SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Actor Martin Sheen,
also known for his work as an
activist, will be honored by the University of Notre Dame with its
Laetare Medal.

The school announced Sunday it will present the actor, who played a
U.S. president who graduated from Notre Dame in the TV series “West
Wing,” with the medal at its May 18 commencement.

Since 1883, the Laetare Medal has been awarded annually to a Catholic
“whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the
ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of humanity.”

Oh great.  The man who last year called conservatives
“bastards” and a “dangerous bunch of fascists” and spoke at a LGBT
fundraiser and is supporter of “gay rights” is being honored.
 He is also has his doubts about 9/11 “chief among them is
Building 7 – how did they rig that building so that it came down on the
evening of the day?”

Q: What are your views on abortion?

Sheen: I cannot make a choice for a women, particularly a black or
brown or poor pregnant woman. I would not make a judgment in the case.
As a father and a grandfather, I have had experience with children who
don’t always come when they are planned, and I have experienced the
great joy of God’s presence in my children, so I’m inclined to be
against abortion of any life. But I am equally against the death
penalty or war– anywhere people are sacrificed for some end justifying
a means. I don’t think abortion is a good idea. I personally am opposed
to abortion, but I will not judge anybody else’s right in that regard
because I am not a woman and I could never face the actual reality of
it.

Q: Which politicians do you admire?

Sheen: I don’t really have a great deal of confidence in politics or
politicians, but there are certain elected officials that I admire very
much, such as Dennis Kucinich from Ohio, Barbara Lee, Congresswoman
from Oakland, Howard Dean, who I’m supporting for President.

Personally opposed, but blah, blah blah.
 Though I am thankful
for when he spoke out on Terri Schiavo – oh wait that didn’t happen.
He backed pro-abortion John Kerry and this year he was a backer of
pro-abortion Bill Richardson for president.  Well I guess
since he has done good work in helping to raise money for retired
religious, I guess supporting pro-aborts is no big deal.

The bishop in their document Catholics in
Political Life said:

The Catholic community and Catholic
institutions should not honor those
who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should
not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support
for their actions.

It is good news when columnist Nick
Coleman of the Star Tribune is
unhappy with changes at a Minneapolis parish.
 Previously
Coleman wrote quite a negative column on his Excellency Most Reverend
John Nienstedt, Coadjutor Archbp. of St. Paul and Minneapolis for
actually accepting the truth of the Church’s view on homosexual acts.
 Nick Coleman displays his same accuracy in his political
columns as he does on the few columns he writes concerning the Church.
 His political columns have long been fisked in the
conservative blogosphere and he is working for the same reputation in
St. Blogs.

This time he upset about changes at St
Stephens in Minneapolis which seems to be the same type of
parish as St. Joans and St. Frances Cabrini also in Minneapolis.
 Where the word inclusive means accepting homosexual acts, but
not being inclusive towards orthodoxy.  Inclusive communities
are usually much more dogmatic on the issues they want to be dogmatic
on.  Try going to one of these parishes and dissent on their
teaching on homosexual acts or some of the other typical issues and you
will find out just how “inclusive” they are.

It looks like change are being made there
with the appointment of Fr. Joseph William effective Easter Friday,
March 28, 2008.  A 9. a.m. Mass (Coleman calls it a prayer
service) has now been canceled.  We will let Coleman describe
this Mass for us:

“They
all have to play with the same playbook,” says Dennis McGrath,
spokesman for the archdiocese. “They’ve had plenty of warnings to get
their act together.”

The “playbook” is the GIRM —
“General Instructions of the Roman Missal” — which spells out the
rubrics for worship services. After the Second Ecumenical Vatican
Council in the early 1960s, the orthodoxies loosened and churches,
especially ones in needy neighborhoods like St. Stephen’s, put more
emphasis on carrying out the message of the Gospels than following the
rubrics.

The 9 a.m. service in the school gym
(there’s also a 9 a.m. Spanish-language mass in the church sanctuary)
became a place where all were welcomed, the wording of prayers was
changed to make them inclusive (“Our Father and Mother, Who Art in
Heaven,” for example), women had leadership roles in services, and
simple ceramics were used instead of chalices of precious metal, as
called for in the rubrics.

Coleman writing just cracks me up. Phrases
like “the orthodoxies loosened” show exactly his mindset.  The
idea that Orthodoxy or “right thinking” should be loosened and I guess
substituted for wrong thinking is always unintentionally funny.
 I saw let the orthodoxies be loosed not loosened.
 There is also other typical liberal thought shown here with
the incredibly false idea that before Vatican II that the Gospel was
not carried out and somehow it was prevented from being preached
because of those nasty binding rubrics.  As if great Saints
like Saint Vincent de Paul and countless others could not preach the
Gospel and help the poor because of the rubrics of the Mass.
 Coleman has a Protestant mindset and seems to have no
understanding of the Catholic “Et … et” – the both/and approach that
we take more often.  Helping the poor in needy neighborhoods
is not the reciprocal of following the rubrics and following the
rubrics does not prevent you from living and preaching the Gospel.
 Though as with most inclusive parishes they have their own
rubrics that must be followed.  For example using ceramics and
so-called inclusive language.

Coleman also complains about the
parishioners who will be leaving the parish to go somewhere else five
blocks away with the
same “spirituality” that they were use to at St Stephen’s.

You know the kind of service: with
guitars, lay people giving homilies, dancing in the aisles with people
who have mental and physical disabilities, gay couples openly
participating in worship, along with ex-priests, ex-nuns and sundry
other spiritual wanderers. 

This 9 AM Mass has been going on for forty
years (about time they got out of the wilderness of progressive
liturgy) and so it is understandable that some of the parishioners
would be upset at the change.  It is only too bad that such
nonsense was not stopped much earlier to prevent these types of
defections where it looks like some of them will now being going to a
non-Catholic service.  They should never have been able to get
use to such open dissent and liturgical abuse in the first place.

“It’s incredibly sad,” says Mary Condon
Peters of Golden Valley, who has belonged to St. Stephen’s for 16 years
and served on its parish council. “All these years, there was room in
the big old Catholic tent for all of us. And now there isn’t. And they
gave us three weeks’ notice.”

It was on Feb. 5 that Flynn met with parish representatives and
instructed them that the 9 a.m. prayer service must end. McGrath says
that “nothing of substance” will change, and that the parish outreach
to the poor, the homeless and the Hispanic community will go on.

What you mean that unloosening “the
orthodoxies” does not halt outreach to the poor and others?
 Who would have thunk it?

Clayton who gave me the heads up for this
story will be commenting on it later today.