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2003
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New York Times: Giuliani Firm Confirms It Hired L.I. Priest Barred From Ministry
A prominent Long Island priest who was barred from the ministry last year after an allegation of sexual abuse has been quietly working for the consulting business of Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Giuliani spokeswoman confirmed yesterday.The priest, Msgr. Alan J. Placa, is one of the former mayor's oldest friends. He has been coming into the Manhattan office of the firm, Giuliani Partners, about three days a week, said Sunny Mindel, the spokeswoman. "He's a very prominent guy and an incredibly learned man and able man," she said, noting that he is a lawyer, speaks French and has business experience running the hospital division of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, which covers Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:18 PM Permalink
Space Flight Now has updates
I'm praying for the souls of deceased astronauts and admire the bravery of all who accept the risks of space flight in the advancement of science and discovery.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:52 PM Permalink
Revolutionary Art
Yahoo shows us how the Democratic People's Republic of Korea motivates it's people in the coming war with the United States.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:15 AM Permalink
Somewhere in Pakistan a bomb with my name on it is being made for this reason:
Hi Pakistan carried this story from my own neighborhood. It didn't get into the five newspapers I read. Must be a conspiracy to keep the truth about evil America suppressed.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:05 AM Permalink
The friend of my enemy... (Part II)
Newsday reports The Vatican assailed Italy's defense minister Friday for having questioned the Church's opposition to a possible U.S.-led war on Iraq.
In an unusual criticism of an individual official, the Vatican's daily newspaper L'Osservatore Romano labeled "a little surprising" Defense Minister Antonio Martino's remarks that there might be some "wisdom" to a preventive war against Baghdad.
The newspaper implied Martino did not have the wisdom needed to be defense minister.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:56 AM Permalink
The friend of my enemy...
Our friends at National Catholic Reporter are mocking Weigel: Weigel seems guilty of faulty targeting. and Novak:
As for the pope, the challenge is to spin away inconvenient utterances. Thus when American Catholic pundit Michael Novak arrives in Rome in early February to try to convince the Vatican of the morality of “preventive war,” he will no doubt quote John Paul II approvingly, even if his aim is to draw different conclusions about the use of force in Iraq.
We must really be annoying them.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:44 AM Permalink
Assessing apparitions: Vatican considers guidelines to help bishops
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In response to a boom in reported Marian apparitions and other "private revelations," the Vatican is preparing new guidelines to help bishops judge such phenomena and, in some cases, curb the enthusiasm of their followers.
Officials of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said in January they were updating a set of 25-year-old guidelines because of new risks and a need for greater doctrinal clarity -- especially in places where lay groups have rallied around the apparitions in defiance of local bishops.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:06 PM Permalink
NRO mentions this -- but I can find the lyrics
I'd Rather Have a Bottle In Front Of Me Than a Frontal Lobotomy
Jimmy and I were brothers.
We went down different paths.
Jimmy always listened to my mother,
And me, I never like to take a bath.
As we grew and tumbled through adulthood
The pressure caused emotional drain.
So now I'm slowly dying in the bottle
and Jimmy has to live with half a brain.
Yes, me, I've got a bottle in front of me,
And Jimmy has a frontal lobotomy.
Just different ways to kill the pain the same.
But I'd rather have a bottle in front of me,
Than have to have a frontal lobotomy.
I might be drunk, but at least I'm not insane.
Jimmy let his troubles drive him crazy.
He never tried to drown it in a drink.
I know that drinking makes my thinking hazy,
But at least I still have brains enough to think.
Jimmy's got a brain that isn't stable.
He doesn't have the sense to say his name.
I'm sorry that his doctor was unable
To remove the proper portion of his brain.
Yes, me, I've got a bottle in front of me,
And Jimmy has a frontal lobotomy.
Just different ways to kill the pain the same.
But I'd rather have a bottle in front of me,
Than have to have a frontal lobotomy.
I might be drunk, but at least I'm not insane.
Funny how the world works.
People can be real jerks.
Some prefer the tension over booze.
Either way it ends the same.
Hard to beat the living game.
Might as well enjoy it while you lose.
When I need a drink I start to shiver
And Jimmy always viewed it with concern.
But I'd rather have cirrhosis of the liver
Than an intellect that's second to a fern.
