Opinionated Catholic

The Money Quote On Incompetence of Pope Benedict 's Aides At Time

2012-01-28T12:19:00.005-06:00

I linked this John Allen piece with other links on what the matter of what some call the Vatican "Corruption" Scandal we are dealing with this week.

John Allen has perhaps the money quote of Benedict's Pontificate as to the people that advise Pope Benedict and carry out ( we hope ) his wishes. I bold the money quote at the end of this excerpt which I contend at times can apply to other matters:

..In truth, money management is one of the few areas in which Benedict XVI has actually taken a strong interest in terms of internal administration. Rocked by a series of scandals, including the 2010 seizure of $30 million in Vatican Bank assets for allegedly violating European money-laundering protocols, Benedict created a new Financial Information Authority in December 2010 with the power to oversee the transactions of every department in the Vatican. Given the notoriously compartmentalized culture of the place, this amounts to a real revolution.
Benedict has also directed the Vatican to come into compliance with international norms on financial transparency. Ironically, the same day the Viganò story broke, the Vatican announced it had ratified three U.N. conventions intended to curb illegal currency flows and transactions around the globe.

In part, these efforts reflect a realization by Benedict XVI that he can't credibly preach to the outside world about the need for greater ethics in the economy, as he has repeatedly done, if the perception is that he doesn't have his own house in order.
Why, then, if Benedict is committed to glasnost, would Viganò be shipped off -- especially in light of the mixed signal it inevitably sends?

Most Vatican-watchers believe the answer lies in Bertone, whom everyone admires as a sincere and affable guy, but who's also been a decidedly mixed bag as an administrator. In this case, insiders say Bertone was persuaded that Viganò was disruptive, and thus fell back on the classic Vatican logic of "promoting to remove" without adequate consideration of how that move would look. incompetence

At a bare minimum, Bertone had to know since October that Viganò's correspondence with the pope, which was widely alluded to at the time, amounted to a ticking time-bomb. That no steps were taken to get ahead of the story thus represents yet another chapter in the checkered PR record of the last six years.

In the Middle Ages, alchemists sought to turn lead into gold. Some of Benedict's aides actually seem to have a genius for turning potential public relations gold, in this case Benedict's impressive financial reforms, into lead.

Archbishop Aymond of New Orleans Interviewed By Vatican Radio ( Guess What Issue Was Huge )

2012-01-28T09:19:00.003-06:00

Among other things right off the top RELIGIOUS LIBERTY CONCERNS. However there is more. See via Vatican Radio the link and overview US Ad limina: New Orleans in Rome .

He also talks about the Year of Faith and how they are focused on the Eucharist .

How God Removed Hate From Justice Clarence Thomas 's Heart

2012-01-27T16:38:00.004-06:00

There has been a book that I thought would be getting attention that is out. That is the Fraternity which relates the the lives of Clarence Thomas and four other African American Men the Priest/ President of Holy Cross mentored and nutured.

It appears this affects Justice Thomas still a great deal .

Justice Clarence Thomas became emotional during a speech at his college alma mater on Thursday as he remembered the time he had dropped out of the seminary and got kicked out of his home.....

Before going to Holy Cross, he was just a “lonely kid,” Thomas said. “In the summer of 1968, I had no place to go and no idea what I was going to do,” Thomas said. “I was 19. “My only hope was Holy Cross College, a place I'd never seen and had barely heard of.”

At the school, Thomas said he “enjoyed the first brief glimpses of what it meant to be educated” and pledged to give up his anger. “It was here, directly in front of the chapel, on the morning of April 16, 1970, that I promised the Almighty God that if he took hate out of my heart I would never hate again,” Thomas recalled. “He did and I have not.”

The British Are Coming - Archbishop of Canterbury Versus Episcopal Church Imperialism and Exceptionalism

2012-01-27T13:43:00.007-06:00

Hmm why is this not getting covered more. No matter what you think of the argument this language is rather explosive.

In Anglican News we have this thing called the Anglican Covenant which is an attempt to impose some slight order on the Communion as to theology and practice. Which sort of makes sense because being in Communion means at least shared beliefs about the very basics I would think.

In other words some Anglican parts of the Communions think before an essential doctrine is changed everyone in the Communion should sign on. The Archbishop of Canterbury likes that idea the United States Episcopal Church ( which is why this got started) hates it.

Well a Canon Librarian at Norwich Cathedral by the name of Stephen Doll's paper has produced "Anglican Covenant - Bishop's Council" which was circulated to all bishops in the Church of England.

It's motivation is to encourage support for the Anglican Covenant and appears to have the Archbishop of Canterbury's approval . I repeat even on this side of the pond it's very much assumed the Archbishop of Canterbury approved this paper to go forward .

It contains some wording that must drive the more progressive liberal leadership of the Episcopal Church USA up the wall. After some interesting history of deletions in the first Prayer book of the Episcopal Church USA he lets it fly:

...My fear is that we no longer care enough about unity to hold on to it. Unity is
not an idea that means much in the context of American religious life. Americans are
strongly imbued with a sense of their own ‘exceptionalism’, and this is (if possible)
even more true of their religious than of their political and social life.5 The particular
extreme reformed Protestantism that arrived with the early settlers has formed the
theological habits of the continent, with a conviction that in the new world the
original humanity, before-the-fall humanity could be recovered. ...

....The American religious experience is like no other, and even if American
Anglicans have historically identified themselves as standing apart from evangelical
Protestantism, as being a cut above socially and intellectually, their actual experience
is nevertheless deeply imbued with these same primordialist assumptions. From the
beginning of the Republic, American Anglicans assumed their church was ‘purer’
than the Mother Church of England because they had disposed of state establishment.
America is a self-referring cultural power; it does not occur to most Americans to
consult others, politically or spiritually, to arrive at an understanding of truth and
right.....

....I don’t think it takes much knowledge or experience of the Episcopal Church
to see the power that this ‘American Religion’ has over its life. If ‘personal
experience’ has absolute authority, if finding the ‘real me’ is the central quest of
human existence, then the individual requires complete freedom of choice
unconstrained by any authority outside the self. A church inculturated in such a
setting will affirm the individual quest in all its forms. Inclusion becomes a
fundamental value for the church, the unconditional affirmation of all personal
experience of whatever race, creed, gender, or sexuality. The purpose of the church is
to validate those who have found their true identity and have thus found God. This
would seem to be the thinking behind a recent orthodoxy of the Episcopal Church, the
welcoming of all of whatever faith or none to communion. This seems to me a much
more serious issue than the current disagreements over sexuality. By obviating the
need for baptism, it leaves no space for the atoning power of Christ’s death and
resurrection, repentance, faith or holiness of life...

...The attitude of the Episcopal Church is very firmly, ‘No one can tell us what to do.’....

...It is utter nonsense, I would argue, to equate the current American experience with that of African and Asian post-colonial societies. And yet if we take the statement at face-value, it must express how these
Episcopalians feel about their situation. These rich and powerful Americans, the most
privileged people on earth, identify their own experience of being oppressed and
persecuted for their advocacy of gay rights with, for example, the experience of black
South Africans under apartheid...

And then the bomb

...American church is not prepared to accept further consultation or dialogue over this issue nor to wait for the rest of the church to catch up with its own understanding of the place of same-sex relationships
in the life of the church. Whatever is acceptable and right in a particular American
cultural context must be universally applicable to every other culture and context.
There is more than an element of cultural imperialism in these American attitudes.
Ironically, they resonate strongly with the gung-ho combination of domestic
isolationism and foreign interventionism of American political life which so many
American liberals deplore, and yet they don’t seem to be able to see the parallels here..

Well Well Well.

As to be expected some folks did not like that. See this response here at Anti-Americanism and the Anglican Covenant.

In response to that a former Episcopalian went into quite a lengthy frisking of the response to the response that is a must read at PROMISED LAND.

I might add there is some truth to this sadly in the American Catholic Church. Who cares what the rest of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox world thinks WE American Catholics want this so do it damn it. The sin of schism is just so overblown you know.

Pope Benedict Meets With All the Bishops of Louisiana - Picture

2012-01-27T12:13:00.002-06:00

Pope Benedict XVI poses for a photo with U.S. bishops on their “ad limina” visits to the Vatican Jan. 26. From left are: Bishop Ronald P. Herzog of Alexandria, La., Auxiliary Bishop Shelton J. Fabre of New Orleans, Bishop Glen J. Provost of Lake Charles , La., Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans, the pope, retired Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans, Bishop Michael G. Duca of Shreveport, La., Bishop Sam G. Jacobs of Houma-Thibodaux, La., Bishop Robert W. Muench of Baton Rouge, La., and Bi shop Michael Jarrell of Lafayette, La. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano) (Jan. 27, 2012)

Via the Diocese of Shreveport

Slander, Gossip , and Truth - Thoughts on Viganò and Vatican " Corruption " Scanda ( Updated )

2012-01-27T09:18:00.011-06:00

Update - John Allen has another good and balanced piece after you read the link below. See Thoughts on America's new whistle-blowing nuncio Interesting enough he seems to think that
A Viganò effect in the USA might be good . So in this post we see two different views perhaps of the situation

What's is the dividing line between gossip / slander and exposing truth and promoting Justice. This is something that is grappled with in the scriptures and the Church Fathers. Sometimes that line is not clear. In the real world it's often a mixed bag that has the added dimensions of real hurts.

It seems we see this in what is now being called the " Vatican Corruption " scandal by many. See my post from yesterday at Corruption In Running Vatican City ? Some links .

Today the widely read Sandro Magister has a piece of with his view. See Vatican Diary / Viganò, the untouchable
The current nuncio to Washington cannot stand having been driven out of Rome. And he is reacting against his archenemy, Cardinal Bertone. He has many supporters in the curia. And the pope is getting caught in the fray.

Good Grief. Well it's a viewpoint ,and I suspect others might disagree. But the article does a good job of explaining some of the background of the Italian TV show that has parts of the Catholic world abuzz.

What is sort of astonishing is the fact that he has at the end of this piece.

Viganò's nephew, Archbishop Carlo Maria Polvani, 47, heads the information office of the secretariat of state that oversees "L'Osservatore Romano," Vatican Radio, and also the press office directed by Fr. Lombardi.

Well that must make for some tense relationships right now.

One question that should concern Unoted States Catholics is how exactly this will affect us here. The Apostolic Nuncio does a play a role in the whole selection of Bishops process. Something we have a back long on.

Further in a time when perhaps the United States Catholic Church needs help against foes in it's own land the timing of this is not very great . It would be wrong to assume that the Apostolic Nunico himself leaked this. But it seems apparent that his supporters might have done it. How does this play out between the Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone and Viganò in just simple things as communication?

Besides those issues this does not look for the Body of Christ right now on many fronts. Here is praying this gets resolved and cooler heads prevail

Why American Catholic Law Schools Are Not Very Catholic

2012-01-27T08:49:00.003-06:00

Mirrors of Justice has a link to a good article that appeared at American Journal of Legal History. See The Road Not Taken: Catholic Legal Education at the Middle of the Twentieth Century .

Its a rather long article and perhaps not interesting to many but I think it's some good work. It also shows with some regret the opportunity missed. An opportunity we might be paying for dearly today.

Some Puerto Ricans Enraged At CNN Over Florida GOP Debate

2012-01-27T07:25:00.003-06:00

With some cause I think. Fox Latino has Insulted Puerto Ricans Slam CNN Debate, Republican Candidates

At least as to this debate I am not sure how it's the Candidates fault. In fact I thought Santorum actually gave a clear answer my self. In fact as I commented last night Rick Santorum seemed to do well on many Latin American and related issues. I thought it was unfair to the other hopefuls that Santorum was the only one that got a shot at these issue.

Controversy - Twitter Can Censor Tweets Country By Country

2012-01-27T06:54:00.003-06:00

I am a big user of Twitter and fan. But this is a big reminder of the power of the gate keepers as to information ( even in the West ) might be censored. See Twitter faces censorship backlash from the UK Guardian .

All Louisiana Bishops Met With Pope Benedict On Their Ad Limina Visit ( Archbishop of New Orleans Interview )

2012-01-27T05:35:00.003-06:00

That would include mine of course who is Bishop Duca of the Diocese of Shreveport. He also talks about other events of the day and what Bishops do at the Vatican besides meet with the Pope.

See report from Archbishop Aymond Jan. 26 ad limina

New York Times Guest Op Ed - Mormons Are Protestants

2012-01-26T15:41:00.001-06:00

This sort of religious illiteracy is just annoying. I have known a few Southern Baptists that rankle at being called Protestants. Yet I have never met a Mormon that thought they were a Protestant.

Get Religion has But I read it in The New York Times!

Environmental Activists Huey Long Impersonators Take Over New Orleans Roosevelt Hotel

2012-01-26T14:58:00.007-06:00

I am not sure I would agree with the specifics of all of what this group might be advocating for ,but I admire the originality and fun of it. See Host of Hueys Clog Canal via Len's Nola

As was pointed out:

Amused onlooker, Mary Broussard, said, “I wouldn’t dress up like that, but it’s a good way to make their point without hostility or angry confrontation.”

I think we need more of that. . For non Louisiana folks the the famed Roosevelt Hotel is very linked to Huey Long.

Corruption In Running Vatican City ? Some links

2012-01-26T13:40:00.004-06:00

I have an Update at Slander, Gossip , and Truth - Thoughts on Viganò and Vatican " Corruption " Scandal

Well there was a quite a stir in Rome and the Vatican yesterday. It will be interesting to see if the USA secular media takes must interest here since the prime player in this drama is now in the United States. That is Papal Nunico to the USA Archbishop Viganò.

One difficulty is of course I don't speak Italian so I can not judge the fairness or tobeof the Italian TV news show this appeared on. . But if you do you can watch it here.

The best regarded Vatican beat reproter John Allen had a piece up on this pretty quick at Vatican denies corruption charges attributed to U.S. nuncio . As he points out the Vatican did not deny the authenticity of the leaked letter itself. The Italian based Vatican Insider does not have a piece up on this yet on their English page yet but I expect that to change. They have covered the drama on this for some time.

It does not appear we have "corruption" issues here that rocked the Vatican like the bank scandal did in the 1980's. Of course also these are Italians and their view of corruption might be different. Where is the line between giving a contract to the friend of the Church and like someone's nephew. The bigger issue here seems that the credibility of some bankers have been called into question. Were they looking out for their own interests rather than the Holy See's interest for instance.

It does seem that Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano before he was removed in October as the No. 2 administrator of the Vatican city-state did some needed reforms. Though as the Vatican Press people said maybe not all the positives can be just attributed to him.

I suspect in the cause of reform he ruffled a few feathers ( WHO ARE YOU TO BE CHANGING ALL THIS) in places like the Museums and other facets of running the physical plant of the Holy See . Those issues might have little to do with "corruption" but issues of change and people resenting it. For peace perhaps Benedict had to transfer (demote) the Archbishop to Papal Nuncio tot he USA.

The other issue is someone leaked this memo. I would not assume it was the Archbishop which might indicate the battle for good financial practices in the Holy See is far from over.

More Later.

Jeb Bush and GOP Immigration Issues Pickle

2012-01-26T13:10:00.005-06:00

On the issue of immigration reform and the Latino vote many Republicans are finding themselves in quite a pickle.

Governor Rick Perry seemed to get that "tone" and compromise mattered as to this emotional issue. He was sophisticated enough to get the diverse Latino vote and viewpoints. Sadly he was a dud in the debates and now he is gone.

