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Monday, May 31, 2004
23 Rationales for War When I run up against 23 rationales for Why the Catholic Church is Totally Wrong About Everything, I smell a predetermined agenda in search of an excuse. When I run up against it in Gulf War II, I'm supposed to say, "There you go! Not just one reason, but *23* reasons!" Somebody Sent Me This I have no idea where it's from. Anybody know? And anybody know whether these guys know what they are talking about? A reader is greatly agitated by it. Pending Draft Legislation Targeted for Spring 2005 A reader writes: Recently, Michael Rose over at cruxnews.com (as you probably know) had been conducting a guerilla war of sorts with Ave Maria University over the controversial oratory and campus designs unveiled recently, with an update promised this weekend. So I logged on and found the guerilla war had been escalated to something close to trench warfare. Cruxnews published a reply from Fr. Fessio, posted a blistering rebuttal from Rose, and a further article about Monaghan's seeming abandonment of Ave Maria College. One of the great things about vacation is that one gets to vacate. I have heard nothing about this and can't comment about it at all beyond noting that Ave Maria seems like a nice idea to me and I'd hate for stupid in-fighting to kill it. But I don't know anything about what anybody from any side has said or done. I've been on Spencer Spit, feeling the sun on my face, the wind in my hair, and smelling the salt breeze full of pure clean oxygen. I've enjoyed good friends as we've chatted around a campfire. I've rejoiced at my oldest sons in their young manhood as they braved the freezing waters of Puget Sound and went swimming at Agate Beach on the south end of Lopez Island. I've read the Lord of the Rings to my two little ones and bedtimes (along with the story of Joseph in Egypt). I've celebrated Pentecost in a little clapboard church and seen the wind of the Spirit roll big breakers against the beach with the setting sun shining jade green through the waves. I stood under a waxing moon last night that was so bright it hurt my eyes. I walked arm in arm with my Janet through the woods. And I received the Eucharist with immense gratitude for my chance to be there--on vacation--and far from all the troubles of the world. So. No. I don't have any remarks on anything about AMU. But I'm sure I'll hear about it soon. :) The Infantilization of Black America Sputters on A Portland lawyer says suffering by African Americans at the hands of slave owners is to blame in the death of a 2-year-old Beaverton boy. Captain, sensors detect bullshit readings greater than anything a Federation vessel has ever encountered. Recommend we go to maximum hip waders. We all are stepping a faster pace Look out! Here comes the Master Race! You shall be as gods. Offer void where prohibited by law. Congratulations, Pavel! Ahem! Catholic Press Association awards Best Photo story Honorable Mention: National Catholic Register, North Haven, CT, "In Washington, Pope Gathers Witnesses to Christ's Suffering", Pavel Chichikov To see more of Pavel's beautiful work, go here. I sit here jawing while Pavel enriches the world through his generous work. Holy Moly! My Faith is in Ruins! Everybody read this! The Catholic Faith has been *conclusively* debunked!!! Everything you know is wrong. One guy with a website has completely overturned the Faith of millions!!!!!! Well... not really. But I thought I'd give Samuel Gipp a thrill since he went to the trouble of using my comments box to advertise for his brand of True Christianity[TM] and insult my faith. From our "Sin Makes you Stupid" files One of my closest friends is an academic. They understand the term "Google". They're not stupid. That's how they got Ph.Ds. Oddly, I've felt no impulse to beat Andy of World Wide Rant to death with a hammer for his numerous sneers at my faith Some people think Islam is strong. I think Islam is brittle. Say it with me: Bishop aren't pressuring voters. Bishops are governing their Churches. Bishops can't tell you how to vote. Bishops can't peek in your bedroom window. Bishops have no access to your bank account. Bishops don't know who you are seeing, whether you support abortion, or who you voted for. Bishop (or at any rate some bishops) are saying, "If you believe and do things gravely contrary to the faith and refuse to change, then don't receive communion in my Church." That's called "Doing their job." Sorry, but these guys were wrong It is not for laypeople to enact vigilante actions during Mass. If active and impenitent sinners wish to eat and drink damnation and the priest and bishop opt to let them, then it is not the task of a few self-appointed vigilantes to play Bishop For a Day. The Lowdown on the Latest Head Iraqi Guy All we know about these people is what the media chooses to report. I'm still