You can sign the petition here
I woke up today to find some of my favorite Catholics blogs were going to be going offline. Apparently one or more persistent atheist commenters were making objections that devastated the authors of these blogs.
Joe of the “Blind Faith and No Reason” blog posted:
I use to ask atheists how matter could come out of nothing bringing up “Ex nihilo”, out of nothing nothing comes. Unfortunately an atheist commenter asked me about my own belief in “Why do you believe your mythical being could exist then?” I was stunned by this question. Nobody in the 2,000 year history of the Church had never considered this objection. He then brought up other questions that also nobody in the 2,000 year philosophical history of the Church had ever considered. So glad my atheist commenter finally forced me to take the red pill and to wake up into reality.
I was saddened by this, but was shocked when the next blog I went to had this to say:
I thought my Catholic commenters and myself were making headway responding to an atheist commenter and then the commenter brought up the priestly abuse scandal. We were totally unprepared for this. How could the Church founded by Christ have sinners in it? I then realized my understanding of the magical sacraments was totally flawed. Surely if God existed once I became his fanboy he would rip out my free will allowing me only to do good. I totally see now that it is not the examples of the saints who lived the faith that I should be informed by but by the sinners who didn’t live the faith. Then he brought up other examples of past sins of the Church that must be totally true in every detail since he saw it on the History Channel.
Unbelievably when I next clicked on the “Scriptural Catholic” blog I found this post by Duey Rheims:
As a lay scriptural scholar I thought I knew scripture and my faith rather well. Having read scripture daily for many years, read commentaries, heard the word proclaimed at Mass I thought I had a good understanding. Then an atheist commenter started leaving objections and questions on my comment boxes. I am prepared for most objections, but was not prepared for his asking about “talking snakes and a man living three days inside of a fish”. Wow I had never considered that there were such odd things in the Bible and I must have insulated myself from reality by ignoring this. I use have a fairly nuanced view of scripture knowing that scripture is not like modern history and that there were various literary genres used to impart truth. For example when the Prophet Nathan told King David the story of the Ewe Lamb that was taken by the rich man even though the rich man had plenty of his own, Samuel was telling a story that imparted the truth of what King David was doing by taking Bathsheba in adultery. Then I remembered Balaam’s talking Donkey and now know that the only way to approach scripture is to be a fundamentalist in regard to scriptural interpretation. No nuance or study is required, just read it and what you think it means at first blush or through your own interpretive lens is the right one. All those scholars throughout the ages just totally missed was is obvious to the combo box atheist. He then told me God hated shellfish and I knew my faith was crushed.
OK, this was getting serious. Still I was not prepared for what I found at the “Midwife of Science” blog:
I use to write on the stillbirth of science in every civilization and culture and how the Christian philosophical atmosphere prepared for the growth of science. The late priest and physicist Stanley Jaki wrote extensively about this in his books on science history. “Once more the Christian belief in the Creator allowed a break-through in thinking about nature. Only a truly transcendental Creator could be thought of as being powerful enough to create a nature with autonomous laws without his power over nature being thereby diminished. Once the basic among those laws were formulated science could develop on its own terms.” I use to point out to atheist these facts and the thousands of Catholic scientists throughout the ages. There are of course famous examples such as the Friar Gregor Johann Mendel and Deacon (possibly priest) Nicolaus Copernicus. Or the priest/astronomer/physicist Georges Lemaître who came up with what came to be called the Big Bang Theory. I knew of this and countless examples from my own research and the Catholic Laboratory Podcast. This morning after my usual routine I checked my email and found a comment from an atheist “What about the Galileo affair?” Wow, how did I miss that and its significance? Obviously this one example where Galileo was prosecuted for breaking his word and teaching as fact something not proved with empirical evidence almost two centuries after his death. So what if Galileo was totally wrong for using as proof the tides? So what if he was treated even worse by the scientists of the time and he had rather an abrasive personality. Surely this one example which could have been handled better is proof that the Church hates science and just wish it could go away so we could go back to some dark dank ages kicking it up like the Amish. The fact that the Church had setup Cathedrals as solar observatories and that she still maintains astronomical observatories is just cover for her hatred of empirical science.
