Listening to Vatican Radio's podcast today in reference to All Hallow's Eve they referred to the origin of trick or treating as "ritual begging." I though they made it sound rather cool, so I guess tonight we are going to be besieged by mendicants with sweet tooth's.

Ironic Catholic has the scoop on requested changes to the Catechism by the USSCB. I especially like the addition of Dr. Suess like prose.

This is a huge story: Scientists in the UK have transformed umbilical cord blood stem cells into a liver. From the story: "As it stands, the mini organ can be used to test new drugs, preventing disasters such as the recent 'Elephant Man' drug trial. Using lab-grown liver tissue would also reduce the number of animal experiments." Eventually, scientists hope to generate this technique into liver therapies--and perhaps even transplants. Wow!

Let's see if the US media ignore or underplay this. After all, it is an experiment that does not undermine the Bush stem cell funding policy, so it really isn't news.
[Via Wesley J. Smith]

Maybe we ought to start running commercial with a celebrity with some dehibilitating disease complaining about how all the attention on so far unpromising embryonic stem-cell research was diverting funds from worthwhile cord and adult stem-cell treatments. That by concentrating on research that might some years down the line produce results we ignore capabilities that are in some cases only days or months away. That we demonize those who don't care about the sick by promoting untested and forecasted remedies.

Of course those who promote ESCR wouldn't like the same approach used on them and of course I wouldn't really advocate turning the tables thus. For one thing the argument isn't fully fair because non-embryonic stem-cell research is being funded by companies who see this as fruitful research and don't have to try to scare up government money. Though I think there is some merit to the argument since when you have a number of scientist working on ESCR they are not working on something that yields results now.

The other thing I find strange about the whole state-funded ESCR push is exactly when in history has a cure for anything been found through this approach. Maybe I am missing out something on science research history, but exactly what cure has ever been funded by a state?

Another one from Paul Nichols.

The diocese of Sioux Falls suggests starting a novena to the Immaculate Conception today especially since they have an abortion ban on their ballot. So for the next nine days I will be running their novena.

Prayer To The Immaculate Conception
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, did prepare a worthy dwelling place for Your Son, we beseech You that, as by the foreseen death of this, Your Son, You did preserve Her from all stain, so too You would permit us, purified through Her intercession, to come unto You. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Day Three
O Blessed Virgin Mary, glory of the Christian people, joy of the universal Church and Mother of Our Lord, speak for us to the Heart of Jesus, who is your Son and our brother. O Mary, who by your holy Immaculate Conception did enter the world free from stain, in your mercy obtain for us from Jesus the special favor which we now so earnestly seek...

(State your intention here...)

O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will.
Amen. Litany of the Blessed Virgin

Dawn Eden tipped me off on this Planned Parenthood reaction to two big trucks with pictures of aborted fetuses on them in Memphis.

Planned Parenthood questions the accuracy of the pictures. Its president says the ads are blatant intimidation.

"It's intended to make women feel less than equal, less than capable of making their own decisions about their life and family. It's directed toward horrifying." says Barry Chase, president of Planned Parenthood in Memphis.

Well actually Planned Parenthood wants babies in the womb to be seen as less than equal - to not even be human at all. Abortion supporters always feel threatened by the reality of what they endorse. NARAL called the 3D ultrasound a "weapon" and PP in this case call pictures "blatant intimidation." Now it does make you wonder what pictures they would consider to be accurate? Obviously it can't be pictures of actual babies torn apart in the name of choice. Accurate pictures for them would have to de-emphasize their humanity and be the pictorial equivalent of a product of conception or a tissue mass. Something very amorphous that you can see as a choice instead of as a person. A Picasso-like surreal picture that invokes zero sympathy would have to do. An out of focus photo as blurry as the words they hide behind. It would have to be a picture that invokes the idea of parasite, a term they like to use. Something that invokes the though of having something inside you like what happened after a face-hugger in the move Alien/Aliens got hold of you.

One thing is that Planned Parenthood can't really come up with a photo to plaster on trucks to tour the country to support abortion. They can't use ultrasound pictures and of course can't show any part of the reality of abortion. Abortion supporters have always hid behind slogans and buzz words shifting the debate to that of choice, but not of what the choice entails. Along with Jack Nicholson they say "You can't handle the truth."

Obfuscation is part and parcel of the culture of death. We are now seeing the whole thing playing out once again when it comes to the embryonic stem-cell research. Once again we get promises that don't focus on the details. No mention of what is entailed. Whether it is Constitutional amendments purporting to ban cloning by redefining what cloning is or touting a made up statistics on back alley abortions, facts have never been friends of the culture of death. Though this is a positive thing that they must still lie to get support. That people would not support for the most part if they were actually honest about what they support.

Gerald Augustinus and Father Stephanos have recorded a podcast on the nature of the Eucharist and other liturgical questions in the light of then-Cardinal Ratzinger's Spirit of the Liturgy. This is the first of a possible series.

Subscribe via iTunes.
Right-click to download.

Here are some links to an alledged stigmatist in Jersey City, Ray Skop.

Here is a youTube video of him.

Ray Skop once told a psychic that her abilities was a gift from God and she later set up shop.

But what gets me is the slideshow of his "stigmata." I could be totally wrong, but a stigmatist with a slideshow is not exactly a great sign of humility. Normally those graced by signs such as these are quite embarrassed about them and would prefer to hide them.

Mark Shea previously posted about a San Francisco parish letting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence use Most Holy Redeemer Parish Hall where they would give out prizes such as porn DVD's and sex toys.

Today he reports.

Got a response from the Archdiocese! Here's the text:

"Permission to use Ellard Hall should not have been given to the group. The Archdiocese of San Francisco has directed the parish to end the arrangement immediately. For years the group has directed contempt and ridicule at Catholic faith and practices. The particular targets of the group's derision are women in religious communities, for whom Catholics, and many non-Catholics, have a special reverence and respect."

Another "moral theologian" at Marquette University home of Daniel C. Maguire.

..Father Bryan Massingale, an associate professor of moral theology at Marquette University, wrote a lengthy essay in which he struggled with the idea that "the amendment, read in its entirety, poses a dilemma for many faithful people."

I am too cynical to believe that anytime the word struggled is used with regards to moral theology to think it was much of a fight - especially since you know it is always dissent that wins out. When I hear struggle in these cases I think of Mike Tyson versus Pooh Bear.

"The amendment upholds certain beliefs about the uniqueness of marriage," he wrote in the Sept. 21 issue. "But it does so at a cost, namely, potentially damaging impacts upon the welfare of individuals and their children."

He also dealt with the issue of homosexuality.

"Too often, discussions of this issue treat 'those' people - specifically, gays and lesbians - as if they were an alien species," he wrote. "They are not. They are our sons and daughters; our sisters and brothers; our aunts, uncles, and cousins; our friends, neighbors, students and co-workers; our priests, ministers and parishioners. 'They' are us!"

Massingale concluded that "voting 'no' on the marriage amendment, in my judgment, is the best way to respect all of our Catholic beliefs and values."

A reprint of Massingale's opinion piece was distributed in bulletins at several local churches.

...Massingale said he believes he retains the archbishop's respect.

"If he had any concerns about anything I've written he would have expressed them to me directly and not done anything through any intermediary," he said. "In fact, he just spoke to me this afternoon (Thursday) and was talking about me speaking at some other engagements here in the archdiocese."

I wouldn't trust Fr. Massingale in reference to Archbishop's Dolan. But the following does not look good.

Milwaukee Archdiocese spokeswoman Kathleen Hohl said Massingale is free to speak out on the issues and to share his views at local parishes.

...The Milwaukee Archdiocese Priests Alliance, a grass-roots organization of 140 members, issued a statement this month in which it concurred with Massingale's analysis, although the organization fell short of calling on voters to reject the amendment.

...In an Oct. 19 letter to the Catholic Herald, Massingale responded to some critics and concluded that "one can believe in what is called 'traditional' marriage - and even 'defend' it - without supporting this amendment. Indeed, we must not reinforce the institution of marriage through a measure which carries the risk of endangering human well-being."

As Kevin Miller said:

I think that Archbishop Dolan needs to do something major. This is very bad.

The diocese of Sioux Falls suggests starting a novena to the Immaculate Conception today especially since they have an abortion ban on their ballot. So for the next nine days I will be running their novena.

Prayer To The Immaculate Conception
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, did prepare a worthy dwelling place for Your Son, we beseech You that, as by the foreseen death of this, Your Son, You did preserve Her from all stain, so too You would permit us, purified through Her intercession, to come unto You. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Day Two
O Mary, ever blessed Virgin, Mother of God, Queen of angels and of saints, we salute you with the most profound veneration and filial devotion as we contemplate your holy Immaculate Conception, We thank you for your maternal protection and for the many blessings that we have received through your wondrous mercy and most powerful intercession. In all our necessities we have recourse to you with unbounded
confidence. O Mother of Mercy, we beseech you now to hear our prayer and to obtain for us of your Divine Son the favor that we so earnestly request in this novena...

(State your intention here...)

O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will.
Amen.

Litany of the Blessed Virgin

Here is an address given by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz to the Catholic Citizens of Illinois earlier this month. It is too good to excerpt. [Via L.A. Catholic]

Cosmos~Liturgy~Sex has a post on a former Tae Kwon Do instructor turned priest who has a new series on PBS called Grace before meals.

Trailer
Pilot

Fr. Fox imagines an interview between himself and Michael J. Fox.

Update: In an interesting admission Michael J. Fox says he never read the Missouri initiative his ad was used for.

Fox: Well, I don't think that's true. You know, I campaigned for Claire McCaskill. And so I have to qualify it by saying I'm not qualified to speak on the page-to-page content of the initiative. Although, I am quite sure that I'll agree with it in spirit, I don't know, I— On full disclosure, I haven't read it, and that's why I didn't put myself up for it distinctly.

Being that it is now nine days before the election it is a perfect time to start a novena. As always there are many important ballot initiatives, constitutional proposals, etc that are concerned with battling the culture of death. The diocese of Sioux Falls suggests starting a novena to the Immaculate Conception today especially since they have an abortion ban on their ballot. So for the next nine days I will be running their novena.

Prayer To The Immaculate Conception
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, did prepare a worthy dwelling place for Your Son, we beseech You that, as by the foreseen death of this, Your Son, You did preserve Her from all stain, so too You would permit us, purified through Her intercession, to come unto You. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Day One
O most Holy Virgin, who was pleasing to the Lord and became His mother, immaculate in body and spirit, in faith and in love, look kindly on me as I implore your powerful intercession. O most Holy Mother, who by your blessed Immaculate Conception, from the first moment of your conception did crush the head of the enemy, receive our prayers as we implore you to present at the throne of God the favor we now request...

(State your intention here...)

O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will. Amen.

Litany of the Blessed Virgin

Father Stephanos, O.S.B mentions that Today in 1958 the patriarch of Venice, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, was elected Pope, and took the name John XXIII.

I recently came across his address at the opening of Vatican II and thougth it could easily have been written today.

In the daily exercise of our apostolic ministry, we are often offended when we learn what certain people are saying, who are filled with religious zeal yet lack correct judgment and level-headedness in their way of seeing things. They see only ruins and calamities in society’s present situation. They are used to saying that our day and age has worsened profoundly in comparison with past centuries. They behave as if history, which is the teacher of life, had nothing to teach them and as if at the time of past Councils, everything had been perfect where Christian doctrine, customs and the Church’s just freedom were concerned.

It seems to us that we must state our complete disagreement with the prophets of misfortune, who always announce catastrophes as if the world were close to its end.

In the present course of events when society seems to be at a turning point, it is better to acknowledge the mysterious plans of divine Providence which, through the succession of times and the work of human beings and most of the time against all expectations, reach their goal and arrange everything with wisdom for the good of the Church, even the events that are in opposition to it.

Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP on NCAN.

The Denver Post reports on an attempt by the National Coalition of American Nuns to sway Catholic voters to vote for “Culture of Death” candidates:

Opposing war and treating immigrants with compassion are included in a list of seven issues outlined by the group. Mary Ann Coyle and Anna Koop of Denver and Sallie Ann Watkins of Pueblo are the other Colorado nuns on the board.

The letter also states, "We encourage respect for the moral adulthood of women and will choose legislators who will recognize the right of women to make reproductive decisions and receive medical treatment according to the rights of privacy and conscience."

So, apparently the problem with war is not that children are killed; it’s that they aren’t killed by their mothers. Or is it that war tends to kill children publicly and the sisters think they should be killed privately. Or maybe it’s the whole “presence of a medical professional” thing that they think distinguishes kids unintentionally killed in a war zone by soldiers and bombs from kids intentionally killed in a nice, sterile abortion clinic by MD’s and moms?

And these sisters wonder why their congregations are dying. I don’t know any young women who are ready to waste their lives in a “catholic” religious order that defends the proposition that it is a moral good for a mother to kill her child. This is beyond sad; and it is truly despairing.

As has been mentioned before it is very good thing that these groups are spiritual mules in that they don't reproduce themselves. Fortunately there are many good groups with the opposite view and growing orders the Sisters of Life and the new Missionaries of the Gospel of Life.

Gerald Augustinus has the text of a memo sent out in the Diocese of L.A. regarding the revoking of the indult for Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion from purification of the sacred vessels.

The memo is truly maddening. The diocesan version of "Carry on."

...notifying bishops of a change in the indult -- or church permission -- in effect since 2002 which allows extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion to help cleanse cups and plates when there are not enough priests or deacons to do so.

Notice the reference to "cups and plates." Not sacred vessels or chalice and platen, but the most mundane terms possible. For just"cups and plates" they could install a dishwasher in the sanctuary.

But the kicker is the last paragraph.

Until Cardinal Mahony and the auxiliary bishops have the opportunity to discuss the new recommendations, both locally and at the general meeting of the USCCB in November, no changes will be made regarding the present policy for the distribution of Holy Communion and/or the purification of the sacred vessels.

Well at least they said sacred vessels here, but these are not "recommendations", but it seems that everything issued by the Vatican is considered in this diocese to be only a "recommendation." There are many items that the local ordinary does have the authority to issue a dispensation on. This is not one of them. The reason that this required an indult from the Vatican in the first place is because it is not within the authority of the bishop's conference or the local ordinary to change. Just as Cardinal Mahony issued a dispensation which he had no authority to issue in regards to consecrating the Sacred Blood in a pitcher I would not be surprised to see the same thing happen again.

"Indult? We ain't got no indult! We don't need no indult. I don't have to show you any stinkin' indult!"

*Screen capture that Gerald got from the last South Park.

Update: The Diocese of Orange locksteps in dissent by issuing their own memo of which Gerald has a copy.

The memo speaks of the present norm of purification of the sacred vessels. The funny thing is that you do no need an indult from a norm. Having an EMHC purifying the sacred vessels was never classified as a norm. The indult was a temporary dispensation from the norm. As with the L.A. memo they once again talk about Communion under both kinds as if this has anything to do with the indult. Surely if you have a priest in the first place to celebrate Mass then he can do the purifying.

Now the question is why is this such an important indult for some diocese? The problem for them of course is that so much of the Sacred Blood is consecrated that one person cannot really consume the Sacred Blood not given in Communion. Thus having extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion helping out is considered essential.

Redemptionis Sacramentum addressed these circumstances.

[102.] The chalice should not be ministered to lay members of Christ’s faithful where there is such a large number of communicants[189]that it is difficult to gauge the amount of wine for the Eucharist and there is a danger that “more than a reasonable quantity of the Blood of Christ remain to be consumed at the end of the celebration”.[190] The same is true wherever access to the chalice would be difficult to arrange, or where such a large amount of wine would be required that its certain provenance and quality could only be known with difficulty, or wherever there is not an adequate number of sacred ministers or extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion with proper formation, or where a notable part of the people continues to prefer not to approach the chalice for various reasons, so that the sign of unity would in some sense be negated.

So essentially they need this to help with a situation that is illicit in the first place. The same diocese that wants to crack down on kneeling has zero problems with liturgical dissent when it suits them. That these diocese are willing to do delaying tactics on something that there is no room to quibble about is just plain shameful.

KaleJ at un-Muted Mumblings writes:

Saw on slashdot that the domain, Hell.com is for sale.

Now someone who buys Hell.com "has the opportunity to redefine what hell means, at least on the Internet," says Monte Cahn, Moniker chief executive.

Sorry, the catechists have already beat them to the punch on redefining hell. In geek speak, any "Faith Formation" document referring to Hell.com would come up with a 404 Error, Hell not found.

I guess this would be a real fire sale.

L.A. Catholic's latest post on a The Tidings article reports on the "Missa Gaia"

The print edition of the October 27 issue of The Tidings (the online edition is not posted on that paper's site, but you can click on this post's title tomorrow and presumably it will be) carries an article, "LMU Forum draws prominent environmentalists."

The article is about this year's Bellarmine Forum, Oct. 29-Nov. 3, at Loyola Marymount U. in L.A. The theme is, "Earth to You: Do Something Now." The invitees include Bobby Kennedy Jr., Jean-Michel Cousteau and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard.

St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), for whom the Forum is named, would want his name withdrawn this year. Listen to this Tidings paragraph:

"The Oct. 29 kick-off event is a Missa Gaia (Earth Mass), 8 p.m. at the Sacred Heart Chapel with Jesuit Father John Coleman presiding. The contemporary liturgy celebrates the whole earth as a sacred space by integrating recorded sounds such as the calls of wolves, whales, eagles and seals."

The "Missa Gaia" debuted at an Episcopalian cathedral, and Unitarian Universalists like it.

"Missa Gaia" composer Jim Scott has written, "When we began neither Paul [Winter] or I had ever been to a Mass...We took the name of the Greek goddess Gaia after the writings of James Lovelock, whose 'Gaia hypothesis' is that all of life on earth and the earth itself comprises a single living entity that is self-sustaining and, of course, evolving."