trying to figure out who Chalabi was. Evangelicals and Catholics Join Forces NY Times and various wine and brie types wet themselves with fear. John J. Myers, Archbishop of Newark and Trekker And while he prides himself on his intellectual heft as a canon lawyer, he is a devoted fan of "Star Trek" and spends his spare time working on a science fiction novel, "Space Hawk." The book, which he is writing with his boyhood friend Gary K. Wolf (who wrote the novel that was turned into the animated Hollywood blockbuster "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"), tells the tale of a writer and a priest named Jasper J. Moyers, who are living on a space station in the year 2052, battling a Nazi war criminal who possesses supernatural powers. "Remember in geometry, when you changed one postulate and the entire equation is transformed?" he says. "To me that's what science fiction is like. You change one variable and then there's the intellectual exercise of imagining an entirely different world." Somebody needs to give the bishop hell for this A reader writes: Well, the priest from Pax Christi here in Rochester, Minnesota, who was caught with his pants down in a homosexual sting operation in the Cities, and who was let free from jail time because the prosecution couldn't prove that it was not consensual, and because the diocese promised he wouldn't be posted where he would have access to boys, has been reassigned by the diocese to the only parish in Owatanna, which oversees the only Catholic school in the area. Dunno who this guy's bishop is, but it appears to be a classic case of Bourbonism. Internet Theology Resources: Church History and Historical Theology All sorts of documents including ancient Christian and pagan writers and a photocopy of the Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk. Fr. Johansen Provides Clarity about the Law Appointment Meanwhile, a reader provides clarity for all those extremely angry readers out there who think that the way to happiness and peace is through the Church exacting the last drop of punishment from people they deem to be unsatisfactorily made to PAY: This flap over Cardinal Law reminds me of a much smaller matter in my own life. I experienced a humiliating public failure in my very first job out of college - which left me alone, feeling rejected by God, and literally 25 cents away from homelessness. Almost Armageddon--Four Times You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. I wonder how many times we get to thump our bellicose chests and call for the nuclear annihilation of somebody or other before God says, "Okay. If you insist." A reader asks: Would you mind polling your readers: I em lookeeng for a, 'ow you say, conversion patron saint. Maybe someone who hid it for a while, or went through it in hostile territory? Victorians in Power Suits Stunned to Discover Women are Capable of Evil Apparently they've never heard of Ilse Koch, who made lampshades of human skin. Brain Death Not an Obstacle to a Lucrative Career in the Fast-Paced World of Public School Administration Reason #3904585793534983455 to home school. Pro-Abortion Brownshirts on the March! A reader writes: See below regarding what essentially was the destruction of The Gabriel Project's (GP) offices this past Sunday night/Monday morning. The GP Director is an old Navy friend, Paul Mulligan, who resigned his Navy commission in order to become a full-time pro-life worker. As you'll read below, Thursday, May 27, 2004
Outta here till Tuesday Gotta work, then a concert (my son is singing "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" with a jazz quartet). Then tomorrow we head out for our traditional "Sheas and Co. on Lopez Island" Memorial Day Weekend extravaganza! Do us a favor and pray for decent weather. Mazeltov! Low Humor 
I like to laugh at Al Gore's expense. I title this picture "Former Veep Coughs up Hairball" Feel free to provide your own title. Law Goes to Rome Much anger over at Amy's blog. As is more or less my custom, I don't seem to be having the same emotional reactions as most of the correspondents--probably due to my ignorance of Church politics or something. I wanted Law gone and was glad when he went. I also wanted to see some sign of serious contrition. By all reports that seems to be the case with him. If Caesar had wanted to jail the guy, I would have been in favor of it, but (such are the mysteries of the legal system) Caesar didn't jail him. However, he's gone and he appears to be penitent, so beyond that I figured the wisest thing for me to do as a layman with zero input in the case was to give the guy back to God, extend forgiveness insofar as his actions have hurt me, and move on. Now the Pope is reportedly taking him out of whatever trivial job he has now and sticking him in some trivial ceremonial position at some Church in Rome. I don't know much about what priests do in trivial