Punditry

Reading one of Gerald’s post this morning on Fr. Brennan and his attempt to make the Catholic Church relevant through irreverence he had another one of his scary Sister Chittister morphings. I had heard Laura Ingraham on her show yesterday referring to Sr Chittister as Sister Michael Moore after seeing her appearance on Meet the Press. Beware of what you ask for.

Today Laura Ingraham was covering ABC’s Good Morning America treatment of Opus Dei with Diane Sawyer.

"We are going to explore some of the provocative questions raised even by this building which is said to have so much money, this organization 3 billion dollars. What do they do with it and what about the practices we keep reading about. Inflicting pain on yourself in order to be close to Jesus."

Laura said that she hoped Dan Brown had stock in ABC since they have been hawking the Da Vinci Code 24/7 pretty much since the book came out. Covering the money angle is pretty silly making a big deal out of an international personal prelature of the Catholic Church having 3 Billion. This is only slightly more than twice of Oprah Winfrey’s worth and the same as George Lucas. Pretty strange how provocative questions are raised by a building.

You don’t give out names of the members. Is Justice Scalia a member?

Lot of prep work done ahead of time by Diane Sawyer there. Five seconds on Google would have shown this to be confirmed as untrue, though even if he was – so what? Though I found it funny that she says they don’t give out names and then asks for a name. Another strange part was Diane Sawyer saying that they didn’t even have a sign on the building years before. Especially since the building was only built in 2001.

The day of the national illegal alien boycott to not go to work is of course the Feast Day of St. Joseph the Worker. Rich irony for the likely majority of Catholics cooperating. Though some have already suggested that the Holy Family were illegal immigrants because of the Flight into Egypt so maybe that is the connection. Though to compare Angelic directions to avoid assassination of the baby Jesus being equivalent to seeking work in better economic climes doesn’t bare close scrutiny. Also as far as I am aware Joseph didn’t hire a coyote to get him across and then buy forged papers. Nor had Egypt recently suffered an attack that killed thousands and out of necessity were controlling border access. [Via Michelle Malkin]

I was thinking that Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ has also gone on to set another record. It is the only international blockbuster that gets zero television, cable, or subscription cable replay. While channels like HBO and others run the same movies over and over as far as I am aware TPOTC has never appeared on any of these channels. It would be really interesting to hear their defense of this. Especially if they were concerned that it might offend some people. Now that would be ironic if they were suddenly worried about offending people especially since I sometimes see The Last Temptation of Christ appear in the television guides.

Reading this time magazine article on Opus Dei I wonder in anybody in Opus Dei just refers to it as Opus as Time constantly does and people part of Opus Dei as Opus people. But they really get the following wrong.

For years, Catholics in Washington have kept informal count of possible high-profile Opus people, including Justice Antonin Scalia and almost-Justice Robert Bork, Republican Sens. Rick Santorum and Sam Brownback, columnist Robert Novak and former FBI head Louis Freeh.

It has previously been confirmed that Louis Freeh and Judge Antonin Scalia are not members of Opus Dei and Judge Bork was baptized and entered the Catholic Church only three years ago. I doubt if Opus Dei will find this article helpful in dispelling myths.

Happy Easter to all of my readers and their families. Alleluia. He is risen, he is risen indeed. Sometimes I wish I lived in a heavily Catholic area just so I could walk down the street initiating that or answering it in reply. There is just so much joy in those words and a lifetime of exploring the depths of what they point to. Unfortunately in the culture you would have little idea that Easter is the greatest feast for Christians. Even as a young atheist it was hard not to learn something about the story of Christ being born even though it might be heavily diluted. There is a least of buildup of expectation with all the cartoons and music dedicated towards Christmas or at least some idea of Christmas. Easter seems to be the second-class citizen of feasts. Even as a kid there is really no buildup and longing for Easter Day. Easter Egg hunts are fun, but they don’t exactly leave you sleepless at night with expectation. There are not great specifically Easter movies played during Lent or cartoons dedicated to the story of Christ’s last days and resurrection. Even Handel’s Messiah which really should be played during Easter, often get played during Christmas. Easter is the Roger Dangerfield of feasts. Maybe this is because the societal message of Christmas has become "it’s all about family and being nice to one another during this season" since this can be tied to the Holy Family. The message of Easter is much tougher to see. Christ’s death on the cross and the resurrection were necessitated by our sins and his great love for us. Ah, but the sin part – there is the rub. Not to be mentioned in polite company unless we are talking about somebody else’s that is. That our own sins require such a terrifying sacrifice, well let’s not bring that up. The message of our redemption is hard to sell, when the fact of our sins have have either been excused or expressed as only a pathology of needless guilt.

