The pope may move the Sign of Peace in the liturgy to an earlier spot (the article doesn't say but likely before the Eucharistic Prayer). This will move it away from communion and is a change that many more traditional Catholics have been clamoring for. I myself am unconvinced it makes much difference. I think the idea is not to have the sign of peace while the consecrated gifts are on the altar as it would disrupt the "vertical" with the "horizontal", i.e., greeting your neighbor while the Body and Blood of Christ are present is somehow offensive to God. Real traditionalists despise the Sign of Peace anyway so what difference does it make. :-) My point being, the Body and Blood of Christ will always be present (I mean in the tabernacle), except during the Triduum and when there are a lot of sick calls, so it doesn't save you much in reality. However such a move would make it more in agreement with the Byzantine Liturgy, which places it just before the Creed.
Recently in News Clips Category
Dating site eHarmony is going to roll out match options for homosexuals under pressure from the New Jersey Civil Rights Division.
I wonder when this is going to hit Catholic sites.
Atheists and other non-believers are coming out of the closet
Of course, the problem is that non-believers are so independent it's hard to get a coherent group of them together to act.
A George priest faces excommunication for participating in the attempted ordination of a woman to the priesthood. It is good to see the Holy See cracking down on such things; what I find surprising is that he was only present, not directly involved, depending on your definition of 'directly involved'. The article said he "participated" in the ceremony. From other sources this apparently means he concelebrated and gave the homily.
Anyway I find the photo that accompanies the story interesting. He's wearing jeans and a T-Shirt, maybe in recognition of the fact that he's already abandoned the clerical state.
The bad news is that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development funded ACORN, the liberal group associated with fraudulent voter registrations. The good news is they no longer are, owing not only to the voter registration fraud but to high-level embezzlement charges.
AMEN!
The American Humanist Association has bought ads on Washington buses saying, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake".
Of course, this raises the question of, if there is no God (or at least, no reward beyond the material), why be good? Indeed, what does it mean to be good without God? (Though I suppose there is such a thing as natural law.)
This is nice, but what about churches for the people who live there (the Copts)? They have been forbidden to build new churches or even to repair the old ones. It's a disgrace, and I think the Pope should have addressed the tragic suffering that the Copts are undergoing instead of merely whining about lack of churches for tourists. I think it would be better to build/fix Coptic Catholic churches and let the tourists actually experience a taste of Egypt than build Latin-Rite churches that only serve tourists. Not to be too offensive but that would be like building an American chain restaurant in Rome.
'Burn their f---ing churches, then tax charred timbers'
"I swear, I'd murder people with my bare hands this morning."
"While financially I supported the Vote No, and was vocal to everyone and anyone who would listen, I have never considered being a violent radical extremist for our equal rights. But now I think maybe I should consider becoming one. Perhaps that is the only thing that will affect the change we so desperately need and deserve."
It's time to prosecute these people for hate crimes. Not that I think it will succeed, but we should try.
How can a constitutional amendment be unconstitutional? Homosexuals frantically try to stop Proposition 8.
A Jewish woman filed a lawsuit against her Christian son for publishing a prayer request for her conversion in a church bulletin. She lost the lawsuit, thankfully. There is some sanity left!
The Vatican newspaper has gotten a makeover of late, with more photos, more secular news, and a different layout.
Archaeologists have found what one thinks is the oldest extant Hebrew writing dating to the kingdom of David, re-enforcing views of the Bible's veracity. It was found on a pottery shard. Not all archaeologists are convinced it is Hebrew, mostly because the alphabet was shared with other ethnic groups at the time.
(Thanks to RC)
Here is an inspiring story in today's world. A woman at a house auction keeping her son company heard a woman crying about her foreclosed home. She bought the house and now the woman is making payments to her instead.
Mostly because of the economy and the war. Not that there is any love lost between McCain and Christians. Of course, by their definition, 48% of all voters are "born-again Christians". That I don't believe.
The Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, a theologically conservative and evangelical-leaning diocese, has voted to sever ties with the Episcopal Church but will remain a member of the Anglican communion, by way of the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone in South America.
