Punditry

1. What is Ash Wednesday?

Ash Wednesday is the day Lent begins in the Catholic faith. It occurs 40 days after Good Friday.

From the Montgomery Advertiser’s Q&A as noted by Get Religion.

Even stranger is that they list at the bottom of the article.

Source: James Azrin of the Nazareth Resource Library

No not James Azrin, who they are referring to is Jimmy Akin’s old site the Nazareth Resource Library and his page on Ash Wednesday. Though on his page it says. "It occurs forty days before Good Friday." It is quite obvious they lifted their whole FAQ From Jimmy’s site, though they paraphrased from much if it. As Get Religion also noticed they framed frame Ash Wednesday as pertaining to Roman Catholics only. In recent years though it has been much more common for Protestant churches to have Ash Wednesday services.

Gerald reports:

A reliable source with the Lincoln Diocese just emailed me to tell me that the Call to Action appeal to the Vatican of their excommunication by Bishop Bruskewitz has failed. Of course, one wonders why, other than to use the infrastructure, they’d want to be Catholic in the first place. After all, as one can read on their website:

Truth is not absolute. We all have insights and we are all related. The new cosmology shows us how interrelated we are.

Catholics are from Earth, CTA is from Venus.

Well I wouldn’t say they are from Venus, I am pretty sure truth is absolute on Venus also. But maybe I have not kept up on the "new cosmology." Though I am pretty sure that cosmetologists have not kept up on the so-called new cosmology either. Relativists strike me as funny creatures who tie logic into pretzels and want you to believe that the statement that truth is not absolute is an absolute. Statements surely to make robots in Star Trek blow up in paradox loops. The idea that we all have insights is surely true, but they never get around to explaining what to do when insights collide and oppose each other. They certainly take on an Eastern flavor in not seeing the necessity of non-contradiction. Though often they do find the necessity of non-contradiction when you contradict them.

The new cosmology to the uninitiated has nothing to do with the science involved in cosmology but is one of the nutty ideas spearheaded by Fr Thomas Berry, Matthew Fox, and way too many retreat centers. This idea is just pantheism. Or considering the number of Dominican nuns advocating this system, it might be called pantsuitheism. "It is a way of thinking of the universe as a cosmic person" as Fr. Berry says. Berry insists that we quit our "obsessive concern" with Jesus Christ. Well I guess the positive thing about worshipping the Cosmos is that you can never be late to church.

Homoerotic art featured at auction held Saturday at Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral to benefit AIDS clinics in Mexico

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation held an art exhibition and auction last night at the conference center of Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles to raise money for clinics it sponsors in Tijuana and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

A California Catholic Daily reader who saw a preview of the event on a Los Angeles television program alerted the newspaper via email regarding the event. "They showed some of the items, and it was really gross — men hugging, tops bared, nude males back scenes," said the reader in the email.

The title for the event was “Amigos y Amantes” (Friends and Lovers).
[Via Roman Catholic Blog]

If only a story like this would be hard to believe. Unfortunately with the Archdiocese of L.A. with their rainbow fishes and ordinations of an openly homosexual deacon it has come to be what you would expect. A diocese where culture of death politicians are welcomed with open arms without a mention of any caveat. For example Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez who has been at events in the past with Cardinal Mahony is one of supporters of California’s latest euthanasia bill. He recently said.

Nuñez said he would call Mahony today. But he added: "I think the toughest conversation I’m going to have is with my Catholic mother, who wanted me to be a priest."

Any wonder that the Archdiocese with the largest population is towards the bottom of the list when it comes to most indicators?

I do admit Cardinal Mahony drives me crazy, which is why I pray for him daily both for his sake and my own.

In response to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of allowing fortnightly Masses in his Westminster diocese specifically for homosexuals Amy Welborn posts:

What I would like to know is this:

What, in the present situation, in the Diocese of Westminster is preventing "homosexual people so as to enable them to enter more fully into the life of the Church?" What?

Are persons who experience same-sex attraction being stopped from coming to Mass?

Are persons who experience same-sex attraction being prohibited from praying?

Are they not allowed to purchase or read copies of the Bible or the Catechism?

Are persons with same-sex attraction who dwell in the Diocese of Westminster being banned from the Sacrament of Reconciliation, from access to spiritual direction?

Are persons with same-sex attraction not allowed to visit the sick or assist the poor? Are persons with same-sex attraction not allowed, in the Diocese of Westminster, to pour their lives out in sacrificial discipleship of Jesus Christ?

Great questions and surely ones that will not be answered in any straightforward manner. The first question is rather easy is answer in that the Church does not affirm sexual acts outside of the marriage bond and many rightly understand this. Some outside of the Church seem to know Church teaching better than those inside of it. What about special Masses for adulterers and fornicators – two groups much larger and just as much in need? It would seem to me that if you are going to have outreach to those with same-sex attraction that the vehicle to do that would be in a forum outside of the Mass. Modeled on groups like Courage where both the truth and beauty of Church teaching on human sexuality is explained, not explained away.