It is easy to sing "Were you there when they crucified our Lord" and forget that indeed we were. Surely I know my own sins were there. God who is outside of time and came into time knew all of ours sins past, present, and future. The Garden of Gethsemane where he experienced the agony in the garden was more than just the stress from the upcoming trial. Being fully human he asked the Father to take this cup from him. But also as fully God he also knew that despite his great love for us and sacrifice and how much he is willing to give saving grace to all of us, that still we would refuse and turn from him. That even his followers would continue to sin and to hurt him. No wonder he sweated blood.

Getting back to the joy of Easter I think one of my greatest joys is to contemplate is faith itself. Though I have only been Catholic for seven years now it is hard to imagine back to to the time when I was not only not a Catholic, but a skeptical atheist instead. Once you are healthy you really don’t want to dwell on the time when you were malnourished. Faith is such an amazing gift – the very gateway into realizing God’s love for us. I am still amazed at time to wake up in the morning and to realize what I have been given. Though I also think about the parable of the talents and hope that I don’t leave such a great gift buried.

Another joy is to see those coming into the fullness of truth – the Catholic Church. A hearty welcome home to everybody who has been received into the Church during the last couple of days. Especially to Dawn Eden whose blog I have been reading for the last couple of years. When she was an Evangelical she had a better understanding of the truth of sexuality as taught by the church than most of us Catholics do. And as TSO said "A conversion is a miraculous thing and thrilling to witness, even ‘virtually’ through the lens of blogland." Seeing others come into the Church reminds me of my own entrance and it reawakens the joy and wonder of that day that after literally forty years in the wilderness I had entered the promised land of his Church. I also enjoy watching adults be baptized. To see baptismal regeneration in action as their sins are washed away and forgotten through this awesome sacrament. To also subsequently watch them and other converts receive their first Communion.

It also always brings tears to my eyes to sing the Gloria at the Easter Vigil since it has be suppressed during Lent and to also to be able to once again shout Alleluia! That after the rigors of Lent we can once again rejoice. Though it is because of Lent that we can once again realize what we are rejoicing about since it is so very easy to become complacent. We more fully become Easter people because we have traveled through Lent. At my parish they have a Good Friday service that runs from noon till a little after three. I love the symbolism of spending those same three hours as Christ did on the cross.

After the Good Friday service we rewatched The Passion of the Christ. Even after repeated viewing this movie is about impossible to watch with dry eyes. Probably the very antithesis of a popcorn movie, it is a tissue movie instead. Though after this we made the mistake of watching ABC’s The Ten Commandments which we had recorded. I recorded it because it was recommended to Barbara Nicolosi and she mentioned it on her blog. It did not take long to realize how truly bad this rendition really was, but we kept watching like staring at a train wreck. It surely made me realize how important it was that Mel Gibson in his movie did not do it in the vernacular. There was no distraction from people with accents that just not fit. The Ten Commandment mini-series with it’s Egyptians with English accents only made it more comical. They also had the whitest looking Rameses ever to appear. The portrayal of Moses by Dougray Scott made me long for that great thespian Charleston Heston. It was so bad it was funny. I can’t really say my critique contains plot spoilers because they already spoiled the plot. This was a very moody dour Moses with excessive facial expressions to match.

The writing though was even worse. This was just another Biblical epic written through very modern eyes. Some of the conversations in the movie seemed to come right out of discussion of comparative religion classes in a modern university than something the Israelites would have been discussing. I have no real problems with some changes made in this type of movie from the Bible itself. It is just that in this case every time they departed from Exodus there was no enhancement, but a bad decision instead. What in the world was the reasoning that Moses sent his wife and family away instead of just Jethro returning to his land. I almost laughed out loud at seeing Miriam with a sword in her hand against the Amalek Even worse was the pacifist Joshua that didn’t want to fight and said that we should rely on God only to win the battles. Moses had to beat Joshua up and talk at him to arise his warrior spirit. The depiction of the manna was also annoying. It looked like the results of red ants invading your property with these circular mounds that appeared. The manna also instantly became worms for some people who tried to take too much. The speeches by Moses to the people were also pathetic. Telling them that they had to totally rely on themselves and not God before going into battle with the Amalek just totally misses the whole point of Exodus.

