Yes, Lent is over and I'm back with whole new sack of rants observations and epistemological angst! I was going to bring a fresh can of Whoop-A$$ as well, but it's on back order over at Curmudgeon Supplies Ltd, so perhaps not so much.
I haven't been blogging much, because I didn't want to spend my Lent reacting to the stuff that goes on in the world. Of course, the stuff kept going on. Stuff has kept going on both within and without the Church.
The Kansas City province of the Precious Blood Fathers is due for an official visitation. It seems that on their website, under the label "Justice" there are links to New Ways Ministries--condemned by the Church, and with a ruling that Clergy and religious are not to be associated with them. (This a pro-gay "ministry", that refuses to recommend chastity)--and Call to Action. I have had an Associate Pastor from the Precious Blood Fathers, the sermon I remember most clearly was delivered on the Feast of St. Francis, where the guy condemned the Franciscan--especially the FFI's and the CFRs--for wearing habits and turning their backs ont he Charism of solidarity.
Just for Grins ad Giggles, I guess, the
National Catholic Reporter ran a column leading into Holy Week, the gist of which was that Jesus was crucified by a conspiracy of political and religious powers whose control he was undermining, and that the story about dieing for our sins was just a way to guilt us into obedience befor the 2d Vatican Council.
In Mississippi, Judge Joe Dale Walker issued a court order to attendance officers in his district--comprising some five counties--to provide him with the names and addresses of all home schoolers. This isn't related to any case under consideration or pending--the Judge just want the information. A court action has been initiated to block this action, but the fact remains that despite the legal precedent, established by SCOTUS that American parents have the right to educate their children as they see fit, a member of the judiciary is attempting to intimidate and illegally gather information on people who do not want their children's minds, spirits and values to become the property of the State.
The Mexican Ambassador to the US, Arturo Sarukhan, had a wrote a letter to the
Dallas Morning News defending the Drug Cartels as businessmen. He takes exception to the the legislation pending that would lump the top five Drug Cartels--who have initiated a war in northern Mexico that disrupts the government there--as terrorists. He maintains they are businessmen. Right, who chop off heads and leave them hanging from bridges, assassinate political officials, plant bombs and have battles with the police and the army. Businessmen with a unique approach to market domination, I guess.
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is still funding leftist groups that are inimical to the Teachings of the Faith.
Our President, citing concerns about women's health, has refused to sign any cuts to funding Planned Parenthood, but didn't hesitate to cut $600,000,000 from community Health Clinics. Which cater to women with dependent children, and provide breast cancer screening, which PP in actuality doesn't. (Although PP provision of abortion and hormonal birth control are actually tow of the biggest risk factors for Breast Cancer--and largely responsible for the increase in this disease from one in twenty women in 1960 to one in five now!)
Over at LaSalle University, there is a minor scandal where a faulty member hired strippers to provide entertainment at a symposium. A rather larger, to my mind, scandal is how the Dean of Students tried to keep it covered up by forbidding the Campus Paper from publishing an article about it, and the investigation of it.
In the realm of Anti Catholic bigotry, the mainstream press isn't reporting a couple of things--Like the 40% jump in false claims of abuse against priests, and the 'sue-the-Church-get-rich-now" industry continues. Or the fact that Dr. Steve Taylor, who was the psychiatrist that SNAP used to provide "professional testimony" is now doing a couple of years in jail--for possession of child pornography. If you have an interest in such things, you might recall the things happening in California--vandalism against Catholic Churches and such, to include the spray painting of the phrase "Kill the Cathlics" (sic) on Churches in Irvine and Anaheim. On the 16th of April, St. John Vianney Church was burned to the ground in an arson attack.
This isn't just an American problem. Last year Kieth Cardinal O'Brien of Edinburgh and St. Andrews Scotland received bullets in the mail. Now the police are warning him that he is a target in a letterbomb campaign related to, of all things, football (soccer). It seems that the team the Celtics is supported largely by Catholics, while the rival team, the Rangers, is supported by "Protestants"--I put that word in quotes because I doubt they are anything more than nominal Protestants, whose Protestantism consists of hating Catholics. Ranger fans have instigated a letter bomb plot against supporters of the Celtics. It's pretty sick when sports becomes a venue for sectarian bigotry.
Our Jewish citizens are catching it too! Anti Israeli sentiment at UC Berekley, UC Santa Cruz and Rutgers has reached a point where it is no longer politics, but rampantly anti Semitic. To the point that the Federal government is noticing.
Which brings me to news of the Jihad. The massacre in Ivory Coast, where Muslin Troops with the tacit backing of the French massacred 1000 Christians stillisn't getting much play in the mainstream--not is the fact that France is opposing the old regime there mostly because the President wouldn't dance to the French tune, as all previous regimes had. In Finland, a Lutheran priest (Scandanavian Lutherans are more like Anglicans in their organization and theology) was defrocked--for condemning a Chechen Jihadist and the fact that the Chechens maintain a Jihadist web site in Finland, with the blessing of the Government. In Libya, the Europeans and the US are supporting rebels who are led in part by men who four years ago were fighting NATO and the US in Iraq. Finally, in the Levant, Muslim police shouting "Allahu Akbar" opened fire with o\automatic weapons of Jewish pilgrims praying at the tomb of Joseph. Not much coverage of this in the mainstream either.
Over at the Web Site Lez Get Real, there was a linkup to organize a protest in front of St. Patrick's cathedral during Mass on Easter Sunday, because Abp. Dolan isn't on board with Gay marriage. The language insists that
all institutions have to be behind Gay Marriage--no dissent allowed. The web sites own language says that Dolan is a hater, want's to be Pope, and wants to compel everyone to be Catholic. It also says that the Church's involvement in politics must be opposed. Look at that a moment--I am part of the Church. Quite possibly, so are you. This rhetoric is a veneer over the opinion that Catholics--especially Catholics who accept the magisterial Teachings of the Church--should not have a voice in the public square.
Oh--in Oregon, a judge has decided to rule that the Vatican is answerable to US courts. So much for diplomatic recognition, the rights of the Church, or the fact that it's up to the plaintiff to prove who works for whom. After all, Oregon is one of the most secular states in the union, and Catholics are fair game.
So all in all,we went to the desert of Lent, and when we return, we find that the City is still a morass of evil, that the rulers of our opinions are still lying by omission, that our political leaders are still duplicitous and foolish, and that our freedom is still under threat. Hopefully though, we have found the strength to continue as the Church Militant, and to have courage in the face of evil.
