Punditry

American Papist on the new Cathedral in Oakland currently being constructed.

And it’s not like we can hope for a natural disaster to free us of this aesthetic effrontery – it’s rated to withstand a 1000 year earthquake. Well, I guess we can always pray for a miracle.

My own theory is that they are working for bragging rights about who can build the ugliest cathedral in California.

From an interview with Professor P.Z.
Myers from the National Catholic Register.

I decided to call his bluff. “Has
Christianity contributed anything to humanity?” I asked him.

“Well,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone, “there is this general
property of religion — it’s great at building community. Religion has
been a good thing for many individuals; it has brought them together
and given them comfort. But over all, religion … holds back humanity.”

What, I asked, about the Church’s role in founding the first Western
hospitals, universities, banks and even many breakthroughs in science?
He interrupted me, irate and incredulous:

“No, people made those contributions to
Western Civilization.” 

What a cringe-inducing answer.  It really makes me sorry for
him that his hatred of Christianity has destroyed any vestige of
objectivity.  Say for example somebody asked me.

“Do you think science has contributed to humanity?
 What about science’s role in developing medicine, technology,
and helping us to come to a greater understanding of the universe?”

“No, people made those contributions to
Western Civilization.”

I would deserve a good slap to my head for
such an answer.

Jeff Gardner of NCR sums it up.

As I talked with Myers I was struck by
an
irony: For a scientist whose
job it is to observe cause and effect, he has a poor understanding of
the cause, Catholicism, and its effects on world culture. He does not
see Christianity as an elevating force in the world, but rather as a
strange superstition — akin to banging a pot to scare away the moon.

Fr. Stanley Jaki showed how it was the
Catholic Church because of her
theology became the midwife for the scientific method in the first
place in his must-read book “Science and Creation: From Eternal Cycles to
an Oscillating Universe”  The title is a bit
off-putting, but it gives an in depth overview of cultures and how
their understanding kept them developing science.  Carl Olson
comments on the article and
says:

Perhaps this will help do away with one of the greatest myths of our
time: that scientists are objective, ideologically-free, and
intellectually-balanced people who care only about the facts. Not so.
Not even close. They put on their pocket protectors one pocket at a
time, just like the rest of us, and some of them, like Myers, are
intellectually brilliant in this or that scientific discipline, but are
completely clueless about nearly anything else, including basic respect
and common civility. That we are shocked that Myers talks and acts as
he does indicates that the joke is on us–except, of course, it isn’t a
joke. It is, I think, far more common than most people realize. Perhaps
it’s time we stopped buying the bill of goods sold by those like Myers
who claim to be intellectually superior and scientifically objective
while all they really want to do is gleefully slash our tires. Kudos to
Gardner for helping expose this jerk.

Yesterday my wife and I were down in the
Orlando area and decided to attend the Vigil Mass, at the National
Shrine of Mary, Queen of
the Universe – a Church not far from Disney World and which
primarily
serves the tourists.  I have been to their excellent gift shop
a couple of times which has a pretty good selection of solid Catholic
books along with other items.  The church itself is quite nice
looking for a modern Church though the furnishing in the sanctuary
leave something to be desired.  But the stained glass windows
are quite beautiful and the chapel is also very nice. The constructions
is such that the chapel is behind the Tabernacle that goes through the
wall and on the Chapel side they have a monstrance.  Though on
that side they also have a transparent door on the tabernacle which is
not allowed by Canon law 938.

The Mass was said by an Irish priest who
started with what I guess you could call a census (people never learn from King David).  “How many
of you are from out of town?” pretty much everybody raised their hands.
 “How many of you are from outside the U.S.?” He then
proceeded down the isle extracting country of origin from a number of
people who raised their hands.  We are no five minutes into
the Mass.  Next it was “How many are married over 50 years
please stand up.”  Followed by encouragement for applause and
then “Stand up if you are a grandparent” Here he inserts mandatory joke
about them being free babysitters.”  Then we had the
“everybody introduce yourself to the people around you .”  I
had heard of this practice at some parishes, but never had to suffer
through this false bit of community that has everybody glad handing the
other (I though this was reserved for the Kiss of Peace).  We
are now ten minutes into the start of Mass and we haven’t even got to
the confeitor yet.  Now if priests are going to act like a
Vegas lounge act can I also be a heckler?  Unfortunately a
Vegas lounge act all to accurately describes this type of behavior at
the beginning of Mass, though some do this type of thing at the end of
Mass.   He used the type of jokes that would make Hennyman
groan.

Surprisingly the rest of the Mass was
without experimentation and according to the GIRM.  The music
was also totally without standard Haugen/Haas fare with no hymns newer
than a hundred years old sung by an older gentlemen with a rich voice
as he played the organ. Though the first and last hymns were standard
Protestant ones.  The homily though was quite a different
matter.

