Father Dwight Longenecker relates a story about a scene suggestion made to Mel Gibson for the Passion of the Christ. The scene added was one of my favorite parts of the movie.
Media revenge tactics are quite interesting to follow. Ever since the radical political rantings of Rev Wright hurt Sen. Obama to some extent they have been waiting to play “Pin the tail on the Pastor” to get at John McCain.
So first they said that Sen. McCain had a pastor problem with John Hagee. So somehow Obama siting in a church for 20 plus years listening to Rev Wright was the same as John Hagee whose church Sen. McCain has never attended. He became his “pastor” because he endorsed Sen. McCain. This didn’t really work out to the media hope so next they tried Pastor Rod Parsley’ another person who is not actually John McCain’s pastor or part of a church he attends.
So none of this really stuck so next they went after Gov. Palin and those “strange” Pentecostals. The fact that Gov. Palin does not attend an Assemblies of God church anymore didn’t matter. But it seems like a pretty stupid political move to make fun of Pentecostals considering how many their are. So they went after the sermons of the so-called non-denominational “Bible” church she attends. No red meat there other than pretty much normal Evangelical beliefs (still odd to the left though). Now the headlines is “Palin once blessed to be free from ‘witchcraft’.” She was prayed over by a visiting preacher from Kenya so now this person instantly becomes a pastor and other headlines include “Palin’s Pastor Problem.” The idea of spiritual warfare is of course alien to the media.
Obviously the media needs a lesson on whose one pastor is. It does not include people who endorse you or happen to visit your church. They also need to learn the difference between a pastor who makes political claims such as the U.S. created AIDS to kill blacks and a particular church’s theology. We have had many presidents with not exactly an orthodox understanding of theology. It would be a rare case when a candidate’s theology is actually relevant concerning presidential office. Obviously if someone belonged to some doomsday cult their theology would be quite relevant to their performance in office.
But the media and the left love gotcha politics, especially if it is in response to a gotcha.
One thing cool about the internet is the international aspect. Last night I posted my YouTube parody video. This morning I am watching Fr. Roderick in the Netherlands as he records live his Daily Breakfast Show on ustream. During the show I see him go over to my blog.
and then plays the audio portion of my video on his show.
A Rome priest is fighting for his life after being stabbed in the neck and stomach by a deranged man who had just watched the film The Da Vinci Code on television.
Eyewitnesses said that Marco Luzi, 25, asked to see Father Canio Canistri, 68, parish priest at the church of Santa Marcella in the San Saba district on the Aventine Hill, and then attacked him with a knife hidden in a cloth. An elderly parishioner who came to the priest’s aid is also in serious condition.
A Peruvian childminder and a policeman were also injured as the assailant fled through a nearby park. Police said Mr Luzi, a former medical student with a history of psychiatric problems, had admitted watching the film version of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code on television the night before the frenzied assault.
At his flat nearby, where he lived with his mother Paola, investigators found material on the Apocalypse and the anti-Christ, and the telephone number of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.
There was also a large reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, which is at the heart of the mystery in The Da Vinci Code, with a note pointing to one of the disciples reading: “This is the hand in which a knife is hidden”.
and
AN elderly Sydney priest who disarmed an intruder says he thought it was either “me or him” when he confronted the man in the church presbytery.
Father John Mello, 72, was stabbed in the arm while taking a knife from a robber less than half his age at St Kevin’s Catholic Church at Dee Why, on Sydney’s northern beaches.
The priest was having dinner and reading the paper about 7.20pm (AEST) yesterday when he heard something and disturbed the intruder, aged between 25-30.
Fr Mello said when he confronted the man, wearing a balaclava and armed with a knife about 25 to 30cm long, he was “vividly conscious” he could be “horizontal in one second”, and acted automatically to disarm his attacker.
A reader sent me a link to the Maryknolls called "U.S. Elections 2008: Loving our neighbor in a shrinking world" pdf This is quite an excellent document. I really like how it informs the Catholic voter about such important issues such as abortion, euthanasia, cloning, ESCR, and homosexual marriage. It does a great job of making the difference between topics that are intrinsically evil and things such as government supported social programs that are prudentially decided upon. It is great to see a document that talks about loving our neighbors that includes both the financially poor and the unborn without any kind of moral equivocation. I am quite impressed.
And if you believe anything I wrote above about this document then you know nothing about the Maryknolls. The part I mentioned about "abortion, euthanasia, cloning, ESCR, and homosexual marriage" is of course totally missing with no reference whatsoever.
I bet the majority of my readers know what topic their "voting guide" starts off with – of course global warming. Yes organic farming and talking about the dangers of nuclear power are fundamental parts of Catholic social teaching. Though this guide like other progressive religious guides condemns corn-for ethanol subsidies though doesn’t mention why. I totally agree with this since it makes food prices rise, but ironically of course it came about mostly because of the global warming crowd. Even when I was a bleeding-heart liberal environmentalist I never understood the massive opposition against nuclear power. That somehow Japan was able to become the third largest user of nuclear power and we continue to stigmatize it since it is “nuclear.”
