Dawn Eden posts a story of the first hand account of a women visiting Planned Parenthood to get an abortion.
I thought the headline to this story to be rather funny.
Latin to replace Dylan
CATHOLICS could soon be singing Gregorian chants during worship after Pope Benedict announced he wants the singing style to make a comeback.
The 79-year-old German Pope, who last week told the world he does not care much for Bob Dylan, said the Catholic faithful should learn more of the chanting traditionally sung in Latin by choirs of monks.
"The better-known prayers of the Church’s tradition should be recited in Latin and, if possible, selections of Gregorian chant should be sung," he said in part of a 140-page booklet on the Mass.
He lamented that Latin, the Church’s official language, was disappearing and said he wanted future priests to study the language.
"Nor should we forget that the faithful can be taught to recite the more common prayers in Latin, and also to sing parts of the liturgy in Gregorian chant," he wrote.
The 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council ended the general use of the old-style Latin Mass in favour of local languages and some parishes allowed the singing of popular songs during the Mass.
In countries such as the US in the 1960s and 1970s, it was not uncommon for the faithful to sing songs such as Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind or Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water during the Mass.
The Pope, a lover of classical and sacred music and an accomplished pianist, clearly is opposed to that.
"Certainly as far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that one song is as good as another," the Pope wrote.
"Generic improvisation or the introduction of musical genres which fail to respect the meaning of the liturgy should be avoided."
Now I generally like Dylan’s music, though of course not at Mass. But many do not realize that the lyrics to "Blowin’ in the Wind" are heretical.
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
The Bible says:
And he said, “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
So clearly the answer was not in the wind, or the earthquake, or fire.
Just 90 minutes’ drive from the temptations of Amsterdam is a village so devout that swearing is banned, women refuse to wear trousers and the bank machine does not dispense cash on a Sunday.
The Netherlands, best known abroad for its liberal policies on sex, drugs and homosexuality, is also home to a Protestant "Bible Belt" mapped out by villages such as Staphorst.
Now a small political party long associated with the Bible Belt, the Christen Unie (United Christians or CU), is benefiting from a surge of support outside its rural heartland triggered by nostalgia for a more moral, compassionate society.
After almost doubling its vote in last November’s general election to 4 per cent, the CU has become the kingmaker in the Netherlands’ new centrist coalition government, a feat unthinkable at the time of the previous election in 2003.
Wow they even let ATM machines observe the Lord’s Day. For six days they worked and on the seventh day they stopped dispensing cash. The Sabbath was made for ATM, not ATM for the Sabbath. If you try to draw cash on Sunday the screen calls you a Pagan and shreds your bank card.
Here is a previous parody I did on Bible Belts.
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Gerald posts and article about Archbishop Harry Flynn, of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis sending a letter to to New Ways Ministry forbidding the celebration of the Eucharist at their symposium.
Flynn prohibited symposium participants from celebrating Holy Eucharist, saying to do so might mislead Archdiocese members into believing the speakers’ views had the church’s sanction.
"Hopefully, that will at least minimize potential confusion and scandal," Flynn’s letter concluded.
Archdiocese spokesman Dennis McGrath said the reason for prohibiting the Eucharist at the symposium was simple: "There’s certain rules of the church that are inviolate. The Eucharist is the heart of our faith. There just isn’t much elbow room there."
…Flynn’s decision "is a betrayal of the core of our Catholic faith," Bayly said. "The church should be big and wide to support diverse opinions. For God’s sake, it’s Catholic — it’s universal."
And her Catholicity means that the truth in St Paul’s is the same as the truth in Rome or anywhere else in the universe. The article goes on to talk about the symposium held in Kentucky.
There, DeBernardo said, Archbishop Thomas Kelly told New Ways Ministry that he had been told by the Vatican not to allow the Eucharist — a decision that lies with the head of the diocese under church law.
Kelly invited conference participants to instead attend Mass at his cathedral — but New Ways Ministry declined and conducted the Eucharist anyway, saying Kelly’s letter fell short of forbidding the sacrament.
"We saw it as a loophole," DeBernardo said.
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 Jester Hat Tip: |
Gerald Augustinus | ||
Now if that doesn’t display their attitude, nothing does. Their whole theology is to look for loopholes and where none exist to create one out of whole cloth, or should I say loophole cloth.
It is quite interesting, if true, that someone in the Vatican has their attention on Same Old Pagan Ways Ministry and are advising bishops on this subject. Of course the founders of this disministry were disciplined by the CDF and "permanently prohibited" from all forms of homosexual ministry.
