News

As Rorate Caeli reports:

Yes, it is highly unusual for a Bishop to be transferred to a new diocese with a smaller population and an even smaller number of nominal Catholics. Yet, Birmingham, the new diocese of Robert Baker, the former Bishop of Charleston, includes one specific Catholic institution, which deserves special treatment (for better or for worse).

People were wondering when the diocese that contains EWTN would get a new bishop since Bishop Foley retired in May of 2005 and was subsequently appointed administrator.
I have read nothing but good thing
about Bishop Robert J Baker.
The Bishop is also the author of a novel on the Florida missions and has spoken in my diocese before.

Update: Amy Welborn has some more information on Bishop Baker and she also reminded me that he was originally from my diocese. I had forgotten he was the pastor of Christ the King in Jacksonville, Fl before he became the Bishop of Charleston. He is also the Chairman of the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee on Stewardship. This makes a lot of sense because while pastor of Christ the King he stressed stewardship and because of his efforts was able to make the Catholic school run by the parish free for the parishioners.

In a volume of essays put together by an agency of the Bishops’ Conference in England and wales and published in association with Caritas contains attacks on Pope Benedict and John Paul II and even uses scare quotes around terrorist in regards to 9/11. The book has been given a glowing foreword by the Bishop of Plymouth, Christopher Budd.

According to Fr Tissa Balasuriya, the author of the relevant essay, both John Paul and Benedict lived their lives “in a world dominated by white racism” and therefore could not understand the developing world.

Damian Thompson who blogs for the Telegraph has the full story here. I have been following Damian Thompson’s blog for the last couple of months since he linked to one of my posts and can highly recommend it. He is the editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald and you got to love someone who was described by The Church Times as a "blood-crazed ferret".

With the recent news of Crisis magazine getting rid of the print version and going web only it is quite interesting that Envoy Magazine, which has not published for the last three years, is back. On my way into the Church I read all of the back issues they had online and then subscribed to the magazine. For those who have never read Envoy it has a different style than most Catholic magazines. While the magazine has a heavy emphasis on apologetics, it does it with a unique style. From the graphic layout on down it is a fun magazine to read and their is humor interspersed within the magazine and usually a one page parody. In some ways my own blog was influenced by Envoy’s parodies and their parody site smellsandbells.com (which is no longer around but is in the internet archive)

People who had been subscribed to Envoy can expect to have new issues delieved to them and I received mine two days ago. Envoy is just as good as it was and is back with some of the same great authors such as Tim Staples, Carl Olson, and of course the magazines founder Patrick Madrid.

Now to give a full disclosure – a couple of months ago Patrick Madrid contacted me about contributing to Envoy’s humor section. Patrick is behind the majority of the humor in the magazine and is quite a funny guy himself with such classics as his Top Ten: Orthodox Catholic Pickup Lines. So is was quite a honor to be invited on to contribute ideas from time to time. The first issue only contains one line from me for Pat’s Top Ten Rejected Envoy Marketing Slogan, but the other nine were better than my suggestions anyway. So we will just have to see how many of my ideas make it in, but Patrick Madrid has some pretty funny ideas that I was able to build on.

This time around Envoy is based at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina at what is called the Envoy Institute. You can sign up for a free issue here. Envoy is bimonthly and you can subscribe to a print edition or to a reduced price PDF version.

FREDERICK — A Catholic priest faces an indecent exposure charge after police said he went jogging in the nude about an hour before sunrise.

The Rev. Robert Whipkey told officers he had been running naked at a high school track and didn’t think anyone would be around at that time of day, a police report said.

He told officers he sweats profusely if he wears clothing while jogging. "I know what I did was wrong," he said in the report.

Good thing he didn’t sweat profusely while preaching. Next time though he might consider buying a treadmill instead.

Sister Therese of Avila, in her kitchen prayer, states: "The Lord walks among the pots and pans."

Sister Mark Livingston of the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate did indeed find God there. Because of Him, she happily spent many years serving her community with domestic work in such places as Guardian Angel Home in Joliet and St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Joliet.

Sister Livingston knew and could quote the many Bible readings about food and serving others. She identified with the biblical Martha in her desire to be hospitable to others. Like Jesus, she could "multiply" the food to feed a multitude and supplied parish festivals with her pies and other baked specialties and enjoyed trying new recipes.

"She said she served the church indirectly so the sisters who did teaching and other work for the church did not have to get meals, wash and do other duties, said Sister Juanita Ujcik, who lived with Sister Livingston for many years.

"She believed this work serves to intensify the life and holiness of God’s people on Earth. She recognized the dignity and sacredness of food service apostolate and believed that it led to the eternal banquet of love in heaven."

Sister Livingston was 91 when she died May 31.

In addition to her food preparations, Sister Livingston’s brand of Christian ministry exemplified the value of teamwork. She often performed her kitchen work side by side with her twin sibling, Sister Luke. Neither one of them, Sister Ujcik said, ever took the spotlight in anything.

Tibet’s living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from China’s atheist leaders. The ban is included in new rules intended to assert Beijing’s authority over Tibet’s restive and deeply Buddhist people.

“The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without government approval is illegal and invalid,” according to the order, which comes into effect on September 1.

I can imagine a Chinese official at the second coming saying to Jesus "You up there, do you have a permit for that?"

Res Publica et Cetera

And God says: ‘I have prepared a place for you … ,… And don’t bring an overcoat!’

This is one of the warning signs written by Rev. David F. Dzermejko in response to ongoing vandalism of the windows of a closed Catholic parish.

SEGUIN — Some people will steal anything, and it doesn’t get much lower than the theft reported recently at Wal-Mart.

Store employees reported someone stole several statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe from in front of the store’s garden center Thursday.

The statues, made of weighted plastic and painted, are around three feet tall. They were marked down from $49.83 to $37 as part of a clearance special, but even that price wasn’t low enough to suit whoever took them, police say.

The only description available was that the suspect was a Hispanic male. Nothing was known of the vehicle he was in or whether he worked alone in the heist.

Seguin Police Detective Sgt. Johnny San Miguel said it was unclear just how many of the statues were stolen.

He said he would work hard to find out who committed the theft.

“I hope I catch him,” Miguel said.

But either way, the thief will have to live with his conscience — if he has one.

“The man upstairs works in mysterious ways,” Miguel said. “He will deal with this.”

Here is one method people are using to thank the Pope for the Motu Proprio.

A reader noticed a set of what looks like Immaculate Heart of Mary pajamas in a J.C. Penney ad. The reader couldn’t find it online on their catalog but here is an ebay link to show you what they look like.