The priest really opened my eyes to
Matthew 14 and 1st Kings 19.  The stepping out in faith of
Peter is really all about steeping out in faith in your community for
comprehensive healthcare doncha know, fair business practices, violence
and other bits of social justice.  No mention of pro-life or
other social justice items though.  But I was trying to be
fair to what the priest was saying and not to impose or read too much
into what he was saying.  Then he got to the “still small
voice” where he said he had a still small voice and that it was called
a “vote” and that we all needed to be registered to vote as he was to
exclaim your still small voice in the voting booth.  Again he
reiterated comprehensive healthcare and this time being a community
activist in your neighborhood along with the list of social justice
issues minus the social justice issues that are actually intrinsically
evil. So I guess this was the only vote for Obama homily I have had the
non-privilege of hearing.  So aren’t you all glad that you now
know that stepping out in faith means and what the still small voice is?

The National Catholic Reporter reporting
on the latest priestette “ordination” this time in a Universalist
church in Lexington, Ky. 

… She said that at the end of the
ceremony,
Sevre-Duszynska told the congregation that she often thinks of
something Dominican Sr. Marge Tuite told her many years ago: “Never
stop making the connections between sexism, racism, militarism,
nationalism and all forms of violence.”

Making those connections, Maguire said, was really the theme of the
day’s ordination. “Roy and Janice represent the merging of these
(struggles of justice), of making these connections,” Maguire
said. 

Yeah what is with that sexist Jesus guy?
 Surely he knew the
“prophetic voice” that would arise 2000 years after he was crucified
and died for our sins.  Didn’t he know that these women would
come along and interpret his will correctly for him?

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lexington
condemned the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement as “in opposition to
the church’s authentic teaching” and warned that “members of the
Catholic faithful should not support or participate in Saturday’s
event.” Participation in the event, “carries with it very serious penal
sanctions in Church Law,” a statement on the diocese’s Web site warned.

I read that paragraph and thought that
what the diocese was saying was not quite right since
the excommunicaton
applies to “he who shall have attempted to confer holy orders on a
woman, as well as the woman who may have attempted to receive Holy
Orders, incurs in a latae sententiae excommunication, reserved to the
Apostolic See.”  Not to everybody that participates in the
event.  In this case we just have a really badly constructed
paragraph that does not accurately reflect what
the Archbishop wrote.

In the Roman Catholic Church, only a
baptized male is capable of receiving the Sacrament of Holy Orders
validly. What will take place on Saturday, August 9, 2008, has no
connection to Roman Catholic Liturgy or Sacraments and cannot in any
way be recognized as a valid reception of Sacred Orders. Simulation of
a sacrament carries with it very serious penal sanctions in Church Law.
Members of the Catholic Faithful should not support or participate in
Saturday’s event.

He certainly did not imply that imply that
all people who attended the event came under penal sanctions of Church
law.  Though certainly their support of this is quite sinful.

In a previous article NCR interviewed
Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois.

In an interview Aug. 7, two days before
the ordination, Bourgeois told NCR that he had thought long and hard
about participating after receiving an invitation to the ceremony. “I
consulted a lot of friends, I’ve done a lot of discernment, spoken with
a lot of women friends. I felt in conscience — this matter of
conscience keeps coming up and I don’t know what other word to use —
if I didn’t attend her ordination, I would have to stop addressing this
issue as I do” in speaking engagements at parishes and other Catholic
venues around the country.

Oh great he has been going around the
country supporting this falsehood.  My conscience tells me if
I ever run across this guy to give him a swift kick in the butt. Surely
he will support my conscience in this action even if it is an
impropertly formed conscience.  

“Over the years and listening to women
friends – if one listens, just shuts up and listens to their stories,
their faith journey and, in some cases, their call by God to ordination
to the priesthood in the Catholic church – there is a problem for us
guys in the church. What are we saying? God is calling us but not you?
This is heresy. We’re tampering with the sacred here.”

Hey and what about all those guys like me
who don’t have a calling to the priesthood.  God is calling
other, but not me.  This is heresy and tampering with the
sacred if every person in the world is not called to the ordained
priesthood.  I better get to the seminary fast before it fills
up with 5 billion plus people.

The hierarchy will say, “It is the
tradition of the church not to ordain women.” I grew up in a small town
in Louisiana and often heard, “It is the tradition of the South to have
segregated schools.” It was also “the tradition” in our Catholic church
to have the Black members seated in the last five pews of the church.

What a poorly catechized priest who can’t
tell the difference between so-called big-T traditions and small-T
tradition.  Or if he does it is even worse to use such an
argument to equate Apostolic Tradition with “tradition of men.”

But all this talk of equality does makes me realize something.
 Women have something I will never have (besides certain body
parts) – being called a Mother. And I am not talking about being called
a Mother with a certain expletive following it.  I am
restricted to being called a Father.  Everybody knows Fathers
Day is a second rate holiday compared to Mothers Day.  You can
imagine my hurt over the years when my children were in school and they
would have them make Mothers Day cards to take home.  Fathers
Day was deliberately put in June when school was out so that they would
never have to do this for their fathers.  What an unfair act
of discrimination!  Now I understand the role of mother is
tied with them actually giving birth to a child and so I find yet
another unfair act of discrimination  in that I can’t get
pregnant.  So I am starting the “Mens Pregnancy Conference”
and the organization “Roman Catholic Pregnant-men.”  We will
have ceremonies naming us capable of bearing children where three
midwives will place hands on our tummies and confer pregnancy on us.
 What you think this is silly?  I assure you
ontologically I can become  pregnant to the same level that
women can be ordained priests.  Oh wait.