Now if only Archbishop Flynn would do the same for the infamous St. Joan of Arc parish with there Gay, Lesbian. Bisexual, and Transgender Choir and rampant dissent which is really not much different from what is said at the symposium.
SAN FRANCISCO — A nonprofit that runs a national post-abortion telephone talk line has unveiled a series of electronic greeting cards that concerned friends and family can send to a woman after she chooses to terminate a pregnancy.
"Women having abortions are calling our line because often they don’t have someone to talk to — it’s a stigmatized issue," said Aspen Baker, founder and executive director of Oakland-based Exhale. "So the chance to honor and acknowledge someone’s experience by calling upon something that is within our social practices and social mores seemed important and could go a long way toward supporting people."
Like Exhale’s confidential talk line, the six e-cards available on the group’s Web site were designed to be nonpartisan and encompass the range of someone’s potential responses to going through an abortion.
One expresses sympathy, offering the gentle reminder that, "As you grieve, remember that you are loved." Another provides encouragement for someone who "did the right thing." Yet another strikes a religious tone with the thought that "God will never leave you or forsake you.
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Jester Hat Tip: |
Kevin Miller | ||
Every time Exhale makes it into the news they always talk about their non-partisanship when it just does not exist. But just sending an e-card for someone who has just had an abortion is just about as tacky as you can get. Though I can imagine the regular greeting card companies getting into the business considering the drop of birthday cards that could have been potentially bought since Roe v. Wade. 44 million and counting is a large demographic to lose.
Update: Thinking more about this I think it just goes to show that often pro-abortion supporters don’t really believe what they say they believe. If a child in the womb is just a tissue mass or a "product of conception" then its removal has the moral weight of having a mole removed from your face. Yet we don’t see e-cards for people having moles removed. If they are non-partisan where are there e-cards for "you made the right choice" for women who keep their child?
The idea that Exhale is non-partisan is laughable. Under spiritual concerns they link to resources from several faiths, and of course under Catholicism they have Catholics For a Free Choice and goes on to say:
Pope John Paul II recognizes that “in dire circumstances, some women may honestly feel trapped with no viable option or alternative but to turn to abortion. Decisions that go against life sometimes arise from difficult or even tragic situations of profound suffering, loneliness, a total lack of economic prospects, depression, and anxiety about the future. Such circumstances can mitigate, even to a notable degree, subjective responsibility and consequent culpability of those who make these choices which, in themselves, are wrong.” (as quoted by Father Roberts, speech, 1998)
No one will be surprised to hear that this is a misleading paraphrase of what John Paul II wrote in Evangelium Vitae.
Decisions that go against life sometimes arise from difficult or even tragic situations of profound suffering, loneliness, a total lack of economic prospects, depression and anxiety about the future. Such circumstances can mitigate even to a notable degree subjective responsibility and the consequent culpability of those who make these choices which in themselves are evil. But today the problem goes far beyond the necessary recognition of these personal situations. It is a problem which exists at the cultural, social and political level, where it reveals its more sinister and disturbing aspect in the tendency, ever more widely shared, to interpret the above crimes against life as legitimate expressions of individual freedom, to be acknowledged and protected as actual rights.
The explanation under Protestant Faiths was quite odd.
What the Bible says: “What is a good woman?” The biblical tradition repeatedly offers a clear idea of free choice for women. In the Bible, good women make many complex and important decisions. Fertility is not one of the attributes for which women are praised in the Bible. Instead, women are praised for their wisdom.
Fertility is not one of the attributes women are praised for in the Bible? Gee when did the book of Psalms get dumped from the Bible? "Children too are a gift from the LORD, the fruit of the womb, a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children born in one’s youth.
Blessed are they whose quivers are full. They will never be shamed contending with foes at the gate." I guess women are praised for buying a certain brand of underwear and being archers with lots of ammunition.
Their fetal development page I think was written by a farmer. "cells to the shape of a small summer squash.", "The embryo is the size of a poppy seed", "size of a small grape", "of an average strawberry."
You just got to love rags like the L.A. Times when it comes to headlines. Father Joe Sobrino has received a notification from The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for several aspects of his Christology. He is a a prominent proponent of liberation theology and his writings portrayed Jesus as a human actor involved in social causes, neglecting his divinity and his unique role in Redemption. So of course the L.A. Times runs with this headline.
Vatican set to punish priest who is advocate for poor
…Although the censure was expected to focus on specific theological points, Sobrino’s supporters immediately decried what they saw as the silencing of an important voice for the poor and disenfranchised.