The only other person that seems to get "tone" matters is Newt Gingrich. One can complain validly that Newt has electability issues, but as to the Latino vote he has engaged it. Mitt Romney on the other heads seems just to veer hard right all the time on this issue. Why I don't know. He must have smart people looking ahead to the general election that can read the numbers.

Sadly Senator Rick Santorum does not seem to offer much alternative. He as one widely read Catholic pundit and supporter of his said "he has room to grow". Well I think that is putting it kindly.

So we have numerous people that seem friendly to Romney that no doubt have concerns about this. Think Republican elements of the Chamber of Commerce for instance.

Which brings us to the immigration GOP article of the day from former Gov Jeb Bush. Jeb , though not endorsing Romney, seems friendly to him if reports are right. So Jeb in the Washington Post talks into the hurricane winds of this issue at Four ways Republicans can win Hispanics back.

Jeb Bush is very careful ( perhaps too careful) in not talking directly about some of the hot button issues around immigration reform that cause emotions to fly off the handle. But the message is clear. TONE and ideas matter.

Personally my fantasy scenario at this point is a brokered convention where the delegates rally behind Jeb as Prez. Of course that plan b is unlikley to happen , but it is what gets through this primary season so far.

Interview with Bishop Bruslewitz From Vocation Rich Diocese of Lincoln Nebraska

2012-01-26T12:23:00.003-06:00

National Catholic Register has interview up with Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of the Diocese of Lincoln Nebraska. See How Bishop Bruskewitz Built Up the Church on the PlainsRead more.

Bishop Bruslewitz is one of the Bishops as well as his Diocese that we conservatives point too and GO LOOK AT THIS. For a Diocese of 100,000 the fact he has ordained just for his Diocese 67 Priests in the last 20 years is something. The fact he has currently 38 seminarians also must show to even his harshest critics he is doing something right. I think Bishop Bruslewitz is not above criticism in some of administrative choices but still it appears things are going well there. With the caveat that all Dioceses have their problems I suppose.

What is interesting to me it is the Bishop is 76. Most Bishops seem to retire around the age of 75. In fact it is expected that they Bishops submit their voluntary resignation to the Pope at 75. It appears that has not been acted on here , and the article does not give us any hints he is retiring soon. Though the fact alone that the article appears today might fuel spectualtion that time is coming.

The successor of this Diocese will be largely watched. I also expect Bishop Bruslewitz will have some thoughts on that subject that he will no doubt convey.

Alaskan Airlines Stops Giving Out Prayer Cards

2012-01-26T11:27:00.003-06:00

I don't know much about Alaskan Airlines except they have one of the more interesting tail fins of any airline. I also did not know that untill up tp now they gave out prayer cards with lunch.

Saw this story yesterday and Get Religion fills in some details. See Airline: No prayer card for you

Good Interview with New Head of US Ordinariate - Father Jeffrey N. Steenson

2012-01-26T11:07:00.003-06:00

Catholic News Service yesterday ran a rather excellent and long interview with the new head of the ordinariate in the USA. See New questions, challenges confront Episcopal-turned-Catholic leader . On an interesting note this married "not quite a Bishop but close" new head of the ordinariate has two children with special needs.

Need 8th Grade Education To Get Obama State of the Union 11th Grade Education to Get A Pope Benedict Homily

2012-01-26T10:59:00.003-06:00

The 1964 blog has an interesting post up at How Much Schooling Do You Need to Best Understand a Papal Homily? .

I actually have to think under John Paul the II it might have been even higher. Benedict has an amazing ability to put diffifcult things in an understandable way I think

Franciscan Brother Does Not Like The March For Life

2012-01-24T14:35:00.004-06:00

What a very depressing column that is talked about in some detail at American Catholic. See Brother Dan Doesn’t Like the March for Life

Thankfully, many Catholic families, youth, religious, clergy, Bishops, Cardinals , and by his presence the Pope's Apostolic Nunico seems to disagree.

There are of course more positives than just the fight against abortion here. Christians of many faith coming together in a common cause. From the Catholic viewpoint these kids know they were not alone. They get to worship together and see our Catholic Patrimony too boot. Who knows what vocations ( secular or religious or family ) might have been sparked out of the 500,000 there.

Plus I noted for the Louisiana delegation they got a meeting and questions and answers session with their elected Representives. SEEMS LIKE A WIN WIN on many fronts.

Quit being a Debbie Downer Brother. I have no problem if you were not there and no one really cared if you were there or not.

National Park Service Flirting With Viewpoint Discrimination With Occupy Movement ?

2012-01-24T11:48:00.003-06:00

See So #Occupy does 'First Amendment sleeping?'

The National Park Service and the Interior department need to be very careful here. I keep hitting on the problems of future viewpoint discrimination in the future as various agencies deal with Occupy.

I can think of many groups that could have "occupation" of territory as part of its message . What about the Environmental groups? What about people that want to ride four wheelers out rest on Federal land? What about people that want the economic assets on National Park land and Forests to be used in a more aggressive manner. Will they be treated differently than Occupy in the future if they wish to have an "occupation " of territory? What if a couple of hundred people from the March of Life we had yesterday decided to have an occupation of the park at issue as a part of it's message. Would they be or will they be treated different in the future?

My issue is not with the merits of OCCUPY , but that in the future we don't see discrimination as to other viewpoints.

Why Was Rick Santorum Asked An “ do not resuscitate ” Question At Last Night's Debate ?

2012-01-24T11:04:00.005-06:00

I get the practical implication of DNR orders can be messy at times. But I am not sure what in the blue blazes it has to do with the Terri Schiavo case.

As Get Religion points out:

Speaking of doing it wrong, I endured the unbelievably boring NBC debate of the Republican candidates. If you’ve missed a few or most, I hope last night’s was one of them. Unless you like lots of questions about what the candidates themselves think of the horse race of running for office. (Newt Gingrich did discuss his unique views on divine judgment and one Fidel Castro.) One of the few substantive parts of the debate was a question about something that happened seven years ago. Here’s how the Huffington Post wrote it up:

Exhuming Terri Schiavo Adam Smith,

citing a 2005 case that gripped the state of Florida, and, eventually the nation and the federal government, reminds Rick Santorum about his support for the family of Terri Schiavo. Santorum said that the support he offered was sincere, but made sure to indicate that he “did not call for congressional intervention.” Rather, he said, “I called for judicial intervention on behalf of the parents,” who were from Pennsylvania, and thus, his constituents. Santorum said that his intention was simply to ensure that the judicial process worked as fairly as it could.

Asked if “do not resuscitate” orders were “immoral,” Santorum said, “No, I don’t think so.”

This is a very abbreviated and not entirely accurate summary but the question was “Do not resuscitate directives, do you think they’re immoral?” and the response from Santorum was “No, I don’t believe they’re immoral. I mean, I think that’s a decision that people should be able to make, and I have supported legislation in the past for them to make it.”

It was interesting that neither the journalist nor Santorum mentioned that the legislation Santorum sponsored regarding Schiavo received votes from every Democrat, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. However, the “do not resuscitate” question was supposed to be the follow-up to the Terri Schiavo question. And why? I have absolutely no idea. The question about Terri Schiavo’s life was about whether her husband should be permitted to starve and dehydrate her, not whether she should be resuscitated.

In fact, her husband had obtained a do-not-resuscitate order on her life 12 years prior. It is staggering to me that a reporter who had prepared such a dated question wouldn’t have some grasp of the most basic facts of the case. Particularly considering he’s at a local newspaper there (the Tampa Bay Times). Even before I experienced dehydration in 2010, I knew this (once you’ve experienced dehydration, if you survive it, you will not forget it — unbelievably painful).

Pope Benedict Calls Rare Vatican " Cabinet Meeting " On Procedure of Publication and Preparation of Documents

2012-01-24T10:42:00.005-06:00

An Italian Newspaper , Il Messaggero , is reporting that well there is some fire to some that controversial smoke we saw late last year. ( The translator has comments at the area he does the translation)

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has decided to call the heads of all the congregations and pontifical councils for a meeting to lay down the rules for the procedure they must all follow in the preparation and publication of documents.

The object is to reinforce the level of collaboration between the dicasteries and the Secretariat of State as the central organism that should serve as the conveyor belt for Vatican documents.

The letter calling the dicastery heads to the meeting on January 28 was received last week in a double envelop marked 'Riservato' ('top secret'). The meeting will be held in the Sala Bologna of the Apostolic Palace on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, patron of academics and librarians. Meetings like this - similar to cabinet meetings - are relatively rare and take place about once a year for tbe purpose of streamlining Vatican govenance.

Last year, the summit had to do with problems relating to religious orders and the exercise of authority in some of these institutes of consecrated life. The year before, it was on the 'pedophile priest' scandal. This time, it is to define the central role of the Secretariat of State in coordinating the activities of the various dicasteries, especially in the matter of publication of documents attributed to the Vatican.

It seems designed to avoid incidents like the episode last October when the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace issued a Note regarding the global economic and financial crisis that caused some controversy because of its recommendation for a world public authority to regulate world financial activities. Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said at the time that he had not seen the document before it was published.

The line expressed in the document was not that of the Secretariat of State, much less that of the Pope, such that L'Osservatore Romano was constrained to issue some days later a clarification on this issue. To make things worse, the document from Justice and Peace contradicted the encyclical Caritas in veritate, which could have been avoided if there had been more coordination.

John Quincy Adams Participates In Orthodox Baptism and His Thoughts On Fasting

2012-01-24T10:19:00.004-06:00

An American Eastern Orthodox history site has an interesting " Today in History post ' . See An Orthodox Baptism in the home of John Quincy Adams – and much more besides

I thought his comments on the practice of fasting was interesting too.

Catholic Seminarians from Archdiocese of New Orleans ( March For Life 2012 )

2012-01-23T16:37:00.003-06:00

While it's cold appears they are having a good time.

Also see The Rajun Cajuns of ULL and Others At the Lafayette March for Life 2012 ,Cabrini Catholic School Delegation From New Orleans at 2012 March For Life , Over A 1000 Louisiana Youth at the Geaux Forth Preaux Life Rally in D.C. ( March For Life 2012 ) , Youth From St Agnes Catholic Church Baton Rouge Louisiana at 2012 March For Life in D.C. ( PIC ) , and Pro Life March In Baton Rouge Louisiana ( Vid )

The Rajun Cajuns of ULL and Others At the Lafayette March for Life 2012

2012-01-23T12:52:00.005-06:00

Story and a lot of pics here.

Cabrini Catholic School Delegation From New Orleans at 2012 March For Life

2012-01-23T11:44:00.004-06:00

Here is the Cabrini School delegation from the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Also see Over A 1000 Louisiana Youth at the Geaux Forth Preaux Life Rally in D.C. ( March For Life 2012 ) , Youth From St Agnes Catholic Church Baton Rouge Louisiana at 2012 March For Life in D.C. ( PIC ) , and Pro Life March In Baton Rouge Louisiana ( Vid )

Over A 1000 Louisiana Youth at the Geaux Forth Preaux Life Rally in D.C. ( March For Life 2012 )

2012-01-23T11:33:00.003-06:00

Nice crowd in D.C. for this event hosted by the Louisiana Right to Right this morning in D.C. See Geaux Forth 2012 at March for Life

According to the person sending the pic above about a 1000 Louisiana youth. Not bad.

Youth From St Agnes Catholic Church Baton Rouge Louisiana at 2012 March For Life in D.C. ( PIC )

2012-01-23T11:24:00.003-06:00

Nice crowd from this Parish in D.C. today. Saint Agnes Youth, Baton Rouge, La

Big Day -Historic Episcopal Anglo Catholic Church In Maryland Enters the Catholic Ordinariate

2012-01-23T09:56:00.004-06:00

Busy Catholic weekend news wise to say the least. Part of that occurred in Maryland where a former Episcopal Church came over to the Catholic Church.

Pics here and more at A Historic Day at Mount Calvary-Baltimore . Looking at a couple other sites and when they update will hope to recall to link on this post.

Pro Life March In Baton Rouge Louisiana ( Vid )

2012-01-22T18:25:00.002-06:00

Its the big event this week. Praying for the Unnborn and their Moms and Dads

Pope Benedict and the Political Left Are Buddies Sometimes

2012-01-22T17:35:00.003-06:00

I want to hit part two ( see my previous post Are Pope Benedict's New Cardinals Too Roman ? ) very interesting article Finding the 'new' in Vatican news.

The Church is well Catholic which means Universial which basically means world wide. That sets up all sort of interesting alliances that might be foreign to the American Catholic experience. Allen notes this as to Pope Benedict's recent speech to Diplomats:

In his discussion of the defense of human life, Benedict XVI cited two developments that he found encouraging in the last year:
An October decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union banning the commercial patenting of embryonic stem cells.

A resolution adopted in the same month by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe condemning prenatal selection on the basis of sex.
The novelty is that in both cases, political support for these moves came from the left, not the right. The legal complaint that led to the ban on patenting embryos was brought by Greenpeace, while the parliamentary resolution on prenatal selection was introduced by a Swiss socialist and feminist named Doris Stump. Needless to say, these are not exactly the fellow travelers one ordinarily associates with the political agenda of Benedict XVI.

In effect, the pope's speech was a lesson in what Jeremy Rifkin has called "the new biopolitics," in which erstwhile enemies are suddenly on the same side.

In a growing number of biotech debates, including embryo patenting, genetic engineering and animal/human hybrids, the Catholic church and the pro-life movement find themselves allied with elements of the secular left, including environmentalists, feminists and anti-corporate activists. Their points of departure are obviously different, but they arrive at the same place. On the other side is a constellation of pro-business conservatives, the medical and scientific establishment, and libertarians opposed to any form of government regulation.

To some extent, those shifting sands remain hard to see because older bio-debates such as abortion and gay marriage still loom large. As the 21st century rolls on, however, the battle lines of the culture wars may be increasingly redefined, and the pope's speech offered proof of the point.
Now, there's something worth reporting.

Are Pope Benedict's New Cardinals Too Roman ?

2012-01-22T17:26:00.003-06:00

John Allen has a rather excellent article that is sort of a teaching Vatican 101 journalism. See Finding the 'new' in Vatican news. I am going to break this up into two posts because there is some interesting news here on some fronts.

There has much been said about the new Cardinals the Pope had picked. It has been noted this group is very Italian. The Vox Nova piece More Roman, less catholic? pretty much portrays the outlook of some. But as Allen points out looks can be deceiving

The new cardinals
The other big storyline was Pope Benedict XVI's Jan. 6 announcement of 22 new cardinals, including 18 under the age of 80 and hence eligible to elect the next pope. Given that the bulk are Vatican officials (10), Italians (seven) and Europeans (13), news reports styled it as a crop reinforcing the conservative, and curial, stranglehold on the College of Cardinals.

"More Roman, Less Catholic," was one pithy header for the story.

Again, even if true, where's the news? Yet in this case, it's less true than it may seem.

First of all, this isn't likely to be a celebrated consistory on the Catholic right. This isn't the crop of November 2010, which featured conservative lions such as Cardinals Raymond Burke of the United States and Malcolm Ranjith of Sri Lanka. Instead, this group is composed mostly of ecclesial equivalents of Mitt Romney, meaning center-right pragmatists who inspire little ideological fervor.

Consider Archbishop Dominik Duka of Prague, a Dominican and a biblical scholar. Duka reportedly has called the older Latin Mass "a Baroque artifact for Baroque times" and has signaled openness to in-vitro fertilization if the destruction of embryos could be avoided. Archbishop Giuseppe Betori of Florence has tried to heal the historical divide between the progressive and conservative camps among Italian laity, and for his trouble, a traditionalist commentator has labeled Betori a "paleo-liberal," charging that he's part of a subterranean bloc of cardinals opposed to Benedict XVI. There's also Brazilian Archbishop João Bráz de Aviz at the Congregation for Religious, a friend of the Focolare who's had a good relationship through the years with the liberation theology movement in Latin America.

