extreme Catholic 

 
UK Spectator: Render unto the Pope...

Adrian Hilton says that the EU is a means of undoing the Reformation and extending Vatican sovereignty over Britain

The Roman Church is founded on a political dogma claiming that the Pope is ‘supreme ruler of the world’; superior to all kings, prime ministers and presidents. These spiritual and temporal claims remain very much fundamental dogmas of Catholic teaching, permitting the Pope, through Cardinal Ratzinger, the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to issue clear directives to Catholic politicians on how they should vote.

Resist the urge to laugh. This guy does want to be taken seriously. This is what we anti-anti-Catholics call the black legend. It has its origin in the propaganda war to support Henry VIII's decision to break from the Catholic Church after defending it a few years earlier.

Blogger Credit: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:42 PM   Permalink  

 
Another photo essay

Something else blogworthy has happened just a block away from where I live. They are filming yet another movie in my neighborhood. This one is Kinsey. Yes, Alfred Kinsey the man who surveyed male prisioners and then generalized their responses to the non-incarcerated population.

Some excellent Catholic analysis of Alfred Kinsey in Catholic Citizens of Illinois

Liam Neeson is Alfred Kinsey. Francis Ford Copola is the executive producer.

The first image is a bar. The "Station Cafe" is a dump. The interior of this bar has not been remodeled or repaired in 50 or 60 years. It looks on the inside like the 1940's except for the brands of beer that are advertised inside. It's a Dunkin Donuts on the left and the Catholic War Veterans Hall on the right.

Several classic cars were brought in. The plates and other identifying information are for the State of Illinois 1940. Note that Thai and Indian restaurants are not a feature of Chicago in the 40's.

Here's a taxi.

I like the hood ornaments.

The old-style dashboard.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:16 PM   Permalink  

 
1010 WINS: Wine time for Hitler

(Berlin) -- An Italian wine-maker says a line of wine featuring Nazis on the label has been a "great marketing success" -- but it's not sitting well with the Germans.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:31 AM   Permalink  

 
The Volokh Conspiracy

Great Line from an Interesting Article: On the European yearning to be free from Holocaust guilt--''The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz.''

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:01 PM   Permalink  

 
WorldNetDaily: Museum removes 'killer' Christ icon Piece of art's 'energy field' allegedly causing death of staff

A museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, has removed an ancient icon depicting Jesus Christ from display because the piece of art's "energy field" reportedly has killed several staff members. A professor at the Hermitage Museum says he had complained about the effects of the icon for years, reported the London Telegraph. He claims it has led to the death of several supervisors in the facility. The 'killer' icon (Photo: London Telegraph). "It's an inexplicable phenomenon and it started long ago," Boris Sapunov told the paper. "Three or four people died of diseases, and the coincidence began to make me wonder. When the [supervisors'] seats were moved away, all the trouble stopped. It won't be exhibited any more.

Superstition.

I'm sure there would be plenty of volunteers to pray before this icon just to show that Christ does not kill.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:51 AM   Permalink  

 
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Vandalized church receives outpouring of support

Volunteers from throughout the St. Louis area have stepped forward to help St. Kevin Catholic Church in Rosewood Heights recover from devastating vandalism.

Between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday, a vandal roamed the schools and church, wreaking tens of thousands of dollars in damage.

Statues were toppled and broken in the church, dozens of windows and doors were smashed in the school, furniture was slashed and the contents of four fire extinguishers were sprayed on everything from aquariums to the tabernacle. Anti-religious vulgarities were scrawled on blackboards

Stories like this only mean that parishes will have to spend more on security and not on services to parishioners.

I discovered this story on the excellent subscription web site Catholic World News which today is totally free - so go have a look and become a subscriber like myself.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:14 AM   Permalink  

 
Howdy, Partner

Never noticed this before, but stories which concern an umarried man and woman living together refer to the arrangement as "live-in boyfriend" or "live-in girlfriend". This is especially amusing when the length of time of the co-habitation is 20 years and they are members of AARP. You get to be a girlfriend after one or two dates, and then no promotions thereafter.

Michael Schiavo is a good example of this: his "live-in girlfriend" of five years and he had a baby during the period of time that he has sought the court-authorized death by dehydration and starvation of his wife, Terri.

