extreme Catholic 

 
A Mystery. It's religious. It's in Latin. I'm going to solve it Omnium finis imminet

There's this movie poster that I've seen for the first time today.

Others [adtunes] are discussing this.

The consensus is that it is either promoting a new NBC television series Revelations (starting in April) or the new movie War of the Worlds (opens end of June).

More at Dead Programmer's Cafe (Blogger Credit: photo at left)

Update: some links in the comments here

• TV Tome
• Fark.
• Terminus En
• memes.org

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:17 PM   Permalink  

 
The End of All Things is Near : omnium finis adpropinquavit [omnium finis imminet]

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 6:15 PM   Permalink  

 
From my wife's cousin whose son is in Iraq

From what I understand Luke is the driver and I guess the body guard for the Sergeant-Major. Luke drives a hummer and must go around pot holes since they can be dangerous. A week or two ago there was an explosion when they got near a pothole, he was about 10 feet away.

On Sunday it was even closer, he was going around a pothole when an explosive stick blew up, it blew off the driver door,the hood and singed the hair off Luke. They were about 1000 yards from base so they hurried back to make sure the three of them were ok. They were, so they went back to the pothole. It had 220 lbs of explosive in it all in tact, it should have blown them to pieces, we know divine intervention saved Luke and the others. Praise God.

Please keep him in your prayers, he needs them.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:29 PM   Permalink  

 
The tyranny of the 5 justice majority

Discussed on Amy Welborn's blog which is discussing a Slate article critical of Justice Scalia.

In 1993, 17-year-old Christopher Simmons and Charlie Benjamin, 15, broke into the home of Shirley Crook. They bound her hands, covered her face with duct tape, took her to a railroad trestle spanning the Meramec River outside St. Louis. There they hog-tied her with electrical wire and pushed her into the water. Simmons later said that he killed Shirley Crook "because the b*ch saw my face".

Roper v. Simmons provides proof for the point that I made when I was discussing the murders of the staff of a Wendy's here in New York City. The calculus of evil that if the criminal was seen and could be identified later, there would be no downside to murdering the witness -- the eventual punishment would be the same -- namely a period of several years in jail.

Don't kill the witness -- 7 years. Kill the witness -- 7 years.

Scalia is consistent. The Court is not a super-legislature and this case is the boldest example of it doing so. The cheerleaders for this decision should take heed that this was an exercise in arbitrary unaccountable power.

If the five member majority can pick and choose from the all the laws of all the nations of the world for something that coincides with a personal opinion of theirs on whim, it can be incorporated into the constitution.

It was the court as super-legislature that gave us Dred Scott, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Roe v. Wade. After finding as recently as 1989 that there was no constitutional finding that the executions of persons 16 and 17 years old was cruel and unusual, the court reversed itself.

I find the USCCB to be terribly naive and doing nothing less than championing the ends justifies the means to achieve some small reduction in the number of executions in the United States.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:11 PM   Permalink  

 
Making up the rules as you go along:

Bishop sues priest -- that's OK. Priest sues bishop -- that's not OK

Fall River Diocese sues priest for $1.2 million : AP

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River is seeking $1.2 million in a lawsuit filed against a former priest accused of embezzling funds from two Cape Cod churches.

The Rev. Bernard Kelly is being sued by the diocese and Bishop George Coleman for allegedly misusing parish money from Our Lady of Lourdes in Wellfleet and St. Joseph's in Falmouth while he was pastor.

Meanwhile, the criminal investigation into Kelly is almost complete and is likely to be sent a grand jury soon, said Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe.

Catholic prest suing his own diocese : AP

A Roman Catholic priest is suing his own diocese, saying he was sexually abused as a teen by a now-deceased priest who taught at his high school.

The Rev. John Nesbella alleges that he was abused more than 25 years ago, when he was 16, at a rectory operated by the Altoona-Johnstown diocese, the diocese said in a statement.

Nesbella says he was abused by the Rev. Martin Brady, his teacher at Bishop Carroll in Ebensburg, according to lawyer Richard Serbin, who represents Nesbella. Brady died March 19, 2003, the diocese said.

"Having one of our priests be a litigant against his own diocesan church and diocesan bishop presents us with a number of difficulties," Bishop Joseph Adamec said in the statement.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:20 AM   Permalink  

 
Update on the murder investigation of the Armanious family

FBI has photos of car at ATM : Jersey Journal

Security video from a Central Avenue bank's drive-through ATM machine has captured images of the car used by a man to steal from the account of the slain Jersey City family of four whose bodies were found bound and gagged in their Heights home in January, officials said.

Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said investigators have been able to determine the make, model and year of the car and are having the images enhanced with the hope of being able to read the license plate number.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:55 AM   Permalink  

 
Nicole Died For Smiling : New York Post

Slain actress Nicole duFresne had a smile on her face as she strolled a Lower East Side street after a night of partying — and it was her smile, and those of her friends, that made them targets, according to a stunning new confession.

DuFresne's happiness was like grit in the eye of cheerleader-turned-murder defendant Ashley Evans, who strolled the streets with a pack of friends.

So Evans singled the group out — ultimately, for murder.

"They were really happy looking, and that made me mad," Evans, 18, told cops of that catalytic moment. She pointed the two couples out to her shiftless, parolee boyfriend, Rudy Fleming, 19.

A martyr for a joyful life.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:21 AM   Permalink  

 
An update on the heroic priest Fr. James Haley

Les Femmes: Arlington Priest Faces Judge

Last week the national media revealed Arlington pastor, Fr. Robert Brooks' arrest in an FBI sting operation against those traficking in child pornography. This week in Arlington we're back to the issue of whether Fr. James Haley can continue to function as a priest.

Les Femmes The Women of Truth
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:37 PM   Permalink  

 
A Reply to the Statement of Bishop Robert N. Lynch (Diocese of St Petersburg FL)

The bishops of Florida have once again addressed the issue of the withdrawal of the artificial feeding tube from Terri Schiavo. As in the past, I join them in addressing this complex and tragic situation.

I dispute that this is complex. Terri Schiavo is unable to eat and drink without assistance. What's so complex about feeding her? In fact, the therapy to allow her to eat and drink without the assistance of tube has been requested by her family and denied by Michael.

As the local bishop and pastor for all the family parties involved, I would like to add the following. At the end of the day (the judicial, legislative days) the decision to remove Terri’s artificial feeding tube will be that of her husband, Michael.

This is more that a mere family dispute. This decision certainly creates as George Felos has stated, a national right-to-die precedent for brain-damaged persons with no bright line indicating when food and water can be denied. This introduces the theme of moral equivalence. No one here is right and but neither is anyone wrong. There is no one to blame.

"To remove Terri’s artificial feeding tube" santitizes the cruel death that Michael Schiavo has planned from the time he repudiated his promise to support her life and recovery.

It is [Michael Schiavo] who will give the order, not the courts or certainly the governor or legislature or the medical personnel surrounding and caring for Terri.

This does not absolve the responsbility of the civil authorities to act in defense of life, and especially to protect vulnerable life, and your responsibility to speak out on her behalf.

We can infer from this bland restatement of the agency of Michael Schiavo a focus on legalism -- that the form of the law is being followed and not the result that concerns Bishop Lynch.

In other words, as I have said from the beginning of this sad situation, the decision will be made within a family.

Family makes its second appearance. What sort of family man is Michael Schivao? Has he been a faithful husband? What about his abuse, neglect, and adultery?

A significant part of that family feels they are outside of the decision-making process and they are in great pain and suffering mightily.

I urge and pray that before the finality, one last effort be made for mediation.

Huh? What's the finality? What immediate danger of death does Terri have except from dehydration and starvation? What is mediation? Finding a middle position between two goods. What's the middle of life and death?

Normally, at the end of life, families of the person in extremis agree that it is time to allow the Lord to call a loved one to Himself, feeling that they have done all they possibly might to provide alternatives to death, every possible treatment protocol which might be helpful has been attempted.

Again: Terri is not at the natural end of her life. She will be dehydrated to death. The Lord is not calling her. Michael is ending her life unnaturally. It's his soul that is in peril. He's denied treatments and therapies that would restore Terri.

There is a peace. This will not happen in this instance because of the seeming intractability of both sides. I beg and pray that both sides might step back a little and allow some mediation in these final hours.

On the contrary, this is a war for the defense of life. The intractability charge is frankly insulting to the family. What is unyielding, unmanagable, non-negotiable, and intractible is Michael's desire to kill Terri. Mediation to find the middle of life and death? What can that possibly mean?

The legacy of Terri’s situation should not be that of those who love her the most, loathing the actions of one another, but of a heroic moment of concern for the feelings of each other, guided by moral and ethical considerations, with a single focus of achieving the best result for Terri.

Loathing is called for here. This is the ultimate expression of the moral equivalence. It is an outrage to not condemn the steps that will be taken to kill Terri Schiavo.

I ask the Catholics of the Diocese of St. Petersburg in the waning days of Lent to pray hard to the “Author of All Life” for Terri and for her family.

