extreme Catholic

The New Catholic Politician

Russell Shaw is the Washington correspondent for Our Sunday Visitor. His current article on Al Smith is not online. But the cover asks the question: Where are the Catholic politicians like Al Smith today? Al Smith made no apologies for being Catholic. He didn't make the famous JFK "my life is compartmentalized. my religion is practiced for one hour per week" statement to appeal to anti-Catholic bigots. Smith didn't win.

On the other hand, if Smith did win, the Great Depression would have been blamed on him, and possibly on all Catholics.

Matt Drudge gives us a link to this story of one of the descendents of the most famous of all Catholic political families.

Washington Post: The Reliable Source
As sometimes happens with Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), he let his mouth race ahead of his brain Wednesday night at a gathering of Young Democrats at the Washington nightspot Acropolis. After presidential candidate Howard Dean spoke, Kennedy delivered an impassioned peroration against President Bush's tax cut. We hear that Kennedy told the crowd: "I don't need Bush's tax cut. I have never worked a [bleeping] day in my life."
With that he got the audience's attention -- the dropping-jaws kind. "He droned on and on, frequently mentioning how much better the candidates would sound the more we drank," a witness told us. "Finally, he had to be stopped by a DNC volunteer."
Kennedy's spokesman, Ernesto Anguilla, told us yesterday: "He was talking to the crowd; it was a rally-the-troops kind of speech about the tax cut. He was energizing the crowd and got caught up in it and used an unfortunate word, which he regrets using. . . . And no one pulled him off the stage."

Update: Jonah Goldberg at NRO Corner just blogged this as well.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:27 AM Permalink

Apology

No, not a defense of the truth of the Catholic Faith through reason, but An acknowledgment expressing regret or asking pardon for a fault or offense.

My ISP Time Warner Cable/Road Runner is having problems that I see at my prime blogging hours 10PM-12AM.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:05 AM Permalink

Defending the Faith at the Franciscan University at Steubenville

I'll be there. Look for the guy who looks like the guy in the 2003 picture without the helmet and his moustache trimmed for the summer.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:53 PM Permalink

The biggest problem the Church faces

...is the spiritual development of children.

The new priest and the new lay catechist have to roll up their sleeves now and look at the legacy of terrible formation of Catholics since 1970.

I was confirmed in 1966 so I missed the collapse, the implosion. When I became aware there was problem in the late 80's when my own kids were first encountering religious education. What a shock.

Fortunately, others were already pushing for real reform in this area which achieved a great victory with the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church which owes its existence to Cardinals Law and Ratzinger.

For reading more about it, see my Amazon Listmania list: Reform of How the Catholic Faith is taught

I've been a catechist for 10 years in the Diocese of Brooklyn. So I look forward to being part of the solution and not part of the problem.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:41 PM Permalink

What would happen if...

...there was a Brazilian anti-American talk show host who wanted to contact a like-minded Iraqi on ICQ....

...but instead of reaching a real Saddam supporter in Iraq, he hooks up with a real American who spoofed ICQ by entering Iraq as his country in signing up for ICQ...

You'd get this result.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 3:31 PM Permalink

Searching for the Real Reasons

It seems like it happenned in a flash. Except for abortion and porn, the Vatican could look to the United States as a place that had a growing Catholic population, good Mass attendence, financial support for the rest of the Church, and ultimately a spiritually hopeful place.

Now we're the ones committing a "crime" by enforcing the disarmament of Iraq which is cooperating:

Vatican Radio commented Monday [3/3] Iraq had begun destroying armaments, and had thus shown a "clear will to cooperate."

