extreme Catholic 

 
Is it "sin makes you stupid" or "stupidity makes you sin"

Grandmother charged, blames 'tattletale' after prank Jesus theft : USA Today

Virginia Voiers thought she was taking part in a rambunctious holiday custom, but a carriage driver thought differently and called police when he saw the 70-year-old grandmother stealing the baby Jesus from the city's nativity scene.

There are some days when a blog is easier to write than others and this is one of them.

Well, let me look at the New York Post today. I see that there haven't been any multiple homicides recently... hmmm... that gives me an idea.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:59 PM   Permalink  

 
Note to talk show guests and callers:

Do not. Repeat Do not use the "throw the baby out with the bathwater" methaphor in dicussing abortion.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:46 AM   Permalink  

 
Order and Disorder (part I)

The natural order for men to is be attracted to women.

It is disordered for men to be attracted to men.

How can be made more clear than that? Lust and masturbation are disordered as well.

This is all from the constant teaching of the Church and paragraph 2351 and following.

Popular opinion may classify same sex attraction, lust, and masturbation as all choices that one can make, but all sin starts with a choice.

What the Church teaches (and what I believe) is that same sex attraction is an objective disorder to human nature.

By human nature I do not mean merely occurring in nature because, of course, all types of physical and psychological disorders occur in the natural world.

I do not support discrimination against homosexuals or people afflicted with other disorders. It was this desire not to discriminate that made people of all types, including the very influential American Psychiatric Association in 1973, go silent on the question of it being a disorder.

Today advocacy of homosexuality and it's thematic lifestyle name, gay, is being shouted from the streets, rooftops, and several cable channels. Anyone speaking to it as a disorder is marginalized, called hateful, and silenced. It's a paradox that gay advocacy still has campaigns that present the inverse of the world as it is now -- that one speaking out favorably on homosexuality risks being silenced -- it's called The Day of Silence just in case you forgot what April 26 is for.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 5:52 PM   Permalink  

 
Follow-up Man pushed in front of train during argument : Newsday

...the incident occurred shortly after both men left a bar at 4:30 a.m. and were seen arguing on the Flushing-bound platform of the 52nd Street station in Woodside, police said. The two were quarreling over a 16-year-old girl they had met in a bar, a police source said.

The accused murderer, Molina is 19-years-old. The minimum drinking age is 21.

The girl is 16. Where are the parents in this?

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:01 AM   Permalink  

 
Tales of the Roe Effect

Childless by Choice: Pitter-patter of little feet isn't for them: Chicago Tribune

When Tina Roggenkamp and her husband, Mark, decided to keep their marriage free of children they took a lot of things into account.

They considered their desire for greater freedom, something that enabled her to get a graduate degree and start a small consulting business. There was also their enjoyment of what she called "smaller things," such as being able to sleep late when they wanted and to dine out whenever the mood struck them.

There were larger issues too, such as environmental concerns and worries about an overcrowded planet.

"We worry about global warming," said the 25-year-old who lives in Charlotte. "We worry about what the world will be like in the future. There's so much uncertainty, and I can't see bringing a life into such a world."

Blogger credit: Catholic World Report

I wonder if they reflect what the world would be like if everyone shared their view of "environmental concerns" and or if, at the very least, their own parents were childless by choice.

They are just getting a headstart on becoming the "greedy geezers" who will expect other people's children to fund their social security and medicare in 40 years.

On the positive side, think of it as culling the selfish and self-centered from the herd.

The Roe effect describes the demographic changes brought on the larger society by the practice of artificial birth control and abortion.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:48 PM   Permalink  

 
The Jaffa gate of Jerusalem changes hands -- or does it?

New patriarch: No land for Jews : WorldNetDaily

Christian leader signs secret document nixing sale of key Jerusalem properties

The man enthroned last week as Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem signed a secret document obliging him to nullify the recent sale to Jewish groups of land comprising much of a key entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, and has allegedly made statements against Jews living in certain parts of Jerusalem, WorldNetDaily has learned.

