Punditry

In spite  of Bishop Frank
Dewane’s ban on Fr. Charles Curran speaking on
Catholic property, Curran will be hosted by VOTF of SWFL as a guest
speaker in their 6th Annual Speakers Forum. Currans topic will be his
recent memoir, Loyal Dissent. Curran, one of the most influential
Catholic
theologians in America is a priest of the Diocese of Rochester NY. In
its
review of the book Commonweal stated “For an intellectually gifted young
man like Curran, there could be no going back to a time when theologians
simply submitted to ecclesiastical censorship.  Whether one
ultimately
agrees with Curran or not, his story is a reminder that when ideas lose
their intrinsic power to command assent, authority can only do so much.”

The presentation will take place at St. Katherine Greek Orthodox Church,
7100 Airport-Pulling Rd. N., Naples, FL, at 7:00 PM.  An open
Q & A
session and a book signing will follow his lecture.

VOTF of SWFL’s next speaker will be Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend who will
speak on her latest book, Failing America’s Faithful. Kennedy-Townsend
will speak on February 28, 2008, at 7:00 PM at a venue that is yet to be
announced. For more information call Peg Clark @ 239- 417- 3077.

 Last spring, Dr. Anthony Padovano was the first Speakers
Forum guest to
be banned in the history VOTF of SWFL’s then 5 year history. 
The Diocese
of Venice’s new bishop now vets every speaker invited to speak on
Catholic
property in the diocese.

All are welcome to listen and learn from our renowned Catholic
speakers. A
free will donation will be collected.

  Peg Clark, President of VOTF of SWFL

Wow bravo to Bishop Frank
Dewane for vetting speakers in his diocese! The choice of a Greek
Orthodox Church as the venue is appropriate since VOTF is virtually in
schism.  One of the most ironically named organizations
continues to display what a joke they are by bragging about defying
their bishop and by inviting Fr. Curran who questions the
Church’s teaching premarital sex, masturbation, contraception,
abortion, homosexual acts, divorce, euthanasia and a politician like
Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend who supports abortion, same-sex marriage, and
embryonic stem-cell research.

Yes promoting acts that are intrinsically
evil is really the act of the faithful.

Sen. Kennedy’s endorsement of Obama cracks
me up

“And since that time, I have marveled
at his grit and his grace as he
traveled this country and inspired record turnouts of people of all
ages, of all races, of all genders, of all parties, of all faiths to
get fired up and ready to go,”

Wow,
all genders!  Imagine a candidate that can bring both men and
women to vote for him.  And I thought it couldn’t be done. Wow
and all faiths also.  I though I saw signs that said
“Zoroastrians for Obama” and “Pagans for Obama.”  People of
all ages is also quite amazing I didn’t know that the world’s oldest
person supported Obama or that babies in the crib were rooting for him
also, at least the ones born alive and not allowed to be killed due to
Obama’s support of infanticide.

Though it does make me wonder if Sen. Kennedy would endorse his own brother today considering JFK’s tax cutting, and strong foreign policy with a military arm, and opposition to abortion.

American
Papist has exclusive photographs of the pulpit, lectern, and chair that were chosen to be used for Pope Benedict’s U.S. visit in DC. Below is the winning design.

Makes me wonder how bad the losing designs were? I could try to describe what my first impression was of the Pope’s chair and the image that came to mind, but I think it is better to show you what came to mind.

The chair immediately reminds me of what I think would be the perfect chair if Captain James T. Kirk was elected Pope. Surely he would feel right at home in such a chair. I have commented on Kirk chairs used as celebrants chairs in the past, though this is the first Papal Kirk chair I have noticed. Maybe IKEA is now designing liturgical furniture?

Now the design is not exactly ugly, but beauty does not come to my mind when I look at this rather cold and stark set. The designs on the pulpit and lectern are kind of interesting, but incongruent and they bring nothing to mind of the Church. They could easily be used in any non-liturgical setting without looking out of place in for example an auditorium.

It does make me wonder about Captain Kirk as Pope on the U.S.S. Vatican. Currently though we do have theologians who have gone where no theologians have gone before
In fact I think many bishops have a Prime Directive towards theologians in their diocese – that is a non-interference policy – I guess in hope that one day they might develop intelligent life.

