extreme Catholic

Too Much Nitpicking

The inaugural address itself was startling. It left me with a bad feeling, and reluctant dislike. Rhetorically, it veered from high-class boilerplate to strong and simple sentences, but it was not pedestrian. George W. Bush's second inaugural will no doubt prove historic because it carried a punch, asserting an agenda so sweeping that an observer quipped that by the end he would not have been surprised if the president had announced we were going to colonize Mars.
A short and self-conscious preamble led quickly to the meat of the speech: the president's evolving thoughts on freedom in the world. Those thoughts seemed marked by deep moral seriousness and no moral modesty.
No one will remember what the president said about domestic policy, which was the subject of the last third of the text. This may prove to have been a miscalculation.

Perhaps Peggy Noonan thinks she's in the running for William Safires's job.

This is ankle-biting envy. This is offering an "Good, but I could have done better" criticism.

Noonan wrote "the world is not heaven."

True and it misses the point. We are on a mission from God: to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth.

In my religion class, I point out the paradox of this: We're supposed to convert the world from sin and we're doomed to fail. Nevertheless, that's the goal, we strive. What does the world tell us? Don't bother, think of yourself first. Or to use the examples of the temptation of Christ in the desert: comfort, safety, and power.

When President Bush said

We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.

I think he got it exactly right. Liberty in the world is a good thing for us and we can't be indifferent to tyranny's expansion.

The role of the United States in 2005 is different from the role of the United States in 1905 when Theodore Roosevelt took the oath after his election to president. A role of world leadership. This is a role that the UN cannot fill -- don't look to Iraq but look to the response to the tsunami response to see the failure of the UN in leadership.

It's not Too Much God but Remember - we answer to a higher authority. It was a bold speech and about as religious as the greatest speeches of Washington, Lincoln, and even Kennedy.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:39 AM Permalink

Jihad Watch : Inside Information on the New Jersey Murders

A close friend of Hossam Armanious, the Coptic Christian who was brutally murdered in New Jersey along with his family, is the source of this information, which comes to you exclusively from Jihad Watch:
The Armanious family had inspired several Muslims to convert to Christianity � or thought they had. These converts were actually practicing taqiyya, or religious deception, pretending to be friends of these Christians in order to strengthen themselves against them, as in Qur'an 3:28: "Let believers not make friends with infidels in preference to the faithful -- he that does this has nothing to hope for from Allah -- except in self-defense."
It was these "converts" who knocked on the door of the Armanious home. Of course, the family, not suspecting the deception, was happy to see the "converted" men and willingly let them in to their home. That's why there was no sign of forced entry. Then the "converted" Muslims did their grisly work.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:40 AM Permalink

Commentary: American left still controls most powerful institutions James K Glassman

The American left — liberalism, collectivism, statism, New Dealism (call it what you want) — remains firmly in charge of most powerful U.S. institutions. Here is a brief review of 10 of them, along with my rough estimate, by percentage, of conservative influence.

In the religion category the National Council of Churches and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the left controls them. No surprise there.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:31 AM Permalink

Internet Observer: Thunderbirds, the Catholic Faith, the Tsunami

Rescue from Tracey Island : Anthony C. LoBaido

Back in the 1960's a new children's television show became all the rage in both the UK and the U.S. They were known as the Thunderbirds. Who are the Thunderbirds?

It works best if you were a child in the 1960's or just want to be one.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:25 AM Permalink

Arctic Cold May Be Responsible For Two Deaths In The City : NY1

As New Yorkers cope with the coldest day of the winter so far Tuesday, and with snow on the way Wednesday, police say it appears two people have died as a result of the frigid weather.
Despite the sunshine, the mercury struggled to make it up to 19 degrees today. Gusty winds from the northwest made it feel even colder, below zero.
NYPD officials believe the wind chill may have contributed to two separate deaths in Queens and Brooklyn Tuesday morning.
Police say they found one victim, a man in his 40�s, unconscious in a Long Island City, Queens, parking lot. Elsewhere, a 50-year-old female found unconscious in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Police say neither victim was homeless.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:19 AM Permalink

