Father Luke Strand of Holy Family Catholic Church in Fond du Lac, Wis. wasn’t looking for attention from corporate America; he simply wanted to promote vocations to the priesthood. Instead, he’s facing a cease-and-desist letter from Minnesota-based electronics retailer Best Buy over his Volkswagen Beetle.

The black VW sports a “God Squad” decal on the door that’s similar in appearance to the logo used by Best Buy’s Geek Squad computer technicians.

Best Buy says that Father Strand’s use of the logo violates its trademarks.

“This was a really difficult thing for us to do because we appreciate what Father Strand is trying to accomplish with his mission,” Paula Baldwin, Best Buy spokesperson, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “But at the end of the day, it’s bad precedent to let some groups violate our trademark while pursuing others.”

Father Strand mentioned the cease-and-desist order during the 9:30 a.m. Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church on August 8, but cannot discuss the details of the case.

Then-Deacon Strand, received the car in 2007 from Father Quinn Mann of the Diocese of Green Bay. Not only does the car sport the God Squad logo, but also the websites thinkpriest.org and cyexpeditions.org on the fenders. His license plate reads GODLVYA, and the very front of the Beetle has a white paint stripe to match his priestly collar.

“It stimulates a lot of conversation,” Father Strand told the Fond du Lac Reporter in 2009. “People don’t always know when the right time is to start a conversation about faith questions. The church is alive, young and vibrant. This is a new and creative way to bring the faith I love into everyday life.”

Blogger Brian Osborne, of Geek.com, said that Best Buy has “created a public relations nightmare…the kind that could only come as a result of a company suing a priest,” and that the company is now facing the “backlash” from its decision.

Baldwin said that Best Buy is working with Strand to try to alter the God Squad logo in a way that will still work for him without infringing on the Geek Squad trademark.

“We’re confident that together we’ll come up with a good solution for everyone,” said Baldwin. [Source]

Now if this priest started charging outlandish prices for minor spiritual tuneups and giving crappy service than I could see a case for copyright infringement. A priest offering services for free without trying to sell you an extended warranty will in no way get confused with the Geek Squad despite having a logon on a VW.

CLEVELAND — Members of a Cleveland church that was ordered closed have defied their Roman Catholic bishop with a Mass celebrated in a warehouse by a priest on leave.

Several hundred people attended Sunday’s service led by Rev. Robert Marrone. His congregation at the closed St. Peter Church had been warned by Bishop Richard Lennon to avoid setting up a breakaway church.

Members upset by the closing describe themselves as traditional Catholics challenging the shutdown, not their faith. The bishop says a renegade congregation can lead to disunity.

The eight-county Cleveland diocese has closed or merged 50 parishes, blaming declining numbers of priests, parishioners and finances. [Source]

Because it is traditional to disobey your bishop and to have Mass in a warehouse.

There have been multiple instances of this type of behavior throughout the country where people are more attached to their parish then they are to the Church. I can certainly understand the pain when a parish closes for people who have a deep attachment to that parish. But ultimately the local Bishop gets to make these decisions even if you think his reasoning for closing a parish is faulty. In many cases it is simply because of demographic shifts and sometimes possibly for less than stelar reasons. The parishioners of some more traditional parishes slated for closure have felt that the reason for closure was because it was a more traditional parish. There have also been cases of parishioners petitioning Rome to overturn a closing. The Vatican though has always responded by siding with the local ordinary and it is hard to imagine a case where this would not be so.

If you are obedient only when it suits you then you are not obedient. We have to be obedient to our local Bishop even when we prudently disagree with him. When I was in the military I learned I had to obey a lawful order from an officer regardless of what I thought of that officer or the order. The same goes here in that a lawful order from a bishop which would be one that does not contravene either the moral or Church law should be followed. During the period of time when they are considering a parish closing is the time to try to convince the bishop otherwise in a respectful manner. Sure it is a tragedy that a church in 1853 and the oldest church building in continuous use in the Diocese of Cleveland has been closed down. It is a greater tragedy for the priest and parishioners of this closed down parish to act in such a way.

On the Solemnity of the Assumption, August 15, 2010, The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) will commemorate the 20th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s apostolic constitution on Catholic higher education, Ex corde Ecclesiae. CNS has written an extensive Timeline and Background of Ex corde Ecclesiae to mark the anniversary and shed light on the importance of this historic Church constitution.

“The requirements of Ex corde Ecclesiae are of continuing importance for Catholic colleges and universities in 2010,” said CNS President Patrick J. Reilly. “We are still in the midst of the educational crisis to which Ex corde responded 20 years ago, and we await full implementation of the constitution’s ‘norms’ in the U.S. In order to rediscover the Catholic identity of their colleges and universities, presidents and board members must revisit the vital message of this landmark document.”

Reilly continued, “A new generation of Catholic administrators, professors and students are already reaping the fruit of strong Catholic identity brought about by adherence to Ex corde. Catholic colleges and universities included in our Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College have worked to integrate the principles of Ex corde into every aspect of their institutions.”

“On this anniversary, CNS and its more than 20,000 members continue to pray that more Catholic university leaders will embrace Ex corde Ecclesiae and courageously stand up for Catholic teaching in a world that is so desperately searching for the Truth.”

