The bishop of Peoria, IL has issued a letter to his pastors, after consulting with his Presbyteral Council, has ordered that all parish churches restore the Tabernacle to the central position in the sanctuary!
Of course, many people will be moaning about how that "undermines" the "liturgy". They are welcome to a little cheese with their whine. ( Actually, they may not realize it, but that action indicated undermines the spread of "transignification" and the watering down of Eucharistic theology.)
Bishop Daniel Jenky is to be commended for strong leadership, the spine to tell "liturgists" who is in charge of the liturgy in Church which is in Peoria, and beginning the process of reform of Eucharistic Catechises in his diocese.
I have noticed that the reservation of the Blessed Sacrament in a side chapel, or away from the Sanctuary of the main Church is always accompanied by a diminution of Eucharistic piety. In a parish I attended in Indiana, you could go into the "Eucharistic Chapel" for private prayer. Except, that if you went to pray ofter the Mass, people would run in and out, never genuflecting or bowing, talk, hold disputes about things, have group meetings, place things on the altar (like books, cups, notepads, whatever--not devotional items) or otherwise act as if they were in the "gathering space" that had replaced the narthex of the Church.
Bishop Jenky can obviously look at whats is, rather than what people wish was, and take action to correct an abuse.
TRIUMPHALIST--YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?
Saturday, April 10, 2010
The Recovering Dissident Catholic
Kathy of Alex, over at The Recovering Dissident Catholic, has a couple of wonderful sentences I just have to quote:
"The Catholic Church is not a democracy. However, you have the right to go to hell."
Check her out at:
http://therecoveringdissidentcatholic.blogspot.com .
She's worth the effort.
"The Catholic Church is not a democracy. However, you have the right to go to hell."
Check her out at:
http://therecoveringdissidentcatholic.blogspot.com .
She's worth the effort.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Dispatches from the Battle Field
Great Falls-Billings: Bishop Michael Warfel of Great Falls-Billings MT has had a gay support group move it's meetings out of a parish hall in his diocese. The Parish of St. Pius X in billings had been allowing the group "Forever Our Children" to meet in the parish hall. Bp. Warfel had begun receiving inquiries from Catholics wondering why/if the Diocese or the Parish were sponsoring a group that was is violation of Catholic Teaching. He fixed the confusion.
Calgary: Calgary University threatened pro-life students with $2000 dollar fines and additional fines of up to %5000 dollars if they did not turn their signs inward at a rally. The rally was the "Genocide Awareness Programme". The University made the news a couple of weeks ago when it defended Anne Coulter's presentation as an exercise in free speech. The Students threatened pointed out that no other campus group has ever been asked to turn it's signs inward so people don't see them. They maintain that this is censorship, and a discriminatory practice, of granting them only partial rights. They maintain that they will re-erect their signs despite threatened sanctions. The University has charged them before, only to have the Crown Prosecutors rescind the charges before trial.
Big School Choice Rally: 5000 parents rallied in support of Florida's school choice proposal: For every buck a parent spends sending their kid to private schools, the state will give them a buck off of their school taxes. The point being, from the States perspective, that the students in the private schools will save the state $1.49 for every buck that it forgoes in revenue--a net gain.
It turns out that private schools are much more efficient with their money that state supported schools. Gee--who would have thought that?
Mail Fraud: The Pro-life Action League has reported (and media outlets confirmed) that fliers were sent to it's members and other groups, purporting to be from the PLAL that advertised "at home abortion kits" that produced "biodegradable" and "compostable" fetal remains in as little as 10 minutes, ready to be washed down the train or placed on the compost heap. The FBI is investigation. The kits were to sell for $400 or three for $1000. I have no idea why someone would pull a stunt like this.
Lawsuit Dismissed: A judge out in Nevada has dismissed a lawsuit against Randolph Calvo of Reno, NV. It seems that one of his priests sued him for breech of contract and emotional distress after he was removed from his pastorate for allegations of child molestation and for resorting to extra-canonical means to attempt to silence a Deacon who reported him (The priest filed a restraining order against the Deacon.)