Yes he is being punished for working with the poor. You certainly remember how Mother Teresa of Calcutta was investigated by by the CDF because of her work with the poor and disenfranchised.
Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) — The baby boy who became the victim of an abortion after doctors failed a disability test on him died over the weekend. Physicians advised his mother to have an abortion after they had misdiagnosed a physical deformity but the boy survived the procedure.
Doctors at the teaching hospital Careggi performed two ultrasounds on the boy and his mother and they said he had a defective esophagus. That’s a disorder that surgery could have corrected after birth in some cases.
However, when they went to abort the baby boy, they discovered he was healthy and desperately tried to resuscitate him.
The boy was born health and lived for six days following the failed abortion, which was done at 22 weeks into the pregnancy.
Before I become the last blogger in St. Blogs to post on Sacramentum Caritatis here is the link to the English translation. I am still in the process of reading it, though I just got to the part about executing liturgists. Gerald at The Cafeteria is Closed is blogging up a storm on the document and of course Amy Welborn has the normal excellent coverage.
Michael Barber has started his examination of the document along with direct links to specific parts of the document.
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf has his initial observations which are well worth reading.
Update: Dad29 notices that I must have had a translation error in my document. I wish that I could have read the original Latin to see that it said "executing liturgeists", not "executing liturgists." I once wrote a handy guide for "Signs of inhabitation by a Liturgeist."
ROME (Hollywood Reporter) – Days after Pope Benedict XVI criticized the media for its "destructive" influence, the Vatican on Monday announced plans to launch its first television network by the end of the year.
H2O will broadcast news and original entertainment programming worldwide in seven languages, according to a statement. Additional details were sketchy.
Over the years, the Vatican has been quick to adopt new technologies in its efforts to communicate with the world’s more than 1 billion Catholics. In 1996, the Vatican introduced its Web portal nearly three years before the Italian state unveiled its own Web site. And it has embraced digital and satellite technology.
In a speech to the Vatican’s communications department last Friday, the Pope called on the media to promote family values, human dignity and the common good.[Via Jay Anderson]
I am sure my readers can come up with a list of series they would like to see produced. I will start off with some of my own suggestions.
- Sixtus and the City – Set in Vatican City the show focuses on the lives of Pope Sixtus IV and his artist friends as they effectively start the Early Renaissance in Rome with the Sistine Chapel.
- Three’s Company – This new sitcom based on Fulton J. Sheen’s Three to Get Married explores the life and joys and tribulations of a couple as they effectively invite Jesus into their marriage.
- Vatican 5 – In this new Science Fiction story the Vatican has moved to outer space after a highly secularized Italy forcibly takes back the land formerly belonging to Vatican City. The story takes places in the Vatican 5 space station and the plot involves the mystery of the destruction of the previous 3 stations (Vatican I considered to be Vatican City itself.) The Vatican station is the center of political and theological intrigue and the coming battle between the Radtradians upset after the Vatican issued meditations for a space stations of the cross and the Cafeterians who are just generally opposed to the 3,000 years of consistent Church teaching and the Vatican’s resistance to solving the priest shortage by the use of androids.
- Rome Improvement – The antics of a klutzy preservationist as he tries to restore frescoes and other priceless art using supercharged machinery not appropriate to the task.
- Doogie Howser, S.T.D. – A brilliant teenage theologian who graduated from the Gregorian and received his Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the age of ten has difficulties adapting and getting fellow theologians to take him seriously.
- The Frying Nun – A cooking show specializing in Southern cooking as hosted by Sister Fields.
- I Love Lucy – The trials of Lucy of Syracuse trying to remain a consecrated virgin while being pursued by a Pagan admirer who keeps repeating I Love Lucy.
- Monk – A priest in a monastery afflicted with obsessive-compulsive disorder goes around trying to solve mysteries. They first mystery he tackles is the Eucharist and each week he keeps tackling this mystery since he can never quite totally solve it.
- CSI: Vatican City – This crack team of Vatican medical consultants and other scientists review the records of alleged miraculous healing’s in response to the intercession for the process of beautification and sainthood.
- The Father Brown Mysteries – G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown once again hits the airwaves as a freelance private investigator with his unique way of viewing the world and getting to the bottom of crimes.
- The Pius X Files – The series covers the work of a archivist in the Vatican’s Secret Archives and his specialty in the life of Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto who became the 257th Pope. His motto is "The truth is in here, somewhere If I can only remember where I laid it last."
- Walker, Texas Bishop – This larger than life crime-fighting apostolic successor with his Martial Arts abilities can kick your ass and then hear your confession and give you last rites.