These guys may not be anybody's idea of a flaming liberal, but they're also not hardcore conservatives.

Second, the assumption that naming a lot of Italians and Vatican officials automatically makes the College of Cardinals more "Roman," in the sense of more insular and less in touch with the wider world, is open to question.

Take, for instance, Italian Archbishops Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and Giuseppe Bertello, president of the government of the Vatican city-state. Both are veteran diplomats who have served all over the world. Filoni was assigned at various points to Sri Lanka, Iran, Brazil, Jordan, Iraq and the Philippines, in addition to spending 1992-2001 in Hong Kong heading up a study mission on China. Bertello has served in Sudan, Turkey, Venezuela, Mexico, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Rwanda.

To be clear, these weren't pleasure cruises. Filoni was in Baghdad in April 2003 when the U.S.-led invasion began, while Bertello was in Rwanda in 1994 at the height of the genocide. As most Western diplomats fled, Filoni and Bertello both stayed on the job, insisting they couldn't abandon the local church or the missionaries. Both won high marks for their humanitarian and diplomatic efforts, even if both were ultimately powerless to stop the bloodshed unfolding around them.

In the abstract, is it really the case that Italians and Vatican officials such as Filoni and Bertello are bound to have a more narrow outlook than, say, a residential prelate from North America or Africa who's rarely traveled outside his comfort zone?

If you want an actual newsflash from this consistory, Filoni and Bertello hint at the headline: "Triumph of the Diplomats."

Five of the 18 new cardinal-electors named by Benedict XVI -- notably, the first five names on the list -- come out of the Vatican diplomatic corps. In addition to Filoni and Bertello, the former diplomats include:

Portuguese Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro, now running a Vatican court, who's previously served in the Antilles, El Salvador, Honduras and South Africa;

Spanish Archbishop Santos Abril y Castelló, who replaced Cardinal Bernard Law as Archpriest of St. Mary Major after spending much of his career in Cameroon, Bolivia, Argentina and Slovenia; and

Italian Archbishop Antonio Maria Vegliò, currently heading the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Refugees, who's spent time in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Lebanon and Kuwait.

All this is striking in light of the traditional Vatican rivalry between the two heavyweight departments that tend to dominate the place, the Secretariat of State and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In oversimplified terms, it's a contrast between diplomats and theologians -- between outward-looking figures focused on geopolitics and dialogue, and more inward-looking figures concerned with Catholic identity and doctrinal fidelity. (In theory, of course, these two instincts can be complementary, so the tension is usually a question of where one puts the emphasis.)

The 2005 election of Benedict XVI, whose previous job had been running the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for a quarter-century, was seen as a big win for the theologians. When the new pope tapped a former aide from the doctrinal office, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, as his Secretary of State, it seemed to put a slammer on that conclusion.

In that light, the consistory of 2012 shapes up as a good day for the diplomats -- and, perhaps, for the cosmopolitan, dialogue-oriented and practical mentality long associated with the world's oldest diplomatic corps. How that plays out in practice remains to be seen, but it's at least a fresh question to ponder.

Can't Put Pope Benedict In A Box - The Neocatechumenal Way

2012-01-22T17:00:00.002-06:00

Its always interesting when public figures don't follow the established story line that others have fixed for them. We see that with Pope Benedict in a huge way in how he is portrayed.

The new Liturgy translation recently caused a avalanche of the Pre Vatican II bad ole Benedict articles variety. Therefore I took some interest that events of last week hardly did not merit a peep from the peanut gallery. See Benedict XVI embraces Neocatechumenals

The "Way" is a controversial group and to say the least some more Traditional Catholic folks are not pleased at this. Also it's clear that Benedict still might have some concerns. See Father Z's The Holy See did NOT approve NeoCat liturgical variants for Mass. However regardless we are seeing quite an openess from the Pontiff as to a Catholic movement that is well not very "traditional" .

None of this fits the Pope Benedict story line of course we see in the press. Which is one reason why most people will not read about it.

Catholic Democrats Versus Pope Benedict

2012-01-22T14:48:00.003-06:00

I note today that the group Catholic Democrats have issued a statement on the Obama Administration's Birth Control mandate.

They say in part:

As a Catholic, I am aware that some Catholics will hear this news with mixed or negative emotions, including many bishops. At the same time, we know Catholic women, and by extension their families, use oral contraception at the same rate as the overall population. For over half a century, since the issuance of Humanae Vitae, Catholics and Catholic theologians have taken issue with the Church's teaching on birth control.

Quite frankly that is not the point. We are dealing with a religious liberty issue here.Thankfully It seems some Progressive Christians get the bigger picture. See here , here , and here.

In their statement they also said:
Today, many will use this decision to further their own political agenda. The need for the hierarchy, theologians, and the laity to come together and discuss these important issues has never been more pressing. This is particularly true at a time when our nation, and our Church, needs informed public debate on a range of moral issues, especially the economy, growing poverty, and the continuing "scandal of glaring inequalities" (see Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 2009).

While it's wonderful they quote Pope Benedict I find it striking they failed to quote ANYTHING from his statement on this issue ( and have no doubt this was partly what he was speaking of ) the day before this horrific policy choice. See ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ON THEIR "AD LIMINA" VISIT

All political factions are guilty of using Government power to intrude on religious affairs. I have talked at length how over broad anti Shari laws and legislation that might make Christian charity to illegal aliens a CRIME are a huge problem. THe Obama birth control mandate is in the same category.

I end by quoting this article Professor Vischer on New Conscience Regs

A closely related development is a shifting view of professional licenses. Generally the state’s licensing authority has been viewed as a means by which to ensure a provider’s competence. As access to goods and services becomes an essential dimension of meaningful liberty (in progressives’ eyes), there is a stronger justification for viewing licensed providers as quasi-public officials, and the license becomes a means of ensuring that governmental objectives are met.
Progressives are quick to rally to the defense of a student forced to violate her conscience by participating in the pledge of allegiance. Few progressives have rallied to the defense of pharmacists required by state law to sell the morning-after pill. In my view, this is a progressive blind spot that stands in tension with the overarching progressive commitment to freedom from state coercion in matters comprising a person’s moral identity and integrity. Progressives have shown a steady shift in their willingness to accept incursions on conscience in order to further other socially desirable goals. Progressives may eventually come to regret this shift – state power unbounded by conscience protections is not necessarily captive to progressive causes – but so far there is very little indication of remorse. President Obama’s foray into the debate, though certainly not a disastrous turn of events, shows little indication that the partisan presumptions about conscience will change anytime soon.

James Carville For School Choice ?

2012-01-21T14:25:00.002-06:00

Now this is interesting. See National School Choice Week kicks off today in New Orleans

The School Choice movement appears to me to have some interesting bi partisan support. Will this factor in helping Governor Jindal 's education reform policy that has elements of that in it?

Gay Folks Are "Cheap Labor" For Catholic Church ?

2012-01-21T13:33:00.006-06:00

It is truly amazing how so many smart talented people can be well just so stupid at times. For some it might be they live in some echo chamber ,and in fact are not very sophisticated at all. Though that thought would never ever enter their mind.

Which brings us to a unintentionally hilarious article at the The New Civil Rights Movement - What’s The Real Reason The Catholic Church Wants To Keep Gays Oppressed?

Mr Scott Rose , besides being a novelist and freelance writer , is apparent need of an intervention. He reminds me of a friend of mine that was a birther. He became obsessed with the Obama birth certificate issue. Soon he was hanging out with people that were similarly obsessed , and I was hearing about the various scary "them" and "they" that were involved in a conspiracy. To him this was sane thinking. To the rest of us it was just BONKERS. Mr Rose appears to have fallen into that camp.

The first comment to the article about sums this up:

WOW as a gay Catholic I am totally offended with your stupidity. Half of your information is totally inaccurate.

I think that is being generous.

We must not ignore, furthermore, that the Church also is misogynist. Nuns get hidden away doing the worst of the dirty work and are never seen wearing fancy garments and drinking fine wines out of golden chalices..

What bad movie is this based on? Oh and let me tell as regular communicant of the Body and Blood of Christ I am not sure the "fancy wines" we use for the Consecration is going to be winning any awards.

How does the Church intimidate gay people into signing up for lifetimes of poverty, hard work and (ostensibly) celibacy? By socially stigmatizing gay human beings and driving young gay people to despair about their chances for satisfying adult domestic lives, the Church as good as tortures young gay people into signing up to be priests and nuns. The fall-off in the number of young people signing up for lifetimes slaving for the Church corresponds almost precisely to the gradually increasing social acceptance of gay human beings. The Church knows that and — at the expense of gay people’s basic human rights — is lashing out in attempts to protect its business interests and historical business plan.

So every Priest and Nun is gay? Also it appears the Church is saying now that people with strong inclinations of Same Sex attraction should not be ordained. Now that is actually quite controversial even among conservative traditional Catholics. I am not sure I quite agree with that either. But regardless that seems to be going against the Church's "business plan" that Mr Rose has dreamed up.

He also throws in Galileo and Hitler because you know what article about the Catholic Church on any subject would not be complete without them.

If you know Mr Rose INTERVENE. Encourage him to step back from the ledge ,and spend more time with his dogs and his boat.

If There Was No Religious Right Would More Jews Be Republican

2012-01-20T18:18:00.004-06:00

Color me skeptical of the premise that is developed here at Margaret Thatcher and the Jews that if not for the "religious right " more Jews would be voting GOP.

I think it is far more complicated and I thought this comment at the post shows the bigger cause :

I’d suggest a lot of it is geographic isolation and the resulting effect. Of America’s 6.5 million Jews, a full third are in the New York metro area, and another sixth are in the retiree zone of Miami and the affuent parts of L.A. These are all extremely left wing cities culturally.

From personal anecdote, I was raised in Cleveland’s Jewish community, my mother’s family is from Georgia’s, and my father’s is from LA and NY. Everyone on my mother’s side is some degree of Republican, with my maternal grandfather being somewhat right of Rush Limbaugh.

My father’s family is moderate to left. The Cleveland Jewish community appears reasonably divided politically–my conservative movement synagogue seemed about evenly divided. On the other hand, the Jewish girl I dated in college, from Livingston, NJ, had never met a Republican Jew before college, nor had she met a non-New York area Jew.

This matches my observation from working as an intern at the Republican Jewish Coalition, where support came disproportionally from non-New York Jewish communities. And now that I’m in New York, and looking for a non-Orthodox congregation to join, they all feature sermons positioned on the extreme left–I heard one lay member explain how a passage from Deuteronomy required us all to actively fight global warming.

In other words, Jews vote primarily on the left in the United States because Jews primarily live in insular, leftist communities.

I think there is a lot too that. Again it's not the only cause but it's a big one. People forget but there was considerable rural Jewry in the South at one time before the migration to the BIG CITIES. Further many decent sized town in the South had a sizable and influential Jewish population. Now this presence is a ghost of it's former self. For the Jews that remain I find a lot more diverse population as too political views than I sense elsewhere .

If this migration had not happened I expect the natural interplay of interacting with your neighbors would have have caused a more Bi Parisian ethos as to Jewish politics.

Rick Santorum Is Right and " Legal Insurrection " Is Wrong On Newt Gingrich Character Test

2012-01-20T13:04:00.003-06:00

To be clear I am not questioning Newt Gingrich and wife's Catholic life at this point. Life is a messy business and we are all sinners. Most of us fail to meet the mark and that is what Grace and the Church is for.

However I am not going where William A. Jacobson of the widely read Legal Insurrection blog is going. See Rick Santorum failed the debate character test

We can't wish this issue away and pretend it will not exist. It should alos be pointed out that Newt when he went for his effective Grand Slam last night in response did not defuse the issue. He basically said his wife was lying on the "open marriage" business. ( I mean what if a person thinks he is lying ? Does not make him a bad GOP person. ) .This is not going away. Further we cannot just ignore a ton of female voters in this race that might think WHOA what happened here. If you are a social conservative, like I am , then yes the baggage as to our potential standard banner counts.

As a Catholic ,I have lived through the Catholic abuse scandals. What the Catholic Church taught on marriage and related topics is as true today as it was 1900 years ago. However have no doubt that the weakness and mistakes of some in Church leadership are used to undermine that message. I get that everyday on issues from a to z. It does seem perhaps wise to consider how much of a liability that this might be

Now my personal opinion is I accept Newt's statements at face value. I understand how it is too fall and get back up. The problem is I am not sure I am in a position to tell others OH NO DON'T GO THERE. Even if I were it's not the reality we live in.

Mr Jacobson appears to have made a moral judgment on Rick Santorum's character at this point. That is fine. But the fact is people use all sorts of factors to make judgments. It's folly to ignore that . Also if Newt lied last night ( which I am not saying he did ) well is that fair game ? Already you can't escape it because Newt is putting people into positions of having to make judgments if he is telling the truth. That answer will differ to people no doubt. But a person's life goes into making that judgment.

Santorum is not failing any character test. He is telling the reality that we live in. That people are moral creatures and make moral judgments of acts and PERSONS everyday.

The War Is On - Obama Administration Mandates Birth Control For Catholic Institutions

2012-01-20T11:55:00.007-06:00

Color me naive but I thought the Obama administration would not go here. Guess I was wrong. I suspect the reaction will fast , furious and indeed prolonged.

As many people that have concerns over religious liberty have tried to argue this issue and now precedent goes beyond issues of Catholics and birth control. I will be putting up links all day.

PUTTING THIS AT THE TOP - Catholic Bishop Conference RESPONDS

Whispers has two article at Exemption, Denied

Catholic Vote has Obama Admin Decides to Require Religious Institutions to Cover Free Contraception

A site to watch today Mirrors of Justice has their first post up at Obama holds firm on contraceptive coverage mandate

From a voice on the left that is thrilled with this Religious Dispatches has Obama Administration Rules Religious Institutions Must Comply with Contraception Mandate ( Note Catholics For Choice is quoted here.

A Progressive Catholic voice of some note is not pleased. We also learn that Obama personally called up Archbishop ( soon to be Cardinal) Dolan and informed here of their decision. See White House refuses to expand conscience exemption . He minces no words here and again take note this is from a Obama policy friendly person:

To say that news of the decision by President Obama not to expand the conscience exemption for church-affiliated institutions who do not wish to cover birth control is a disaster would be a gross understatement. I'll explain my thoughts on the subject in a subsequent post.

But one sentence in the statement from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stands out: “The administration remains fully committed to its partnerships with faith-based organizations, which promote healthy communities and serve the common good.”

What can those words “fully committed” possibly mean? They have punched Sr. Carol Keehan and Fr. Jenkins and many other Catholics who have taken shots for this Administration in the nose. They have jumped over the First Amendment to coerce religious organizations to do something we find morally objectionable. They have given people who loved the Affordable Care Act reason for pause, great pause. They have given the Republicans a huge battering ram with which to beat swing voting Catholics over the head.

I say “they,” but the full responsibility for this decision rests with the President. NCR has learned that the President called Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. bishops' conference, this morning to tell him the news. Wouldn’t you have liked to be on an extension to listen in on that conversation. The president looked Dolan in the eye in November and said he would be pleased with his decision. I am guessing that Dolan is not pleased. He is not alone. ...