Calgary: Calgary University threatened pro-life students with $2000 dollar fines and additional fines of up to %5000 dollars if they did not turn their signs inward at a rally. The rally was the "Genocide Awareness Programme". The University made the news a couple of weeks ago when it defended Anne Coulter's presentation as an exercise in free speech. The Students threatened pointed out that no other campus group has ever been asked to turn it's signs inward so people don't see them. They maintain that this is censorship, and a discriminatory practice, of granting them only partial rights. They maintain that they will re-erect their signs despite threatened sanctions. The University has charged them before, only to have the Crown Prosecutors rescind the charges before trial.
Big School Choice Rally: 5000 parents rallied in support of Florida's school choice proposal: For every buck a parent spends sending their kid to private schools, the state will give them a buck off of their school taxes. The point being, from the States perspective, that the students in the private schools will save the state $1.49 for every buck that it forgoes in revenue--a net gain.
It turns out that private schools are much more efficient with their money that state supported schools. Gee--who would have thought that?
Mail Fraud: The Pro-life Action League has reported (and media outlets confirmed) that fliers were sent to it's members and other groups, purporting to be from the PLAL that advertised "at home abortion kits" that produced "biodegradable" and "compostable" fetal remains in as little as 10 minutes, ready to be washed down the train or placed on the compost heap. The FBI is investigation. The kits were to sell for $400 or three for $1000. I have no idea why someone would pull a stunt like this.
Lawsuit Dismissed: A judge out in Nevada has dismissed a lawsuit against Randolph Calvo of Reno, NV. It seems that one of his priests sued him for breech of contract and emotional distress after he was removed from his pastorate for allegations of child molestation and for resorting to extra-canonical means to attempt to silence a Deacon who reported him (The priest filed a restraining order against the Deacon.)
Thursday, April 8, 2010
I like him better and better!
Abp. Jose Gomez, as I read about his actions, looks better and better to me!
Like, dissolving a diocesan commission that recommends things contrary to accepted Catholic Teaching!
Like, dissolving a diocesan commission that recommends things contrary to accepted Catholic Teaching!
I'm Running Out of Time!
So go read these articles, and maybe I'll be able to comment about them later! Meanwhile, please comment here!
www.lifenews.com/state4970.html
www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10040611.html
Thanks!
www.lifenews.com/state4970.html
www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10040611.html
Thanks!
Of course they lied to us, but now it's too late.
Remember all those editorials and opinions scoffing at the idea that panels or commissions would have the power to turn of grandma?
Well, Paul Krugman has admitted that the "Cost/Benefit Boards" will in fact have the power to make binding decisions on what care will be provided. He did so an ABCs TV show This Week and said that the boards would save lots of money.
However, before we all go, "Oh, that's just to prevent things like Heidi Montags back scoop procedure", we should consider what bioethics watchdogs are saying: That the decisions will be made, not prevent useless treatments, but to decide that the patient just isn't worth treating based on factors like age.
If you doubt this, I will simply say you haven't been paying attention. And I base this on watching medical treatments in the 70s. In the 70s Medicare and Medicaid legislation mandated "Utilization Review" procedures. My Mom was one of the first nurses involved in this process, and she was appalled. The Government was saying things like, "Gee--a 74 year old with kidney stones and concurrent infection, you will have three days to treat them, then you must discharge them from the hospital, no matter what their individual condition is." So yes, people will simply be denied treatment based on the calculus of cash, not the worth and dignity of human life.
Well, Paul Krugman has admitted that the "Cost/Benefit Boards" will in fact have the power to make binding decisions on what care will be provided. He did so an ABCs TV show This Week and said that the boards would save lots of money.
However, before we all go, "Oh, that's just to prevent things like Heidi Montags back scoop procedure", we should consider what bioethics watchdogs are saying: That the decisions will be made, not prevent useless treatments, but to decide that the patient just isn't worth treating based on factors like age.