I say, good for them. But there is an interesting quote: The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding pseudo-bishop of the U.S. church, said schism "frequently been seen as a more egregious error than charges of heresy." Hmmm. I am remembering the book I recently read, My Visit to Hell (which is essentially an update of Dante's Inferno). In this book the sin of schism is in a much lower ring of hell than the sin of heresy. This is because schismatics tend to spurn authority and maliciously divide themselves from each other (anyone who's looked at the history of a schismatic Orthodox group, or for that matter a schismatic Catholic one, will recognize this), whereas heretics tend to be sincerely convinced of their errors. At least that was my take on it. So the good lady has a certain point. Then again, they are remaining in communion with the rest of the Anglicans. So it's not total schism.
They'd better change their website though. Presumably they are no longer Episcopal. The domain seems to be right though.
Actually it wasn't even that. All the pastor wanted was for an outside bingo group to contribute something (video). For twenty years the parish has been eating all the costs, providing the space for free. Now the pastor wants the group to help pay for the A/C and cover wear and tear on the equipment. But a woman they interviewed is convinced he's going to Hell for it.
(Disclaimer: I am friends with said pastor but I'd think this was ridiculous regardless of who it was.)
I'd like to ask the woman what commandment he's breaking. Thou shalt entertain thine elders and offer them big prizes? True, there is more to Christian morality than the commandments, but the point remains: Where does it say that it is wrong to ask for some reimbursement when using church property when the church can no longer give free rent to any group who wants it?
The leader of the bingo group — which, curiously, is never named, despite the fact that bingo is tightly regulated in Massachusetts and you can't just get some ad-hoc group together to do it — claims that they operate at a loss. This makes things even more interesting. How can you continue to do bingo if all you're doing is losing money? Either you have a big savings (and I'm not sure that's allowed), or someone is bankrolling you (which also seems doubtful). I suspect what she meant was that 1) we are struggling to break even; or 2) if we paid these fees, we'd be at a loss. The article said she's "stepping down" and bingo is ending. That almost sounds like she's part of a larger organization.
I haven't talked to the pastor so I don't know his reasons. The obvious reason would be to provide revenue or reduce expenses for a tight budget. That's easy enough to believe. It might also be that he's not thrilled with the concept of bingo and is trying to starve it out. I can't remember his stand on bingo so I can't comment on that.
I admit that this is sad, but I understand the need to have outside organizations pay for the use of church facilities.
A Roman Rite Catholic bishop in India got suspended for adopting a 26 year-old woman, one of the four daughters of an Orthodox Church priest from Pathnamthitta district. He was quoted as saying, "I have only fatherly love toward the woman who has spiritual powers. This relation is giving me spiritual refreshment." He is being investigated by the Kerala Catholic Bishop's Council. Canon law forbids adoption by clerics because of the financial and moral liabilities it would invite.
You have to admit, what he said about her sounded kind of creepy, like she was involved in a cult.
There is a trio of Irish priests who have recorded an album and embarked on a musical career.
I can't say they are particularly evangelistic — when asked if they "expect to offer help to wayward musicians" they said something mealy-mouthed about maybe having the opportunity to "do a little good", but "certainly we aren't setting out with that in mind."
Are they priests first and musicians second? Well, no, not really — music brought them into the priesthood. The question is, does that mean that chronologically music came first, or that music is first in priority? Although the latter doesn't seem so given some of their other comments.
But it is good to see priests getting some exposure like this even if they aren't singing Fr. Corapis. (Somehow I can't picture that anyway.)
Pope Benedict has done the first canonization of a woman saint from India. She was a member of the Syro-Malabar rite, and was from the state of Kerala, where the biggest concentration of Christians in India is. This is seen as a morale boost to a community facing violent Hindu persecution. The article said this was the first Indian woman saint but I can't help but believe that an apostolic church like that has some early saints that pre-dated the canonization process. I mean, Christianity has been there for 2,000 years, you'd think they'd have a woman saint by now. (Though they haven't been in communion with Rome that whole time.) Unfortunately attempting to do a Google search is somewhat futile; all the links are to this particular saint.
This was a surprise, to me at least, with all the focus on California. The dike is breaking, we now have three states that accept gay marriage.