UPDATE: Nun's alleged attacker ordered held without bail : Newsday

The man accused of beating a nun, raping another woman and robbing a bank all in one week's time was arraigned Wednesday night on those and a series of other charges from crimes allegedly committed during a spree that Queens prosecutors said began on New Year's Eve.
Roy Williams, who was busted Tuesday outside his girlfriend's apartment in the Bronx, also now faces charges on a purse-snatching, a robbery, three bank robberies, a rape, an assault and a car theft, prosecutors said in Queens Criminal Court in Kew Gardens. Facing up to 50 years in prison if convicted, he was ordered by Judge Eugene Lopez to be held without bail on suicide watch.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:16 AM Permalink

Minority Report and the Department of Pre-Crime meet the Catholic Church in Tennessee

Tennessee Supreme Court Press Release

In a unanimous decision setting a new legal standard for finding reckless infliction of emotional distress, the Tennessee Supreme Court has cleared the way for a $68 million child sexual abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville to go forward.
“We hold that reckless infliction of emotional distress need not be based upon conduct that was directed at a specific person or that occurred in the presence of the plaintiff,” Chief Justice Frank F. Drowota, III, wrote in the legal precedent-setting opinion filed Tuesday...
[The Church] recklessly failed to prevent him from molesting other boys in the community.

What legal power does the Church or anyone have to prevent anyone from doing anything?

This was dismissed at the state circuit court, and the appeals court, and then reversed at the state supreme court. Mr. Edward McKeown was laicized in 1989 and these criminal acts against John Doe's took place between 1995 and 1999 and there is no allegation that the diocese had any knowledge of them.

Blogger Credit: Amy Welborn.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:29 PM Permalink

Drudge has this as a headline

Spain's Catholic Church Backs Condoms : AP

In a substantial shift from traditional policy, the spokesman for the Catholic Church in Spain has said it supports the use of condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. "Condoms have a place in the global prevention of AIDS," Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, spokesman for the Spanish Bishops Conference, told reporters after a meeting Tuesday with Health Minister Elena Salgado to discuss ways of fighting the disease.

The back-pedaling on this should be a thing to watch.

Catholic World News is watching it as well. My comment there:

The idea that the Church offers guidance as to choose among a menu of mortal sins is morally and theologically repugnant.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:23 PM Permalink

Reason Number 10481 I'm glad I am not an Episcopalian

Challenging preeminent authority : CJ DeStefano : Renew America

While Catholic bashing continues to rear its ugly head in America, it is usually relegated to the lowest common denominator in society, Hollywood and liberal elites striving for a more manageable secular society. I truly could not fathom the notion that this type of hate speech would not only be sanctioned, but peddled, by one of the last vestiges of the Christian faith.

Tbe object of this essay: obscene sexually graphic art depicting the Blessed Mother and Our Savior in the sanctuary of the Episcopal Cathedral of St John the Divine.

The linked article has his letter to the bishop and the bishop's reply.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:06 PM Permalink

We in the US have annulments, The Catholic Church in Italy has extreme annulments

Vatican lawyers rake in cash as 'widow wars' go beyond the grave : UK Independent

Roman Catholic Italy is witnessing a boom in demand for posthumous marriage annulments with many unions hitting the rocks as soon as one of the partners is lowered into the ground.
The surge in annulments, which is proving lucrative for ecclesiastical lawyers at the Holy Rota court in Rome, is largely down to applications by widowers who want to annul their first marriage to a dead wife so that they can favour children of a second marriage in their wills. Conversely, children of a first marriage who want to annul their dead father's second marriage so as not to lose an inheritance are also flooding the court.

