [European] settlement in the land.” The keyword in that sentence was “permanent.” Numerous thanksgivings for a safe voyage and landing had been made before in Florida, by such explorers as Juan Ponce de León, in 1513 and 1521, Pánfilo de Narváez in 1528, Hernando de Soto in 1529, Father Luis Cáncer de Barbastro in 1549, and Tristán de Luna in 1559. Indeed French Calvinists (Huguenots) who came to the St. Johns River with Jean Ribault in 1562 and René de Laudonnière in 1564 similarly offered prayers of thanksgiving for their safe arrivals. But all of those ventures, Catholic and Calvinist, failed to put down permanent roots.

St. Augustine’s ceremonies were important historically in that they took place in what would develop into a permanently occupied European city, North America’s first. They were important culturally as well in that the religious observance was accompanied by a communal meal, to which Spaniards and natives alike were invited. The thanksgiving at St. Augustine, celebrated 56 years before the Puritan-Pilgrim thanksgiving at Plymouth Plantation (Massachusetts), did not, however, become the origin of a national annual tradition, as Plymouth would. The reason is that, as the maxim holds, it is the victors who write the histories.

During the 18th and 19th centuries British forces won out over those of Spain and France for mastery over the continent. Thus, British observances, such as the annual reenactment of the Pilgrims’ harvest festival in 1621, became a national practice and holiday in the new United States, and over time obliterated knowledge of the prior Spanish experiences in Florida, particularly at St. Augustine. Indeed, as the Pilgrims’ legend grew, people of Anglo-American descent in New England came to believe that Plymouth was the first European settlement in the country and that no other Europeans were here before the arrival of the Mayflower– beliefs that are still widespread in that region.

In recent years, Jamestown, Virginia has enjoyed some success in persuading its Anglo-American cousins in Plymouth that it was founded in 1607, thirteen years before the Pilgrims’ arrival, and that there were regular ship schedules from England to Jamestown before the Mayflower’s voyage of 1620. Furthermore, Berkeley Plantation near Charles City, Virginia, has convincingly demonstrated that it conducted a thanksgiving ceremony on December 4, 1619, nearly two years before the festival at Plymouth. Thought to have been on Berkeley’s menu were oysters, shad, rockfish, and perch. Along the old Spanish borderlands provinces from Florida to California an occasional voice is heard asserting that this site or that was the first permanent Spanish settlement in the United States – a claim often made in Santa Fe, New Mexico which was founded in 1610 – or that it was the place where the first thanksgiving took place. An example of the latter claim appeared last year in the New York Times, which, while recounting the colonizing expedition of Juan de Oñate from Mexico City into what became New Mexico, stated that celebrations of Oñate’s party in 1598 “are considered [the Times did not say by whom] the United States’ first Thanksgiving.”

The historical fact remains that St. Augustine’s thanksgiving not only came earlier; it was the first to take place in a permanent settlement. The Ancient City deserves national notice for that distinction.

Perhaps most of New England is now willing to concede as much, though that was not the case in November 1985, when an Associated Press reporter built a short Thanksgiving Day story around my aforesaid sentence of 20 years before in The Cross in the Sand. When his story appeared in Boston and other papers, New England went into shock. WBZ-TV in Boston interviewed me live by satellite for its 6:00 p.m. regional news
program.

The newsman told me that all of Massachusetts was “freaked out,” and that, as he spoke, “the Selectmen of Plymouth are holding an emergency meeting to contend with this new information that there were Spaniards in Florida before there were Englishmen in Massachusetts.”

I replied, “Fine. And you can tell them for me that, by the time the Pilgrims came to Plymouth, St. Augustine was up for urban renewal.”

The somewhat rattled chairman of the Selectmen was quoted as saying: “I hate to take the wind out of the professor’s sails, but there were no turkeys running around in Florida in the 1500s. But there may be a few loose ones down there now at the University of Florida.” So there! Within a few days of the tempest a reporter from the Boston Globe called to tell me that throughout Massachusetts I had become known as “The Grinch Who Stole Thanksgiving.” Well, let’s hope that everyone up north has settled down now. And let’s enjoy all our Thanksgivings whenever and wherever they first began.

Dr. Michael V. Gannon is a Distinguished Service Professor of History at the University of Florida. He has had a long interest in the early Spanish missions of Florida about which he has written extensively. Two of his books, Rebel Bishop (1964) and The Cross in the Sand (1965) treat of the early history of this state.

With Thanksgiving fast approaching and Advent right on its heels it is time for the annual posts and reactions about the whole "Merry Christmas" greetings controversy. With store clerks and fellow employees confused about the greeting protocol that is to be accepted people are using the most generic terms possible for fear of offending. With stores such as Wal-Mart ordering there employees to use "Happy Holidays" we need something to help reduce the fear of simply saying "Merry Christmas."

I propose a Holiday Greeting EULA. This End-User License Agreement could be worn on your clothes so as to be easily seen by others.

Of course there should be a EULA for those who don't want this greeting.

And why is it that Seasons Greetings is only used during Christmas? Why not year long? Why are we discriminating against the other seasons?

(AgapePress) - A Virginia congregation says it has left the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) -- and the pastor of that congregation fears his former bishop may take retaliatory action against the parish.

South Riding Church is the first parish to leave the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia after two years of conflict over ECUSA's ordination of an openly homosexual bishop in New Hampshire. But Pastor Phil Ashey says his problems with the Episcopal Church run much deeper than its approval of Bishop V. Gene Robinson.

"Really the issue of Robinson's consecration and the blessing of same-sex unions is simply the presenting issue of a deep, deep disease in the Episcopal Church and its leadership," Ashey explains, "which is the abandonment of Holy Scripture as the basis for what we believe."

I do wonder how an Episcopal bishop tells a church that splits that schism is a bad thing?

Though I do think this can be all explained by the theory of Ecclesial-refractive half-life. This is the measure of the tendency of churches to "decay" or "disintegrate" after splitting from the Catholic Church. The Ecclesial-refractive half-life is a defined as the time it takes for half of the members of a congregation to to move to new churches or to start their own. The decay time is dependent on a number of external stimuli. For example some churches have a relatively long half-life if they are more closely wedded to a nation such as the majority of Orthodox churches. Your local neighborhood "Bible church" non-congregation congregation might have a half-life measured in days or months. Half-life's have a tendency to increase in frequency as time goes on.

The basic unit of measure for describing the activity (Ecclesial-refractivity) of a quantity of ecclesial structure is the curia (not curie, but the Maria part still holds) or the measure of magisterial fidelity to Christ's Church. Since the gates of Hell will never prevail against the Church the curia formula is 1C = 1 X ∞. Now the Church has infinite Mass as prophesied by Malachi "For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts." Though even with the infinite Mass of the Church there are other effects that can strip an individual from the one true Church. For example free will caused the first Adam to split causing a new clear expulsion. In fact the the Garden of Eden was wiped out.

Sometimes members of the Church (the elect or electon) when excited by more active liturgies will jump from an orbit close to the nucleus of the Church to orbits farther away. This usually happens due to a weak catechesis field. The electon moving away from the nucleus is normally done in good faith where they believe they are actually moving closer to the nucleus which is the Body of Christ - the Church. This is one of the effects of ecclesial relativity where an observer within the Church can see an individual that is trying to move forward but is actually moving farther away. This would present a problem if grace was not all pervasive and not slowed by any barrier except free will. You can tell when you are actually moving closer to the nucleus of the Church when the effects of Mass increases. The distance and energy it takes an electon to move from a lower to higher orbit is known as a Tiber. Sometimes an electon can be excited by effects such as church history causing it to make the leap. Surprisingly sometimes even Gene Therapy has been know to move electons across the Tiber. Gene Robinson has in fact caused some electons to make the jump.

Unfortunately there are many effects that can strip an electon from the nucleus such as ecclesial decay within the Church, scandals, and the bad example of Catholics. When an lower orbit electon can discern no discernable effect of Christ on a Catholic it can cause an increase of repulsion from the Church making to harder to obtain a closer orbit. Just as in trigonometry sin can be a problem and even acute if you go off on a tangent from God. Sin is the inverse measure of closeness to God and is reciprocal to holiness. The area of mathematics as related to sin is called Baalean Algebra.

Fortunately there is a mathematical formula to help us all to maintain an orbit as close to Jesus as possible. This formula is known as the Mathnificat.

My Will = Your Will

As simple as this formula appears it must be continually solved each day to keep our orbits close to Christ. Otherwise it can result in the total decay of our orbit resulting in an orbituary.

Note: If you want a more accurate mathematical and theological related posts go here instead.

For those coming from Jimmy Akin.Org the Vatican credit card parody is here.

A German brothel owner is planning to build his own multi-denominational church.

Bert Wollersheim, 54, who has over 50 prostitutes working for him, plans to preach from the pulpit himself.

Wollersheim, one of Germany's best known pimps, wants to speak out against fanaticism.

He said: "I want it to be a place for Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and every other religion. That is my biggest dream."

He added he had no problem reconciling the sex industry with religion and often threw charity events in his brothel.

"You can work as whatever you want. What is important is to be honest and fair," he said. [Via CletusHuckleberry.com]

Proving that there is not anything new under the sun. Paganism with temple prostitution already went down that road and their treatment of women helped many women to see the truth in Christianity at the time. Though this might work as a method to get more men to go to church it would obviously be counter-productive with the possibility of going to Hell while going to church.

