extreme Catholic 

Not finding one on the net, I spent some time this afternoon writing one up. The link will be in the left margin permanently.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:34 PM   Permalink  

I'm not going to see this film -- too many bad reviews. The review is from the Catholic News Service But in reading the reviews, it seems that Murdock, the secret identity of Daredevil, is a Catholic. Spiderman is a Catholic too, at least the house where he grew up was filled with Catholic images.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:10 PM   Permalink  

If you don't have the time to click on the link -- the answer is 2060.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:07 AM   Permalink  

So we now have a serious 7 day countdown. Blix will declare that Iraq is now in material breach and has days, not weeks to comply with this order -- earlier rhetoric notwithstanding that Blix was deferring all the big decisions to the Security Council.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:31 PM   Permalink  

Pray for the priest, who was unharmed, and for the robber who probably needs the prayers more.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:58 PM   Permalink  

There oughta be a law dept. Require hotels to sell condoms.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:53 PM   Permalink  

Dick Morris has it exactly. If the invading troops find all the WMD's it will be a big boost for Bush's credibility and the death of liberal credibility.

More so than Vietnam and Cambodia, where it took years for the prophecies of a bloodbath to be realized and publicized, this seismic shift in credibility is coming in weeks not months.

Let me note that Dick Morris is a recent convert to the Catholic faith.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:37 PM   Permalink  

My hope is probably in vain, but I do hope that document releases like this get some good press from historians. Governments including the United States have not made archives of this nature public yet either.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 4:01 PM   Permalink  

A more accurate title might be "Angels in Manhattan". Via Gawker

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 3:56 PM   Permalink  

This time it's Saint Juan Diego.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:04 PM   Permalink  

USA Today: The Making of St. Mychal

About halfway through the article you will find the controversy, namely that Fr. Mychal Judge OFM (bio.) was homosexual, or not.

Burt Kearns who is the editor of the official sainthood website "Why not speak to people who knew him while they're alive and their memories fresh? Why wait five to 10 years when memories are cloudy, and he starts drifting into myth?" Well, the answer to that is simple, we don't want to get carried away with the popularity of the person in the moment. If Fr. Judge is canonized, it will be for eternity.

Another point that USA Today makes is that the Franciscan province is not part of the rush to have Fr. Judge begin the process of having him named a Servant of God.

Something else, one of the loudest advocates for the canonization of Fr. Judge is Brendan Fay. He is committed to oppose the Church in its teaching on sexual morality. Fay was part of the leadership of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). They had a demonstration during a mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in December 1989. Participants hung banners, made noise, threw condoms, lay down in the aisles, and in some cases chained themselves to pews. I saw Fay and Fr. Judge myself during the counter-parade the week before St. Patrick's. which is held in my neighborhood in 2000. Candidate Clinton had a 10 second photo op that day which held up the start of the parade for a hour.

I believe that Fr. Judge is in heaven. I'm waiting to find out how his example inspires others to live in holiness. Given that a great number of the advocates for his sainthood have, do now, and will defy the Church and its teaching that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. Since when have unrepentant admitted sinners been advocates for a canonization?

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:50 AM   Permalink  

Some videos are starting to show up that allege police brutality in New York. On hand, you've got to admire the industry of the demonstrators for trying so hard.

• The clips don't have the time in the frame because they are edited and not continuous. They will show a peaceful crowd, and then in a split-second the police are reacting apparently without provocation. It turns out that the provocation was edited out. Fortunately, the police themselves taped most of the same scenes.
• The horses were deliberately targeted. The demonstrators knew that if they could have have the horse become excited, the possiblity was that the mounted police officer would lose control and cause injury to the crowd, police, or to the horse itself.
• The cameras are remarkably well positioned and the demonstrators are staring into the cameras and apparently looking around for signals -- exactly as if it were staged.
• The best clip they have just shows someone being dragged away. They have no one on tape being clubbed and bleeding.
• The further away you are from New York City, the wilder the press acounts become this Cuban report alleges that tear gas was used. Of course, tear gas wasn't used -- it sends a crowd into a panic.
• The demonstration leaders wanted the crowds to block the North/South avenues after the space west of First Avenue filled up and the police wanted Second and Third Aves open. That's the crowd control the police were trying to enforce.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:55 AM   Permalink  

The link above updated to include the most recent from Michael Novak on National Review

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:38 AM   Permalink  

Interesting article. I don't know enought about Vatican-Chinese relations to know if this is an act of courage or a cowardly surrender.

But from here, it looks like the structrure of the Church insisted upon by China's Communist leadership pretty much matches that of The Voice of the Faithful. I wonder if they caucus together.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:12 AM   Permalink  

Presidential hopeful Gary Hart, the former Senator from Colorado, had a lot of people scratching their heads last week when he identified the latest menace to our country’s national security: Irish Americans.

To avoid accusing Jews of divided loyalties, former senator Gary Hart accused Irish-Americans and Cuban-Americans of divided loyalties. Of course, the last time, Ireland had anything to do with Amercan interests was during World War I when the IRA sought to acquire weapons from the Germans to put pressure on the British who at the time were still in the 26 counties.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:03 AM   Permalink  

Except for ending Slavery, Fascism, and Commununism war has not solved anything.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:47 PM   Permalink  

The best answer for why, if Saddam does not disarm he needs to be disarmed by force.

It's in two parts:

• Saddam has weapons of mass destruction.
• Saddam is prepared to arm terrorists.

While North Korea and France, for example, have nukes, they are not about to hand them over to terrorists.

While Syria and Saudi Arabia arm and fund terrorists, they don't have weapons of mass destruction.

The only country with both capabilies is Iraq.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 5:21 PM   Permalink  

Waiting for this story: Muslim clerics claim that blizzard in the United States is the judgment of God

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 4:57 PM   Permalink  

Blogger credit to Kathryn Lively for the find.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 2:21 PM   Permalink  

Here's an quote from a recent news account of Mass Live (a web site I am unfamiliar with)

"The kind of obedience [Bishop Dupre] is looking for is the obedience of the soldiers of Hitler -- a blind myopic obedience. So I've stepped outside of that."

We Internet debate veterans have an observation that we've raised to a "law" (I suppose in the sense that others have raise evolution to a law) It is called Godwin's Law. It basically says that when you've run out of good arguments, you compare the other side to Hilter.

When a comparison comes up to Hitler's soldiers, I make it a point to mention that Claus von Stauffenberg and the other conspirators against Hitler were mostly Catholic in the failed assassination attempt. When conscience called in the Third Reich. Catholics answered.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:09 PM   Permalink  

I'll be out later to take more pictures. The snow is still falling.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:56 AM   Permalink  

I've been challenged on this recently.(Mt 5.39, Lk 6.28) I know the standard responses: we don't have an obligation to offer a cheek every time we are struck, or do we? What about the safety of others, justice, and everything Augustine said and CCC 2265-2267...2304...

2304 Respect for and development of human life require peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is "the tranquillity of order." Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:22 PM   Permalink  

Pyra Labs which brought Blogger/Blogspot into being has been acquired by Google. I'm not sure what this all means yet. Google has has superb policies and offers the best search engine for free. So this might be a good thing. Blogger home page

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 5:49 PM   Permalink