Not buying this optimism from the The Beckett Fund and I urge non Legal folks to take with a grain of salt this :“The administration has seen the writing on the wall. They know that this mandate cannot survive constitutional scrutiny any more than their ‘extreme’ position in Hosanna-Tabor did. So the administration is trying to delay the inevitable judgment day,” Hmmm. There will no doubt be a legal battle ,but I might suggest this is not the slam dunk the Beckett Fund think it is. Direct political challenge I feel is going to have to be relied on here.

What makes this bad is this is now a FEDERAL MANDATE. Some Catholic Institutions have had to operate under similar LOCAL laws. Those I believed have NOT found to be un constitutional in all regards. Now just because something might be Constitutional does not make it good policy. But regardless I am wary that a legal challenge here has a preordained result.

Many more updates later on throughout the day.

New Orleans Saints Owners To Get A Significant Papal Honor

2012-01-20T11:10:00.003-06:00

There is an amsuing story about that photo from not too long ago. Mr Benson wanted to compare rings with the POPE and is showing him his Superbowl Ring.

Anyway a significant honor is being given to Tom Benson and his wife. See Tom and Gayle Benson to receive high papal honors

A nice honor that is well deserved here. None of this is fake with Benson and his wife and their faith is important to them. I just hope the new regime of Saint's family members keep up their support of the Church in the future.

Some Common Sense On Catholic Blogs and Canon Law

2012-01-19T17:18:00.003-06:00

I have mentioned that the Louisiana Bishops ( or perhaps their Lawyers) took notice of my blog once. I had each of the Diocese's Crest on the side bar.

There was a effort to get that Crest ( really a heraldic sheild ) copyrighted and for use just for their Diocese so as to maintain some control. So Bishop Duca called me up explained the problem very nicely and I said not problem they are gone.

No one asked me to to take the Catholic off the OPINIONATED :)

Recent developments have brought out the issue of people, groups, etc using the word Catholic. Canon Lawyer Ed Peters is quoted here about the reality of this. DON'T Panic.

See Ed Peters brings his customary sanity…

Is the Catholic Church Ignoring English Speaking Latinos ?

2012-01-19T14:28:00.003-06:00

This is from a very Evangelical angle but of course one wonders if this possible dynamic is happening in Catholic Circles.

There has been some thought expressed to me a Priest or two that perhaps the Diocesan Hispanic Ministry offices we see around the country might not be interested in this dynamic enough.

For instance why put resources into English speaking classes and trying to integrate Spanish speaking Catholic immigrants into the local worship community more. Let's just have a Spanish Mass and thus we can keep out grants and more reason for our existence.

Not saying that is WIDESPREAD but I have heard that complaint before from some that are close to the situation.

I am not against Spanish Masses heavens no. But I think this article brings up a good point. The question is does the Catholic Church at times have the same problem perhaps in some Dioceses?

Possible Schism Unfolding In Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Today

2012-01-19T13:56:00.002-06:00

Well not exactly though I think this move is significant. See Most at Presbyterian meeting unlikely to leave denomination and New Presbyterian denomination named byPeter Smith of the The Courier-Journal .

It appears to me this might be similar to some Traditional structures in the Anglican Communion that have not broken off but have some sort of support structure.

In the back ground of all this is perhaps Church Property law concerns too. Something we see the Presbyterian Church popping up in more and more in what was mostly a Episcopal Church matter.

Pope Benedict Talks At Length On Threats To Religious Liberty In the USA

2012-01-19T12:10:00.002-06:00

I was a tad suprised he hit the subject so strong today. See the full text here at ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ON THEIR "AD LIMINA" VISIT

Will Louisiana Catholic Bishops Push Jindal 's Education Reform Package to Victory ?

2012-01-18T19:39:00.005-06:00

The Governor has started to unveil plans for Education Reform that are revolutionary for Education in Louisiana. No matter if you think this revolution is a good or bad things. This is right up there with Huey Long making Textbooks free in big moments in Louisiana education history.

See a few tidbits here and here.

In the background of all this is the Louisiana Catholic Bishops. If this is any indication I suspect they will be quite open for this plan for obvious reasons.

FIRST TO BE CLEAR I HAVE NO INSIDE INFO ON THIS.

The question is how proactive will the Bishops be in this regard. Again this is touchy business. Lots of Catholics work in the public schools of course. However I suspect they might go out for this plan. That is quite an asset for Jindal.

Each Bishop will have varying degrees of influence with perhaps Bishop Duca of the Diocese of Shreveport having the least since he has the less Catholic schools by far. However from the Diocese of Alexandria the influence will grow literally by the miles as we head South.

One big upside to this plan is it will help make sure Catholic education is not just the domain of the well off. A voucher system would tend to help Catholic education ) and maybe expand it in areas of the not well off.

My bet is Jindal has had conversation already with key Catholic education leaders in the Dioceses of Lake Charles, Lafayette, Houma Thibodeaux Baton Rouge and the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

There are of course some dangers. A expanded Charter school system might be seen as a threat to some schools. However I expect the Bishop will be confident that their school could hold their own against that.

Should be fun watching.

Catholic Gay Group Dignity Still Upset Over Words Pope Benedict Did Not Say

2012-01-17T20:01:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago I was talking to with a person that helps produce a rather good Catholic TV show about Cardinal George of Chicago's comments connecting the anti Catholicism of the KKK and some in the Gay rights movement.

This person asked me if I thought this was helpful rhetoric in talking with our Catholic brothers and sisters that have degrees of same sex attraction. To be more precise as she put it in the LGBT community.

I responded that while I knew what he was getting at I would have offered another example. However one subject I did not broach was what about the not helpful rhetoric coming out of spokespeople for Catholic LGBT.

It appears one group that is not helpful in their own rhetoric is among many Dignity.

Despite the fact that the Pope's recent speech to the Diplomatic Corp has been clarified , see Gay marriage a threat to journalism’s future at Get Religion and Yes the pope is Catholic. But he didn't say gay marriage threatens humanity via the UK Guardian , from some rather horrific reporting it appears many are ignoring the facts. In fact at this late date they are doubling down.

One of those people is a columnist at the Huff Post. See Gay Catholic Group Responds to Pope's Homophobic Comments (AUDIO) where despite the actual TEXT and the above links she does not seem to care. As you can see DIGNITY USA, which is the main Catholic LGBT Advocacy group we see in the media, might be doubling down too.

I say might because its not clear when this conversation happened or how "immediate it was" . The text of the Pope's speech was pretty much up in ENGLISH when the misleading reports came out. Someone should have checked them. Regardless there was press afterwards that I saw linked (such as the ones above) that pretty much showed this was a made up story.

The fact remain that Dignity should have checked the text and if they are still putting words in the Pope's mouth should be called out on it. The fact that the DIGNITY USA has this highlighted on their web page today shows at the very least they don't care.

WORDS matter and until we get that basic premise down there shall be little hope of a civil conversation. That even applies to people that have Masters in Theology from Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass.

Let's now review again the supposed homophobic remarks of the Pope out of this huge address.

In addition to a clear goal, that of leading young people to a full knowledge of reality and thus of truth, education needs settings. Among these, pride of place goes to the family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman. This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself. The family unit is fundamental for the educational process and for the development both of individuals and States; hence there is a need for policies which promote the family and aid social cohesion and dialogue. It is in the family that we become open to the world and to life and, as I pointed out during my visit to Croatia, “openness to life is a sign of openness to the future”.[3] In this context of openness to life, I note with satisfaction the recent sentence of the Court of Justice of the European Union forbidding patenting processes relative to human embryonic stem cells, as well as the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe condemning prenatal selection on the basis of sex.

Where is the word gay?

I must wonder is it really shocking that the Pope is saying that the Fundamental cell of society is a marriage between a man and a woman. In fact I have to think even if one thinks gay marriage is A OK you know we still got to reproduce. As one lesbian comedian put it there are few scriptures on gay stuff but over 500 dealing with Heterosexual stuff. It does not mean God loves heterosexuals less but heterosexual sex and unions is a messy business.

The Pope here in fact goes into and links pro life concerns. NO GAY MENTIONED.

There is always a danger when the Pope talks that Western Folks often see their concerns ONLY mentioned.

I have no doubt the Pope does not think gay marriage is a great idea but he also sees other threats.

No doubt this list could include to name a few:
Lax Divorce laws.
Immigration laws that tear apart families .
Laws regarding porn.
Policies that do not support the economic lives of families.
Civil Union Laws that might affect the Institution of marriage.
Laws that don't encourage the procreation aspect of marriage ( UMM China )

The list could go on and on becausethe Church HAS SPOKE ON THESE AND MORE. Not everything involves gay people.

I don't think I will change many people's mind in the pro gay marriage camp ,and I suspect they will not change mine. But beyond that Intelligent adults have to act in a responsible manner as to this. Civic dialogue demands this. That means people of good will no matter than position have to demand some good ground rules. Making up words and putting them in the mouth of the Pope seems to violate one.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Refuses Kidney Transplant Because Child Has Mental Retardation ( Updated )

2012-01-17T12:46:00.005-06:00

WOW I had not idea this was even legal in the United States to refuse on this basis. See from the side wolfhirschhorn.org this parents post Brick Walls

THe Anchroess is hopping mad over at her post . See You love your kid? Too bad!

Louisiana blogger from New Orleans Bird on A Street has some personal thoughts on this. She is not happy either.

Vatican Radio Gives Shout Out To Methodist and Wesleyan Music

2012-01-17T11:41:00.004-06:00

See The Wesleys : hymns to evangelise... via Vatican Radio. Look forward to listening to this short program when I get home.

Was There A Conspiracy To Edit Lilith Out Of The Bible ?

2012-01-17T11:07:00.004-06:00

This is what happens when the History Channel is a prime Catechist for Kids on their faith.

The History Channel with their shows on early Christianity is not the only culprit. But they like others who uncritically put out a "expert" that talks things like the Lilith myth are part of the big picture.

Mark Shea has a good piece up on this at the National Catholic Register. See Was Lilith Edited out of the Bible?

Alice Linsley over at Just Genesis also makes good points here at the The Myth of Lilith . As she points out the Lilith Myth would be foreign to the ancestors of Abraham ( The Horite Priesthood ?) from which both he Jewish and Christian Faith sprung in part. Nor does it appear we see a similar Myth in the other African Creation stories.

Former Louisiana State Senate President Sammy Nunez - RIP

2012-01-17T10:47:00.003-06:00

A Louisiana politician of some significance has passed on. See Former La. Senate President Sammy Nunez dies . Here is a copy of his Obit today that appears to be running in many State wide papers .

Actor Mark Wahlberg discusses his Catholic faith with CNN 's Piers Morgan ( Video)

2012-01-17T09:49:00.002-06:00

I think I discussed him last week. Where here he is again. Nice short vid here.

Did A Kuwaiti Prince Convert To Christianity ?

2012-01-17T09:36:00.003-06:00

I saw a few days ago a couple of brief mentions on this on the twitter regarding the reports of a member of the Royal Family that in a recording that was broadcast said he had converted to Christianity.

There is a lot of mystery still involved with this. Vatican Insider has Kuwait: The prince's mysterious conversion

Salesian Father Sergio Pellini To Head Vatican Press Office and Newspaper

2012-01-17T09:27:00.002-06:00

I always take an interest in these things since I think there can be room for improvement here.Vatican Insider has Pellini at the helm of the Vatican Press and L’Osservatore Romano newspaper

Canadian Doctor Says Don't Tell Sex Of Unborn Child Early On - Immigrants and Abortion

2012-01-16T14:18:00.003-06:00

This is troubling what is happening in some immigrant communties. See Keep baby's sex secret to prevent gender-based abortions, doc says

Archbishop Dolan Talks About Animal Rutting At Sunday Mass AKA Modern Day Sex In America

2012-01-16T12:54:00.003-06:00

Well I am going to keep an eye out on this page when that video is uploaded.

Aggie Catholic has Archbishop Dolan's Homily on Sex Creates a Buzz

How Martin Luther King Jr Became Martin Luther ( Lutheran Shout Out )

2012-01-16T12:28:00.003-06:00

Get Religion has post looking at some of the Martin Luther King Jr coverage today. See Martin Luther and Dr. King

They reference this Forbes Piece that references something I did not know. See Martin Luther King Jr.: The German Connection and How He Got His Name

On Monday,January 16th, this country celebrates the memory and legacy of the late Civil Rights activist, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Both Dr. King and his father are celebrated figures in the United States, but most people do not know the connection between the two Baptist ministers from the American South and the medieval German monk whose name they bear.

As an adult, Martin Luther King Sr., whose given name was Michael King, chose the name Martin Luther for himself and for his young son after visiting the region of eastern Germany where Martin Luther, the Father of the Reformation, was born, lived and worked, according to LutherCountry, an umbrella title for two neighboring German states, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.

The region is celebrating the LutherDecade, the 10-year count-down to 2017 and the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
Back in the 1934, Martin Luther King Sr. was one of 10 Baptist ministers who traveled first to the Holy Land and then to Germany. It was on this trip that the senior King “discovered” Martin Luther, and upon returning, gradually changed both his name and his then five-year old son’s, the group said.....

New York Times Guest Op Ed on Words of Caution to Priest's Wives Torn Apart

2012-01-16T12:05:00.005-06:00

Oh and this badly done piece in the New York Times came from a Professor at the University of Louisiana Lafayette !!!

I read this piece at the Times last week and wondered what the point was of the Times putting it in the paper.

It's pretty much ripped apart here at And the leading contender for Clueless, Oafish Op-Ed of 2012...

There seems among some Catholics a need to talk about discipline of celibacy as to the Priesthood non stop which I don't get.

You Put the Ass In Mass - Happy Feast of the Ass

2012-01-14T15:57:00.004-06:00

I know you are going have you lost your mind!!! No and let the Ole Miss Catholics at Southern Fried Catholicism explain at Happy Festum Asinorum

Tip of the hat to Father Z

Small Texas Town Stripped of It's Dr Pepper Soft Drink Persona

2012-01-14T10:29:00.004-06:00

Wow this a rather depressing article how a small Texas Town could be affected and have a lot of it's ID affected by a legal settlement.

See In Dublin, demise of Dr Pepper like a death

Even Vatican Officials Talking About Tim Tebow ( Good Article )

2012-01-14T08:43:00.003-06:00

MAKE IT STOP!! WHODAT !! :)

See Vatican Voice Comments on 'Tebow-mania' . It is actually a very good article. I like this part ( the person the Priest is referencing must be now Mississippi State Head Coach Dan Mullen ) :

......ZENIT: Do you see Tim Tebow's public expression of faith as a positive or negative phenomenon? Certainly it is drawing a lot of attention to Christ, in one form or another ...
Father Lixey: The hype over Tim Tebow is certainly an interesting phenomenon in an ever more secularized world. I consider it something very positive. Even at the college level, while quarterback for the Florida Gators during the 2009 Bowl Championship Series title contest, Tebow wrote "John 3:16" on his eye black. The Palm Beach Post reported that 92 million people Googled the verse following the game ... impressive!

But, it is not the mere public expression of faith -- as Tebow drops a knee to give thanks after a touchdown, or prays with other players who include teammates and opponents after the game -- that is attracting people; it is his entire person.
I had the chance to speak with the offensive coordinator who coached Tim at the Florida Gators. He said he was a very unique player who was spiritually on another stratosphere with respect to the rest of the team. Yet, Tim was respected by his teammates because he was genuine. And this is the point I would like to touch on. As one reporter noted (Chuck Klosterman, Dec. 6, 2011): "This, I think, is what makes Tebow so maddening to those who hate him: He refuses to say anything that would validate the suspicion that he's fake (or naïve or self-righteous or dumb)." ..

