Quote of the Day

Bob Dylan is a Phony, Unlike Joni Mitchell:

I just want to take this opportunity to point out that there is no such thing as “spirituality.” Doesn’t exist, has no meaning. It’s just a name for “doing what I want to do and feeling that the universe somehow smiles on me for doing it.

—Alan Jacobs doesn’t think much of spirituality.

Read the whole thing.

(Via First Thoughts.)

Another Solution

to the difficulty about EMHC's giving blessings:

Blessings from lay people?:

My post yesterday about deacons giving blessings prompted a reader to write: My question is, as a eucharistic minister, would you have in your repertoire a short blessing that we can use when a non-Catholic or child comes up for a blessing during communion? I use, " May the Lord's blessings come down upon you in abundance" Acceptable? Well, actually...

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

A Summary

of the sex-abuse scandal in the Church and the MSM coverage of it:

Media's deadly ammunition of half-truths:

A retired Hollywood actor and Catholic convert whom I had the honor of sponsoring, regularly sends me clippings about the Catholic sex scandals from newspapers and news magazines -- his only source of news other than television, since he fastidiously eschews the world of computers. I do not know how much help he finds from his priest in sorting out fact from fiction in the daily media onslaught. One feels considerable sympathy for our priests, who doubtless feel besieged and confused by the anti-Catholic onslaught in the media and may prefer to ignore the issue in their homilies. The result, however, is the reinforcement of an unhealthy fortress mentality, where the Faith is increasingly isolated from the issues of the day and rendered irrelevant. Legions of parishioners like my actor friend need answers. Hence, the issues must be addressed.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Musings of a Pertinacious Papist.)

Taboo

topics in RCIA certainly included contraception. I managed to persuade some to attend a viewing of Dr. Smith's video "Contraception: Why Not?" in the Mystagogia period of formation. The reactions were enlightening to say the least.

Contraception, deception, and retrospection:

The feature story for the May 2, 2010, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper is titled, "Uncovering a string of lies"; it was written by Dr. Janet Smith to mark the 50th anniversary of the FDA's approval of "The Pill." An excerpt:

That the Father of Lies should be using lies and subterfuge to promote contraception should not be surprising.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog.)

Just A Brief Rant

about Catholic Update, a publication I loved to hate during my RCIA days: Bland, confusing, uninformed, uninspiring. Ok, rant over:

God is other, people:

My award for "Worst Theological Point Inspired by Earth Day" goes to the following e-card from St. Anthony Messenger Press:

Holy people
such as Sts. Francis and Clare
remind us that
we are not separate
from the natural world
but part of it
in one sacred earth community.

Catholic Update

This one is a close second.

More Earth Day-themed greetings can be found here.

(Via Ten Reasons.)

Two Points of View

on the brief Oxburgh report; I'm unable to evaluate the differences between the two. First, Global Warming:

Second CRU inquiry reports:

The Oxburgh report on the science done at the CRU has now been published and….. as in the first inquiry, they find no scientific misconduct, no impropriety and no tailoring of the results to a preconceived agenda, though they do suggest more statisticians should have been involved. They have also some choice words to describe the critics.

Carry on…

(Via RealClimate.)

Now the opposition:

Oxburgh’s Trick to Hide the Trick:

The Oxburgh report ” is a flimsy and embarrassing 5-pages.

They did not interview me (nor, to my knowledge, any other CRU critics or targets). The committee was announced on March 22 and their “report” is dated April 12 – three weeks end to end – less time than even the Parliamentary Committee. They took no evidence. Their list of references is 11 CRU papers, five on tree rings, six on CRUTEM. Notably missing from the “sample” are their 1000-year reconstructions: Jones et al 1998, Mann and Jones 2003, Jones and Mann 2004, etc.)

Read the whole thing.

(Via Climate Audit.)

Any Stick to Beat a Dog With

seems to be the operating principle of the MSM these last few weeks:

Anti-Benedict Campaign Jumps Shark Again:

Okay, so today's headline in the "Benedict is a Stoopid Doodyhead" shark attack is "Vatican forgives The Beatles for 'bigger than Jesus' comment ". Some variations of this hot hot HOT story tell us the Pope or Rome or somebody "finally" forgives the whole "bigger than Jesus" remark.

Don't these guys even read their own copy? What about the *last* time the Vatican/pope/Rome/some guy in L'Osservatore Romano (they are all one and indistinguishable) forgave the bigger than Jesus remark? Heck! I wrote a whole piece about it at the time! And now they are playing that tape again? What? Are they running out of material?

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

Whack-A-Pope

continues with interesting results. Now that the Vatican push-back is impossible to ignore, the MSM tries to fan the flames of a Catholic-Queer smackdown. A potentially entertaining tangle of absurdities results:

Card. Bertone in Chile strikes some sparks, MSM puffs on the fire:

From CBS/AP ... yes.. AP again…



My E & C.

SANTIAGO, Chile, April 12, 2010

Pope’s No. 2: Sex Abuse Tied to Homosexuality

Cardinal Bertone’s Remarks Cause Uproar; U.S. Priest Slams Vatican for "Incompetence and Irresponsibility"



(CBS/AP)   Updated at 7:15 a.m. Eastern.  [The original title seems to have been "Sex abuse not tied to celibacy"]



The Vatican’s second-highest authority says the sex scandals haunting the Roman Catholic Church are linked to homosexuality and not celibacy among priests. [There are the two points… homosexuality and celibacy.  But they shifted the title of the story.]

