This morning did not exactly start out
with a bang. After my morning routine I go to my PC to find
that not only could I not get on the internet, but it wouldn’t see my
local network. Though my iMac could see the Internet and my
network. After troubleshooting cords and my router I
determined it was neither and then it dawned on me that my computer had
rebooted as a result of Windows Update and Patch Tuesday. After
uninstalling the latest updates I was back up and running.
Then I found out that I had maxed out
disc space on my server used for my blog and couldn’t post or even
clean out spam on the server to get some disk space back.
Thankfully after emailing my server provider he doubled my
disk storage to 1.2 gig and over the years he has made other increases
in disk space for me, though this was the largest. It is so
nice to have such great and prompt customer service.
Two women ordained as priests in a
disputed ceremony Sunday have been issued summonses by St. Louis
Archbishop Raymond Burke demanding they appear before a church
tribunal…
Elsie Hainz McGrath said she and Rose Marie Dunn Hudson do not plan to
show up for the Dec. 3 hearing as ordered by the archbishop. “If I do
go, it’s just going to cause a lot of grief and it’s not going to
change anything,” McGrath said.
She said she’s not sure what the repercussions will be but said the
letter makes it clear that the hearing would be their last chance to
defend themselves…
Often news stories on women’s
ordination are framed around the idea of the brave women fighting
against the evillll male hierarchical church. Yet when these
two brave women priests are called to defend their actions they run
away.
The Ballad of Brave
Priestesses
Bravely bold priestesses rode forth from St. Louis.
They were not afraid of
Burke, O brave Priestesses!
They were not at all
afraid to be excommunicated,
Brave, brave, brave,
brave Priestesses!
They were not in the
least bit scared of the male hierarchy,
Or to have their stoles
gouged out, and their ponchos broken;
Or grave canon law and
the constant teaching of the Church,
Or that out
of touch old man in Rome, brave Priestesses!
Quickly turns into:
Brave Priestesses ran
away.
Bravely ran away, away!
When danger reared its
ugly head,
They bravely turned
their tail and fled.
Yes, brave Priestesses
turned about
And gallantly they
chickened out.
Bravely taking to their
feet
They beat a very brave
retreat,
Bravest of the brave,
Priestesses!
*Apologies to Monty Python
According to EWTN (I didn’t watch the
proceedings), there are two pieces of news on the the proposed music
document that had been scheduled to be considered at the Fall USCCB
meeting: 1) it has been downgraded from particular law to advisory,
which means that it will not have the same binding status and will not
require Rome’s approval, and 2) it has been otherwise withdrawn because
there were 100 pages of proposed changes and there was no way it could
be tackled at the USCCB meeting.
Very interesting. This
document was suppose to be a response to Liturgiam Authenticam (and it
is late in submission in the first place) for Episcopal conferences to
submit to the Congregation for Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments for review. I don’t think the document “Sing To
The Lord” they submitted to the CDW meet the requirements of Liturgiam
Authenticam since it was on vague guidelines and not the translations
of scriptural texts used in Sacred Music. It was thought by
many that the CDW would likely reject their submission, something that
is all to familiar for our bishop’s conference. So possibly
this move is to save face as Bishop Trautman leaves the BCL to be
replaced by Bishop. Seratelli.
I also see a problem with just changing
this from particular law to advisory. For one Liturgiam
Authenticam still needs to be replied to. Liturgiam
Authenticam was issued in five years and called for submissions by the
Episcopal conference within five years. “Sing to the Lord”
has been seen as a mishmash of the defense of more traditional sacred
music while at the same time being a defense of the status quo.
We can only hope that it’s switch to advisory won’t be used
in the same way that another document that was never approved,
Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, was used as dogma within the
United States.
American Papist is running a virtual poll on who should be the next vice president of
the USCCB and who should head other committees.
A
reader sent me the
following story.
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ― Outrage in the
Catholic community after a south Baltimore priest is forced to
resign. Jessica Kartalija has more from Locust Point on a
protest led by church members.
In Locust Point, parishioners are outraged.
“I’m very angry. I’m very angry. Father Ray is a
wonderful man and that’s why we’re here today, to let the archdiocese
know how happy and what a wonderful man he is,” Anita Doda said.
This week, the archdiocese ordered Reverend Ray Martin to resign.
It all started with an October funeral service for a well-known
mortuary owner. Father Ray allowed an Episcopal priest from a
church a block away to read a gospel lesson.
“When a minister from another faith participates in that aspect of
that, in another way it’s directly canon law,” said Sean Caine,
archdiocese spokesperson.
The archdiocese says he was also warned for allowing dogs into the
sanctuary. He’s missed baptisms and first communions and
hired someone to work at the church who had an extensive criminal
record and then didn’t terminate him.
