Adam of the Theotokis Podcast has posted the first part of the interview that he had with me.
You can listen to the episode here or subscribe to his fine podcast.
When an artist wants to be provocative and to "start a conversation" they all seem to be provocative in the same way. The banality of being provocative. Yes to push the envelop your "art" must:
- Use a crucifix in some way (bonus points for using urine or a corpus made out of chocolate)
- Substitute the people in the Last Supper with your own figures (bonus points for nudity or making Jesus a woman)
- Mock some other form of sacred art especially of Our Lady (Bonus points for using excrement preferably from a large gray animal with a trunk)
Artists are a lot of teenager who often rebel in exactly the same way and wear/pierce/tattoo exactly the same things as a sign of their "individuality."
An Italian museum has defied Pope Benedict by refusing to remove a statue of a crucified green frog clutching a beer mug and an egg.
The Vatican had condemned the modern art sculpture as blasphemous.
The board of the Museion museum in the northern city of Bolzano voted it was a work of art, however.
Of course we get the typical hyperbole with Pope’s fury as crucified frog statue goes on display at Italian museum.
On the first night of the DNC convention Archbishop Chaput was at the site of a new Planned Parenthood clinic in a primarily Latino and African-American suburb of Denver (some things never change).
"Here in America, and especially here tonight, we need to remember two basic truths," Archbishop Chaput said.
"Here’s the first truth," he said. "Society has an obligation — and Christians have a Gospel duty — to provide adequate and compassionate support for unwed and abandoned mothers; women facing unintended pregnancies; and women struggling with the aftermath of an abortion. It’s not enough to talk about ‘pro-life politics.’ The label ‘pro-life’ demands that we work to ensure social policies that will protect young woman and families, and help them generously in their need. […]
"Here’s the second truth. Killing an unborn child is never the right answer to a woman’s or society’s problems. Acts of violence create a culture of violence — and abortion is the most intimate form of violence there is. It wounds the woman, it kills the unborn child and it poisons the roots of justice and charity that bind us all into one human family."
"Planned Parenthood is the largest single provider of abortion and family suppression services in the United States," he explained. "This facility in this minority neighborhood should offend every African-American and Latino family, and all of us, because every child lost to abortion here subtracts one more life, one more universe of possibilities and talent, from the future of this community. […] The business of Planned Parenthood is the prevention of the future — and business is good, and very profitable, at the expense of this community."
The archbishop was joined by a niece of Martin Luther King, Jr., Alveda King; Reverend Willard Johnson, pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church; and Denver’s Auxiliary Bishop James Conley.
I found this over at Insight Scoop a statement where Sen. Joe Biden says:
"My views are totally consistent with Catholic social doctrine,"
This reminded me of something that came out during the last presidential campaign cycle in 2004. Sen. Dick Durbin had put out a scorecard called "Evaluating the Votes and Actions of Public Officials from a Catholic Perspective" where each Catholic Senator was suppose to be evaluated against Catholic doctrine and USCCB "full range of issues." It was a quite laughable attempt since it had Kerry at the top with Sen. Santorum towards the bottom. But I decided to look it up again to see where even this heavily biased scorecard placed Sen. Biden.
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Senator
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Overall Score
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Domestic Score
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International Score
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Pro-Life Score
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Biden
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50.0%
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79%
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40%
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17%
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So Sen "My views are totally consistent with Catholic social doctrine" Biden gets scored at only 50% by his fellow Catholic Democrat on a scale that was totally relativistic in regard to issues..
Of course as Carl Olson notes the Church’s pro-life teaching is part of the "social doctrine" of the Church.and of course is included in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. Though I can understand how the Senator has made this mistake because so many of the social justice types make exactly the same mistake. There is social justice and then there is abortion. There is a false schism that has been created in regards to the Church’s pro-life and pro-marriage teaching and what social justice activists think are only included in this category. As Catholics we can get tired of saying both/and, but we constantly have to repeat it because is constantly applies. Let’s work for the culture of life and at the same time also have a preferential love of the poor. Let’s work to end abortion and be peacemakers. Let’s help mothers choose life when they think this new life is inconvenient and be prudential stewards of the environment that God created for us. Both/And people!
Mark Shea on Sister Helen Prejean and her New Age Gospel at the DNC’s interfaith gathering. Like many she is a one trick pony that emphasizes one thing until it eclipses everything else. Both/And seems to be so totally lacking in progressive Christianity.