I wonder if old Jimmy's gonna hear it
When I tell him that his logic wasn't sound.
They'll dose him up on lots of evil spirits
When they take him to the psychiatric grounds.
Yes, me, I've got a bottle in front of me,
And Jimmy has a frontal lobotomy.
Just different ways to kill the pain the same.
But I'd rather have a bottle in front of me,
Than have to have a frontal lobotomy.
I might be drunk, but at least I'm not insane.
I might be drunk, but at least I'm not insane!
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 4:47 PM Permalink
NRO mentions this -- but I can find the lyrics
Get Your Tongue Out Of My Mouth
(cause I'm kissing you goodbye)
Oh, at first it was just like heaven in your heart and in your arms
And paradise discovered in the sweetness of your charms
Yes, and every day a miracle to awake and be with you
And every night in your embrace another dream come true
But castles sometimes crumble some rivers still run dry
And fairy tales are witches tales when the truth becomes a lie"
And a pocket full of promises won't buy a diamond ring
And every word you said to me just didn't mean a thing
It's over now, you've gone too far I can't take anymore
Be careful now - don't hurt yourself when you walk through that door
I can hardly stand to look at you it makes me want to cry
Get your tongue out of my mouth because I'm kissing you goodbye
Now I suppose I'll never know why things turned out this way
And why the one you love the most is the one you drove away?
Yes, and I suppose I'll never, ever really understand
How I could think that you'd make me a happy married man
So now I sit and contemplate the reason for it all
The climb to heights of ecstasy the failure and the fall
If a broken heart is purposeful it's in the lesson learned
No matter what the reason is it hurts when you get burned
Now I don't care, I don't think I'll ever love again
"Kemosabe" used to me good and trusted friend
But now it stands for therapy and all the tears I cry
Get your tongue out of my mouth 'Cause I'm kissing you goodbye!
Bye, Bye. Bye, Bye.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 4:35 PM Permalink
Connections:
Joel 3: 9-11
Proclaim this among the nations:
Prepare for war!
Rouse the warriors!
Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.
Beat your plowshares into swords
and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weakling say,
"I am strong!"
Come quickly, all you nations from every side, and assemble there.
Bring down your warriors, O LORD !
Smart Spears as a non-explosive alternative to bombing
And now be the time to use them as CNN reports that the used rods are about to processed into Nukes.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 4:27 PM Permalink
CNN gets in on the Patron Saint of the Internet story
The vote is taking place at Italian web site
Patron saints have a honorary status. They are simply canonized and not assigned a patronal status except by small-t tradition.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 3:22 PM Permalink
George Weigel on the Resignation of Cardinal Law via Mark Shea
I agree with Weigel. Much in the popular media is overstating the role of the lay pressure group and the priests petition. Ultimately, Law resigned because he felt he had to.
I've read quite a bit on Senator Joseph McCarthy and maybe made radar is tuned too sensitively today, but does sound like I have a list a schismatic(?) (heterodox?) priests who have concealed themselves in the Archdiocese of Boston today.
From the above linked articleHowever slow it has sometimes been to measure accurately the breadth and depth of the crisis in the American Church, the Vatican is not clueless. Officials in Rome could see that the signatories included priests who had never truly accepted Cardinal Law’s authority; their request for him to lay down an authority they had rarely acknowledged rang rather hollow.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:01 AM Permalink
Catholic New York shows the connection between wealth and the Church
Already aware that he had terminal cancer, Cardinal O'Connor appears at his 80th Birthday party (January 19, 2000).
The dinner chairmen were:
- David Komansky, CEO Merrill Lynch
- Leslie Quick, CEO Quick & Reilly/Fleet Securities
- Theodore J. Forstmann, Sr Partner Forstmann Little & Co.
- Mayor Giuliani
$5.2 million was raised for charity that night.
Cardinal O'Connor passed away on May 3, 2000.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:43 AM Permalink
(Newsday) DA: Diocese Lied About Priest
By Stephanie Saul Staff Writer January 30, 2003, 8:53 PM EST
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.The Brooklyn district attorney’s office searched Internet sites worldwide last year in a vain attempt to find an accused priest because the Diocese of Brooklyn told them the priest had left the country, according to court testimony Thursday.