Apparently some forms of discrimination are OK. A man who sued claiming that Ladies' Nights at bars are discriminatory lost his lawsuit.
PETA wants Ben & Jerry's to use human milk instead of cow's milk in their ice cream. "PETA officials say a move to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health." No word on the deleterious effect it would have on dairy humans and their babies on factory farms.
Even if we ignore for the moment the revulsion factor in drinking some strange woman's breast milk, there are practical matters that make this infeasible. First, all the donor women would have to be restricted from using any sort of drugs or anything that could cause untoward effects on the milk. Second, there is the whole thorny problem of diet. Unless you force all the women to eat grain like we do cows, you are going to get undesirable inconsistencies in the milk. Third, the same factors that make milking cows, it seems to me, would come into play with women, that is, degradation and all the forces of mass-production.
This is just another example that when you start treating animals like humans, you start treating humans like animals.
Fr. Damien, who ministered at a Hawaiian leprosy colony, is in the final stages of his canonization and the patients and workers there are contemplating the implications for their quiet community.
Averring that he had been misunderstood and his aim distorted, a Catholic priest who had planned on taking votes on nuns based on profiles on his website has canceled the competition. The idea had been to raise awareness of vocations and demonstrate that religious sisters are not all old and dour. A noble goal, but perhaps a naive way to achieve it.
This news is even older but maybe someone hasn't heard of it. The Vatican has ruled that the divine name is no longer to be heard in the liturgy, effectively nixing at least one popular song that (at least in its original form) uses the Y-word. Citing Jewish and first-century Christian practice, the Vatican said that the name is unpronounceable. "Avoiding pronouncing the tetragrammaton of the name of God on the part of the Church has therefore its own grounds. Apart from a motive of a purely philogical order, there is also that of remaining faithful to the Church's tradition, from the beginning, that the sacred tetragrammaton was never pronounced in the Christian context, nor translated into any of the languages into which the Bible was translated."
This is pretty funny because just the other day we were discussing the Tetragrammaton in bible study (we're in Exodus) and I was reflecting on my tendency to agree with the Jews that it should not be pronounced. I was thinking of asking the priest leading it what he thought but first I asked if a certain word in the text was the Tetragrammaton, not wishing to pronounce it. He said it was, and asked me to explain to the group what the Tetragrammaton was. I hesitated since I thought he was asking me to pronounce it, but he only wanted the letters. He then went on into uncomfortable detail about how to pronounce it, which answered my unasked question.
There is a danger in violating the commandment not to take the name of the Lord in vain when we bandy about the Divine Name, even if it is for ostensibly legitimate purposes. It should be treated with the utmost respect, just as the Ark of the Covenant was. So the easiest way to do this is simple to not pronounce it.
ZENIT reports that a TV ad campaign to bring fallen away Catholics back to the faith is seeing excellent results. Over 6,000 responded directly to the CatholicsComeHome.org web site. Non-Catholics also responded, many wanting to convert. What's interesting is that about "90% of those who left the Church can't give a good reason" why they left, and many can't express why they want to come back — they simply say they felt something was missing. This reflects my observation that Catholic roots go deep — once you are a Catholic, it sinks so deeply into you that even if you formally leave the church, you can't shake it. This is I think what causes ex-Catholics to be so much more bitter than erstwhile members of other churches (ever heard of an anti-Presbyterian?) — they are "kicking against the goads" and trying to fight that Catholicism that remains deep within them.
The pope sent a text message to World Youth Day pilgrims: "The Holy Spirit gave the Apostles and gives u the power boldly 2 proclaim that Christ is risen! - BXVI."
Too funny!
The pope is weighing in on climate change more, saying "We have to give impulse to rediscovering our responsibility and to finding an ethical way to change our way of life." These are probably the strongest statements yet he has made on the subject. He also spoke on the sexual abuse crisis.
A Michigan woman is claiming to channel Padre Pio and other spirits. She has a daughter who communicates with angels. She is an award-winning Catholic catechist but somehow missed the part about mediumship being a sin. As far as I'm concerned she's communicating with demons and merits reproach for channeling anyone. I'm surprised the reporter didn't ask the diocese what they thought. I hope they do something about her and warn her of the dangers she is engaging in.