I ask everyone to follow-up on all the legal means to stop her slow death by dehydration.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:25 PM   Permalink  

 
Is this a papal endorsement of blogging?

APOSTOLIC LETTER THE RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF THE HOLY FATHER JOHN PAUL II TO THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR COMMUNICATIONS

The rapid development of technology in the area of the media is surely one of the signs of progress in today’s society. In view of these innovations in continuous evolution, the words found in the Decree of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Inter Mirifica, promulgated by my venerable predecessor, the servant of God Paul VI, December 4, 1963, appear even more pertinent: “Man's genius has with God's help produced marvelous technical inventions from creation, especially in our times. The Church, our mother, is particularly interested in those which directly touch man’s spirit and which have opened up new avenues of easy communication of all kinds of news, of ideas and orientations.”

Blogger Credit: Hugh Hewitt in the Daily Standard
posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:31 PM   Permalink  

 
Doubts about evolution reach peer-reviewed Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington

The origin of biological information and the higher taxonomic categories : Stephen C. Meyer

Discussion in Free Republic

In a recent volume of the Vienna Series in a Theoretical Biology (2003), Gerd B. Muller and Stuart Newman argue that what they call the “origination of organismal form” remains an unsolved problem.

In making this claim, Muller and Newman (2003:3-10) distinguish two distinct issues, namely, (1) the causes of form generation in the individual organism during embryological development and (2) the causes responsible for the production of novel organismal forms in the first place during the history of life.

Many of the Catholic blogs have pro-Darwin attack dogs that seem to show up whenever doubts are expressed that random mutation and natural selection are the explanation for the Origin of Species

Let me state, I'm an Intelligent Design-skeptic as well as an Neo-Darwinism-skeptic at this point. The last contact I had with an ND'ist ended with a lot of hand-waving appeals to the yet-to-be-born ND-scientists of the future who will explain what the ND theories cannot explain today.

I can accept a lot of micro-evolution, regional adaptions, etc. I utterly reject any young earth creationism, but I'm not going to join the crowd calling Intelligent Design as a Trojan Horse for the imposition of Christianity and its doctrines of creation. ID can't be glibly dismissed.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:04 PM   Permalink  

 
Justice Scalia dissents

The Court thus proclaims itself sole arbiter of our Nation's moral standards--and in the course of discharging that awesome responsibility purports to take guidance from the views of foreign courts and legislatures. Because I do not believe that the meaning of our Eighth Amendment, any more than the meaning of other provisions of our Constitution, should be determined by the subjective views of five Members of this Court and like-minded foreigners, I dissent.

This decison really goes directly to the issue of legislating from the bench.

What do we need a state legislature or Congress for, if the five can decide it all for us based on their observation of consensus.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:27 PM   Permalink  

 
IOL: A third of Filipinos don't understand sex

About 30 percent of couples in the predominantly Catholic Philippines are not aware that having sex can result in babies, the health secretary said on Tuesday...

The Philippines' population, currently estimated at 84 million, is growing at 2.36 percent annually. Business leaders and multilateral institutions have warned that failure to curb the population growth could drive more Filipinos into poverty.

But the influential Roman Catholic Church opposes government efforts to curb population growth, especially when it comes to promoting the use of artificial contraceptives.

What's so evil about a growth rate of 2.36%? The world has sustained that before and with parts of the world in a demographic collapse, it's going to be necessary to keep the human race going. Remember the Roe effect: the future belongs to the fertile.

Steven Mosher on the Myth of Overpopulation

"The world's population is not exploding," reassured Mosher. "It is growing at less than 1 percent a year. We have expanded life spans from 35 to 65 years and people are living longer, so naturally there are more of us around. In fact, there are many countries like Japan and Italy that are 'dying out.' This is the first year since the Black Plague that Europe will have a population decrease."

More great information at The Population Research Institute

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:53 PM   Permalink  

 
CBS News: Shuttle Train Derails At Grand Central Station

A Monday morning subway derailment left four passengers injured at Grand Central Terminal.

• The operator apparently fell asleep.
• The failsafe system failed. It slowed but did not stop the train.
• The conductor (the employee who opens and closes the doors) got into a fight with the operator.
• Maybe no one was injured because the sound of the explosive force of the train hitting the bumper drew a crowd at 5 A.M. to feign being on the train and injured. The train may have only been in the process of getting positioned for the start of service at 6 A.M.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 12:19 AM   Permalink  

 
Free Republic: NBC angers Catholics nationwide

Catholic League Press Release

During the February 22 episode of the NBC-TV sitcom, Committed, two non-Catholics are mistakenly given Holy Communion at a Catholic funeral Mass. Nate, who is Jewish, and Bowie, a Protestant, don’t know what to do with the Eucharist, so they make several failed attempts to get rid of it. For example, they try slipping it into the pocket of a priest, dropping it on a tray of cheese and crackers, etc.