The Rev. Francis Nelson was really in Manhattan. Brooklyn church officials now acknowledge they knew Nelson had found employment there after they banished him in 1999, when he was accused of sexually molesting a 12-year-old female parishioner.
Testifying Thursday in the third day of Nelson’s sex abuse trial in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, Det. Quentin Sica said diocesan officials told his office last year that Nelson went back to his native India. That’s where Sica began a search for Nelson, looking for him on Roman Catholic Internet sites there, he testified.
It was only after Sica asked the financial crimes unit in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office to run a database search for all Francis Nelsons residing in New York that he found the accused priest living at St. Charles Borromeo Church on West 142nd Street in Manhattan.
Nelson, 39, surrendered to authorities in May outside the Harlem church, three years after he allegedly molested the girl, a parishioner at St. Mary Star of the Sea church in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, his previous assignment.
He has pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a minor. If convicted, he would face up to 1 year in prison on each of three counts against him.
In testimony earlier this week, two priests from the Diocese of Brooklyn said they were aware in 1999 that Nelson was attending Fordham University and would be working at a Manhattan parish until his return to India. In fact, the church bulletin at St. Mary’s said they would forward correspondence to him.
Nelson was among the priests whose names were turned over to prosecutors last year as part of an agreement with the Brooklyn diocese, which includes Queens.
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, which governs the parish where Nelson worked in Harlem, has said it did not know of the accusation against Nelson until the night before he was arrested.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:10 AM Permalink
My first link to Slate
This one just has to be seen to be belived. All the video clips of goosestepping have been compiled on Slate.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:50 PM Permalink
More than one kind of snow in my neighborhood
Four Queens Soybean Oil Inc
51-18 Grand Avenue, Maspeth, NY 11378
NEW YORK (AP) _ Four members of a drug gang have been arrested and 4,000 pounds of cocaine worth $120 million seized from a Queens warehouse in what authorities called the largest narcotics haul in city history.Agents captured one suspect after chasing his minivan through Queens and arrested the other three Tuesday at a warehouse in the Maspeth section. They said the minivan contained 800 pounds of cocaine and there were 3,200 pounds in the warehouse.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:40 PM Permalink
Follow-up on Fr. Hands of Long Island
WINS reports that Fr. Michael Hands has a plea bargin for two counts of sodomy with a 13-year-old boy. With time off for good behavior, Hands would likely serve 16 months in prison and five years' probation. Fr. Hands faces more charges in another jurisdiction.
I have followed this case closely becase Fr. Hands was reportedly naming the names of other priests who have sexually abused children.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:30 PM Permalink
Party On, Dudes!WINS Radio and Newsday report: Some teens opened up graves to obtain human bones for party decorations. Then they bragged about it. Someone called the cops and now we all know about it. |
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:10 PM Permalink
Bishop Grahmann -- Your time is up!
The Bishop vs. The Dallas News (Link via Mark Shea)
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:04 PM Permalink
Does the Pontifical Council for Blaming America First have a comment today? Nope.
Catholic News Service has this item
What planet is the Cardinal on? The U.N. weapons inspectors said that Iraq had not disarmed. That is the justification. It was justified in the submission of Blix's report. The burden of proof is on Iraq to show that it destroyed its WMD's. They have not done so. We're calling that the "smoking gun". Six days to go before Secretary Powell's show and tellCardinal Egan says inspectors must determine if Iraq war is justified
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York said U.N. weapons inspectors must determine that Iraq poses "a clear and present danger" before military action can be justified against the country. While the inspectors' task is undeniably difficult, "it is also essential," he said Jan. 28 during a live intercontinental Web cast organized by the Vatican. "The truth of the danger must be established beyond any doubt" and "clearly set before us" before military force can be justified, the cardinal said. No war "may be legitimately declared or pursued without clear and certain knowledge of clear and certain danger," he said, drawing on principles outlined in Blessed Pope John XXIII's 1963 encyclical "Pacem in Terris" ("Peace on Earth"). Even if inspectors finally determine Iraq poses a serious threat, he added, the international community should not "rush into conflict."