As the day progresses I see more an more of the devastation of the Catholic blogosphere as Catholic blogs go dark. Now as for myself you don’t have to worry. Like any solid Catholic I am totally immune to reasonable arguments by atheists. The Pope told me atheists are mistaken so I just depend on the argument by authority without messing my mind up with want pesky reason. If God wanted me to mess around with reason he wouldn’t have given me faith.
After all the blowup over the invitation of the virulently pro-abortion author of the right-destroying HHS mandate Kathleen Sebelius, the only defense the formerly Catholic and’ presently Jesuit Georgetown could muster is that the event that Sebelius will be speaking at is not a “commencement.”
Georgetown has even gone back and edited their original announcement in which they called it a commencement ceremony. Crisis over. Nothing to see here.
“Secretary Sebelius is not speaking at Georgetown’s commencement. She is speaking at Georgetown Public Policy Institute’s annual student and faculty awards event,” Georgetown spokesman Rachel Pugh said in an email to The Cardinal Newman Society.
They must think we are as stupid as they clearly are.
So, she is not speaking at a commencement. What is she speaking at?
As CNS reports, she is speaking at an event during commencement weekend in which graduates of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute will have their names called, they will walk across a stage, and receive their diplomas. She is speaking at the event in which all these things happen, but don’t call it a commencement.
What is it with these people that that they think that changing a word and denying the obvious changes the real nature of things. Kinda like calling a creature with 46 chromosomes, a heart, a brain, fingers and toes a fetus instead of a person magically makes all the horribleness go away.
What is wrong with these people?
Being an avid reader and always on the prowl for new titles I have quite a long wish list. Sometimes I will run across a book referenced on a Catholic blog that is likely in the public domain now. I came across a reference to “Meditations on Christian Dogma” on Fr. Powell, OP blog and was quite intrigued by what he wrote. I mean how could I not love a title like that? Originally written in 1898 I was able to find scanned copies of it for both volumes of it. Unfortunately the OCR scan of it wasn’t that good and so the text version contained multiple errors such as spacing and splitting words along with other format errors. So I went through both volumes cleaning them up as much as I could.
I then read the first volume completely and marked up the errors I found. Luckily with ebooks it is pretty easy to highlight text and at the end I had a notes page with links to all the error so that I could go and clean up the ebook.
This was quite a bit of work actually, but “Meditations on Christian Dogma” is just so excellent that I really wanted a fairly good copy of it available for others. This book as a series of meditations would be particularly useful as daily meditations that each consist of three parts. I would guess that there are enough meditations in the two volumes to last at least a year. These meditations are also particularly rich.
When I finish the second volume I will also make it available.
Fr. Powell has a a more in-depth review of the two books on his site.
I have set up a new page on my blog that will list all the free ebooks I make available. This is accessible via the top of my blog or here. I have multiple books and other documents such as encyclicals and other Church documents I had converted previously that I will be adding to this new page. You can find “Meditations on Christian Dogma Volume I” there.
Rev. James Bellord, D.D.
This is the 16th volume of The Weekly Benedict ebook which is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I pull from Jimmy Akin’s The Weekly Benedict. This volume covers material released during the last week for 26-29 April, 2012.
The ebook contains a table of contents and the material is arranged in sections such as Angelus, Speeches, etc in date order. The full index is listed on Jimmy’s site.
The Weekly Benedict – Volume 16 – ePub (supports most readers)
The Weekly Benedict – Volume 16 – Kindle
There is an archive for all of The Weekly Benedict eBook volumes. This page is available via the header of this blog or from here.
The Life of Julia is certainly one of the strangest and creepiest campaign gimmicks as you go through the life of a fictional person as they enjoy all the fabled promises of President Obama. It is quite ripe for parodying as evident via many parodies of it. So I will just pile on.