"Missa Gaia" writer Paul Winter has written, "The idea of writing a Mass seemed far-flung. I had never even been to a Mass!...Could a Mass celebrate a vision of the entire Earth as a cathedral? Dean Morton assured me it could. Could Mass music be based on themes from whales and wolves? 'You can write a Mass on anything', the Dean said. I did have a fine melody from a wolf that fit perfectly with the words 'Kyrie Eleison.'"

I had at first assumed that the use of a term "Missa Gaia" was Quintero's sharp-witted criticism of an environmental Mass only to be surprised to find it was the term they were actualy using. Instead of the New Order of Mass we get the New Age Order of Mass. Or would that be Novus Aevum Ordo? Though I am sure my that my Latin translation is way off and would appreciate a better translation from my readers.

Matt C. Abbott writes about and has a picture of the advertisement which is an answer to Ms. magazine's recent pro-abortion advertisement. You can see a larger version here.

A reader sent me the following article.

Bishop Paul Swain came out swinging Thursday. Within an hour of being ordained a Roman Catholic bishop and installed as the eighth leader of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, he had spoken out on two issues on the Nov. 7 ballot.

"I'm proud to say that the first vote I will cast as a South Dakotan will be yes for Referred Law 6," Swain said, to applause and a standing ovation.

Referred Law 6 is the abortion ban, which was passed by the state Legislature earlier this year and will be decided by voters. It outlaws all abortions except those done to save a pregnant woman's life.

"This law is not perfect legislation, but it will better respect and protect the vulnerable," Swain said.

He also said he would vote yes on Constitutional Amendment C. Approval of Amendment C would amend the South Dakota Constitution to recognize marriages between only a man and a woman.

Swain said he was not judging or demeaning anyone by doing so but preserving the common good and encouraging family life.

Swain now leads the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, which includes almost 130,000 Catholics who live east of the Missouri River.

About 975 people attended the Mass. Many more will have a chance to meet Swain in the next two weeks as he travels to nine other communities.

Mary Ann Boyle, a member of St. Agnes Catholic Church in Vermillion, agreed.

..."I think he's going to be wonderful," she said. "I think it's important to have somebody who's strong, and you can tell he's going to be a very hard worker and that his faith is strong."

Her new bishop is unafraid to say he has made mistakes in the past, Boyle said.

Swain converted to Roman Catholicism when he was 39 and was ordained into the priesthood five years later.

The Bible verses he chose during the Mass spoke to his own experiences, including Jeremiah 1:4-9, in which God says, "Before you were born, I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you."

The Gospel reading came from John 21. In it, Jesus asks Simon Peter, who later denied him three times, whether the disciple loves him and instructs him to "feed my sheep."

"Like Peter, I denied Christ more than three times, and like Peter, I wept bitterly for my failings," Swain said.

But many of his remarks were light-hearted, displaying a dry wit.

"Most of you here don't even know me, and I suspect when the appointment was announced, you said, 'Who?' " Swain said. "My response was a little longer: 'Who, me?' "

In my Naval career we repeatedly had training in putting out fires. After some disastrous fires at sea such as the one on the U.S.S. Forestall the Navy decided it was not a very good idea to limit training to a specific group and instead expanded fire fighting training to everyone. Besides learning to be competent on a hose team and using the various equipment in emergency situations we always had training on the fire triangle.

It is a good training model since it emphasizes that to stop a fire you just need to remove just one of the elements. Remove the fuel, reduce the heat, or remove the oxygen and the fire will stop. I always though that this was a good training aid and I started to think it could be an aid in other situations.

Many times on Catholic radio I have heard people ask questions about whether something is a mortal sin or not or what constitutes a mortal sin.

So the eternal fire triangle can be used to see the elements that lead to a mortal sin. By removing any element of the eternal fire triangle you can be guaranteed to not commit a mortal sin. Since mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law and causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the possibility of the eternal death of hell if one dies in this state it is a very good idea to teach and understand this correctly.

The Eternal Fire Triangle is proactive instead of reactive. By ensuring that these elements never come together in the first place you will not fall into mortal sin. If you need a good Powerpoint slide for CCD consider the Eternal Fire Triangle, though Powerpoint itself was surely inspired by one of the Devil's minions.

One thing to remember that even when all the conditions are not met that there is still damage done and the consequences due to sin. Committing a grave sin even when you are invincibly ignorant does not let you off scott free from temporal punishments, just eternal ones.

Grave Matter. Obviously first and foremost is to be aware of what constitutes grave matter so that you may avoid it.

CCC 1858 Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: "Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother."[132] The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.

Full Knowledge

CCC 1859 Mortal sin requires full knowledge .... It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God's law.

Complete Consent

CCC 1859 ...It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart[133] do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.

Grace and following the universal call to holiness are the true eternal fire extinguishers. Just avoiding mortal sin itself can get you to fall into the minimum daily allowance trap. Fear of the Lord is the beginning, but not the end of wisdom.

As the old joke goes "Only you can prevent eternal fires."

As Mark Shea says unleash the power of the blog. Read his post and please email those in the diocese that might be able to stop this sacrilege.

A British-born Divine Word missiologist has told the Asian Mission Congress that the Church in the world's most populous continent needs to overcome its peripheral local adaptation to become a "mango Church" - yellow inside and outside.

Fr John Mansford Prior, who visited Australia last month, told the Asian Mission Congress in Chiang Mai, Thailand that the Church in Asia must become totally Asian to make Christ's message meaningful for people in the continent, UCA News says.

British-born Fr Prior has worked in Indonesia since 1973 observes that the Church in Asia remains Western with only peripheral local adaptation.

Asia has either a "banana Church," yellow on the outside and white inside, or a "coconut Church," brown on the outside and white inside, Fr Prior said.

But what the Church in Asia needs instead is a "mango Church" that is yellow outside and inside, Fr Prior added.

Mango church? Well he is almost right, Christianity is based on the mangod.

GRANADA, October 25 (CNA) - Archbishop Francisco Javier Martinez of Granada has decided to pull his seminarians out of the local Jesuit-run theology program, claiming that "the situation of the Church in the current cultural context requires that our seminarians receive formation in a center run by the diocese."

I think that translates from Bishopese into "My seminarians out outta there."

The archdiocese's seminarians will now be receiving theological instruction at the diocesan institute named after German theologian Hans Urs Von Balthasar and will be housed in one of the wings of the diocesan seminary.

The transfer of theology students out of the Jesuit-run program completes the transfer of all Granada seminarians into diocesan-run schools. First and second year seminarians had already been moved into Archbishop Martinez's newly created Edith Stein Philosophy Institute.

The Dean of the Jesuit run School of Theology of Granada, Ildefonso Camacho, told the Efe news agency that the archbishop explained in his letter that he would formally notify the Grand Chancellor of the School of Theology of Granada, Father Peter Hans Kolvenbach, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus.

The Dioceses of Malaga and Almeria have also pulled their students out of the school in recent years and placed them in their own diocesan institutes, although they are under the supervision of the School of Theology of Granada, which is responsible for certifying their theology degrees.

Dean Camacho said he was surprised and saddened by the archbishop's decision and that the Jesuit school would not supervise the Granada seminarians, since the archbishops' decision seems to indicate "he does not consider our formation to be adequate."
[Via Angry Twins]

As you have probably noticed I have been taken on as an advertiser for Catholic Men's Quarterly.

Catholic Men’s Quarterly, a one-of-a-kind general interest men’s magazine written by Catholic men for Catholic men. Devoted to defending the Faith against unjust attack, clear and concise explanation of Catholic doctrine, and stories of heroic and saintly Catholics, CMQ is distinguished by its aggressive and humorous tone and the inclusion of other content of interest to men: sports, humor, travel, military history, etc. Whether you are practicing or lapsed, devout or disaffected, this is the magazine for you. So give us a try and treat yourself (or someone you love) to the magazine for Catholic men, the Catholic Men’s Quarterly.

In a sample article on Holy Hombre's (“Hombre’ – noun. A man. A fellow. A man among men.”)

On a much later occasion, another Holy Hombre saved the day, during his time in the seminary no less. In 1860 St. Gabriel Possenti saved a young woman from being raped, and he saved the village of Isola, Italy, by removing the revolver from the hip of one of Garibaldi’s thugs. After more drama unfolded, Possenti took the opportunity to shoot a small running lizard with the pistol as the band of terrorists was coming upon him. These ruffians obeyed St. Gabriel Possenti and dropped their weapons, and then he escorted them out of town at gunpoint, telling them never to return. People of the region still refer to him today as “the Savior of Isola.”

Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925) is another great example of the Holy Hombre. This Blessed was born on Holy Saturday, and loved to ski, climb mountains, ride horses, wrestle, pull practical jokes, and swim. It has been reported that Pier Giorgio was involved in many fights, primarily with anti-Catholic Reds. Wouldn’t you know it… some holy rollers want to digitally remove the pipe from Pier Giorgio’s mouth which is in that famous picture of him on top of a mountain! Such folks want all the sizzle, but no steak. Pietests who would remove that pipe would probably synonymize sanctity with stupidity, if asked to define.

There website is here where you can read sample of other articles and subscribe for the very reasonable price of $20 (U.S. addresses).

Mercator.net has an interesting article titled Schools withhold sad facts about gay life which is an interview with Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons is a psychiatrist and Director of Comprehensive Counseling Services in W. Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Dr. Fitzgibbons contributed to Homosexuality and Hope, published by the Catholic Medical Association of the United States. This pamphlet was recently pulled from The Curé of Ars church in Merrick after some complaints. Mainly from those who hold to the dogma that people are just born with Same Sex Attraction and you just can't do anything about it including one (no surprise ) former Jesuit priest and now human sexuality specialist Dr. Daniel Araoz.

Mercator.net has an interesting article titled Schools withhold sad facts about gay life which is an interview with Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons is a psychiatrist and Director of Comprehensive Counseling Services in W. Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Dr. Fitzgibbons contributed to Homosexuality and Hope, published by the Catholic Medical Association of the United States. This pamphlet was recently pulled from The Curé of Ars church in Merrick after some complaints. Mainly from those who hold to the dogma that people are just born with Same Sex Attraction and you just can't do anything about it including one (no surprise ) former Jesuit priest and now human sexuality specialist Dr. Daniel Araoz.

Dawn Eden blogs:

A house of horrors, filled with blood and screams, where a maniacal child-killer armed with knives wreaks havoc as he targets teenagers who have sex — and it's run by Planned Parenthood and friends.

It would seem that the organizers of the ersatz hell house "Nightmare on American Street" lack a sense of irony.

An organizer of the show tells City Paper, "'Nightmare' aims to present reproductive-rights horrors in a 'campy, palatable and fun way.'"

Yeah, I'm sure that patrons will be scared to death.

Well it has to be the easiest Hell House transformation there is. All they have to do is open up one of their clinics for tours. But unlike Freddie and Jason the babies killed do not come back for a sequel.

Dawn's right they have no sense of irony and in this case they have too many ironies in the hellfire. On the site they say "PG-13 - some material not suitable for children." Now for Planned Parenthood isn't it suppose to be children are not suitable material? What a great place to bring children a place that highlights its greatest fear as losing the ability to get rid of children. That their Hell House represents a new paraphrase of Jean-Paul Sartre "Hell is not other people children, but having your own."

The Holy Father certainly does love trying on new hats.

Though maybe he keeps trying to find a hat that Monsignor Georg Gänswein won't swipe from him.

The Pope is always having to keep an eye out whenever Monsignor Georg Gänswein is around.

Who doesn't seem to be satisfied in just swiping one.

Today was the 25th anniversary of Father Warren Keene who is the assistant pastor at my parish. He is a great priest who spent ten years as an organic chemist before entering the seminary in the Diocese of Gibratar and later received the S.T.B., M.A., S.T.L. and J.C.D. degrees from the Pontifical University of S. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He has served in my parish since 1992.

He is a wondeful homilist and his homilies are always soaked in the Church Fathers. His homilies are never long, but always well crafted with bits that stick with you later. I also love his reverence at Mass. His rapt attention during the consecration is a joy to watch as it is quite apparent that he is once again caught up in the mystery of the Eucharist. He also have a lovely singing voice that is very pleasing to the ear when he chants the Mass. Whether he is saying the indult Latin Mass or the new order of Mass you enter into the mystery with him. That you know you are not participating in mere ritual but something much much more. It is also a joy to watch him do Benediction on first Fridays after Eucharistic adoration.

My parish is blessed with faithful and wonderful priests and even though I often parody or write on liturgical abuses they have provided zero source material for it. I have to go to other parishes so that I can commiserate with others.

This Sunday is Priesthood Sunday so please take the time to thank the many wonderful and holy priests.

Dale Price takes a look at James Carroll article on the Pope's Regensburg address and slice, dices, and dissects it like an army of Ginsu knives.

Amy Welborn has been doing some substantial posts recently and part of one today caught my eye.

2) Too many Catholic liturgists have done their work over the past thirty years, happily, with no reference to the past at all. They have been quite busy dreaming up new pardigms of liturgy for a new people in a new spirit, and they need to be reigned in. To put it bluntly: I am not interested in the new paradigm someone dreamed up in graduate school, I am not interested in your individual stylings and creations and I am especially not interested in your recreation of the liturgy every week. I am really not interested. Sorry about that. The focus needs to be redirected, the reference points shifted. "Freeing" the Tridentine Mass, sends a message. This way...not that.

Her comments on liturgist kind of reminds me of G.K. Chesterton critique of education in "What's wrong with the world." The educator would flock to the new theory that is younger than the child they are teaching.

Obviously, it ought to be the oldest things that are taught to the youngest people; the assured and experienced truths that are put first to the baby. But in a school to-day the baby has to submit to a system that is younger than himself. The flopping infant of four actually has more experience, and has weathered the world longer,
than the dogma to which he is made to submit. Many a school boasts of having the last ideas in education, when it has not even the first idea; for the first idea is that even innocence, divine as it is, may learn something from experience. But this, as I say, is all due to the mere fact that we are managed by a little oligarchy; my system presupposes that men who govern themselves will govern their children. To-day we all use Popular Education as meaning education of the people.I wish I could use it as meaning education by the people.

It seems that same types of things that have happened in education happened to people working with the liturgy. That new liturgical practices came about not because they understood the older practices and wanted to reform parts of them, but as something divorced from them and the only thing to recommend them was that they were new or different. We always have a temptation when something is passed down to us to improve upon it, and to improve upon it in such a manner that the improvement is directly attributed to us. Professors publish to make their mark and modern liturgists create new liturgies to make theirs. A liturgist that only passed on accurately the liturgy would never make a name for themselves or receive any acclaim in their circles. When liturgists became wedded to modern academia they brought all of the errors of their thinking into the liturgy.

Here is letter by Bishop Michael Sheridan, S.T.D. on Amendment 43 and Referendum I relating to same-sex marriage in Colorado. His letter is very forthright, as he usually is. Though some of it seems more like a blog post than an pastoral letter. He uses Wrong!, Wrong again!, and Wrong yet again in his letter.

The Commonweal blog wasn't pleased so you know the letter reflected Church teaching.

It is well known that the Bishop has threatened to deny Holy Communion to Catholics who vote for candidates who support same sex marriage, same sex unions, abortion, or euthanasia. Curiously, the Bishop does not support denying Holy Communion to Catholics who vote for candidates who support the death penalty, torture, or unjust war.

Have you ever met anybody that supported unjust war? They also say that the bishop does not support withholding Communion for candidates who support torture. What do they base this charge on? He has never said no such thing. Has there been a Catholic politician in his diocese advocating torture for him to react to? I bet that since his short list on withholding Communion does not include torture that this is their evidence. By this lousy reasoning the bishop also does not support withholding Communion for politicians who support racism, genocide, rape, and murder. Since there post talks only about "death penalty, torture, or unjust war." I guess that proves that this writer does not support withholding Communion from Candidates who want to nuke Iran.

When will progressives learn that to bring up the death penalty whenever abortion is mentioned only shows their ignorance and that by doing this they will not be taken seriously.

There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.

From that little known theologian Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger who I think had his name change. I agree with what Pope John Paul II wrote in The Gospel of Life, but progressives do little to advance a culture of life when they engage in moral relativism.

A reader sent me a link to NCAN - Nutty Coalition of American Nuns. Well actually replace Nutty with National - but you get the idea. By their links ye shall know them.

* Call to Action
* FutureChurch
* Quixote Center
* The Vatican
* Women's Ordination Conference
* Women-Church Convergence

How did the Vatican instead of the U.N. slip in there? Yes the typical dissenting I-want-to-be-a-priest nuns.

Now owing to the fact that progressives are always talking about dialogue you would expect to see a comment box on their typepad powered blog. Sorry no dialogue box to dialogue in. In their post on world violence I wanted to bring up the fact that the cheapening of life via abortion, ESCR, etc, and factors like broken families leads to a culture of violence. Especially since they listed such lame factors as separation of church and state contributing to world violence. As if the United States becoming more secular will stop world violence. Yes governments that banned religion like the old Soviet Union, North Korea, and China really contributed to world peace - which is a hard sell to the way over the hundred million that died at the hands of these regimes. They also listed not using the mediation powers of the U.N. - Rwanda anyone? U.N. Observers observing genocide and not doing anything about it is really helpful. Of course they also have the boilerplate "use of inflammatory language by religious leaders of all faiths" I remember the Amish declaring a Holy War, don't you? Or Catholics demanding that people who slander the Pope be beheaded. And don't forget Billy Graham and his crusades. Number one on their list is "The ready access to guns" So I guess the Swiss with such a high gun count per capita including some 420,000 assault rifles in private homes makes it the most violent country in the world?

But at least they have taken a firm stand on Bottled Water.