ceremonial positions in Churches in Rome, but it sounds a lot like "being put out to pasture" to me. This strikes me as a typical John Paul act of mercy to a screwup*, characteristic of the author of "Dives in Misericordia'. My response as a layman is: "Okay". But the response of many readers is outrage. It's seen as a "golden parachute", an old boy network, etc. From this, I can only conclude that there is a theory of crime and punishment here that needs to be more clearly explored. My understanding was that the task of the Pope was to, among other things, grant mercy to penitents, not exact the last ounce of punishment that sinners deserve. I understand the need for penance, and if Law were impenitent and wilfully clueless (like, say, O'Brien appears to be) I'd be very irritated. But I don't see why putting Law out pasture at this Church is seen as a reward, much less an honor. Maybe I'm missing something. * "Screwup" = Idiosyncratic Sheaism for "sinner so blinded by sin that he committed unbelievably *stupid* sins", not "well-meaning person who just made dumb mistakes but who did his best" Another prayer request Please pray for a young woman in State College, PA, who is with child (2 weeks pregnant) - she is being strongly pressured by her current boyfriend and pro-choice roommate to get an abortion. Providentially, she also has friends who are pro-life. Canada: Our Soft Totalitarian Neighbor to the North! A reader writes: Make a good looking "gay teenager" the poster child for " I want to bring my 23 year old date to a Catholic high school prom that I happened to meet in an online chat room." NY Times Peers Deep Into Its Soul and Discerns the Dim Traces of Bias There Purely an anomaly. Think nothing of it. Highly unusual. Trust them. John Kerry Worships at the Altar of Gay Fabulousness Recognizes gay sex as the source and summit of all that is great and good in the human race since the beginning of recorded history. In related news, Cdl. Mahony bound Los Angeles parishioners to vote for Kerry or face eternal damnation. Just kidding. Brain Death No Hindrance to a Career in Public School Administration Cheer at your kid's graduation, get kicked out of graduation festivities. Pro-life obstetrician runs for Senate and, in contrast to Arlen Specter, gets little help from the Stupid Party The Stupid Party continues to eat its young. Prayers appreciated ...for the sister of a friend who has a very rare form of cancer of the eye. She may lose her eye, but the main fear is that it has metastasized. If your gift is intercession or healing, she could sure use your charism right now. Now I'm confused again What's the difference between this proposed truce and Sadr winning and us withdrawing? Am I missing something? How come... the media don't routinely speak of the Holy City of Rome, or Jerusalem, or Antioch, or Moscow? Why doesn't Beijing rank as a Holy City? It used to have a divine emperor and everything! I'm going to ask my congressman to designate Everett, Washington as a Holy City. I was born there. That's good enough for me. Wednesday, May 26, 2004
11 Year Old Girl Helps Provide Answer to Pat Buchanan's Question About What Our Culture Has to Offer to the World Torture in the Sudan Don't worry about it. No big deal. It's just a Christian. And besides he was a priest. So he probably had it coming. Now about those reparations for cruelty to black people two centuries ago... From our "Big Lie" Headline Dept. You know what? Man and Ape are hugely, amazingly, obviously extremely different anyway. Chesterton is simply right when he says that we are "a race that is in its relation to others a race of gods. The fact is not lessened but emphasised because it can behave like a race of demons. Its distinction is not an individual illusion, like one bird pluming itself on its own plumes; it is a solid and a many-sided thing. It is demonstrated in the very speculations that have led to its being denied. That men, the gods of this lower world, are linked with it in various ways is true; but it is another aspect of the same truth. That they grow as the grass grows and walk as the beasts walk is a secondary necessity that sharpens the primary distinction. It is like saying that a magician must after all have the appearance of a man; or that even the fairies could not dance without feet. It has lately been the fashion to focus the mind entirely on these mild and subordinate resemblances and to forget the main fact altogether. It is customary to insist that man resembles the other creatures. Yes; and that very resemblance he alone can see. The fish does not trace the fishbone pattern in the fowls of the air, or the elephant and the EMU compare skeletons. Even in the sense in which man is at one with the universe it is an utterly lonely universality. The very sense that he is united with all things is enough to sunder him from all." In short, the ape looking at the