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:55 PM Permalink
France is writing geo-political checks it can't cash
A diplomatic agreement to stop a civil war in the Ivory Coast was signed, sealed, and delivered among the all the concerned parties in a photo op for President Chirac.
The International Herald Tribune reports that it's become "null and void". in about 48 hours.
This would be funny but there's a lot of people including French citizens caught in the crossfire of a civil war. Either the French Army comes (like the U.S. in Greneda, Panama, and Haiti) or the French (and perhaps all the foreign population) leaves.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:46 PM Permalink
Ceramoon Studios has a lot of pagan stuff, but this Christian item caught my eye.
Yes. You or your children can be decorated with the motifs of the Book of Kells, a 1200 year old treasure of Western Civilization.
I wonder if I can get napkins, paper plates, paper tablecloth etc. for a Book of Kells-themed party.
hmmm... the images are in the public domain...
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:18 PM Permalink
“Gianna: Aborted and lived to tell about it.”
Found a story of an abortion survivior in the Manchester Union Leader.
She is a witness to Christ simply by speaking about why she is now alive.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:41 PM Permalink
Happy Birthday to You...!
Zenit notes that the Code of Canon Law turned 20 last Saturday
This is the online version I use
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 2:09 AM Permalink
Dominatrix sued by family of man who died in bondage -- Voice of the Dominated to be formed.
AP via Concord Monitor reports:
|
BOSTON - The family of a man who died during a bondage session has filed a $1 million lawsuit against the dominatrix who is accused of dismembering his body and hiding the remains. Michael Lord's mother and sons filed the lawsuit Thursday in federal court. In it, they claim Barbara Asher failed to use "safe, sane sadomasochistic techniques" when she and her ex-boyfriend used a hacksaw to dismember the body of the 280-pound Lord, who apparently died during a July 2000 session with Asher. |
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:22 PM Permalink
Miracles...
Opens with the discovery of a coffin that has been opened with Sr. Agnes (deceased) inside. Her body has not been corrupted. The local pastor seeks a investigator to confirm this miracle and start Sr. Agnes on the path to canonization. Our hero shows up -- Paul Callan (played by Skeet Ulrich, birth name, Brian Ray Ulrich). He's not a priest -- but he's got some official connection to the Church apparently(*1). Sorry, it was the apricots not holiness that spared Sr. Agnes from corruption. And just to make the point he busts open another coffin. "You've got a town ful of saints here." (Hey! It could happen!) He's friends with Father 'Poppi' (not poopi) Calero. Callan wants a sabbatical from whatever he does. Poppi gives him one. You see he's just gotta find faith before he can go on.
Callan goes into the desert, he's a carpenter (hint, hint).
Callan gets a call to investigate. On the train ride there, he's got a few Twilight Zone moments. Now, to get around in the desert, you need a car and he has one. He takes the train and at his destination, he's got another car. What gives? Well, that train ride is mighty important to the plot.
He calls the mother of Tommy Ferguson and tells her that Poppi asked him to call her (*2). He goes and it's the usual siege of the house. At this point I'm think apparitions of the Blessed Mother. But I'm wrong.
Tommy is an uncute, morose, sick kid about 10 years old. He sort of ignores Paul and plays a videogame.
Mom and Dad explain -- he's a healer. The most dramatic healing and this is actually a very nice performance is by an attractive young woman cured of blindness. We see a little mutual attraction between the two. Then we meet the attractive young woman (see a pattern yet?) African-American doctor and she's just way too cynical about, umm... Miracles, believing it all was because of her or some other doctor's skill. Now at this point, you'd expect him to ask to review the case records but this sort of drifts off.
The mother and father's panic begins to escalate and Tommy is brought in to help a newborn who is dying. "Why does God let my son heal this baby when he can't heal himself?" I was quoting scripture at the screen "God's ways are not our ways". And I said to myself -- the people putting this show together are awfully unfamiliar with (1) the Christian idea of what death is all about and (2) how real families cope with young children with fatal illnesses. Hint: it has to do with the Resurrection. The baby is healed but not before we have an X-files moment.
Tommy gets real sick and when he returns home there's a moment of calm. Just a moment.