Beijing (AsiaNews) - “China is still afraid of religious freedom,” a bishop of the underground Church told AsiaNews commenting on the fact that, as of this morning, Chinese media have yet to mention Bush’s participation in yesterday’s liturgical services at the Protestant church in Gangwashi.

“In the preceding days,” the bishop went on to say, “Chinese media said that the American president would have visited a Protestant church. But this morning, Chinese newspapers made reference neither to his church visit nor to his insistence on human rights.”

...The government is increasingly nervous about the growing cooperation between human right activists and religious personalities. The Party’s fear is that religious communities will become the milieu for channelling social discontent. [...][Source][Via Vatican Watcher]

I am not quite sure why the Chinese are worried about religious freedom. All they have to do is look around the world and see that religious freedom does not necessarily lead to the toppling of governments or even that much pressure in leading to reform. Once they allowed religious freedom what they will have is a bunch of competing churches with different messages and emphasis, not some monolithic block pressuring for reform. Unfortunately there is no real unity in Christian churches and thus any possibility of what the Chinese government fears is not going to happen. If they are worried about pressure on their one child policy they don't have much to worry about. Most will just see it as a necessary evil. Your really don't see much of an outcry here in the U.S. about this policy. There are many population apologists willing to look the other way in regards to forced abortions. With standards of living increasing in China leading to more demands for material goods they will also become more materialistic in seeing larger families as burdensome and getting in the way of obtaining material goods. Religious freedom leads to government secularism not theocracies.

From Fr. Tucker.

Some people are making a lot of noise about how disruptive such changes will be. Perhaps. But what I think we're seeing is mainly the nostalgic response of older people, for whom the current translations have become "traditional" -- even if that tradition goes no further back than a few decades. Maybe they can petition Rome for a special Indult by virtue of which Mass can be said (oh, maybe, in one church in each Province) according to the current translation, for the sake of those who are nostalgic for "And also with you." Perhaps Rome might even promote Bishop Trautman, and bring him to Rome to oversee the "And also with you" Indult?

Ha! Great idea if it actually followed the model of the Tridentine indult of being fairly rare or nonexistent in most diocese. It would be great fun telling those who liked the 60's ICEL translation that they were just pining for an old-fashioned liturgy. That they are resistant to change and just want the Mass they grew up with. That they are not being open-minded in accepting adaptations to the liturgy and accommodating to progress. To top it off you could tell them that if they really want the old translation they can go to a Mass 200 miles away offered at 6 in the morning once a month during leap years in mausoleum chapel at a Catholic cemetery.

Though I wonder what are the real arguments for retaining a inaccurate translation? So far they seem to fall mainly along the changes being disruptive and that people are use to the current one. It seems many liturgist severely underestimate the laity. In their view they are always being confused by something. For example some liturgists suggested that the tabernacle be removed behind the altar so that people would not be confused between Christ sacramentally present in the tabernacle and Christ becoming sacramentally present during the consecration. As if people were blowing up like Star Trek robots in the pews. Or that the communal meal aspect of the Eucharist must be promoted over the sacrificial aspect so as to not confuse people. Yet somehow they expect people get the deep nuance of liturgical dancers and how it relates yet they're too stupid to understand various levels of Christ being present. That we can't understand that when we go back to the "I believe" that we can't understand that the recitation of the Nicene Creed is both a personal and a communal affirmation of the faith.

You would think with as many times that Catholic bring up the whole "it not either/or but both/and" that we just might realize the truth of that statement. Though as a side I must admit to being bored by the term both/and. Can't we just come up with our own word and get it over with. How about boand?

Though maybe to accommodate those who like the less accurate translation we can print Interlinear Study Missals. That is with the new and better translation on one side of the page and the inferior one on the other. So at any time they can translate the text more in line with the official Latin texts with the more agenda driven texts of the ICEL translation.

Now as for the tongue-in-cheek suggestion by Fr. Tucker about giving Bishop Trautman a position in the Vatican to promote the "And also with you" Indult I have some other ideas. In line with Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks, why can't we set up curial positions to assign some bishops and cardinals to? Bishop Trautman could head the Congregation of Unnecessary Liturgical Changes, Cardinal Mahony "Not so Divine Worship and the Lack of Discipline of the Sacraments" or possibly the "Department for Neglect of Vocations." Though maybe with his experience of presiding over liturgical dance the "Ministry of Silly Walks" would truly be in order. There probably are several U.S. Bishops that could be assigned to the "Congregation for giving out stones instead of bread." And with all the emphasis on disordered sex education promoted within the USCCB there must be some that could be in charge of some curial position on sex education. Though what would you call it? Talking about Touching wouldn't fit. How about "I'm curia yellow."

Looks like Clayton took on an penance in advance of Advent.

Kelly Clarke has memed me with the Confiteor Meme.

I confess to listening to System of a Down while reading Cardinal Ratzinger's Introduction to Christianity.

I also confess to thinking "If this is only a introduction I am either incredibly dense or he is incredibly smart." while reading the same book.

I confess to playing a recorded tape of my son crying into the baby monitor to see the expression on my wife's face when she rushed upstairs only to see a sleeping baby.

I confess to never completing a novena that I have started. I am an expert at the three day novena 1st, 2nd, and 9th day.

I confess to having six cats with one of them named after a character in the anime series Inuyasha.

I confess to being a blog addict. The number of RSS links that I track is around 300 and it is a rare day that I don't read the ones that were updated. Maybe I should check myself into the Betty Ford clinic for Blog Addiction.

I remember once laughing at a co-worker who said he liked being on aircraft carriers because it was the closest thing to living on a spaceship while at the same time agreeing with him.

I confess to skipping school to go watch a Marx Brothers movie.

I confess that I once thought that the lyrics to John Lennon's Imagine was the height of philosophical enlightenment.

I confess to mistreating my G.I. Joes as a kid and am sure that I violated the Geneva code in multiple ways.

I confess to being annoyed that my statue of St. Thomas Aquinas appears to be after he went on a Slim Fast plan.

I also confess to being tempted to use a black marker to color in the blonde hair used for Jesus on a large crucifix in our living room. I prefer a more Jewish looking Jesus.

I confess to great joy when wearing my Pope Benedict XVI shirt around town.

I hereby pass the meme to Albertus Minimus, Speculative Catholic, and Recta Ratio.

Democrat Mike Blouin, known for his anti-abortion views, told The Associated Press that if he is elected governor, he will not support any new restrictions on abortion.

The abortion issue has taken on a higher profile in the 2006 Iowa gubernatorial campaign because of the recent nominations to the Supreme Court. President Bush's conservative nominees fueled speculation that the 1973 decision could be overturned.

"Regardless of the U.S. Supreme Court's future actions regarding Roe v. Wade, I would not sign any legislation to further restrict or expand access to abortion in Iowa," said Blouin, the state's former economic development director and a former congressman from eastern Iowa.

While Blouin said his beliefs are "at the very heart of who I am as a person, I also understand that our laws must be acceptable to and enforceable within society."

Among the five current Democrats seeking their party's gubernatorial nomination, Blouin was the only one to hold anti-abortion views. The others are pro-choice, though they have in the past supported minor restrictions.

This is just so tiring an mind-numbing. Exactly how would signing a bill put forward by the democratically elected legislature be not acceptable within society? Or that he is basically saying that he would veto any legislation the put restrictions on abortion be in any way in accord with "at the very heart of who I am as a person."

"I believe from the very core of my being in a culture of life - the dignity of all life," said Blouin.

But I will do nothing about protecting the dignity of life. But at least some people are pleased.

Judy Rutledge, of Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa, found Blouin's position interesting: "It might help some with the issue. I've never heard him make that statement before."

The reaction from anti-abortion forces was swift and predictable.

That's funny I thought the action from Planned Parenthood was swift and predictable. But then again what is wrong with predictability or swiftness in answering? Do we really expect pro-life groups to come out in favor of pro-abortion positions or for pro-abortion types to come out against abortion?

"As a Democrat and a Catholic, my position on this issue has been consistent throughout my life in public service," he said. [Source]

Faith without work is dead except I guess if you have a consistent position.

Taiwanese card issuer The Chinese Bank has introduced a new affinity card in conjunction with the Chinese Regional Bishops' Conference, according to the Taipei Times newspaper.

The newspaper reported that the bank will issue 100,000 cards, to be called the True Happiness Affinity Card, with maximum credit limits of NT$10 million ($297,397 USD).

One-quarter of one percent of a customer's spend will be paid to the bishops' conference for charity work.

"This credit card is not only for Catholics or those who believe in Jesus," Chen Kun-chen, secretary general of the bishops' conference, was quoted as saying.

"Everybody can help to spread love regardless of their religion." [Source]

Cool idea. I really wish the Vatican would get behind an idea like this. What could be more POD than a Vatican Credit Card? In fact I will even offer an advertising campaign free of charge. How would you like to see a credit card offer like this?

Funny contrast at Benedictus qui venit. Thanks to the reader who sent me the link.

Here is a tongue-in-cheek article by Matthew T. Mehan In Praise of Gold Diggers. My post title comes from his article.

