Jeffrey Miller

Archbishop Chaput writes an excellent essay in First Things on Catholic charitable institutions and the increasing attacks from the government. He makes some excellent points as he follows the history or our country and the reason for the attacks from a strange bedfellow partnership of individuals and the government.

Though one aspect he missed out on is that Catholic charitable institutions are being attacked both from within and without. He cites the case of Catholic Charities in Massachusetts being forced out of adoptions because of laws forcing them to adopt to homosexual couples. Though the truth was that Catholic Charities was already performing such adoptions at times until their hand was forced. The same goes for Catholic Charities in San Francisco that was also forced out of the adoption business. Unfortunately many Catholic charitable institutions are staffed with people not exactly friendly to the whole gamut of Catholic teaching. Blessed Mother Teresa disliked being called a social worker because her work transcended the purely humanitarian model. Often though those working in our institutions could easily be classed just in the social worker mode.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – The Rev. John I. Jenkins, who came under fire for inviting President Barack Obama to the University of Notre Dame campus, has been re-elected to a second five-year term as president of the school.[reference]

Such a smooth move after loosing millions of dollars in donations. Keep up the great work!

The trustees also approved a resolution Friday expressing their “respect and full confidence” in Jenkins, saying he has nurtured an environment where “the Catholic faith and intellectual tradition are celebrated and lived.”

Yes Fr. Jenkins is the poster boy for “Catholic faith and intellectual tradition are celebrated and lived.” Arresting pro-life protesters is the mark of living your faith. Approving pornographic plays is a great way to live your faith. Having a campus where travel expenses to homosexual pride events is another mark of an authentic Catholic university. Honoring the most radically pro-abortion President ever who even supported infanticide is evidence to the Church’s teaching. Oh wait.

I do wonder why Sarah Silverman suggestion that the Vatican sell everything to help the poor keeps getting more and more news attention? I keep seeing stories covering it via Google News. Though in a world where CNN fact checks a Saturday Night Live parody piece on the President I guess it is par for the course for the media to cover the rantings of some shock Comedienne. We of course can’t expect them to actually fact check her routine.

Though it does remind me of the story of St. Laurence and the treasure of the Church. He was captured and told to bring the treasure of the Church to his captors. The following day he brought a bunch of poor people and told them that they were the treasure of the Church. Though I have the odd feeling that this wasn’t what Sarah Silverman had it mind.

I also doubt that she thought of or even knew of the efforts in the Vatican during World War II and this notable example.

Joseph Lichten records that on September 27, 1943, one of the Nazi commanders demanded of the Jewish community in Rome payment of one hundred pounds of gold within thirty-six hours or three hundred Jews would be taken prisoner. When the Jewish Community Council was only able to gather only seventy pounds of gold, they turned to the Vatican.

“In his memoirs, the then Chief Rabbi Zolli of Rome writes that he was sent to the Vatican, where arrangements had already been made to receive him as an ‘engineer’ called to survey a construction problem so that the Gestapo on watch at the Vatican would not bar his entry. He was met by the Vatican treasurer and secretary of state, who told him that the Holy Father himself had given orders for the deficit to be filled with gold vessels taken from the Treasury.

I guess it also escaped her attention that the largest organization in the world to help the poor is the Catholic Church. That it was Catholics throughout history who via very apostolates, ministries, and personal attention have always had a preferential love for the poor. When people are in need of help they go to the door of a Catholic institution or the rectory and not the local chapter of for example the Atheist Alliance International.

No doubt she is also unaware that the operating budget for the Vatican is around $260 million compared to Harvard’s annual budget is $1.3 billion. So I guess she means we are to sell off the artistic treasures in Vatican CIty and Catholic churches throughout the world. Hey great idea. Next time France has a budget deficit they should sell off the Louvre. Yell allowing people to see these artistic treasures is a bad idea and they should be distributed around the world locked up in private collections. Well how about Vatican owned real estate – well with a total value of $1 Billion and less than Oprah’s personal fortune it won’t go very far.

n September 15, “StandForMarriageMaine.com” released a television ad. In it, Scott Fitzgibbon, a professor at Boston College Law School (a Catholic institution), argued for the traditional understanding of marriage as between one man and one woman and in favor of an upcoming referendum to overturn a law passed by the Maine legislature legalizing same-sex marriage. The ad unleashed a fire storm, directed at the courageous professor.

Fellow professors at B.C. Law School – one hesitates to call them colleagues – contacted the dean to express their anger. So fiery was the blast that the dean was forced to issue a statement that defended Fitzgibbon’s academic freedom (or right to speak his mind). But the dean also later joined a statement from faculty and administrators assuring homosexual students (and staff) that they were welcome at BC Law. Apparently, it is no longer remarkable that a Catholic law school in this country prides itself upon being “one of the first” to set up a non-discrimination category for homosexuals at a time when everyone, including surely BC law professors, knows that just such a category in federal law will be the nail in the coffin of religious liberty for America’s Catholic institutions.

This is a highly instructive event that invites comment.

Clearly what is going on here is an effort to “shame” Professor Fitzgibbon (and those who agree with him) into silence. The assumption by the angry members of the BC Law “community” is that his views are so far outside the “mainstream” that all right-thinking persons must reject them. They are so poisonous, on this view, that they make civic life impossible; anyone who holds them should be ashamed; they are intolerable. [reference]

Wow here is a director who really understands how to make movies for children and has a proper undertanding of issues that concern parents.

Jonze: What do you say to parents who think the Wild Things film may be too scary?

Sendak: I would tell them to go to hell. That’s a question I will not tolerate.

Jonze: Because kids can handle it?

Sendak: If they can’t handle it, go home. Or wet your pants. Do whatever you like. But it’s not a question that can be answered. [reference]

So surprised that Pixar hasn’t hired him yet.