Mom and Tommy run out of the house in the middle of the night(*3), drive off, and Paul follows them in his car. Plenty of spooky music and heavy rain. This doesn't look good at all. Paul's car does a mambo with a freight train(*4) and, you don't see it, but I hope he's making a really good Act of Contrition. There's blood-writing God is now here or is it God is nowhere? Tommy walks over and heals Paul, knowing that this is going to drain the life of himself: it's a self-sacrifice.
Tommy's funeral and then the mean old Monsigor wearing a cassock screams 1950 says "Do you have documentary proof a of miracle?" (exactly what I would expect him to say). But wait -- the camera angle is distored and it's way too close up -- it gives the man a menacing appearance. He's also a bit distracted and impatient, and by now we're so sympathetic to Paul that we want the Monsigor to give him a hug or a hearty handshake. He's dissed and dismissed. He meets Fr. Poppi and learns I didn't make that phonecall.
Where do you go when you hear that? Off to the diner and meet a new regular character who's going to help you investigate the paranomal (*5). The camera pans and you see Mulder and Scully at one table, Doctors Venkman, Stantz, and Spengler at another, and getting up from their table, Fathers Merrin and Karras.
Amen. I want to see next week's episode. This series an odor to it, but perhaps it's not the ordor of sanctity: the smell is out there.
Here are the I don't get its
(*1) The ABC web site says he's a seminarian but they don't share that with us in the show.
(*2) Tommy's mother says "sure, come by" not "who's Poppi?" -- If Poppi was never called, why does Mom include Paul over?
(*3) Why does Mom and Tommy get up and go in the middle of the night without even a single suitcase?
(*4) The train doesn't stop. What's this? Andrew's Angel of Death Express?
(*5) "Who said it was God doing this?" Could it be Satan? Bring on the Church lady.
Suggestions to Michael Petroni and Richard Hatem
- Get a technical advisor on how the Church deals with this stuff.
- If you stack the deck with sincere cynics, try to include a few sincere believers in God and give them a few lines to say as well.
- Lose the "I just woke up and the last 10 seconds the audience saw was a dream" gimmick.
- Try to balance out the solemn pretentiousness with a little humor, watch a few episodes of the X-Files for tips.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:05 PM Permalink
Some news backing up what I wrote below from the Wall Street Journal
Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix made an unexpectedly pointed case that Iraq is evading calls to disarm, echoing the Bush administration's arguments and strengthening the American case for a move toward war.
In a report to the United Nations Security Council awaited eagerly around the globe, Mr. Blix offered a detailed brief that Iraq has complied with the process of inspections but not with the substance of disarmament. Iraq, he said, "appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance, not even today" of demands that it disarm.
He said Iraq has frustrated requests for private interviews with scientists, apparently concealed important documents in private homes and failed to answer key questions about its previous holdings of anthrax, the nerve agent VX and other forbidden weapons.
"It is not enough to open one's doors," he said. "Inspections are not a process of catch as catch can."
That echoed a key U.S. assertion emphasized by Secretary of State Colin Powell in Davos, Switzerland, the previous day: that Iraqi cooperation, and not U.N. discoveries, is the most important measure of whether the inspections are working. And the U.S., which has been criticized by some of its closest allies in recent days for rushing too quickly to war, seized eagerly on Mr. Blix's comments.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:13 AM Permalink
Smoking...
The argument that we can't go to war because the inspectors did not find a smoking gun is bogus.
Saddam had plenty of smoking guns in terms of chemical and biological weapons, and a paper trail that he sought to obtain nuclear weapons. This was documented, photographed, and videotaped by the 1998 inspectors.
The goal of the 2003 inspections was to verify that 1998's smoking guns were destroyed.
Such verification wasn't produced. That's a fact. I can speculate that the reason is that they were hidden and not destroyed. That should be enough, but some of you want more.
So, I want President Bush to lay out more evidence from the technological and human intelligence gathering that's been done in order to get more political support for the war. but I believe the case has been made morally for war for some time.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:47 AM Permalink
Axis of Appeasement: United Nations, United States Catholic Conference, Archbishop Martino (etal).
