Catholic Pillow Fight

WardWideWeb: "Where have you been? Your father and I have searched for you with great sorrow."

2006-05-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

The Angels Are Singing!

Goodbye Blogger!!!

2005-07-06T20:29:00.000-07:00

I've taken the plunge, and I have the new blog set up. I'm going to be enabling the RSS shortly, and will be designing a new trackback module for phpwebsite (this CMS product really works WELL as a blog it seems. A little overkill, but I really like it.

You can find me now at http://www.catholicpillowfight.com/

All you folks who were nice enough to link to me, please update your links. I will have to ask NZ Bear how to change my ecosystem link.

Blogger is driving me CRAZY!!!!

2005-06-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

For weeks I've been fighting with Blogger.com using Internet Explorer trying to get it to post something. It behaves wierd with Firefox too when you try and put links on the page it thinks you're dragging and dropping the stuff.

I have decided to move to phpwebsite which I am hosting on my ISP account. This will give me much more pinpoint control, and I don't need the extensive handholding that blogger sometimes does well.

I'm enjoying this so much, that it will justify the money it will take to host the domain name and such.

You can see the new format at: http://thebe.jtan.com/~ircd_/phpwebsite/branches/catholicpillowfight/

Be gentle, I still don't have the template just the way I want it. :)

A baby needs help.

2005-06-29T22:06:00.000-07:00

My heart goes out to Jason Torres, the husband of this woman:

On May 7th, 2005, the day before Mothers' Day, Susan M. (Rollins) Torres -- a 26-year-old vaccine researcher at NIH; mother of a two-year-old son, Peter; graduate of the University of Dallas; and parishioner at St. Rita's Catholic Church in Alexandria, Virginia collapsed. She was rushed to the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, where she has been diagnosed with stage four melanoma and is brain dead with no hope of recovery.

Susan was 17 weeks pregnant at the time and although the doctors have given her no hope of survival, they are fighting to keep her unborn child alive until at least July 11 where he or she will have a viable chance at life.

Her family is really starting to show signs of the strain this is causing; mentally, physically and financially. In an effort to escalate the awareness of their situation, and to help raise additional funds, friends of the Torres family have established The Susan M. Torres Fund to help defray the $1,500 a day ICU medical costs that insurance does not cover.

I can't imagine the pain for this man; keeping his wife's body operational so that his child can live. This man is walking the pro-life walk.

Please consider donating to this cause. A few dollars would definitely help.

UPDATE: JUN 28, 2005

The Torres and Rollin families are happy to announce that the baby appears to be a girl. The doctors are not 100% positive, but are fairly certain at this point. Little girl Torres is still doing well, and we are hoping to have a sonogram picture up on this site by the end of the week. Please continue your prayers for Susan, Jason, Pete and baby girl Torres. They have been a great help to thefamily.

Modesty is relative

2005-06-29T19:03:00.000-07:00

A tip of the hat to The Curt Jester for a link to this neato blog called catholicnews.org hosted by Maureen Martin. I was reading one of her posts entitled Modesty is Relative, and sprayed coffee all over my monitor. Maureen writes:

"Mandy had on this tight, low-cut, short dress, and when I told her she needed to wear more clothes, she gave me that whole 'modesty is relative' crap," said Hodges, who is a freshman majoring in philosophy at Georgia State University. "So I said, 'So it is, huh? Well, I will wear this to mass,then,' and held up a pair of swim trunks. She just looked at me like she didn't believe I would do it, so then I had to." [More]

This outlines a problem I have seen at mass, especially with teenaged girls with parents who have no cojones. It is very difficult to concentrate on Jesus when there's a teenaged girl in front of you, who every time she bends over to pick up her music, shows you that her hair is indeed that color naturally.

Our former choir director had a great test for appropriate wear for the girls who sang in the junior choir. She said: "If you raise your arms above your head and you can see skin in the middle, it's inappropriate".

Kudos to those parents who understand that modesty is not relative.