When it comes to women living together in a self-identified sexual relationship, the term is partner. Woe to he or she that calls one of them a "live-in girlfriend".

It already makes people uncomfortable to say partner. As it is with so many words the repetition of the euphemisitic usage crowds out the former usage. As the Flintstones used to sing "We'll have a gay old time."

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:00 AM   Permalink  

 
International Herald Tribune: North Korean Nuclear Threat

It's hard to call the latest round of nuclear talks with North Korea successful when they were punctuated by Pyongyang's threats to test a nuclear weapon.

Most recent under-reported story in my opinion.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:43 PM   Permalink  

 
little valentines on pink paper hearts

Town Hall, Brent Bozell: Sex and the 'glamour' girl

This edition of Glamour also contains advice if that sex goes wrong and she accidentally becomes pregnant. It is, incredibly, this: You can not only get an abortion, but you can feel good about yourself while you do it. A group of abortion clinic operators calling themselves the "November Gang" is encouraging their customers to write little valentines on pink paper hearts to the babies they've killed.

Glamour finds it "poignant" that one woman wrote to her victim: "To my little angel, Please understand that you are better off in the hands of God than mine at this moment." (This is hard to debate.) "I smile when I think of you, even if I cry. You have given me reason to be strong and wise and responsible. You will always be my baby. I will see you in heaven, sweetheart. Love you! Love always and unconditionally, your mommy."

The hearts are posted in one Pittsburgh clinic, "rows and rows of them taped to the walls." Some are more fist-pumping feminist notes, such as: "Women: this is your life and your body. What you think is right ... Is! ... And if you think this is a 'sin,' remember, God forgives!" Glamour reported that counselors push this notion hard to the more religious girls. When one girl says she goes to church every Sunday, the counselor asks, "Do you think there are any things God considers completely unforgivable?" The clinics also invite more religious girls to "pray over their fetuses, even to sprinkle them with holy water in impromptu baptismal rites."

Even abortionists are conceding the "fetus" is a child of God; it's just a child of God they have the right to kill. Women can be forgiven for abortions, but that requires real regret and repentance, not paper valentines and happy talk. Abortion advocates also disdain this approach. The Glamour article mentioned that "mainstream abortion rights proponents don't think such candor is helpful." Kate Michelman of NARAL protests that it's not her job to "wear every woman's feelings publicly."

Reminds me of the Gahan Wilson cartoons where the happy face has replaced the swastika.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 6:56 PM   Permalink  

 
Dino de Laurentis in the orans position

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:03 PM   Permalink  

 
New York Post Editorial: Dean's Disorderly Doodles.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean brought a revealing prop with him to his presidential rally at Bryant Park last week - a graffiti-festooned, 20'x40' fake wall.

A Dean spokesman saw the backdrop as representative of a way for "urban American youth" to express itself "in a creative and constructive way."

Howard Dean grew up in New York City, back when there were more graffiti vandals in the subway cars than rats in the tunnels.

Does he really miss those days?

Track fires and train breakdowns were daily, often hourly, events; the graffiti was everywhere, underscoring the chaos.

It's mostly gone now, except where "urban-American youths" express themselves by gouging "creative and constructive" messages in subway-car windows.

Of course, there are no subways up in Ben & Jerry country, so Dean doesn't risk actually having to live with the disorder he prescribes for others.

Lucky him.

Reuters: Tough-Guy Actor Charles Bronson Dies at 81

Sometimes two interesting stories collide. Here's a perfect example. As you know from this blog and everywhere else there was a marked-decrease in crime during the recent blackout. That's the annecdote. The statistics also show that New York City has been able to bring down the level of crime to the 1960's and even the 1950's. Predicting this at the time when Death Wish was playing in theaters would have been scoffed at.

But the city did turn around. In the middle of this recovery, Dean left knew the city with some images of crime frozen in his mind. How clever to reconstruct the chaos of the 70's on a stage in New York.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:27 PM   Permalink  

 

Mantilla: the traditional headcovering of Catholic girls and women.

A religious mantilla, note the woman is holding a rosary, and a casual wearer of a mantilla.

Examples of mantillas worn in high fashion.