Vatican Worldview:

United States: criminal
Iraq: cooperating

How did the Vatican arrive at this worldview? (in no particular order)

Fear the United States is the only country with the intentions and means to impose some order and justice among criminal nations, and this makes the United States too powerful.
A lack of understanding of how the United States sees its role in the post-Cold War world.
A lack of understanding that the United States, having been attacked on 9/11 sees the presence of sanctuaries for terrorists in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanaon, East Africa, Indonesia, Philipines, etc. as threats to the United States itself.
Seeing Sadam's threat as tolerable relative to the threat posed by United States hegemony.
Fastasy fears that the United States has imperial designs.
Fear that that United States would act without a United Nations resolution explicity authorizing the use of force.
Euro-based visceral anti-Americanism (i.e. cowboys)
Euro-based anti-semitisim: anything that helps the United States will inevitably help Israel.
Wishful thinking that if the United States were to sit down, the United Nations would stand up.
Wishful thinking that military and political success by the United States in Iraq will suppress the future military and political capability of a united Europe.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 3:31 PM Permalink

Crosswalk: Baptist insights on Just War

Another perspective on Just War. It's sola scriptura -- no St. Augustine or St. Thomas Aquinas here.

Also, I don't agree with the distinction made regarding a just war and a moral war, but it's worth a look.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 3:31 PM Permalink

Associated Press: Drunken Student Falls to His Death

PITTSBURGH - A drunken college student fell 25 feet to his death from a church catwalk after drinking at a cookout at the church.
Police are investigating whether charges should be filed in the death of 19-year-old Billy Gaines.
The pastor of the Roman Catholic church - who was the only person of drinking age at the cookout and who had provided beer to a minor in the past - has been relieved of his duties, authorities said.
Gaines, a University of Pittsburgh football player who had been living at the church with a teammate after their apartment was destroyed in a fire, died June 18 after falling through the rafters and hitting his head on the back of a pew.
Authorities said they do not know what led Gaines into the upper reaches of St. Anne Church in Homestead at 2:30 a.m.
Earlier that night, he drank alcohol at a cookout at the church, authorities said. His blood-alcohol level was 0.166 percent, or twice the legal limit for driving.
County Assistant Police Superintendent Jim Morton refused to say who supplied the alcohol. He would not comment on the Rev. Henry R. Krawczyk's role but said Krawczyk was the only person of legal drinking age at the cookout.
Krawczyk was placed on administrative leave by the Pittsburgh Diocese, effective Monday. A telephone message left for a Henry Krawczyk in Pittsburgh was not returned Monday.

More bad news -- it seems today a search for "Catholic" is turning up some terrible stuff.

What's with college-aged men living at the Church? Can't they support themselves or get their own families to give them a place to live?

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:44 PM Permalink

New York Post: Dead Bronx High School Baby is Ruled a Homicide

The death of a newborn boy in a bathroom of a Bronx Catholic high school was ruled a homicide yesterday, authorities said. The baby was born April 4 to a 16-year-old student at Cardinal Spellman HS in the nurse's office bathroom, the Medical Examiner's Office said.

The police know the identity of the mother. The diocese, the school, and I have no comment.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:18 AM Permalink

New York Post: Church 'killer' tries evil-imposter defense

Accused church gunman Peter Troy stunned a Long Island jury yesterday by claiming a neighbor killed a priest and a parishioner after disguising himself to look like Troy and stealing his credit card to buy a rifle.
The bizarre scene recalled Colin Ferguson's 1995 trial, in which the Long Island Rail Road killer also delivered his own closing arguments.

Peter Troy is accused of killing Fr. Lawrence Penzes and Eileen Tosner, a parishioner in the middle of a Mass on March 12, 2002 in Our Lady of Peace Church in Lynbrook Long Island.

He failed to convince a judge that he was mentally ill so his strategy has been to act in a bizarre manner throughout the trial to convince the jury.

UPDATE: A verdict of guilty was returned. Although the state of New York has a death penalty, it was not sought in the case because the victims were Catholics opposed to the death penalty.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:12 AM Permalink

New York Post: Caesar renders $1.5 million unto [former] nun

A former nun's prayers were answered - at Caesars Atlantic City. Catherine Foy won a $1.5 million jackpot on the third pull of the handle on the slot machine at Caesars, where she was playing Sunday night.
She had put just nine quarters into the Jeopardy 25-cent progressive slot machine when bells started ringing.
"I always knew that the Lord was going to help me pay my bills, I just didn't know that it would be so soon," she said.
The 56-year-old former nun, who lives in Philadelphia, took home a check for $78,000.
She will receive an equal sum annually for the next 19 years.
Foy, who was a member of the Sister Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary, said that she will use her winnings to pay off her debts and will share the remainder with her family and her former order.