Now that Nancy Pelosi’s spokesman issues a statement in response to the slew of statements about her misrepresenting Church teaching on abortion.
Father Z posts the statement and responds Madame Speaker, you can’t reduce the Church’s teaching to a 1500 year old sound bite which you don’t understand.
Maureen at Aliens in This World takes a look at the Latin of what St. Augustine said and gives us a translation and some analysis. Democrats constantly complain about what they say being taken out of context, but that is what is done with the passage Pelosi’s spokesman gave.
With St. Augustine’s feast day coming up on Thursday and his mothers St. Monica is tomorrow it is an opportune time to pray for their intercession for Speaker Pelosi. St. Augustine was a bit confused on the moral law himself at one time before his conversion.
Though all of this appealing to St. Augustine is rather odd in the first place. For one she supports partial birth abortion which is way passed the timeline for when St. Augustine thought that the fetus was vivified anyway (males 30 days and females at 90 days.) As Fr. Z asks does she accept that also since St. Augustine held it?
Oh well I am just waiting for her exegesis on St. Jerome, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. John Chrysotom and other Church Fathers.
No doubt it will sell more copies than her last book.
I knew television commercials havr gotten really bad, which is why I pretty much record everything so I can skip through commercials. Last night I caught a bit of some Clint Eastwood movie on AMC only to be treated to a commercial for Trojan’s Vibrating Touch a masturbation aid for women. It was so bad it made me long for erectile dysfunction commercials instead.
It was really nice to see the number of responses by several bishops about Nancy Pelosi’s faulty Church history lesson. This is exactly the type of response that should be more common. Though I wonder which is worse 1) Misrepresenting the Church on a Sunday news show or 2) Voting for something intrinsically evil? It seems to me that a diocese should respond whenever a lawmaker from their dioces votes for something intrinically evil. This can be done charitably, but forcibly as Archbishop Chaput has done.
So far as I know Archbishop Chaput has been the only bishop to come out and mention that Sen. Biden is pro-abortion and specifically that he should not be receiving Communion. I would like to see the USCCB also make a statement about this. A selection of a pro-abortion Catholic should not go unnoticed by the Bishop’s conference since it will certainly not go unnoticed by Catholics and others.
I get the feeling many bishops don’t want to speak up because they don’t want to be seen as political and that is just a bit icky. This is certainly how it is always framed by the media when they do. It is just a sad thing that the Culture of Life is something political in the first place. I would love nothing more than if the political parties were all fully pro-life and all of are arguments could come down to just prudential decisions. Pray that this may be so. But speaking up for the unborn is not political, it is something required by the Gospel. Speaking up against evil whether it is when the Republicans promote torture and at times ESCR or when the Democrats the party of death promotes the myriad ways of the Culture of Death is something that must be done in political season and out of political season. If one party gets condemned more than the other it not partisanship, but because they are out of line with the natural law. So when a bishop does speak up for the truth – email or write to thank them. But most of all pray for your own bishop.
There has been much talk of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Meet the Press appearance where she talked about her being an ardent and practicing
Her total misrepresentation has not gone without notice in the Church in America.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput: On the Separation of Sense and State. (Best title of a diocesan pastoral letter ever)
U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities issued a statement of the USCCB’s front page.
Archbishop Wuerl responds.
Archbishop Egan responds.
Nancy Pelosi’s bishop Archbishop Niederauer issued – crickets chirping.
Post updated to included more responses.
Catholic Fire tagged me with what she called the Fat Chance
"If you should pass from our presence, what picture of you shall we use for your saint’s card, should you be so elevated, and of what do you want to be patroness?"
Well a picture of me in a Jester’s cap would be just fine. Surely I would want to be the patron saint of Catholic parody blogs. In fact I will even provide the quick prayer.
Curt Jester, Curt Jester
Please come down
I need a pun
Come up with one.
Christine at Confessions of a Hot Carmel Sundae tagged me with the Arte yPico meme. Don’t know what to make of this meme with the odd picture and that links back to what I guess is a Spanish Language blog. But thanks Christine for thinking of my blog in relation to "creativity, design, interesting material, and overall contribution to the blogger community, regardless of the language."
I haven’t specified other blogs in this meme since I pretty much let memes die like chain letters. Though I would be interested in comment box replies on whay you would want t be the patron saint of.
In other news Fr. Powell, O.P. is back blogging on a semi-regular basis again..
John Paul the Great Catholic University now has a faculty blog with posts from people like Michael Barber. Considering the focus of business, media, and faith of the university this will make for an interesting blog.