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

Fair and Balanced

coverage of the Climategate issue is my goal. So here's a response from the "Yes there is potentially catastrophic anthropogenic global warming going on" side:

The Economist does not disappoint:

The March 20th -26th cover story of The Economist, “Spin, science and climate change,” deftly bypasses the politics surrounding ‘climategate’, to tackle the more important issue: whether any of this has any bearing on climate change science and policy. This is a refreshing bit of journalism that everyone should read.

Read the whole thing.

(Via RealClimate.)

Defrocking

doesn't, strictly speaking, have any meaning in Catholic usage. "You are a Priest Forever" actually means what it says for the Church. There are two ways of leaving the ministry: by ejection, as a penalty ["degradation" in the old usage or "dismissal from the clerical state" (1983 CIC 1336.1, n. 5)], or by having a request for dispensation granted [laisization]. These distinctions do not register with those in the MSM who would be teaching us, though:

Mt. Rainier, Puyallup and Defrocking:

One of the ways that Out of Staters periodically embarrass themselves when they visit Washington (the New England of the West Coast) is by making casual knowing references to things they know little about. So, for instance, when somebody insouciantly declares that they are going to take a drive out to "Renyay" or visit "Poo yall up" Washingtonians smile cryptically and look at the floor. (Hint: It's "Pew al up" and "Rayneer" and you aren't from around here, are you stranger?)

When I read the hysteria in the daily installments of the Get Benedict Campaign that the media has ginned up, I feel the same way. Everybody keeps screaming about "defrocking" and seems to think they know what they are talking about about. So we were breathlessly informed us that Benedict refused to punish a pervert California priest with "defrocking". The mob shouts in righteous indignation!

Read the whole thing.

(Via Catholic and Enjoying It!.)

A Priest Can Dream, Can't He?

Father Z goes on a reverie that warms the cuckolds of this old heart:

Is Benedict XVI a “better Pope” than John Paul II? A couple views and then Fr. Z really rants.:

[...] If I were Pope, I would form a small corps of monsignori tasked to obtain some resignations…  I think I would recruit them from, say, Sicily.  They seem to know how to do this sort of thing quietly, with a smile.  "Eccellenza… our Holy Fadher isa greatly concerned fora your healt." One sits down a little too close to the bishop. The other, still standing, opens his jacket, reaches in and draws out a beautiful Waterman fountain pen and thick, folded sheet of paper.]

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

Fisking

is an art form, best left to practioners with intelligence and insight. I give you Father Z on an AP hack writer:

Another ridiculous AP article deconstructed:

AP, which unprofessionally has declared open season on Pope Benedict – engaged in a relentless ad hominem – has a piece which cites as the mainstay non other than Richard McBrien. They drag in a 'conservative' for reasons of ballast, but they crack on upon their course.



My emphases and comments.

Pope's ivory tower past adds to his detachment



By VANESSA GERA, Associated Press Writer Vanessa Gera, Associated Press Writer [AP's correspondent in Poland] - Sun Apr 11, 1:41 pm ET



VATICAN CITY - Long before entering Vatican life, Pope Benedict XVI won renown as a theologian and a German university professor, penning more than 40 books and winning a devoted following of students who respected his prodigious memory and brilliant mind.



One thing absent from his resume? Significant time as a parish priest. [I think what we are about to see here is a common liberal trope: when you want to discredit someone or something, say that it or he isn't 'pastoral'. Personal anecdote: I was once told by a chancery hack in a diocese where an ultra-liberal bishop was in charge that their concern about me was that I was conservative but I was intelligent. I am not making this up. If I were 'less intelligent', and, say, more 'pastoral', well... then.... First, liberals only think liberals are really intelligent. But when they run across [FILL IN BLANK] on the other side which is smart, effective, successful, etc., they label that thing or person 'not pastoral'. A perfect example is what Bp. Trautman says about the new translation. I already have the sense that that is what you are going to see in this article.]

Read the whole thing.

(Via What Does The Prayer Really Say?.)

What He Said

I noticed some of the MSM touting the "Papal Scandal" alongside the NYT. For example, there were complaints in the blogosphere about the London Times just before the American Times resumed covering itself with shame. The BBC, which I like to watch for international news was following lockstep. And I join those who are curious about the timing of the "demonstration" organized in Saint Peter's Square that just happened to coincide with the Times latest assault on the papacy. So I'm in agreement with this:

Birds of a Feather:

Ruth Gledhill of The Times in London seems to be vying with Maureen Dowd for the 'Dumb Attacks on the Catholic Church' award. In this article she leapfrogs from Archbishop Rowan Williams snide comments about the Catholic Church to the sermon by Fr Raniero Cantalamessa quoting a Jewish friend who recognized elements of the persecution in the present campaign against the Catholic Church that...

Read the whole thing.

(Via New Advent World Watch.)

Mea Culpa

It's the Catholic thing to acknowledge one's guilt. In the Latin (curiously changed in the present-and-soon-to-be-replaced translation) we start each Mass by confessing our sinfulness: Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa ([through] my fault, my fault, my most grievous fault--replaced with "through my own fault, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do;"). So it is good for us to consider how we have been complicit in the Long Lent that we are still suffering through:

Happy Hour Links:

Peggy Noonan on the Catholic Church's catastrophe.

Read the whole thing.

(Via Campaign Standard.)