If you doubt this, I will simply say you haven't been paying attention. And I base this on watching medical treatments in the 70s. In the 70s Medicare and Medicaid legislation mandated "Utilization Review" procedures. My Mom was one of the first nurses involved in this process, and she was appalled. The Government was saying things like, "Gee--a 74 year old with kidney stones and concurrent infection, you will have three days to treat them, then you must discharge them from the hospital, no matter what their individual condition is." So yes, people will simply be denied treatment based on the calculus of cash, not the worth and dignity of human life.
I think that this is a serious mistake.
Mr. Obama has announced a change in US defense policy: We will never use nuclear weapons against a nation that does not have them, regardless of what they do to us.
This is a change of policy that sets aside a decades old and successful policy. Hither to we have held to the policy that we consider chemical and biological weapons in the same category as nuclear weapons, that is, we consider them to be weapons of mass destruction.
We have been destroying our stockpiles of chemical weapons as fast as we can--the major hold ups being litigation to prevent the various forms of destruction, filed by people who are also protesting their existence. (I've never understood that.) WE have renounced the practice of chemical warfare. We have renounced, and never practiced biological warfare.
But we have always affirmed that if you gas us, or attack us with a biological weapon, we will nuke the living shit out of you.
The result has been that we haven't been attacked with chemical weapons since the policy was declared. Even when we have been at war with powers that possess chemical weapons. This is good, because although this is unacknowledged in the press, chemical weapons are potentially much more destructive than nuclear weapons.
Here's how that works: modern nuclear weapons are highly engineered. The type of weapons used in the Second World War were primitive, and weapons design remained primitive throughout the 1950s and into the 60s. Since then however, the science of nukes has become exact--we can and do tailor for devices for a given effect, or to curtail undesired effects. One of the undesired effects is radioactive fallout. Most of our weapons are designed and meant to be detonated in such a way as to produce minimal fallout. The fallout hazard is greatly reduced from the fears of the 1950s and On the Beach.
But chemical weapons haven't made progress in the same way. In fact, most chemical weapons fall into a group known as "persistent". To give you an idea about what this means, simply consider that it's still a thing that happens, that European farmers will plow into deposits of chemical weapon residue dating to the Great War, and it will still injure or kill them.
This is coupled with another consideration: The US Military, was well as the militaries of NATO, and the old Warsaw Pact, are thoroughly trained and well equipped to survive and function in a chemical warfare environment. Civilians are not. The result of any chemical attack will be horrendous civilian casualties. And agents persist for months, years, decades, rendering urban areas so attacked extremely hazardous to habitation, and rural areas unusable for agriculture or extractive industries. Remember the reference to chemical weapons of the Great War still causing casualties? Modern chemical agents are much worse.
And any nation that possesses the rudimentary chemical industry to produce insecticide can produce chemical agents. In fact, a Japanese cult produced sarin gas and attacked the Tokyo Subway with it, if you care to recall.
So this change in policy gives a green light to nations or groups to use chemical weapons against US forces, or people. For they know we have scrapped our capacity to retaliate in kind for chemical attacks, and now won't use other weapons of mass destruction against them.
Gee thanks, Obama, for thinking that everyone else in the world is just like us. I hope that thousands of innocents don't pay the price for your idealistic ignorance and historical blindness.
This is a change of policy that sets aside a decades old and successful policy. Hither to we have held to the policy that we consider chemical and biological weapons in the same category as nuclear weapons, that is, we consider them to be weapons of mass destruction.
We have been destroying our stockpiles of chemical weapons as fast as we can--the major hold ups being litigation to prevent the various forms of destruction, filed by people who are also protesting their existence. (I've never understood that.) WE have renounced the practice of chemical warfare. We have renounced, and never practiced biological warfare.
But we have always affirmed that if you gas us, or attack us with a biological weapon, we will nuke the living shit out of you.
The result has been that we haven't been attacked with chemical weapons since the policy was declared. Even when we have been at war with powers that possess chemical weapons. This is good, because although this is unacknowledged in the press, chemical weapons are potentially much more destructive than nuclear weapons.