On August 15, 1990, Pope John Paul II responded to the decades-long crisis in Catholic higher education by issuing the apostolic constitution Ex corde Ecclesiae. The document, which has the binding effect of Church law, was the first official Catholic Church document defining the essential relationship between Catholic institutions of higher education and the Church.

Inspired by the message of Ex corde Ecclesiae, Patrick J. Reilly and other recent Catholic college graduates founded The Cardinal Newman Society in 1993 to seek the faithful implementation of the apostolic constitution in the United States.

Ex corde Ecclesiae’s guidelines include:
· the requirement for any official action of a Catholic university to be in harmony with its Catholic identity;

· the responsibility of all Catholic university professors and administrators to promote, or at least to respect, the institution’s Catholic identity;

· the need of all professors of Catholic theology to have a “mandate” from the local bishop to teach; and

· the requirement that Catholic professors should be in the majority at a Catholic university.
In 1999, the U.S. bishops approved clear guidelines to implement Ex corde. Since then, it is evident that most of Catholic higher education is still undergoing the crisis that Ex corde was issued to address.

CNS continues to report on the abuses of Catholic identity that take place across the United States every year. Recent examples such as Notre Dame’s bestowal of an honorary doctorate of law upon pro-abortion President Barack Obama, the increasing support for abortion and gay “marriage” among Catholic students, and the fact that nearly one in eight Catholics leave the Church by their graduation from Catholic colleges demonstrate that the “educational emergency,” in Pope Benedict XVI’s words, is still prevalent.

Two years ago, during his visit to the United States of America, Pope Benedict XVI convened a meeting of Catholic college and university presidents in Washington, D.C., where he echoed key themes of Ex corde on the importance of Catholic identity. The Holy Father told the Catholic presidents that the current “crisis of truth” is rooted in a “crisis of faith.”

In 2011, the U.S. bishops are scheduled to conduct a review of the implementation of Ex corde Ecclesiae over the past 10 years since their particular guidelines for American institutions went into effect. Details for this review have not yet been made public.

CNS narrates the story of Ex corde Ecclesiae and its implementation in the Timeline and Background of Ex corde Ecclesiae. [Source]

Amazing turnaround at Catholic institutions since this document was released. The bishops had quite a difficult time responding to all the requests for the mandatum for every professor of Catholic theology as required in the 1983 Code of Canon Law. I am really happy that every official action of Catholic institutions is in accord with it’s Catholic Identity now. If it wasn’t for this obedience to Ex corde Ecclesiae who knows what would have happened – perhaps annual performances of The Vagina Diaglogues or invitations to radically pro-abortion speakers. Or think about all the students who could have gotten a very inferior view of Church teaching due to theology professors not faithful to the Church and the damage that would have caused.

I was also amazed at how this turnabout came about since initially these Catholic institutions tried to stick to the party line of Academic Freedom to resist Ex corde Ecclesiae. When this happened Catholic parents decided not to send their children to any school which was not in conformance with Ex corde Ecclesiae. Catholic School alumni also stopped promoting those schools who did not conform and would not donate a dime until they did conform to Church teaching. Plus all the bishops who threatened to pull Catholic institution from the list of Catholic institutions and to not allow them to claim Catholic identity unless they could also claim obedience to the Church.

[This is the part where the dream sequence ends and we return to the reality where only Catholic institutions who were already faithful to the Church implemented Ex corde Ecclesiae and the rest screamed Academic Freedom]

Cary McMullen the religion editor for The Ledger wrote a post on Anne Rice that I generally agree with.

There is an old saying, attributed to Cyril of Alexandria (supposedly one of those anti-science, anti-feminist dead white guys): “Outside the church there is no salvation.” Now before Anne Rice starts to get huffy, I think what Cyril meant is that the church has been the (decidedly flawed) custodian of the gospel. How would Rice even know about Jesus if it hadn’t been for the millions of faithful people who sometimes at the cost of their own lives openly declared that they were in fact Christians and dedicated themselves to perpetuating the only organization that has Jesus as the subject of the simple statement that he is Lord?

Rice’s memory is awfully short. And contrary to what she thinks, by rejecting the church she is in danger of rejecting Jesus as well.

First off what St. Cyrill actually said was ” ‘mercy is not obtainable outside the holy city’.” The dogma of Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus means much more than that the Church is the custodian of the Gospel, but does not mean as much as the rigorists would have it say. Regardless this is a side point. I would certainly agree with anybody who rejects the Church is in danger of rejecting Jesus if in fact they haven’t already done so by rejecting his Church. As Sy Cyprian said “He cannot have God as his Father who does not have the Church as his mother.”

What I totally disagree with was the headline for this article “Church Won’t Miss Rice.” If the Angels rejoice when one lost sheep is returned, surely they are unhappy about every single sheep that is lost even if the sheep posts on Facebook that they are getting lost on purpose. While I totally disagree with Anne Rice’s reasons for leaving the Church which I find quite juvenile, I want her and everybody else for that matter within the Catholic Church and the Body of Christ does miss Anne Rice. Every person is God’t unique creation and they are intended to live with him forever. Anne Rice’s separating herself from the Church means she is separating herself from the sacraments means she is separating herself from the various helps in the Christian life that Jesus intended.  Jesus gave us the Church to lead us to salvation and to reject his Church  is to reject his will.