Katelyn Sills has updated her blog with information about her dismissal. She has released a series of emails between her mother and Sr. Helen. These are the emails as to which the charges for dismissal were based on that supposedly displayed "threats," "abuse," and other "malicious" behavior toward members of the Loretto community. I have read through the whole series of emails and it really becomes difficult to understand the schools decision as other than irrational.

Dear Mrs. Sills,
You threatened me in an email. You will not be permitted on this campus. No assistance is needed to arrive at Shadow Day.
Sr. Helen

She asked for clarification as to when she was threatened and refereed back to a previous email. It appears that this was suppose to be the threat.

For if Loretto and the Diocese deem it acceptable to employ an aggressive, openly, pro-abortion teacher, all families, including ours, deserve to know of your decision before subjecting our daughters to such an unsafe environment.

So after three weeks of the school stonewalling and not doing anything about the teacher and part time abortion-escort the mother "threatened" to tell other parents about this. This can only be perceived as a threat if you want to cover something up and do not want it to be exposed.

Some response from Sister Barbara were especially surreal.

"Just because a person volunteers at Planned Parenthood does not necessarily mean they support abortion,"

and

"Mrs. Sills, you would be very surprised if you knew the number of Catholics who receive services at Planned Parenthood"

Those replies must have been especially maddening and they are just bizarre. Last I knew contraceptives were also against Church teaching. Besides the job of a abortion escort is not to help old ladies across the street, but to act as cheerleaders for those women seeking abortions.

If these series of emails are truly what lead the administration to first ban her mother from the school grounds and then to dismiss her then I don't see how they will have a leg to stand on if they go to court.

The school has treated Ms. Bain much nicer than they have treated the family of one of their students. The school said "Ms. Bain has graciously" agreed not to pursue legal action. Real gracious after receiving a bribe in a payout not to. Help mothers murder their children - get a payout. Complain about an abortion escort being employed at a Catholic school - why of course get dismissed and slandered.

Updated: Removed section on what I misconstrued as the being the schools initial good response which was actually what the mother expected the reaction to be.

In a interview via AMDG.

In an interview published Saturday by Inside the Vatican, the Cardinal [Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments], somewhat exasperatedly, responded once again to the question. In the interview he compared the situation to a person in favour of killing politicians and asked rhetorically if such a person should be denied communion. He said: Suppose somebody voted for the killing of all the members of the House of Representatives, 'for all of you being killed. I call that pro-choice. Moreover, I am going to receive Holy Communion next Sunday.' Then you ask me, should he be given communion. My reply, 'Do you really need a cardinal from the Vatican to answer that question?' Can a child having made his First Communion not answer that question? Is it really so complicated? The child will give the correct answer immediately, unless he is conditioned by political correctness. It is a pity, cardinals have to be asked such questions."

This is because the bishops as a whole commit the sin of commision. The sin of commision is instead of making the common sense and theologically correct decision they instead create a commision. Have you ever heard of the members of a commision that were martyred for their faith? Neither have I and I doubt if I will see it any time soon.

The sin of commision leads to silliness like:

McCarrick plans to seek advice on this at meetings with Catholic Democrats and Republicans this week who were recommended by their local bishops. [Source]

Maybe I am dense, but I don't see what needs to be investigated and how Cardinal McCarrick's commision could just go on and on without ever coming to a definitive conclusion. The main question seems to me to be do you care enough about a public sinner that you withhold Communion out of care for their soul? Sure there are prudential questions about taking actions that appear to be political. But which is more important someone's soul or appearances? Secondly what about the scandal caused by those openly in defiance of the Church and in objectively grave sin receiving Communion? It seems to me as priories go the pastorally sensitive questions are totally outweighed by points one and two. But then again I am only an armchair bishop.

Cardinal Arinze's example reminds me of a question someone on Mark Shea's blog asked a bit of time ago.

IF SOME POLITICIAN favored a law which authorized the beheading and dismemberment of a very moderate number of Catholic bishops ~ annually ~ would the bishops say "...but where does he stand on tax reform"?"

The answer to which I wrote in my post Every Bishop a Wanted Bishop.

A school has been attacked for offering pregnancy tests to girls as young as 11 - without telling their parents it was setting up the scheme.

The initiative is intended to reduce teenage pregnancies in the surrounding area, which has one of the highest rates in Britain. [Source][Via Jay Anderson]

Has a time machine recently been invented?

Jimmy Akin in a post Marriages Not Made in Heaven notes an atheist dating service.

Well at least they won't have rubbish like "soul mate" on that site. Which reminds me can atheists in good conscience listen to soul music?

Single man randomly generated from the primordial soup seeks woman also randomly generated from the primordial soup who shares the same disbeliefs.

In the presence of over-arching nothingness and these our friends I take thee to be my husband/wife, promising unto myself and the universe with no meaning to assert meaning and to be unto thee a loving and lack-of-faith-ful husband/wife in this institution created by humans so long as we both shall exist.

I think Freethinker's Match needs a patron saint and so I nominate former atheist St. Teresa Benedicata of the Cross for them.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago noted that a long-standing division between bishops who prefer standard American English and those who want a literal rending of Latin has become more complex. Some bishops on both sides have realized that the current English text is more familiar and meaningful to many Catholics than the centuries-old Latin text once was, he said.

Since the above isn't in quote text I assume the reporter translated whatever the Cardinal said into gibberish since there is no plan to go back to Latin only, but only to reform the English translation.

"There are those who have been quite critical of the present translation, but who are now saying that we don't want to disturb the people, especially in the situation of weakened episcopal authority we have now," he said, referring to distrust of bishops who failed to remove child molesters from the priesthood.

Exactly how does a more faithful translation disturb the people? Wouldn't a more accurate translation of the Word of God be nothing but be a benefit. And exactly why was it okay to "disturb the people" with all the changes made in the sixties and it is wrong to make corrections now? Not working towards valid reform demonstrates a weakening of episcopal authority and not the opposite. If you can't get the laity to accept better scriptural translations then what would be a better example of weakening authority?

Conference president Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., spoke of different credibility issues related to the scandal. While surveys show that 90 percent of priests love the priesthood and more than 90 percent of parishioners say parish priests do a good job, bishops fare less well. Priests fear that bishops will remove innocent priests.

And the laity fear that they will not remove guilty ones. I bet "bishops fare less well" is quite an understatement. Most of the anger has not been directed at fallen priests, but at those who facilitated their behavior by playing the diocese version of musical chairs. Of course priests have a valid concern about false accusations in the current climate. I remember while in the military after the Tailhook scandal and the endless sexual harassment training that there was great fear of being falsely accused by those who saw this as an easy way to retaliate against a supervisor they didn't like.

Some bishops, including Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, chairman of the bishops' Committee on Liturgy, believe the changes are clunky and obscure. For instance, in the Nicene Creed, "one in being with the father" would be replaced with "consubstantial with the father." [Source]

Wee Catlicks are 2 dum to lrn more precise theological terms. When Bishop Trautman was voted in for the bishops' Committee on Liturgy we knew that we would get more of the same. The very bishop who has been sending off letters arguing with the Vatican about the Holy See reserving the right to appoint members to ICEL and as to whether the text even needed to be reformed. This of course is no surprise since as chairman of the BCL he was responsible during the years of massive revisions of scriptural and liturgical texts. It is hard to see the problems in your own handiwork.

Update: Mark Brumley has a more substantial take on the same article.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While the official Anglican-Roman Catholic ecumenical dialogue continues, questions have arisen regarding the potential impact on the dialogue of Roman Catholics or Anglicans who switch communities.

While Anglicans -- especially Anglican bishops or priests -- becoming Roman Catholic after disagreeing with their community's stands on ordaining women or openly gay men has made news, the movement of Catholic priests and laity to Anglicanism seldom makes headlines.

Bishop John Flack, head of the Anglican Center in Rome, said he meets people moving in both directions, yet the ecumenical dialogue has not explored the implications of their movement.

"We are not talking about huge numbers in either direction, but it is perhaps a constant trickle," he told Catholic News Service Nov. 9.

Among those changing denominations, the Roman Catholics generally say they long to breathe the "free air" of the Anglican Communion, with Catholic priests usually saying they plan to marry, the bishop said. The Anglicans usually say they have had enough of the "woolly thinking" of their leadership, he added.

"Anglicans who become Roman Catholic generally become very conservative Roman Catholics, while Roman Catholics who become Anglican tend to become very liberal Anglicans," he said. [Source]

The last paragraph is not exactly a surprise.

Great news! Over half of American Catholics are already saints. [Via Roman Catholic Blog]

... A 2003 survey of over 1,000 Catholics, conducted by sociologists James Davidson and Dean Hoge, indicates that while 46 percent of Catholics celebrate Reconciliation once a year or more, 53 percent never or almost never do. In addition, only 38 percent of Catholics say that private Confession to a priest is “essential to [their] vision of being Catholic.”

In a 2001 article in Commonweal magazine Boston College historian James O’Toole wrote: “We seem to be in the process of reducing the number of sacraments from seven to six—by default.” A closer look at the “most endangered sacrament” reveals that, though there are signs of hope, this trend isn’t likely to reverse itself anytime soon.

