A reader sent me a link to well-done video of a Corpus Christi Eucharistic procession in Bremerton, Wa.
[The Rt Rev John Inge, the Bishop of Worcester] argued that the free beer was intended to be symbolic of “the generosity of God”.
Men at St Stephen’s church in Barbourne, Worcester, will be handed bottles of beer by children during the service. A prayer will be said for the fathers before the gifts are distributed.
The Ven Roger Morris, archdeacon of Worcester, who will be leading the service at St Stephen’s today, said that it was a practical way of sending a message to fathers.
“I don’t see any other time that we can stop and remember fathers, and this is a gesture saying ‘Here’s something that will bless you,'” he said.[reference]
Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use beer.
A witches’ coven leader has accused the Roman Catholic Church of prejudice after her group was banned from a parish social club.
Sandra Davis, 61, high priestess of the Crystal Cauldron group, booked Our Lady’s club in Stockport, Greater Manchester for a Halloween Ball.
But when she tried to pay she was told the Diocese of Shrewsbury had decided the pagan group could not use it.
A diocese spokesman said the group was not compatible with the club’s “ethos”.
Mrs Davis, of Bridgehall, set up the Crystal Cauldron in Reddish as a pagan meeting place.[reference]
The coven leader was really mad about this, in fact she was really burned up by the whole thing.
Via Joe Carter at First Things.
Earlier this week, members of the President’s Council on Bioethics were told by the White House that their services were no longer needed. President Obama’s decision was made and implemented in his typical style–gracious, pragmatic, and imprudent. According to the New York Times, the council was disbanded because it was designed by the Bush administration to be “a philosophically leaning advisory group” that favored discussion over developing a shared consensus. The new bioethics commission appointed by Obama will have a new mandate to offer “practical policy options.”
In other words, the Obama administration already knows where it stands on all those pesky moral issues like human cloning, chimeras, and euthanasia, and just needs a group to provide advice on how to implement its preferred policies. Whereas the previous councils wrestled with such questions as “What is the nature of human dignity?” the new one will most likely be addressing more practical policy options, such as “How much should we pay women to harvest their eggs for cloning?”
So who is the President going to go to for advice. Cue the Church Lady.
Satan!
Sometimes it seems to me that the National Catholic Distorter works to top themselves each week. I mean you can only keep walking so far off the cliff until gravity takes effect.
I am mesmerized by the Iranian citizens, most of them young, who are marching in the streets of Tehran. They show courage, spirit and a deep desire for justice. I’m especially intrigued by the women, many of whom are letting their head scarves slide back on their heads. A good number, I am sure, believe that the “hijab” is not essential for Muslim women. In that highly religious nation, this crowd clearly wants a government that reflects the best of Islam, the best of what their religion has to offer.
All this makes images of St. Peter’s Square flash through my mind. I recall in the late 1990s, marching through that square with hundreds of Catholic reformers from all over the world. We too wanted justice: justice in our church, such as gender equality in all ministries, optional celibacy for priests, and the right to elect our bishops. None of us wore veils, but if we had, they would have been slipping, you can be sure. We wanted a church that reflects the best of the Catholic tradition.
True, Iran is not the equivalent of the Vatican. Iran is a nation-state, and can put physical force behind its demands. The Vatican, although technically a “nation,” is really a seat of ecclesial power, with no physical security forces (only psychological ones) to enforce its will. But both are theocratic and although both have traditions of democracy in their history (yes, we did elect bishops in the church at one time), and neither seems to embrace the meaning of that tradition.
Yes the Vatican has psychological security forces. That certainly explains the existence of NCReporter, Commonweal, and other dissident publications. Theocracy of course means rule by God – not sure why they have a problem with that. Exactly how would they want the Church governed? Well of course they see themselves as the proper rulers who are inspired by the spirit of the age. For me I will stick with the Pope and his charism of infallibility (properly understood and defined at Vatican I) that did not pass out of existence with Vatican II. I really find this comparison of Iran and the Vatican to be rather offensive. The Progressive Catholics might have had hundreds of so-called reformers at St. Peter’s Square, but of course they discount the thousands and in fact millions of Catholic faithful to the Church. The problems with their reformers is that they forget that reform starts with themselves. Though I guess that is something all of us forget to some extent. If you want to reform the Church – grow in holiness.