There may not be marriage in heaven, but there can be a mess back on earth.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:03 AM Permalink

St. Ann's Church In Manhattan Holds Last Mass : NY1

Roz Li says three generations of her family have worshipped at St. Ann's near Union Square.
�My daughter was born after my mother died, so they have never met each other,� she said. �And I feel that when we sit in the same pew where my mother used to sit, my mother and my daughter and my mother have some connection with each other.�
But that connection, she says, will now be lost. The New York Archdiocese has sold the church as part of a consolidation plan, and St. Ann�s held its last mass Sunday.
St. Ann's has not been considered a parish for more than 20 years, because even back then, attendance was falling, a spokesperson for the archdiocese said. But tell that to anyone who considers St. Ann's a lifeline to his or her faith.
�I say so what?� said Anthony Flood, one of the regular worshippers. �Churches are not redundant gas stations or Starbucks or bank branches; they serve a long-term purpose.�
Flood says he and many others had started gathering petitions to keep the church open, but to no avail.
Nancy Cosie, another worshipper, says that St. Ann's was home to Roman Catholics of various ethnic backgrounds and that its rich history should be preserved.
�With all the different congregations that have worshipped here, it was just such a warm feeling in this big, big city, such a feeling of a family with all the different nationalities coming together, respecting one another,� she said. �There's something much greater than this building that will be lost if this building comes down.
The Archdiocese says St. Ann's ceased to be a parish in 1980. But the archbishop at the time, Terence Cardinal Cooke, allowed groups like the Armenian and Ecuadorian Catholics to use the church for worship.
Those groups have now found new homes. But that's not as easy for some.
�I've tried to stay loyal to St. Ann's Church,� said Maria Rosa Doria. �For 20 years now, I was coming. But it does look like I�m still living and the church will be torn down.�
The archdiocese did not say when the sale was made, how much it was for or who bought it.
The sale itself is more than a little ironic for Li, who is a historic preservationist. �My profession is trying to preserve churches, and I can't do it for my own,� she said.
St. Ann's numbers may have been diminishing over the years, but up until last year, it was still celebrating masses in English and in Spanish, and, as recently as this past February, in Latin.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:34 PM Permalink

Courageous Nun Shrugs Off Attack : New York Post

A 69-year-old Queens nun who was pistol-whipped and carjacked last week was ready to return to work yesterday, friends and colleagues said.
"She's tough," said Charlene Jaffie, principal of the Immaculate Conception School in Jamaica Estates, near where Sister Margaret Faherty was assaulted.
Faherty told cops she was attacked Thursday when she stopped her car on the way to work to clean the windshield.
The suspect, who broke her nose and sped off in her car, is black, in his 20s, about 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds. He may have been involved in an earlier rape and robbery.

She is a Sister of St. Joseph (CSJ)

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:29 PM Permalink

Teen father may face charges in baby's death : Newsday

The 15-year-old father who may face charges in the death of his newborn son visited the makeshift memorial Monday outside the Bronx church where he left the child in a Happy Birthday bag.
The child's 13-year-old mother, meanwhile, remained in seclusion, with one friend saying the teen hid her pregnancy from her parents and feared getting an abortion because she had no one she could trust not to tell her mother and father.
"She said she was scared," said the friend, Maya Quarles, 14, a classmate of the young mother. "She didn't know what to do. I was like, 'Why don't you talk to your mother?'
"She was like, 'I'm scared.'"
The teen parents, who met on her block three years ago, were thrust into the spotlight over the weekend when it came to light that the mother gave birth Friday in her University Heights home, then tossed the newborn, Lazaro Jr., from her second-floor bedroom, the child landing in a garbage-strewn alley.
About 10 hours later, her boyfriend visited the apartment, learned what she had done, then placed the child in the Happy Birthday bag and placed him in the doorway of the Second Prince of Peace Baptist Church on East 183rd Street in nearby Tremont.
A passerby that night found the child and called 911.
The medical examiner has not yet determined how the child died. Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner, did say that the child was born alive.
The future of the teen parents, whose names are being withheld because they are minors, will be decided by a Bronx grand jury, which will begin hearing evidence in the case as early as this week.
Monday, the young father refused to talk to reporters.
"This is not the time," his uncle said.
At the memorial, the father handed to his uncle a blue votive candle and a yellow balloon festooned with a smiley face. Written on the balloon in red ink was a message to the boy: "Lazaro Jr. We will miss you. From your grandparents and aunt."
"Shocked is not the word for how I feel," said church deacon John Cash. "It's sad, very sad. You've got all kinds of options. You've got so many people who would be willing to take the baby. Even I would have taken the baby."
In a park across the street, Quarles said she stood by her friend.
"We love her no matter what," she said. "She's a baby having a baby."
Cindela Alvardo, 19, herself a teenage mother, was less forgiving.
"That's just wrong," she said. "That's murder."
Late Monday, the mother, who was given postnatal care at St. Barnabus Hospital and then transferred to Bronx Psychiatric Center, could not be reached for comment.
Her mother, speaking through her closed apartment door, sounded heartbroken.
"You can't imagine how I feel," she said through tears. "I'm sick to my stomach. I only want to die."