In their post Facts That Cannot Be Ignored

* A single Mother with two children working full-time at the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour makes $10,700 a year which is $6,000 below the poverty level.

* The federal minimum wage has been the same since 1997. In those years the salaries of Senators have been raised seven times. These salaries have gone up about $35,000 or three times the yearly income of a minimum wage worker.

* Raising the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour adds up to more than one year of groceries, over 9 months of rent, and full tuition for a community college degree.

Why only $7.25 an hour? This would come to $15,080 which would still be according to them 1,000 dollars below the poverty level. So they are advocating a minimum wage below the poverty level. I really wonder what state you can get 9 months of rent, over a year of groceries and community college tuition for only $4,380? Community colleges averages more that $2,000. So I guess they are talking about a place where rent is way below 200 dollars so that you still can get those grocery prices into that calculation. Facts that can't be ignored? How about facts that can't be take seriously. How about the fact that only 2.2 percent of working adults earn the minimum wage and of those 76 percent of those are not heads of households. Anybody who is still making a minimum wage more than likely has a problem other than the setting of the minimum wage.

God's Music Bar? Well I bet they don't have any Marty Haugen, David Haas, or St. Louis Jesuits playing there then. Surely they must have Seraphim on staff if it is his music bar. I wonder if any customers would complain about the song selection? "Don't you know any other songs besides 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory?' You keep singing it continually'"

It would be pretty cool to go out for a drink and and be able to say you are going over to God's place. Plus God's Music Bar would never run out of wine just as long as there is water around - ala Cana.

Actually the above picture is sadly of a former Catholic Cathedral in an area that used to be the French concession in early 1900s in Wuhan.

Long time blogger and Director of Adult Faith Formation for the Diocese of Sioux Falls, Chris Burgwald now has a podcast. It currently contains the audio from a series of Theology on Tap sessions over the last couple of year. Future podcast will be shorter and will give a Catholic perspective on the issues of the day.

The name of his new podcast is "Prairie Rome Companion", a name I suggested to him when I saw the original podcast name had the word prairie in it.

Chris is super-sharp and I eagerly await the first episodes of his new podcast.

Feed to subscribe.

FRONT ROYAL, Va., Oct. 23 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, STL, president of Human Life International, issued the following statement in response to Georgetown University Law Center’s announcement that they have established the Robert F. Drinan, S.J., Chair in Human Rights:

“It is deeply disturbing that a university that claims to honor and perpetuate the Catholic faith would establish a human rights chair in the name of a heretical priest who has spent much of his lifetime advocating for the most heinous of human rights violations: abortion. Sadly, Georgetown University—a Jesuit institution—has a long history of mocking the Faith, including hosting pornographer and social degenerate Larry Flynt, and at one point removing crucifixes from the classroom in spite of student protests to keep them.

“Referring to Fr. Drinan as a human rights hero is like calling Attila the Hun a diplomat. Given the school’s history, I wouldn’t be surprised if the college posthumously awarded Attila the lifetime achievement award for humanitarianism.

“While the Law Center’s announcement is an amazing study in misdirection and spin when describing Fr. Drinan’s checkered past, it clearly fails to address the fact that he was ordered by Pope John Paul II to relinquish his seat in the U.S. Congress because of the unrepentant aid and comfort he consistently gave to the purveyors of the culture of death.

“At age 85, Fr. Drinan doesn’t need another hypocritical award. He needs to be in a monastery praying for the salvation of his soul. While he’s at it, he should also pray for Georgetown’s return to full communion with the Catholic Church.

“ If the University is confused as to why this award is hypocritical at best, they need only reflect upon the words of Pope John Paul II in Christifideles Laici where he directly addressed situations like this: ‘The common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights—for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture—is false and illusory, if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition of all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.’ (n.38).

“It is my sincere prayer that the leaders of Georgetown University will reflect upon these words and come to the obvious conclusion that they must rescind this award and fully embrace their Catholic heritage by defending the most vulnerable members of our society, the unborn.”

What's next a Judas chair for Financial Oversight? Or and Arian chair for Christology?

For those unaware of Fr. Drinan was at one time a Congressmen whose policies totally supported abortion, but would write to pro-life constituents that the Church's position was correct. He was the first of the "Personally opposed, but.." politicians. When he first ran in 1970 the Father General of the Society of Jesus Father Pedro Arrupe had pretty much commanded that Drinan not be allowed to run and if elected to not serve. Unfortunately there was much obfuscation by Drinan's superiors in this matter leading to a lot of confusion and the circumventing of the local bishop. When Drinan ran for reelection the Father General formally told him he could not run, not that this matted to Fr. Drinan. Shortly after Roe v Wade, Drinan wrote that the decision had flaws but that he found it on the whole a beneficial judgment.

Pope John Paul II in 1980 issued a general order banning priests from political office and Fr. Drinan did leave office. He later wrote articles in the New York Times and what I guess could be called its sister publication the National Catholic Reporter attacking the partial birth abortion ban and supporting President Clinton's veto of it. New York’s John Cardinal O’Connor in his diocesan newspaper called Drinan to account and later James Cardinal Hickey, archbishop of Washington, D.C., demanded that Drinan clarify his position and saying that he had "caused public confusion about Church teaching on abortion."

There hasn't been much good news on the Catholic identity front at Georgetown in recent years and the Drinan chair only shows that it has sunk to new lows.

Madrid (CNA) -- The Spanish daily La Razon is denouncing a Catholic publishing company that has agreed to publish text books for Islamic religion classes that will be offered in public schools in Spain. The Santa Maria Foundation, which is operated by the Marianist religious order, has assumed the project of publishing Islamic text books through its publishing group "SM," with the support of the Union of Islamic Communities of Spain (UCIDE -- Spanish abbreviation). The first textbook, which has been released to reporters, is called, "Discovering Islam."

SM, says the purpose of their decision to publish Muslim texts "is to foster intercultural encounter and religious dialogue, with the integration of Islamic values in the socio-cultural context of Spain," La Razon, however, argues the deal is really about getting Muslim business.

According to the Spanish newspaper, the UCIDE will sell the books at the same price as books on the Catholic religion published by the Marianists. The first printing of the books should thus bring over $275,000 in revenue. SM says the profits will be used to finance future editions, and if the UCIDE is able to sell 15,000 copies each of all seven volumes of the series, it will earn some $1.5 million in profits.

According to reporter Alex Navajas of La Razon, "In countries like Saudi Arabia or the Sudan, if you are caught with a Bible, you are sentenced to death…Surely the Islamists in Spain are not as fanatical as the Saudis or the Sudanese. But that's not what this is about. The problem is that SM, whose 'identity is inspired by Christian values'," has fallen prey to "the most severe form of relativism and syncretism."

"That is, there is no difference between promoting the Christian faith or the Islamic faith because, in the end, all religious are equal since all of them lead to God. So, let them publish the Book of Mormon, which is just nonsense, or come to an agreement with the Jehovah's Witnesses, who own one of the most powerful publishing companies in the world," Navajas said.

In related news Dom posts on the Massachusetts Bible Society with its new slogan “a voice for progressive Christianity.” He also mentions that in recent years they have also been distributing Korans.

The essay in last month's First Things by Joseph Bottum is finally online When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano, Catholic Culture in America. This is not a short essay, but it is well worth your time. I remember reading it when it came out in First Things and thought it was extremely balanced and informative. As a convert the years during and immediately after Vatican II I have no personal experience of. This article fills in many gaps in my own knowledge and gives details on many interesting cases. There is also much in it that will annoy people on both divides of the Church.

Amy Welborn alluded to the fact the other day that she was going to do a post in response to this article and I bet when she does her comment box counter will be ringing. It will be interesting to read through the responses to those who directly experienced this time in the Church.

Hat tip to Rich Leonardi for mentioning this article was available.

Karen Hall points to a quiz that appeared in the 1993 issue of This Rock Magazine which bills itself as the "World's Toughest Catholic Quiz."

I got 17 out of 20 and one of them I really should have got correct if I would have thought about it more. The other two though were helpful in learning a more exact definition of what the questions covered.

I wouldn't call it the toughest Catholic quiz though. Envoy Magazine use to run a regular feature called inQUIZition that I think were generally much tougher. For example this one where I got only 12 of 20 right.

So what do you score?

The Church is making a fool of herself because of certain Church officials who are behaving like scared children who think that the police are coming to their house to take them away forever.

That’s what happens when priests think that the Church is “in danger of losing her tax exempt status” for speaking up about the elections.

We don’t want to address controversial issues, and as a cover for our cowardice, we blame the tax guy. Never mind that the law allows us to speak up, or that no Church has ever lost its tax-exempt status for telling its people that they have to elect candidates who will protect life (which, after all, is the very purpose of government and public service!)

This confusion is the result of many years of paying more attention to building projects than building justice. As the Lord said, the very stones will cry out

Obviously Fr. Frank Pavone is more than a little annoyed by the timidity of some who seem to have a higher developed fear of the IRS compared to a fear of the Lord.

Fun and thought provoking post on Dwight Longenecker's blog Standing on My Head about the creative conservative.

In an article on a brochure by Archbishop Charles Chaput, Denver; Bishop Michael Sheridan, Colorado Springs; and Bishop Arthur Tafoya, Pueblo.

Other political issues, the document said, allow for "legitimate diversity in our prudential judgments" and apparently allow Catholics to vote for candidates as they will, without consideration of intrinsic evil issues.

Somehow I don't think that is what is meant by the Colorado bishops. Besides shouldn't that be intrinsically evil vice "intrinsic evil." Of course they have editors so I must be mistaken.

A reader sent me a link to this interesting article about Dominican priest Laurentius Siemer who was part of the German resistance movement during World War II, was Imprisoned by the Nazis, and later became a TV celebrity.

A resident is suing the Chicago suburb of Burbank, alleging that the city's new vehicle sticker violates her constitutional rights.

The sticker bears the image of asoldier with a rifle, kneeling in front of a gravesite that bears a cross.

City officials say the cross is a generic symbol and wasn't picked for any religious reasons.

But resident Nichole Schultz disagrees, according to her attorney, and she says the sticker has resulted in the "forced Christianization" of her car.

For the record I am against cars forcibly being converted to the faith. We never seem to ask our cars first before putting on a political bumper sticker or attaching a religious item to it. I bet many cars are embarrassed by the bumper stickers on them. Though I am sure my car is properly Catholic since it reverently approaches cross streets.

Our society though has become a society of victims where offense is looked for and taken repeatedly, so much for multiculturalism or respect for diversity. Instead of the example of a melting pot that was traditionally used we have become more like a centrifuge where every element is separated from each other.

I also think our court system should institute a laugh test. Every lawsuit should be read first before a panel and if anybody laughs when it is read out it is thrown out.

Here is an interesting site called No Room for Contraception, always room for love with an article about Breast Cancer and Oral Contraception.

Everytime some half-wit progressive brings up Jerry Falwell, the Bakers and Pat Roberston, don't you always hear "Hungry Like the Wolf" playing in the background? Can't critics at least learn some new names from this century if they're going to criticize the Religious Right? (Although I guess we can take some small comfort from the implication that progressives are just too stupid and/or lazy to bother...)

But anyway, I don't have a NYT column, and David Brooks does. Here's part of his review of Andrew Sullivan's book:

"The Conservative Soul is imbued with Sullivan's characteristic passion and clarity. And yet I must confess, if I hadn't been reviewing this book, I wouldn't have finished it. I have a rule, which has never failed me, that when a writer uses quotations from Jerry Falwell, James Dobson and the Left Behind series to capture the religious and political currents in modern America, then I know I can put that piece of writing down because the author either doesn't know what he is talking about or is arguing in bad faith."

Which. Is. What. I've. Been. Frickin'. Saying.

Kathy Shaidle goes on to call this Brooks law and even better Reductio ad Falwellum. This is so true since the only time you ever hear these names are if some liberal is bringing them up or the rare case when a conservative does - and in those cases it is mainly to lampoon the latest idiotic statement. Pat Robertson and the Bakers, etc. are like the crazy uncle in the family as far as most Christians are concerned. But maybe the reason they are stuck in the eighties as far as the religious right goes is that there really are no dominant members of the Christian right that are as easy to caricature. Sure they totally disagree with people like Dr. James Dobson, but he doesn't have some cheesy television show talking about the end times and curing people over the airwaves. They want religious right Bogeymen to scare their constituents to the polls to save us from the impending theocracy. The eighties had the death defying Jason and progressive's keep resurrecting old religious right figures one more time hoping for once to give a good scare. That behind Jason's hockey mask lies Pat Robertson or Jerry Fallwell.

A reader sent me this story about Bishop David Choby once again guarding his sheep.

Citing conflict with Church teaching, the local Catholic Diocese has for the second time in six months rescinded an invitation—made by one of it own Catholic clergy members—to a local interfaith group to meet in one of its churches.

Father Patrick Kibby invited a group hosting a four-week discussion about the intersection of religion and politics, jointly sponsored by the Interfaith Alliance of Middle Tennessee and the Tennessee Alliance for Progress, to use facilities at the Cathedral of the Incarnation for this week’s meeting. Instead, the group—whose series is titled “Doing Justly: Integrating Our Deepest Spiritual Beliefs Into Our Professional Lives”—received word late last week that Diocesan Bishop David Choby objected to the positions of the Interfaith Alliance on abortion and same-sex marriage and that, therefore, the group would not be allowed to gather on church grounds. It will meet instead at Belmont United Methodist Church.

The Diocese doesn’t dispute that characterization of the situation and appears more than happy to sit out this citywide discussion among religious people of various backgrounds.

“We encourage people to rely on their faith as they play an active role as citizens in our society,” Diocese communications director Rick Musacchio says in a statement issued to the Scene. “However, serious confusion is likely to arise in the minds of many when political groups hold events on church grounds. We have asked the sponsors…to find another venue for their event after it became clear that one of the primary sponsors is an avowedly political group endorsing many positions that are in conflict with Catholic teaching.” When asked which sponsor the Diocese considers “avowedly political,” Musacchio cites the Interfaith Alliance, a diverse group with members of many faiths and whose local members include several Catholic priests.

Rev. Dan Rosemergy, board chairman of the Interfaith Alliance and an eternal optimist, tells the Scene he’s aware of Choby’s reasons for changing the venue and has scheduled a meeting with him this week to discuss the situation. He feels reasonably hopeful that Choby will come around.

I don't think congregationalist pastor Dan Rosemergy should hold his breath on this one.

Sadly, the shrinking tent mentality within the Diocese isn’t an isolated occurrence. Back in May, Father James Mallett of Christ the King Church was forced to deliver the news to published theologian Dan Maguire that he would not be welcome after all to speak at his parish about justice and the poor. A group of local Catholics invited the Marquette University instructor here, only to see Bishop Choby weigh in against the plans, putting the priest in an embarrassing situation and forcing the group to find an alternative location.

I love the editorializing here about the "shrinking tent mentality" and casting dissident theologian Dan Maguire as a "published theologian" as if having a book published makes you right. Funny how it is the Bishop that put the priest in an embarrassing position and not the fact that it was the priest's action that caused the problem. I think it is rather embarrassing to invite anybody to your parish who you say you are totally unfamiliar with, especially with someone like Maguire who has done his best through the media to make everybody familiar with him.

“I am unfamiliar with most of your work, but I did not hesitate to agree to host the event,” Mallett wrote in an email to Maguire at the time. “I am also quite familiar with a number of the group…who invited you. I am at a total loss to explain the tide of vitriol and stupidity that has followed in the wake of our publicity of this event.”

I also have never been much of a fan of the tent analogy in the first place, especially the idea of a big tent only goes so far. Truth has defined edges like a tent does, but often what is imaged is an idea of a tent so big that it essentially has no border. Like the Hotel California you can enter it but never leave. A tent so big that it encompasses everybody stops being a tent and instead becomes a giant cover blocking the sun, and in this case the truth itself by elevating opinion as truth. A real tent has tent pegs to hold it down the same way truth is held down by dogma. Pull up the pegs and the boundaries of the tent do get bigger to the point that it ceases being a tent.

The author of this article also previously covered the first instance that the good bishop took action. She quoted Maguire as saying "They are locked into what I call the pelvic orthodoxy.” I bet Maguire has used this little phrase a lot Of course if there is such a thing as pelvic orthodoxy there would be also pelvic heterodoxy. But sin is of the will and his little turn of phrase does not diminish the fact that outside of marriage that sex is sinful or that lust in all circumstances in sinful. As a theologian Maguire does not explain Jesus' words, he explains away Jesus' words.

Update: Carl Olson also weighs in on this article.

Southern California actress Laurel Kelsh Jones brought Martin Luther’s wife, “Katie” to life in the sanctuary of Napa Valley Lutheran Church on the afternoon of Oct. 8.

Clothed in Renaissance dress, Jones declared to the 30 mostly elderly attendees, “This is the day the Lord has made! Not bad for 507 years old, is it?”

She colorfully described incidents in Katie’s life, such as her time in a convent, saying, “I’ll tell you how I got into the habit” and “we prayed and we prayed and we prayed.” Katie told of secretly reading Martin Luther’s pamphlets in her cell and being smuggled out of the convent on Easter eve in empty herring barrels.

Finally, she passionately spoke of her courtship and marriage to Martin Luther. She said, “He was 42, I was 26. He was an ex-monk; I was an ex-nun. … We had six kids in eight years.”

When Jones ended the performance, she said, “You’ve had a Martin Luther in your life. Think about your Martin Luther, who loves you unconditionally. … I know it’s not cool to be Lutheran. Shouldn’t you go to the non-denominational church? Luther transformed the foundation of all Christianity. … God put you here for a reason. God chose you, is that not wonderful?”

The audience applauded enthusiastically. Afterwards, at the pie social, Jones answered questions and passed out “Reformation red” pencils.