Once again we have the comparison of mantillas, which were only worn at Mass, with the burka. The comparison is so ludicrous it is hard to imagine why it is even seriously advanced. To them I guess the mantilla is a veiled threat.
I often find it funny how they love to bring up the fact that Bishops at one time were selected by the faithful. Of course when the Church was so much smaller and was being persecuted the faithful were actually for the most part faithful. Something about adopting a faith that might make you a martyr during times of persecution makes you take it a bit more seriously. You might have noticed when their were hundreds of thousands of signatures against Obama speaking at Notre Dame the Progressive were not taking up the cause of Democracy within the Church. Do they think that a model of Church democracy would have been a good idea when the Arian heresy was so fervent? Do they actually think that Church doctrine should change based on the votes of the people? Hey lets vote out the doctrines of Hell and Purgatory so we can do as we please and go straight to Heaven. Let’s vote out
In Iran, at the traditional Friday prayers on June 19th, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader who can overrule everyone else, essentially told demonstrators that the recent election was legitimate, and that they should cease and desist. He rejected demands for a new election.
It reminded of that day many years ago in St. Peter’s Square, when our message too fell on deaf ears. Neither Pope John Paul II or Benedict XVI has moved the church toward gender equality, optional celibacy or any semblance of church democracy.
The reason their message fell on deaf ears is that their message is intended for itching ears as in 2nd Timothy 4:3 “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myth” If that isn’t an exact diagnoses of the less than faithful Catholics I don’t know what is. But as St. Paul says we must “Convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching.”
Why is it so difficult, I wonder, for absolute religious leaders to listen to the sensus fidelium (the sense of the faithful), or to change? Maybe it has something to do with the word, “absolute.”Maybe it has something to do with the word, “absolute.” So why does absolute get scare quotes. What is wrong with the word absolute? A truth of the faith that can change is not a truth. I thank God for the Absolute and to paraphrase G.K. Chesterton that what is true on Monday is still true on Wednesday. Though as is true of all relativists Catholic’s is that they will hold as absolutes — female priests, contraception, homosexual activity, etc.
Also ironic that a declining periodical such as the National Catholic Reporter even mentions the sensus feidelium. The sensus fedulium has spoken subscription-wise. Besides the term means sense of the faithful and hey NCR crowd that means the faithful – not the dissidents. But what can we expect from people think an all male priesthood is a violation of gender equality. Besides gender is a grammatical term and has been corrupted when they mean sex. It is hard to argue with people whose theological thoughts are so simplistic and based on the ERA and not based on sacred scripture or sacred tradition. If they would stop whining about celibacy and start praying for men to answer their vocation we might get somewhere.
Hat tip Joe Marier on Twitter for calling my attention to this article.
I just finished Bless Me, Father, For I Have Kids
” by Catholic author and humorist Susie Lloyd. My cheeks still ache since I think I was grinning the whole way while reading it. I hadn’t read her previous book “Please Don’t Drink the Holy Water”, but after reading her latest I will have to look it up.
Family life is certainly provides a rich vein to tap when it comes to humor and Susie milks it for all it’s worth. Here descriptions of family life will be familiar to many, especially those with large homeschooling families. The book is make up a short chapters which provide great bites for those busy parents that find little time to read. The first chapter describes her experience of having a boy after having seven girls in a row and the adapting this takes. Regardless though of what aspect of family life she is writing about it is invariably funny from the difficulties of getting kids to do chores in the kitchen to teaching them to drive I found myself often smiling and emitting a chuckle or two along the way. Her humor reminds me of Catholic humorist Tim Bete and I consider that quite a compliment.
Though she also writes about some annoyances such as what happens when you have a large family and dare to take them out in public. Funny how somebody could load their face with iron studs and have their underwear showing and nobody would dare to go up to them and criticize them for it. But have more than the customary amount of children and people you don’t even know will come up to you and be quite rude in their comments. Others have called them the procreation police, but her and her husband handles these pundits of procreation quite nicely.
