New catechetical blog.
The latest from Mara Vanderslice who was a
Kerry-Edwards religious consultant and is finding more ways to
undermine the Gospel.
A new political group that claims to be
a Christian organization has endorsed pro-abortion presidential
candidate Barack Obama. The Matthew 25 Network plans to run ads for
Obama on Christian radio stations and in newspapers and magazines that
appeal to Christians.
The object is to try to pry away evangelical voters from supporting
John McCain, who has already received the endorsement of a number of
evangelical and Catholic groups and leaders.
Mara Vanderslice, the head of the political action committee, told the
Wall St. Journal the group plans to spend $500,000 in advertising for
Obama between now and the November elections.
Matthew 25? Well Matthew 4:25
says “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much
more will they malign those of his household. ” Or how about
Matthew 13:25 “but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed
weeds among the wheat, and went away. ” Maybe Matthew 18:25 “and as he
could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, with his wife and
children and all that he had, and payment to be made.” – well that
matches Obama’s tax plan. Matthew 23:25 “Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the
cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and
rapacity.” – sounds like an Obama supporting PAC to me.
Though maybe they mean this bit in chapter 25 of Matthew,
“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my
brethren, you did it to me.” – so aborting Jesus goes well with an
Obama supporting PAC.
By the way wasn’t one of the reasons Obama
said he didn’t take public money was because of PACs supporting McCain?
St.
Louis Catholic gave a heads up to this news earlier today and
now has the story.
The St. Louis Archdiocese filed suit
today against the St. Stanislaus Kostka church in an attempt to regain
control of the former Polish parish.
Six parishioners, including three recent board members, joined the
archdiocese in the suit. They are asking a St. Louis judge to void any
changes to the St. Stanislaus’ bylaws since 2001 and give the
archbishop the authority to appoint a pastor and board there.
Last month, the St. Stanislaus board voted 4-3 to dissolve itself and
allow parishioners to elect a new board at its annual meeting in
August. Eight St. Stanislaus board members had been declared
excommunicated by Archbishop Raymond Burke.
According to the archdiocese, the three board members who lost that
vote – Bernice Krauze, Stanley Rozanski, and Robert Zabielski – were
secretly reconciled with the Roman Catholic church last month in a
meeting with Burke before Pope Benedict XVI re-assigned him to a new
position at the Vatican.
Since one board member had previously
reconciled with the Church that now makes four to do so since they wre
excommunicated. This is surely the true end of an
excommunication anyway – the Church’s version of tough love.
HAMMONTON — The 16th of July is a
special day in this predominately Italian town in western Atlantic
County.
A tradition started 133 years ago continued here last Wednesday as a
solemn procession paid homage to the Blessed Mother during the feast
day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
A statue of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel was ushered out of St. Joseph Church
on Third Street shortly after 4 p.m., the last of more than a dozen
statues wheeled through the streets.
For about three hours, the procession continued on streets surrounding
the church.
Joe and Gina Mastazi of Paulsboro have come to feast day for the past
27 years. As in the past, they were easy to spot, clad in their red,
white and green outfits.
“Ten years ago, my mother died on the morning of the feast day. The
last thing she said to me was to put $10 on the Blessed Mother for me,”
said Joe Mastazi, who scoped out a nice shady area two blocks down from
the church. “It makes it even more important.”
Gina remembered coming to the festival as a child with her parents. She
recalled enjoying watching the procession go by, something she enjoyed
again this year.
“I didn’t like the rides too much,” Gina said.
Though the crowd for the beginning of the procession was sparse, the
festival area quickly filled up around 7 p.m. as hundreds of visitors
converged to enjoy the festivities and the 10 p.m. fireworks show.
“It was just unbelievable,” said George Campanella, president of the
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Society, the group that organizes the weeklong
celebration here each July. “Maybe it was the economy, the price of
gas. It was just great to have that many people back here. Hopefully,
they’ll be back here when we have the 134rd celebration next year.”
The feast is the longest- running religious celebration of its type in
the country. It’s a tradition around here and one that the Our Lady of
Mt. Carmel Society, the group of 50 men that organizes the celebration,
takes pride in keeping alive.
I for one would like to see some Carmel
themed rides.
- Dark Night of the Soul roller coaster. This could
be one of those indoor covered rides like Space Mountain and so totally
dark inside. I could easily imagine a purification of the
senses section and to finish the ride you have to love God without any
spiritual benefits. Though the ride could be quite long for
most of us. - Ascent of Mt. Carmel ride. You ride to the top of
Mt. Carmel with a light guiding you on a happy night where you leave
your cares “forgotten among the lilies.” - The Interior Castle Funhouse. The seven mansions
of the interior castle have quite the potential to offer interesting
experiences. Obviously the the gate by which to enter the
Interior Castle Funhouse is prayer and meditation. The first
mansion is full of a thousand preoccupations and you slowly move onward
to the last mansion if God has given you the grace to do so. - St. Therese Ball. You enter one of those old
American Gladiator steel cage balls where you get kicked, thrown to the
ground, left in a corner, or pressed to Jesus’ heart. - The concessions would obviously be Karmel Candy and Blessed
Elizabeth of the Trinity Chocolate *.