I would like to see a Star Trek movie
developed along Kirk as Pope lines – surely if the Enterprise could
visit one planet with Cowboys and another with Gangsters, and so surely there is a parallel world that is explicitly Catholic.

How about “The Wrath of Kung”?

Pope Kirk: Kung is denying my Papal authority again! We must return to Switzerland. Scotty give me warp factor nine and your opinion on Kung’s latest treatise.

Cardinal Scotty: Captain, I am engineer not a theologian!

I don’t know whether to call this
liturgical Jekyll and Hyde syndrome,
a liturgically accommodating bishop,  or something else
entirely.  Do a compare and contrast for these
href=”http://slatts.blogspot.com/2008/01/diocese-bishop-opts-for-circus-mass.html”
target=”_blank”>two
href=”http://culbreath.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/how-to-implement-summorum-pontificum/”
target=”_blank”>stories.

Last Sunday, Diocese of Venice Bishop
Frank Dewane celebrated Mass at a Sarasota church accompanied by
priests wearing colorful Ferris wheels, clowns, giraffes, unicycles,
lions and merry-go-rounds on their vestments.

This was the annual circus Mass, Dewane said, honoring the nearly
100-year history of the Ringling family on Floridas west coast and the
importance of itinerant people like circus performers to the Catholic
universal church.

and

Bishop Dewayne of Venice, Florida, requires daily mass in the Extraordinary Form at Ave Maria University:

Due to the demand for the celebration
of
the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, both from Catholics residents
in Ave Maria Town as well as from students, faculty, and staff at Ave
Maria University, and in accordance with Summorum Pontificum, it is
fitting that a Sunday Mass be celebrated on campus in the Extraordinary
Form. In keeping with the same manifest desire, it would seem opportune
that the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite be celebrated on a daily
basis at the University, and at a convenient time. Further, it is noted
that, in accordance with Summorum Pontificum, unscheduled Masses can
also be celebrated by priests on campus, in the Extraordinary Form of
the Roman Rite.

Well I guess priests wearing vestments
like that would be an
extraordinary form of the Mass.  I have never really
understood these circus or clown themed Masses anyway.  For
example for the annual Red Mass they don’t wear vestments with law
books, blind lady justices, bar exams,  or courtrooms.
I am pretty sure Masses celebrated on Navy bases or at sea
don’t have priest’s wearing vestments with various classes of ships,
missiles, carrier aircraft, and various insignia of rank.  So
exactly why is it that a parish closely associated with care of
Catholic working with Ringling Brothers Circus get this kind of
treatment?

I believe the Church involved is
href=”http://www.stmartha.org” target=”_blank”>St.
Martha Catholic Church staffed by the Pallottine Fathers
(shouldn’t that be Pantomine Fathers) which calls itself the
U.S.A. Circus Church. They have a “full-sized, restored and gaily
painted wagon wheels mounted on the wall behind the altar.”  I
do wonder if Catholics involved with the circus like having a liturgy
like this?  It would seem to me that if you worked at the
circus all day the last thing you would want to see is vestments with
clowns and unicycles.  This seems to me something that would
be seen as more fun by the priests involved than the community they are
pastoring.  It does make me wonder if in May they have a
style=”font-style: italic;”>Clowning of Mary.

alt=”Clown Mass Indialantic, Fl Holy Name of Jesus Parish”
src=”http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/clownmass_Indialantic_HolyNameJesus.jpg”>

The picture above is from another Florida parish Holy Name of
Jesus Parish in Indialantic in the Diocese of Orlando.

In a new book of interviews with
celebrities called “Do Good Lives Have to Cost the Earth?” there is one
by Phillip Pullman that includes:

…”This is a crisis as big as war and
you
couldn’t trade your ration book in the wartime. You were allowed three
ounces of butter a week, or whatever, and that was it. And this is what
it should be like with carbon. None of this carbon trading. We should
have a fixed limit and if you use it all up in October, then tough, you
shiver for the rest of the year.”

…”If the polar bears leapt from the pages of my fiction into reality
and
saw what was happening,” reckons Pullman, “they’d eat us. Eat as many
of us as quickly as they possibly could. And good luck to them.”

Well it looks like Mr. Pulman has found
religion – global climate change.