This blog's been rolled :)

The Hotel Lost Liberty with the Just Desserts Cafe

2005-06-28T22:47:00.000-07:00

An interesting little tidbit came my way via Baldilocks and Jumping Without a Chute. It seems that a private developer wishes to build a hotel on the property cuttently occupied by the home of Justice David Souter (who wrote the majority opinion for Kelo vs. New London). Read it, and I bet you will have a huge grin on your face by the time you are finished.

Monday, June 27, 2005
Mr. Chip Meany
Code Enforcement OfficerTown of Weare,
New Hampshire
Fax 603-529-4554
Dear Mr. Meany,
I am proposing to build a hotel at 34 Cilley Hill Road in the Town of Weare. I would like to know the process your town has for allowing such a development.
Although this property is owned by an individual, David H. Souter, a recent Supreme Court decision, "Kelo vs. City of New London" clears the way for this land to be taken by the Government of Weare through eminent domain and given to my LLC for the purposes of building a hotel. The justification for such an eminent domain action is that our hotel will better serve the public interest as it will bring
in economic development and higher tax revenue to Weare.
As I understand it your town has five people serving on the Board of Selectmen. Therefore, since it will require only three people to vote in favor of the use of eminent domain I am quite confident that this hotel development is a viable project. I am currently seeking investors and hotel plans from an architect. Please let me know the proper steps to follow to proceed in accordance with the law in your town.

Thank you.
Sincerely,
Logan Darrow Clements
Freestar Media, LLC
http://www.freenation.tv/hotellostliberty1.html

The delicious irony of this particular development project gives me goosebumps. This is fabulous! I can't wait to see how it plays out. (Do the selectmen have cojones or not ;))

Haugen-Haas Ice Cream? Tastes bitter to me...

2005-06-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite bloggers to read is Jeff Miller at The Curt Jester. I enjoy reading most of his satire, but every so often he hits a clunker and I feel compelled to comment on it.

The post I'm talking about is called Haugen-Haas (which is a takeoff on Hagen-Daas ice cream). Good satire is at it's core, truthful. A nice example of this from the same blog is called Caption Contest in which Jeff solicits humorous captions for a picture which is obviously of an illicit female "ordination". The article is entirely factual.

In the case of Marty Haugen and David Haas (two contemporary Catholic liturgical composers), Jeff uses a 5th grade tactic of making a pun on a person's name, and then getting a bunch of like minded people to point and laugh. Then the fun starts when he embellishes it with calumny, much like the claim "your mother wears army boots" (nobody on the playground believed that the victim's mother actually wore army boots, but in this case the calumny may be believable by many because of the past quality of Jeff's posts).

I have been a music minister for the past 15 years, both in a Catholic parish choir, and as a Cantor. I have never met Marty Haugen or David Has, but I have taken David Haas' video seminar, and one could find fewer better examples of a faithful Catholic who is using his gifts in accordance with the rules of the church, from GIRM to Canon. Some of the things Jeff writes:

The cool taste of dissimint will cause you to want to sign petitions and protest outside your local Church.

The implication is that these composers are either formenting dissent, or leading people to dissent. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are also cutesy captions that accuse the men of formenting or contributing to schism, iconoclasty, causing Catholics to lose their committment, heresy and liturgical abuse.

This is, as far as I'm concerned, an unearned slam and in extremely poor taste. Some of their early compositions I don't prefer. "Blest are they" and "Gather us In" are not two of my favorites, but all Jeff can accuse these men of, is writing a couple of sub standard musical pieces. Their later writing is excellent. Haas' "Before I Was Born" speaks to me on a deep and personal level. Much of their early writing was not Scripturally based, but some of their latest work is fabulous.

Much of the ire is not that the music is illicit, it seems to be simply a matter of taste with a big dose of traditionalist bigotry thrown in (if it ain't Gregorian chant, it ain't ~~shit~~ worth anything).

Let me grab a pillow and give Jeff a resounding thwap! No kudos for him on that one.

The Gitmo Cookbook

2005-06-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

Would you like to support the troops, and eat the same food that the "torture victims" at Guantanamo Bay are eating? Buy the Gitmo Cookbook. Here is an excerpt:

If you're tired of all the torture allegations, of hearing the media imply that handling a Quran without gloves on is the moral equivalent of beheading someone, and of all the hysteria about enemy combatants, you'll enjoy the Gitmo Cookbook.