Greek Orthodox control of this area which is adjacent to the hotels just outside the old city is for all practical purposes Palestinian control, so the transfer of this land to Jewish groups represents an full of political as well as religious considerations.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:11 PM   Permalink  

 
Believers Flock to 'Crying' Virgin Mary : AP

Carrying rosary beads and cameras, the faithful have been coming in a steady stream to a church on the outskirts of Sacramento for a glimpse of what some are calling a miracle: A statue of the Virgin Mary they say has begun crying a substance that looks like blood.

It was first noticed more than a week ago, when a priest at the Vietnamese Catholic Martyrs Church spotted a stain on the statue's face and wiped it away. Before Mass on Nov. 20, people again noticed a reddish substance near the eyes of the white concrete statue outside the small church, said Ky Truong, 56, a parishioner.

The diocese has no comment.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:54 PM   Permalink  

 
500 feet from where I live...

Pushed in Front of Subway, Man Is Killed : New York Times

A Queens bakery worker was killed yesterday morning when a man his family described as a friend and former co-worker threw him into the path of an oncoming subway train during a fight, the police said.

The killing occurred just before 5 a.m., several hours after the victim, Edison Guzman, 22, of Richmond Hill, had finished his shift at the bakery, his relatives said.

Yesterday evening, detectives arrested a Brooklyn man in Mr. Guzman's death. Charges against the man, Richie Molina, 19, of Humboldt Street in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, were pending last night.

Patricio Bermeo, an uncle of Mr. Guzman's, said last night that his nephew and the suspect formerly worked together at the bakery and that they still "hung out regularly."

"They were friends," he said.

"Maybe they were fighting, maybe they were playing," Mr. Bermeo said.

The authorities said it was unclear what had provoked the fight, which they said had begun under the elevated tracks of the No. 7 line near the 52nd Street station, on Roosevelt Avenue in the Sunnyside section of Queens.

Mr. Guzman and Mr. Molina then went upstairs onto the outbound platform and continued to fight, the police said. As a train entered the station, the killer shoved Mr. Guzman onto the tracks, according to a statement to detectives from the train's motorman, whose name was not disclosed. The train consisted of 11 cars, each weighing almost 37,000 pounds, according to Charles F. Seaton, a spokesman for New York City Transit.

It was unclear exactly how close Mr. Guzman was to the train when he was pushed, but it is impossible for a train entering a station at the customary speed to stop suddenly.

"He was all twisted up. It was bad," said Paul Cabrera, 35, a track worker at the scene.

William Schultz, 54, a transit maintenance supervisor who was working in the station, said he had run to the platform after he heard a woman screaming.

Mr. Guzman's father, Raul Guzman, identified a cellphone found at the scene as belonging to his son, according to Mr. Bermeo.

Mr. Bermeo said that the elder Mr. Guzman had been shown video by the police of the assailant fleeing the station and had identified the man as Mr. Molina. The police said detectives had obtained surveillance video from both the station and a nearby store.

At the victim's home on 133rd Street, Mr. Bermeo, 41, said Mr. Guzman's family was from Cuenca, Ecuador, and moved to New York City 18 years ago.

For the last four years, Mr. Guzman worked at Pain d'Avignon, a bakery in Astoria, with his father, Mr. Bermeo said. He worked until midnight on Saturday after switching shifts so he could have Thanksgiving off and spend the day with his family, Mr. Bermeo added.

"He's young; he doesn't give a problem," Mr. Bermeo said. "He goes to school. He wanted to be somebody." Mr. Guzman had a girlfriend and enjoyed bowling and playing pool after work, Mr. Bermeo said

Another uncle, Luis Guzman, 44, said: "My brother called me in my home and said, 'My son is dead.' We can't believe it."

Last night, no one answered the door at the apartment where Mr. Molina lives with his mother and two sisters. The building superintendent, Arnold Cruz, 46, said of Mr. Molina: "If he said a handful of words, it was a lot. He was a quiet kid."

The death halted service on the 7 line from 4:59 a.m. until 9:05 a.m., when outbound train service resumed, said Mark Groce, a transit spokesman.

It was very quiet this morning at 7:30 when I went to buy the New York Times and the New York Post. I chatted with my newspaper seller. She said that from the time she arrived the train had not been running. My family and I went off to our retreat at the St. Ignatius Retreat House in Manhasset and then we learned what happened.

This part of the subway is an elevated train. As the television account put it graphically, the body parts rained down from the tracks 30 feet overhead.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:41 PM   Permalink