I certainly recommend Bless Me, Father, For I Have Kids
Disclosure: The book was sent to me for review from the author.
Catholics pray to St. Anthony when they’ve lost something, but what if it’s a St. Anthony statue that is lost?
Someone who stole a |4½-foot St. Anthony statue this weekend from a secluded limestone chapel at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay apparently put some labor into the theft.
Police could see where something heavy was dragged on the gravel and wood-chip path from LeMieux Chapel in Cofrin Memorial Arboretum on the UWGB campus. The 12-by-18-foot chapel is unlocked.
Campus police Lt. Keith Rosin said the statue may have been dumped in the woods, but it has not been found.
The theft was discovered Sunday morning, said Joan Jadin, whose family takes care of the chapel, built in about 1925 by stonemason Joseph LeMieux and his brother-in-law, Fabian LaPlant, a carpenter.
It may have been taken on Saturday, the Feast Day of St. Anthony, she said.
Jadin noted the irony that St. Anthony is the Catholic patron saint of lost items.
“Now we’ll be praying for a lost St. Anthony,” she said. “What a sad day. It’s always been a place of comfort.”[reference]
I guess it would be more ironic if a St. Dismas statue was stolen.
A Washington Times editorial on Wednesday unveiled further evidence of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s support for unlimited abortion rights. The paper revealed the contents of four more amicus curiae briefs authored under Sotomayor, urging the Supreme Court not to “overturn or in any way restrict” Roe v. Wade.
The first such brief from the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), where Sotomayor served as a board member between 1980 and 1992, was unearthed in late May and addressed the 1989 Supreme Court case Webster v. Reproductive Health Cases.
The brief, signed by several interest groups, stated: “All Amici share an urgent concern that the Court clearly and unequivocally reaffirm Roe v. Wade. … They fear that any tampering with the right to abortion recognized in Roe will have a powerful, adverse impact on the liberty, equality and health of poor women and women of color.”
The brief also affirmed that Roe v. Wade recognized a “fundamental right” to abortion without which women “were stripped of the right of self-determination that is a given for men.”
The Times reports that similar briefs were issued under Sotomayor to the Supreme Court cases Williams v. Zbaraz, Rust v. Sullivan, Ohio v. Akron Center, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
While board members are not necessarily directly involved in such briefs, a May 28 New York Times article said the PRLDEF board “monitored all litigation undertaken by the fund’s lawyers,” and described Sotomayor as “an involved and ardent supporter of their various legal efforts.”
“She just believed in the mission,” former board chairman Luis Alvarez said of Sotomayor.
Several former members testified to the Times that “Ms. Sotomayor stood out, frequently meeting with the legal staff to review the status of cases” throughout her twelve years, serving at times as board member, vice president, and chairman of the litigation committee.
Following a recent meeting with Sotomayor, pro-life Senator Jim DeMint expressed concern that the judge said she had “never thought about” the rights of the unborn child. DeMint’s account corresponds to the impression of pro-abortion senators, who say their meetings with Sotomayor satisfied them that she would “respect precedent” set by Roe v. Wade. [article]
Of course the other day Judge Sotomayor in response to a question said She “Never Thought About” Rights of Unborn. That is a rather scary statement if she is telling the truth. Before you decide that a class of people should be legally killed you might want to think about the subject a bit. Though when it comes to defending abortion it never comes down to intellectual arguments, but platitudes about choice or scenarios to invoke emotion.
Electronic Arts has revealed that religious protests made against Dante’s Inferno at E3 were a publicity stunt.
According to The AP, a group of 20 protesters stood outside the Los Angeles Convention Center handing out pamphlets and waving banners such as ‘Trade In Your PlayStation For A PrayStation’ and ‘Hell Is Not A Video Game’.
EA’s Holly Rockwood later revealed that the protests had been carried out by a viral marketing agency, after they were reported by local news agencies.
Dante’s Inferno, which is loosely based on the epic poem The Divine Comedy, will be released for the 360, PS3 and PSP in 2010.
I wonder if they go on to make a game out of Dante’s Purgatorio if they will hire fake Protestants to protest it. “Where is that game in the Bible?”