Jones has played Katie Luther for a decade, performing at nearly 30 churches a year. Originally, her pastor asked her to do a 15-minute sermon called “The Reformation according to Katie.” Now, she has sold 650 recordings of her hour long, one-woman show.

In an interview, she said, “God is working through me. … Incredible things have happened in my life because of Katie. Blessings continue to unfold. What (Martin and Katherine Luther) did for the Christian Church is astounding.”

Jones described the Luthers’ marriage, saying, “Katie felt there was something she needed to do; something was missing. She had too many unanswered questions. How she and Martin came together could only be God-inspired because they didn’t start as lovers, but with respect. Martin and Katie had a marriage of our day; they enjoyed sexual relations, they desperately loved their children, they were a working father and working mother, they taught their children at home.” She said they were “partners in the Gospel and in life.”

On the Reformation, she observed, “Martin wasn’t out to destroy the Church, but restore the Church and go back to basics. In the Catholic Church, Mother Mary still has a prominent position, you have to go through the saints; in Protestantism, you go directly to Jesus. (In the Catholic Church) there are certain prayers, using Rosary beads, and following specific liturgies; it’s more formulated and scripted. Every Protestant church is different, more free. Everybody wants freedom, that’s what we have with God.”

You would think that she would know of Martin Luther's devotion to Mary such as one of his sermons when he preached "[She is the] highest woman and the noblest gem in Christianity after Christ . . . She is nobility, wisdom, and holiness personified. We can never honor her enough. Still honor and praise must be given to her in such a way as to injure neither Christ nor the Scriptures." Martin Luther also believed in the Communion of Saints. The Mass Luther celebrated in the church he created was essentially the Mass with some changes. I wonder if she knows about the growing number of Protestants and especially Lutherans who pray the Rosary?

What I find interesting is the thought of how every church being different is seen as a good thing. That what the doctrine one church holds is dismissed by another. Or even the doctrines two churches might share will have radically different interpretations. Jesus prayed that they may be one, not that they may be divided. On my way into the Church it was my introduction to the variance of Protestant theology and how on Protestant radio I listened to the doctrines changed from hour to hour depending on who was preaching. Not that the message preached from those in the Church is always consistent, but it isn't hard to discover whether they preached what the Church taught or not. I can easily understand a Lutheran defending Lutheranism and the Reformation, just not a defense of all of the splits and calling them freedom.

If you are looking for Pious Books in Geneva you have to be careful that you don't find BMW instead of the BVM.

John Allen Jr. posts more As speculation mounts on pre-Vatican II Mass, so do question marks. In it he lists seven questions that Viatorian Fr. Mark Francis, superior general of the Clerics of St. Viator sees as difficulties in the universal indult. In general there are a lot of interesting questions about a universal indult, canon law, and norms published by the Bishop's conference. Some of Fr. Francis the questions are valid, but some just seem to me to be odd.

What about church architecture? “It’s difficult to celebrate the Tridentine rite in a Vatican II space,” Francis said. “Will we have to move the altars back and forth? Will we have to install altar rails?”

First off there is not such thing as a Vatican II space since the council never spoke about changing the arrangement of the sanctuary in the first place. My parish celebrates both the indult Mass and the new Mass without any difficulties at all. Altar rails are of course not required. You could still have people receive kneeling without having an altar rail in place. Just as not having kneelers does not mean that you can't kneel. Though the idea of folding altar rails strikes me as rather funny. The very idea of movable altars is laughable as if you can change the sanctuary like you would the set of a television show. Besides Canon law requires that the altar be unmovable in the first place.

Finally, if the church allows traditionalists attached to the old Mass to hold onto their customs despite official changes in policy, what would prevent more liberal Catholics, for example, who oppose the new, more “Roman” English translation of the post-Vatican II Mass from requesting permission to use the previous English version? “Are we creating a procedural monster?”

This is just plain ridiculous to compare the normative Mass for over 500 years to a bad English translation. Apples and Oranges are much closer in comparison than this widely disparate comparison.

Though the idea does spark in me some funny thoughts. This would be great fun to turn the tables on progressives preferring the less accurate translation. Now instead of calling a use of the poor ICEL translation an indult Mass, how about instead calling it an insult Mass? The language surely insults anybody that looks at the Latin it is suppose to be based on. That they would have to apply to their Bishop for the insult. Thinking twice insult should never be associated with the Mass, so I will just call it the ICEL Mass. I can see Bishop Bruskewitz having great fun granting to ICEL Mass to those "attached" to it or for those who "nostalgic" for it. I really enjoy using the words "attached" and "nostalgic" in this circumstance considering how many times it is used in connection with those who love the Tridentine Rite Mass. Getting back to Bishop Bruskewitz and like-minded bishops they could grant permission for the ICEL Mass in a small church in need of repairs in a parish inconvenient to the majority in the diocese. That the ICEL Mass could be celebrated once or twice a month. And as soon as the priest who says the ICEL Mass retires or gets transferred permission for it will immediately end.

I would just love to see the faces on progressives when they get treated exactly as so many advocates of the Tridentine Rite. Maybe their face will become an about-face when put into the same circumstances.

Coming back to Fr. Mark Francis I find it ironic that a liturgical writer such as he who writes much about multicultural liturgy and who has taught at the infamous L.A. Religious Ed Conference has a problem with Latin culture. That somehow we can have Hawaiian dancers and every permutations for multiple cultures for the purpose of inculturation yet throwing into the mix the Pian Rite and all of a sudden this would cause serious consequences. Though I can't say I am much surprised since he actually wrote an article once called There's more to the Real Presence than the Eucharist. One of those pieces so popular by liturgists to downplay the Body, Soul, Blood and Divinity of Christ and place at almost the same level of the presence of Christ in the congregation and other forms of presences.

I guess Hillary will have to rephrase her husband's motto to "Safe, Legal, rare, and without parental notification." After all it takes a village and not a parent.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Catholic who "knowingly and obstinately" rejects "the defined doctrines of the church" or its "definitive teaching on moral issues" should refrain from receiving Communion, according to a document that will come before the U.S. bishops at their Nov. 13-16 fall general meeting in Baltimore.

The document, "'Happy Are Those Who Are Called to His Supper': On Preparing to Receive Christ Worthily in the Eucharist," requires the approval of two-thirds of the members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for passage.

In an introduction, Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., chairman of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, said the draft document was the result of a proposal to the bishops in November 2004 by Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, N.J., for a statement on how Catholics should prepare to receive the Eucharist.

"He envisaged this document as applying to Catholic faithful, not just to politicians or those in public life," Bishop Serratelli said.

Archbishop Myers' request came after a presidential campaign in which some bishops had criticized the Democratic candidate, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, and said he and other Catholic politicians who supported abortion should be refused Communion under canon law.

But a footnote to the draft says that it is not intended "to provide specific guidelines" to the provision in canon law that says that Catholics "obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin" should not be allowed to receive Communion.

"In order to receive holy Communion we must be in communion with God and with the church," the document says. "If we are no longer in a state of grace because of mortal sin, we are seriously obliged to refrain from receiving holy Communion."

Among examples of such sin, the document cites "committing deliberate hatred of others, sexual abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult, or physical or verbal abuse toward one's family members or fellow workers, causing grave physical or psychological harm; murder, abortion or euthanasia."

Other "serious violations of the law of love of God and of neighbor" listed in the draft include swearing a false oath, missing Mass on Sundays or holy days without a serious reason, "acting in serious disobedience against proper authority," sexual activity "outside the bonds of a valid marriage," stealing, slander or involvement with pornography.

The document criticized those who "give selective assent to the teachings of the church."

But Catholics who have "honest doubt and confusion" about some church teachings "are welcome to partake of holy Communion, as long as they are prayerfully and honestly striving to understand the truth of what the church professes and are taking appropriate steps to resolve their confusion and doubt," the draft says.

"If someone who is Catholic were knowingly and obstinately to reject the defined doctrines of the church, or knowingly and obstinately to repudiate her definitive teaching on moral issues, however, he or she would seriously diminish his or her communion with the church," it adds. "Reception of holy Communion in such a situation would not accord with the nature of the eucharistic celebration, so he or she should refrain."

If a person who "is publicly known to have committed serious sin or to have rejected definitive church teaching and is not yet reconciled with the church" receives Communion, it could be "a cause of scandal for others," giving "further reason" for the person to refrain, the bishops said.

Most of the commenters at Amy Welborn's blog think the document as it is reported so far is a good step in the right direction. Many commenters also pointed out the glaring omission of contraception from the example list of sins. I didn't have to have prophetic knowledge when I starting to read how the list started that this would be one item not in it. An exhaustive list is of course not the purpose of a document like this, but you would think that a grave sin that a large number of Catholics are committing is surely contraception. There is no reliable statistic on what that number of Catholics commiting contraception might be but it would not stretch the imagination to put that number easily in 90 percent or more range.

I subsequently wondered exactly what the USCCB in its current or previous makeup had done towards educating people on this sin? Looking at their site I found this section "U.S. Bishops' Statements on Marriage: 1980-2005" and under "Natural Family Planning/Contraception:" they list a whopping three statements made by bishops that included the topic of Contraception. This small list included Bishop John T. Steinbock, Bishop Charles Chaput, and my own bishop - Bishop Victor Galeone. Surely this can't be right? I figured preaching on contraception by Bishops and the clergy in general was rare, just not that rare.

Well how about statements from the Bishop's conference itself on contraception. The otherwise excellent Living the Gospel of Life only mentions contraception in passing in a footnote. Rather strange since the pill and other methods of birth control can act as abortafacients. Looking through there "Life Issues and Relationships" section again I find zero documents about contraception. In fact a search in this section of documents the USCCB sells only reveals Pope John Paul II's excellent encyclical Evangelium Vitae when it comes to contraception.

One overall very committee of the USCCB is the the one that works with prolife activities. They do have a section on contraception, though I find it strange that their list of articles that they are not able to reference one from the Bishops themselves on this subject. Though this is not their fault since as far as I can tell no document like this exists.

So I guess I am going to have to rethink this issue. Obviously I was quite mistaken. The sin of contraception must be quite rare among American Catholics. I must have been harshly judging my fellow Catholics on this subject. The charge that most Catholics in the United States use contraception must be a vicious slander. Because if this was true and many Catholics were endangering their immortal souls surely the Bishop's conference would have squeaked out one document on this subject.

Well actually I do have an idea on how to get the Bishop's conference to respond. We should create some new stories saying that many people were building barriers keeping children from coming into the United States. That because of these barriers that people have erected and the Government endorses many children have died along the way. After all the Bishops recently issued a statement condemning the Secure Fence Act. Contraception does erect a barrier and surely puts into place a fence designed to keep children out. Some of those children that are conceived die when abortafacients cause a hostile environment in the womb and they subsequently starve to death. Bishop Skylstad said the border fence "contributing to an increase in deaths, including women and children." Same with contraception and the attitude it develops that often leads to abortion when it fails. There are also the medical risks involved in most contraceptives where for example oral contraception causes women to die at a rate of 1 in 200000 per year. If we start calling a child conceived when contraception fails an illegal alien fetus maybe we will get some movement on this subject.

Update: The Bishop's conference through a monkey wrench in my rant, but I did write that the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities was excellent.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Contraception introduces "a false note" that disturbs marital intimacy and contributes to a decline in society's respect for marriage and for life, the U.S. bishops say in a draft document that will come before them at their fall general meeting in Baltimore.

The brief document, called "Married Love and the Gift of Life," is intended for use as a brochure and is in question-and-answer format.

Developed by the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities in collaboration with the committees on Doctrine and Marriage and Family Life, the document strongly supports natural family planning, saying it "enables couples to cooperate with the body as God designed it."

"When couples use contraception, either physical or chemical, they suppress their fertility, exerting ultimate control over this power to create a new human life with God," the draft said.

But because natural family planning "does not change the human body in any way, or upset its balance with potentially harmful drugs or devices, people of other faiths or of no religious affiliation have also come to accept and use it from a desire to work in harmony with their bodies," it added.

The bishops disputed the view that the church's opposition to contraception means that Catholic couples must "leave their family size entirely to chance."

"In married life, serious circumstances -- financial, physical, psychological, or those involving responsibilities to other family members -- may arise to make an increase in family size untimely," the document said. "The church understands this, while encouraging couples to take a generous view of children."

A circumstance in which I love being wrong and I do hope that the document becomes widely distributed.

Both Rich Leonardi and Gerald Augustinus cover the Catholic related CSI last night.

Paul Nichols who does some wonderful art along with caricatures sent me his latest cartoon.

CaNN critiques an Anglican Appeal ad in Canada that has the three multicultural persons along with a white-skinned Jesus and an medium-brown Mary.

Strange kerfuffle over at Jimmy Akin's site with letters from Bill Moyer's lawyers threatening him about a story he posted on his site previously. Amazing how things go right to a lawyer when a simple email to Jimmy Akin would have been sufficient in the first place.

The offending post contained a statement by Dr. Beisner relating to Bill Moyers.

"..he very candidly told me that he is a liberal Democrat and intended for the documentary to influence the November elections to bring control of Congress back to the Democrats. "

A statement of which Bill Moyers denies ever making. I remember seeing that quote before and at the time and questioning its accuracy. Now I am in no way a Bill Moyers' apologist and I have fisked him thoroughly in the past. The reason I doubted him saying this is that I have heard him questioned about media bias before. I have little doubt that he truly believes that he sees himself as totally unbiased and as an independent so I think it is totally out of character for him to admit that he isn't. I do think that he is totally delusional when it comes to this since his fragrant bias permeates everything he does. But like most in the media they truly don't believe this about themselves.

Jimmy's lawyer Stephen Dillard of the blog Southern Appeal replied to Moyer's lawyer's pointing out that this didn't rise to defamation and that a simple request would have solicited Jimmy to post Moyer's denial of the quote.

What I find ironic is that this all takes place within the context of a series Moyers is doing on the environment which covers in part evangelicals. Last year Moyer's published an editorial claiming that religious right is deliberately trying to despoil the environment and using as evidence the Left Behind novels. In it he claimed that James Watt who was President Reagan's first secretary of the interior said:

...that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, "after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back."

What Watt actually said was "we have to manage with a skill to leave the resources needed for future generations."

So now Bill Moyers' is so worried about his "integrity as a journalist" without ever recanting his own defamation. A lie that was subsequently used by other media outlets as being true, though some have issued a correction.

Domenico Bettinelli looks at the proposed document by the USCCB regarding the “Church’s posture on homosexuality.” I think his concerns about the document are well justified. He says "While the proposal itself includes stuff that sounds right, there is enough equivocation to sink it at the pier before it even launches." Considering their history with documents like Always our children I think skepticism is appropriate.

``For this reason, baptism of children adopted by such couples presents a pastoral concern. Nevertheless, the church does not refuse the sacrament of baptism to these children, but there must be a well-founded hope that the children will be brought up in the Catholic religion.”

How much hope could you possibly have that children brought up by people so obviously in rejection of a basic moral teaching would be brought up in the fullness of the Catholic faith? In fact, what does “brought up in the Catholic religion” mean? Is there some minimum standard? That’s certainly a can of worms because there are plenty of heterosexual couples for whom the same questions can be asked.

Just how likely is a homosexual couple to teach children that active homosexuality is gravely sinful? Or for that matter cohabitation couples teaching about the sin of fornication? This goes way beyond a founded-hope into wishful thinking.

In other USCCB related news.

The U.S. bishops will vote to establish norms for hymns at Mass during their annual November meeting in Baltimore, November 13-16.

The new norms, which will require a two-thirds vote by the bishops and subsequent recognitio by the Holy See, are to ensure that liturgical songs will be doctrinally correct, based in the scriptural and liturgical texts and relatively fixed.

The norms are part of a new “Directory for Music and the Liturgy for Use in the Dioceses in the United States of America.” The directory responds to a recommendation of Liturgiam authenticam, the fifth Vatican instruction on correct implementation of liturgical renewal called for by the Second Vatican Council.

The recommended norms are here and they look pretty good. The USSCB site also says

The document said that the large number of liturgical songs that exist in the United States have benefited the liturgy, but also said that “a certain stable core of liturgical songs might well serve as exemplary and stabilizing factor.”

I hope the author of that statement went to confession after writing it. Large number? If this was true there would be no needs for these new norms.

Now that a group of Poor Clares have both a blog and a nice internet site does that make them eClares or does being on the internet make them Port Clares? [Via Moniales OP ~ Dominican Nuns]

This group of Poor Clares is located in Barhamsville, Virginia near Newport News. Their internet site is well worth exploring, though I am a sucker for pictures of nuns prostrate before the Blessed Sacrament.

Radiant: St. Andrews Catholic
What's old is new again at the 104-year-old building.

Metal clanged as workers raised scaffolding at the 104-year-old St. Andrew's Catholic Church, where restoration of 15 stained-glass windows is nearing completion.

With a rag drenched in distilled water, crew worker Aaron Orth cleaned the face of St. Patrick in one of the large, ornate windows. He uses a pH-neutral solution to ensure that no damage is done to the lead casings around the glass.

"This will last for a long time," said Chris Dieter, field crew supervisor. "Before, you couldn't see the windows because of the old protective coverings."

Gone are the drab Plexiglas-type coverings that had obscured the light. New clear coverings allow illumination of the windows' brilliant reds, blues and golds, which shift and change with the play of sunlight and passing clouds.

