extreme Catholic 

Portland (Oregon) Archdiocese vows to continue work despite court ruling : CNS

Despite a court ruling that could significantly boost the amount the Portland Archdiocese must pay for sex-abuse settlements, archdiocesan leaders said the local church and its work will endure.

"The archdiocese is committed to continuing its religious and charitable mission to Catholics and others, including thousands of schoolchildren, its parishioners, and the poor and dispossessed, as it has for its 157-year history in Oregon, no matter what obstacles confront it," said an archdiocesan statement issued after the Dec. 30 decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth Perris.

In a ruling that asserted the primacy of secular law over church law in the matter of bankruptcy, Perris said the archdiocese is the owner of parish and school properties.

Canon lawyer Ed Peters has written "Catholic parishes canonically own the assets assigned to or acquired by themselves".

I claim this has never been true. The bishops own the assets even if canon law combines many notational assets into one asset-holder, the bishop. In civil law he necessarily combines all the liabilities as well.

It's absurd to think that bishops are unencumbered in their ability to sell parish property under civil law, yet encumbered when it comes to the same under a judicial finding of financial liability.

Since I'm limited to 500 chars. there, let me elaborate here:

It's not as if there's hundreds of non-profit corporations civilly-formed which exercise the common meaning of ownership with the bishop as the chairman of board of each one, and each board looks out for the best interests of the public for which that non-profit serves. No it's not that way at all.

It's all combined in the person of the bishop and it's his total discretion to acquire or dispose of property. This is the concept of the monarchial bishop which I fully support.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:07 PM   Permalink  

It's about an Episcopalian priest.

It's hard to recall the last commercial television program that treated the Catholic faith seriously. It might be "Life Is Worth Living" with Archbishop Sheen. IMDB doesn't mention it but I believe the show, with interruptions ran from 1952 to 1962.

Book of Daniel will probably wind up like Revelations which was cancelled on NBC It was quite silly.

There have been television programs which have been sympathetic and respectful of Christianity but not to the Catholic faith. (I'm suggesting Touched by an Angel and Seventh Heaven or even Highway to Heaven).

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:25 PM   Permalink  

Detectives investigating the theft of a baby Jesus statue from an outdoor Nativity scene at a Sayreville church followed a trail yesterday that led them to the missing statue -- and 26 other baby Jesus figurines.

Police said they assumed all 27 statues had been stolen, although they did not know from where.

With frequency this is happening, one could devote an entire blog to the vandalism of nativity scenes or Christian symbols.

One comment on television I heard was "this sort of thing doesn't happen in our neighborhood." Oh really, is your neighborhood that rare neighborhood where religious tolerence is reflected in respect for the rights of Christians to say "Merry Christmas" and keep religion including Christianity in the public sqare?

As I see it, these teens or young men are only acting out in a bolder way than their parents in going after the infant Jesus.

In a way, for supporting abortion rights and electing only politicians who support abortion rights, the thieves might be less hypocritical than the citizens of New Jersey who put baby Jesus on the front lawn but with their votes honor Herod more than Christ.

Their intention, by the way, was to gather these baby Jesus figures, throw gasoline on them and burn them. This is demonic, but the laws of the State of New Jersey don't have special demonic penalties. Perhaps (and I'm being serious here) they could be prosecuted as if it were a hate crime such as vandalizing a menorah or burning a cross on the lawn.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:36 PM   Permalink