The burning bush was unimpressive, though at least the parting of the sea was a worthy special effect. The Golden Calf was also unintentionally funny. Instead of a molten calf they had one carved out of stone with some gold placed on it. I guess in this version Moses had a real difficult time melting it down and making the people drink it (though this part was dropped in the movie anyway.) But even worse is after this they show Moses and his followers killing the women and and slitting the throats of children of those who disobeyed. Why in the world did they think that transforming the text of Exodus from "Put every man his sword on his side" to show killing children? They also had the lamest Ark of the Covenant ever seen on screen. It looked like something cobbled together from the dollar store instead of them being "filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship."

Gee how did this post on the joy of Easter turn into a critique of a crappy mini-series? Oh well I guess I had to get that off my chest and as a public service to warn anyone from watching this show unless they are planning a Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment of it. For something worthwhile read Pope Benedict XVI’s Urbi Et Orbi message and also wish him a happy 79th birthday! Once again Happy Easter. Rejoice!

Here is my new banner graphic for Easter and Eastertide. You might need to hit refresh to have it show up at the top.

A POPULAR school principal has been suspended by the Catholic Church for getting remarried.

Paul Cronin was ordered out of the school when he legally remarried but failed to receive an annulment from the church for his first marriage.

He was suspended from Holy Family Catholic Primary School at Skennars Head on the Far North Coast for what the Catholic Education Office (CEO) described as his "marital status in the eyes of the Catholic Church".

The decision, announced last week, has angered parents, who held a crisis meeting yesterday in an attempt to get Mr Cronin reinstated.

Mr Cronin couldn’t be contacted yesterday but his new wife, Kerryn, said from their home: "I obviously have to respect the position he’s in. He appreciates the support he has received but I probably shouldn’t say anything until he’s ready to do so."

Mr Cronin has two children from his previous marriage, a boy and a girl.

Parent Julie Earl said the school community had been kept in the dark.

"It is very disappointing," she said. "He is considered an excellent leader."

Why is it that every time someone get’s sacked from a Catholic school they are always a popular teacher? Why aren’t we sacking unpopular ones? As far as being an excellent leader goes, I thought part of leadership was leading by example?

John L. Allen Jr. interviews Roger Cardinal Mahony on immigration and all I can say is that I hope the Cardinal went to confession after the whoppers he told. For one he says "Absolutely" that giving a hungry man a sandwich is criminalized under the Sensenbrenner bill. I guess he has paid just as much scrutiny to the actual text of the bill as he does the GIRM. Maybe he is appealing to the spirit of the Sensenbrenner bill.

He later goes on to say that there is almost no middle class left. He also says that a good Catholic could not vote on this bill, though being the generous person he is he also says he wouldn’t deny them Communion. I also wonder since apparently he is on such close and cozy terms with Sen. Boxer and was able to get her to come around to his view on having a comprehensive immigrations bill that he might mention some other subjects since is such a fervent supporter of the Culture of death.

There are some aspects of what he says that I partially agree with. He says we need a comprehensive bill, because after the general amnesty in 1986 that congress didn’t address the rest of the problem. Though his five points of what a comprehensive bill required doesn’t include the obvious one of preventing people from coming into the country illegally in the first place. More like we are at fault for attracting them in the first place.

Here is an article at NRO by George Neumayr on Roger Cardinal Mahony.

… Mahony’s de facto calls for civil disobedience on immigration would be more persuasive if it could be demonstrated that he understood the natural-law basis for the distinction between a just and an unjust law. Unfortunately, there’s little evidence of this; indeed, it is ironic that a famously modernist bishop like Mahony, who normally treats the concept of natural law as a pre-Vatican II relic, suddenly cites it when justifying illegal immigration.

And anybody who thinks Mahony is a sincere advocate for civil disobedience should talk to protesting pro-lifers: Squeamish about getting too close to them, Mahony won’t even let them collect signatures for ballot propositions on his parishes’ property. Notice, too, that he now speaks of compassion as more important than law — but when common sense and basic compassion dictated that he cooperate with the authorities in protecting children from pedophile priests, he didn’t, arguing that his understanding of the law didn’t technically require cooperation.

If only the Cardinal called for prayer and fasting when it comes to abortion instead of holding pro-lifers at arms-length and inviting and embracing pro-abortion politicians at every turn. Maybe if we started calling babies in the womb "undocumented workers" we could get attention by some bishops to defend them.