Here's how that works: modern nuclear weapons are highly engineered. The type of weapons used in the Second World War were primitive, and weapons design remained primitive throughout the 1950s and into the 60s. Since then however, the science of nukes has become exact--we can and do tailor for devices for a given effect, or to curtail undesired effects. One of the undesired effects is radioactive fallout. Most of our weapons are designed and meant to be detonated in such a way as to produce minimal fallout. The fallout hazard is greatly reduced from the fears of the 1950s and On the Beach.
But chemical weapons haven't made progress in the same way. In fact, most chemical weapons fall into a group known as "persistent". To give you an idea about what this means, simply consider that it's still a thing that happens, that European farmers will plow into deposits of chemical weapon residue dating to the Great War, and it will still injure or kill them.
This is coupled with another consideration: The US Military, was well as the militaries of NATO, and the old Warsaw Pact, are thoroughly trained and well equipped to survive and function in a chemical warfare environment. Civilians are not. The result of any chemical attack will be horrendous civilian casualties. And agents persist for months, years, decades, rendering urban areas so attacked extremely hazardous to habitation, and rural areas unusable for agriculture or extractive industries. Remember the reference to chemical weapons of the Great War still causing casualties? Modern chemical agents are much worse.
And any nation that possesses the rudimentary chemical industry to produce insecticide can produce chemical agents. In fact, a Japanese cult produced sarin gas and attacked the Tokyo Subway with it, if you care to recall.
So this change in policy gives a green light to nations or groups to use chemical weapons against US forces, or people. For they know we have scrapped our capacity to retaliate in kind for chemical attacks, and now won't use other weapons of mass destruction against them.
Gee thanks, Obama, for thinking that everyone else in the world is just like us. I hope that thousands of innocents don't pay the price for your idealistic ignorance and historical blindness.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Global Warming?
Our high yesterday was 87 deg., a match for the record.
Of course, the record was set in the 1880s. Hmmmm--I would thing that if global warming were an entirely defensible theory, then the record high might just be a bit more recent.
But that's OK, the Artic Sea Ice melt has gotten off to---the latest start on record.
Of course, the record was set in the 1880s. Hmmmm--I would thing that if global warming were an entirely defensible theory, then the record high might just be a bit more recent.
But that's OK, the Artic Sea Ice melt has gotten off to---the latest start on record.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
The New Archbishop of LA will be...
A member of Opus Dei! Yes, Archbishop Jose Gomez has been named to be the Coadjutor Archbishop of LA, with Cdl. Mahoney slated to reach the Canonically mandated age of retirement next February.
Opus Dei is well known for its orthodoxy and respect for tradition. LA is well known for being a ecclesial zoo, with it's annual "Religious Education Conference" being a showcase of Liturgical Abuse, Heterodox Teaching, and Expressions of Religious Life that fly in the face of Catholic Norms.
I guess His Holiness is sending a message, 'eh?
Opus Dei is well known for its orthodoxy and respect for tradition. LA is well known for being a ecclesial zoo, with it's annual "Religious Education Conference" being a showcase of Liturgical Abuse, Heterodox Teaching, and Expressions of Religious Life that fly in the face of Catholic Norms.
I guess His Holiness is sending a message, 'eh?
The Associated Press
There is an AP report, that bears out something that Catholics have been saying for quite a while: The majority of sexual abuse was committed against adolescent boys and was homosexual in nature.
However, the AP says that the problem is not with Gay priests. I don't quite understand that. They have acknowledged that the problem isn't pedophilia, but homosexual acts forced on adolescent boys (if it were females they would be called young women to be politically correct). Yet somehow, these acts weren't "gay", because homosexual acts aren't necessarily "gay" acts.
I'm a little lost.
The AP did finally come out and admit that the vast majority of the complaints are from many years ago.
BTW--the figure of about 80-84% of sexual acts with minors being homosexual acts performed on adolescent males has held firm since about 1950! (For acts commit ed by priests.)
According to the Catholic League, the insistence that this is not a "gay" problem originates with a woman named Margaret Smith, who wrote "The majority of the abusive acts were homosexual in nature. That participation in homosexual acts is not the same as the sexual identity as a gay man."
I really don't get this, it's like setting up an artificial distinction to protect a group politically. It serves no one.