(Thanks to Tom S.)
The Church of England is one step closer to ordaining women bishops. I hate to pronounce this "good" but it will have the glad effect of precipitating more converts to Catholicism. I wonder if the Pastoral Provision allowing married priests to convert to Catholicism and be ordained keeping their wives is in force in England?
A student at the University of Central Florida stole a communion host, upset that student fees for the public university are going to support religious institutions. When he tried to take it without consuming it at communion, he was stopped (he says forcibly), but he put it in his mouth and recovered it later.
I'm not sure the student understands the seriousness of what he's done. Basically, he's desecrated the Eucharist. And a secular person (which I assume he is) is not going to appreciated the magnitude of that. Even a religious person who is not Catholic might not fully understand.
Of course, such disrespect falls on his own head and hurts only him; Jesus is not helpless, nor can he be harmed by sacrilege. Well, I suppose the community can be harmed by the bad example, but it can also be edified by gaining an increased appreciation for the Eucharist and rallying around the cause.
I am reminded of Uzzah in 2 Sam 6:7 who touched the Ark of the Covenant when he wasn't supposed to and was struck dead. How much more do we need to be mindful of the Holy Eucharist and maintaining respect for it. "A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep." (1 Cor 11:28-30) The Eucharist is serious stuff. (Perhaps there is a lesson here to all of us not to take it so cavalierly.)
So the big concern here is for his soul and convincing him to give it up and stop committing sacrilege.
(Thanks to Amy M.)
(See good news/bad news followup)
Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis was appointed prefect of the Apostolic Signature, the Church's supreme court. This is a significant recognition of his abilities as a canon lawyer and puts another American in Rome. Burke is well-known for taking a stand for orthodoxy, excommunicating some individuals for attempting a woman's ordination and others for schism. He is well respected by those who count. This is a good move. He will be sorely missed as an archbishop, though. I do feel bad however; well-known Catholic speaker and convert from Judaism Rosalind Moss just picked St. Louis as a place to start her new religious order, no doubt due to the influence and presence of Archbishop Burke. Hope things go well with her and her order.
Unless you've been under a rock for the last several years, you're familiar with the runaway success of the user-edited Wikipedia encyclopedia, where anyone can contribute or edit an article, even anonymously. Well the same open-source content is now being applied to the Bible. Yes, you heard that right; budding scholars can take a chapter and translate it themselves. Never mind that this will produce a patchwork of chapters with inconsistent styles and widely varying quality. It's a bit more critical for the Bible than for Wikipedia. Not to mention the religious wars over translation (although it's unclear whether they'll follow exactly the same model as Wikipedia in terms of being completely open to edit by anyone). So far there is no danger of it being done anytime soon; only 21 have signed up so far.
Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Barack Obama are sparring over Obama's biblical references and "fruitcake" interpretations of the Constitution. Obama had cited Levitical laws in an apparent attempt to make following the Bible look silly, taking it out of context in the process. "... He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter," Dobson said. The criticism comes as Obama attempts to reach out to Evangelical voters.
The goal of these liberals who "haven't read their bibles" (an ironic criticism Obama made in one of his speeches) is that they attempt to undermine Biblical teaches against, say, homosexuality by reading them out of Leviticus together with proscriptions on eating pork and shellfish and weaving two types of thread together and say, see, if you buy one, you have to buy the whole package, and are you willing to do that? What they don't understand is that homosexual acts were proscribed both before and after the Mosaic law they are quoting, which only applies to Jews (technically to Hebrews but we'll go with Jews for now). While the Mosaic law passed away with Christ, the stricture against homosexual acts was reiterated by St. Paul. Consequently, it is independent of the laws forbidding shellfish. This is how these people take verses out of context and yes, don't know their Bible.
And thanks be to God I don't live in Canada so I can say the above and not be prosecuted.
Could it happen — might George W. Bush convert to Catholicism like his brother Jeb? Shades of Tony Blair! If he does let's hope the Pope treats him a lot better, though apparently they've met several times recently and had warm exchanges.
I'm not sure what I think of this. Obviously having another convert is good, in and of itself, though having someone as unpopular as Bush with his reputation for intelligence might not reflect as well on the concept of converting to Catholicism as one would like. But we'll take 'im.