Read it all.

Pope Fails To Reference China In Major Address as Bishops and Priests Languish In Jail

2012-01-14T08:38:00.003-06:00

How sad this is all is to the Body of Christ. See Chinese priests and bishops ‘forgotten’ in jail via Vatican Insider

Mean Eastern Orthodox Priest Looks At Jefferson Bethke 's Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus Video

2012-01-13T17:51:00.006-06:00

Yep talking about the Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus video again. :)

It appears this Eastern Orthodox Priest dared to critique the vid and boy were people upset about that in the comment section. He has a huge back and forth in the comments that is worth the read. See Why I Love (True) Religion Because I Love Jesus from Roads From Emmaus.

As the Priest keeps trying to point out this " young man " put this out to make a point. He also points out in one of his comments this is not just some dude swapping Jesus poetry at the local Coffee house:

I’m honestly fascinated by the emerging theme of the detractors here, that Mr. Bethke is a “kid” or a “young man” who’s just pouring his heart out and can’t be held to any sort of theological standards. As I’ve written in several comments, this man is a professional, and I have no doubt whatsoever that this is what he does for a living. His Facebook page even includes information on how to book him as a speaker.

That his professional “underwear” (so to speak) is so easily ignored is an indication that he’s quite good at what he does, namely, providing emotional content that plays into the existing theological prejudices of his viewers. It’s a testament to his showmanship that such a well-produced and slickly edited video gives not the impression of a sales pitch for his speaking career, but rather simply a direct and honest sentiment.

Now, I have no doubt that he is indeed sincere. It’s probably why this video has become so popular, because it’s hard (though not impossible) to fake sincerity. Nevertheless, this video represents a carefully crafted, designed, produced piece of work, complete with an emotionally stirring soundtrack.

All that aside, though, this man is making theological claims. If we’re not supposed to take his poetry seriously in a theological way, then one must ask why he chose such blatantly theological themes and returned to them with such frequency. It is poetry, yes, but he is also making a point. He hates religion, and he believes Jesus does, too. And I say that’s bunk (well, the second part; I’ll grant that he hates religion).

All that said, I didn’t put forth a particular “position” in this post. Its purpose was critique, not to set forth a particular argument. So there is nothing for me to defend.

As for whether a nerve has been touched, I was actually asked to write this by someone who wanted to know my thoughts. What’s really surprising to me is that this post has received more than 4,000 hits in the space of just six hours. So clearly there are some other “nerves” being touched, as well.

Nerves are, after all, what give us the ability to see.

The Real Troubling Thing About Bain and Romney: Was Not Prepared to Respond

2012-01-13T14:03:00.002-06:00

I agree 110% with this Contentions piece Romney Unprepared for Bain Attack.

I also agree that for the reasons stated this might be a blessing in disguise for Romney that it is happening at this time. However with one of the best campaign staffs that money can buy what else is he unprepared for? It seems like this is something that should have a canned response just waiting?

My Catholic Contribution On Tim Tebow Today

2012-01-13T13:09:00.003-06:00

Since he is the topic EVERYWHERE today even on Catholic blogs, newspapers , etc :)

Via Father Z

Green Bay Packers A Huge Asset To Local Catholic Church

2012-01-13T10:31:00.004-06:00

Matt Flynn is I believe not Catholic and not connected to this story. But this story gives me a reason to at least post the pic since he is a Packer.. Geaux Tigers.

This is a pretty interesting article how various parts of the Catholic Church are helped by the Green Bay Packers Football team. See Church groups cheer for Packers

I wonder if various Catholic groups in the Archdiocse of New Orleans have the same realtionship with the SAINTS.

More Catholic Push Back on I Hate Religion But Love Jesus VID

2012-01-13T10:08:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I commented on that video that has gone viral and all the rage at Catholics Look At the Why I Hate Religion , But Love Jesus Video . I gave a few observations of mine own , but the main purpose of that link was to provide what I though were two of the best Catholics posts on the subject. They struck a balance between what was right and was very wrong about it.

That being said there has been some more push back. Elizabeth Esther has a good post that also serves a "balance" in primarily focusing on what IS REALLY wrong about it. See Why hating religion but loving Jesus is impossible

I happen to think "I hate Religion but Love Jesus" is not such a far distant cousin from " I am not Religious but Spiritual" which has the same rather distressing results in some ways.

Again as the first links I provided, he has a point. But as Elizabeth sort of points out hey look in the mirror.

Former Archbishop of New Orleans Alfred Hughes Gives Political Advice At Bobby Jindal Inauguration

2012-01-13T07:46:00.004-06:00

Archbishop Hughes , former Bishop of Baton Rouge and former Archbishop of New Orleans delivered some remarks at the inaugural interfaith prayer service for Jindal and other elected officials. Abita Deacon has At the Jindal inauguration Archbishop Hughes delivers a great message Archbishop Urges Politicians to Shun Polarizing Politics .

I am rather doubtful I will be able to find a full text of his remarks but I will give it a try later today. If I find them I will post it.

Dateline New York : Do Judges Have To Conduct Gay Marriages ? - Judicial Ethics (Updated)

2012-01-13T07:18:00.005-06:00

Update- Link corrected below.

Mirrors of Justice links a Judicial Ethics Opinion that is published in the New York Law Journal. See their link at Can a Judge Refuse to Conduct a Gay Marriage? . I am hoping some discussion happens in the comment section.

I had this discussion with a Judge not too long ago relating to a controversy dealing with Justice of the Peace in Louisiana who did not do interracial weddings.

This Judge , who is a devout Christian, indicated to me that "the Wedding Business" would be shut down in his/ her office if it became a issue.

At first glance especially under New York Law , I think the committee answer to the questions it decided to answer are largely correct. That is in reality WEDDINGS are not the prime business of the Judicial branch and thus we see some options it is giving the Judge perhaps.

The issue raised here will happen more and more.

I am hoping some other legal blogs pick this Judicial opinion up today and discuss it too

The Pope Makes A Cardinal From the Church the Apostle Thomas Founded - India's Syrian-Malabar Church

2012-01-13T07:01:00.005-06:00

In the list of Cardinals the Pope announceed he was about to make there was an interesting name and community represented. That is Indian Mar George Alencherry, the spiritual leader of the Syrian-Malabar Church. The Malabar what ?

Yes this community that was first preached to by St Thomas the Apostle . The community that St Francis Xavier when he got off the boat said WOW there are Catholics in India or something to that affect.

Vatican Insider has a good article on this Church. See India’s Syro-Malabar community: borderline Christians . It also remarks on the role this Church is increasingly having in the very Islamic Middle East and a related jurisdiction issue coming up.

The Pope Watches the Circus, Sees Crocodiles, and Talks the Eucharist - Jan 11 2012 Wednesday Audience Full Text

2012-01-13T06:32:00.005-06:00

The Circus was In Town

Chootem!!

Been a while since I published and linked the full text of a Wednesday Audience. The one this past Wednesday has a very Eucharistic theme. The full English Text should be up at that Vatian link very soon.

Till then a full translation is located on this page near the top of the page at the
The Eucharist: 'Supreme prayer of Christ's Church'

A note on that Gator pic or to be more specific crocodile. The man pictured in the Pic above and others were representatives from the zoological garden of the city of Rome, which is celebrating its hundredth anniversary. That animal species of Cuban crocodile, which survives only in a tiny portion of protected wetland in Cuba. After being returned to health it will be returned to Cuba which by the way the Pope is going to this year.

Catholics Look At the Why I Hate Religion , But Love Jesus Video

2012-01-12T17:15:00.008-06:00

This video has hit the the net and gone viral in a big way. It is very well done. It is also from the Catholic viewpoint very right and very wrong.

Two excellent Catholic sites hit on the right and wrong of the You Tube Vid. See from Catholic Aggies Does Jesus Hate Religion? Should You? after that see from Bad Catholic Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus — The Smackdown. As that last link points out so well it appears he talking Catholics here in a few verses.

Let me add a few thoughts of my own that are not nearly as good as the ones above .. Part of the Poem/Song:

Religion might preach grace, but another thing they practiceTend to ridicule God's people, they did it to John The Baptist
They can't fix their problems, and so they just mask it
Not realizing religions like spraying perfume on a casket

See the problem with religion, is it never gets to the coreIt's just behavior modification, like a long list of chores
Like lets dress up the outside make look nice and neat
But it's funny that's what they use to do to mummies
While the corps rots underneath.

I think there is a danger just throwing that "they" around so lightly . When this young man goes through some more life, have some failures, he might be seeing more of himself in that "they". God I know I have.

The Church is a messy community full of Saints and lot more struggling sinners. One danger I see in the approach above is two fold beyond perhaps not having a very good theology ( is theology bad) of Church.

First , its quite easy to not to havehave personal compassion for that struggle that you like and discriminate against those in "Religion "AKA organized Christianity " . I am not sure it's quite right to throw out the hypocrite charge to one and not the other. When in fact they are reality doing the same things.

Second, I suspect he has some concept of Church. But I also suspect the visible Church he might envision is also one where one can washes one's hands of it when it gets a little bit too messy. I am not sure that is a good thing.

Last what is this "It's just behavior modification, like a long list of chores". ( See above link on his strange verse on Divorce). The I hate religion but love Jesus is not new in evangelical circles. Let's see where this has got us ( and needless to say Catholics have been affected too)

I thought about this recent post from THE CORNER by David French when this young man was talking about chores and rules etc.

I’m coming a bit late to this piece, but the October 2011 issue of Relevant magazine contains a must-read article for those who see the need for a rather profound cultural course correction. It turns out that 80 percent of unmarried evangelicals (18 to 29) are sexually active. Yes, 80 percent. For all unmarried young adults the total is 88 percent. Oh, and even as 80 percent of young unmarried evangelicals are sexually active, 76 percent of evangelicals still believe sex outside of marriage is wrong. Even worse, 65 percent of women who abort their children identify as Catholic or Protestant Christian — that’s 650,000 Christian abortions per year.

The article discusses the common causes. Of course our pop culture celebrates sex and porn is ubiquitous. Additionally, there’s the obligatory shot at the church being squeamish in talking about sex (literally every church I’R_8">vespan> ever attended talked frankly about sex while chiding Christians for being reluctant to talk about it). Most insightful, however, is the observation that even as the evangelical church has held theologically – though not morally — to biblical sexual standards, it has fallen in lockstep behind the larger cultural trend of delayed marriage. It’s one kind of challenge to wait until you’re 18. It’s another challenge entirely to wait until you’re 28.
This is of a piece with the larger American evangelical culture, which — despite the “Jesusland” stigma of the secular Left — is only slightly countercultural. Christians have long understood a basic truth that they are to be “in, but not of” the world, but what does it mean to remain “in” a world that lurches ever-further from core biblical standards? If the practical result is a church that forever remains only slightly countercultural, then the church’s standards will simply act as trailing-edge indicators of cultural change.

Once you travel outside the ranks of the hard-core activists (a tiny segment of the Christian public), you will find a community possessed with an overwhelming desire to be liked: people who are very, very tired of negative perceptions of Christians and eager to change minds. But there’s certainly ground between the grim defiance of the few and the puppy-dog eagerness of the many.

In a previous post I talked about reframing our marriage debate as a “marriage restoration” movement, but we can’t talk about marriage without linking it to the larger sexual/moral ethic of Christendom. Otherwise we will fast approach a point where the distinction between Christian and non-Christian conduct will be so vanishingly small that one could wonder if we maintained any distinct witness to our neighbors and our nation.

Now I doubt this young man is thrilled with the above or at least I will assume he is not. But the CHURCH even in scripture ( that religion thing) played a role in support and reproof. And yes it had rules ( when combined with Grace and done by Faith) did help in some behavior modification. Which was tied to the Gospel message. The dirty little secret for our all "rules" we have been lax about the enforcement of them or holding as a standard because so many are counter cultural. The Church has failed but I am not sure for the reason this young man is thinking of perhaps. Again as Pope Benedict says we are an Affirmative Church and as Archsbishop Dolan says we are much more a Church of no. But still I am not sure the answer is to jettison all the chores.

He makes a lot of good points. But in the end it is that tiresome "EITHER OR" dynamic I think.

What Do Some Anti Catholic Gay Activists and American Evangelical Mark Driscoll Have In Common ?

2012-01-12T15:13:00.005-06:00

They both seems in the heat of an argument think VESTMENTS are "dresses".

You Know the blog post , the tweet , the entry on the facebook page that says : " Yeah Pope Benedict talking about gay marriage when he is wearing a dress. "

Sigh. Do people know anything about Western Patrimony or indeed anything about Liturgical patrimony.

Well It appears America's leading Evangelical Calvinist has thrown a shot at the Church of England as to me in "dresses".

Actually in the Church of England ,we got the ROBES Versus Vestment going on all at the same time which he might be confusing. See here on that that if Driscoll just called Calvin a sissy and related matters.

The Evangelical Driscoll, the to much caffeinated gay activist on the Internet , and even Maureen Dowd of the New York Times.who said

I, too, rationalized as men in dresses allowed our religious kingdom to decay and to cling to outdated misogynistic rituals, blind to the benefits of welcoming women’s brains, talents and hearts into their ancient fraternity.

All seem to think these things ( that looks like nothing that Liz Claiborne sells) are dresses.

They never looked like a dress to me and I rarely see women wearing anything like it. I just don't get it.

Rick Santorum and Pope Benedict Talking Personal Relationship With Jesus

2012-01-12T13:18:00.010-06:00

I saw this the other day Catholic Santorum's Rise Is Evangelical Progress: Noah Feldman

Once the caucus votes were cast, Santorum again spoke in strikingly evangelical terms. In ..explaining how he had found the strength to conduct his 99-county campaign, he said that "when I was getting up in the morning to take on that challenge, I've required a strength from another particular friendship, one that is sacred." There is nothing un-Catholic in this, of course. But the friendship of a personal savior who walks beside you as you perform your daily tasks is a staple of American evangelicalism of the Tim Tebow variety -- not the austere, rational religion of Pope Benedict XVI...

Well I am not sure of that. As to Tim Tebow theology on the subject , I am not sure we know enough about his view.

However ; it does seem the Church of novenas, saints for every cause to intercede and pray for us, daily devotions, etc has not been actually abolished by Pope Benedict.

Now there are interesting valid discussions about Santorum recently ,and if he is really more "Catholic" or more Evangelical in world outlooks.

However besides world outlook ,I really wonder if some are still not used to the language.

A language that has again come much more common place in Catholic talk from the Charismatic renewal, to the neo - catechumenal movement , to a much more Pentecostal Charismatic outlook of immigrant Catholics from African and Latin American.

Again it's not all language by any means in these discussions. However I think it's playing a role. Of course "having a personal relationship with Jesus" or "accepting Christ as Lord and Savior" can be still mean different things in a a Catholic versus evangelical context at times.

However often they can be very much like alike. We see this in a particular depressing way when this relationships does not seem to involve a lot of "obeying" all those rules of "religion" AKA Scripture , Tradition etc .

I think Catholic's have always had this language but in the United States it had to be reclaimed a tad.

First a few words from some recent Popes and a relationship with Jesus.

The task which awaits you—the new evangelization—demands that you present, with fresh enthusiasm and new methods, the eternal and unchanging content of the heritage of the Christian faith. As you well know it is not a matter of merely passing on a doctrine, but rather of a personal and profound meeting with the Saviour. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Commissioning Families, Neo-Catechumenal Way. 1991.