Most endangered sacrament? Well this sacrament has been getting the silent treatment. Silence from the Bishops, pulpits, CCDs, etc. If people went to the hospital and found that the emergency room was only open on Saturdays between 5 and 5:30 pm you know there would be an outcry. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is truly the emergency room for those in mortal sin. They have been pronounced dead in their relationship with God and are revived and restored to life. Flat lined to grace and restored to a healthy pulse. Sure they always say "or by appointment", but doesn't making an appointment somewhat remove the canonical right to anonymous confession? And what about all of us suffering from the cuts and bruises due to our venial sins? Sorry clinic hours are limited.

... Catholics born after Vatican II have never experienced the long Saturday lines at parish confessionals. Most are likely to have experienced Reconciliation as part of an Advent or Lenten communal penance service followed by individual Confessions, which comprises the vast majority of Reconciliation celebrations today.

Since my parish has confession before all Masses I would dispute the claim that people never experienced long lines. I suspect that other parishes that have frequent confession also have long lines.

While some Catholics may shy away from the sacrament for fear of confessing their sins to another person, an informal survey shows that a sense of sin and a sense of right and wrong is still alive and well in the hearts of minds of many Catholics.

When asked if they thought of themselves as sinners, many answered quite bluntly.

“Yes. I am a sinner,” says Manuel Gonzales, 37, of Los Angeles. “If we don’t see ourselves as sinners, we are in denial.”

It is very easy to just acknowledge that we are sinners. If someone is severely sick and they agree that they are sick, but don't go to a doctor then their idea of sickness is not very well developed.

Jose Torres, 43, of Norman, Oklahoma, says he will only receive Communion if he has gone to Reconciliation beforehand.

“I need to be free of sin before I receive Christ and the Eucharist,” Torres says. “If I go [to Communion] with sin, I commit a double sin, and I don’t want that.”

Though people can also err in the opposite direction. If you are not in mortal sin your venial sins are removed via the Mass. "blots out venial sins, and wards off mortal sins." Pope Innocent III

“Until there is a new kind of religious consensus formed, revival is going to be very difficult,” says James O’Toole. “It won’t happen until there is a replacement for the cultural supports Catholics have had in the past.”

In other words, it may be a long time, if ever, before Reconciliation can be removed from the top of the “endangered sacrament” list

Fr. Bryce Sibley is now podcasting weekly. Here is the subscription link and the regular link. [Via RC at Catholic Light]

Take and eat ... Yummy Chocolate!

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* cross-posted at Spero News.

Interesting article from a dad writing about his son's school having a condom club where they are given free food and a condom 12-pack each week. Now no one will be surprised that this is Berkeley High School. What I found interesting was the father was kind of scandalized by this development, though it was a very low-level outrage. The fathers attitude drips with the very permissiveness that leads to condom clubs in the first place.

For example he was more surprised by the number of condoms given more than the fact that the school was supplying them in the first place.

Where did they come up with the number 12?

Twelve condoms a week! I don't know sex workers who need that many condoms. Certainly none of my middle-age friends need 12 condoms a week. High school students do?

Well obviously the even dozen was to not hurt the precious self-esteem of students. This prevents the student from having to exaggerate the quantity he needs each week by requesting them individually or to admit that he still has leftovers from the previous week.

I was stewing over the Condom Club for a few weeks when I finally got the nerve to ask my son whether he joined. "No, dad, I didn't." I wasn't sure whether to be glad or sad, since I didn't have the nerve to ask him whether he's having sex.

I just told him that his teachers are right: When he does finally have sex, he must wear a condom.

When I tried to demonstrate how to use one, he stopped me and, shaking his head, said, "Dad, they taught us in sixth grade."

Oh. You never mentioned it.

Then I told him one other thing. I told him if he ever needs 12 condoms in a week, he'll be a very happy young man.

Great advice for a high school freshman that you are to measure happiness by the number of condoms you use.

We don't know how these women got pregnant.

Daniel Vitz in a post on the "Return of the St. Louis Jesuits" links to an article about their reunion and (gasp) new album.

There are some wonderful songs for funerals, some for prayers, and some that are rock-sounding. There's something for everyone." Vocals will be handled by all four and a chorus; instrumentation will be mostly piano and guitar but augmented with some bass, flutes, drums, oboes, and strings.

Something for everyone? Maybe in this case I am the exception that proves the rule. Though I think there might be a lot of exceptions are there in St. Blogs and the St. Louis Jesuits certainly don't rule dude!

In their heyday, the St. Louis Jesuits were a sort of religious equivalent of the Beatles, although they never toured or performed concerts. Instead, they conducted liturgical music workshops and spoke at conferences. This surprised some people.

Where's Yoko Ono when you need her?

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI expressed his hopes that a new English translation of the Mass prayers would be completed soon.

Writing to members of the Vox Clara Committee, a Vatican-appointed commission of English-speaking bishops, the pope said the new translation from Latin will allow the English-speaking faithful around the world to "benefit from the use of liturgical texts accurately rendered."

Seven of the 12 bishops on the Vox Clara Committee met Nov. 8-10 at the Vatican. The committee was established in 2001 to help the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments evaluate English translations of liturgical texts submitted to the Vatican for approval.

The pope said he was confident that with Vox Clara's assistance "the translation of the 'Missale Romanum' (the Roman Missal) into English will succeed in transmitting the treasures of the faith and the liturgical tradition in the specific context of a devout and reverent eucharistic celebration." [Source]

Speculative Catholic continues to amuse: Anti-Catholic Bingo.

I just visited James White's site and filled my card. What do I win?

"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." -- G.K. Chesterton.

Verse 1: Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

Verse 2: O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walked'st on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

Verse 3: Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

Verse 4: O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe'er they go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

And tossing a sailor's dixie cup hat to the other miltary branches here are some alternate verses.

Lord, guard and guide the men who fly
Through the great spaces in the sky.
Be with them always in the air,
In darkening storms or sunlight fair;
Oh, hear us when we lift our prayer,
For those in peril in the air!

Eternal Father, grant, we pray,
To all Marines, both night and day,
The courage, honor, strength, and skill
Their land to serve, thy law fulfill;
Be thou the shield forevermore
From every peril to the Corps.

Eternal Father, Lord of hosts,
Watch o'er the men who guard our coasts.
Protect them from the raging seas
And give them light and life and peace.
Grant them from thy great throne above
The shield and shelter of thy love.

God of all Nations! Sovereign Lord!
In Thy dread name we draw the sword,
We lift the Starry Flag on high,
That fills with light our stormy sky.

The Loretto High School drama teacher fired last month for volunteering at a Planned Parenthood clinic has reached a settlement with the Catholic all-girls school, attorneys for the teacher and school said Friday.

Marie Bain of Sacramento, who alleged last week that her termination was a case of religious and sexual discrimination and a violation of free speech rights, will receive compensation from the school, but neither side would disclose how much.

Bain and Loretto administrators said they hoped the settlement would end a controversy that has ensnared the school since Bishop William K. Weigand ordered Bain’s firing in October. Weigand said Bain’s affiliation with the clinic set a poor example for students.

As part of the agreement, Bain said she would not file suit against Weigand, the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento or others involved in her dismissal. Bain had not actually filed any lawsuit, but in lodging complaints with state labor agencies had taken preliminary steps. [Source]

Well that is about par for the course. A women who who lead other women into an abortuary to have their child killed gets compensated for it by the school. I wonder if the insurance company is part of the payoff or whether this will be used from the tuition? Judging from a distance at how the school has treated the whole situation obviously there heart was not in any kind of battle - unless it is against a faithful Catholic mother and her daughter. “For Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Obviously it was more important to avoid a lawsuit then defending their right to fire somebody because of grave scandal. The whole thing about religious des crimination is ridiculous since this would mean that an individual's religious beliefs can trump the schools religious belief. She would contend that she has the right to act on her religious beliefs, but that the diocese could not act on theirs.

I do wonder if the school had fired a Nazi concentration camp guard if they also would have received compensation?

Darwin at Darwin Catholic writes:

Folks, it's time for me to come out against torture. Some would say that my sins mean that I deserve what I'm getting, but as sure as there is a God in heaven, this retribution is too much.

Here I was spending a few idle moments at work reading over the Gather Us In parodies at the Society for a Moratorium on the Music of Marty Haugen and David Haas and now I cannot get the tune of Gather Us In out of my head. For two days now.

Do I need an exorcism? A vacation? A drink? What will make it stop?

I suggested that an exorcism should do the trick. Simply repeat:

"The Power of Chant compels you."
"The Power of Chant compels you."
"The Power of Chant compels you."

We were warned about such things by Jesus. "where their earworm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." Gather Us In is definitely a case that requires prayer and fasting from insipid lyrics. If only it was as simple as driving a stake through a Gather hymnal or liberally dousing an OCP hymnal with Holy Water. Though such things are better left to the professional exorcists. I have seen too many layman lulled to sleep by modern hymns which are part of the lethargical year.

Last Thursday here in Jacksonville my wife and I attended a talk given by Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio on the Eucharist. It was fairly well attended and the same parish is attempting to bring in speakers quarterly. They got off to a good start because Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio is an excellent speaker. Like most good speakers he blends humor, personal stories, and the meat of subject (meat of the subject is pretty appropriate for a discussion on the Eucharist).

