extreme Catholic 

 
Begun, the Da Vinci wars have.

Stacks of books by Catholic authors: (alphabetical order)

• Jimmy Akin
• Carl Olson and Sandra Miesel
• Mark Shea and Edward Sri
• Amy Welborn

at the Daughters of St. Paul and even at Barnes and Noble. -- but at Barnes and Noble they are mixed in with the pro-Brown books.

Buy one or buy all!

It is the great countdown to the clash of the post-Modernist popular culture and we hope a Christendom united to proclaim the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:43 AM   Permalink  

 
When you google news for "ritual" and "priest", you don't expect this

Jury convicts priest of nun's 1980 murder : AP

A priest was convicted Thursday of murder in the slaying of a nun [Sister Margaret Ann Pahl] who was found stabbed 26 years ago in a hospital chapel, her forehead "anointed" with a smudge of blood, her wounds forming an upside-down cross on her chest.

The Rev. Gerald Robinson, 68, was immediately sentenced to the mandatory term of 15 years to life in prison and led away in handcuffs after a trial in which forensic experts matched the victim's wounds to a distinctive, sword-shaped letter opener found in the priest's room.

Earlier stories included allegations of a satanic ritual group and a cover-up by its members. This was only discussed in news stories and not in the courtroom. Accomplices may have gotten away with it.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:26 AM   Permalink  

 
da Vinci Code mania settles into New York

A photo album

	The first 6 is from outdoor advertising -- scaffolding -- at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, a major intersection. The one at the left is from a phone book at 23rd Street.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:52 PM   Permalink  

 
My Ph.D. is in "Blasphemy Studies"

Reuters colors the news with the descriptive word "broadside":

In the latest Vatican broadside against "The Da Vinci Code", a leading cardinal says Christians should respond to the book and film with legal action because both offend Christ and the Church he founded.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian who was considered a candidate for pope last year, made his strong comments in a documentary called "The Da Vinci Code-A Masterful Deception."

Arinze's appeal came some 10 days after another Vatican cardinal called for a boycott of the film. Both cardinals asserted that other religions would never stand for offences against their beliefs and that Christians should get tough.

"Christians must not just sit back and say it is enough for us to forgive and to forget," Arinze said in the documentary made by Rome film maker Mario Biasetti for Rome Reports, a Catholic film agency specializing in religious affairs.

"Sometimes it is our duty to do something practical. So it is not I who will tell all Christians what to do but some know legal means which can be taken in order to get the other person to respect the rights of others," Arinze said.

In researching Cardinal Arinze's reference to the Danish cartoon images of the Prophet Mohammad, I went to sources like this compilation of cartoons which blasphemy him.

The worst of the cartoons, three in number, were faked and never published in a Danish newspaper. The details and images are in the Wikipedia.

Which led me to a news blog, The Brussels Journal quoting Godfried Cardinal Danneels, "We should be able to laugh at ourselves from time to time so that we do not take ourselves too seriously." -- in reference to this cartoon.

It is blasphemous. But like the Mohammad cartoons, a society with press and religious freedom cannot criminalize the authors and publishers.

As a matter of prudence, you ought to be consistent. Cardinal Danneels condemned the Mohammad cartoons but gave the "Yawning Christ" a pass.

The problem with The Da Vinci Code is not blasphemy as much as it is the corruption of truth. More on this later.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 7:33 PM   Permalink