“I want to tell the archdiocese the mistake you’re making now is
totally wrong. This man has run three parishes, not just this
one, and to do what you’ve done, you’re going to have a hard time in
this community,” Doda said.
In response to a statement prepared by the archdiocese, parishioners
stood and walked out of the church in protest.
“The message is that the archdiocese, they need to get their priorities
straight. They’re persecuting a man who did nothing wrong,”
said Mary Lewandowski-Stylc.
This was exactly the reaction many people expected from Fr.
Ray’s parishioners and it follows the pattern of what has happened in
other parishes.
The media has many framed this as Archbishop O’Brien being the heavy
bad guy against the lovable priest that bent a couple of rules that
really don’t amount to anything. What the media misses and
what this parish does not see is that it is highly inaccurate point of
view and the reality is that this would have been the last thing the
Archbishop wanted to do. Of course we won’t have the
following mentioned in most stories.
“Father Martin’s received advice and
counsel on numerous occasions from the archdiocese, and he has
repeatedly violated church teaching,”
We of course will not see the media describe
this case as a case of disobedience to the Church and some rather
serious infractions of Canon law and the liturgy and a case of personal
disobedience to the Archbishop by not correcting the problems.
Father Ray in replying to his allowing an Episcopalian priestess read
the Gospel at at funeral Mass and possibly receiving Communion was.
“I think that canon laws exist to
protect the church from extremism. I
don’t find that this is such an extreme situation,” Martin said.
Is the Catholic church a puppet of the
right? Has it been suppressing women and the sexuality of its own
members for over 3,000 years? brought up
these thought-provoking questions in her seminar last night titled,
“Failing America’s Faithful,” sponsored by the Boisi Center for
Religion and American Public Life as a part of their annual Prophetic
Voices of the Church lecture series.
A reader (and blogger) sent me this which is from the BC Heights
which is an
independent student newspaper for Boston College. I guess the
3,000 years could just be a simple typo since I doubt if the author is
intending to see Catholicism as a fulfillment of Judaism – though even
then the number would be off.
The Boisi Center is an organization
supported by Boston College that aims to bring up questions of politics
and religion and create a dialogue in order to help our community move
closer to truth. Although, the Center tries to remain unbiased in its
portrayal, while acknowledging that it does exist within the context of
a Catholic university. Eric Owens, assistant director of the Boisi
Center, said, “Religion is a crucial part of American public life and
needs to be understood in the most rigorous way possible.” Due to this
fact, the Boisi Center works to promote the understanding of religion
and the way it functions in society. The Prophetic Voices of the Church
lecture series is an annual series that focuses on the Catholic church
and where it is moving by bringing in speakers that are knowledgeable
in a certain aspect of the church.
Townsend was the first lay speaker
in the series.
When it comes to progressives I think
you could easily substitute the
word prophetic with pathetic and have it to be more correct.
The Bible doesn’t exactly mince words when it comes to false
prophets and I don’t see exactly why I should either. Calling
people to go along with the culture is anything but prophetic.
Can you see Isiah or Jeremiah calling people to live out the
modern times of their times?
I also wonder calling the Catholic
Church a suppressor of women a
dialogue and a promotion of understanding of religion.
…She said that the Catholic Church
has lost its way in the latter half of the 20th century, following the
“moral majority” mindset and focusing on only three issues.
“The churches have been hijacked by stem cell research, same-sex
marriage, and abortion,” she said. By only focusing on these issues,
Townsend argued that the church has lost sight of the issues on which
it was founded, such as “loving your neighbor, not torturing people,
and not discriminating against women.”
So which is it. Has the Church
been suppressing women for 3,000 years or has she only lost her way in
the last 50 years. The funny thing is that I thought that
protecting the innocent child in the womb and going against
experimentation on human life via embryonic stem-cell research was
“loving your neighbor.” I think that Kathleen Kennedy
Townsend might need to hear Jesus’ parable about who is your neighbor.
I do wonder about her definition of torturing people. I
wonder if it means calling people to live lives of genuine holiness, to be perfect as our Father is perfect?
Gregory Popcak has an editorial in the L.A. Times that is a response to Gary Wills travesty of reason published last week on abortion. Greg has done a great job in writing an informative rebuttal to Wills that starts off rather funny but then makes some serious points that is a good overview of the Church and the issue of abortion.
The Holy Father then underlined the
importance of the criteria observed by Saint Jerome for his work of
translation: respect even for the order of the words in Sacred
Scripture, �since in Scripture, he says, �even the order of the words
in a mystery, that is, a revelation�, and the necessity to have
recourse to the original texts. A commentator on numerous Biblical
texts, Jerome � energetically and vivaciously confuted heretics�, he
demonstrated the importance and the validity of Christian literature,
he wrote biographies of monks illustrating the monastic ideal, he
translated various works of Greek authors.