Amy continues:

Here is the thing.

I don’t want to worship at Sunday Mass in the midst of a congregation that looks just like me and that shares my particular situation in life, if I can honestly help it. I want to worship, every Sunday, with the most intense, vibrant mix of people around, a concrete symbol of the reality of this thing called Church. Well-dressed, poorly-dressed, old, young, straight, gay, families, singles, every color, with every kind of accent, the clear-eyed saintly lady over to the side near Mary’s statue, and the exhausted sinner, worn out from Saturday night, hunched near the back, hoping, listening, waiting for a clue and just a little more strength.

That’s Church. That’s the Body of Christ. No divisions, no clubs, no identity politics. Just a crew of sickly, yet hopeful sinners, trying to open ourselves just a little bit more this week to the power of that healing, redemptive medicine that we know the Physician has ready for us, as he waits for us, in love.

I mean…isn’t that the point?

NPR.org, February 15, 2007 · As if it weren’t provocative enough to hold a debate on religion in America, panelists in a recent debate were tasked with answering the following: "Is America Too Damn Religious?"

The event was part of a series of Oxford-style debates called Intelligence Squared U.S. Produced in New York City by WNYC, it is based on the Intelligence Squared program that began in London in 2002. Three experts argue in favor of the motion; three others argue against it.

In a vote before the debate, about 67 percent of the audience agreed with the motion. After hearing the debate, more than 70 percent agreed with the motion, roughly 24 percent were opposed and about 5 percent were undecided, concluding that America is in fact "too damn religious."

Pretty ironic for secularists to use Damn in relation to too many religious American. It is also strange that many religious people see Americans as becoming more secular while secularists see Americans as too religious. It would seem that both ideas can’t be true, but they can. America is becoming more secular, and secularist see even a shrinking number as being "too damn religious."

With only two days to go before its opening night, a play to be staged by a gay and lesbian students’ society at NUI Galway had to be pulled yesterday after organisers received notice from entertainment conglomerate Disney threatening legal action if the production went ahead.

Members of the university’s GigSoc were in final rehearsals for a production "loosely adapted" from the Disney film Sister Act, which was to debut at the Black Box Theatre in Galway tomorrow after six months of preparatory work.

But yesterday afternoon, in a letter sent via a Dublin-based solicitor, Disney informed the students that the performance would breach its intellectual property rights and threatened legal proceedings if the play went ahead, according to GigSoc.

As one homosexual site comments.

It is the right, some would argue the responsibility, of gay men to dress up as nuns at some point. How dare the evil Disney Corp. try to interfere? Mockery of the Catholic Church is what gays love.

Melissa McEwan has now joined Amanda Marcotte in dropping from the Edwards campaign blog. Rightly they saw that they were only hurting the Edwards campaign, now if only John Edwards could see that his presence on his own ticket is also hurting his chances.

I saw of rumor of the following in one of Matt C. Abbotts’ columns and now VOTF has confirmed it.

At the VOTF Holy Trinity affiliate meeting in Washington DC on February 24th, VOTF will be awarding Bishop Thomas Gumbleton with a National VOTF Priest of Integrity Award. Bishop Gumbleton will be acknowledged as a priest of integrity whose prophetic voice of support for victims and survivors of clergy sexual abuse continues to change for the better the landscape of silence that enabled decades of abuse.

I couldn’t say that VOTF has jumped the shark since they were already on the far side of the shark to begin with. This just proves that their whole alignment with the priest abuse scandal was just a show and that all along their real agenda was right along with the Call to Action agenda (who they also favorably quote in their press release). This also is no news to anybody who has followed VOTF since their beginning.

Bishop Gumbleton does not exactly have a stellar record when it comes to reporting of priest abuse. Last year he said that he was abused when he was younger, though refused to name the abuser. If this was true then why didn’t he come out with this much earlier? Those who do abuse rarely have single victims. So while it is true that victims are often traumatized and are hesitant to reveal abuse, you can’t exactly call someone a "priest of integrity" who was quite late in revealing this. Even if the abuser has already passed on, other victims of the same would find some healing if the persons name was pointed out by a prominent victim.

Catholic journalist Jay McNally recently posted over on Dom’s blog and picked up in a column. (slightly edited).

Back in the early 1990s, when I was editor of The Michigan Catholic in the Archdiocese of Detroit, I got to see the face of the clerical abuse scandal up close, and believe me, by no stretch was Gumbleton any more a friend of abuse victims than any other generic bishop. I was repulsed by the chancery’s coddling of pedophiles and actively gay priests, some of whom held positions of great responsibility under Cardinal Adam Maida. There were no big secrets on this point.