Being that the Eucharist is an infinite mystery you can always get more out of any talk on the subject even when familiar ground is covered. It is always surprising on a subject of how you will have previously missed something that then suddenly looms large when you look at it from another angle or emphasis. One thing that he mentioned that I had not previously known is that the term "Real Presence" arose out of Anglicanism and was used to contrast with others that maintain that the Body and Blood are present only figuratively or symbolically.

Dwight Longenecker has an in depth article on the history of the term and some valid concerns about its widespread adoption.

Marcellino D'Ambrosio talk covered the basics about the Eucharist and also went in to some more in depth discussion on the subject. I just love a talk where terms like "accidents" and "substance" are discussed. Which I guess can be considered red meat for Catholics when it comes to a proper understanding of transubstantiation. The second part of his talk on on Christ's presence in the Mass and getting more out of it. The talks came from his series Feast of Faith and the second talk focused on how we can properly digest the Eucharist and to be both more prepared for reception and allowing it to transform our lives.

If you get a chance to attend one of his talks I would strongly encourage you to go. Marcellino D'Ambrosio also appears on EWTN and Catholic Answers Live. In fact he was on Catholic Answers last Friday and you can listen to it [Real Audio] [MP3]

I got a chance to talk to him shortly during the break. He had wrote me previously promoting his excellent site The Crossroad Initiative and told me to introduce myself when he came to town. He wrote me today and now I have some concerns that he might need his eyesight checked.

Thanks so much for coming to my recent talks at Assumption parish in Jacksonville and for taking the time to come up to the book table and say hi! You look younger than I would have expected seeing as your bio says you have two adult kids!

Thanks so much for your internet apostolate—I appreciate your humor and your passion for the faith!

Flattery will get you far with me since my ego is such an easy target to hit.

Men in Serbia are lining up to have electric shocks delivered to their testicles as part of a new contraceptive treatment.

Serbian fertility expert Dr Sava Bojovic, who runs one of the clinics offering the service, said the small electric shock makes men temporarily infertile by stunning their sperm into a state of immobility.

He said: "We attach electrodes to either side of the testicles and send low electricity currents flowing through them.

"This stuns the sperm, effectively putting them to sleep for up to 10 days, which means couples can have sex without fear of getting pregnant.

"The method does not kill the sperm permanently and it does not affect the patient's health."

Dr Bojovic added patients were now lining up at his fertility clinic in Novi Banovci for the shock treatment, as it had none of the problems attached to using condoms, the male pill or having a vasectomy.

He added: "We are hoping to have a small battery powered version on sale in the shops in time for Xmas." [Source]

Cletus Huckleberry who sent me this link comments.

Something tells me that, unlike the pill and other popular methods of birth control, testicle shocking won't foster a great deal of dissent from Church teaching.

Cletus, however, thinks this is how contraception really ought to be: A frighteningly absurd act so obviously contrary to nature that no man in his right mind would ever consider doing it.

I am with Cletus on this and that this is symbolic of how contraception should really be. Something more closely evident that we are doing something wrong and separating ourselves from God. Though regardless of the appearance and side effects it will not deter many. The pill has many serious side effects that if they were connected with any other drug would have been banned by now. Even if every condom sold was lubricated with pepper spray it probably would not deter use much as you might think. Children are now seen as the greatest possible side effect that outweigh any others.

On a less serious note would someone remark that they have "stunning sperm?" What if the charge was too high and instead of stunning it resulted in death - could the manufacturer be charged with testicular homicide? Or would it be considered unmanned slaughter. What in the world are they going to call this product and how will the advertise it. A catchy name like Nutzap with Great Balls of Fire as the jingle - A little zap will do ya? Would repeated zaps cause a man to be irritable and testis?

New York University's plans for a 26-story dormitory on a site formerly owned by the Roman Catholic Church could potentially violate deed restrictions placed on the property by the Archdiocese of New York.

The restrictions prohibit future inhabitants - in this case, students - from offering advice on family planning or getting abortions, or pinning up posters to that effect.

The dorm for 700 students would be built on the current site of St. Ann's Church and Rectory, on East 12th Street between Third and Fourth avenues. The deed signed in December 2004 between the Roman Catholic Church of St. Ann and the dorm's developer, Hudson Companies, contains several restrictions on the property's use, including a ban on "performing any abortions or providing any professional counseling or advice advocating abortions or family planning." It also prohibits signs or other advertising relating to abortions or family planning.

Moral deed restrictions are common in real estate transactions involving religious buildings, in part to avoid the embarrassment of a religious building being developed into something incongruous, such as a church on Sixth Avenue in Chelsea that was turned into a nightclub, once called the Limelight.

An attorney with Beckman, Lieberman & Barandes, Michael Beckman, said the restrictions most likely were designed to prevent the building from becoming an abortion clinic or home to an abortion advocacy group. But he said it is conceivable that regular dorm activities could come into conflict with the restrictions. Mr. Beckman said that, in his view, a sign posted in the dorm announcing a meeting that used the words "family planning" or "abortion" would violate the deed. He said a family-planning meeting or conference, or a class that advocated abortion over other options, would also potentially be in violation.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, Joseph Swilling, helps clear things up.

Mr. Swilling would not say whether NYU would then be permitted to provide any professional counseling or advice advocating abortion, or any signage advertising it. He said the deed restrictions were common in real estate transactions involving the Archdiocese.

About par for diocesan spokesman - you are usually left more confused after they issue any kind of clarifying statement. If diocesan spokesman got to pick their own mottos it would be "Through a glass darkly."

(November 10, 2005) — Eli Futerman has met presidents of the United States, prime ministers of Israel and a smattering of U.S. senators. On Wednesday he met Pope Benedict XVI.

As his 17-year-old son said, "That's really cool."

"My son really said it best," Futerman said via telephone from Rome. "I never imagined as a Jewish boy growing up in Brighton that I would meet the pope."

Futerman, president of the Jewish Community Federation of Greater Rochester, and Rabbi Alan Katz of Temple Sinai had front-row seats for Wednesday's Mass at the Vatican, and they shook hands with the Holy Father.

Futerman and Katz were there as part of a delegation of Rochester-area Jews and Catholics who are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, a Vatican document that urges Catholics not to discriminate against people of other faiths.

"You hear a lot of stories about interfaith relationships, and this was seeing it up close," said Futerman, who thanked the pope for his interfaith work.

The 20-member group is spending the week in Rome, touring sites that are important to both faiths and discussing what can be done locally to strengthen ties between the two religions. Already, Rochester Jews and Catholics have signed an agreement of understanding, a copy of which was taken to Rome with the group.

When Jane Napier saw that the pope was heading over to where the group was sitting, she turned to Isobel Goldman and said, "Hand me the agreement."

"He was coming down the line of people, and I said, 'Nostra Aetate.' His eyes shot right at me, and that's when he grabbed my hand and the document," said Napier, who also had a rosary in her hand. "He understood."

More than 25,000 people — from several continents — joined the Rochester group in the majestic setting of St. Peter's Square. A small band from Germany played and dancers from Africa performed under a bright, sunny sky.

The sermon was from the Book of Exodus, "which was especially appropriate for our group," said Goldman, director of community relations at the Jewish Federation. "It was an amazing, amazing morning." (Source)

... and other funny news stories from the wit of Maureen Martin.

Andrew at Shrine of the Holy Whapping reports more about what the leader of the Traditional Anglican Communion recently said.

We have no doctrinal differences with Rome which would keep us from being in full communion with each other. The climate is brewing for the Traditional Anglican Communion to be the 27th ecclesial group accepted into communion with Rome and the first church touched by the Reformation to do so.

How can this be true? Especially after the progressive prophet Gene Robinson recently said:

Bishop Robinson said: "We are seeing so many Roman Catholics joining the church.

"Pope Ratzinger may be the best thing that ever happened to the Episcopal Church."

Well to give him his due maybe he was being prophetic like the High Priest Kaifa when he said, “it is better that one man die and the whole people
do not perish.” They both had no idea that the actual truth of the their words had nothing to do with what they meant.

Truly Pope Benedict may be the best thing that ever happened to the Episcopal Church if his papacy provides an example for more to cross the Tiber. Though Gene Robinson is doing his part to remind those swimmers that when they see Bishop Robinson on the bank of the river that turning back is not an option. Then-Cardinal Ratzinger in his book "Introduction to Christianity" when talking about the Monarchians and Modalists that there arguments helped to lead to a correct conception of God and said in this case even "error was fruitful." Here's to hoping the errors of Gene Robinson and others will be fruitful, especially in regards to Church unity.

Do the majority of people in California have children? If they do then I would wonder why they defeated Proposition 73 a proposed constitutional amendment that would require doctors to notify parents or guardians when a minor seeks an abortion. "What did you do today? Oh and if you had an abortion and had our grandchild killed don't tell me about it." Or do they just think this might happen only with other people's children? If they are so permissive on abortion then why would they have a problem with their daughter telling them first?

Now you might make the argument that they are for the autonomy of the individual and that the individual gets to decide. You could make that argument if they hadn't also voted against a proposition that would have allowed union members not to have their dues go towards political contributions without their permission.