Karen Hall at Some
Have Hats has started a
cleverly titled new blog covering Jesuits called Some
Wear Clerics.  As fans of Karen know she often posts
on Jesuit subjects and has many friends and acquaintances within the
Society of Jesus. Her co-blogger Joe Garcia   The purpose of
the new blog is in part.

This blog, or at least my posts
thereto,
will require something of the reader if he is to remain sane: two-fold
courage. Courage to admit there are things deeply wrong with the
current Society of Jesus and many of its members, and courage to
believe these problems, with God’s grace, will one day find relief. …

The election of the new Jesuit Father
General seems like business as usual, but as I commented over at
Karen’s blog I doubt if the reform of the Jesuits was going to be a
top-down affair anyway.  More than likely it  could
be bottom-up with the the infusion of younger Jesuits who are much more
inclined to be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church who will in
part help to reform it.

I do wonder if historically if there have
ever been a major reform of a large order that had become worldly
without a split.  Off hand I can think of the Discalced
Carmelites and the Capuchins of examples of splits from the parent
order that resulted when the parent order was losing their charism.
 Historically often these splits helped to also reform the
parent order as a result.  There is often a great animosity
towards those working to reform an order as in the case of St. John of
the Cross that ended up getting locked up for almost a year until he
escaped.  Fr. Groeschel who was once a
Capuchin labored for years for reform within his order before
making what he calls a very difficult decision to leave and co-found
the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

So it will be interesting to see if reform
does occur what model it follows and I do hope that it can be one
without a split.  As easy as Jesuit bashing is I would love to
see the order as a whole make the contribution to the Church they once
did instead of keeping the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
busy.

Earlier today their was a dip in global
internet bandwidth as thousands
of Catholic bloggers clogged the web googling to find out about the new
Jesuit Father General is Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, SJ.

Karen Hall, lover of all things Jesuit, is cautiously pessimistic.
 Karen had also previously linked to a picture Fr. Z had
posted of a room full of Jesuits at their meeting wearing civies and
referring to the search for the one guy wearing clerics as “Find
Fr.
Waldo S.J.”

Fr. Adolfo Nicolas was wearing clerics
when elected though.  This makes me wonder if men being
nominated as Father General if they wear clerics under their civilian
clothes.  Kind of like Superman wearing his blue tights and
cape under his suit.  This would make sense since for too many
Jesuits their Jesuit identity is in fact a secret identity.  
I knew it was too much to hope for an equivalent of a Fr. Fessio, Fr.
Pacwa or the theological acumen of Cardinal Dulles or any number of
Jesuits around the world who would be recognized as Jesuits by Saint
Ignatius.

Well that is enough Jesuit bashing and
with Karen I am cautiously pessimistic and the new Jesuit General needs
are prayers and we certainly hope he heeds to the message that the Pope
delivered to them.

As is usually the case American Papist has a good roundup.

*I stole “Habemus Papam Nigrum”
from  Zadok
the Roman.

I can’t say that John Allen Jr. report
makes me less pessimistic in his post titled New
Jesuit leader a progressive shaped by Asia.  . In
the article where prophetic is tossed about multiple times, in response
to the Pope’s letter:

While
Nicols will certainly not lead the Jesuits in any direct challenge to
those points, observers say, his election is nevertheless a choice for
a “forward thinking” outlook, as well as for a sensibility to the
realities of Catholicism outside the West.

Does anybody really think that if St.
Francis Xavier had taken to the “sensibility to the
realities of Catholicism outside the West” that they would have found
Japanese Catholics later on who kept to their Catholicism for two
hundred years without a priest?  His missionary work had to be
diminished by a fervent persecution whereas liberal Catholicism can be
wiped out  by a light breeze.  It is traditional
Christianity that is growing by leaps and bounds in China and not
liberal Christianity more concerned with stepping on cultural toes than
preaching the Gospel.  I lived in Japan for a couple of years
and it seems so odd to me that in a culture that seems to adapt to and
mix in so much from western culture (often in quite odd ways) is
impregnable to the Gospel truth without the watering down of most
cultural adaptation (not that sometimes their are not valid cultural
adaptations).

