Carl Olson fisks a real awful article on "The Pope and Islam," written by Jane Kramer that appeared in last Sunday’s The New Yorker.
Stephen a For God, For Country and For Yale reports on a debate he attended between Professor Peter Kreeft and Professor Boonin called “Is abortion morally justifiable in a free society?”
The AP (no surprise) really does a disservice to John Billings.
Founder of contraceptive method dies
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MELBOURNE, Australia — John Billings, the founder of a natural contraception method that won support among Catholics, has died, a colleague said Tuesday. He was 89.
Billings died late Sunday at a Melbourne retirement home, said Marian Corkill, director of the World Organization Ovulation Method Billings International, better known as WOOMB.
Billings and his wife Evelyn pioneered the Billings Ovulation Method in the 1950s – a technique that helps women identify their fertile and non-fertile states based on their menstrual cycle.
In the Billings method, a woman can determine when she is fertile based on an examination of her cervical mucus, as opposed to the rhythm method, which is based on past menstrual cycles.
Billings, a staunch Catholic and father of nine, always had the support of his church, which opposes contraceptive devises such as condoms and the pill that revolutionized birth control a decade later. Critics of the Billings method argue the church supported it because of its relatively high failure rate, which earned it the nickname "Vatican Roulette."
Well I guess you just can’t expect for the AP or pretty much any news source to be able to differentiate between abstinence during times of fertility and something that is actually and actively contraceptive.
Mukesh Haikerwal, president of the Australian Medical Association, said the method’s failure rate was three in 100, compared to one in 100 for condoms, one in 1,000 for the pill and one in 10,000 for implanted devices
1 and 100 as a failure rate for condoms is definitely not the normal statistic. Even Planned Parenthood’s Guttmacher Institute mentions failure rates between three and seven percent.
Another article says Rhythm method pioneer dies in Melbourne. Yes it is a good thing the MSM has editors so they don’t make blunders like this.
Of course not mentioned in the fact that the Billings Ovulation Method can be used to help couples who are having difficulties to conceive. But then that wouldn’t fit the NFP is contraception meme.
It never ceased to amaze me what some people consider appropriate to wear to Mass. I do have a solution when someone’s idea of modesty seems to be nonexistent. Simply have the ushers pass out fig leaves to these people when they come in. The usher simply tells them that even Adam and Eve when realizing they were naked sought recourse to fig leaves. Though as a result of original sin Adam and Eve’s apron of sewn together fig leaves must not have been seen as going far enough for God since he made for them a garment of skins and clothed them.
How cool would that be to have God as your tailor. "Where did you get that suit? Well it is an Almighty original."
Concerned churchgoers have been flooding the Christ Church Cathedral with "upset and angry" phone calls after an April Fool’s Day joke claimed the landmark building was going to be demolished.
The article, which said bulldozers would move in this week after huge cracks in the foundations were found, was published in Sunday’s edition of the Star’s Community News.
In fact the Cathedral is undergoing a $1.2 million upgrade and its future is secure.
The Dean of the Cathedral, the Very Rev Peter Beck, said the phones had been "running hot" since the article went to print.
"Clearly some people were really upset and angry and we did our best to reassure them," he said. "From our point of view, we knew nothing about it so we were innocent victims of this scam."
I can’t blame them for falling for this plank. If your an Anglican you have to have a pretty low threshold about what is not believable anymore.
Today with Palm Sunday coinciding with April Fools day I wondered if there was any connection. It could possibly have been an early April Fools joke and would explain the "Hosanna in the highest" one day and less than a week later "Crucify him."
Though trying to pull a prank on an omniscient God-man is impossible. Mary and Jesus’friends never could pull off a surprise birthday party no matter how hard they tried. Besides what can you get someone who made everything. In fact Jesus is the world’s only self-made man.
If you want to read my Motu-Mania post in German here is your chance. Kruez.net has published it on their web site.
Here is my post from two years ago along with a new addition.
Of course Palm Sunday leads to:
This year though I added a new addition. If forgot about a major part of Palm’s line.
The Palm Pilate.
Update: Paul at Alive and Young has his own funny Palm Sunday graphic.
… Now you see me
… now you don’t.
From Bishop Vasa’s latest letter.
…There is no doubt in my mind that some of the young men in this class have considered and are considering a possible vocation to the priesthood as an option for them. Whether their initial hearing of that gentle call will ultimately result in a definitive affirmative response depends upon parental support, pastoral encouragement and prayers; lots and lots of prayers.
Vocations do come from families but vocations also come from Parishes. It often happens that several vocations will come from the same Parish several years in a row. It often happens that small rural Parishes produce three of four priestly vocations in a span of as many years. It often happens that a number of religious vocations will spring from the families of one Parish. It is, in part, a mystery of God’s grace but it is also a sign that, in those Parishes where vocations are prayed for, esteemed and actively encouraged young men are more likely to hear and heed the Lord’s invitation to be priests and young women are more likely to hear and heed the Lord’s invitation to serve as Religious. The promotion of vocations to the priesthood and religious life needs to be a routine activity of every Parish, a routine activity of every parishioner.