I would certainly invest in such an effort and would be sure to buy St.
Simon Stock in it.
* Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity suffered from Addison’s
disease and as a result could only eat certain things. One of
them was quite a penance to her Carmelite soul in that she often had to
sustain herself using chocolate.
“Look at me I have been automatically
excommunicated and it is reserved to the Holy See to lift it.”
The annoying thing about these faux
ordinations is that they are hard
to parody when they go to so much effort to parody themselves.
Come on tie-dye stoles? Plus
exactly what part of the ordination ceremony calls for the above
rubric?
The blankets are a pretty tacky detail.
Them seem more fitting to send with your kindergarten kid for
nap time. Seen plenty of pictures of priest being ordained
and don’t think I ever saw one with them prostrate on a blanket.
But priestess fashion is not the issue.
I do feel sad for these deluded women and those who support
them in their delusion.
The Womenpriests organization says
their
ordinations are legitimate because Catholic bishops in good standing
ordained their first members to become female priests and bishops.
Therefore, they argue, the women being ordained can claim apostolic
succession, or direct descent from Jesus’s apostles.
That reminds me of some news I have for
you. The other day three aliens each from a different race
informed me that I had been specifically selected to be the Ruler of
Earth and Guardian of our Solar System (take that Al Gore!).
In fact I am now 23rd in line to succeed his Magnificence and
Emperor of the Galaxy. Though there is some dispute on this
from some of the other alien races so I can’t tell you what aliens
selected me.
“We are not intimidated. We feel so
strongly.”
Oh you feel strongly? Excuse me
that defeats all of my arguments relying on Scripture, Sacred Tradition
and the Magisterium.
I’m feeling such joy, I could rise up,”
Lee said in an interview after the ceremony. She pointed out that she
was wearing a cross from Dignity, an organization of gay Catholics.
No one will be surprised to find that
these women don’t just reject this one teaching. Like I said
last week – scratch a dissident and you will find someone upset about
some area of the Church’s teaching on sexual morality. If
women are being called to the priesthood then why is it only dissident
women that are being called? Where are the women being
ordained that have a preference for the extraordinary form of the Mass?
Why do they always have a preference for Hippy stoles and not
beautifully embroidered ones. Where are the traditionalist
women priestesses who are being called?
Plus how comes the “women’s ordination
movement” doesn’t have any seminaries? They just ordain women
without any real preparation. Not everyone who enters a real seminary
goes on to discern that they are indeed called to the priesthood, so
why it is that these women are infallible? Besides it is the
Church that is part of the discernment process and not just an
individual choice no matter how much strongly you feel about it.
The way the “women’s ordination movement” has approached the
whole thing is more like a show and that they don’t really believe what
they are doing in the first place.
The women did not pledge obedience or
chastity – the promises made by Roman Catholic priests – and one was
introduced to the congregation by her daughter; another by her husband.
Well exactly who would they promise
obedience to other then
themselves. Would it be the “bishop” from California
“ordained” in Germany who “ordained” them in Boston? On a side note I
am running out of sneer quote ink for this post. Whatever
happened to having three bishops involved in an ordination as insurance?
I guess one fake bishop is just as invalid as three fake
bishops.
Though since this whole thing was done in
a Protestant church they should all feel right at home. If
you have decided that you are above the Pope and the bishops in union
with him and have thrown out Catholic eccelesiology then
congratulations on becoming Protestant.
But the women who participated in the
event, along with the several hundred people who spent nearly three
hours in the sweltering Church of the Covenant, said they rejected the
excommunications and believed that the women had been validly ordained.
Wow I ought to try that some time.
Officer I reject your ticket and I believe I was driving
under
the speed limit.
Oh well what do I know after all I am only a Newsweek reporter.
The group says the women who are ordained remain loyal members of the church and will act as priests whether they are excommunicated or not.
A cool story via Fr. Longenecker.
A lot of WYD stories have concentrated on
it as a Catholic Woodstock, here is a different one.
Priests have set up emergency
confessionals as thousands of pilgrims surge on to Randwick Racecourse
– sleeping out in a vigil ahead of tomorrow’s final mass.
Priests have taken plastic chairs and are sitting on the ground to take
the “overwhelming” number of young people looking to confess their sins.
“There’s too much. I came at one o’clock and there were so many people
here I thought I had to help the other priests,” said Father Bernard
Speringer, a priest from Austria.
“The sisters had planned (for confession) but they were overwhelmed by
so many.
Also not covered are the catechetical session that go on during the day.
Nancy C. Brown posts a copy of the letter Dale Ahlquist wrote to the New Yorker after a recent article tried to call G.K. and anti-Semite and that his fans should not defend against this charge.
Dr. Paul Camarata of the SaintCast podcast has outdid himself in the 100th episode of the SaintCast.
Part Pirates of Penzance with what I think of as a touch of Groucho Marx.
Here is a picture of me with Dr. Paul Camarata taken by Fr. Bill Kessler (the Technopriest). Dr. Paul is the left. This was taken at the Catholic New Media Celebration where I was on a blogging panel with Amy Welborn and Mark Shea that was moderated by Lisa Hendley.