extreme Catholic 

The Truth Laid Bear made this point on 10/29 and I'm only looking at it now, but it's really worth a look on 11/20.

The point is that while bin Laden is alive enough to prepare a videotape, it looks like if he sticks he head above the ground, the United States will play Whack-a-Mole with him.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 2:29 PM   Permalink  

Author Marilyn Kaye is feeling overextended. It isn't the children's book she's writing or the university classes she's teaching. It's all the things she does as a godparent -- to five kids.

For each godchild, ranging in age from four to 16, Ms. Kaye shops for Christmas presents, remembers birthdays and even dedicates books, such as a fairy tale she is writing for the youngest, who loves princesses. Next Christmas it will be even more hectic, since Ms. Kaye, who is single, has agreed to be godparent to a baby due to be born in the spring. After that, the 55-year-old college professor says she will turn down future godparent requests, unless parents agree to designate someone else as formal guardian. "It's too big a responsibility," she says...

Not Just for Catholics

The role of godparent has deep roots in Christianity. According to the Roman Catholic Church's Canon Law, the chosen person should help the child "lead a Christian life." Godparents present the baby for baptism at the christening ceremony and are also expected to provide spiritual guidance. However, throughout much of Church history, godparents also were viewed as potential patrons who could help improve the child's social standing and financial security.

Over time, some parents began taking a more secular view of the job. The Rev. James Martin, an assisting priest at St. Ignatius Loyola, a Catholic Church on New York City's Upper East Side, says he's had some church members ask if they can choose Jewish friends. The answer is no -- the Church requires that godparents be Catholic. Other Christian denominations vary in their policies, but those that embrace the idea of godparents tend to prefer a Christian for the role. According to the Catholic Church, a godparent has no obligation to be a guardian -- that is, someone who assumes responsibility for the child in the event of the parents' death. But many parents do assign both roles to the same people, and some godparents, even when it is unspoken, assume they're being asked to be the guardians.

I take some responsibility for the Catholic education of the children for whom I am a godfather as well as giving them gifts.

Many godparents have just forgotten for whom they are godparents for, or what role godparents have in the Catholic Church.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:42 PM   Permalink  

Pacers-Pistons Brawl a Low Moment for NBA: AP

It all started when Detroit's Ben Wallace went in for a layup and was fouled hard by Artest from behind. After being fouled, Wallace wheeled around and pushed Artest in the face. The benches emptied and punches were thrown.

Players and fans exchanged punches in the stands in one of the worst NBA brawls ever, leaving several people injured and prompting a police investigation.

Indiana's Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson charged into the stands and fought with fans in the final minute of their game against the Detroit Pistons on Friday night, and the brawl forced an early end to the Pacers' 97-82 win.

"I felt like I was fighting for my life out there," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. "I'm sorry the game had to end this way."

Physical contact between NBA basketball players on the court? Hey, this is the way the NBA wants the game played and this descends down to college, high school, and kids playing at age 8.

Ron Artest went berzerk. There's no question that caused the riot. Some people went to the hospital on this one. This is a bad business proposition for the NBA. Some people who follow basketball more closely than me think this will be a season-long suspension (he'd be banned from the NBA if he wasn't such a good player)

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:31 AM   Permalink  

Kevin Sites of NBC News writes:

So in some ways, embedded in this unit, I begin to feel I've betrayed the people that depend on me to be skeptical; to question the dominant powers and institutions of my nation and the actions it undertakes in the name of its citizens. I am not a military or American cheerleader, not a mouthpiece signed on to some institutional agenda whether I believe in it or not. I am here to ask the hard questions of the people who make the hardest decisions; ones that result in people dying or people being killed. I must remember as one journalist advised, “write in your notepad every day ‘I am not one of them.’”

If you were wounded and need a quick extraction by the Marines to get you to a hospital to save your life, I'll bet you would be “one of them” in a heartbeat.

I doubt you'd be calling out for help to one on the other side, you know, the side that's questioning the dominant power by shooting at the Marines and you.

Blogger credit: Conservative Eyes

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:06 AM   Permalink  

Every path a soul takes to hell is a series of stupid decisions

'Series of Stupid Decisions' Sent Turkey Through Windshield, Youth's Lawyer Says: New York Times

Long Island teenager involved in the incident that left a woman critically injured after a 20-pound turkey was thrown through her windshield has told the police that one of his friends tossed the turkey out the window of a car traveling at 60 miles an hour.

The victim nearly died from the injuries. The face and jaw shatterred and wired together. No longer able to eat or breathe through the mouth.

The consequences of this were foreseeable. I assume all the lawyers and posturing are being done to obtain a favorable plea deal.