Kathleen Sebelius to Speak at Georgetown Commencement Ceremony
In what can only be interpreted as a direct challenge to America’s Catholic bishops, Georgetown University has announced that “pro->choice” Catholic Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and lead architect of the Obama >administration’s assault on religious freedom through the HHS contraception mandate, has been invited to speak at one of Georgetown’s >several commencement ceremonies. Via Fr. Z
Ho hum. Not exactly surprising and in fact I should have expected exactly such silliness. Considering the recent invite and speech by Sandra Fluke this is just par for the course. Of course it makes perfect sense for a woman barred from receiving Communion (until she hopefully repents) to give a commencement speech at a Jesuit institution. Remember this is the same university that covered the IHS monogram sign for the President when he spoke there.
So I am not exactly outraged? No, saddened by the continue decline of a Catholic university – certainly, but dissent is so boring and predictable.
So will Cardinal Wuerl speak out about this? Unlikely based on his previous silences on scandalous invites in his jurisdiction. No doubt Georgetown would ignore any such criticism by their bishop just as Notre Dame did, but it needs to be said anyway.
In the meantime the Cardinal Newman Society has a petition concerning this http://www.georgetownscandal.com/
I have come to believe that liberals have a a high irony deficiency. This kind of prove it.
Via Frank Weathers who added the appropriate bolding:
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release May 01, 2012
Presidential Proclamation — National Day of Prayer, 2012NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER, 2012
– – – – – – –
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATIONPrayer has always been a part of the American story, and today countless Americans rely on prayer for comfort, direction, and strength, praying not only for themselves, but for their communities, their country, and the world.
On this National Day of Prayer, we give thanks for our democracy that respects the beliefs and protects the religious freedom of all people to pray, worship, or abstain according to the dictates of their conscience. Let us pray for all the citizens of our great Nation, particularly those who are sick, mourning, or without hope, and ask God for the sustenance to meet the challenges we face as a Nation. May we embrace the responsibility we have to each other, and rely on the better angels of our nature in service to one another. Let us be humble in our convictions, and courageous in our virtue. Let us pray for those who are suffering around the world, and let us be open to opportunities to ease that suffering.
Let us also pay tribute to the men and women of our Armed Forces who have answered our country’s call to serve with honor in the pursuit of peace. Our grateful Nation is humbled by the sacrifices made to protect and defend our security and freedom. Let us pray for the continued strength and safety of our service members and their families. While we pause to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice defending liberty, let us remember and lend our voices to the principles for which they fought — unity, human dignity, and the pursuit of justice.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 3, 2012, as a National Day of Prayer. I invite all citizens of our Nation, as their own faith directs them, to join me in giving thanks for the many blessings we enjoy, and I call upon individuals of all faiths to pray for guidance, grace, and protection for our great Nation as we address the challenges of our time.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.
Though maybe the worst thing is that the President probably really sees no appropriate parallels with his own actions. How about letting us abstain from being forced to pay for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs? Well two out of three ain’t bad since we are still allowed to pray and worship (for now), just not act on our conscience.
A Catholic priest in Australia has publicly admitted that he has been married for a year and claimed “there are more like me.”
“So I’ve fallen in love and I’ve got married and it’s outside of most people’s awareness, but I’m sure people within the church could have had a suspicion,” Father Kevin Lee told Australia’s 7News, a partner of NBC News.
Lee, a priest for 20 years, told his congregation that he had been living a secret double life with his wife Josephina, breaking the Church’s rule that priests should remain celibate.
He said there were others like him around the world.
“That’s one of the reasons that’s motivated me to make public my admission that I’m one of those people who’s been a pretender: To draw to the attention of the public that there are more like me, in fact most of them,” he said.
Other priests do it so there! What a rich theological explanation.
So brave to when you disagree with a discipline that you just ignore it. Now I have much sympathy for priests that fall, those that fall and deny they fell – not so much.
