Friday, October 30, 2009

Atheism

is apparently suffering from a serious brain drain of late. Professor Richard Dawkins, a leading biologist, periodically wades into philosophy, theology and history in order to confirm this thesis:

Oh my, I do love the cool, calm, and rational thinking...:


Mercy! The man is a wit wrapped in a genius outfit, swaddled in sassy, deep-fried in searing sarcasm, and smothered in spicy polemics. Throw in a 20 oz. lemonade and a Charles Darwin action figure and you have a super-duper Man of Science value meal that kids ages 6 to 12 can enjoy—well, at least until they throw up and grow up.


Read the whole thing.

(Via Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog.)

Thursday, October 29, 2009

The Crazies Are Coming Out

to critique the Pope's impending offer of reconciliation for those Anglicans who have been requesting it for years. And the resulting display is revealing:

Lex Communis:

In regard to Dawkins' bigotted rant, Damien Thompson at the Telegraph asks a pertinent question:

The peg for this piece? The Pope’s offer to make special arrangements for Anglicans converting to Rome, a matter I would have thought was none of Prof Dawkins’s business. But I’m not going to bother to argue with any of his points, because these are the ravings of a man who appears to have lost all sense of proportion. Seriously: is there something wrong with him?


The answer is clearly yes.


Read the whole thing.

(Via Lex Communis.)

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Perspective

on the whole Anglican-Catholic thing that has been buzzing in the blogosphere:

EARLY RETURNS | Midwest Conservative Journal:

The RCC can reach into its sofa cushions and find more peeps than attend Episcopal churches.


Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Friday, October 23, 2009

Obama

seems to define himself by his perceived enemies. He becomes President and starts identifying the Republican party with Rush Limbaugh. Now he's using his bully pulpit to try to isolate Fox News. Who's the last President to focus so much attention on his "enemies"?

Quote of the Day (So Far!):

It comes from today's classic Krauthammer column on the White House's war on Fox:



Defend Fox from the likes of Anita Dunn? She's been attacked for extolling Mao's political philosophy in a speech at a high school graduation. But the critics miss the surpassing stupidity of her larger point: She was invoking Mao as support and authority for her impassioned plea for individuality and trusting one's own choices. Mao as champion of individuality? Mao, the greatest imposer of mass uniformity in modern history, creator of a slave society of a near-billion worker bees wearing Mao suits and waving the Little Red Book?



Read the whole thing, as they say.


Read the whole thing.

(Via Campaign Standard.)

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Bold, Benedetto, and Bello

More thoughts on the big news from Monday:

Bold, Benedetto, and Bello:

As the Second Vatican Council developed, traditional Catholics in England were distressed because they saw Rome giving up the Old Latin Mass for a vernacular both shallow and shabby. Further, as Evelyn Waugh put it, "This was the Mass for whose restoration the Elizabethan martyrs had gone to the scaffold. St. Augustine, St. Thomas à Becket...


Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

A Coming Storm

is predicted by Father Z:

Whose ecumenism?:

Liberals are beginning to twit.



They are just warming up, but soon it will be a grand mal twit.


Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

More Evidence

that Papa Ratzi has outflanked the ecumenist establishment and "liberal" bishops:

Standing on My Head: Personal Ordinariate - the Background:

Daily Telegraph religion journalist Damien Thompson is sometimes a bit gossipy for my liking, but in this article he does an inside analysis on some of the other major things happening in and behind this week's stunning announcement of Personal Ordinariates for Anglicans.


Read the whole thing.

(Via Lex Communis.)

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Fr. Z on Fr. Rutler on

the News from Rome is the inspiration for this break in silence. My reading of this is that the old man is moving the establishment against it's will. One report from England seems to confirm this. Four-plus years in and the Pope is slowly but steadily moving the bureaucracy towards his idea of ecumenism.


And the announcement before an actual Apostolic Constitution is finalized signals two things to me. First, the Vatican is getting a little more media-savvy. Second, there were rumblings from the establishments (in London and Rome) that the move would be sabotaged with malicious "leaks" if Rome waited for the text to be ready. Talks with the Anglicans will continue, of course. It's just that there will be less and less to talk about.


Consider what some wiser heads than mine have to say about this news:


Fr. George Rutler (convert from Anglicanism) on new Anglican provision:

On CNA Fr. George Rutler comments on the new Anglican provisions.  My emphases and comments:



October 20, 2009

Fr. Rutler discusses Vatican’s Anglican provision

By Fr. George Rutler *



Editor’s Note: Fr. George Rutler, a convert from Anglicanism, was asked by CNA what his reaction is to the Vatican’s new Anglican provision. Fr. Rutler’s reply follows.



It is a dramatic slap-down of liberal Anglicanism and a total repudiation of the ordination of women, homosexual marriage and [this is important] the general neglect of doctrine in Anglicanism.


Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)