I have to be more extreme than Mark Shea, my blog-brother was in his Catholic and Enjoying It I may be the most hawkish of the Catholic bloggers. I'll need to investigate that. UPI reports this:
"It's unilateralism, pure and simple," the Vatican's observer at the United Nations, Archbishop Renato Martino, said in October. Last month, Archbishop Martino declared that preventive war against Saddam Hussein "is a war of aggression and does not come under the definition of a just war." ...The lesson of the first Gulf War is the same as World War II -- appeasement doesn't work.Unfortunately, some in the Vatican today seem to have learned the wrong lesson from the 1991 Gulf War. Archbishop Martino, for example, suggested last month that the 1991 experience shows that war is always futile. "Everyone knows the way it turned out. War doesn't resolve problems. Besides being bloody, it's useless," he said
The rationale for the war is that Saddam was given a final opportunity to disarm, and he hasn't. Now this is I know this is controversial but it's my opinion. At the end of World War II, the United States Army under the orders of General Eisenhower forced at gunpoint the civilians in the adjoining towns near Nazi death camps and concentration camps to witness and to assist in burying the dead Jews and others.
After the American victory in the liberation of Iraq, I would like Archbishop Martino and the members of the U.N. Security Council who propose appeasement to witness to Saddam's prisons and concentration camps. Let there be no mistake about the horror of this dictator and his inhumanity which helps to justify the coming war.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:23 AM Permalink
Another from James Taranto Best of the Web in opinionjournal.com Jerusalem Post: Axis of Carnival
A Palestinian Arab appears to have blown up his own ass. No, we're not using vulgar language to describea dog-bites-man suicide-bombing story. This guy actually blew up an ass. "According to the army, a gas canister filled with explosives and metal rods was strapped to the donkey and a second, full of explosives, was placed next to it," the Jerusalem Post reports. "The bombs were detonated simultaneously by two cellphones." There were no injuries.
Now, this raises an interesting theological issue: What happens when a donkey becomes a martyr? Does it get the same 72 virgins that Palestinian men and boys do when they blow themselves up? Rockers Emerson Lake & Palmer seem to have addressed this question in their 1973 opus "Karn Evil 9, First Impression," in which they refer to "seven virgins and a mule." ("Keep it cool, keep it cool.") If ELP is right, a donkey that goes to paradise gets less than 10% of a human shahid's allotment of virgins. No doubt PETA will be outraged at this blatant speciesism.
Thanks, James, for including the theological question, so it can qualify for inclusion in extremeCatholic.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:56 PM Permalink
Women's Excommunication Affirmed after Schismatic Ordination
Well it was only a matter of time, but now it's official. Catholic World News Reports it:
The Holy See has confirmed the excommunication of 7 Catholic women who sought ordination to the priesthood through a schismatic sect, in a ceremony that took place in Austria in June 2002
Dagmar Braun Celeste (ex-wife of the ex-governor of Ohio) was the only American among seven women who attempted to be ordained as priests by Bishops Romolo Braschi of Argentina and Rafael Regelsberger of Austria on June 29, 2002 on a boat on the Danube River between Germany and Austria.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:46 PM Permalink
Pro-life unto the second generation
James Taranto on opinionjournal.com has identified a pro-life trend that I have been taking about with my friends: We're deep into the second generation. Young adults alive now are were born during a period when could have been aborted but were not. Millions of unborn children they passed on the street as they were also in another womb were killed. They probably grew up in home where they heard that not only were their parents personally opposed to abortion, but thought it was bad public policy.
And now they are able to vote.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 5:21 PM Permalink
Iraqi Compliance: An Oxymoron
NZ Bear of the Truth Laid Bear has a great piece. If I got to be Secretary General of the U.N. for a day....
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 5:10 PM Permalink
Carol McKinley whose weblog is Magisterial Fidelity is covering an another approaching disaster in the Archdiocese of Boston: formal recognition of a lay organization unlike any other lay organization that you've heard of -- seeking what looks like an active executive function not merely an advisory one.
Their website is Parish Leadership Forum
When I read Together We Are the Church. I get afraid. Slogans like that are so typical of groups that are pushing to change the Church according to their own desires.
Frankly, what distinquishes this new thing, a fourm, from existing parish associations like the Holy Name Society or Rosary Society is the absence of words that show that there is a hierarchy in the Church, words like "serve" and "assist".