Father Nicolas taught theology at the Sophia
University in Tokyo.
 This university might be familiar to some in St. Blogs who
have experienced the multiple posting attacks of Fr. Joseph S. O’Leary
(Who identified himself in comment boxes as “Spirit of Vatican II”) and
who has called prominent Catholics and not so prominent Catholics such
as myself neo-Caths.  While Fr. O’Leary is not a Jesuit it
might be interesting to see if he surfaces on his
blog and says anything about his fellow professor.
 Obviously you can’t judge a university or others on the staff
by one professor such as the case of Boston College and Peter Kreeft.

Increasingly over the years anyone who
does not agree that
homosexuality is not perfectly normal are met with denouncements as a
homophobe.  The homophobe tag is now thrown along quite freely
at anyone who dares to accept accept homosexuality or even worse saying
it is sinful.  Say anything negative about homosexuality and
you are instantly branded a homophobe.  This is an annoying
trend, but even worse is the trend to try to litigate if you do not
accept gay orthodoxy.  The misnamed Human Rights Council in
Canada has
been doing just that in regards to commits against homosexuality and
the same types of things are now happening in England.

I think though that we can take a page out
of the homosexual activists play book and defend ourselves against
charges of homophobia.  They are not going to accept natural
law arguments or arguments from scripture so lets use their own
arguments. 

Here is what you do.  If accused
of homophobia simply say that you were born with it and that you did
not choose to be a homophobe and that you find the term itself to be
hateful and judgmental.  If they bring up the fact that
their is no medical evidence of the genetic origin of homophobia, you
say that there is just as much evidence of it than for the genetic
origin of homosexuality.  If they say that twins aren’t always
both homophobes, you remind them the same is true in the cases of twins
and homosexuality.

Now there next line of attack might be
that even if you are born with a genetic preposition towards
homophobia, it does not mean you should act on it.  After all
there might be a genetic preposition towards alcoholism, but that does
not mean the person has to become an alcoholic.  You then
remind them that the same would be true if there was an actual genetic
preposition towards homosexuality.

You could say that even if homophobia has
no genetic origin that you identify yourself as being in opposition to
homosexual acts and that this opposition is just another lifestyle
choice in a pluralistic society.  Why should you give into
their demand for you to change when they should just be tolerant
instead.  Shouldn’t young people in our public schools who
oppose homosexual acts be allowed to express their view in a tolerant
environment instead of being told to shut up and to hide their views in
a closet? 

They might tell you that the
diagnosis of homosexuality as a psychological disorder is no longer
made by the American Psychiatric Association, you can tell them that
there is no diagnosis of homophobia either.   

Tell them not be be a hater or a
homophobepbobe.

Archbishop Chaput is such a wonderful
speaker and First Things posts
his January 11, 2008, presentation in New Orleans, Catholic
Identity in the American Public Arena.  I was going
to post snippets from it, but it is all too good to choose from.

1. George Orwell said that one of the
biggest dangers for modern democratic life is dishonest political
language. Dishonest language leads to dishonest politicswhich then
leads to bad public policy and bad law. So we need to speak and act in
a spirit of truth.

With the presidential election upon us
this year this point is quite appropriate.  “Dishonest
language leads to dishonest politics” is exactly right.  So
often language is used to obfuscate
instead of to communicate.  Whether it is “choice”,
“therapeutic cloning”, “death with dignity”, etc; words are used to
direct us from the reality of what they are talking about.

2. Catholic is a word that has real
meaning. We dont control or invent that meaning as individuals. We
inherit it from the gospel and the experience of the Church over the
centuries. We can choose to be something else, but if we choose to call
ourselves Catholic, then that word has consequences for what we believe
and how we act. We cant truthfully claim to be Catholic and then act
as though were not.

3. Being a Catholic is a bit like being married. We have a relationship
with the Church and with Jesus Christ thats similar to being a spouse.
If a man says he loves his wife, his wife will want to see the evidence
in his love and fidelity. The same applies to our relationship with
God. If we say were Catholic, we need to show that by our love for the
Church and our fidelity to what she teaches and believes. Otherwise
were just fooling ourselves, because God certainly wont be fooled.

Amen.

4. The Church is not a political
organism. She has no interest in partisanship because getting power or
running governments is not what shes about, and the more closely she
identifies herself with any single party, the fewer people she can
effectively reach.