You can love her, but it's still murder.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:15 PM Permalink

Mr. Natural

Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R.

Spreading the Word via Friar-Cam : New York Times

T one time, the Eternal Word Television Network consisted, as its name might suggest, largely of talk. Viewers might see the network's founder, Mother Mary Angelica, pugnaciously laying down the natural law to doubting Thomases, or Father Benedict Groeschel, a kindly, bearded sage with an uncanny resemblance to Robert Crumb's Mr. Natural, discussing thorny issues of the faith. At off-hours, you may have found the soothing murmur of nuns repeating the rosary, but that was about it.
But now the Word is being made fresh.

It's good publicity.

I have a confession to make: I knew of Robert Crumb's work before I know of Fr. Groeschel's.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:40 PM Permalink

[Syrian Catholic] Archbishop is kidnapped by Iraq insurgents : UK Telegraph

Insurgents seized the Archbishop of Mosul from outside his church yesterday in one of the most daring assaults on Iraq's Christian community since the war.
The kidnapping of Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa, 66, of the Syrian Catholic Church, which has close ties with the Holy See, drew strong condemnation from the Vatican.
A spokesman said the Church "condemns in the firmest manner this terrorist act and demands that Monsignor Casmoussa is rapidly returned safe and well".
Archbishop Casmoussa, an Iraqi, is leader of the northern city's 35,000 Syrian Catholics. The Pope, who appointed him archbishop in 1999, recently condemned assaults on Catholic churches in Mosul, including an attack on the home of the leader of another Catholic rite, the Chaldean community.
There was no initial claim of responsibility or ransom demand for the archbishop.

I think the Vatican is wondering if the "force of law" or "law of force" will apply to obtain his release.

Perhaps because the Vatican has paid ransoms in the recent past, it has encouraged more kidnappings.

Update: A 66-year-old Syrian Catholic archbishop kidnapped by masked gunmen was freed today, a day after his abduction, without the payment of any ransom, the Vatican said.

Hmmm... I wonder why they have to assert that ransom wasn't paid. I imagine it's because of suspicious people like me.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:55 PM Permalink

Wondering why this became news now

The headlines scream

Hitler plot to kidnap Pope Pius XII detailed : Boston Globe

VATICAN CITY -- Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler gave one of his generals a direct order to kidnap Pope Pius XII during World War II, but the officer did not obey, Italy's leading Roman Catholic newspaper reported yesterday.
Avvenire, owned by the Italian Conference of Roman Catholic bishops, said details of the plot had emerged in documents presented to the Vatican to support putting the wartime pontiff on the road to sainthood.
Elements of alleged plots to abduct the pope during Germany's occupation of Italy have previously emerged from some historians, but Avvenire's full-page report said its details were new.

But to me this is old news Ronald Rychlak had written

Let there be no mistake. Hitler occupied Rome from September 1943 until June 1944, and he would have overrun the Vatican if the Pontiff had sufficiently provoked him. Written statements by the German ambassador to Italy, Rudolf Rahn, describe a plot to take over the Vatican, kidnap Pope Pius and his cardinals, and hold them hostage. 'The fact of [the plan's] existence and its target is solidly anchored in my memory.' reported Rahn. Albrecht von Kessel, an aide to the German ambassador to the Vatican, and Karl Otto Wolff, a German general who was the SS chief in Italy toward the end of the war, both confirmed that there was such a plan.