Idle hands are the devil's playthings.
William Bennett call your office!
I wonder what the SSCM's who remained in the order were doing at the time that Catherine pulled on the arm of the slot machine.
So this is what people who leave religious orders do?
Publicity like this is priceless to the casinos for giving people a false hope that they can beat the odds.
At a conservative 4 percent implied interest rate, a lump sum equivalent to $1.56 million reduces it to $1.04 million.
$76000 per anum is hardly a life-changing amount of money but I wouldn't turn it down.
Personally, I don't gamble.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:56 AM Permalink

New York Times: Healer Bishops Are Sent to Ease Churches' Pain by Laurie Goodstein

ST. LOUIS, June 21 � Seventeen years ago, the Vatican dispatched a 53-year-old New York priest named Harry J. Flynn to take over as bishop in a Louisiana diocese. His assignment was to rescue the faith of the Roman Catholics there whose children had been sexually violated by the Rev. Gilbert Gauthe, in the first nationally notorious case of a pedophile priest.

Ms. Goodstein has good things to say about Archbishop Flynn in spite of relying on the Catholics she prefers to quote: Rev. Thomas Reese (Laurie omits the "SJ"), and Sandy Simonson of Voice of the Faithful (should I be adding a "so-called" or "self-described" to VOTF?).

Missing from the list of "fixer bishops" are two names that I would include: Bishop Donald Wuerl and Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap.

My brother who lives in Minneapolis expects that Archbishop Harry Flynn will be assigned to Boston.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 2:34 PM Permalink

Glaser's Guide to the Blogosphere Online Journalism Review 6.19.2003

An attempt to map the most influential blogs. I read a lot of the ones on the conservative side and quite a few on the liberal side. It took me a while to see that icon was supposed to be an open mouth.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:01 PM Permalink

Newsmax: Mel Gibson's Passion Won't Harm Jews by Rev. Michael Reilly

Gibson's film is an attempt to present the last 12 hours of Jesus' life as accurately as possible, using Aramaic and Latin with no subtitles.
Meanwhile, theologians are accusing Gibson of portraying the Jews in a negative light and presenting the crucifixion as it is recounted in the Gospels.

Written by a priest in the Archdiocese of New York.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:48 PM Permalink

The New Criterion: From the evil empire to the empire for liberty by Paul Johnson

...But it is worth recalling that up to 1860 �empire� was not a term of abuse in the United States. George Washington himself spoke of �the rising American Empire.� Jefferson, aware of the dilemma, claimed that America was �an Empire for liberty.� That is what America is becoming again, in fact if not in name. America�s search for the security against terrorism and rogue states goes hand in hand with liberating their oppressed peoples. From the Evil Empire to an Empire for Liberty is a giant step, a contrast as great as the appalling images of the wasted twentieth century and the brightening dawn of the twenty-first. But America has the musculature and the will to take giant steps, as it has shown in the past.
One thing is clear: America is unlikely to cease to be an empire in the fundamental sense. It will not share its sovereignty with anyone. It will continue to promote international efforts of proven worth, like GATT, and to support military alliances like NATO where appropriate. But it will not allow the UN or any other organization to infringe on its natural right to defend itself as it sees fit. The new globalization of security will proceed with the UN if possible, without it if necessary. The empire for liberty is the dynamic of change.

That's the conclusion of a most excellent article on the American Empire and what it is facing today.

It's the reason why the Euro-whiners are whining: So far, the American Empire is on the right track.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:44 PM Permalink

Meet Sister Barbie (link to full size image)

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:25 PM Permalink

From a Review: "Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick" from THQ

"I'm an artist," Ash says at one point after blasting a bunch of undead into oblivion with his trusty shotgun.
"Kids these days!" he quips to a shaken police officer, who has just had to gun down a few teenage Deadites.
After his bartender suddenly becomes zombified, Ash is there, pointing a shotgun at the guy's face. "Make mine a double," he says before pulling the trigger. He later reflects that "When you've just emptied both barrels of a shotgun into your favorite bartender, you can pretty much bet that happy hour is over."