When I read this, the alarm bells went off as well:
Bishop Edyvean explained his concerns, including the use of the term “association,” which has a technical meaning in Canon Law; and that the group’s name should accurately reflect its goals and purposes. Mr. Zizik assured Bishop Edyvean that the group he was proposing is intended to function within the existing structure of the Church, in a manner that complements existing structures and seeks unity among all Catholic Christians consistent with our shared faith and tradition.
Why would this association of lay Catholics not want to be formed under Canon Law? Why call yourself a fourm?
I'm no canon lawyer, but you can read the following and you can see how my point that such lay associations in Canon Law are not seeking power-sharing through dialog but work with pastors and bishops. (Canon 301§1 is the key canon).
Can. 298 §1 In the Church there are associations which are distinct from institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life. In these associations, Christ's faithful, whether clerics or laity, or clerics and laity together, strive with a common effort to foster a more perfect life, or to promote public worship or christian teaching. They may also devote themselves to other works of the apostolate, such as initiatives for evangelisation, works of piety or charity, and those which animate the temporal order with the christian spirit.
§2 Christ's faithful are to join especially those associations which have been established, praised or recommended by the competent ecclesiastical authority.
Can. 299 §1 By private agreement among themselves, Christ's faithful have the right to constitute associations for the purposes mentioned in can. 298 §1, without prejudice to the provisions of can. 301 §1.
§2 Associations of this kind, even though they may be praised or commended by ecclesiastical authority, are called private associations.
§3 No private association of Christ's faithful is recognised in the Church unless its statutes have been reviewed by the competent authority.
Can. 300 No association may call itself 'catholic' except with the consent of the competent ecclesiastical authority, in accordance with can. 312.
Can. 301 §1 It is for the competent ecclesiastical authority alone to establish associations of Christ's faithful which intend to impart Christian teaching in the name of the Church, or to promote public worship, or which are directed to other ends whose pursuit is of its nature reserved to the same ecclesiastical authority.
§2 The competent ecclesiastical authority, if it judges it expedient, can also establish associations of Christ's faithful to pursue, directly or indirectly, other spiritual ends whose attainment is not adequately provided for by private initiatives.
Maybe I'm over reacting, I'm in New York City's Diocese of Brooklyn and we thankfully don't have an active Voice of the Faithful, this may be a renewal of participation of the lay faithful in the mission of the Church (see CCC 897-913). CCC 911 (how ironic) has a two sentence summary of the role of the laity in governing the Church. Can it be that the participation of the laity according to CCC 911 has yet to happen in the Archdiocese of Boston? I think bishops need volunteers to help more than they need leaders to dialog with.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:23 AM Permalink
Miracles on ABC will premiere Monday. Check local listings. This is a extremeCatholic kind of show -- a sort of Catholic X-Files -- a Catholic seminarian and a mysterious organization that investigates the paranormal. The main characters are not priests but some of the backup characters are. The show has been reviewed in a few places -- Mostly mixed. As a fan of stuff like The Exorcist and X-Files, I eat this stuff up.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:37 PM Permalink
Geraldo Rivera, I will always remember for his courageous reporting of the human tragedy of Willowbrook a state mental hospital. He's 59 now, he was 29 in 1972 during those reports on local television. He's on Fox News now and he was interviewing a defense attorney about the disappearance of Laci Peterson. He brought up the fact that he's lied to her family and the police, refused to take a lie detector test, said that the fishing alibi is not holding up, his supply of cement, and the life insurance policy. She smiled and was holding back a laugh. By not cooperating with the police, he's doing the right thing, she said. The questions were right on target -- if I were there I would have launched into a "have you no shame" speech.
Only a guilty person would have something to hide. I make the parallel to our situation in Iraq, but repeating the "hide and seek" inspections of the Clinton-era, this behavior would only be from someone with something to hide.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:24 PM Permalink
IC Coventry Newspapers in the UK has identified the eldest son of J.R.R. Tolkein, Fr. John Tolkein, as a pedophile priest.
Fr John Tolkien abused dozens of young boys during his 50-year career with the Catholic church in the Midlands.
Tolkien, heir to his famous father’s multi-million pound estate, died last week at the age of 85.
Two years ago he was quizzed by police over child sex allegations but was never prosecuted because he was suffering from senile dementia.
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:53 PM Permalink