The book by Ron Rychlak is excellent. The series now on EWTN is excellent as well.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 5:10 PM Permalink

The Coming War Between Catholicism and Islam : Gerald Flurry : thetrumpet.com

History proves the Catholic Church to be one of the most militant institutions ever created. It does not believe in a democratic philosophy. It has routinely and often “converted” people by the sword. And yet, this world seems unwilling to hold it accountable for its war crimes.

It's a bit hard to identify the point of view of the author -- but I think it is that the Catholic mindset is to confront Islam while a really Christian worldview somehow would have prevented the rise of Islam, and failing that, the disaster of the Crusades, and failing that the disaster of the current war on terror in which we now find ourselves.

What a strange history to call attention to the year 622 A.D.

In a.d. 622, Catholics fought and were defeated in a crusade against the Persians and the Jews. Some 60,000 Catholics were killed and 35,000 enslaved. The fall of Jerusalem left the Catholic world shocked and mourning.

In 602, the Sassanid Persians who were Zoroastrians attacked what had been Byzantine or Roman Empire since 63 BC.

In 614 Jerusalem fell, Jews and Christians were killed, synagogues and churches burned. The relic of the Holy Cross was taken as plunder and Persian rule was lasted 14 years.

This was ultimately foolish as the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius defended his territory and recaptured Jerusalem in 628 to the joy of both Christians and Jews. This was short-lived because Jerusalem fell to a Arab Muslim army in 638 and a few years later the Sassanid Persians were wiped out and their capital Ctesiphon taken.

One hundred years later, it was Catholics who stood their ground somewhere between Potiers and Tours in October 732. That Gerald Flurry writes for the Philadelphia Church of God is only made possible by their valor and sacrifice.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 3:40 PM Permalink

Vatican Renews Commitment to a war on Islam by Abid Ullah Jan : Media Monitor Network

“The Vatican's renewed commitment to a war on Islam came to light in an editorial in the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, Avvenire, written by Vittorio Parsi, a professor at the Catholic University of Milan and the newspaper?s foreign policy expert.”
It was around November 2003 that Vatican publicly admitted to intellectually joining the war on Islam. One year later it has clearly approved the military war which could eliminate the rise of an Islamic State in the Muslim world.

This article for Muslim audience has as its point of view that Vatican supports the War on Islam

This article quotes extensively from The Vatican (Slowly) Awakens to Jihad By Joseph D'Hippolito : FrontPage Magazine

I've been calling this Crusader propagandaa. It's as if Ann Coulter's last National Review Online column which was written less than 48 hours after her friend Barbara Olson was killed on the plan that crashed into the Pentagon became the national security policy of the United States:

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.

Even I don't advocate this, but it's significant that Muslims are circulating these opinions and the spin they put on them: the difference between the "Neo-Con" (i.e. International Jewish Conspiracy) position and the Vatican's is that the Vatican would substitute direct rule of the United Nations for the United States-Israel axis.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 2:55 PM Permalink

Criticism or "what did he mean by that?"

Here are two true statements:

Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God.
The Catholic Church teaches Jesus Christ is the only-begotten Son of God.

Which statement has more authority? Think about context.

The following is from the USCCB Catechism Update of Fall 2004

In the past, the Committee had also cautioned publishers against presenting doctrine in any type of manner which implies a certain doctrine or teaching is a matter of opinion. In order to simplify the matter, the Committee had directed publishers to avoid introducing doctrinal teaching with formulas such as “Catholics believe that...” or “The Church teaches that...”
However, some argued that the Church herself uses such formulas. Recognizing the truth of that argument, the Committee indicated it would always take into account the context rather than the simple formula.
By way of example, the Committee offered two ways of presenting the perpetual virginity of Mary, one acceptable and the second problematic. The publishers appreciated the examples and indicated to the Committee that it would be helpful to provide them with more examples which they in turn could pass on to their writers and editors.