Woman in mantilla by Goya, Actress Grace Kelly before Pope Pius XII with Price Ranier

A sequence of photos of Jackie Kennedy in a mantilla (1) Leaving a Church (2) Leaving a private Mass (3) Before Pope John XIII and (4) At the funeral of RFK.

Finally, the former first lady Hillary Clinton wearing a mantilla with Pope John Paul II

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 2:27 PM   Permalink  

 
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Regina High bars girl wearing Muslim scarf

Amal Jamal is not welcome at Regina High School anymore.

This may be a record for introducing bias into a news story. (I'd find this type of comment fine for an editorial by the way.)

The returning senior learned Monday as she stood in line to buy textbooks that she now violates her Catholic school dress code by wearing a Muslim headscarf, or hajib. Surrounded by classmates, Amal put down her books, fought back tears and left.

"I was in shock; I didn't understand," Amal said. "All along, they gave me a room to pray in. They asked me questions about Islam. They always accepted me for who I was. Now they have decided it is against school policy to wear my hajib."

Amal, a soft-spoken 17-year-old, sat in her Euclid living room yesterday, too stunned to consider what she might do next as her 270 schoolmates attended a second day of classes on the South Euclid campus. Amal said she was stung that no administrator, teacher or student had called her or tried to help.

Is this a dress code violation or not?

"I feel very bad about this situation. I've agonized over it," said Sister Maureen Burke, Regina's principal for 12 years. "Amal is a wonderful young woman. The family is very fine. . . . But the uniform issue is very important to who we are as a Catholic school."

This is a matter of prudential judgment and from where I sit in a very diverse neighborhood that approaches a percentages of Europeans, Asians, Africans, and Latin Americans that mirrors the world -- this looks like an accomodation to religious tolerance that can and should be made.

I think Sr. Maureen's error here is that she thinks that if she allows the hajib she's got to allow gang colors and have every boy wear a baseball cap (while not playing baseball).

Also, if you want a Muslim context for this, the story is linked here in Muslim News (UK)

And on Saturday Cleveland Plain Dealer: Catholic girls school to review dress code so it looks like the school is turning around.

Former Rep. Mary Rose Oakar and the Rev. Joseph Hillinski, interfaith director of the Catholic diocese, also called on Regina High School to re-admit the girl.

Now, about that Cathedral in Mecca...

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:28 PM   Permalink  

 
AP, Oregon Olympian: Gay couple protests after Catholic school denies daughter's entry

EUGENE, Ore. -- A lesbian couple alleges that O'Hara Catholic School refused admission to their 4-year-old daughter because of their sexual orientation.

The couple has complained to the Eugene Human Rights Commission and the Oregon Child Care Division.

One of the women, Lee Inkmann, said O'Hara Principal Dianne Bert told her in mid-August that having a family with two mothers at the school would confuse other children, and that gay unions are in conflict with Vatican teachings.

This is what we call hearsay.

Bert did not immediately return telephone messages Friday seeking comment.

O'Hara issued a statement that said the school does not discriminate on the basis of "race, color, national and ethnic origin" in admissions, but "cannot comment on decisions of academic placement for any specific student."

The Rev. Mark Bachmeier of St. Mary's Catholic Church, the parish priest who oversees O'Hara, also refused to discuss the matter.

"I think we'll just let that statement speak for itself for now," he said.

Bud Bunce, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Portland, said multiple factors were involved in not accepting the child, but he said he could not discuss the specific reasons the girl was not admitted.

This is a non-comment comment. A simple no-comment would have been better.

He did, however, say, "The school did not make the nontraditional lifestyle of the parents the issue. The parent did."

Stepped, on a land mine here, Bud. If the position of the archdiocese is that this is merely a nontraditional lifestyle then one can expect the lawyers for Ms. Inkmann and her lover to point out some other pupils at the school whose parent or parents have a nontraditional lifestyle.

Also, Mr. Bunce implies that had the parents not make it an issue, it would not have been an issue for the school. What is this? A Catholic version of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell?"

What did the parents expect? If the child was admitted, and (hopefully) much later in her education the subject of sin came up and she was presented with the need for conversion and repentence, then the parents would have an another gay-agenda trigger issue. Since the parents live in a state of persistent sin, which through the own choice have made public.

Two unrelated women living together could be living as roomates. I lived with a another man, and later with two other men for years as roommates.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:32 AM   Permalink