On a totally, totally random note — I was imagining conversations between him and Jeb, and thinking about how a president's relatives reach him by phone, and wondering if the White House operators learn to recognize their voices so they can't be faked, and finally whether the president uses a commercial off-the-shelf cellphone, or whether the military builds a custom one for him. Actually there are two questions, the second being, does he use his highly secure military-grade communication for personal calls, or does he reserve that for official business? Surely they have a way of communicating with him that is not over the commercial networks, although I don't know how you do that without building a parallel cell network or something similar. That seems unlikely. This may be a question for the incomparable Cecil Adams.
(Thanks to my friend Bacon)
A man had his name legally changed to "In God We Trust". The Artist Formerly Known As Steve Kreuscher wanted to be able to sign his paintings that way and said he wanted to the change "so bad".
Frankly I think the whole thing is stupid and I suspect he'll change it back after the novelty wears off and he tires of dealing with the inconvenience of the name.
At least he didn't have it tatooed across his forehead.
Serves 'em right. The Diocese of Rome banned Ron Howard from filming Angels and Demons, the prequel to Dan Brown's DaVinci Code, in two key Roman churches. I read the book because it sounded innocuous, even favorable toward the church, but turned out to be the same anti-Catholic drivel (power-hungry Vatican official threatens to destroy the world). Thank goodness I only borrowed it from the library.
An underground site has been discovered in Jordan which archaeologists believe may be the oldest church in existence, dating to A.D. 33 - A.D. 70. If true this is an exciting find because the next oldest church is third century.
This is why I think Obama will win this coming election here in the U.S. Well, one among many reasons; disgust over Bush and the media attention Obama has received during the Democratic primary are other reasons. We know that Evangelicals were key to Republican victories in past elections. Republicans can't win without Evangelicals. And whereas before, Republicans asked Evangelicals to campaign for them, they aren't doing that this time, and basically there is no love lost among the Evangelicals. Now, with a tepid if not downright cold relationship between McCain and Evangelicals, Obama is taking a page from the Republican playbook and actively courting Evangelicals and Catholics. That can only mean trouble for Republicans, and more importantly, the key issues they stand for that we as Christians care most about.
This brings up an important issue. The election is being framed in terms of feeding the hungry -- social justice issues -- versus abortion and gay marriage and embryonic stem cell research. Let's be frank, Jesus, and even the Old Testament, did focus on feeding the hungry and taking care of the poor, with nary a mention, not directly anyway, of abortion and gay rights and so forth. This can give the impression that feeding the hungry is a more important issue. That's what Jesus emphasized, and so should we, the argument might go. But prescinding from the fact that abortion and embryonic stem cell research is murder and thus trump feeding the hungry, what we have to do I believe is look at the culture of Jesus' time and what the prevailing issues were. Gay rights, abortion, and embryonic stem cell research were not a problem. Thus I contend Jesus had no need to address them. Everyone knew that practicing homosexuality was wrong, and it was quite uncommon. Far more common were the poor and their suffering, so Jesus opted to address that first. Plus the scale of the suffering of the poor was such that it cried out to heaven.
If you compared the poor we have in the United States with the poor of the Middle East, you'd see a vast difference. First, poverty was far worse (i.e. more severe) in the Middle East. Second, it was more extensive (more people were affected). Contrary to what the Democrats would have you think, Republicans aren't against social programs for the poor, they simply disagree with the extent with which they should be extended. We have a very good social net in our country despite what anyone says, and the controversy is not whether we should have it, but how much it should be funded. On the contrary, while Republicans are not opposed in principle to social justice, Democrats are opposed in principle to restricting abortion, gay marriage, and embryonic stem cell research. So while Republicans don't agree with them on social justice issues, they at least get partial credit, while Democrats get no credit on these Christian issues advocated by Republicans. That would be my argument, anyway.