Sometimes even Catholics have lost or never had the chance to experience Christ personally: not Christ as a mere ‘paradigm’ or ‘value’, but as the living Lord, ‘the way, and the truth, and the life’. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, L’Osservatore Romano (English Edition of the Vatican Newspaper), March 24, 1993, p.3.

Conversion means accepting, by a personal decision, the saving sovereignty of Christ and becoming his disciple. —Ibid., Encyclical Letter: Mission of the Redeemer (1990) 46.

Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. —POPE BENEDICT XVI; Encyclical Letter: Deus Caritas Est, "God is Love"; 1.

Faith by its specific nature is an encounter with the living God. —Ibid. 28.

Practical activity will always be insufficient, unless it visibly expresses a love for man, a love nourished by an encounter with Christ. —Ibid. 34.

...we can be witnesses only if we know Christ first hand, and not only through others — from our own life, from our personal encounter with Christ. Finding him really in our life of faith, we become witnesses and can contribute to the novelty of the world, to eternal life. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Vatican City, January 20th, 2010, Zenit

While hearing about Christ through the Bible or through other people can introduce a person to Christian belief [Pope Benedict said], "it must then be ourselves (who) become personally involved in an intimate and deep relationship with Jesus." —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Catholic News Service, October 4th, 2006

More recently

Prayer has its center and founds its roots in the most profound being of the person … However, the full realization of man’s search is found only in the God who reveals himself. Prayer, which is the opening and raising of the heart to God, becomes a personal relationship with Him” (Pope Benedict XVI General Audience, St. Peter’s Square, 11 May 2011

Also See from Februaruy 18th 2011 Pope: Preach a Personal Relationship With Christ

Also Faith,” said Pope Benedict, “opens us to know and accept the true identity of Jesus, His novelty and uniqueness, His Word, as the source of life, to live a personal relationship with him.” Pope Benedict XVI's Sunday Angelus 14/08/2011

Needless to say I am not advocating the Santorum is the PERFECT Catholic politico. I just find the fact that some people still think the "language" is evangelical and not Catholic interesting.

Can Scotland Prosecute A Referee For Saying Mean Things About Catholics and the Pope ?

2012-01-12T11:55:00.008-06:00

On the twitter some remarks about the Catholic Church by a former referee across the pond has set off a full tilt of outrage. It also includes the topic of laws that most Americans find very foreign.

See Offensive rant against the Pope and Celtic published on ex-referee Jeff Winter’s blog

..A former English Premiership referee's personal website has been suspended after an offensive rant against the Catholic Church and Celtic appeared on the blog.
The blog entry, posted under the name of Jeff Winter, asked whether "altar boys" would get "abused in celebration" after Celtic won the latest Old Firm game last month.
The post on the 56-year-old’s website also described Pope Benedict XVI as "dress wearing, Nazi, kiddy fiddling protector"....

..Strathclyde Police said they had been made aware of the remarks and were carrying out enquiries into it.
Celtic FC confirmed they had taken legal advice over the post and made a complaint to the police regarding it...

A Celtic sports site has Former referee to face criminal charges over anti Catholic rant?

..Now IF indeed these are actual articles from Winters blog and IF he indeed wrote the article which caused his blog to bu suspended one must assume its a matter of if and not when the authorities get involved.
We have seen numerous football fans recently being prosecuted for writing similar comments on social networking sites.

No one is above the law....

What is this new law people are talking about? Well from late last year see these vast amount of links on the subject.

We have one article here Scottish anti-sectarianism law passes with free speech clause. As you can see there was some opposition. Also it seems that one can get up to FIVE YEARS in Prison for violation. See also Football Lead Welcomes Anti-Sectarian Law.

The full text of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill act is here.

Of note is not so much the football part of this but the INTERNET aspect that appears to me to be related to more than Football games.As to the Internet part this appears to be in play in this case:

Condition B is that—
(a) the material is threatening, and
(b) the person communicating it intends by doing so to stir up hatred on religious
grounds.
25 (6) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (1) to show that the
communication of the material was, in the particular circumstances, reasonable.

5A Protection of freedom of expression
(1) For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in section 5(5) prohibits or restricts—
(a) discussion or criticism of religions or the beliefs or practices of adherents of
35 religions,
(b) expressions of antipathy, dislike, ridicule, insult or abuse towards those matters,
(c) proselytising, or
(d) urging of adherents of religions to cease practising their religions.

By the way this guy was English. BUT we see

Sections 1(1) and 5(1): offences outside Scotland
(1) As well as applying to anything done in Scotland by any person, section 1(1) also
applies to anything done outside Scotland by a person who is habitually resident in
15 Scotland.

(2) As well as applying to anything done in Scotland by any person, section 5(1) also
applies to a communication made by a person from outside Scotland if the person
intends the material communicated to be read, looked at, watched or listened to
primarily in Scotland.

20 (3) Where an offence under section 1(1) or 5(1) is committed outside Scotland, the person
committing the offence may be prosecuted, tried and punished for the offence—

(a) in any sheriff court district in which the person is apprehended or in custody, or

(b) in such sheriff court district as the Lord Advocate may direct,
as if the offence had been committed in that district (and the offence is, for all purposes
25 incidental to or consequential on the trial and punishment, deemed to have been
committed in that district).

Can Americans have an arrest warrant served on them? Something tells me at the very least one has to be an UK Citizen ( or at least I hope maybe I am wrong).

I am generally skeptical of such laws in a Western Context. Maybe the situation has got as bad as lets say Iraq where various sects kill each other ,but I am rather doubtful.

Also it would seem that selective prosecution ,and the fact that int he real world of the Internet only a few would be prosecuted while the vast majority are not is problematic.

That being said I don't expect the world to follow United States First Amendment law. I am not just curious how this law could work in a practical sense without hurting other freedoms. I find the remarks of the REF to be offensive to me as a Catholic. Though from an American standpoint I am amazed it is enough to start a police investigation.

Rick Santorum is No Catholic Libertarian

2012-01-12T11:37:00.003-06:00

Catholic Vote has a good piece up by a Perry Supporter that is pretty fair. See You Mean Rick Santorum is Not a Libertarian? Burn Him at the Stake!

I slightly disagree that Santorum at this point has become the anyone but Romney guy , or to be more specific the anyone but Romney AND Ron Paul guy. I think how he does in South Carolina and how he does in Florida will give us an indication of that. Of course Mike Huckabee emerged from Super Tuesday 4 years as the main opposition to McCain. But he is positioned to do so that is for sure.

The conflict here is real as to factions in the party and will be interesting to watch. While people outside the GOP are focusing on Santorum the social conservative its noteworthy that a significant part of the internal GOP battle is being fought over something else perhaps as to Santorum.

The Opus Dei Boys School For Conservative Catholics In Washington D.C Area.

2012-01-12T11:26:00.005-06:00

The New York Times has a small but interesting piece on the Catholic School for boys in the D.C. area ( Maryland) for Conservative Catholics which by implication means quite a list of more conservative Catholic politicos. See Heralded School Draws Conservative Catholics in Washington

The Opus Dei connection is of course highlighted. However as the article points out very few if any students end up joining the order as Lay folks. Which is one indication that some of the "scare" stories about Opus Dei are just that. Scare stories.

Another German To Head the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ?

2012-01-12T10:21:00.002-06:00

National Catholic Register is reporting on that speculation today. See Bishop Müller of Regensburg to CDF?

He seems to be qualified.

The New Cardinal O’Brien - Former Vietnam Army Chaplin and More

2012-01-12T10:10:00.003-06:00

Whith the elevation of two America s to the Red Cat, it seems Archbishop Dolan of New York has got most of the attention. This article takes a need look at the life of the other man that is to become a "Prince of the Church" . See The Making of Cardinal O’Brien via the Catholic Thing.

Mexican Anglicans Afraid of " Right Wing " Catholics , Evangelicals ,and Pentecostals- Opposes Amending Mexican Constitution

2012-01-11T21:06:00.003-06:00

Well this is interesting.

I honestly did not see that coming.

The Catholic and Evangelical Rick Santorum

2012-01-11T16:01:00.003-06:00

David Gibson of the Religion News Service has an article up called Rick Santorum appears to be a Catholic and an evangelical

I note with some amusement that Democratic aligned Catholic group has sort of made another headline as to this article as it tweeted Is Rick Santorum an Evangelical in Catholic clothing? . You know is he really one of us :) .

A few thoughts and perhaps clarifications to this story. I think we sometimes forget how diverse the Catholic population is ,and perhaps we are thinking of some old models as to communication.

Louisiana of course has always had a substantial Catholic population mixed in with a lot of Evangelicals and Baptist. Throw in the black Church and the very political mostly white Pentecostal movement it gets interesting. Catholic politicos both Republican and Democrat have for decades spoken from altars of non Catholic Churches and are quite good at speaking this language.

The Catholic Bobby Jindal is perhaps the best as he talks about being "born again" in
various Churches on Sunday mornings.

Senator Vitter , also Catholic, does not use the "born again" terminology but he is rather apt in talking evangelical language. So is Democrat Mary Landrieu.

The fact is with the demographic shift of Catholics to the West and to the South we see more of this all the time.

On to the article:

Yet Santorum is not an outlier. Rather, he represents a new kind of religious hybrid, the result of a kind of cross-pollination between evangelicals and Catholics that has taken place in recent decades.
That interaction began in earnest in the 1980s as conservative evangelicals and conservative Catholics began collaborating in the battle against abortion. The visibility and popularity of the late Pope John Paul II gave it a boost.
"It's the influence of the John Paul II revival in the Catholic Church which encouraged a 'less urbane' rhetoric about personal faith," Hudson said.
That Catholic influence went the other way as well. A host of prominent conservative Christians -- including Hudson, who used to be a Southern Baptist -- have converted to Catholicism in recent years. Gingrich is one, and Santorum himself helped former GOP senator and current Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback become a Catholic. Jeb Bush is also a convert, and that has all contributed to a sense of cultural familiarity among conservative believers.

This true But for clarification sake Brownback was United Methodist ,and I believe Jeb Bush was an Episcopalian

What's really important is that Santorum espouses their values, because in a multifront culture war, an "ecumenism of the trenches" prevails over Reformation-era disputes about doctrine. So when Santorum makes full-throated opposition to gay marriage and abortion his signature issues, he is effectively singing from the evangelical hymnal.

"Rick Santorum may technically not call himself an evangelical but he is definitely one when it comes to social issues, so don't get too caught up in the title of 'Roman Catholic,'" David Brody, chief political correspondent for Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, wrote after the Iowa vote.
"Santorum is an evangelical at heart."
He may also be more of an evangelical in policy. Indeed, if Santorum's opposition to gay marriage and abortion are in sync with the Catholic bishops, those positions resonate far more with conservative Protestants than they do with the average Catholic.

I wonder if there is so much difference. Especially if we looking at Mass going for Catholics and Church going for Protestant attendance rates. Also I do think Catholics differ by region as to issues. For instance Catholics seem far more Pro State Execution in the South. Heck look at Louisiana. However Catholics in the Midwest ( even in States that have execution) seem to be far less intense on the issue. See Ohio.

Moreover, Santorum openly splits with the hierarchy -- espousing positions traditionally associated with evangelicals -- in his opposition to immigration reform and universal health care, and his support for aggressive military action abroad and steep spending cuts at home.
Santorum's religious rhetoric is just as important in cultivating his evangelical appeal, and that is something new for Catholic politicians
.

Again I do wonder how close the flock is with the hierarchy on issues such as immigration reform.

It should be noted that the Evangelical leadership and Catholic Leadership seems to be largely on the same page thought their flock might not be. See the fact that while the Southern Baptist Convention passed a pro immigration reform resolution the State of Alabama passed a rather strict immigration law. So for non Hispanic Catholics in the South I do wonder how far they are from their evangelical counterparts. Region plays a role of course but I can't help to note that Catholics seem too differ from the Bishops on aspects of immigration policy nationwide a great deal. I don't like that but that is the case.

Military intervention is also something that we might see regional differences on.

Santorum is also a youthful 53, and a squeaky-clean family man. He has a large family, and relates affecting stories about a son that died at birth and about his youngest daughter, who suffers from a terminal illness.
That kind of confessional, public piety has generally been foreign to Catholics, and remains so for many of the older generation. During the 2004 campaign, Democratic nominee John Kerry struggled to make "God talk" while George W. Bush spoke comfortably about his faith.
Yet Santorum is not an outlier. Rather, he represents a new kind of religious hybrid, the result of a kind of cross-pollination between evangelicals and Catholics that has taken place in recent decades.

..Ironically, the downside for Santorum and the new generation of "hybrid" Catholics is that in winning votes from the religious right, they may also be losing the support of fellow Catholics who don't recognize themselves or their faith in the stump speeches of these staunch conservatives.
The poll numbers so far reflect Santorum's difficulty in winning Catholic backing: in New Hampshire on Tuesday, Santorum's evangelical support (23 percent) was nearly three times his support among Catholics (8 percent). While there may be a way for him to secure the Republican nomination without his fellow Catholics, winning the general election without them could be near impossible.

I actually have to think Santorum main problem will be money and time. New Hampshire Catholics are different from lets say Wisconsin Catholics. The main problem for Santorum is will he be able to survive long enough to make that case.
A good point. But again it might be not so foreign depending on where you live.

Biggest Church State Case In Years - U. S. Supreme Court Upholds " ministerial exception " ( Links )

2012-01-11T13:49:00.007-06:00

Rather huge Supreme Court News in what might be of one the biggest Church State cases in decades. See Supreme Court: Discrimination laws do not protect certain employees of religious groups via the Washington Post. That case was Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC

The Hosanna case is one of the issues that had the Catholic Bishops this year in general freak out over religious liberty concerns.

In fact the Obama administration's surprising radical position on this , that there was no ministerial exception basically that was rooted in the religious parts of the First Amendment, in their brief pretty much unified a wide range of religious bodies in alarm. The fact the Adminstration seem to double down on this argument at oral arguments shocked many. Why this administration decided to take this position we will never know perhaps. However looking at the parties involved there could have been future issues of gay "rights" that was on their radar screen.

It was pretty clear at oral arguments that all the Justices were pretty skeptical of the claims being brought forth. The Majority opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts is fun if you are a history fan and well worth reading.

Prof Garnett , from Notre Dame, who was on the front lines of this issues has a very good readable piece that I recommend. See A Win for Religious Freedom. He points out:

First, they affirmed that the “ministerial exception” — which limits the government’s role in selecting religious communities’ ministers, leaders, and teachers — is required by the First Amendment. Next, they rejected a crabbed approach to that exception, which would limit its reach only to ordained clergy or to ministers who spend a majority of their time on “religious” activities. And they noted that the ministerial exception constrains the reach of government with respect to religious communities’ decisions about ministers whether or not the employment decision in question was motivated or required by theological reasons.

He also writes a bref piece at Mirrors of Justice. See Court unanimously (!) embraces the ministerial exception in Hosanna-Tabor . Also see on that web site The Historical and Particularist Quality of Hosanna-Tabor which I think brings up some interesting and important points.

Ed Whelan that has done his part in promoting how important this case was has Major Victory for Religious Liberty Against Obama Administration Attack

I expect Churches and religious organizations natiowide will be releasing statement of relief today.

Head of Episcopal Church Jefferts Schori To Lutheran Public Radio - We Are Panentheists ( Updated)

2012-01-11T13:00:00.007-06:00

The Head of Episcopal Church USA made some rather interesting statements to Lutheran Public Radio that someone has now transcribed. MCJ, who is needless to say not a fan of the Primate , goes to town on her here at DROPPING THE MASK. I thought her description of Episcopalians as Panentheists interesting. I will let other debate if she has a good understanding of that term.