Update: Now besides the four who were in the car, there's two more arrested. It seems that's a stolen credit card and forgery was involved in getting the turkey purchased.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:55 PM   Permalink  

God calls women to shop... and change the world.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:26 PM   Permalink  

In the infamous promotion for Desperate Housewives which preceded Monday Night Football on November 15, 2004, Nicolette Sheridan was wearing a gold cross during the dialog with Eagles player Terrell Owens.

I haven't been able to get a screenshot. For the curious the clip is online.

I hope ABC is seriously fined.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:56 PM   Permalink  

No one is gloating that Attorney General Ashcroft who is pro-life was replaced by Alberto Gonzales and thereby blocking Rudy from a position to attract national attention. Gonzales is against partial-birth abortion while Rudy Guiliani supports a legal right to partial-birth abortion. Gonzales' record leaves quite a lot for us pro-life to question.

Homeland Security doesn't touch abortion as an issue like Justice does, so Rudy is a safe, less critical appointment in that slot, should, as we expect, Ridge resigns.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:15 PM   Permalink  

I think the Pentagon should offer to anyone who believes that the wounded enemy combatant in Fallujah was no threat a free ride to Iraq where they and not the Marines can verify that the dead and wounded and faking are not booby-trapped to kill our Marines or anyone else.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:41 AM   Permalink  

Here's the first two paragraphs of the Associated Press account

The Vatican has turned aside an independent Polish parish's bid to scuttle the St. Louis archdiocese's push for control of it, marking a "terribly devastating" defeat for the 124-year-old parish.

In a ruling made public Monday, the Congregation for the Clergy - the Vatican office that handles all parish matters - sided with St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke, who objected to St. Stanislaus Kostka being run by a lay board of directors.

So does this mean that the lay board is backing down? Having appealed to the Vatican don't they accept it jurisdiction? It seems to me that they would have expect Archbishop Burke to accept a ruling that was not in his favor. This is what we call "negotiating in bad faith".

I was originally a bit more sympathetic to the lay board of St. Stanislaus Kostka but the quotes from the articles which demonstrate their defiance also demonstrate a lack of understanding of how the Church works, and should work.

First, there's no recognition that's there's an abberation in a Catholic lay group "controlling" a parish church.

Having been set up this way for years, it was an errror on the part of previous archbishops to accept this as a perpetual arrangement. Simply to walk in and say "I'm the Archbishop and you have to sign over the title and bank accounts to me" seems to be nothing short of a seizure.

My old position was that unless the board showed some sign of corruption, neglect, or schism, I'd want the change to direct episcopal governence to be phased in over a long time.

It seems that my fear that all was not right with the board was well-founded: They are discussing in the media the idea of becoming a schismatic parish -- this is the only proper name to give to what they are contemplating because there's no such thing as an "independent" parish. No connection to the bishop - No Catholic identity.

So I hoped that there might be another side of the story that I could find on the Internet and I found it in the St. Louis Review, the Archdiocesan Newspaper:

The parish founded in 1880, they noted, "is a faith-based community of people who subscribe to the discipline and teachings" of the Church.

The letter-writers noted that in the past several years the St. Stanislaus Parish corporation "has been managed in such a way that it has resembled more of a small family business, rather than a Roman Catholic parish community."

Which leads me to the question what does a parish do with a $9 million piggy bank? A charitable group that accumulates such a surplus has to wonder about it's own mission.

I recently saw The Treasure of Sierra Madre, so I recall what a new wealth does to otherwise ordinary people.

The board's web site is Save St. Stans. This page has the text of the deed

There's a bizarre threat in the FAQ page:

There are other religious organizations willing to serve our religious needs.

It seems that this parish might become a operations base for laicized married former Catholic priests (if that's the correct nomenclature).

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:40 PM   Permalink  

Virgin Mary in Grilled Cheese

A 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich a Florida woman says bears the image of the Virgin Mary was back on eBay after the Internet auction house initially canceled bids that went up to 22,000 dollars(EBAY-OFF)

AFP

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:17 PM   Permalink  

The Rabbi Yehuda Levin & Chris Slattery and many others for a

"Stop Specter -Pro-Life Picket"

Monday, November 15th

Outside Speaking event of Sen. Arlen Specter and Sen. Rick Santorum at "The Monday Meeting"

Outside of Grand Hyatt Hotel 42nd St. (between-Park & Lex), Manhattan from 5:15-6:30PM

Call or email Chris Slattery for details or Information: @ SlatteryNY@aol.com or (914) 224-5773

and/or

Join the urgent national Grassroots pro-life campaign to Block anti-Life Senator Arlen Specter of PA from the Senate Judiciary Chair through protest, petitions, emails, and faxes... at these brand new websites:

rightmarch.com/specterfax.htm

www.notspecter.com/fax101.php

www.stopspecternow.com

www.stopspecter.net

www.stopspecter.org

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:13 AM   Permalink