5. Scripture and Catholic teaching, however, do have public
consequences because they guide us in how we should act in relation to
one another. Loving God requires that we also love the people He
created, which means we need to treat them with justice, charity, and
mercy. Being a Catholic involves solidarity with other people. The
Catholic faith has implications for social justiceand that means it
also has cultural, economic and political implications. The Catholic
faith is never primarily about politics; but Catholic social action,
including political action, is a natural byproduct of the Churchs
moral message. We cant call ourselves Catholic, and then simply stand
by while immigrants get mistreated, or the poor get robbed, or unborn
children get killed. The Catholic faith is always personal but never
private. If our faith is real, then it will bear fruit in our public
decisions and behaviors, including our political choices.

This is the same point that Pope Benedict
makes in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est.

6. Each of us needs to follow our own
conscience. But conscience doesnt emerge from a vacuum. Its not a
matter or personal opinion or preference. If our conscience has the
habit of telling us what we want to hear on difficult issues, then its
probably badly formed. A healthy conscience is the voice of Gods truth
in our hearts, and it should usually make us uncomfortable, because
none of us is yet a saint. The way we get a healthy conscience is by
submitting it and shaping it to Gods will; and the way we find Gods
will is by conforming our lives to the counsel and guidance of the
Church that Jesus left us. If we find ourselves disagreeing as
Catholics with the teaching of the Church on a serious matter, its
probably not the Church thats wrong. The problem is much more likely
with us.

Preaching on what conscience actually is
is so important considering how “following your conscience” has become
synonymous with license.

7. But how do we make good political
choices when so many different issues are so important and complex? The
first principle of Christian social thought is: Dont deliberately kill
the innocent, and dont collude in allowing somebody else to do it. The
right to life is the foundation of every other human right. The reason
the abortion issue is so foundational is not because Catholics love
little babiesalthough we certainly dobut because revoking the
personhood of unborn children makes every other definition of
personhood and human rights politically contingent.

8. So can a Catholic in good conscience vote for a pro-choice
candidate? The answer is: I cant, and I wont. But I do know some
serious Catholicspeople whom I admirewho may. I think their reasoning
is mistaken, but at least they sincerely struggle with the abortion
issue, and it causes them real pain. And most important: They dont
keep quiet about it; they dont give up; they keep lobbying their party
and their representatives to change their pro-abortion views and
protect the unborn. Catholics can vote for pro-choice candidates if
they vote for them despitenot because oftheir pro-choice views. And
they also need a proportionate reason to justify it.

9. What is a proportionate reason when it comes to abortion? Its the kind of reason we will
be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when
we meet them in the next lifewhich we certainly will. If
were confident that these victims will accept our motives, then we can
proceed.

10. The heart of truly faithful citizenship is this: Were better
citizens when were more faithful Catholics. The more authentically
Catholic we are in our lives, choices, actions and convictions, the
more truly we will contribute to the moral and political life of our
nation.

His reference to proportionate reason he
has used before, but it is still the purest definition there is.

Damian Thompson reports:

At least two Anglican women priests
have become Roman Catholics because they are fed up with being treated
like dirt in their own Church, according to Fr Michael Seed, the
Franciscan friar who is ecumenical adviser to Cardinal Murphy-OConnor.

Fr Seed a deeply inspiring priest who has received many Anglicans
into communion with Rome reveals this extraordinary detail in an
interview with the Independent, which has buried it away in a feature.
He received two women himself and has now told the Catholic Herald
that other female priests have come over to Rome as a result of
persecution.

This treatment is explained:

Christina Rees of Women and the Church
says: Every woman who is ordained as a priest in the Church of England
knows in one sense there is still a question mark hanging over her
orders in a way which does not hang over the order of her male
colleagues.

Anglican orders for women are just as
valid as Anglican orders for men.  So there is a strange but
unintentional equality within Anglican orders since for the most part
their male priests are not validly ordained in the first place.
There are exceptions since some Anglican
bishops have confused the issue by having Orthodox bishops with valid
orders participate in their ordinations, though of course this doesn’t
matter in the case of attempted ordination of women.

It is rather interesting that in this
environment of doubt that these women would decide to come into the
Catholic Church where there is no doubt on the issue except within
progressive elements who act as their own magisterium.   I bet
though that progressives will see these conversions of Anglican
priestesses the same way Democrats seek black conservatives.