It contains the actual recipes and menus for the food served to the Gitmo detainees, along with interesting facts about how American soldiers are working every day to treat prisoners humanely while still getting the information we need to protect ourselves.

Baked Tandouri Chicken Breast, Mustard-Dill Baked Fish, Lyonnaise Rice, and Fish Amandine are just a few of the recipes you'll find in the Gitmo Cookbook. We've tested them, and they are inexpensive, easy to make, and delicious.
The cookbook is being printed and will be shipped in about 10 weeks. Pre-order your copy now for only $8.95! [More]

This sounds like a good cause and it might become a collector's item. "Torture" your family today!!! The appropriate dinner music for this fare is... Yes! Christina Aguilera music!

Don't pile on the Durbin

2005-06-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

Watching the blogswarm stinging Senator Durbin (D) from Illinois, I remember a Bugs Bunny cartoon where all of the other characters pile on Bugs while Elmer Fudd yells "Don't piwe on the wabbit!" In the cartoon, Bugs ends up on top of the pile jumping up and down yelling "Don't pile on the rabbit!".

I don't think Senator Durbin is going to find his way out from under this particular pile. In addition to his now famous quote with regard to the treatment of terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba by American troops:

"...this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners."

Durbin has been flying under the radar for some time. This particular reprehensible statement put him squarely on our screen. And comparing our troops to Nazis and Soviet Union gulag guards is just silly. 9 million people died in Nazi concentration camps. More people have died in Senator Kennedy's car than terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay.

Recently, self-described “practicing Catholic” Senator Dick Durbin was shocked, yes shocked, that a Roman Catholic like Alabama Attorney General William Pryor would actually hold the belief that the abortion "laws" of this nation were fraudulent, contrived, immoral, and should be overturned. Durbin’s anti-Catholic screed included the claim that he was a "practicing Catholic, " however, his social conscience came first. Durbin's proto-pagan diatribe was carried live on CSPAN. [More]

Interesting. This is very much a wolf in sheep's clothing deal. A "Catholic" who doesn't believe Catholics are qualified to hold public office. How do you spell hypocrite? D-U-R-B-I-N. And if anyone deserves to be piled on, it's this particular fellow.

14 Tips for the Catholic Father

2005-06-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

In Roman Catholicism, teaching children religion is very important. A Catholic father should also be kind, loving, and supportive. Catholic fatherhood is a wonderful vocation. Being a father is a fun but responsibile position. To many times society wants to downplay the role of fatherhood. However, fathers are essential to the development of happy children and adults. Here are some tips to help you be a better father.

1. Cherish your marriage. A wonderful gift you can give to yur children is a happy marriage. Your sons will learn how to treat their wives, and your daughters will know how to be treated.

2. Enjoy your children. Men often get into protector and provider mode. They sometimes forget to enjoy their kids. Children grow up very fast. You need to be in their lives from the start.

3. Educate your children on Catholicism and how it has benefited you. Be a good role model by attending Mass and acting as a good Christian person. Actions speak greater than words.

4. Have a sense of humor. Life is too short to be serious all of the time. Laugh a lot. You're children will appreciate this.

5. Love your children. Tell your children how much you love and appreciate them. Your loving nature is bound to encourage them to be loving themselves.

6. Practice Catholic traditions and practices at home. The best way to learn something is by listening and practicing. You can help educate your child of the importance of being quiet during Mass by practicing it at home.

7. Pray with your children on a daily basis. Help them determine what they wish to pray for. Point out to them the special gifts and blessings that God has granted them.

8. Tell them how unique they are. Make sure they know how much you value their special qualities. Remind them of their abilities.

9. Discipline when they are naughty, but remember to be loving. Never discipline just to be cruel or mean. Be consistent and have a purpose.

10. Avoid cursing, screaming, or calling names. A great father remains in control and knows his temper.

11. Communicate with your child or children daily. Ask them about their life and be involved. Make sure they feel comfortable talking with you about anything.