There was a time when the person whom you despise now was above you; the one who is now a man was eternally perfect. He was in the beginning, without any cause; then he submitted himself to the contingencies of this world… That was so as to save you who insult him, who despise God because he took your crude nature…

He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, but when he rose from the tomb, he got rid of his shroud. He was laid in a manger but glorified by the angels, announced by a star, adored by the magi… He had to flee to Egypt, but he freed that country from the superstitions of the Egyptians. Before his enemies, he had “no stately bearing … nor appearance that would attract us” (Isa 53:2), but for David he was “fairer in beauty… than the sons of men” (Ps 45:3), and on the mountain, he shone more brilliantly than the sun (Mt 17:1f.). As man, he was baptized; but as God, he took away our sins. He did not need to be purified, but he wanted to sanctify the waters. As man, he was tempted; but as God, he triumphed, he who “conquered the world” (Jn 16:8)… He was hungry, but he fed thousands, he who is “the living bread come down from heaven.” (Jn 6:48.50) He was thirsty, but he cried out: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me; let him drink” (Jn 7:37)… He knew what it was to be tired, but he is rest for all who “are weary and find life burdensome.” (Mt 11:28)… He was called a “Samaritan and possessed” (Jn 8:48); but it is he who saves the person who has fallen into the hands of thieves (Lk 10:29f.) and who makes the demons flee… He prayed, but it is he himself who hears prayers. He wept, but he puts an end to weeping. He was sold for a base price, but it is he who redeems the world at a high price: through his own blood.

Like a sheep, he was led to his death, but he leads Israel and now the whole earth to the true pasture. (Ezek 34:14) Like a lamb, he was silent; but he is the Word announced through the voice of the one who cried out in the desert (Mk 1:3). He was disabled and wounded; but it is he who heals every illness and every infirmity (Mt 9:35). He was raised up on the wood and he was nailed there; but it is he who restores us through the tree of life. He died, but he gives life and destroys death. He was buried, but he rose, and ascending into heaven, he liberated the souls from hell.

Saint Gregory of Naziance (330-390), Bishop, Doctor of the Church 3rd Theological Discourse via DailyGospel.org.

CORNWALL, Ont. - The altar rail is no place for confrontation between Catholic politicians and the clergy who want them to fall into line, Washington's archbishop emeritus said Tuesday.

But if a politician consistently and publicly defies the church, he should be denied communion, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick told the Conference of Canadian Catholic Bishops meeting here this week.

''You have no choice in the matter. That person should not partake of communion. Sometimes you just have to do it.''

I was pretty sure there was only one Theodore Cardinal McCarrick until I read this article. I mean is this the same Cardinal who seemed to mischaracterized the letter from then-Cardinal Ratzinger and also spent two years with a committee on this subject only to come up with for each Bishop to do their own thing?

By discussing the matter civilly, the cardinal said, ''I feel we have brought people closer to the centre ... In the middle is virtue.''

Okay this is the same Cardinal. There is of course always a problem using political terms within the Church. Left, right, center just don't equate very well. Have you ever hard of a martyr described as a centrist? Cardinal McCarrick does love talking about the middle. Truth does not lie (pun intended) between two extremes, it transcends them. Virtue is not the middle of two positions. Fr. John Hardon's wonderful Catholic dictionary defines virtue as "A good habit that enables a person to act according to right reason enlightened by faith." Now I am not implying that the Cardinal ever means anything not orthodox, but I have called him a man of the muddle before because most of what he says that is reported seems to me to be informed more by politicalese and beltway talk than in ways that have a more Catholic heft behind them. If he would start substituting center with truth I think it would improve the little pieces of quotations we do get from the media.

The article ends with his quote "''These dialogues are not about winning votes, but saving souls.''" To which I say amen.

Via Amy Welborn is this column by Patrick Hynes and Jeremy Lott in USA Today:

It must be rough. Even so, we think Christian conservatives should take solace in the fact that most of their critics don't mean a word of it.

As proof, we offer Exhibit A: the religious left. No comparable group of political activists has received as much news media attention since the last election.

According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, religious lefties are about 7% of the electorate. They are called on regularly by Democratic politicians seeking to win over values voters.

What's interesting is that leaders of the religious left have not been hit with a similar and constant charge of "theocracy." This despite the fact that religious lefties articulate public policy positions in the context of the Bible and frame their political entreaties in the moral "values" language we are accustomed to hearing from Christian conservatives.

Now my question is would it be possible to tell a religious left theocracy from a secular influenced government? Besides if there is a impending theocracy then why aren't religious conservative positively upbeat instead of being quite pessimistic on the direction of the government in general? Why aren't there cries of atheocracy instead. With groups like the ACLU and the People For the American Way trying to scrub all reference to religion and religious symbols from public life. Are Nativity scenes being removed a sign of an impending theocracy? Is a judicial nominee being attacked for having 'deeply held' Catholic beliefs a sign of an impending theocracy.

The August/September issue of First Things had a reviews of a slew of books on theocracy.

Steven Riddle recently reviewed Damon Linker's The Theocons. Steven is quite a charitable writer in general and he tries his best with this review.

Update: In an interesting development Commonweal reviews Linker's book and as Steve Dilliard noticed they ripped it.

I think this cartoon I created spells out my view on the subject.

*Art derived from multiple clipart at Clipartheaven.com

 

I also previously created a new board game Theopoly.

The blogger at The Truth About Margaret Sanger writes:

It is time again for the Margaret Sanger at the Ku Klux Klan Rally Art Contest. This year's contest will highlight the 80th Anniversary of Margaret Sanger's speech to the the women's branch of the Silver Lake Ku Klux Klan. In her own 1938 autobiography, Margaret Sanger An Autobiography (1971 reprint by Dover Publications, Inc. of the 1938 original published by W.W. Norton & Company) Sanger indicates at pages 366-367 that the she got along quite well with members of a New Jersey branch of the Ku Klux Klan at her 1926 speech, eventually getting a "dozen invitations to speak to similar groups."
|
Participants in this year's contest are encouraged to commemorate Sanger at the Klan rally in unique artistic ways. Drawings, cartoons, historical novels, haiku, dance, plays, videos, paintings, quilts, rap, actual photos of Silver Lake, modern interpretations of Sanger speaking to the Klan, reenactments of the actual speech on YouTube, audio recordings of actual Sanger quotes she may have reused when speaking to the Klan - - there is no limit to the artistic ways this historic event can be commemorated.

The Big Abortion Industry still holds Margret Sanger out as an icon. Artwork is one more important ways to promote the truth about Margaret Sanger.

I have wondered if possibly there might be some rivalry between St. Luke and St. John? For example at the time when St. Luke wrote the third Gospel it was really the longest and most detailed and contained information about Mary and especially the Annunciation that the first two Gospel writers did not include. And then St. John one-ups him and writes not only the longest Gospel, but includes details about Mary at Cana, and even mentions that she was given to St. John to take care of by Jesus. Certainly the reason why there are no more Gospels after St. Johns is how can you beat his prologue, Chapter 6, or his theological writing style.

St. Luke though decided to write a sequel to his Gospel, the Act of the Apostles and instead of following the actions of someone like St. John decides to concentrate on St. Paul instead.

Now you really have to wonder what St. Luke thinks of the Book of Revelations written by St. John? Especially when he came across "So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth." Lukewarm? Why Lukewarm. Why not Judaswarm? Or perhaps Ananiaswarm or Sapphirawarm. Surely if St. Luke wasn't in the beatific vision this would have been seen as another snub by St. John towards him.

You also have to think that St. Luke must have been pretty pleased when Star Wars came out. Finally Luke is not associated with vomiting and Luke is actually the hero. Saint Luke use the force and pray for us.

Kale at un-Muted Mumblings wrote me saying he was inspired by my St. Michael the Archangel E-prayer and came up with some possibilities about the Michael server. His post is definitely inspired and contains some great laugh-out-loud puns.

It also reminded me of one of my previous posts and what Operating System the Michael server must use.

Fr. Selvester at Shouts in the Piazza links to a priest friend of his who has a great blog title. I just love the sense of humor of most Catholics. Maureen Dowd writes after Pope Benedict is elected "“The Cafeteria is Closed” and Gerald Augustinus started his great blog with that name. Fr. Greeley tries to disparage a new generation of priests by calling them "Young Fogeys" and Fr. Jay Toborowsky starts a blog with that name.

A reader informs me that the Clear Creek Monastery is raising funds to build a new monastery. This is a group of Benedictine monk who celebrate the Tridentine Rite in Oklahoma.

This blog has an account of a visit there with plenty of photos.

Here is another article on them.

Thomas Hibbs at NRO has an article on The enduring significance of A Canticle for Leibowitz. As a SF fan I still can't believe I never read this great book until earlier this year.

Emily Byer from The Parousian Post blog has a good article in the LSU newspaper on Planned Parenhood's 90th anniversary and its founder Magaret Sanger. There have been several comments to her article, most positive, but one that is extremely scary.

But we ARE [at least physically] nothing more than highly civilized animals! Just another piece of the life-web that unluckily has too many members and the power to destroy all the web's other members.
As for Eugenics - it is actually good, logical sense to let the infirm and addled live fulfilling fun live but NOT let them breed. How much strain would be taken off the healthcare system, how much misery avoided... In fact pre-WWII it was de-rigueur in most of US law; until Hitler became associated with the term. Tell us, really, what good does let 2 severally retarded and blind people reproduce do anyone?
Eugenics might be "playing God" but as Francis Crick said, "Someone has to." If that is not for you then fine; stick to your "alternate view" and beliefs and stay out of the way of the rest of us. Don't like abortion - don't have one. Don't like sex - avoid it too.
As for socialism - some parts of that are quite fine - like socialized medicine.

Well I guess that is one way to defend racist eugenists Margaret Sanger. You just got to enjoy those bumper sticker platitudes like "Don't like abortion - don't have one." Don't like slavery, don't own one. Don't like murder, don't kill anyone. Though what immediately comes to mind is in this commenter's case " Don't like reason, don't use it. "

AMDG notes that the USCCB's site is listing the Call to Action conference on their November Calendar.

November 3-5 Call to Action National Conference: “Rise Up People of God,” Milwaukee, WI. Contact Linda Pieczynski, (630) 323-6924.

This year one of their sessions include:

Roman Catholic Women Priests Celebrate Eucharist
Roman Catholic Women Priests invite us to a Eucharistic liturgy in which women, equal and sacred symbols of the Roman Catholic Chuch <sic>, celebrate in an inclusive manner the Sacred Meal of Our Faith. They invite us to join them and “discover the future alive in the present.” Facilitating this liturgy will be six ordained R.C. Women Priests, pictured below: Bridget Mary Meehan of Global Ministries University; Eileen M. DiFranco of Philadelphia; Joan Clark Houk of Pittsburgh; Kathleen Strack Kunster, serving a small community in California; Regina Nicolosi of Red Wing, Minn., a nursing home chaplain; and Kathy Sullivan Vandenberg. There are also two ordained R.C. women deacons: Juanita Cordero, a liturgist, and Mary Ellen Robertson, a hospice chaplain. Sun., 7:45 AM (13.07)

What is interesting is that this event is not listed on their regular calendar. Also no other Catholic conferences are listed. Only Call to Actions out of all the hundreds of conferences each years gets a mention.

The USCCB gives contact information for Linda Pieczynski, the spokeswoman of Call to Action. Before Pope John Paul II died she said "What we are trying to do is survive and hold on until [the next pope]." Boy would I have liked to see her face when Pope Benedict was elected. After his election she said:

"Progressive Catholics are closely watching the first actions of the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI," stated Linda Pieczynski, the national spokesperson for Call To Action (CTA), the nation's largest progressive Catholic reform group. She said, "The Spirit leads the church, which is the people of God, no matter who is Pope. Some issues in the Church just won't go away. We still feel called to raise our issues even if the current Pope will not. Given our knowledge of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's prior positions as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly the office of the notorious Holy Inquisition, we are guarded in our expectation that he will address any of the important changes we have called for."

Pieczynski continued, "Under Ratzinger's leadership and with his approval, the discussion of women's ordination has been forbidden; married priesthood is not under consideration; people who have ministered to the gay and lesbian community have been silenced; and theologians who have written about the good in other religions have been investigated. He is also personally responsible for derailing the canonical lawsuit filed by the victims of Fr. Maciel, former head of the Legionaries of Christ, an alleged serial pedophile. Finally, he led an effort for two decades to disempower national conferences of bishops, which conflicts with Vatican II's principle of collegiality."

Update: The calendar item has now been removed. Hopefully this was addressed with whatever staffer thougtht this was worthy in the first place.

I mentioned some time back about a Tennessee man who created a Rosary out of bowling balls. Well here is another one in Michigan.

NAPOLEON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — When a man forges a 70-foot, 700-pound rosary out of bowling balls in his front yard, you just know there's a story behind it.

This one involves Ralph Kluk, 76 — a Poland native, pack rat, polka player and pen pal of the late Pope John Paul II.

Kluk is a character. He also is known to ride about town with one. If you spy a guy tooling around in a black Chevy 1500 pickup with a 3-foot tall Scooby Doo plush toy strapped into the passenger's seat, chances are you've just seen Kluk.

"I do crazy things," the Jackson County grandfather admits, with a twinkle in his eye. "But they're not really crazy."

Turns out, there's actually a simple mathematical formula to building a bowling-ball rosary.

Take 59 balls, 20 cans of pastel spray paint, 40 feet of black piping, add a wooden cross and voila! You have a unique interpretation of Roman Catholic catechism that Kluk calls "The Final Strike."

Anchoring the balls in the ground with 9-inch metal stakes was key, he says. They almost rolled off his 30 acres and onto Horton Road.

And another one in Illinois.

NOKOMIS - Hail Mary, full of grace ? and if you sinners out there try to pray this particular rosary, you are going to need a back brace.

Not that fingering the 59 beads is the point here, of course. The rosary that retired quarry worker Bernard "Chub" Clark has created in his rural three acre yard near Nokomis is made of old bowling balls and probably weighs close to 1,000 pounds, give or take.

Behind the rosary is a cautionary sign, stark black letters against a white backdrop: "You know not the hour Jesus will come - please pray." Clark hopes the message rather than the rosary will weigh heavily on the conscience of rubber-necking motorists passing by on Hillside Avenue. Clark believes mankind has strayed further and further into the gutter and our Father, who art displeased in heaven, is getting ready to bowl us over for our wickedness.

Well the one advantage is that if you happen to drop this Rosary when you yell Jesus! it won't be too out of place.

From a Letter to the Editor by Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Diocese of Providence.

I write about the highly publicized attempt of two Rhode Island women to enter into a "same-sex marriage" in Massachusetts.

I'd like to stress that my remarks aren't aimed personally at the individuals in question. I wish them no harm and I sincerely pray that God will bless them and the children with them with much health and happiness. Nonetheless, their attempt to have the state ratify their homosexual relationship is disturbing and morally objectionable.

God's plan for the human race is obvious and immutable: "God created man in his image, in the divine image he created them, male and female he created them. . . . For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh." This clear testimony of the Bible is supported by the constant teaching of the church, the law of nature, the reality of biology and common sense. Males and females are complementary; they are designed for union with one another. The traditional concept of marriage, based on that relationship, is normative, fundamental to the human person and essential for the common good of society.

Contrary to some current ideologies, this teaching does not discriminate against homosexual persons. The Catholic Church has consistently taught that homosexual persons are children of God, our brothers and sisters, and must be respected. Nonetheless we have to recognize the possibility, sometimes even the necessity, of respecting individuals even while opposing their immoral behavior. Likewise, it's not a question of civil rights as some have claimed. There's never a right to do something wrong. Human freedom is not unbridled license; it must be grounded in truth.

The facts are these: Homosexual acts are contrary to the law of nature and gravely immoral; The notion of gay marriage or civil unions is spiritually harmful to individuals and families and erodes the foundation of society; The state has no business encouraging immoral behavior or ratifying illicit unions.

I hope and pray that the State of Rhode Island will not follow Massachusetts in traveling down this dangerous and dead-end highway.

THOMAS J. TOBIN

WARSAW, Poland --Poland's central bank on Monday issued 2 million collectors' bank notes bearing the image of the late Pope John Paul II, marking the 28th anniversary of the late pontiff's election.

John Paul, born Karol Wojtyla in the Polish town of Wadowice, is revered in his homeland, where he helped to inspire the pro-democracy Solidarity movement in the 1980s.

The National Bank of Poland's special notes have a face value of $16, and sell for $29.

The front of the bills feature an image of John Paul II holding his crucifix-topped staff against a background of the world map.

On the back, John Paul is depicted kissing the hand of a Polish cardinal. The design includes a quote from the late pontiff: "There would not be a Polish pope at the Holy See if not for your faith, not backing down when faced with prison and suffering, your heroic hope."

Vuong Anh Toan, 39, who has lived in Poland since moving from Vietnam 10 years ago, bought three bills for his wife and son.

"I'm not a Catholic, my wife is, but I loved the pope," he said.

I am torn between this being really cool or an opportunist money making gimmick to take advantage of the late Pope's popularity . And in this case they are literally making money to make money.

TAMPA,Fla. (The Florida Catholic) - David and Carmen Cartaya own a business here called David’s Pharmacy. But they make it clear they are not the boss.

God is.

“The No. 1 thing in David’s and my life is God and religion,” Carmen, 57, said. “No. 2: the family. No. 3 is extended family. No. 4 is more family. And No. 5 is our job. Our profession.”

They also make it clear that life matters.

Stop by their store, at the corner of West Martin Luther King Boulevard and North Armenia Avenue, and this fact becomes immediately clear - from the pro-life pamphlets and videos to the fetal models to the large banner inside the store that reads, “If you’re pregnant, it’s a baby. Choose life.”

As devout Catholics, they practice what they preach. When they got married in 1969, they did not use contraception, but followed natural family planning, David, 61, said. In the years that followed, three sons became part of their family.

When David became a pharmacist, he worked for several companies, but the couple decided in the mid-1970s to start their business. As owners, the couple decided not to sell birth control pills or other contraceptives, a practice they have kept to for about 30 years now.

“We wanted to please God first before men,” David said. “God's laws and our faith meant more than anything else.”

The couple, who were born in Cuba and met each other in Tampa, do not know how many lives they have touched because of their pro-life witness, which is offered in English and in Spanish.