kid is not, and never will, be capable of contemplating his likeness to the kid. Nor will he be discussing it with other apes any time soon. The puzzle is not that the shape of his body is vaguely similar. The puzzle is that the shape of our mind is so radically different from him and every other creature that has ever existed. We are the only creatures capable of even *noticing* that we resemble other creatures. The most reasonable explanation for this immense gulf between us and the rest of the natural world remains "God created them in his image and likeness." Clergyman Commits All-Out Assault on Wall of Separation between Church and State But it's okay because he's black and he's attacking George Bush. Fulton Sheen on What Catholics (Should) Know About Reaching Muslims We Catholics have a weapon in the war on terror that is a million miles away from the thoughts of geopolitical strategists Mary and the Muslims There is still hope. The best way to defeat your enemy is, as it always was, to make him your friend. Yes, we are at war. But if Catholics simply abandon the hope of reconciliation with Muslims through the power of Christ as pollyanna "unrealism", then I submit that the have chosen despair rather than life as the final defining reality of their existence just as much as any pro-abortionist who says death is preferable to life. Comments Box Experts Declare Evangelization of Islamosphere Impossible They know. They've been sitting at their keyboards reading a lot of other comment box experts on Islam. Nonetheless, one of my my readers, who actually has some first hand knowledge of the situation on the ground in the Middle East suggests that the knowledge of comments box experts on Islam might not be commensurate with their self-confidence: I have just heard from friends who live there and know: The Invaluable Tom of Disputation Refutes Error and Propounds Thomas' Common Sense Where else but at CAEI can you jump from the latest StrongBad email to a Thomistic discussion of good and evil? Tom Clancy: Leftist America-Hater As I've been told by my readers, when I say, in essence, "Good men make mistakes" what I really mean is "Bush lied." So Clancy must mean the same thing. Raw Atheist Agitprop a Step Closer to Being Spoon Fed to Your Children And still, Christians obsess over Harry Potter. Fundies Seek to Create Warsaw Ghetto for Themselves Great idea. As our Lord said, "Don't go into all the world, preaching the good news to every creature. Those people out there are bad. Instead, concentrate yourselves into small locations with like-minded people, so that when the dominant culture decides it wants to exterminate you, you'll all be easy to find and kill." I sort of thought the Civil War settled this. I wonder how much energy is wasted every day by Christians pursuing loony insane objectives. Soviet Tactics Come to Temple U Student sues college for its attempt to forcibly commit him for his Christian beliefs. The guy thought Jesus wasn't gay. Obviously a candidate for the insane asylum. Jesus was the perfect man and homosexuality is the sum of all human perfections, according to my TV. So the guy was clearly insane. I just don't see why anybody would call the University's action "despicable". Shea's Infallible Law #6 Whenever anybody begins a commentary on the Catholic Church with words like, "I was baptized a Catholic, confirmed a Catholic, married a Catholic and now raise three daughters as Catholics. In my hearts of hearts, I am a Catholic...." ...you can absolutely guarantee that the next thing out of their mouths will be a farrago of ignorant nonsense. This ignorant columnist does not fail to confirm my law as an Iron Truth of the Universe. Memo to all Ignorant Columnists. The bishops are not "playing politics". They are telling their flock what they should do *in Church*. They cannot control what you do in the voting booth, the bedroom, or on the Senate floor. But they have a perfect right, and duty, to try to govern what happens in their sanctuaries and to legislate, as they see fit, about the circumstances under which you should and should not receive communion. Unless you think communion is a civil right, they are not "playing politics". Church says the Obvious about the Culture of Death Euro Journos hit macro button on word processors and generate the Usual Article in response. You hardly have to skim it. You've read it a million times before. Gay Brownshirt Wins Through Intimidation The difference between me and this guy's amazingly pliant friends is that I would have said, "If you disrupt *my* wedding, you are not a friend but a narcissistic jerk and I will call the cops on you." But Leftists are easily manipulable about such matters and so put up with his childish, self-centeredness. The best, most careful thinking through of the abortion/communion issue to date Bishop Donald Wuerl is a really good guy by all accounts. Used to