Bystanders ignored a victim of a hit-and run in Hartford yesterday while it is all caught on tape. Two cars, apparently one chasing the other, crossed the center line and the second one hit a 78 year-old man crossing the street. There were multiple witnesses but no one helped him until a cop on an unrelated call found him. What a crying shame! It's provoking much moral outrage in Hartford. One witness said he was "uncomfortable" helping the victim! You should be feeling more uncomfortable ignoring him! Maybe you can't provide medical hellp, but why anyone would feel uncomfortable calling 911 and reporting it is beyond me.
Of course this is not the first time this has happened.
Newsweek had an interesting article about the deafening silence that has accompanied the release of the Evangelical Manifesto, which is an attempt to reinvigorate the ranks of the Evangelicals and move beyond the bad name they acquired in the minds of some during the last several elections. Basically, it was an attempt to find common ground, but apparently not much common ground was found, and plenty of Evangelical leaders found it not to their tastes. "Called to an allegiance higher than party, ideology and nationality, we Evangelicals see it our duty to engage with politics, but our equal duty never to be completely equated with any party, partisan ideology, economic system, or nationality," the document says. It addresses the issue that I think is far too prevalent among Evangelicals, and that is the tendency to conflate the platform of the Republican Party with biblical doctrine. It therefore is not surprising that it hasn't been well-received among major Evangelical leaders. I haven't read it but based on what I've heard it seems a shame that it's not given more thoughtful consideration.
Here is an interesting dilemma. An autistic teen got kicked out of a Catholic church because his disruptive behavior threatened other parishioners, the church's board said. (I'm not sure why the board made this decision and not the pastor, not that I oppose lay involvement, just find it interesting.) Supposedly he knocked some people down, spit on someone else, and urinated in the church, things his mother all denies. She points out, rightly, that we have an obligation to attend Mass on Sunday and she's trying to fulfill that obligation. Of course I suppose one could argue that developmentally he's below the age of reason and isn't bound by that requirement (would be interesting to see if he receives the Eucharist). They offered to set up a video feed for him in the basement but his mother says that's no better than watching it on television. She kind of has a point, although I've seen live Masses with video feeds. Interesting dilemmas.
Putting some bite into the decree on women priests. Bravo, Cardinal Levada!
Here is a good article from the Smithsonian Magazine on the alleged Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia you may be interested in. The reporter didn't extract any more information about what the ark looks like (nor did he see it) but it's got some interesting background information.
A court case is being closely watched involving two lesbians who were refused fertility service by Christian doctors. A court initially ruled in their favor but an appeals court overturned the ruling. Lots of organizations are taking sides; the American Civil Liberties Union, California Attorney General Jerry Brown, the National Health Law Program and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association all back the lesbians, while the Virginia-based American Civil Rights Union, the Islamic Medical Association of North America, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, the California Catholic Conference, the American Association of Pro Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists and Americans United for Life all back the doctors. The California Medical Association originally backed the doctors but wimped out under pressure from gay rights groups. The case is going to be heard by the California Supreme Court.
Personally I see this as another example of the sacredness of conscience being violated. I don't think people should be forced to do something they consider to be immoral. We are going to see more and more of this I think. Of course, this is similar to the case of pharmacists filling orders for birth control pills, and I know some Christians disagree about whether they have the right to refuse service on moral grounds, prime examples being Muslim cabbies who refuse to transport alcohol or Muslim cashiers who refuse to check it out. But I think I'd rather put up with having a tough time finding a cab to bring my bottle of wine home than forcing doctors to perform abortions or other objectionable medical procedures.
Britain has approved hybrid human-animal embryos, an absolute horror that no one would have considered doing not too long ago. Fortunately the law requires that the hybrids be destroyed within 14 days of creation, and prohibits their implantation. But how long is that going to last?
China is making an exception for qualified applicants to their one-child policy for earthquake victims. This is of course scant comfort to the sterilized or menopausal parents who lost their only child in the quake, but it is better than nothing. I figured they would end up doing this. Thanks be to God.
... for a contemporary Christian music artist who is near and dear to my heart (Chapman's first album was the first album I owned; I won it on a radio show), Steven Curtis Chapman and his family, especially their 15 year-old son. They suffered a tremendous tragedy on Wednesday when the son inadvertently ran over his five year-old sister in the driveway. How terrible the pain must be for them, and the anguish in the heart of the 15 year-old.
(Thanks to G.C.)