“Only God knows,” David said.

But Carmen recalls one woman who came into the store who considered the fetus growing inside her as “real and alive,” but her friends kept telling her to have an abortion because, if she didn’t, she would be “crazy.” The woman happened to see one of the pro-life signs at David’s Pharmacy, Carmen said, and told her friends, “Somebody else doesn’t think I’m crazy.” And she decided to keep the baby.

Bureaucracies are like dinosaurs because the bigger they get the smaller their brains are. Case in point is the USCCB.

Previously the USCCB went after the Verbum Domini podcast which broadcast the daily readings from the New American Bible and demanded that he stop using the NAB. Great move against a podcast listened to by people who are unable to attend Mass. They subsequently put on their site.

Permission may not be granted to post or podcast the complete NAB (or complete books of the NAB) or the daily or Sunday readings.

Now since the USCCB is the copyright holder of the NAB they certainly have the legal right to defend their copyright. It is also understandable how they might want to prevent the misuse of this translation (though in this case the translators of the NAB already did that). It seems to me reasonable that that they should grant permission to a podcast only after an investigation as to how it is used. Instead they just have a blanket NO. Go out into the whole world and spread the Gospel unless of course it has been copyrighted by the USCCB.

Now Jeff Mirus of Catholic Culture reports that the USCCB is now going after websites that post USCCB documents.

We used to include many significant documents in our database from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, but not any more. The USCCB goes after web sites which make use of USCCB documents, threatening legal action for copyright violations. This policy is in marked contrast to that of the Vatican, which enforces copyrights only to prevent others from releasing advance copies of documents before their official promulgation dates.

Many organizations, including Trinity Communications, have received letters from the USCCB listing the unauthorized documents displayed on their web sites, and requesting immediate removal. USCCB staff actually track this stuff down. Clearly this is within the USCCB’s rights under copyright law, but just as clearly it is a short-sighted policy which significantly limits the circulation of episcopal documents. If other web sites were allowed to post them, these documents would be substantially more widely read among the Catholic faithful.

Mark Shea says in response:

One of their many stupid, counter-productive, turf-guarding policies is to criminalize the use of USCCB documents (including the Catechism) and to waste our tithe money assigning staff to track down those nefarious Catholics out on the web who, like, quote the Catechism. One almost gets the impression the USCCB doesn't *want* people to know what the Church teaches.

Congratulations to Greg and Jennifer of Rosary Army which recently released their 100th podcasts. I listen to a lot of podcasts, predominately Catholic ones, and the Rosary Army podcast is definitely one of my favorites. Their apostolate of making Rosaries with the motto "Make them. Pray them. Give them away." only gives you a slight indicator of what their podcast is like. They have described their podcast as a Catholic reality show as it follows the joyful and sad events in their life. They do it with great humor and you never know from week to week what their topic of discussion or on what tangent they once again embark. If you have never listened to their podcast the 100th episode it a good introduction to them since it wonderfully displays their talent and includes segments of past shows.

I have also finally gotten around to making a banner for them in my Catholic podcast section along with two others of my favorite podcasts from their joint effort of SQPN.

The attack on the Vatican website by Jihackists was unsuccessful. Kevin Knight posts:

Michael is the name of the firewall, or security computer, at the Vatican website. (They also have servers named Gabriel and Raphael. I think I detect a theme here.) According to a report from Catholic World News, it's been busy lately:

Islamic computer hackers tried to disrupt the Vatican web site earlier this week, but failed, according to a report in the ANSA news service.

In an online forum for militant Muslims, a group announced plans for an assault on the Vatican computer network, which was said to be a form of retribution for Pope Benedict's criticism of Islam in his Regensburg speech. Police later confirmed that there had been a concerted effort by hackers to penetrate the Vatican site, but computer-security experts were able to detect and repel the attack.

Vatican security personnel are remaining vigilant in case of another effort by the hackers.

On second thought, maybe the vanquisher was St. Michael the Archangel after all.

There is a legend that the Sister running the Vatican website collapsed after Mass one day. When she revive, she related a vision of Satan through his minions attacking the servers hosting the Vatican website. Following the vision she wrote this prayer.

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us against Denial of Service attacks.
Be our protection against the bots and packets of black hats.
May thy firewall rebuke them, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Hosting Provider-
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into digital hell, distributed attacks and all buffer overflows,
whose packets roam throughout the network seeking the downing of sites.

MOBILE, Ala. - Police searched for three men in the attempted robbery of a church bingo operation that seriously wounded a 60-year-old security guard in an exchange of gunfire.

The guard, Thomas Aricer, of Mobile, fired at the suspects before being shot in the abdomen about 11 p.m. Friday in the parking lot of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church.

Police spokesman Officer John Young said the suspects fled in a four-door, dark blue or gray Chevrolet Caprice with the rear driver's side window shot out. It was unclear if anyone in the car was shot.

Aricer was escorting William Rice, the church's business manager, and a church maintenance worker, across the parking lot to deliver the night's bingo cash to the rectory. The total amount was not immediately available.

The Rev. Edwin Beachum, the pastor at St. Catherine's, said a car swerved in, and one of the occupants started shooting.

Today with the canonization of Saint Theodore Guerin so we now have a new American saint, though she was born in Brittany, France. There are in fact only two American born saints St. Katherine Drexel and Elizabeth Ann Seton. Which means there are still no American born male saints. Face it guys we are being slaughtered in the American born saint category. I mean tow to zero is a wipe out. Is there a stained glass ceiling preventing American born males from being canonized here? Do we need an Equal Saints Amendment or affirmative action for American born male saints?

Sure I know we have some waiting in the wings such as Venerables Terence Cardinal Cooke, Fr. Michael McGivney, and Fr. Solanus Casey. None of the four male Blesseds was born in the United States so this is more proof of American born male discrimination. Sure they will let you be a Venerable just to tease us, but when it comes time to the big leagues we aren't considered good enough.

Let's not take this lying down, instead let us take it on our knees. Come on and get to interceding now. Pick a Venerable of your choice and start praying for his cause. Learn about him and ask for his intercession. For my part I select Venerable Solanus Casey who was the first American born male venerable. Since I was first introduced to his story I have found him fascinating. Father Groeschel was one of his altar boys and relates a story of coming into the church late one night to find Fr. Casey playing his violin in front of the Blessed Sacrament. There is also the cause for Bishop Fulton J. Sheen which was opened in 2002 and he is now a Servant of God.

Now don't get me wrong I am not a misogynist when it comes to women saints or prejudiced against immigrant saints and of course this is written tongue-firmly-in-cheek. Just let us slide in one American born male saint.

The first movie by FoxFaith to come out is on the story of Esther. Unfortunately going by Steven D. Greydanus review it is just about what I would expect to happen when I first saw the news of 20th Century Fox’s new faith-and-family-values division. One Night with the King includes some of my favorite actors like John Rhys-Davies and Peter O'Toole, but I have learned to trust Steven D. Greydanus reviews. I have always been happy with the one he recommends and when I didn't take his advice on the ones he didn't like I regretted not taking it.

Today is the Navy's 231st Birthday.

Command Master Chief James Russell tosses 17 roses into the Atlantic Ocean from the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) during a remembrance ceremony on Thursday to honor the 16 sailors and one officer who died in the terrorist attack on the destroyer Cole (DDG 67) six years earlier to the day. -- Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Miguel Angel Contreras / U.S. Navy

The Eisenhower was the last ship I served on before retiring.

In other news here is a story today of a Navy Seal jumping on a grenade saving the lives of his members of the SEALS. Requiescat In Pacem Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor.

Galea Salutis has a detailed and interesting article on Communion under both species - The Law. As far as I can tell I believe his conclusions to be correct. I have heard Cardinal Arinze on his podcast say many of the same things.

Dwight Longenecker has a good post on Churches, Hypocrisy and Stolen Umbrellas. Religious utopianism is always a problem and it often leads either to church shopping, church creating, or despairing grumbling. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to listen to shows like Catholic Answers live on my way into the Church. I developed no pretentious of a perfect and scandal free Church. The scandal of Judas is not an new story, but an old one. I have learned, slowly though it be, to be more scandalized by the fact that I am a Catholic. Gee they will let just about anybody in.

Catholic call-in shows are not exactly loaded with calls from people asking for advice on how to move from the Teresian sixth mansion of prayer to the seventh. Many calls are people scandalized on one thing or the other. Protestants scandalized about Catholics practices and Catholics scandalized by liturgical abuse, the clergy, and other Catholics.

It is easy to admit on our lips that we are all sinners, though sometimes are hearts just aren't quite in it. We know that it is the Publican and not the Pharisee who walked away justified, but sometimes we want to say to the Pharisee "Preach it brother." I consider it a mixed blessing to be a mid-life convert. Like Alec Guinness my one true regret is not becoming a Catholic sooner. On the other hand it helps me to see that I have no idea where other people are on a conversion timeline only that that God wills all men to be saved, if only they cooperate. Great sinners have become great saints. There are the Sauls to Pauls, though there are also always the Judases. My concern has not been to try to pick out others who might go to Hell, but to ensure that I don't increase the population of Hell by one myself.

Dwitght like G.K. Chesterton enjoys standing things on their head. Being a long time fan of Groucho Mark I am reminded of his famous quip "I would not join any club that would have someone like me for a member." Well I would not belong to any church who would not have me as a member. That a cross has been closely associated with hospitals and medical organizations is no surprise in that it is the Church which was the first hospital. As Jesus said "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

Pope Benedict XVI narrowly avoids a planned water balloon attack.

A committed Christian said today she planned to take legal action against her employers British Airways after the airline ruled that displaying her crucifix breached uniform rules

Heathrow check-in worker Nadia Eweida was sent home after refusing to remove the crucifix which breached BA's dress code.

Note to Media: A crucifix has a corpus of Christ on it.

Her treatment by BA - which styles itself as the "world's favourite airline" - brought condemnation both from Christian groups and members of other faiths last night.

BA's chief executive Willie Walsh has upheld the action against Miss Eweida for failing to comply with "uniform regulations" despite himself coming under fire recently for failing to wear a tie.

Miss Eweida, who has an unblemished record during seven years at BA, is suing her employer for religious discrimination after being suspended from work without pay for two weeks.

She said her treatment was all the more extraordinary as she and fellow employees had just undergone "diversity training" - including receiving advice from pressure group Stonewall on how to treat gays and lesbians in the workplace.

I just knew I would find the next bit of information in the aticle.

It makes exceptions for Muslim and Sikh minorities by allowing them to wear hijabs and turbans.

Under rules drawn up by BA's 'diversity team' and 'uniform committee', Sikh employees can even wear the traditional iron bangle - even though this would usually be classed as jewellery - while Muslim workers are also allowed prayer breaks during work time.

Via TheWorld...IMHO

A Catholic priest has become the latest homeowner to run afoul of the Westchase homeowners association.

Father Jeff Johnston appeared before the board Thursday night after he was told to remove a Celtic cross from near his door in the northwestern Hillsborough County community. His appeal was denied.

Board members told Johnston he was being cited under a section of the community's deed restrictions that deals with sculptures that might be offensive to race or religion. Johnston's attorney, Noel Flasterstein, told the board the cross was a symbol of national heritage. He questioned whether people would be allowed to have Nativity scenes at Christmas if the rules were applied uniformly.

"While it is a Celtic cross, it certainly is a Christian symbol," Johnston said. "It is not a garden ornament; it's by the front door."

In March, Westchase resident Stacey Kelly clashed with the community association after posting a 2-foot-tall "Support Our Troops" sign in her front yard. It was a tribute to her husband, David, an Army private serving in Iraq. Three months later, she was cited for a pair of ceramic angels that had adorned her yard for five years.

The Criterion, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, has a blog running for the next week and a half that will be covering the canonization of Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin in Rome as well as the celebrations at the motherhouse of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods near Terre Haute, Ind. They will have reporters at all the events, one of whom is traveling with the archdiocesan pilgrimage to Italy.

This might be the first canonization blog.

They also have an information page on soon-to-be Saint Theodore Guérin.

RC over at Catholic Light posts:

Fox starts division to boost religious movies. They're starting with Esther, but I'm really looking forward to a cinematic treatment of the book of Judith.

Judith would be pretty cool. Judith really had Holofernes pegged, or should I say tent pegged. There are a lot of Old Testament books that have received little or no cinematic treatment. I would love to see Tobit done. It has a lot of real cool events that would work well visually. Husband killing Demons, Angels disguised as humans, romantic elements, and blindness curing ointments made out of fish livers. Tobit would be great as long as it wasn't a two-bit production.

I would also love to see a good treatment of Elijah. Elijah just plain rocks, though he wasn't exactly very ecumenical. There were no working groups for "Jewish and Baal Together." There are really a lot of great scenes from 1st Kings that could be done and the movie would end on a high note with the flaming chariot exit.

Of course with Fox doing these movies I hope they are not too cheesy. A lot of writers could easily mess things up by trying to project modern attitudes onto Biblical figures. That Moses mini-series last year was a perfect example of how badly this can be done.

What Biblical books would you like to see done?

Mercator.net has an interesting article on a Canadian documentary called C-38 which examines the issue of same-sex marriage by having balanced interviews of both supporters and critics of Canadian Bill C-38. Michael Cook says the documentary demolishes the case for same-sex marriage. Seeing quotes such as What's marriage? -- "just a ring and a big spiel," made by one teenager shows the depth of misunderstanding of what marriage is. They didn't redefine marriage in Canada because they never defined it in the first place. The documentary even includes two Bishops and since one of them is Bishop Fred Henry you know that they didn't cherry pick opponents that come across as idiots.

A Chilean man caught stealing from a Catholic parish church was sentenced to go to mass regularly for one whole year.

Alexis Araneda, 18, will also have to carry out menial chores at the San Antonio de Padua parish, located in the town of Ercilla, 580 kilometers south of Santiago.

The alternative punishment was proposed by authorities, part of changes in Chilean legal rules.

Araneda was sentenced for stealing cylinders of liquefied gas which the church used for heating. He also damaged property in the April robbery, committed as he returned after binge drinking with friends at a party.

A few prayers to St. Dismas would be in order that perhaps next year he will go on his own accord.

Via Dwight Longenecker, Catholic or Protestant Heaven.

I remember seeing this episode when it came out last year and this was just one of the funnier bits.

Here is a photo essay that appeared yesterday. The beautiful and stunning photos ranging from conception to around six months in age are a sight to behold. Photographer Lennart Nilsson photo's are a must see. It is so rare to to see pictures of this sort in a newspaper and it is a good idea to let them know how nice it is to see a feature like this.

MOSUL, Iraq Relatives of an Orthodox priest who was kidnapped and found beheaded three days later said Thursday that his captors had demanded his church condemn the pope's recent comments about Islam and pay a US$350,000 (€280,000) ransom.

More than 500 people attended a memorial service Thursday for father Amer Iskender in the northern city of Mosul after his decapitated body was found Wednesday evening in an industrial area of the city.

Iskender was a priest at the St. Ephrem Orthodox church in Mosul.

"He was a good man and we all shed tears for him," said Eman Saaur, a 45-year-old schoolteacher who said she attended Iskender's church regularly. "He was a man of peace."

Relatives, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said the unidentified group that seized Iskender on Sunday had demanded a ransom and that his church condemn a statement made by Pope Benedict XVI last month that ignited a wave anger throughout the Muslim world. In a speech at a German university the pope quoted a medieval text that characterized some of the Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman," declaring Islam was a religion spread by the sword.

American Papist has a good roundup on the rumors of the upcoming Moto Proprio giving wider permission for the Tridentine Rite. Anybody following Catholic news ever since Pope Benedict was elected will remember that we have been getting these stories steadily, though it certainly does look like the reports are much more credible this time.

Gerald Augustinus also has a roundup and I totally agree with him when he says:

A possible "liberation" of the Old Mass is a good thing, but the truly important issue is the "reform of the reform", the every(Sun)day Mass at your average parish.

It will be quite interesting to see the real document when it comes out as to the restrictions involved. To me this document signals a tacit acknowledgement of the failure of most bishops to respond to Quattuor abhinc annos and Ecclesia Dei recommending a "wide and generous " application of the directives of the 1984 indult. Wide and generous has not exactly been the reaction, rather more accurately "narrow and stingy" would be closer to the mark.

Though you have to wonder how more widely the Pian rite will be in most diocese even if it grants very generous permissions. I can hardly imagine it being more available in my own diocese than it already is. My parish church already has the indult Mass along with the new Mass partially in Latin. Most of the other parishes I am familiar with that celebrate the new Mass not exactly reverently, will be clamoring for the Tridentine rite.

I have thought at times about what would have happened if the Tridentine rite had never been replaced in the first place? I have a feeling that we would still have been treated to Clown and Polka Masses, only Ad Orientum and in Latin. This idea kind of gives me nightmares thinking of liturgical dancers at at High Mass.

BRIGHTON, MA - Pope Benedict XVI has informed Cardinal Seán O'Malley that Reverend John A. Dooher, Pastor of St. Mary Parish in Dedham and Reverend Robert Hennessey, Pastor of Most Holy Redeemer in East Boston, have been named Auxiliary Bishops for the Archdiocese of Boston.

Cardinal Seán received this news with gratitude for the Holy Father's pastoral care of the Archdiocese and has announced that bishop-elect Dooher will be assigned to the South region and bishop-elect Hennessey will be assigned to the Central region of the Archdiocese.

Pope Benedict XVI has also granted Bishop John Boles' request for retirement - Bishop Boles currently serves as the Auxiliary for the Central region.

The Ordination of the two new Auxiliary Bishops will take place on December 12, 2006 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston; details will be forthcoming. Bishops-elect Dooher and Hennessey will also continue in their current roles at their parishes until replacements are appointed.

Rocco is reporting "Mutiny in the Big Apple."