be my co-adjutor so, of course, this being Seattle, he was driven out by mobs with torches and pitchforks. Ah, the things that might have been.... If only junior high assistant basketball coaches could marry! If only women could be junior high assistant basketball coaches! Never Let Secular Journalists Cover the Church's Theology When they do, they invariably write stupid half-informed stuff like this: The Catholic Church in England and Wales will today soften the harsh moralistic language of the Vatican in setting out its most comprehensive moral guidelines for many years to the faithful on how they should live their lives. Amazing how many ignorant memes one reporter can pack into a piece. To his credit, he does not use the words "Frail Pope" or "crackdown" anywhere, but he does indulge in the "Harsh moralistic blunt (read: evil and draconian) Rome" vs. "kinder, gentler, local bishops" trope. But the most amazing thing is his portrayal of the view of the Rome's teaching on homosexuality "versus" the local bishops'. He talks as though it's an ameliorating novelty--introduced by the English bishops in order to soften the blow of intolerant Rome--to say that there is a distinction between homosexual orientation and homosexual practice and that only the latter is a sin, while former is merely a temptation of disordered appetite. "The West No Longer Loves Itself" - Cdl. Joseph Ratzinger Europe tries to figure out a way to keep God out of its heritage. In the book of Judges, the pattern is "apostasy/conquest/domination by foreign peoples and foreign gods/cry for deliverance/God sends a deliverer" That can be stretched over a *very* long timetable. But the basic pattern still holds. Supernature abhors a vacuum. Euros may prefer a secular vacuum. But the Muslims in their midst have very definite ideas about God. Get rid of the Christian heritage and you will not get secularism (at least, not for long). You'll get minarets at St. Paul's and Notre Dame. Rev. Ralph Drollinger: Jerk for Jesus Guy definitely needs to learn how to win friends and influence people. And speaking of Shepherds Who Don't Get it Okay. I can see that part of the Church's mission is forgiveness and second chances for the penitent. But does the guy *have* to be put into parish work--in lonely isolated rural parishes? Can't you stick him in a chancery or some other place? I'm with Clohessy: "Why take the risk?" On the bright side... A reader writes: This was sent by a soldier who is home for two weeks from Baghdad. I think it says it all...As I head off to Baghdad for the final weeks of my stay in Iraq, I wanted to say thanks to all of you who did not believe the media. They have done a very poor job of covering everything that has happened. I am sorry that I have not been able to visit all of you during my two week leave back home. And just so you can rest at night knowing something is happening in Iraq that is noteworthy, I thought I would pass this on to you. This is the list of things that has happened in Iraq recently: (Please share it with your friends and compare it to the version that your paper is producing) Tuesday, May 25, 2004
The Difference Between Us and the Islamosphere You never see Al-Jazeera fretting that "Damage to Twin Towers and Pentagon May Ignite Anti-Islamic Passions in America" Having no heritage of a theology of original sin means never having to say you're sorry. CAEI: Not as bad as Saddam Hussein In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say I'm not as bad as Saddam Hussein *and* Adolf Hitler. Da Vinci Code spawns entirely new genre of literature! It's official. Literary experts have recognized the birth of a whole new genre of writing that centers entirely on debunking the Da Vinci Code. In this roundtable discussion, for instance, we find no fewer than eleven authors in the queue, waiting to open up a can of whup-ass on Dan Brown's sorry, ill-researched, windy, badly written, lying piece of dreck-for-morons-who-were-too-stupid-to-pay-attention-in-Sunday-school. For trading card collectors, we have, representing the Catholic Squad 
Steve "Killer" Kellmeyer 
Sandra "Amazon" Miesel 
Carl "Crusher" Olson 
Amy "Stiletto" Welborn A crack squad of Evangelicals is also represented and, together with the Catholic contingent they form a rock-em-sock-em battalion of theological acumen that plays a rousing game of soccer with Brown's twaddle. And please note, the Catholics are all laity, not "worried prelates" as your TV would have you believe. Kiwis, Being Non-Combatants, Have No Rights Under the Geneva Convention So you can arrest them and keep them on ice for months. At least, I'm pretty sure you can. Everybody Agrees That it's Nobody's Fault It's.... uhhhhh..... panic. Yeah! That's it! That's the ticket! Panic! The Fly-Breeder Strategy Appears to Be Working This, little children, is why the "hearts and minds" portion of the War is so important. |