At one point, the priest, who is portrayed as not knowing the difference between the Host and a cracker, goes to grab the “cracker” from a tray of appetizers; he initially balks when he discovers that it is the last one. Then he changes his mind, saying, “Oh, what the hell.” By far the most offensive scene occurs when Nate and Bowie accidentally flush what they think is the Host down the toilet.

Where's the Catholic outrage, anyway? Would there be a complaint from anyone other than Catholic League president William Donohue?

I didn't watch the show. I just expect all religions except Islam to be mocked.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:12 PM   Permalink  

 
Pro-Life Seminar

I have heard Jim Sedlak speak before. He's a great speaker with years of experience in fighting the agenda of Planned Parenthood.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:01 PM   Permalink  

 
Catholic and Loving It has a cute animated gif showing the process of making the Bible gender inclusive.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:51 PM   Permalink  

 
Before I was born

Television was in its infancy but it was having enough impact to create a surplus of movie theaters. This one became my parish church. It is a treasure. The restoration in 1996 was wonderful and preserved the old altar, the central axis tabernacle, the communion rail, the larger-than-life stations of the cross, etc.

One by one the old movie theaters closed. Another theater, the Bliss, became Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

You'd think with so many places like multiplexes to show movies, there would never be a need to show a movie somewhere else. Domenico Bettinelli links to this story in the Uniontown PA Herald-Standard

St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Uniontown will transform itself into a theater for a special showing of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ'' on Tuesday, March 15, at 6 p.m.

The parish's youth group is sponsoring the event, offering the show for free to the public.

"It felt like something we should do," said Matt Dowling, a youth minister at the church, talking about the impact of the film, which opened in theaters last year on Ash Wednesday and attracted millions who were compelled by its message.

He said the film is a new form of evangelism because of its vivid depiction of the Passion. The film centers on the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ's life.

Dowling approached the Rev. Alexander Pleban, pastor of St. Joseph, about showing The Passion at the church after looking first at area theaters and finding that none planned to show the film this year.

Dowling said St. Joseph obtained commercial rights through SWANK Motion Pictures to show the film for one year or to up to 1,000 people. The church will be able to hold approximately 800 people, allowing for overflow in the downstairs social hall.

Troy Waligura of WAVE Systems of Uniontown explained how the company will convert the church into a theater.

"We have permission to pipe and drape the entire altar. We will build walls out of curtains" he said. "We will have a 9-by-12-foot rear projection screen with an LCD projector.

"We've never done anything like this before," Waligura added. "But basically a church is built with everything focusing on the center. It looks like it will come out well. We'll be tied into their sound system and bring other speakers, so it will be a full theater experience."

This secular technican has the right insight everything should focus on the center. I always have a sigh of regret when I enter a Catholic church and see in the center a presiders chair, a floral arangement or nothing at all.

In Dom's blog, I commented that many (if not all) theaters have private screenings for parties and events and I don't see why this should be taking place in space dedicated to the worship of God. What would Mel do?

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 10:01 PM   Permalink  

 
Murdered by “choice”

Slain by a 'Judas' : New York Post

The Long Island man accused of brutally murdering his half-brother's ex-wife because she refused to abort his child is a "Judas," the woman's brother raged yesterday.

Susan Ambrosino, 26, was found dead, stuffed in the trunk of her car in Queens Tuesday.

Ambrosino's lover, Steven Schiovone, 35, of Levittown has been charged with murdering the Franklin Square, L.I., woman.

I won't hold my breath waiting for charges to added for the death of the unborn child.

I think Susan Ambrosino is a martyr for life as St. Maximillian Kolbe and Blessed Gianna Beretta if the circumstances of her murder are as described in the Post article.

Newsday the details of her funeral at St. Catherine of Sienna Catholic Church in Franklin Square on Monday.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:36 AM   Permalink  

 

Recently released. This is an excellent film version of the life of St. Francis.

The actress who played Clare -- where is Delores Hart now?

At the Abbey of Regina Laudis

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:52 PM   Permalink  

 
Star Trek Enterprise in being cancelled.

Reuters: "Trekkies" go warp at end of TV series

"Enterprise" is tied for 150th place in ratings this season, according to Nielsen Media Research, but McCallie argued "Enterprise" peaked creatively this year.

I knew the show got off with a great start this season, but the improvement in writing has come too late.

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 7:27 PM   Permalink