In an update to its original report, 7News reported that Lee had been removed from his position as parish priest and then excommunicated by the church.
Well media reports of excommunication are usually wrong. No doubt he has had his faculties removed, but I haven’t seen a statement by the bishop on this.
“I think celibacy has to go as a prerequisite for being a minister in the Catholic religion,” he added.
Kind of like a married man after being caught in adultery saying “I think fidelity has to go as a prerequisite for being married in the Catholic religion.”
“That’s one of the reasons that’s motivated me to make public my admission that I’m one of those people who’s been a pretender: To draw to the attention of the public that there are more like me, in fact most of them,” he said.
Most of them? I call bs on that.
[Source]
I doubt Bishop Anthony Fisher, who is a Dominican, bought Father Lee’s defense.
I have received some complaints about allowing a specific atheist commenter free-reign in my comments box. I can appreciate the concern and the annoyance. I am rather libertarian as far as my comment boxes go in that as long as people are not especially vulgar I pretty much don’t delete them. Over the last almost ten years there have been few instances where I have deleted comments.
I have had occasional eruptions of atheist commenters over the years and really I don’t pay them much attention. It does kind of amaze me that anybody who thinks that this life is all there is is going to spend so much time in my comment section. Why they want to dialog with insane religious believers is a bit beyond me. Though I also say this being thankful that blogging was not really around when I was an atheist, thus preventing me from leaving rather inane comments on religious blogs. I certainly disdained religious believers for being so foolish, just not sure I would argue with people who I thought had a belief system similar to belief in Leprechauns.
Though no doubt some people really enjoy such comment box battles.
And not just atheists.
Thomas L. McDonald had an excellent post on the subject of comment box atheist dialogs in which I am pretty much in alignment. Like him they also bore me. Not in the “I am so superior to them” boredom, but the “been there, believed that, rejected that” boredom. When my atheist faith was slipping I tried to renew it reading what I could find on atheism in the library. Unlike those that had their Ayn Rand phase in college, my Ayn Rand phase was in my later 30’s. Though the more I read of atheist arguments to boast my beliefs, the more problematic I started to see them. They implied such a massive stupidity of religious believers that did not match what I observed of believers I respected, but could not join with. Seeing this I also started to see how my own attitudes were equally if not more arrogant. It’s nice to think of yourself as a “freethinker” or a “bright”, less nice to realize the egoism of it. I had always been proud of my life-long atheism and never having believed in God even as a child. But I started to find that I was not proud of my pride. Regardless, those years of renewed atheist reading and subsequent decade and a half of seeing the other side has left me rather bored with most atheist comments.
It does not though leave me bored with atheists. While I don’t really try to engage in comment threads that develop on my blog, I do try to engage in prayer for conversion. I don’t expect my comment engagement will convert atheists with my “brilliant” arguments even as I know the reason that underlies my faith. I have a fondness for atheisst that comes from my long years of atheism. Thus I don’t have to impute bad motives to them and I pray that they can receive the same gift of faith that even such as I received. I do know conversions happen. They can even happen in comment boxes as evidenced by Jennifer Fulwiler’s conversion story. That God can even bring good out of comment boxes amazes me. I remember one early commenter on my blog “The Raving Atheist” who ran a popular atheist site and forum which later became the “Raving Theist” and dedicated his site “to Jesus Christ, now and forever.”
For my Catholic commenters who are engaging in conversations regardless how pointless they might seem, I applaud you for your patience. For those annoyed by the comments I hope you understand my reasons for allowing them and join me in prayer.
There are many that say “Don’t feed the Troll”, now I would say “Pray for the Troll” –except I am not really that fond of the world Troll as it is another word that dehumanizes people so you can ignore them. Sure fervent commenters can be quite annoying, but most of us can be quite annoying and we are called to even love our comment box enemies by willing them good.
Cartoons modified from xkcd: Duty Calls