Indeed, Gumbleton did not follow archdiocesan protocol when he was informed by a [male] victim that a priest, then in good standing in the archdiocese, had abused him as a teenager. The public policy at the time was that the archdiocese was supposed to refer such allegations immediately to a very secret review board. But Gumbleton did not do this.

It was nearly a decade later that the priest was finally brought to trial and put in prison. So, in my book, when he had the chance to call the police and report the sex abuse by the priest, Gumbleton sat on his hands, actually obstructing justice.

Since I first saw the recent preposterous claim that Gumbleton is an ‘outspoken advocate’ for sex abuse victims, I have been trying to figure out how to detail Gumbleton’s deplorable obstruction of justice in this particular case, but I have to maintain the anonymity the victim and his family have requested. So, I’m working on that now, and have been in contact with the family.

In any case, I want to say that on the sex abuse scandals 10 and 15 years ago, Gumbleton was nowhere to be found among those agitating for action to put the pedophiles in prison, or out of ministry.

Gumbleton has also been a major promoter of the group Dignity. It did not surprise me that when the county prosecutor in Wayne County (which covers part of the archdiocese) finally started investigating local priests, the public learned that one of pedophile priests was in Washington, D.C., saying Mass for Dignity, even though he had been laicized. This priest pleaded no contest to sex abuse and spent a year in prison.

I don’t believe Dignity when they claim they did not know this priest saying their Masses was a pedophile who was laicized for his misdeeds. Nor do I believe that Gumbleton would have remained silent about this priest — he was not reported to police until 2002 — if Gumbleton were genuinely concerned about victims of abuse.

When he had administrative authority to prevent abuse by priests, Gumbleton did nothing, as far as I can tell, to intervene.

It was nearly a decade later that the priest was finally brought to trial and put in prison. So, in my book, when he had the chance to call the police and report the sex abuse by the priest, Gumbleton sat on his hands, actually obstructing justice.

Regardless of the accuracy of the charge it is certainly evident that Bishop Gumbleton has not been any kind of positive player when it comes to abuse and in fact might have been involved in covering it up. Of course VOTF does not care about any of this. They are not going to aware a bishop from a diocese where it is quite apparent that scandals of this sort ever spiraled out of control. Especially since those same bishops are antithetical to VOTF not very well hidden agenda.

Bishop Gumbleton is also a promoter of homosexual acts. In working with Dignity and New Ways Ministry he said "Homosex is healthy sex." So obviously by VOTF’s standards integrity has nothing to do with being faithful to Church teaching.

Now the NYT has picked up on the story of Sen. Edwards anti-Catholic blogger hires.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 — Two bloggers hired by John Edwards to reach out to liberals in the online world have landed his presidential campaign in hot water for doing what bloggers do — expressing their opinions in provocative and often crude language.

The Catholic League, a conservative religious group, is demanding that Mr. Edwards dismiss the two, Amanda Marcotte of the Pandagon blog site and Melissa McEwan, who writes on her blog, Shakespeare’s Sister, for expressing anti-Catholic opinions.

Mr. Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, is among the leading Democratic presidential candidates.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said in a statement on Tuesday, “John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots.”

Mr. Edwards’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, said Tuesday night that the campaign was weighing the fate of the two bloggers.

Now you would think a presidential campaign would just possibly check out past posts when they make a hire of bloggers to run a campaign blog. Though maybe it is a case of anti-Catholic blindness – kind of like color blindness. They probably did read the past posts and saw nothing objectionable in them.

Captain Ed posts:

The New York Times gives a rather dispassionate description of the posts in question. In the case of Marcotte, her anti-Catholic screeds would make Jack Chick blush with embarrassment; the woman is an anti-Catholic bigot. Her posts on Catholicism venture far from rational opposition to its dogma and policies into screeching, obscene hatred. The examples given by the Times for McEwan appear to be of the same tenor.

The Vatican has silenced an outspoken Catholic bishop, forcing him to cancel two planned talks in Arizona.

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit must seek permission from local bishops anywhere he wishes to speak, by order of the papal nuncio, the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States, according to local leaders of Call to Action. The group has taken a variety of positions at odds with church policy.

Normally, Catholic clergy need permission only to conduct religious services. The Vatican has penalized dissident theologians in the past, but Robert Blair Kaiser, a Phoenix author who has covered the Vatican since 1962, said he had never heard of a nuncio restricting a bishop.

A source close to Gumbleton in Detroit confirmed the nuncio’s action. A man who declined to identify himself at the nuncio’s office in Washington, D.C., said the office would not talk about any such order.

Call to Action leaders said Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio, laid down the requirement to Gumbleton several months ago, reportedly as a result of testimony Gumbleton gave a year ago to the Ohio Legislature in favor of expanded time frames for abuse victims to file lawsuits.

Bishops Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix and Gerald Kicanas of Tucson refused to grant the permission.
[Via Jay Anderson]

Of course everybody knows that if the Vatican really wanted to silence Bishop Gumbelton they would have sent Silas the albino monk assassin.