Now I haven’t wrote about my own opinion on immigration, but it basically comes down to immigration I’m for it, illegal immigration I’m against it. Or as Thomas Friedman said "A very high fence with a very wide gate." My wife is a legal immigrant so obviously I don’t have a problem with legal immigration. I would take more seriously the sudden interests of some bishops on this subject if they had previously been lobbying for both larger quotas for new immigrants and a call to streamline what can be a very burdensome process. Instead of making the strawman argument that the proposed law would require them to turn in illegal’s when giving assistance. Debate always goes down the tubes when the arguments advanced are just plain dishonest. If the bishops want to lobby for open borders than I don’t see how they can really put forth an argument that isn’t other than their own opinion. More effectively they should lobby to reduce the amount of illegal aliens coming into the country and after this is done to possibly lobby for amnesty. I can see a case made for amnesty within Church teaching as long as it is doesn’t deny that it is a forgiveness of an illegal act.

One of the problems with illegal immigration and the reasons that the countries they come from encourage it is that it helps them to not address a problem. These governments won’t face tough decisions to improve their own economies when they can in part bleed off those unemployed and to also come to rely on capital coming back into their own countries. We should be doing what we can to improve economic conditions in these countries instead of encouraging a situation that only delays real solutions.

Now in this one instance I think the Democrats actually have a workable plan to stop illegal immigration. If only we would listen to them and adopt the Kyoto treaty, tax businesses even higher, and increase burdensome laws in no time our economy would be in the dumps and people would have no reason to desire to come here in the first place.

Another typical Father McBrien article this time of homosexual adoption. It ends with the following.

Unfortunately, there are still many Catholics who believe that such columns have no place in the diocesan press or in parish publications. For such Catholics, a diocesan paper is merely a house organ, the bishop’s vehicle by which he communicates with his flock and insures that they will be exposed to no ideas, opinions or even news stories that might "disturb" their faith or lead them to question church teachings and policies.

I guess "unfortunately" I am one of those Catholics who think that "such columns" shouldn’t appear in diocesan publications. I have no problem questioning Church policies, but not Church teaching. When it comes to Church teaching I want to be able to come to a deeper understanding of it which is something that Fr. McBrien’s is guaranteed not to deliver.

This column does not presume to challenge the document issued by the CDF in 2003, nor the decision of the Archbishop of Boston and the remaining members of the Catholic Charities board to terminate their adoption services. But the column does presume to raise questions prompted by both.

The last is what is called on the Laura Ingraham show a "But… monkey."

Is there evidence that "violence" is, in fact, done to children placed in adoptive households of same-sex couples, as the CDF asserted? What of the 13 children already placed by Catholic Charities since 1987?

Of course it will not matter just how much evidence is stacked up to show that the CDF document is exactly right in what it claims. Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex previously had an excellent post on this subject here.

If a homosexual Catholic, including many gay priests and bishops, were to read and ponder the entire CDF document, could he or she continue to feel at home in the Catholic Church?

Well those Catholic with same sex attraction who are striving to truly live the Catholic faith will say a hearty yes to this. The point Fr. McBrien is really making is that those people with same-sex attraction who already don’t believe that active homosexuality is sinful in the first place will also take a dim view on this also. How about some intellectual honesty here Father. Don’t just talk about the prudence of homosexual adoption when you also don’t have a problem with homosexual activity and same-sex marriages in the first place.

If such questions are not addressed, the adoption controversy can have no constructive outcome.

Kind of like his columns.

So what will you be doing this Holy Week especially Good Friday? If you answered doing an Earth Walk in an Oratory then you must be attending this retreat house. Yes it is just one more retreat house governed by radical feminists who practice new age garbage like reiki, walk around in labyrinths and invite Jesuit Zen Masters to preach, and have heavily syncretistic leanings. My old joke is that they are called retreat houses is because they have retreated from the faith.

What I can never understand that with all the depth and beauty of spirituality within the faith that people turn to empty spiritualities more akin to empty calories than fulfilling meals. It is like going to a Lexus or other luxury car dealership and to demand to know where the Yugo’s are. There are so many spiritual Esau’s that want their spiritual pottage not realizing that they have given up a very precious birthright. This spiritual which includes such luminaries in prayer as St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, Thomas A Kemps, St. Alphonsus Liguori, and so many others should be the starting point. Instead they are ignored or rejected in favor of silliness like reiki. Pottage would have been a better deal.

Just another case of itching ear syndrome "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine"

Thanks to the reader who sent my the above link.