Bruce Cambell (hero of the Evil Dead series). Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., Jack of All Trades, Hercules, Xena, Spiderman, and too many others to mention.

Yeah, and I've been densensitized to on-screen violence since I saw The Three Stooges with Officer Joe Bolton. I love cult films.

The rest of the Lego presentation of Evil Dead II

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:39 PM Permalink

UK Mirror: Saintly beauty pageant is thanks to God

ROME (Reuters) - Praise the Lord for sexy girls!
An Italian priest on Sunday prepared to celebrate his parish's patron saint by presiding over a beautypageant to choose the town's candidate for the upcoming Miss Italy competition, Italian news agencyANSA reported.
"If you look at the girls in an innocent way it's not a sin but a way of thanking the Lord," CarloCrucianelli, a priest in the central Italian town of Civita Castellana, told ANSA.
"Beauty is never embarrassing for it is a gift from the Lord."
The beauty queens of the parish will take to the catwalk on Sunday evening on a piazza in front of theparish church of San Luigi Gonzaga.
Crucianelli is the first known Italian priest to head a beauty pageant jury, although a Capuchin monkplayed the same unusual role in the southern town of Cropani in 1997.

A priest with too much time on his hands.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:10 PM Permalink

I'm not a populist Democrat, although I play one when the cameras are turned on

Washington Post: Privilege and Populism: A Parable

A United States senator doesn't go unnoticed when he pulls rank in public. So when populist Democrat Tom Harkin jumped a snaking security line of less exalted passengers at Reagan National Airport on Friday to make his flight home to Iowa, it was only a matter of minutes before someone dropped a dime.

You've got to wonder if this would have been the headline all over the media matrix had this been Karl Rove or Rick Santorum.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:05 PM Permalink

NY Post: Tyson Punchout

Short-fused Iron Mike Tyson was charged with assault yesterday after a bloody hotel brawl in which the furious fistman knocked out a heckler and sent another man and woman who hassled him to the hospital, officials said.
The trouble began when a Philadelphia couple on their honeymoon and a friend returned to the luxury hotel at around 5:30 a.m. after a night of partying, police said.

The headline story in the New York papers was Mike Tyson going after couple in the hotel. All of the basic facts are in dispute, but this, being the 21st Century, every moment of it was under video suveilance.

Tyson's first heavyweight championship in 1986 at the age of 20 made people think the he might go to be the greatest boxer of all time.

Tyson also served 3 years for rape in 1991 and 3 months for assault in 1999.

Someone on talk radio said that his trainer should be held "criminally liable" for "letting this animal develop those killing skills". The host said that Tyson was responsible for his own actions.

The question is "Does Tyson believe he is resposible for Tyson's actions"?.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:28 PM Permalink

Get Educated on the Definition of Marriage Amendment

FEDERAL MARRIAGE AMENDMENT (H.J.Res. 56)
Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this constitution or the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.

Folks, this is it. The Alliance for Marriage (AFM) is the political organization that's trying to get this passed.

The National Catholic Register had this article when it was introduced last year

"Love and fidelity are indispensable virtues in any human relationship," said Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, archbishop of Philadelphia. "Marriage, however, is defined as the exclusive relationship of one man and one woman. This definition is non-negotiable and irrevocable," the archbishop said.
"Today, the institution of marriage is being questioned and even threatened by those who want to redefine it. It is unfortunate that even legislative bodies in some countries, including our own, are attempting to equate other styles of unions of persons with the traditional definition of marriage and family," Cardinal Bevilacqua added.
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago and Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver echoed Cardinal Bevilacqua's comments.
"I join Cardinal Bevilacqua in his support of all who are working toward including a definition of marriage in the federal constitution," said Cardinal George. "It might seem strange that what has been taken for granted through all of recorded human history should now have to be made explicit in the federal constitution. But what has been evident for everyone through all ages can no longer be assumed as given."
Said Archbishop Chaput, "Common sense, human experience and the wisdom of our religious heritages all support the substance of this amendment."

The expectation is that Massachusetts in the United States will be the first state to legally recognize gay marriage, as usual it will be decided in the juidical branch of government.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:09 PM Permalink