Though maybe the silver lining is that Proposition 73 was only narrowly defeated. The amendment though also "Defines abortion as causing "death of the unborn child, a child conceived but not yet born."" Maybe that was what killed it off. While the wording isn't very strong, it might have been an uncomfortable truth. "The emperor has clothes on I tell you and don't dare make me think otherwise." How insensitive the writers of the amendment were using child instead of fetus and daring to associate the word death with child. "We totally support abortion, but please don't words that more accurately describe what happens. Ignorance is bliss. Bliss me father for we have not sinned."

I come upon a new way to revitalize your prayer life. One that I have not found in reading the lives of the saints or even from the preeminent Doctors of the Church when it comes to the prayer life -- St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. Mostly my prayer life instead of wondering at the supreme mysteries of God and faith instead wandered into the vapid concerns of everyday life. Sure I have heard that just trying to pray is prayer and not to worry about distractions. But considering the number of distractions while praying I decided to try another tact.

Now what I try to do each day is to set aside some time to be distracted. To do this each and every day even if I am not in the mode to be distracted. I now prepare myself each day by first turning on the TV to set up my time of disquiet. I then read some upsetting news and I am just about all set. I then start busying myself with mundane worries. Subsequently I am all prepared for my time of deep distraction with thoughts flying to and fro colliding with each other and concentrating on first one distraction one minute and then another. While working and trying to be deeply distracted I would then be interrupted by prayer. When I would notice my mind had wandered into prayer I would then concentrate and try to go back to being distracted, but it was no use prayer just kept getting in the way and I was just unable to stay distracted. Instead of miseries, mysteries popped into my head. Instead of the benign, the divine.

I call this the way of distraction. I had figured if I had been interrupted by distractions while praying that I would be interrupted by prayer while trying to be distracted. Now you might not be the master of the distracted life as I am, but just keep at it. After all the whole world is working to help you to achieve the distracted life. From what I have read I know there are a lot of you out there who are already deep into the distracted life. I have been thinking of setting up "distracted groups" that could get together to help each other out in the distracted life. Or maybe I will write about called The Interior Cubicle all about the levels of distraction. There are seven basic levels of distraction and maybe I can help people out by detailing the signs and effects of each level of the distracted life so that they can see which cubicle they are currently in. Though I would warn people not to think they are superior because they are in a higher cubicle of the distracted life than others.

Now on a more serious note I would point you to this post on the subject of distractions by one of my favorite bloggers Steven Riddle.

Congratulations to now-Father Seraphim Beshoner TOR on his ordination on Saturday.

A reader who blogs at AdoroTeDevote sent me a link to the following story.

Minnesota churches will soon see a sign of protest in collection plates.

Gay Catholics and their supporters plan to mark their donations to send a message to let the church know who exactly is giving them their money. Cash donations will be marked with a pink triangle around the pyramid on the back, while checks will have a notation in the memo field.

“If you want our money, then support us,” says parishioner Tom Degree. “They need to know how much they are receiving from GLBT congregants.”

Degree and others are concerned about several positions the Catholic church has taken recently, such as banning gay priests.

“I think that’s a bright idea,” says Rachel Dykosky. “I think they should let them know where the money is coming from. The church needs to know who is supporting them.”

Others think the protest is too political, and doesn’t belong in church. “It’s incomprehensible to me that they would do that. I don’t see any logic in it,” says Florence Pope.

Degree thinks the search for marked money will be similar to the church’s search for gay members in seminaries.

“This is gay money,” degree says. “If you don’t feel comfortable taking it, throw it away.”

My first reaction is shouldn't they be using three dollar bills? Besides if the Church had a problem taking money from sinners we wouldn't need collection baskets. The underlying thing I notice about protests by "Gay Catholics" is that the activism is not in any way Catholic. For example we have rainbow sashes, people receiving Communion and then spitting it out, and now this pink triangle money tactic. So the Church is suppose to abandon 2000 years of both scripture and Apostolic tradition and guidance by the Holy Spirit because somebody marks up money with a felt pen? The use of the triangle is fairly ironic considering that it is also a symbol of the Trinity. Though I guess you are going to substitute your opinion with the Holy Trinity it makes a certain sense. If you are going to say that the Church that Jesus founded has been wrong about something so basic for two-thousand years and has been teaching very severe error, I guess it takes the infamous narcissism of the homosexual culture to do just that. It is no coincidence that many homosexual events include the word pride in them.

Now if you truly believe that the Catholic Church is the one true Church and yet believe that the Church is wrong about homosexual acts then wouldn't you be holding prayer services instead. How about prayer and fasting and encouraging others to join in. Threatening not to tithe or to disrupt the Mass is just profoundly un-Catholic. The Church must change because I don't want to! Jesus welcomes everybody - just ignore those passage about repentance first and the possibility of going to Hell and sheep and goats, etc. Just ignore those passages condemning homosexuality - after all 10 out of 10 active homosexual exegetes find they don't mean what they plainly mean. Oh by the way as part of a package deal you will have to drop the dogma on contraception also since homosexual sex is always contraceptive. Be fruity and don't multiply.

In a new sign of improving relations between the Vatican and China, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony has just returned from China, where he met with Catholic church and government officials and publicly celebrated Mass in a parish church in Shanghai.

Mahony, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Los Angeles, said this week that he was "very optimistic" that diplomatic ties between the church and Beijing would be established, opening a new chapter in a long and sometimes difficult history in church-state relations. Mahony's low-key journey was not announced in advance because of what archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg called diplomatic sensitivities. Although Mahony described the tour as a private sabbatical, he said he is preparing a report of his findings for the Vatican. [Source] [Via Vatican Watcher]

Reading the article I could almost imagine in it Cardinal Mahony declaring that his diocese has joined the Patriotic Catholic church in China. After all they would not have to make many if any changes. The Patriotic church does not come under the authority of the Pope. Between liturgical wackiness, ordaining an openly homosexual deacon, trying to make pastoral associates the equal of priests, heterodox conferences, known dissenters in the diocesan magazine - I think you could make a pretty good case that there is not much difference between the Patriotic Catholic church in China and the L.A. Diocese. Faithful Catholics in L.A. don't come close to the level of persecution as the underground church in China, but their beliefs are not exactly met with open arms by many in that diocese.

When I first saw mention of the book "Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living" I wasn't much attracted to it. The title kind of put me off. But after one of the authors John Zmirak wrote me publicizing the book I took a look at the website. and was impressed by some of the reviews from people such as Fr. Rutler. So I ordered it from Amazon and gave it a shot.

I am certainly glad I did since it was an extremely fun read. Imagine the Marx Brothers mixed up with Butler's Lives of Saints and a Betty Crocker cook book combined together and then add a dab of apologetics. They go through the liturgical year picking out some of the regular feasts and those of some of the saints with some of the more whacky pious stories attached to them. Added at the end of most of these stories are recommended ways to celebrate the feast a long with appropriate recipes to go along with them. The writing is not for the overly pious and faint-of-heart. It is purposely over-the-top to good effect, though not in any way sacrilegious. There are also short essays on the sacraments that take a more serious tone for the most part and are actually pretty informative. Throughout the book there are interesting pieces of information along with hysterical takes on things.

So while at times I learned some interesting facts about the lives of the saints mostly I laughed out loud while reading it. For example "Some skeptics have asked 'If Jesus was Jewish, how comes he has a Puerto Rican name?' " So if you enjoy my sense of humor I can pretty much guarantee you will like this book. In fact I an rather annoyed that I didn't write it instead.

SecretAgentMan writes another brilliant essay. This time on the euthanasia bill in Canada.

BRIDGEPORT — For months, parishioners of Holy Trinity Church prayed they were beating the odds. They held potluck suppers. They hosted bazaars and tag sales.

In short, they raised lots of money — enough, they hoped, to keep their struggling Black Rock parish alive.

But worshipers at what is believed to be the oldest Hungarian Byzantine parish on the East Coast said they were devastated by the announcement last Sunday that the church was closing. But what happened next, they said, was unconscionable.

Moments after the announcement was made, armed guards emerged from the sacristies to escort worshipers from their spiritual home.

When she saw the guards, "I felt like I was in a Communist country," said JoAnn Manzo, one of the startled parishioners. [Source]

How in the world can you think that this would be a good idea?

Good introductory article on conscience which is an outtake from a new book from Ignatius Press called Sex and the Marriage Covenant by John F. Kippley.

MANILA-Roman Catholics seeking heavenly intercession can now text message the Virgin Mary from their mobile phones.

"Text Mary" allows users to send prayers via Short Message Service (SMS), which are then relayed to churches. Priests read the prayers during Mass.

The new service, introduced by local business Naimar Management Inc. under contract to churches, costs 2.5 pesos (5 yen) per prayer.

The service capitalizes on both Filipino's religious ardor and their zeal for text messaging.

About 100 million SMS messages are sent in the Philippines every day-roughly twice the world average [Source]

Whenever I IM Mary I just keep getting "Do wutevA he tells U" back. Though the internet is much like the Communion of Saints. Each saint has an I.P. address - Intercessory Prayer. Though there is never any packet loss and messaging is truly instant. Of course Christ being the head of the Mystical Body in this case also acts as the backbone for messaging in the Communion of Saints. Though I do wonder when we ask the Old Testament Saints to pray for us if it goes over Esthernet.

Jean Heimann at Catholic Fire posted in regards to her Frappr map.