I think this is wise -- because the book is establishing its context for authority: when authors state in a text on the Catholic faith: "Mary is the mother of God." It is a stronger statement than "The Church teaches Mary is the mother of God" with its implicit we know better: but Mary might not be the Mother of God.

Another Context

On the other hand when the writer is making a claim that something is true -- not merely by private judgment or reason but because the Church teaches it. Appealing to an authority that the reader can accept.

Because of the Wikipedia online encyclopedia is, in my opinion, infested with inaccuracy and anti-Catholic points of view. It is chock full of "the Church teaches..." "the Church claims..." and my personal favorite "Critics say..."

Anyone can volunteer, by the way. An example of what is being attempted here is starting with providing a disambiguation of Catholicism

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:56 PM Permalink

You'd better stop this bull---- or we are going to track you down like a chicken and kill you

Islam, known as the religion of peace makes it statement in blood.

Islamic Hate Eyed in Slays: New York Post

The father of a murdered New Jersey family was threatened for making anti-Muslim remarks online ? and the gruesome quadruple slaying may have been the hateful retaliation, sources told The Post yesterday.
Hossam Armanious, 47, who along with his wife and two daughters was found stabbed to death in his Jersey City home early Friday, would regularly debate religion in a Middle Eastern chat room, one source said.
Armanious, an Egyptian Christian, was well known for expressing his Coptic beliefs and engaging in fiery back-and-forth with Muslims on the Web site paltalk.com.
He "had the reputation for being one of the most outspoken Egyptian Christians," said the source, who had close ties to the family.
The source, who had knowledge of the investigation, refused to specify the anti-Muslim statement. But he said cops told him they were looking into the exchanges as a possible motive.
The married father of two had recently been threatened by Muslim members of the Web site, said a fellow Copt and store clerk who uses the chat room.
...The heartless killer not only slit Sylvia's throat, but also sliced a huge gash in her chest and stabbed her in the wrist, where she had a tattoo of a Coptic cross.

No one believes this was a simple robbery, given the methods of the murder and the apparent lack of a search in the house for valuables or cash.

I pray for the family, the Christian Coptic community, and that our country doesn't become a place where small-scale Islamic terrorism like this becomes commonplace.

Should it be proven in the course of the police/terrorism investigation that they were killed by Muslims for Hossam Armanious' advocacy of the Coptic faith, they may be martyrs for the Christian faith.

The family is believed to have been murdered early Friday January 13, 2005.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:00 PM Permalink

The original Extreme Catholics were here.

Triumph magazine was published during the most critical period of American history since the Civil War: 1966�1976. These were the years when America passed through a near-revolution and ceased to identify itself as a Christian nation, becoming increasingly secular and neo-pagan.

Triumph was founded to champion the view that every nation is shaped by its religion (or lack thereof); that a religion that has nothing to say in the public arena is not worthy of the name; and that what it has to say must be, first of all, religious.

The Best of Triumph will be a source of inspiration and practical guidance for all those interested in the transformative power of Christianity in political life.

Intercollegiate Studies Institute is the publisher.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:02 AM Permalink

Disco. Seriously.

Exuberant Exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Brings Disco Back to the City that Spawned It, February 1

Be afraid, be very afraid.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:31 PM Permalink

Diocese of Immigrants: The Brooklyn Catholic Experience 1853-2003

This book, just published, contains a photgraph which I took in 2003 of a Corpus Christi procession in my parish, St. Sebastian.

I wonder if the pastor wants me to autograph his copy.

It's appearance in the book as a permanent record of the parish liturgical life came as a surpise to me. I took the photos and turned them into the parsh and the diocesan newspaper long ago and forgot about it.

ISBN 2-7468-0912-5, but I believe it will only be sold in the rectories and offices of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:04 PM Permalink