At the end of his catechesis, Pope Benedict XVI asked a question: �What
do we learn from St Jerome? I would say this: to love the Word of God
in Sacred Scripture. – Saint Jerome says: �To ignore the Scriptures is
to ignore Christ�. Therefore it is important for every Christian to
live in personal contact and dialogue with the Word of God, given to us
in Sacred Scripture�. The Pope then underlined that this dialogue must
have two dimensions: a personal dimension, �because God speaks to each
of us through Sacred Scripture and He has a message for each of us�
which we must strive to understand, and a community dimension, since
the Word of God builds up the community, it builds up the Church. �This
is why we must read it in communion with the living Church. The
privileged placed for reading and listening to the Word of God is the
liturgy, in which, celebrating and rendering present in the Sacrament
the Body of Christ, we actualise the Word in our life and make it
present in our midst �. The Pope concluded by recalling that the Word
of God transcends time: �human opinions come and go. What is ultra
modern today, tomorrow will be ultra old. Instead, the Word of God is
Word of eternal life, it holds eternity within it, that is, it is valid
for ever. So carrying within us the Word of God, we carry within us
eternity, eternal life.�
Lets play a game of guess the charism.
Pick the religious order by using the following clues of what
they offer.
- Therapeutic Massage
- La Stone Therapy
- Craniosacral Therapy
- Maya Abdominal Self-Care Workshops
- Australian Bush Flower Essence Practitioner
- Healing the Light Body Shamanic Practices
- Maya Abdominal Massage
- Introduction To Raw Food
- Native American Ceremonies
- Energy Medicine Sessions
- Reiki Sessions
- Lymphatic Drainage
- An Indepth Look At The Chakras
- Therapeutic massage with emphasis on trigger point,
chiropractic modalities, medical massage and relaxation techniques
enhancing circulation and the immune system - Dances of Universal Peace
- Animal Spirits/Animal Guides
- Reflecting On Reconciliation in a Quantum Universe
What you can’t easily pick what
religious order this is by a listing of what they are teaching and
practicing? Of course with new agey Dominicans and Franciscans it is
harder to determine which one has gone further around the bend.
Catholicism is sometimes associated
with rosary beads, statues, Latin Masses and novenas.
But this brand of Catholicism centers on meditation, dream work, global
spirituality and inner peace.
Under the umbrella term Collaborative Ministries, the Wheaton
Franciscans offer an ongoing series of programs and classes at Maura
Hall on the campus of Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in Wheaton. The
program focuses on spiritual development and the healing arts.
“We were involved with ministries across the United States, and we
thought it was time to reach out to our immediate community,” said
Sister Gabriele Uhlein, who helped launch Collaborative Ministries in
2005. “It was our dream to provide a venue for spirituality to the
public.”
The name originated from the collaboration of the Wheaton Franciscan
Sisters and their covenant members, a group of laypeople who have a
special relationship with the sisters in their desire to follow the
traditions of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare.
“Collaborative Ministries is grounded in the Franciscan dimension,”
Uhlein said. “St. Francis had a tremendous respect for God’s creation,
and we wanted Collaborative Ministries to reflect that.”
Some Franciscans seem to over-emphasize one aspect of Francis’
spirituality to the detriment of the rest of it. Too much
Brother Sun, Sister Moon and not enough Mother Church and God the Father.
Francis’ love of creation was due to his love of the creator.
Going through the Wheaton Franciscan’s site the most
you hear about Jesus and Mary is in there name Province of the
International Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters, Daughters of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary.
Though maybe I am being a little hard on them. After
all when you want to hear about animal spirit guides surely the first
place you would go is the Catechism, or maybe not. I say
Shaman on them for such as travesty.
They also prove my rule about Progressive Catholic Religious
web sites – that you will always find a link to the United Nations and
never to the Vatican. Something that Fr. Powell has also recently discovered
concerning the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and
Dominican sites and publications.
Rochester Catholic relates his ten years since he returned to the
Church in a couple of posts that detail a large number of things he has
had to contend with. As Rich Leonardi writes in regards to
this post “You can find an abuse or two like those above in most
dioceses, but I know of no other place where they are so widespread and
flagrant.”
Some of the abuses listed are common ones, but others are quite a
doozy, for example:
There were the liturgies at my
daughters’ high school in which the
priest would stop the Mass and take a vote on which Eucharistic prayer
to use. The group that yelled the loudest would win. At the end of
Mass, the priest would walk around the room throwing candy to the crowd
and high fiving everyone in sight.
posts, but currently the two posts are at the top.