12. Tell them how proud you are of them. Nothing feels better to a child than knowing your parents are proud of them.

13.Be involved with other fathers. Join a group or just attend different father/child activities. Just be involved as a father.

14. Pray to St. Joseph and others when you need help. St. Joseph is a great role model who can help you when you feel down.

15. Don't take someone else's work and call it your own. This was hijacked from:

http://catholicism.miningco.com/od/parenting/a/14tbetterdad04.htm

Via Dolorosa

2005-06-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

Tip of the hat to The Holy Fool for turning me onto this post on Winterr's Words. This is a powerful and moving little movie. Check it out.

Gay parents are a bad influence

2005-06-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

Well, according to St. John the Baptist School in Costa Mesa, CA. They recently were embroiled in controversy when they enrolled children whose "dads" were two gay men.

The Los Angeles Time published the memo obtained by a parent at St. John the Baptist School in Costa Mesa. The memo, dated May 6, states: "The children adopted by a same-sex couple" may enroll "on the condition that the same-sex couple agree not to present themselves as a couple at school functions."

http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?2005/06/14/2

Interesting. I suppose that their next logical step would be to state that "The children cared for by parents who are living together without the benefit of marriage may enroll on the condition that the couple agree not to present themselves as a couple at school functions." This makes sense because the Catholic church is not against homosexuality, but homosexual sex and the appearance of scandal. It would seem that the school should not rank sexual scandal with regards to their school policy.

That the children should be allowed to enroll in the school should not be an issue. The sins of the "fathers" should not impact the children getting a Catholic education should the "fathers" wish it. But restricting just gay couples from school functions sends an incorrect message in my opinion. You should crack down on all sexual scandal equally, or leave sexual scandal completely alone. Their choice.

UPDATE: A big round of thanks to Jeff Miller from The Curt Jester for turning me on to this post on JimmyAkin.org. It deserves a read.

Habemas Sacerdos!!!

2005-06-15T17:47:00.000-07:00

Well... actually three! This is indeed a joyous occasion. One of our adopted parish sons was ordained today. Our parish choir had the honor of singing at the cathedral for the ordination mass. The cathedral had a fabulous instrument (pipe organ) and the acoustics were incredible (as they usually are in old time Catholic churches). If you have never been to an ordination, I suggest that you go. In most places the holy mass is always an open occasion, no invitation is required.

However in places like Los Angeles, you need a ticket to get into mass (tip of the hat to the Curt Jester and The Weight of Glory for this little gem). But then again, you usually need a ticket to get into a "performance".

Priesthood & Permanent Deacon Ordination Notice!: The Cathedral will be hosting the Priesthood Ordination on June 4th 2005 and the Permanent Deacon Ordination on June 11, 2005. Please pray for the candidates preparing for Ordination. Also please be advised that the Cathedral will be closed on these two special days from 8am-12noon. Tickets will be required for admission..

http://www.olacathedral.org/

With five (5) candidates for 3,600,000 Catholics, do they really think that there will be standing room only? Our diocese, on the other hand, had three (3) candidates for 350,000 Catholics.

This means that we ordained one new priest for every 116,666 Catholics in the diocese. Los Angeles ordained one priest for every 720,000 Catholics in their archdiocese. This means we did seven (7) times better than Los Angeles in producing new priests this time around.

But let me stop pontificating for a minute to describe the ordination. It was a holy and moving occasion with the entire diocese gathering to support our new priest on his mission. I could almost feel the wind of the Holy Spirit in the cathedral as all the attending priests in the diocese (there must have been over a hundred of them there) laid hands on the new candidates.

One of our candidates was Vietnamese, and the second reading was proclaimed in the Vietnamese language, and there was a Vietnamese choir from this candidate's parish who did two Vietnamese sacred pieces. It was beautifully done, and outlines both our unity as Catholics and our diversity as a people of God.

The new priest will be celebrating his first mass at our parish tomorrow. We have three choirs (adult, junion and children's) in addition to an instrumental ensemble supplying the music.