I find some of what she said to be a tad sketchy. However two parts I wanted to focus on:

WILKEN: You talk about hearing the “Voice of God”; I think you devote a whole chapter to it. Where is The Episcopal Church USA today hearing the Voice of God?

JEFFERTS SCHORI: OK, let me correct that. We are not The Episcopal Church in the USA. We’re The Episcopal Church in 16 different nations including the United States. So we’re certainly hearing the Voice of God and meeting God in Ecuador and Honduras and Venezuela and Taiwan and in Europe, as well as we are in the United States. There is an ancient understanding that God is met, perhaps most intensely in the poor and the marginalized. I know that St. Francis [of Assisi] called the poor “our treasure”; and that when we encounter the poor the marginalized, we’re more likely to meet Jesus, we’re more likely to see God present with us in the midst of suffering as well as joy.

It's always interesting and indeed important how Schori is quick to point this out all the time. In the sort of battle of influence that is happening between Canterbury and New York I think it's important.

At the end of the interview we have this:

WILKEN: Do you see a connection the early 70s ordination of women [the Philadelphia 11 on July 29, 2974] to the priesthood of The Episcopal Church and the early 2000′s ordination of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons to the priesthood?

JEFFERTS SCHORI: Yes, and I would certainly take it farther back. I think it is deeply connected with the ordinations of the first African-Americans [Absalom Jones in 1804] to this tradition and the first Native Americans [Enmegahbowh of the Ottawa Tribe in 1867] in this tradition and the first Asians [Wong Kong-chai in 1863] in this tradition. The challenge particularly in the United States, a part of our context has been expanding the understanding of what a normative human being is. And it is not just a “white man”. It includes people of other ethnic origins, includes people of the other gender, it includes people of other sexual orientations. One of the significant changes in our prayer book of the late 1970s was our admission of children to [Holy] Communion before they were confirmed. You use to have to wait until you were a teenager and had been confirmed before you could come to Communion. We said: “No, children as soon as they are baptized are full members of this community.” I don’t know what the next iteration of that journey will look like. But I think there will be one.

I have no idea what the age of communion for Children have to do any of that. There has always been room for differences as to when Children can come to communion. In the Church's of the East the custom to give communion to infants has been retained forever. However in these Churches there is no tradition of ordaining women to the Priesthood. Of course there is no "impediment" of ordaining a gay person either to the Priesthood. Though there is really no tradition of ordaining a man to the priesthood that is an open Gay union or "marriage". Again not sure what this has to do with anything. Also is it really correct that before 1970 children were not regarded as "full members of the community" ?

Update-

Kurt , a regular reader of this blog thankfully, asked in the comment section what does the fact that the Episcopal Church USA s international have to do with Panentheists? Well not much and I did not mean to make that link. I mentioned the panenthiests angle because it was one of the more controversial things she said.

I noted her comments on the international nature of her faith community because she makes such a point of it all the time and there are reasons for that.

First; it is not an secret that many Anglican in the "Global South" are not too happy with Episcopal Church USA. Many view it for it's membership to be too powerful, to have too much influence because of it's money, and sees some of it's aggressive positions in the Anglican communion as a form of American / Western imperialism.

Thus what the Primate is doing here is a little bit of push back on that topic. But it is more than just a position of Church power that the Primate is addressing here. It is indeed a theological concept and role she proclaims the Holy Spirit has given the Episcopal Church USA in the worldwide Church.

Pope Benedict noted this tension when he was in New York and I am still of the opinion he was mainly talking to the Episcopalians in the room when he said:

Too often those who are not Christians, as they observe the splintering of Christian communities, are understandably confused about the Gospel message itself. Fundamental Christian beliefs and practices are sometimes changed within communities by so-called “prophetic actions” that are based on a hermeneutic not always consonant with the datum of Scripture and Tradition. Communities consequently give up the attempt to act as a unified body, choosing instead to function according to the idea of “local options”. Somewhere in this process the need for diachronic koinonia – communion with the Church in every age – is lost, just at the time when the world is losing its bearings and needs a persuasive common witness to the saving power of the Gospel (cf. Rom 1:18-23).

From what I have read I think the current leader of Episcopal Church USA has embraced this Local option view.

There was very well done document recently that presented to the Episcopal Bishops of the USA a back and forth on the liberal versus traditional view on same sex relationships.

Around the page 41 of the document seem to endorse the theological viewpoint of the Primate with great force. In fact it is what they start their argument with:

The full name of the Episcopal Church is "The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America." Our polity and ethos still reflect the character of a missionary society, and our theological tensions arise, in part, from different senses of how our church should bear witness (page 41 )

Churches must discern their way into mission because it does not originate from the church, but is first the activity of the triune God—missio Dei—in which the church seeks to take part. Mission begins with the Father sending the Son and the Spirit to bring into the feast those different from himself. "For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven." In Acts we see the church hastening to follow the Son by the leading of the Spirit: "we are witnesses to these things and so is the Holy Spirit" (5:32). The Spirit leads in showing the church how to bear witness to Christ. In mission, the Trinity goes out from itself, in that the Father sends the Son for the sake of communion with the world .. (page 41)

As a "Domestic" Missionary Society, the Episcopal Church must seek to proclaim the gospel to its neighbors in its cultural context. Those neighbors include same-sex couples in a culture obsessed with sex and confused about marriage. The Song of Songs has long been interpreted as a parable of the love between God and God’s people, and Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son" (Mt 22:2). Yet proclaiming the love of God for God's people in this culture has pressed the Episcopal Church to attend, with pastoral care and evangelical attentiveness, to the testimony of same-sex couples.There it has discovered, in those couples who desire to give their lives in self-donation to one another, movements of the Spirit within same-sex relationships. "God, who knows the human heart, testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit" (Acts 15:8). So, while the Episcopal Church was considering how to offer the work of God to non-heterosexual persons, it has found itself standing witness to the Spirit already making community, already on mission beyond the bounds. While we have equivocated, the Spirit has been expanding the church.

As a "Foreign" Missionary Society, the Episcopal Church must also give account of its domestic mission to its companions in mission around the Communion and to the universal church. Zeal for mission may divide the church, but while the Spirit may move wildly and diversely, it always moves within the missio Dei. Much as Acts 15 describes a council in Jerusalem to discuss how Gentiles should be welcomed into the church's universal mission, so does the church today hold theological council. And in a similar pneumatological pattern, it seems the Spirit has preceded us, transforming the church and its mission. In the self-donation of same-sex couples to one another and to the church, some leaders of the church see surprising gifts of the Spirit. Even when same-sex couples were in the wilderness, God "gave his good Spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst" (Neh. 9:20, para. Acts 10:47). Can anyone withhold the rite for blessing these couples “who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” (Acts 10:47). (page 42)

Now you can read for yourself how this argument is pushed more and more in the text.

The traditionalists push back against this argument in a huge way starting at page 69. I think they have a point.

Regardless, the truly Global witness and command that the Primate is saying the Holy Spirit has given mostly American Anglicans I think is central to why she always points out that they have some Faith communities outside the United States.

As to the other point in the comments I think the Episcopal Church should be very proud they ordained a African American early one. Much before the Catholics sadly as he noted. My point was I did not see how a Church discipline on when Children received communion was very germane. One is a discipline and the other issue is a more essential doctrine that touches on a Sacrament itself.

Google Honors the Anti Young Earth Catholic Saint - Father of Geology Bishop Nicolas Steno

2012-01-11T12:28:00.003-06:00

I suspect the vast majority of people going to Google today will not get that Google id honoring a a person one step away from being named Catholic Saint. In fact he was that was beatified by John Paul II. That is Nicolas Steno.

The Christian Science Monitor has an excellent article on him here. See Nicolas Steno: The saint who undermined creationism

Among the other interesting facts besides his research, was that he was a convert from Lutheranism , became A Bishop, and spent much of later life in self imposed poverty as he ministered to the Catholic minorities in northern Europe.

Reuters Reporters Misleads Readers On Pope's Address To Diplomatic Corp and Gay Marriage.

2012-01-11T12:04:00.005-06:00

It's amazing and a little frightening how just a person or two can frame a Papal message to an American audience . It's even more scary when they just make stuff up. Such was the case yesterday with this Reuters report that wrote about the Pope's annual address to the Diplomatic Corp. Which is a rather big deal.

Get Religion has Gay marriage a threat to journalism’s future.

See also Yes the pope is Catholic. But he didn't say gay marriage threatens humanity
Pope Benedict XVI said a lot about environmentalism and economics in his speech, so why make up another story? from the UK Guardian,

SO LSU lost and Lost Badly Against Alabama

2012-01-10T14:11:00.001-06:00

Mood- Depressed

No Posting today.

Still was a great season.

Prayophobia in California- Catholic Youth Organization Dares to Pray At Basketball Games

2012-01-09T11:39:00.005-06:00

Wow just wow at this article . See Call for prayer at games irks some San Geronimo Valley residents

This is so foreign to me. Parts of California indeed seem to be on another planet. Here are just a few of the ultimate "fail" quotes.

"I understand that if we rent to one religious group, we have to rent to them all. But I still don't like it," said Richard Sloan, a trustee of the Lagunitas School District, which co-owns the San Geronimo Valley Gym. "I'm going to put up a sign in front of the gym: 'If you don't pray in my school, I won't think in your church,""

This man is the adult in the story?

Cort recognizes that the CYO, as a religious organization, has every right to ask its participants to pray before a game — an opinion confirmed by School and College Legal Services of California, which outlined that position at the request of Marin County Superintendent of Schools Mary Jane Burke.

Well thank goodness someone sees the obvious.

Yet he worries that the group's decision will upset what has been a long-standing balance between the San Geronimo Valley's various religious and spiritual organizations, including St. Cecilia's Church, the Gan Halev Jewish congregation, the San Geronimo Valley Presbyterian Church, the Seven Circles Foundation and the Spirit Rock Meditation Center.

Really? Notice no one from there is quoted. Presbyterians and meditation folks against prayer? I doubt it.

"People appreciate having their kids be part of local teams, and they appreciate the partnership that exists between our local church, St. Cecilia's, and the CYO," Cort said. "I think throwing in the prayer, however ... it's definitely sparked something."

Good Grief it's not like they are having a Mass at Halftime. This person has PRAYOPHOBIA.

Johnson Clendinen noted that the CYO's pregame prayer had been developed by a committee that included religious leaders, athletic directors and school principals — and that the group had actually unveiled the prayer last fall, during the CYO's volleyball season. (The San Geronimo Valley does not participate in CYO volleyball.).

A committee had to get together?

"As with everything, when there's change, there's a reaction," Johnson Clendinen said. "Some people said this was great. Others said there is no place for prayer in sports. Some even took their child out of the program because they didn't think it was appropriate. We want to be respectful of their opinion, but we also think it's important for us to continue to live out our mission with athletics."

Not appropriate? It's a CATHOLIC YOUTH ORGANIZATION. These people must spend their lives being annoying about how offended they are. You know the type.

Trustee Sloan, however, argued that many parents — even longtime participants in the CYO athletic program — were not aware of its religious affiliation, and have been taken aback by the group's decision.
"These parents should have known what they were signing up for, but they didn't," Sloan said. "I think we need to start a discussion about the increase of religion in our public discourse, and decide if we want to continue to rent our facilities to those who would use them to advance their religious views."

They did not know what they were signing up for? CYO means Catholic Youth Organization. Also why are no parents quoted? This man is not only Prayophobic but Religionphobic In fact his stellar quote at the beginning of the article shows his hostility toward different views . That is "'If you don't pray in my school, I won't think in your church.'".

Even the Rev. Cyril O'Sullivan, pastor at St. Cecilia's Church, is worried about the consequences of the organization's decision.
"I'm told that the prayer is not being pushed on any families, that people have a choice," said O'Sullivan, who added that he had only learned of the CYO's decision on Friday. "But I don't like anything that causes division. Prayer, if it becomes divisive, would be a very poor form of prayer."

Lord have mercy even the Priest is an idiot. Thank God I live in Louisiana.

In a way this sort of mirrors the larger story we see playing out in the nation. Catholic Charities is being told that its great you help kids but keep all that Catholic mumbo jumbo and dark ages ideas out of it. This story in some ways tells us a lot about the direction we are going in.

It's On !!! LSU Vs Alabama For All the Marbles

2012-01-09T11:24:00.002-06:00

GEAUX TIGERS

Rick Santorum's Dead Baby Versus Dead Gay Kids

2012-01-08T14:24:00.011-06:00

Get Religion has a pretty much take some journalist to the woodshed piece on the Rick Santorum coverage. See LA Times opposes fathers, Santorum.

At this point I want to focus on one part of this article. It seems that as to one controversy surrounding Santorum we have been here recently. That is the death or miscarriage of an unborn child. Last year we sort of went through this as to details of George W Bush and his mother's miscarriage. The reaction we see from all sides is very similar.

Get Religion correctly points out that some media has taken this as an opportunity to talk about how the Santorum family dealt with it is not that unusual though we don't like to talk about it. What was interesting was two newspaper people media of note came to Santorum's defense and related their own experience. That is Boston Herald’s Jessica Heslam and the Washington Post’s Charles Lane.

I wish to focus on Charles Lane tragic tale here :

.....I regret that, unlike the Santorums, who presented the body of their child to their children, we did not show Jonathan’s body to our other son, who was six years old at the time. When I told him what had happened, his first question was, “Well, where is the baby?” I tried to explain what a morgue is, and why the baby went there. It was awkward and unsatisfactory -- too abstract. In hindsight, I was not protecting my son from a difficult conversation, I was protecting myself.
I’m not defending Rick Santorum the presidential candidate. From what little I know about him, he seems to have his own issues with moralizing and judging. To the extent he has used his family’s experience to make a point about abortion, I object.

But I am defending the right of the Santorums and all families to grieve an infant’s death in accordance with their personal needs and beliefs. My plea is for a little more respect regarding the way people deal with loss, and a little more maturity about physical contact with the dead. If that puts me in sympathy, for a moment, with this right-wing politician, so be it.

That bolding was mine.

The question is why the objection? Many times we have heard the stories from mothers and fathers of their kids that were killed ,or killed themselves because of issues relating to their sexual orientation. Their pain filled stories scream , quite correctly, that this was a human being that had human dignity. Often this is to advocate that people should be more accepting of gay marriage or same sex sexual acts. That having a negative view of the former causes conditions that have resulted in their children's death. Thus quit being bigots people and not only be tolerant but accept all this.

Now I don't agree with that logic. Though I do agree it's a wake up call to us about tone in this debate and speaking out for dignity of those with same sex attraction .

But it does have a place this thing called personal experience. Though personal experience can differ and should be tempered with other things.

Which brings us to the Santorums. I am not exactly sure what is different. It appears their personal experience shows to them this is not a non person. It's a human life and has human dignity. Thus abortion is wrong.

Both cases are using tragic events to advocate against what one perceive is a horrible injustice. Why is one perhaps objectionable and one is not.

Now do I expect the personal experience of the Santorums to end the discussion? Of course not .

But like the stories of parents of these gay and bi kids, the Santorum and others like them have a role in the abortion discussion.

Now perhaps Mr Lane would find anyone that uses their child's death to advance gay marriage or as promotion that same sex relations is a good as not acting right either. But I suspect he does not. But again maybe he does. I do not know if he has ever spoken on that topic.

Anyway I wonder why one personal experience is objectionable to bring out in the public square and the other is not. I find both valid and needed to be heard.