I originally posted a map to find out where you are all from a few days ago and no one was on the map but me. I felt bad and deleted it, so please sign up this time. I probably didn't have it posted correctly, but I do now, so let me know where you're from, ok? The map is on the right side of my blog under Colleen Hammond. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you!

I am putting this in large red print because people told me they didn't see it on before and I want to be sure they don't miss it this time.

I can sympathize, years ago I posted a guest map.

My guestmap looks like what would happen if the liberal churches, radical-feminists and animal-rights activists achieved their goals. There is only one person in the guestmap world, and the guy in Canada came with the guestmap. If no one else adds to it I will have to start populating it with my invisible friends and multiple personalities.

She has been blogging steadily again and her blog is well worth a reading especially this entry.

"If I'm the nominee, Republicans will be sorry," said Biden, a Roman Catholic who ran for president in 1988. "The next Republican that tells me I'm not religious I'm going to shove my rosary beads down their throat." [Source]

The question is not whether he is religious or not. The question would be as a Catholic is he faithful to the teachings of the Church or not. A 17 percent pro-life voting record and support for same-sex marriage doesn't exactly point to faithfulness. Hopefully me might find another use for his Rosary then simple assault or to at least use the Rosary as a weapon in intercession against the culture of death.

Daniel Vitz sent me a link to a news story that is making the rounds around St. Blogs. Rich Lugari also posted on this.

Famiglia Cristiana, Italy’s best selling Catholic weekly raised more than a few eyebrows when it chose to run an ad which featured the image of a woman’s bottom through a slightly steamed glass door.

The advertisement was for bathroom ventilators, so I would imagine the underlying message was simply, “if you would like a better view of this, buy our ventilators.”

Famiglia Cristiana's director, Don Antonio Sciortino, appeared extremely impatient with all the attention that his magazine was receiving just because of an advert.

"People are making a big thing out of this when really it doesn't merit it. We haven't breached a taboo or reversed our policy. I don't think a female figure behind dirty, steamed up glass can cause particular agitation," he said. He admitted that the advert was on the borderline of what his magazine would publish and said a few subscribers might be slightly bothered by it. "If so we'll start a debate among readers," he added.

The story is here with a picture from the ad.

My take on this is that it is actually a subtle rebuke on some Protestant's concept of the rapture. That not only is there a "left behind", but a "right behind" also; you don't want to go off half-assed. As so frequently happens in Catholic discourse is is not either/or, but both/and so it is not just the "left behind", but the right also. Sometimes we need to get to the bottom of theology just as long as we are not too cheeky or become asinine.

I'm with David at Catholics in the Public Square - the more I read about Virginia governor candidate Tim Kaine and Catholic the more troublesome it is. Generally I want to support truly pro-life Democrats. Though too often their pro-life views will nod towards Catholic teaching on the death penalty, but it does not seem to penetrate to other areas. Previously David reported:

I have a faith-based opposition to abortion. As governor, I will work in good faith to reduce abortions by:

1. Enforcing the current Virginia restrictions on abortion and passing an enforceable ban on partial birth abortion that protects the life and health of the mother;
2. Fighting teen pregnancy through abstinence-focused education;
3. Ensuring women's access to health care (including legal contraception) and economic opportunity; and
4. Promoting adoption as an alternative for women facing unwanted pregnancies.

We should reduce abortion in this manner, rather than by criminalizing women and doctors. Too often politicians are interested in scoring political points, rather than in reducing the number of abortions. Many of the legislative proposals introduced in the General Assembly, like the ones to require unnecessary building standards for doctor's offices that perform abortions, are just political grandstanding. They encourage division and lawsuits rather than contributing to the goal of reducing abortions.

Okay, yes, because of Roe and Casey the right to kill an unborn child is legal. Mr Kaine wants to work, it seems, within that reality. Great. Except for the promotion of contraception I have no problem with this plan. Yet, his stance of not wanting to "criminalize" abortion is a problem. This is important to Catholics because of what John Paul II taught us in Evangelium vitae:

When it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality. This does not in fact represent an illicit cooperation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects". (Evangelium vitae n. 73)

My own comment was that one abortion clinic in another state recently closed due to increasing standards. These are much more than grandstanding, but real ways to reduce abortion. When abortion clinics have to face the same regulations everybody else does, they scurry away afraid of the light.

I also deeply distrust statements like "on abortion and passing an enforceable ban on partial birth abortion that protects the life and health of the mother;" This is absolute garbage since there is never a medical situation where PBA would save the life of the mother. How in the world can killing the child at the last seconds before birth ever be any medical necessity?

This sounds more like safe, legal, and rare than a truly faith filled pro-life response.

Now David is posting about Michael Schiavo's endorsement of Tim Kaine.

"I don't think governors should use their PR grandstanding to intervene in these cases," Kaine replied, according to an AP report. He said he supports the courts ending disputes like the one involving Terri.

So I guess he is for the death penalty after all - if your disabled.

The following in the extended entry is Bai Macfarlane's reaction to a recent Our Sunday Visitor article on about divorce and remarriage that she sent to the Marriage and Family office of Bishop John D'Arcy. The Bishop is the chairman of the board of OSV. In the letter she states that canon Law 1692, and 1151-1155 require that couples obtain a tribunal or bishop's separation decree before approaching a civil divorce court. This appears to be the case, though not being a canon lawyer I don't know if other provisions apply.

Remind me never to get on the wrong side of Dale Price. Dale takes his wit (which is a lethal weapon in all fifty states) to the National Catholic Reporter yet again. The existence of the NCR can almost be justified just by the fodder it feeds Dale. Like Dom when I first read the NCR article I wondered where in the world would you start with fisking it? I thought for sure that it was a Diagones produced parody and was surprised to find it wasn't. Anyway I highly recommend Dale's post.

A reader sent me a link to an article about the tragic death of Jody Dobrowski who was allegedly killed because he was homosexual. In it Matthew Paris starts by making some valid points

...The newspaper commentaries would write themselves. We owe it to Jody’s memory, we would declare, to root out all prejudice against homosexuals. If that prejudice could only be exterminated, murders like this would never happen again, and Jody would not have died in vain. All stirring stuff. And true in at least one sense.

But he did die in vain and he wouldn’t have been killed by homophobia. He would have been killed by one or more psychopaths, and if they hadn’t latched on to homophobia they would have latched on to another hatred, and killed a black, or a Jew or a French tourist. Homophobia would not have been the reason; it would have been the excuse.

Every age produces its small, sick crop of brutes. Every culture reaps among its harvests the tares of human failure. Every body of human beings has its leg ulcers.

And they need excuses, these pathetic riff-raff. Every blood-lust needs to rationalise. Even the least human among us is human enough to seek reasons for our brutality. There will always be young men whose heads and lives are so comprehensively messed up that they are crazed by the urge to wound, destroy and kill. It is they — and not Jody — who are the outcasts.

and then lapses into incoherence.

Pope Benedict XVI does not tend a flock of psychopaths who need to hate and will anyway hate. His flock are normal, balanced people — more than a billion — who begin each day with no desire to wound, who do not hunger for someone to despise, but who seek from his Church guidance as to what kind of life and what manner of men to approve or disapprove.

When he teaches them to hate, there will be more haters in the world. The hatred will be new, a net increase in both haters and hated. Pope Benedict XVI therefore has the power to enlarge the circle of darkness, to widen the skirts of human misery.

He has recently pronounced that candidates for holy orders, even when celibate and resolved to remain so, should be disqualified if by inclination they are gay. By this pronouncement he does more than lay down criteria for a job: he points to millions of his fellow men, people whom there would be no other reason to shun, and calls them offensive to God.

To what kind of philosophical shambles can our Government have been reduced, when it promotes laws to criminalise me if I encourage hatred of such a Pope, yet looks away when such a Pope encourages hatred of me? For whoever killed Jody I can feel the forgiveness that comes with pity. For men like Ratzinger I can feel none.

Of course the fact is the the Holy Father has made no such pronouncement and the document much talked about is not even out (though it is reported it will be released tomorrow). Then to further say that the Pope calls those suffering with same-sex attraction "offensive to God" is to prove that you have read nothing that the then Cardinal Ratzinger wrote while head of the CDF. So it is now okay to have a hatred of the Holy Father and to have more sympathy for murderers than a man who has poured himself out in service to the Church. Just another example of Papalphobia - an irrational hatred of the Holy Father not based on anything the Holy Father has actually said but misleading and erroneously amplified press reports. Even if the document actually does bar those with homosexual inclinations from attending the seminary is the author also upset about the monarchy ban applicable only to Catholics? It is always nice to be lectured about hate by someone displaying their hate for all to se.

If you live in South Dokota take action.

Now if there truly was a product like this or an organization giving this sort of information to teens you would think there would be an outcry. Unfortunately this is not the case. Dawn Eden sent me this link to an article on Planned Parenthood's TeenWire on "safer sex." Instead we have an organization heavily funded by taxpayer dollars giving extremely immoral advice to teenagers. There was an outcry because Joe Camel was too cartoon like and must have been aimed at kids. Yet Planned Parenthood can cater to kids to ensure both current and present business. Get them sexually active early and there will be more of a chance that they will want an abortion. They recently got a sweet deal on Plan B by the drug manufacture to ensure that there profits will be maximized.