I think this is an exciting time to be Catholic.

UPDATE: Here is the link to the news article regarding the ordination.

Mass Appeal. Works for me too, but...

2005-06-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

Gerald at The Cafeteria Is Closed posts this very nice peice sent to him by one of his readers called Mass Appeal. I quote:

last Sunday at the 9:45 AM “English” mass at St. Thomas of Canterbury parish in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood (poor, inner-city, multi-ethic, mostly young) with no choir, choir leader, liturgical committee, or other “gimmicks.”

I must have missed the mass where the choir became a "gimmic". It seems that this particular "gimmic" has been used throughout the ages to give glory to Almighty God.

The congregation (about 250 people for this mass) is about half-white American and African-American; the other half recent immigrants: Asian, African, and Spanish-speaking
...
Gloria—chanted in Latin BY THE WHOLE CONGREGATION (no English cultural imperialism for us).

Absolutely, when you have a multiplicity of cultures gathered in one place, the preferred language is indeed Latin. But one must be careful not to fall victim of "language bigotry". Vatican II allows the vernacular.

Communion song—in English, beautiful and movingly sung, but I can’t remember the name of the hymn right now. I was concentrating on Jesus like everyone else.

Mass is not individual worship, it is communal worship. This means we say the same prayers, we sing the same songs when required, and we all say the same responses in the same language with the same gender pronouns.

If you are concentrating on Jesus with everyone else, this seems right to me. Concentrating on Jesus like everyone else, in your own little personal world, makes it seem like a bunch of people who happen to be doing the same thing, but not by design. To be fair, after-communion meditation is a personal thing, but we have to understand that communion is not only communion with Jesus, but it's communion with the entire community. Personal relationship with Jesus, excluding others, is a very Protestant attitude.

I am a very liturgically orthodox sort of fellow, but it is current Church orthodoxy, not pre-Vatican II orthodoxy. This means that there are a lot of things that are done in church that are not abuses, that I don't prefer, but I will follow along for the sake of communion with my fellow Catholics.

As it says at the top of my blog, "In that which is necessary, unity; In that which is not necessary, liberty; In all things, charity" -- St. Augustine.

That having been said, I'm jealous about that mass. I would have loved to attend.

A matter of priorities.

2005-06-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

jcecil3 writes in Why can't we unite?

How is proving me wrong on women's ordination more important than stopping sexual slavery?

How is proving me wrong on gay marriage more important than lowering divorce rates?

How is proving me wrong on contraception more important than solving world hunger?

I guess the point Joe is making is that we should be concentrating on more important things, and not worry about those pesky gays, or putting a rubber on. So as long as there are important global issues we should be working on, we should just leave those other things alone.

It's a classic liberal move to attempt to shame you into aquiescing to his viewpoints on the little things. After all, there are much more important things to consider.

So Joe, I have a couple things to ask you.

How is pushing for women's ordination more important than stopping sexual slavery?

How is pushing for gay marriage more important than lowering divorce rates?

How is pushing for liberalized contraception more important than solving world hunger?

So Joe, I think your priorities are on a little backward.

Abstinence not appropriate for young children

2005-06-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

It seems now, that messages regarding chastity are inappropriate for young people.

FALL RIVER, Mass. --A television ad urging teenagers to abstain from sex has been deemed inappropriate for young children by some networks on Comcast Corp. cable television and won't be seen on several channels geared to younger viewers. [More]

So the same cable network that gives us Sex in the City, and MTV has deemed that messages about staying sexually pure until you're married are inappropriate. But then I see "Mass." (as in Massachussets, not the Holy sacrifice) and it begins to make a little more sense.

The problem with blogs

2005-06-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

A tip of the hat to The Curt Jester for pointing me to this article on Ignatius Insight called The Problems With Blogs.

In it I happened to read a quote from Barbara Nicolosi from The Church of the Masses:

Blogging can foster narcissism. There are a lot of people blogging who really have nothing to say. They are reaching out into cyberspace for some kind of connection, but they would do better to read the best bloggers and restrict themselves to the comment boxes there.