Then we get the typical boilerplate on immigration and while I agree with part of it, the impetus is always on the U.S. instead of the countries that are contributing to poverty through their policies. The reform called for is always on our side.
The section on HIV/AIDS could be written by any Democratic organization and there is nothing specifically Catholic about it and it is pretty much all on the medical side without a word about how teaching the truth of Catholic moral teaching on human sexuality. Like other parts of the document they once again blame racism for problems and ask "How would you address the racial disparity in HIV/AIDS prevention and services in the U.S.?" I guess if you just say something it must be true. Must be the racist administration, you know the same one that signed a $14 billion dollar international HIV/AIDS bill and has spent more in Africa than any previous administration.
Than some more boilerplate on the military and a call to end the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now I was quite dubious on the war in Iraq in the first place, but I don’t see how pulling out now will lead to peace. Afghanistan certainly seems to fulfill all parts of just war theory and once again I don’t see how pulling out will lead to peace. Even sillier is to "Begin immediately to convert the U.S. military budget to conflict prevention. … and peace education." Though I totally agree with them about ending torture in all its forms and circumstances.
But mainly what gets me about documents of this type is what they ignore and what they emphasize. There are many areas where Catholics can prudential disagree on something and it is usually these very areas that progressives seem to dogmatize as "social teaching." But to totally ignore abortion and all the other threats to life involving an innocent human person is quite another thing to do. It is like sitting in the middle of a concentration camp with people being slaughtered amongst you and then demanding that prisoners be fed from organic gardens. 45 million and counting people killed in abortion and yet that doesn’t even get a mention. Somehow the preferential love of the poor doesn’t seem to apply to the innocents in the womb. Somehow trying to create a non-violent culture does not include killing the unborn via abortion, euthanasia, physician assisted suicide, and ESCR. We need to preach the whole Gospel and not a gospel that runs along party lines – a lesson that needs to be learned by members of all political parties.
A reader sent me a link to Coalition Against Assisted Suicide which is fighting the so-called physician assisted suicide bill in Washington state. Along with the following video of a dying man who is fighting against this.
Update: Here is an excellent blog post on John Peyton.
Washington state is looking to follow Oregon in providing so-called physician assisted suicide with Initiative 1000. Recently a Lourdes the Pope said.
"A society unable to accept its suffering members and incapable of helping to share their suffering is a cruel and inhumane society."
and
"Dignity never abandons the sick person," he declared, adding that people must accept death at "the hour chosen by God."
So the communications director for I-1000 promptly sent political bloggers a memo titled "Pope Keeps God on Schedule, Auto-Dial.
"The Pope does not go into detail about God’s appointment book, although many doctors note that God is, in fact, kept waiting past the chosen hour (rather like we are kept waiting at the doctor’s office) due to medical interventions that artificially extend life (but do not end suffering). Perhaps God is running late."
It is not a new thing that Catholic bashing is being introduced in this campaign since as the editorialist of this article noted that last month they made a big deal of the $132,650 donated by the local diocese for the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide when it is the pro-suicide camp that is being extremely well funded by a large percentage as is usually the case. Their ads said the Catholic Church was "pouring" in money when in fact their own side was getting money poured in.
- 170,000 from former Gov. Booth Gardner
- 300,000 from Oregon Death with Dignity.
- Denver groups donated 265,000
- Out-of-state donors such as the Hemlock Society bring the total to 1.906 million raised.
They then go on to claim
"The five out-of-state dioceses and archdioceses who are currently funding the campaign against I-1000 have been plagued with lawsuits and allegations of child abuse," reads the pro-I-1000 release.
When any stick will do priestly abuse is always the first club to grab. And of course physician assisted suicide never leads to abuses or pressure from family members as Oregon has proven – oh wait the facts don’t back that up.
Sometimes in the culture of death you can almost believe that people get together to find more ways to kill people. Abortion, ESCR, cloning, euthanasia, IVF, the new eugenics, etc. While their motives are suppose to be compassionate they don’t want to actually "suffer with" anybody and their is some sort of body bag at the end of the advocacy.
Pope Benedict XVI views the blood of Saint Gennaro during a visit to Naples last year.
Fr. Philip Powell, OP gives us a glimpse of his conversion story as he went from reader of occult books and expert Tarot card reader to Catholic priest. Like many who came from an occult background into the Church he laments about the Earth worship and pantheism present in too many religious orders (like this one which a reader recently sent me a link to.). Quite an interesting conversion story.
A reader sent me a link to a site and say "Now I’ve seen everything." The site is sspxsingles.com. Though I can understand the reason for the site. It is annoying to advertise yourself as SSSPXWF (Single Society Saint Piux X White Female) in the local newspaper in their singles section.
I wonder if there is a Sedevacanist Singles for those who go further than most in the SSPX and say there hasn’t been a valid pope since Pope Piux the XII. Maybe a dissidentsingles.com for those of the progressive bent.
Ironically those looking to get married within an SSPX chapel will end up staying single. Marriages in an SSPX chapel are invalid and illicit. They do not have the faculties to hear confessions or to perform marriages from the local ordinary. Other sacraments are valid though.