extreme Catholic 

 

Harry Potter distorts the soul, says Pope : UK Guardian The Pope believes the Harry Potter books "distort Christianity in the soul", according to two letters published on the internet. I don't believe that the Pope made this an issue. It seems that it was a comment made to a reporter years ago that now gets amplified because of the fact that he's been elected Pope. Perhaps it helps with the book sales. It's not clear that he knows first-hand what's in the books but was reacting to the criticism of them by others. My own view is that the Potter novels present a bright line distinction between between good and evil. Magic is merely the setting in which the conflicts among the characters play out. John Zukowski with John Granger wrote an article in New Jersey Express-Times Finding Christianity -- in Harry Potter which spells out this idea that there's an implicit Christian message in the novels. Author John Granger sees religion amid the witchcraft. John Granger says he knows why people love J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. "Her books are stuffed with Christianity and fall over themselves with Christian meaning," he says. However, there are real demonic novels out there which have less popularity that contain turn the concepts of good and evil upside down. Philip Pullman is anti-Christian propagandist and a J.K. Rowling wannabe.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 7:43 PM   Permalink  

 
Episcopal Priest Is Removed in Connecticut : New York Times

In the first step toward defrocking, one of the six Episcopal priests who has opposed the Connecticut bishop's support for the ordination of gay bishops was temporarily removed from his duties as rector of a church in Bristol on Wednesday because he had taken an unauthorized sabbatical.

It looks to me like to save this parish they have to destroy the parish. I wonder if these Episcopalians are open to the idea of becoming Catholic.

More details in this blog

About 10:30, this morning, I got a telephone call at work that Bishop Smith was seizing St. John's building. Could I please come over? Since I work close by, I was able to drive over in about fifteen minutes. I drove into the parking lot, and saw the Sr. Warden talking to Bishop Smith. I walked up to Bishop Smith and shook his hand. "I’m Bill Witt," I said. "I think we’ve met." He remembered me. He should have. I sent him a letter removing myself from the diocesan ordination discernment process right after General Convention. The bishop went into the building. The Sr. Warden and I stood in the parking lot.

The bishop had planned his timing well. There was only an AA meeting and the church secretary in the building when Drew Smith showed up with Chancellor, computer hackers, and a "priest-in-charge." The entourage made demands of the church secretary, admonishing her with canon law. She responded that she was just a secretary, not an Episcopalian, and didn't know anything about canon law. Several times during the day she was in tears. The hackers set to work on the computer, took down the church’s website, and brought in a locksmith to change the locks. A few more parishioners showed up, and we stood in the parking lot...

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:17 AM   Permalink  

 
Gunmen shot dead a veteran Italian missionary in northern Kenya last night. : UK Guardian

Bishop Luigi Locati, 77, was killed in Isiolo, a town 200 miles north of Nairobi, as he returned home from a pastoral centre where he had taken his evening meal, said Joseph Samal, development coordinator for the Roman Catholic diocese of Isiolo.

A group of six unidentified assailants opened fire on the bishop after chasing away his house guard, he said.

Motive unknown.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:02 AM   Permalink  

 
Urinated in Holy Water : Smoking Gun

JULY 8--Meet teenagers Dan Seklar, Richard DeCarolis, and Michael Street. The New York nitwits are facing charges that they desecrated a Rochester church last month by urinating in a holy water vessel, kicking in doors, and throwing wine bottles, according to felony complaints. Investigators estimate that Seklar, 18; DeCarolis, 17; and Street, 16; caused $16,750 in damages during their June 29 rampage at St. Pius X Church. Along with a 15-year-old cohort whose name has not been released, the trio also allegedly skidded bikes across the church's carpeting and swiped a $500 speaker. After posing for the above mug shots snapped by Monroe County Sheriff's deputies, the rotten little punks were released to their parents's custody.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:20 PM   Permalink  

 
British cardinal condemns 'false' religion professed by terrorists : CNS

A British cardinal has condemned the "false" religion of terrorists who murdered about 50 civilians in a series of bomb attacks July 7 in London.

He didn't condemn Islam being false - which it is, but the presumptive sect of the terrorists, which as a Catholic Cardinal, he has claimed competence to declare what is "true" Islam and what is "false" Islam.

It's a fact that "Holy War" or Jihad is a commandment of Islam. The ground just shifts to defining what form this war takes. The fundamentalists here have the history of the sword of the Prophet and the Caliphs who followed him as supporting the truth of their sect.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 2:38 PM   Permalink  

 
In sanctum Santorum : Boston Globe

Specifically, here's what Santorum wrote about the church pedophile scandal on a religious website called Catholic Online. ''When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political, and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm." ...

Santorum's words about Boston, though written in 2002, weren't highlighted until the last couple of weeks, when a Philadelphia Daily News columnist, John Baer, raised them in print and prompted a running political discourse in the blogosphere. Perhaps so many imbecilic statements flow from Santorum's mouth and pen that this one was initially overlooked.

I, for one, would like to see the full context. Teddy Kennedy has already seized upon this as "Boston-bashing."

As to it's content -- I'm not so sure that the presence of the liberal academic, political, and cultural institutions of Boston -- have any immediate connection to the scandal of clerical sexual abuse. What's special about Boston: the arrogance of those involved, starting with Cardinal Law, that the reassignment was the right and perhaps only thing to do, that buckling under the blackmail threats was the right thing to do, that secrets would be kept forever. It's for these reasons that Boston's approach was overconfident and the archdiocese took ever greater risks.

I think Cardinal Mahony's archdiocese is going to go down in a spectacular fireball as well. Maybe some other diocese will precede it but LA's time will come.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:11 PM   Permalink