Why the difference? It seems both are related in some ways.

Australian Ambassador to the United States On LSU 's Brad Wing ( And other AUSSIE SEC NEWS )

2012-01-08T13:18:00.004-06:00

Wing and Mamma Wing

Leaving the matters of the amazing antics in the Vatican press office in the previous post to more lighter and fun matters.

I am pretty sure that an Ambassador to the United States of a major Country has never commented on LSU football but it happened today. In fact we learn SEC officials almost caused an international incident :) . The article is good and gives some detail on Brad Wing's recruitment I have never heard. Including the important contribution of Coach Les Miles's wife. See FOX Sports Exclusive LSU punter adjusts to life of fame in US

The Australian papers have a good bit today since there is also a Australian playing for Alabama in the big game. For that see:

Winging it: Australian duo ready to leave their imprint on apex of US college sport

Aussies Jesse Williams and Brad Wing to square off in BCS championship

Brad Wing, cut by the Sandringham Dragons, finds fame as a US college punter

Lazy Workers At Vatican Press Office Cut and Paste from WIKIPEDIA !!

2012-01-08T12:59:00.006-06:00

Oh Lord I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Maybe the Holy See can just offer journalist John Allen ,a nice salary , a Holy See apartment , and have him shake things up.

Fr. Lombardi, please vet your assistants and check out their work!

Not to be mean about anyone, but does Fr. Lombardi have incompetent mindless assistants and does he not care? Sandro Magister claims in his blog today that the 'fact sheet' provided by the Vatican Press Office this week about the new cardinals-elect were verbatim cut-and-paste lifts from Wikipedia entries on the persons concerned, the task so taken for granted that apparently no superior checked these handouts before they were passed off to journalists.

And so no one had bothered to edit the cut-and-paste enterprise if only to take out the adjective 'Catholic' that describes each of the cardinals-elect at the start of their respective Wikipedia biodata! This is totally disgraceful and unacceptable.

Sounds like a scene out of an Animal House lampoon except that it is oh-so-regrettably true! It is pathetic that the Vatican Press Office has to rely on Wikipedia for biodata about the Church hierarchy.

Don't they have all these Annuario Pontificio and what-have-you, not to mention a website on the Catholic hierarchy (I think to the level of parish priest) which presents its data in tabular form? Of course, it's not as convenient to refer to as a Wikipedia entry (whose veracity is always a caveat, however).

But with a bit of common sense, let's see what they could have properly done with not too much effort: They could have asked each and every Curial office whose head was on the list for that person's biography - that takes care of ten biographies. Then they could have gone to the diocesan websites of the eight metropolitan bishops named to download their biographies, and that would have taken care of another eight.

Now, all they had to do was research the four octogenarian cardinals-elect and they'd have done their job: Two of them were consultors at the CDF - they could have obtained their biodata easily from the CDF. One was an emeritus professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University - they could have obtained his biodata just as easily.

The fourth, the 92-year-old Belgian scholar from Louvain, had a long distinguished career that surely his biography could also have been accessible from various sources, with not too much effort. (To begin with, Wikipedia entries usually footnote the primary sources for their facts, and one can go to these primary sources for more information and to check the veracity of what Wiki published; Wiki also usually identifies unverified or unestablished claims as such).
[Edited by TERESA BENEDETTA 1/8/2012 8:01 AM]

Pope Benedict To Do New Liturgy Rite In Making February 2012 Cardinals ( From the Vatican Newspaper )

2012-01-08T12:39:00.005-06:00

Fun liturgical nerd stuff here. Benedetto XVI Forum has translated this from the Holy See's newspaper. At least I find it interesting :). The translator makes some remarks and I have that in red.

Pope to introduce ritual changes in the February consistory Translated 1/7-1/8/12 .

The rites that have been used till now for the creation of new cardinals have been revised and simplified with the approval of the Holy Father Benedict XVI.

These changes are:

- The three steps of imposing the beretta, consigning the cardinal's ring and assignment of each cardinal's titular or diaconal church, will now take place at one rite - namely, the so-called public consistory.

- The Collect and concluding prayers for this public consistory will be changed.

- The proclamation of the Word of God at the public consistory will take a briefer form.

"It must be noted," says the Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations, "that reforms carried out after the Second Vatican Council also covered the consistorial rites of imposing the beretta and assigning the church titles to the new cardinals, and that the reformed consistorial rite is found in Notitiae 5, 1969, pp. 289-291, and used for the first time by Paul VI in April 1969 [It happens to be the consistory at which Archbishop Karol Wojtyla of Cracow became a cardinal. The two rites mentioned were covered by the liturgical reform because they took place during Mass the day after the public consistory]. The principal criterion for the revision was to include the actual rite of creating new cardinals (the public consistory) into the liturgy, of which it was not properly a part. It is now thought that the naming of new cardinals should take place in a prayer context withou, however,t giving it the character of a 'sacrament' for the cardinalate, as Holy Orders are.

Historically, the public consistory was never considered a liturgical rite, but a meeting between the Pope with the cardinals in relation to their role in the governance of the Church, and therefore, an expression of the munus regendi (task of governance) rather than of the munus sanctificandi (task of sanctifying).

The new revisions take into consideration aspects of the consistories in the historic and recent past, and in continuity with the present form of the consistory and its principal elements. The Collect and concluding prayer of the 1969 ritual for the public consistory are rich in content and come from the great Roman eucologic or prayer tradition [eucology is the study of prayers].

The two prayers speak explicitly of the powers entrusted to the Princes of the Church, particularly the powers of Peter. The Pontiff prays directly for himself that he may carry out his office well. The Collect prayer that comes from the Veronense - also called the Sacramentrium leonianum, which is one of the oldest sources of Roman eucology - is the Collect for the anniversary of the episcopal ordination of the Bishop of Rome (Mense Septembris, in natale episcoporum, v alia missa. nn. 989 e 993; Corpus Orationum, n. 2301)

The Holy Father says, "Oremus. Domine Deus, Pater gloriae fons honorum, qui licet Ecclesiam tuam toto orbe diffusam largitate munerum ditare non desinis, sedem tamen beati Apostoli tui Petri tanto propensius intueris, quanto sublimius esse voluisti: da mihi famulo tuo providentiae tuae dispositionibus exhibere congruenter officium; certus te universis Ecclesiis collaturum quidquid illi praestiteris, quam cuncta respiciunt. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum». [Sorry, I cna find no English translation of the prayer, which asks God to grant his providence on the Successor of Peter in carrying out his mission for the world.]

The concluding prayer, also taken from the Veronense, is from another Collect for the anniversary of the episcopla ordination of the Bishop of Rome (Mense septembris, in natale episcoporum, v alia missa, «alia collecta», nn. 992; Corpus Orationum, n. 1198). The Pope prays thus: «Deus cuius universae viae misericordia est semper et veritas, operis tui dona prosequere; et quod possibilitas non habet fragilitatis humanae, tuis beneficiis miseratus impende; ut hi famuli tui, Ecclesiae tuae iugiter servientes et fidei integritate fundati, et mentis luceant puritate conspicui. Per Christum Dominum nostrum».

The proclamation of the Word of God will take on the brief form from 1969, with a single Gospel passage - that from Mark 10, 12-45. Finally, the consignment of the cardinal's ring wil take place at the same time as the imposition of the beretta.

Before 1969, the berettas were given out at the public (non-liturgical) consistory, while the rings and assignment of titular churches was done at the Mass (once considered the secret consistory) the day after. But there is no longer any distinction between the public and 'secret' consistories, therefore it seems logical for all three steps in the creation of new cardinals to take place in one ceremony.

Nonetheless, the Mass concelebrated by the new cardinals with the Pope (during which the consignment of the cardinal's ring and assignment of titular churches and diaconates had taken place) will still be held the day after the public consistory.

The Mass will start with a greeting to the Pope by a representative of the new cardinals int he name of the others.

U.S. Embassy to Holy See Highlights Anniversary Of First Meeting Between A President and A Pope ( Woodrow Wilson )

2012-01-08T11:31:00.006-06:00

The Facebook page of the our Embassy to the Holy See is often more interesting and updated a tad more often then the offical web page. Our Embassy takes note over at Face book of an interesting point of American History. That is when the Successor of Peter Benedict XVmet in person the President of the United States for the first time.

See this link and especially this link .

At that last link ( in case they decide to take facebook down and to keep track of the documents links) :

President Wilson’s physician Cary T. Grayson accompanied the President on all of his trips and kept a diary of the activities. For the detailed entries of President Wilson's meeting with Pope Benedict XV, see http://wwl2.dataformat.com/Document.aspx?doc=28306 and http://wwl2.dataformat.com/Document.aspx?doc=27783 from the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.

2.5 Million People Interacted With Pope Benedict At The Holy See Alone In 2011

2012-01-08T11:15:00.002-06:00

That is a incredible figure. That does not include trips in Italy , World Youth Day, or in fact any trips abroad. BUT BUT BUT people can't get used to him like they did John Paul the II we hear.

See 2.5M Visited the Pope in 2011

Of course that does not mean those were all Catholic "faithful" by any means. But it is interesting even to non Catholics when we are told no one cares what the Pope says how he is a draw.

Catholic Magazine Commonweal Does A Whitewash On Obama's Immigration Record

2012-01-07T12:06:00.010-06:00

The Catholic Mag that is a tad more in the progressive camp , Commonweal , has done a article Santorum, Obama and immigrant families

Good Grief where to start. First let me say I very much disagree with Rick Santorum on this issue ,and agree with Thomas Peters over at Catholicvote.org that he has room to grow. In fact he better grow because if he does not not I fear he might lose the election.

My active support will largely go to either Santorum or Romney based on which one of the that is first to show grounds of growing. Before I get to Obama let me examine this part of Santorum statement.

..So yeah, I feel bad. I mean, I don’t like to break up families. But you know, the family can go back. We’re not sending them to Siberia. We’re not sending them to any kind of, you know, difficult — they’re going to Mexico, which is a great country, a nice country and they can go back like every other Mexican wants to come to America and come here legally.

Now let's not deal with the Gospel concerns here. In fact lets not deal with the debate how exactly Mexico is nice or not very nice right now. What's being talked about here is families of mixed legal status.

First , as to a possible child that is the American Citizen what if he does not want to a town that is gang infested? Does he have no rights

Second ,and here is the point that is often missed, why does Rick Santorum think Mexico would take the non Americans in such numbers? Why this is assumed I don't know. In fact the problem is now when deportation occur many countries will not take the spouse or kid of the deported even if they wanted to go.

Now on to Obama. This seems like a replay of 2008 when John McCain's positives ( from a Commonweal standpoint) on immigration did not matter much and Obama's past sins was not talked about.

Obama in 2007 pretty much played a leading role in killing immigration reform in the Senate.

The best immigration reporter , that appears not to be on many Catholic magazines Rolodex or they just ignore ,Reuben Navarrette always reminds people of this Judas moment.

In the latest setback, activists are quietly fuming that Obama couldn’t summon a stronger word than “misguided” to describe Arizona’s racial profiling law – something for which The New York Times editorial page also took Obama to task.
Why would this surprise anyone? Obama has a poor record on immigration. As a senator, he joined Democratic leader Harry Reid in trying to kill an immigration reform bill with poison pill amendments – all to please organized labor, which preferred no bill to one with guest workers.
Obama has also been more than willing to play politics with the immigration issue for short-term gain. My theory is that Obama falls into the part of the liberal spectrum that is leery of immigration reform because of concerns that immigrant labor hurts blue-collar workers, especially African-Americans.

It also helped Obama that Bush ,and thus the GOP could have been associated with a win to help them with LATINOS. In the short run it really would have helped McCain with Latinos since he was leading the charge and taking the arrows for Latinos and other as to immigration reform. The fact that progressives Catholic just continue to ignore this is sad. Well yall got Obama and so what if the problem went unsolved for now 5 years and families broke up.

I guess it was a small price to pay for health care.

Obama the President has not been much better. See this extensive piece here Immigration unlikely to be Obama priority in 2008. That prophecy was pretty much correct. It was after the democrats lost the House , and thus making reform much harder, that Obama started to get more vocal.

That was quite convenient was it not?

I disagree with Santorum greatly here. But at least he is honest about his views ,and he was no Judas Iscariot like Obama was when it mattered.

Why Bobby Jindal's Backing Of Rick Perry Still Pays Off

2012-01-07T11:08:00.002-06:00

Jim Brown hits it on the nail. No matter what happens a lot of Texas $$$$ might come his way in the future.

Mitt Romney Gets Major Catholic Endorsements - Five Former Ambassadors To the Holy See ( Vatican )

2012-01-07T10:11:00.006-06:00

The battle for what I call the observant Orthodox we take this pro life family stuff seriously Catholic vote is underway in the GOP race for the nomination. Mitt Romney got a huge boost in that department.

Lopez at National Review has Catholics and Mormon Together that has the letter of 5 former United States Envoys to the Holy See where they endorse Romney.

Of particular note are two former envoys though all names there are big one. The first is Democrat Ray Flynn. Who was such a player in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia politics.

However of particular note is Mary Ann Glendon that has been a major player in Pro Life activities at the Holy See itself before her appointment.

To say that Mary Ann Glendon is respected in conservative Catholic circles is an understatement. Recall not too long ago she said she could could not accept American Catholicism's highest honor , Laetare Medal but declined the award due to Notre Dame's controversial decision to host Barack Obama as its commencement speaker and bestow upon him an honorary degree.

Among other things besides being an incredible respected Law Prof at Harvard and former Envoy to the Holy See she was:

-first female President of the Roman Catholic Church s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences

-In 1995, she was the Vatican representative to the international 1995 Beijing Conference on Women sponsored by the United Nations

-was appointed by President Bush to the President's Council on Bioethics

She is a player. I have often thought that Romney could her use in particular to refute he was not "pro life" enough. Very few people are going to call her a hack after her lifetime work.

These envoys that have made contribution to the Church outside being envoy is a big get for Romney. Let's see if he knows how to use it.

Catholic Bishop Not Impressed With New File Sharing Religion

2012-01-07T07:44:00.002-06:00

This sort of reminds me of some attempts to get around drinking laws where someone proposed that kids under 18 could join their Church ( which happened to be a Bar) in Baton Rouge.

See MPAA Lawyer Inspired File-Sharing Religion, Catholic Bishop Unhappy

Why Carmelite Monks In Wyoming Are Booming

2012-01-07T07:38:00.002-06:00

As they say build it , perhaps pray in it, and they shall come. New Oxford Review has an interesting interview with a young Monk there. See An Interview With a Carmelite

School District Will Stop First Grade Basketball If More Girls DO Not Play

2012-01-07T07:17:00.003-06:00

Wow sometimes Title IX and like laws and regualtions really get out of hand and abused. See Title IX now doing damage in elementary schools

Louisiana Catholic Bishops To Visit Pope Benedict This Month ( January 2012)

2012-01-06T12:34:00.005-06:00

I took note of several Louisiana Catholic Bishops schedules today and saw they shall be making their visit to the Pope and the Holy See at the end of the month starting January 22. In fact all Region V Bishops in the United States shall be going at the same time. Those include Bishops in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. This is known as a ad limina visit which happens about every 5 years.

There has been some significant changes now that the Pope is meeting with Bishops as a group which all parties are finding more productive in the back and forth it seems. Of course there are various other meeting with other important folks the Bishops must attend.

The Cardinal of Boston recently did a excellent blog post on his experience and what happens.

Hopefully Louisiana secular newspapers and TV might try to do some coverage and interviews with the Bishops before and after the big event.