And now is the time for me to say something that needs said: I do not believe that the majority of Gay men are abusers of minors, any more than I believe the majority of straight men are abusers of minors! Get that straight! But I have also noticed something else: Gay men who are Priests tend to be very narcissistic, and I think that is a contributing factor.
However, the AP says that the problem is not with Gay priests. I don't quite understand that. They have acknowledged that the problem isn't pedophilia, but homosexual acts forced on adolescent boys (if it were females they would be called young women to be politically correct). Yet somehow, these acts weren't "gay", because homosexual acts aren't necessarily "gay" acts.
I'm a little lost.
The AP did finally come out and admit that the vast majority of the complaints are from many years ago.
BTW--the figure of about 80-84% of sexual acts with minors being homosexual acts performed on adolescent males has held firm since about 1950! (For acts commit ed by priests.)
According to the Catholic League, the insistence that this is not a "gay" problem originates with a woman named Margaret Smith, who wrote "The majority of the abusive acts were homosexual in nature. That participation in homosexual acts is not the same as the sexual identity as a gay man."
I really don't get this, it's like setting up an artificial distinction to protect a group politically. It serves no one.
And now is the time for me to say something that needs said: I do not believe that the majority of Gay men are abusers of minors, any more than I believe the majority of straight men are abusers of minors! Get that straight! But I have also noticed something else: Gay men who are Priests tend to be very narcissistic, and I think that is a contributing factor.
America Magazine
The current issue of America (which calls itself a "Jesuit" periodical, not a Catholic periodical) has an article all about how wonderful the ministry of retired priests and bishops is.
I read it, and gave it some thought. My conclusion: The "progressive" (read dissenting and semi-schismatic) clergy who have dominated the Church in the US for a generation are getting old and retiring, the younger clergy are much more apt to be orthodox in their faith and practices.
Anybody care to comment?
I read it, and gave it some thought. My conclusion: The "progressive" (read dissenting and semi-schismatic) clergy who have dominated the Church in the US for a generation are getting old and retiring, the younger clergy are much more apt to be orthodox in their faith and practices.
Anybody care to comment?
Heh!
The Calgary Sun ran an article in which recent research into people who are "green", that is to say, envinmentaly aware has come to a conclusion.
Essentially--Eco-friendly peoples tend to be self righteous Jerks. Interesting, I know people who've been saying that for years, without a degree in psychology or a research grant.
Essentially--Eco-friendly peoples tend to be self righteous Jerks. Interesting, I know people who've been saying that for years, without a degree in psychology or a research grant.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Easter Dinner
Leg of Lamb, with cloves of garlic liberally inserted into the meat, crusted with rosemary
Oven Roasted Potatoes, dredged with olive oil and a generous amount of parsley
Corn, plain old corn.
Broccoli with a cheese sauce: Brie, Swiss, Muenster, fennel and summer savory.
Fresh cut Kale (cut today!) with pork spine and fresh pulled scallions.
I hope your dinner was excellent, your family was with you and your day was filled with Blessings. And Today, we are all blessed by the Grace of the Resurrection!
BTW--Our Parish has only one priest, and our deacon is too sick to serve, (he probably won't get better), and Father has been going from Holy Thursday chrism Mass, through 7 different services on Good Friday, the Great Vigil, and the Sunday masses for Easter! He is an Liturgical Steam engine.
Oven Roasted Potatoes, dredged with olive oil and a generous amount of parsley
Corn, plain old corn.
Broccoli with a cheese sauce: Brie, Swiss, Muenster, fennel and summer savory.
Fresh cut Kale (cut today!) with pork spine and fresh pulled scallions.
I hope your dinner was excellent, your family was with you and your day was filled with Blessings. And Today, we are all blessed by the Grace of the Resurrection!
BTW--Our Parish has only one priest, and our deacon is too sick to serve, (he probably won't get better), and Father has been going from Holy Thursday chrism Mass, through 7 different services on Good Friday, the Great Vigil, and the Sunday masses for Easter! He is an Liturgical Steam engine.
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