Long-simmering tensions among a broad cross-section of the archdiocese's priests broke into the open today with the circulation of an anonymous letter under the authorship of a group calling itself "A Committee of Concerned Clergy for the Archdiocese of New York." Saying that, "At no time has the relationship between the Ordinary and the priests of the Archdiocese been so fractured and seemingly hopeless as it is now," the authors have urged their confreres to lodge "a formal vote of 'NO Confidence'" (emphases original) in Cardinal Edward M. Egan, who became archbishop in 2000. Using strong language throughout the 950-word missive, the authors allege a widespread finding that Egan's relationship with his priests has been "defined by dishonesty, deception, disinterest and disregard."

"Sadly, it is evident that this Cardinal is unable to deal with the complexities, problems and challenges of an Archdiocese of the magnitude and diversity of New York. For these reasons and more, the Priests of the Archdiocese of New York must express a vote of NO CONFIDENCE. Such a vote would encourage the Papal Nuncio and the Holy Father to strongly consider accepting the Cardinal’s resignation in April,2007, when he reaches the age of retirement, rather than at a future and uncertain date before his 80th birthday, as can often be the case with retiring Cardinals. The search for a new Archbishop should begin sooner rather than later."

I am not much of a fan of anonymous committees encouraging secretive votes against their bishop.

In other news a press release from Archdiocese of Boston announces.

Cardinal Seán O'Malley will host a press conference tomorrow morning to make a major announcement, sharing key news regarding an important step forward in the continued rebuilding and strengthening of the Church in Boston.

...Please Note: Immediately following Cardinal O'Malley's press conference, all media are welcome to remain for a photo opportunity and to cover the procession of the sacred relic of the heart of St. John Vianney outside the grounds of St. John's Seminary - located next to Peterson Hall - to a statue of St. John Vianney and to the entrance of St. John's Seminary Chapel.

Archbishop regrets Catholic Church ‘confessional competition’ in Eastern Europe, Russia

When I saw the above headline I imagined something quite different than the actual story. The story is about the intensified activity of some Western missionaries in Russia and the conflict over the Russian Orthodox Church over this.

I had a whole different idea of what a confessional competition could be. We are by nature largely competitive and having a real confessional competition could be fun. One competition could be where multiple families compete against each other. They set a fix starting point and stop at multiple churches where at each stop one member of the family goes to confession at that Church. Then they drive to the next church and repeat. Of course there is a time limit and it is the time confession is available at most churches on Saturday from around 5 to 5:30 pm. Now that would be a race!

Family members could compete for least number of Hail Mary's assigned as penances. Though you have to find a parish where the same penance isn't assigned for pretty much anything.

Parishes could compete for which ones have the longest lines for confessions. This though could be inconvenient for some people who have a limited time so maybe they can also offer a confessional line for 10 venial sins or less.

It would be pretty hard though to have competitions for most contrite, best examination of conscience, or most improvement since the last confession. You would have to have a priest like Padre Pio or St. John Vianney and they wouldn't be allowed to say who won anyway.

Via Tim at The Catholic Church in the Internet Age.

Islamic hackers allegedly supporting al-Qaeda claim they will launch an attack on the Vatican’s official website on Wednesday night. Several internet sites which act as the mouthpieces of Islamic terrorism have launched an appeal in the past few days on hackers to attack the Holy See’s site. The appeal has allegedly attracted dozens of hackers. Under the plan publicised by the fundamentalist sites, hackers will sabotage the website at 8 pm local time and continue to block it for the following 36 hours.

36 hours? So I guess in three days it will rise again. Though it looks like so far these Jihackists have not been succesful. Surprisingly the term Jihackists has never been used before considering that this has become fairly common. Though luckily flying bots into servers isn't going to kill anybody.

Another sourcereports:

Rome - Islamic extremists have tried to hack into the Vatican's website, Italian police said Wednesday.

The hackers' attacks began several days ago but caused no noteworthy damage, Ansa news agency reported, quoting the police.

Further details were not immediately available.

Police only said Vatican Radio's website had also been affected.

Here is an Interesting article on a physician who became a Jesuit and is also Cardinal George's personal physician. A priest doctor is a very cool combination. Though it could be disconcerting going in for a checkup. If he calls you back and says I have some news for you, but first let me get out my oil for Last Rites you know it isn't good news. Though for some getting in an annual checkup and their Easter duty at the same time could be a real time saver.

Jill Stanek alls writes today about this very deceptive admendment.

Drew at Shrine of the Holy Whapping points to a Protestant site on Orthodox Catholic Idolatry. Drew describes it as "a fascinating collection of really cool photographs juxtaposed with barely-relevant Scriptural quotations." The photo essay starts with "Roman Catholicism is of the Devil!" Examples of captions are "Little girl being forced to kiss an icon." Though I couldn't find the coercive device used to force this piety, it must be Orthodox mind control.

The dumbest example that Drew points out is a picture of Veronica holding the veil with Christ's image that they confuse with Mary with the caption "Come on my son, kiss the Queen of Heaven! Ye worship ye know not what..." -John 4:22" The irony is that they mock what thee know not. The saddest example is a picture of a women kissing a crucifix with the caption "People are worshipping Satan and Don't Even Realize it."

All I know is I would never buy a dictionary from the people who created this site. "Some of those icons are of mystics (meaning Satan-possessed)..."

Somebody should start PravdaTube. This would be a version of YouTube with one hundred percent liberal content. They could probably sell it for more than 1.6B to Google. Last week Michelle Malkin chronicled her problems with having her video removed from YouTube. Earlier today I saw the David Zucker Albright Ad, which has got to be the funniest political ad I have ever seen. When I went to view it again later it had been flagged by users as having offensive content. You just got to love the tolerance of some liberals that they consider anything that pokes fun or depart from their party line as being offensive. I consider that fact that they flagged this as offensive as offensive. Unfortunately there is no "Flag as Inappropriate video's marked as inappropriate." Of course you can still log in to see it, but I consider tactics such as this a very sad statement in political debate and I do hope conservatives don't do similar tactics to liberal campaign ads. If you disagree with a video simply leave a comment.

Interesting article on Phil McCord the currently non-Catholic whose miraculous healing of his eye is attributed to Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin and was used as proof for the second miracle leading to her canonization this Sunday.

He was the son of a Baptist lay minister and he worked for nuns, overseeing the facilities owned by the Sisters of Providence, composting and all.
McCord was never much of a praying man.

But concern for his eye and the notes from an organ brought him into the Church of the Immaculate Conception, the large, ornate church on the St. Mary-of-the-Woods campus.
He sat in a pew and offered up a silent prayer to God. And, almost as an afterthought, McCord thought of Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin. He took a chance on speaking to her. "If you have any influence with God," he recalled saying, "I would appreciate it if you would exercise it on my behalf and kind of help look out for me."

...McCord has tried to follow a just-the-facts approach to his story. He's content to let others draw their own conclusions about whether this was a miracle. But he says Mother Theodore was known to provide medical care to the congregation's employees and their families. It doesn't seem to him like a stretch that she might do the same from heaven.
But has the experience brought him closer to God?

McCord says he is "more of a Catholic than anything" yet "not a very observant anything." Yet his ambivalence seems to be waning. He talks now about taking "the next step."
" I'd be very comfortable with that decision," he said.

Like many notable Catholic blogger I received a review copy of Meredith Gould's The Catholic Home which is in its second edition. I had been looking forward to reading this after reading Julie of Happy Catholic's review, though less so after reading Tom of Disputation's review.

The first and largest section of the book covers the liturgical year. Brief summaries are made of the prominent part of the liturgical year followed by summaries of celebrating them at home. Throughout the book chapters from the Catechism are used to reinforce the various feasts. Most of the chapters includes a look of the various traditions used throughout the world to celebrate these feast. Mostly involving food which of course makes sense for liturgical feasts. It is interesting to read about the various liturgical customs and this exactly the type of information that I want to see in a book of this type.

The chapters are also interspersed with prayers and some handy lists of information relating to the liturgical year. She write with a good sense of humor which occasionally made me smile. I really wanted to like this book, but now I know why you aren't suppose to look a gift horse in the mouth. There is a lot to like and a much useful information for somebody just entering the Church and wanting to bring the liturgical year into the daily activity of their homes. Unfortunately there are many errors in this book. A chapter that included a classic Marian prayer included a comment that saying it would make Martin Luther spin in his grave. Obviously the author is not aware that Martin Luther never lost his Marian devotion. But that is only a minor criticism and fairly unimportant, the other errors are much more problematic.

The first section of the book is the best part and if that was all to it I could probably recommend the book. Some parts were just odd. The section that covers the Liturgy of the Hour's just was not serious. She recommended against the 4-volume set because of all the ribbons to keep track of. Instead she said we could basically do the same thing with our Bibles and that your church's bulleting probably lists the readings or that they can be obtained from a Catholic web site. Of course this is just not possible. The readings from the daily Liturgy mesh with the readings in Divine Office, they are not the same thing. Trying to use your Bible you would end up with a heck of a to more ribbons trying to keep track and of course you wouldn't have the antiphons, readings, hymns, etc. Not to mention the second readings from the Office of Readings mostly from the Church Fathers. I'll stick with my 4-volume set. Though she could have recommended the one volume Christian Prayer as an alternative.

Moneybags at A Catholic Life already mentioned in his review her suggestion of UNICEF for Halloween. He also links to an earlier post the problems with Catholics supporting UNICEF.

The section on the sacraments is where things really break down. Now in a book of this type you don't expect theological exactness, but a lot of the wording left a lot to be desired. Discussing baptism "You technically don't need a priest for this rite in an emergency." and then goes on to say "This like all other sacraments, derives and confers meaning whe celebrated in public." Sorry a sacrament does not derive its meaning by being celebrated in public. The meaning is just as full when done in private. Now if you are going to talk about an emergency situation it would be nice if the proper form and matter for this was mentioned.

The section on the anointing of the sick contains information that is just plain wrong. She says "Anxiety disorders, addictions, or unhealthy relationships are as worthy of anointing as, say, something terminal." Unfortunately many parishes are teaching this and have open anointing where people just come up in line as in Communion.

1004 §1. The anointing of the sick can be administered to a member of the faithful who, having reached the use of reason, begins to be in danger due to sickness or old age.

§2. This sacrament can be repeated if the sick person, having recovered, again becomes gravely ill or if the condition becomes more grave during the same illness.

Can. 1005 This sacrament is to be administered in a case of doubt whether the sick person has attained the use of reason, is dangerously ill, or is dead.

Can. 1006 This sacrament is to be conferred on the sick who at least implicitly requested it when they were in control of their faculties.

This sacrament is for those who are gravely ill not for problem relationships. This is a serious liturgical abuse and it is sad to see it furthered in this book.

The section on marriage says you have to have the marriage ceremony in a church, but that if you insist on having it outdoors you can have a Deacon do it. This is not without a dispensation from the local ordinary and if done without it will be an invalid marriage. If the Bishop does give permission, then it would not just be restricted to the Deacon anyway, in those cases a priest would be allowed to do it.

On the section on Holy Orders my jaw drop with "Currently the vocation of priest and deacon is open only to Catholic men." Currently? She then goes on against priestly celibacy mentioning how some of the Apostles had been married and then bringing up the old myth about celibacy being imposed because of medieval property rights disputes. She speaks glowingly of the Orthodox and there having married priests without mentioning that both their monks and bishops are required to be unmarried. "God only knows what the future holds for those who feel called to receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders." Did somebody send me a prank copy of this book? Testing to see if I read the whole book. I wish that was the case.

The short section on the Rosary to me seemed to concentrate on Mariolatry and displaced devotion more than devotion. The guide on when to pray the mysteries was just plain wrong. Luminous Mysteries on Sunday, funny I could have sworn Rosarium Virginis Mariae recommended Thursday. You pray the Glorious Mysteries "on Wednesdays and Saturdays from Easter until Advent." is another mistake.

The book ends with Essential Prayers which rightly contains what you would expect it would and ends with suggested readings and various internet links. The links are solid and I saw no problems with the recommendations, though most of the books were unfamiliar to me.

This book could have been a great guide to give people in RCIA. It does contain a lot of good practical advice and suggestions for celebrating the liturgical year. Unfortunately the flaws make it totally unsuitable for anybody new to the Church. Not recommended.

I am not quite sure what is up logo for the next convention of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians.

Now at first look you might think that this is a labyrinth which is currently so popular among progressive retreat houses. Now I know labyrinths have been used in Catholic meditation for a long time such as the one Cathedral of Chartres completed in the year 1200. Though I can't think of this there use ever being recommended by any saints or blesseds of the Church.

Regardless what is displayed in the logo is not a labyrinth. More properly it is a maze. As noted in Wikepedia "A labyrinth has an unambiguous through-route to the center and back and is not designed to be difficult to navigate." The logo above has paths that do no reach the center and that you would have to backtrack to reach the center.

Since it is a maze I think it is an apt metaphor for NLM. Going the wrong way, getting lost, and confusion are quite apt to a maze and at times the efforts of NPM. Though you do wonder why the heck this symbol was selected for a group of musicians in the first place? What exactly does it have to do with the scripture from the high priestly prayer of Jesus in the Book of John?

I love this little blurb from the last conference held earlier this year.

"Liturgical documents can be our friends. Befriend the materials we need to know, especially newer elements for our consideration."

For me this really illustrates what I see as the attitude of some liturgical musicians when it comes to liturgical documents. For our consideration instead of being followed and being guided by. Maybe I read too much into a simple sentence but why in the world should you have to tell their member that Liturgical documents can be our friend, unless the general attitude is otherwise?

And of course there 2004 Pastoral Musician of the Year David Haas was on hand to teach. Though to be fair they also had also had classes on Chant. It is rather hard to remember sometimes that music publisher GIA does stand for Gregorian Institute of America.

Though some session raise my hackles a bit.

Explore how the use of Orff instruments can invite creative response and enrich music formation.

What the Church really needs are wooden xylophones for Mass.

The Singing Guitarist: Leading from the Guitar

The Organ: A Multicultural Instrument
PETER KURDZIEL
You’ll be surprised at how you can make the organ sound!

Ah but would you be pleasantly surprised or hair-raising surprised?

A vacation in Italy turned tragic for a local archbishop and two fellow priests over the weekend.

Baltimore’s Cardinal William Keeler is recovering in the hospital after getting in a car accident while vacationing outside of Rome.

The 75-year-old suffered a broken ankle when a car struck the passenger side of the car he was riding in with two other priests in the town of Terni.

Father Bernard Quinn, a retired priest from Pennsylvania, was killed in the crash. He was sitting in the backseat.

Monsignor Thomas Smith, pastor of a church in Pennsylvania, was driving the car. He broke several ribs.

The Catholic Church says both Keeler and Smith are making plans to return to Baltimore and Pennsylvania later this week. All three men were friends and often vacationed together.

Jeffrey Tucker of The New Liturgical Movement has an essay in the Fall issue of Sacred Music called "The Mystery of the St. Louis Jesuits." The article is in reaction to the coffee table book put out on the St. Louis Jesuits by OCP earlier this year. The article gives a history of them and how it al involved. There is a lot of interesting information on the genesis of this group and how they evolved. He also relates what he calls " a scene worthy of the movie "Spinal Tap,"

I would love to see a mockumentary in the vein of Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind done on the St. Louis Jesuits. There is just so much to mock that the script would write itself just by paralleling their true history. There is one quote from Spinal Tap that could be used almost directly in a mockumentary on them In fact if you substitute the words Spinal Tap for St. Louis Jesuits this quote is perfect.

[Reading a review of Spinal Tap's latest album]
Marty DiBergi: "This pretentious ponderous collection of religious rock psalms is enough to prompt the question, 'What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap the St. Louis Jesuits, and couldn't he have rested on that day too?'"

Christine at The World IMHO has some photos from the Eucharistic Congress in Charlotte. I especially enjoyed the story behind the picture of the man next to his wheelchair.

Listening tot the Gospel today at Mass of Mark 10:2-16 I was reminded me of the same juxtaposition that I had been reading in Matthew 19 recently. Where Jesus teaches about marriage and then transitions immediately to Jesus rebuking the Disciples for not letting the children come to him. This transition brought to me the sin of contraception where deliberately children are prevented from coming to him.

Today at Mass our Deacon did the homily and he brought out the same point in a very good homily. It was great to hear an elegant explanation of the Church's teaching on both contraception and marriage. He even touched on why there can be no such thing same-sex marriage. I really wish I could remember in detail his homily since it had so much red meat in it it would make a vegetarian faint. Homilies of this sort are not rare in my parish, I just thought this one was especially forthright on these subjects.

A new blog- Brother Christosananda, Sinner - has an very interesting post on Why the Muslim World Can't Think Straight.

For some reasons this picture just make me think of the Pope singing with his three backup singers all in a choreographed movement.

Amy Welborn thought the "Pope tries to win hearts and minds by saving souls of unbaptised babies" was the worst headline ever. Well I think I have found a contender for that title in an AP story.

Woman Turns Down Sex for Jesus

Though the article itself is a nice one on a consecrated virgin.

She stood at the altar in a white gown and veil, but she was there for no earthly man. Lori Rose Cannizzaro was dedicating her virginity to Jesus.

Saturday's rare Catholic ceremony, one her own pastor didn't know existed, turned the 42-year-old into a 'consecrated virgin.' Fewer than 200 women in the United States and 2,000 worldwide have declared their perpetual virginity this way, according to U.S. Association of Consecrated Virgins.

'There are people who think I'm nuts,' Cannizzaro said.

The ceremony was a revival of one of the church's oldest rituals.

The rite is available only to virgins, who agree to abstain from sex so they can dedicate their lives to Jesus Christ in what the association describes as a mystical marriage and a profound spiritual blessing. Each woman wears a band on her left ring finger as a symbol, much like a wedding band.