Life dynamics ran a sting operation on numerous PP clinics where the caller posed as a 13 year old and found that hat 91% of these businesses don’t comply with child abuse reporting laws

Girl: "It's just we don't want a whole lot of people to know about us. Would he have to sign anything?"
Planned Parenthood: "yeah, but I just...don't, don't talk about his age."

Planned Parenthood: "When you go to Norwich, you're going to want to give them a call. Don't tell them that information."
Girl: "then it will be okay?"
Planned Parenthood: "If you do not say the age of your partner."
Girl: "okay."
Planned Parenthood: "Okay, otherwise there's going to be a lot of stuff going on that you're probably not going to want to have happen."

Girl: "They won't ask anything about him?"
Planned Parenthood: "I’m not going to...I’m going to pretend I didn't hear that, okay?"
Girl: "okay."
Planned Parenthood: "don't even bring that up, okay."
Girl: "even if he's taking me there?"
Planned Parenthood: "no, no, don't even go there, don't even bring it up."

Why in the world is the government still supporting Planned Parenthood with tax payer funded child abuse?

I rarely go to the mall since the stores there are almost always the type that bore me. Endless rows of store after stores selling mainly nothing but clothes and shoes is purgatory to me. There is even a mall in my town that doesn't even have bookstore within it - oh the horror! Though now it seems that just walking around is a near occasion of sin. The displays in clothing stores have moved into rated R and above territory. There have been reports of the infamous lingerie store that even placed some mannequin in basically sexual positions. Complaints to the store about this not being appropriate are meet with reply letters that basically said we are sorry for offending you but too bad. Why so people support these stores considering that it is risque business?

Of course the choice of clothes that people wear while walking around the mall is not that much more modest. Even worse are the clothes some choose to go to Mass with. I constantly amazes me how either someone can wear the most revealing clothes to Mass or to wear something that would not be out of place just lounging around recreationally. It seems every Sunday is casual Sunday or dress down Sunday. Judging by the clothes available at the mall maybe it is just the lack of appropriate selection. Instead of just ranting I have come across a business idea that I am hoping to take nationwide to help address this need.

Yes Victorian Secrets! Where parts of your body are actually secret.

It is appropriate though to bring up one of the Old Oligarch's posts on modesty.

Surely some indoctrinated woman will parrot the feminist come-back to my position: "What's next? The burqa?" But the real perspective is this: The burqa and the bikini are polar extremes of the same fundamental error. Both styles of clothing deny the human dignity of the wearer. Virtue is a mean between the extremes. The modest woman, the woman with self-respect, wears neither the ostentatious bikini nor the humiliating burqa. Both the bikini and the burqa deny our Christian belief in the equal spiritual dignity of man and woman. Both manners of dress encourage onlookers to view the woman as subordinate to men in one way or another.

The burqa denies the Christian belief in the equal spiritual dignity of a woman because it obscures her face, which is the gateway to the heart and to the mind. A woman in a burqa is not permitted to publicly manifest the visible features most proper to her nature as a rational and emotive being -- features which are the most proper to her as a human being. (Aristotle, for example, says that no animal has a prosopon, lit., a countenance, but only a man or a woman.)

The bikini likewise denies her equal spiritual dignity because it places primary emphasis on her body, and in such a way that it encourages others to objectify her body as a sexual plaything, not as a temple of Holy Spirit or as a magnificent creature of goodly design. Yes, I really mean a plaything. How so? Everyone who wants to, gets to enjoy it, regardless of their number, often in public, with no more personal involvement than the private satisfaction of one's own frivolous desire. That's a plaything. Indeed, some playthings are more jealously guarded.

Call to (Fr)action is having a conference and of course it contains the usual suspects (read dissidents) and strange titles for focus sessions and presentations. The conference starts on November 3rd so that must be the Feast of All Dissidents.

Jumping Without A Chute imagines an suitable itinerary, though the real one though parody-free is pretty funny.

Now I thought I had read the majority of pro-women's ordination arguments, but I guess I missed this one. "Personal to Political: How Women’s Ordination Impacts the Global Community" to be given by Joy Barnes. We also get to learn that "Mary of Nazareth, Jewish peasant woman of faith, has been released from her role as a submissive handmaiden and restored to her place as a powerful, prophetic woman." So since when did submission to God to become something that you must be released from? “I am the powerful prophetic women of the Lord” just doesn't parse that well. We are the tallest when we kneel and the most powerful when we humbly submit to God's will.

I will never understand the progressives love of the use prophetic. After all the prophets were the ones that denounced sin and kept calling Israel back to faithfully following the Covenant. They attacked liturgical abuses like offering lambs that were sick or had other defects. John the Baptist went in over his head when he denounced Herod's invalid marriage. Repentance was a big thing with prophets and Elijah was not the most ecumenical figure. They did not go around telling the Church to change. For example demanding the opening the priesthood to all the tribes of Israel. They were the faithful who were calling dissident kings and Levitical priests to repent and to follow God's law. In short the prophets were the opposite of progressive dissidents who demand instead that God's law to changed and not followed.

"Earth Spirit and You: A Spirituality for the 21st Century" Yeah you knew that one was coming. "Why Do Men Need the Goddess? Gender and the Creation of Goddesses in Western Religion" and "The Most Holy Eucharist: Source and summit of our faith" - well I was kidding about the last one. After all concluding the year of the Eucharist and the recent synod you wouldn't want to have a conference that mentioned the Eucharist you know. But there is a report on a synod - that is how they tried to deliver petitions at the synod for of course women priests.

Praying with Teresa of Avila, a Woman for Today
Gloria Ulterino and Judith Boyd lead this prayer service. Like us, Teresa lived in a time of oppression and resistance to change. Called by Christ from her tomb of fear, she stood tall.

That would be the same St. Teresa of Avila who helped to reform the Carmelites who had mostly lapsed and fallen into wordy ways. She called the Carmelites not to some new fad, but back to the beginnings of the first Carmelite rule. The Discalced Carmelites went shoeless not habit-less. Sure we all live in a time of oppression and resistance to change. We are all oppressed by our own sins and our resistant to change. We would much rather that the world come into conformity with our sins than for us to repent of them. Though I take comfort for myself and others that St. Teresa was not exactly a model nun and for a long period of time did not even pray. She was luke-warm but later burned with the love of Christ especially in his humanity. May the same happen for all of us including the members of CTA.

All Saints pray for us.

It was bad enough when the mother of Katelyn Sills was banned from the campus of Loretto High School and now Katelyn Sills has been expelled. I guess she will have to change the name of her blog to Stand Up and Speak Out and Be Expelled. So let me see if I get this straight. In a city named Sacramento if your mother provides proof that a drama teacher is an abortion-escort and the Bishop takes charge and subsequently fires the teacher that the response of the school is first to ban the mother from campus and then expel the student. I guess that since this school is named Loretto that they didn't jump the shark but flew over it instead. I wonder if Bishop Weigand is allowed on campus?

I totally agree with Funky Dung when he asks:

I wonder, though, if the irony might be lost on some of them. I wonder how many people are filled with glee as a result of this, ignorant of the hypocrisy of saying that a teacher shouldn't be fired from a Catholic school for her manifest participation in grave sin, but a student should be expelled for publicly supporting her mother's exposure of that teacher's deeds. Then again, maybe nobody will think or say such things.

The president is Sr. Helen Timothy, htimothy@loretto.net, and the principal is Sr. Barbara Nelson, bnelson@loretto.net.

From an interview with Archbishiop William Levada by Vatican Radio [Via Ad Limina Apostolorum]

WE OFTEN HEAR, ESPECIALLY IN THE WESTERN WORLD, THAT PEOPLE NOW SAY THEY ARE SPIRITUAL THEY ARE NOT RELIGIOUS. WHEN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO IS DESCRIBED THEY OFTEN USE THE WORD DOCTRINE AND WHEN THEY USE THE WORD THEY DON’T USE IT IN A POSITIVE WAY, IT TENDS TO CARRY MANY NEGATIVE CONNOTATIONS. WHY IS THAT?

Let me say in general, you raise the question as one that is a phenomena that we look at the idea of spiritual versus the religious. Let’s take cannibalism for example. What is the spirituality of cannibalism? I would say eating is the doctrine. But is there really a spirituality of it and is it a good one? In other words is every spirituality, a spirituality of good? You know today is Halloween there are people who embrace a spirituality whose doctrine is witchcraft. They want to get in touch with a spiritual side but our tradition tells us that there are good spirits and evil spirits. There is good and bad in the spiritual as well as in the human corporeal realm, so spirituality without doctrine is an amorphous spirituality that can be anything I want to make it. People want to break out of what they consider are constrains and limits of those religions. So they say I am spiritual, not religious. But in effect a real spirituality has to involve religion because religion is about how you order your human life vis-à-vis God. That spirituality, there is a kind of popular sense in saying, oh well, I am trying to find something that is helping me to be better that’s spirituality. But religion means that you are face to face with some options that you have to make about whether there is a God and what that God may be asking and what that kind of relationship he wants to have with you, his creature. There is a whole sense in which modern man is saying I don’t want to be a creature. Religion is always going involve a concrete challenge to us in terms of our relationship to God.