Cannizzaro, who is not a nun, will continue to live on her own and work as a cook at Christ the King Seminary in a Buffalo suburb.

She said she has plenty of support from family and friends.

'It is a good and holy thing to want to be in a virginal state,' she said.

Here is an interesting article on Phil Visher the creator of Veggie tales and his new project. The article includes the following:

One of the keys to his personal turnaround came when he read about the life of Mother Teresa.

“She fed the poor one at a time. She didn’t try to franchise her system for feeding the hungry. She didn’t try to become the Ray Kroc of world hunger. At first, that didn’t make sense to me. That’s not very efficient. Read some business books! Be more efficient! But then I realized she was doing what God called her to do, and that’s all that matters.”

Seem like he found out for himself this quote of Blessed Mother Teresa "God does not ask me to be successful, but to be faithful."

The Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods have received word from Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and the Indiana Department of Transportation that a section of U.S. 150 adjacent to the motherhouse grounds will be known as Saint Mother Theodore Guerin Memorial Highway.

Gov. Daniels is expected to make the formal announcement at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Church of the Immaculate Conception at St. Mary-of-the-Woods.

Guerin will be canonized as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church on Oct. 15 at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI will preside. She came to the United States in 1840 and founded the Sisters of Providence.

There are 150 Psalms so U.S. 150 is a good choice to commemorate a saint.

If you have ever donated money to any Catholic organization you are sure to get tons of mail from religious orders soliciting donations. Often included in these letters are religious medals, address stamps, and sometimes Rosaries or even statues. When we get these my wife will ask me to check them out to see if they are worth supporting. Normally the answer turns out be be no. Today I received one from a order of Dominican sisters. The letter had the picture of two nuns in their habit at the top of the letterhead along with a nice graphic of St. Joseph.

I found their web site and was not surprised to find that not one of the pictures of the sisters showed them wearing a Dominican habit. I found one of the women from the letterhead, though she was also sans habit. The pictures of them at Mass showed the same thing. A review of the website revealed no religious art and St. Joseph was nowhere to be found. The links of course did not include the Vatican and were mainly to questionable retreat houses. The pending social justice issue of the day appears to be genetically engineered crops.

I have found many of these fund raising letters to be highly deceptive They promote themselves as looking like a traditional Catholic order in their letters. A religious bait and switch. They send traditional devotional items and prayers, but these groups themselves practice devotions more suited for new agers. When religious orders present a lie to gain donations, they have certainly jumped the shark. We have unfortunately come quite use to deceptive advertisement, it is a sad day when religious orders resort to the same.

One of Amy Welborn's commenters had a very interesting post on liturgical music and some of the history involved. Bad liturgical music is nothing new or the fact that composers have been influenced by the secular music around them and have attempted using it for liturgical music. Reform of secular influenced liturgical music has happened in the past and will no doubt continue into the future. I don't think that this problem is uniquely an American problem and the situation is Europe is less rosy than what I think the commenter intends.

Last month there was an article in a Scotland newspaper Composer damns happy-clappy din that called the music at Mass "cultural vandalism." The same article could easily have been written in response to the music at most Catholic churhes in the U.S.

I have been meaning to write a review of Blessed Columba Marmion’s Christ the Life of the Soul. His feast day was on Oct 3rd and Father Stephanos, O.S.B wrote a short post where he said this book "deserves to be on every Catholic’s reading list."

I received this book as a review copy from Zacchues Press. The few books I have received from them have all been wondrous. Christ the Life of the Soul is no exception. I wish I could write the review this book deserves, but I will write as I can.

Blessed Marmion was someone I had never heard of and he doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry yet. He was a Benedictine and the third abbot of Maredsous Abbey in Belgium and a noted spiritual author and retreat master. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on September 3, 2000.

The book is almost 500 pages of a packed and powerful Christology. The book is like the Tardis in Dr. Who in that the book is larger on the inside than the outside. The majority of the book is on the doctrine of divine adoption and gives a thorough account on this subject. This is not an aspect I had put much thought into before and I am glad this book put an end to that error. This subject has just so much fruit of which to nourish contemplation. The appendix of the book mentions that some think he should be made a Doctor of the Church based on his theology of adoption and I certainly concur with that.

The translation into English I believe does not diminish the writing of Blessed Marmion. I say that based just on the the fact that I can hardly imagine the thoughts expressed being more powerful. The translator provides many helpful footnotes on the translation and in cases where what Marmion wrote needed some clarity.

The book is divided into two segments the first is What God has designed: The Divine Designs which mainly focuses on divine adoption. Book 2 is Life for God which focuses on the Christian life. The chapters on the Eucharist, Mary, Prayer, and the sacraments are also spiritually packed and make you see many things anew. This book is a spiritual retreat all on its own. I probably absorbed only about .01 percent of what Blessed Marmion has to teach, but even that was potent indeed. This is a book that I will re-read and re-read to gleam more of its treasures. The book came out of a talks on the retreats he gave and you can certainly see why he was such a popular retreat master. Being a master in talking on these subject also makes the book tightly focused.

As Father Stephanos said this book needs to be on every Catholic's reading list and in fact should be bumped up tot the top of their reading queue.

Available here.

One thing that amazes me about Pope Benedict is that he can start of a homily with "I did not really prepare a homily today" and then go on and talk so deeply on a subject that you would otherwise be convinced that he would have to spend some considerable time writing it.

Amy has the homily in full which came from the Papa Ratzinger Forum. I really wish Teresa Benedetta, who does such wonderful and timely translation would post them also on a blog so that they would be easier to access and keep t rack of. The forums just are not easy to link and there is no RSS feed to easily follow it.

Excellent post over at Feminine Genius on the sad story of the killing of the Amish girls. She talks about the weight of purity and there is some aspects of this story that remind me of the story of Saint Maria Goretti and the conversion of her killer Alessandro Serenelli.

A reader, Kurt, comments on the picture of the heart of St. John Vianney.

Would it be morally permissible to clone this heart and then transplant it into a good number of the USCCB members?

Thinking about this I think this would make an interesting book. What if some mad scientists rounded up a whole bunch of relics. The head of St. Catherine of Siena, the heart of St. Vianney, the blood of St. Januarius, the hand of St. Peter along with an assortment of the bones of various saints. Could you make a St. Frankenstein? Instead of pillaging the countryside would St. Frankenstein instead volunteer at the local children's hospital. Surely St. Frankenstein would attend Mass so instead of the Monster Mash we would have the Monster Mass. Though kneeling may be a problem with all of the stitches and such. Would a St. Frankenstein still be afraid of fire. Possibly if they used a relic of St. Joan of Arc or St. Lawrence. I can also imagine a group of angry ACLU villagers with pitchforks and lawsuits chasing poor St. Frankenstein.

This undated photo released by The Catholic Heart show the uncorrupted heart of St. John Vianney, who died 147 years ago in France is shown in its glass case. The The heart and Vianney's chalice are being brought to the United States for the first time this weekend in what the pastor of Long Island's Curé of Ars church calls 'an historical moment for our country, our diocese, our church.' (AP Photo/The Catholic Heart)

In Missouri on Nov 7 they will be voting on Constitutional Amendment 2. The Initiative Petition that the voters will see says.

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to allow and set limitations on stem cell research, therapies, and cures which will:
• ensure Missouri patients have access to any therapies and cures, and allow Missouri researchers to conduct any research, permitted under federal law;
• ban human cloning or attempted cloning;
• require expert medical and public oversight and annual reports on the nature and purpose of stem cell research;
• impose criminal and civil penalties for any violations; and
• prohibit state or local governments from preventing or discouraging lawful stem cell research, therapies and cures?
The proposed constitutional amendment would have an estimated annual fiscal impact on state and local governments of $0-$68,916.

This wording of this amendment is unbelievably deceptive. It makes it sound like it is anti-cloning when it is nothing of the kind. The amendment would actually protect cloning via Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) for research. Somehow I guess if you use the scientific term for a cloning method that somehow it is not cloning. What the amendment would actually do is require that and cloned embryos be killed within a specific time period.

The Missouri Catholic Conference has been very strong on this issue with all four of their bishops speaking out on the subject. Their site is also chock full of information. They recently release a letter on Respect Life Sunday that said in part:

On this coming November 7, Missourians will be asked to vote on an amendment to enshrine in our State Constitution a right to clone and kill human life for the sake of supposed medical advancement. At first glance, the wording of Amendment 2 may sound like something good. It even appears to be a ban on cloning in Missouri. But the wording is deceptive. In fact, Amendment 2 creates a constitutional right for researchers to engage in human cloning for purposes of research. It also leads to the exploitation of women. Human cloning for research requires women to risk their own health in supplying the eggs necessary for generating cloned human embryos. The artificial ovarian stimulation needed to make women produce the many needed eggs can lead to stroke, infertility, organ failure and even death. The women involved are used as a mere commodity, as a means to advance someone else’s speculations about “progress.” Finally, this amendment would take resources away from proven research. Adult stem-cell research—including stem cells from umbilical cord blood, placenta and bone marrow – has shown itself to be extremely successful in treating dozens of human illnesses, and shows promise even for conditions such as spinal cord damage, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. These cells can be obtained without any harm to the donor and without any violation of the moral law. Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in Saint Louis, for instance, has the second largest umbilical cord blood bank in the world.

Annie Banno at After Abortion writes a great letter in response to the AP story on Ms. Magazine and their list of women who had abortions.

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) recently broadcast a segment “Sex Crimes and the Vatican” that raised again the existence and intent of what had been a secret 1962 Church document Crimen Sollicitationis. Decades later, a related 2001 Vatican document came to light, “Letter Explains New Norms for Vatican Handling of Certain Grave Offenses”. Together the documents raised many questions as to whether or not the Vatican had a standing policy of secrecy when it was advised of clergy sexual abuse.

This was in the latest VOTF newsletter. I guess they didn't get the memo that this story was debunked back in 2003 when it initially appeared. So I guess VOTF is just as behind the times as the BBC and it really shows the character of VOTF that they accept it immediately without doing any fact checking. Ed Peters had a good post on this BBC hit job earlier this month.

The mother of a seventh-grader at Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School has filed a lawsuit against administrators at the South Laurel school, claiming her daughter was barred from reading the Bible during lunch period and threatened with punishment if she did it again.

In her complaint, filed Sept. 29, Maryann Mangum of Laurel, the grandmother and adoptive mother of 13-year-old Amber Mangum, claimed the administrators' actions were a violation of Amber's First Amendment rights and of the school system's own policy.

"Contrary to the fundamental liberties enshrined in the United States and Maryland Constitutions, Amber Mangum was ordered, under threat of disciplinary action, to cease reading her personal Bible during her lunch period," the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, states.

"Despite requests that the order be withdrawn, the Defendants have refused to renounce the warning that Amber will be disciplined if she reads her Bible at school."

The incident that sparked the lawsuit occurred Sept. 14, when Amber Mangum was reading her Bible during lunch period. According to the lawsuit, students at Eisenhower often read books during lunch period, and Amber "is a Christian and takes great comfort in reading the Bible."

But when Assistant Principal Jeanette Rainey saw what Amber was doing, the lawsuit states, she informed the student that reading the Bible violated school policy and that if she did it again, she would be disciplined.

Maybe we need a new line of Bible covers. Kind of like hiding comic books within the cover of a magazine. In this case the perfect fake cover would be a Koran cover. You just know students wouldn't be bothered if it looked like they were reading a Koran. Same goes for people with Bibles out in the open at work that get harassed about it.

Baker sent a letter to school administrators complaining about their actions, and attaching a copy of the Prince George's County school system's administrative procedures, which state: "Students may read their Bibles or other scriptures, say grace before meals, and pray before tests to the same extent they may engage in comparable, non-disruptive activities."

When administrators did not respond to the letter, the lawsuit states, Maryann Mangum, at the suggestion of a friend from church, contacted the Rutherford Institute, a Charlottesville, Va.-based, civil liberties organization that handles cases involving religious liberties.

Rutherford President John Whitehead said he also sent a letter to school administrators, telling them their policy was a violation of civil rights and asking them to allow Amber to read her Bible.

When administrators did not respond, he said, attorneys filed the lawsuit.

WASHINGTON, October 4, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At the fall meeting of the United Stated Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which will take place November 13-16, the Bishops will be asked to give final approval to a document on contraception. A media advisory from the USCCB notes that the bishops will vote on approval of "a document from the Pro-Life Committee offering pastoral guidance on the Church's teaching concerning contraception, linked with a culture of life."

The issue of contraception has launched back onto the public scene in recent months with the attempt of pro-abortion forces to drive a wedge within the pro-life movement. The most notable move has come from pro-abortion activist Senator Hilary Clinton who spoke of reducing abortion by turning to contraception, abortifacient contraception included.

Fr. Frank of Priests for Life told LifeSiteNews.com that he was "very much looking forward to the document on contraception". He noted that the concern over contraception has been recognized by the whole pro-life movement, not only Catholics. "Many groups that I work with both Catholic and Protestant alike are discovering the importance of working on this problem which is at the heart of the culture of death," he said.

Fr. Pavone added that the real test will be in applying the teachings on contraception both in our personal lives and by priests in parishes. "Will the priests, will the people use them, is the real question," he told LifeSiteNews.com.

Well I guess better late than never. I agree with Michael Liccione when he writes:

Save perhaps for the butchering of the liturgy that took place after Vatican II, the single most destructive event in the Catholic Church within the last forty years was the response of the worldwide college of bishops to Pope Paul VI's brave, prophetic encyclical on birth control: Humanae Vitae.

This is when dissent went mainstream within the Church. So many blind eyes were turned to outright dissent, and instead of it just going away it metastasized beyond the sin of contraception into other malignant tumors within the Body of Christ. It only saddens me thinking of the many contracepting couples in Communion lines and how many were told to just follow their conscience on this issue.

Canonist Ed Peters has put together an Excommunication Blotter which tracks those cases that have arisen since the 1983 Code of Canon Law was instituted. An excellent resource on cases of actual excommunication and those that were inferred by the media, but never occurred. It is also interesting that in most cases these excommunication were done by the local ordinary.

Pope Benedict XVI after seeing headlines of reports on the International Theological Commission discussing the fate of unbaptized babies

Pope tries to win hearts and minds by saving souls of unbaptised babies

Pope set to scrap limbo and save the souls of babies

Catholic limbo to be put out of its misery

Limbo under threat from Vatican theologians

Sean Cardinal O'Malley concurs with the Pope's reaction

Fr. Roderick on the Daily Breakfast [mp3] played a track from Nick Alexander's latest CD "I Wanna Be Debated" on his show today. Nick Alexander is sort of a Catholic Weird Al Yankovic, which is a good thing. I have been a long time fan of song parodies. I grew up listening to Dr. Demento and rarely missed his show.

The song Fr. Roderick played was "Internet Bloggers" done to the tune of Queen's Radio Ga Ga.

All I read are internet bloggers, internet gurus in flannel pajamas.

It would have been even more cool if he had specifically mentioned St. Blogs. Regardless Nick Alexander is quite talented and funny. He has also shown up from time to time on the Rosary Army podcast.

His new CD is not yet available on iTunes (his other ones are), or you can order it from his site.

Here is a strange story a reader sent me. A group of Carmelites bought some land for a new monastery from American Tower Corporation. This land had been on the market for a while when the Carmelites picked it up. When the company found out the land would be quite valuable as a windfarm they started delaying tactics to keep from selling it. The media is using David vs. Goliath as an analogy and I bet David would rather have faced Goliath any day then a flock of company lawyers.

Requiring extreme reverence for the Blessed Eucharist via Me Monk. Me Meander.

Paul Camarata of the excellent SaintCast show today has an interview with Archbishop Chaput. Right click to download it or even better if you haven't already subscribed to the SaintCast go here. The interview was quite interesting and I especially enjoyed the Archbishop's comments on St. Francis. Especially where it annoys him when children take St. Francis as a confirmation name just because of his love of animals. Unfortunately that is what St. Francis has been distilled down to losing most of his essence. First and foremost he was a lover of Christ. He imaged Christ and was truly In Persona Christi without ever becoming a priest.

Today I am listening to St. Francis by G.K. Chesterton. I convert texts on the internet via TextAloud a very good Text-To-Speech engine. I love the way Chesterton narrows in on St. Francis and goes way beyond historical details to the very heart of this great saint. One of my favorite quotes on St. Francis is from his book on St. Thomas Aquinas.

It is an old story that, while we may need somebody like Dominic to convert the heathen to Christianity, we are in even greater need of somebody like Francis, to convert the Christians to Christianity.

Dwight Longenecker has nominated me as an honorary Franciscan. Well he got the fool part right. And if St. Francis is the jongleur de Dieu...the juggler of God, as he says; I can at least juggle three balls which I taught myself to be able to do to audition for a part in a play. I don't t have St. Francis love of poverty, but I am a poor sinner. Luckily us poor sinners are rich in mercy.

Here it is, reason #666, on why the USCCB is a highly flawed institution filled with the (unholy) Spirit of Vatican II:

This past Sunday in the Novus Ordo US Lectionary (both a USCCB invention), the Bible verse used in the Gospel was the Gospel of St. Mark 9:35 (36)...

RSV (Catholic Edition)
And he took a child, and put him in the midst of them; and taking him in his arms, he said to them,

Douay-Rheims
And taking a child, he set him in the midst of them. Whom when he had embraced, he saith to them:

NAB
Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them,

Does anyone, especially Catholics, ever refer to a baby as an "it"?
[Via CVSTOS FIDEI]

Before I knew better I made the mistake of picking up the NAB Study Bible. I remember really being happy obtaining a Catholic study Bible. That happiness did not last very long as I read the study notes. I am convinced these study notes were written by Statler & Waldorf, the two critics on the balcony from The Muppet Show. It seemed their whole purpose was skepticism and un