Best bloggers? You mean like you, Barbara?

Let me take an opportunity to be narcissistic for a moment, and not just "respond in comments".

Barbara, I don't much care if you don't think I have anything to say. I don't care that I didn't make your "4 star blog list". I don't do this for you. People will read me, or they won't. People will like what they read, or they won't. Some people will hate my viewpoint, and debate endlessly, and that's ok too.

But I've seen a lot of people who aren't screenwriters, or authors, or even journalists, have something interesting to say.

Confirmation classes are starting.

2005-06-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

For my oldest daughter. You know that you're getting old when your daughter is about to be confirmed. She is a pain in the tush at times, but she is growing up into a very nice, logical and opinionated young lady (she gets that from me :)). She makes me proud to be her dad more and more often recently.

She, her mother and I went to her first confirmation class organizational meeting, and they told us what the requirements were for becoming confirmed about a year from now. The coordinator asked us, "what would you like your child to get out of these classes".

I responded: "I would like my daughter to get a greater understanding of her Catholic faith, most importantly, apologetics. She will be called on to defend her faith out in the world, and having the intellectual tools at her disposal will make it much easier for her to do so and make her less susceptable to doubt about her faith".

(My daughter wanted me to shut up. I embarass her in public like that on a regular basis, and I take a perverse pleasure sometimes doing so.)

But it is important, in the wake of all of the articles I've been reading about Evangelicals targeting Catholics for attempted conversion. This doesn't even take into account the rampant secular humanism which has been overtaking our society in the guise of "separation of church and state". She will need a lot of tools to answer questions like: "Have you accepted Jesus Christ into you heart"?(1), and she'll need firmness in her convictions and the courage to state them unequivocally.

There will be other attacks on her faith like: "You Catholics are idolaters, you pray to statues and dead people". But I feel with our help, and the help of the church and teachers, she'll be armed with the sword and shield of her faith to "go into the world and make apostles of all nations".

(1) The correct answer to this question is: "Of course I have, and I have accepted Jesus into my mouth, down my throat and into my tummy too!"

Andrew Sullivan on the rampage again...

2005-06-08T20:51:00.000-07:00

...and guess what the topic is... You guessed it, gay "marriage". And you didn't even need all the final jeopardy time. Here's what he wrote:

If you're Catholic and relying on the Pope's condemnation of gay marriages to support your own opposition to same-sex nuptials, you had better not be ... divorced, have ever used condoms or birth control pills and never have "shacked up" with a lover who was not your spouse. If you have, you have NO moral authority, at least based upon your Catholicism, to attack gay marriage without being considered a complete hypocrite. Pretty tough pill to swallow, huh?" - Chuck Muth, in his newsletter. He has an important point, made by Dan Savage as well.

The only thing that will make you a hypocrite is not if you have ever sinned in that particular manner, but if you continue to sin in that particular manner while railing against gay "marriage". Any time you'd like to get off the sexual sin merry-go-round (or is that cannot-marry-go-round), go to confession, and begin trying to live a chaste life. Reconciliation is a wonderful sacrament, and one you can partake in.

The headlines were all about gay marriage, but the Pope condemned in equal fashion the choices of the vast majority of Americans, from masturbation to IVF. The issue is not homosexuality as such for the Pope. It is any expression of sexuality that isn't always marital and procreative. But somehow, only the gays get the brunt. Why?

Well, Andrew, because you're aiming to get a master's degree in "victimology". Sexual sins are equally bad whether you're homo or hetero. The only difference is that the rest of us understand that we're sinners, and we don't want legitimization by the Church.

(Thanks to Kathy Shaidle at Relapsed Catholic for the link)

Population politics

2005-06-07T07:27:00.000-07:00

Gerald at The Cafeteria Is Closed quoted from the New York Times in an post entitled Hillary the Terrible:

"I know it's frustrating for many of you; it's frustrating for me: Why
can't the Democrats do more to stop them?" she [Hillary] continued to
growing applause and cheers.

Ms. Hillary, as a proponent of a woman's right to control her own fertility either through artificial contraception or abortion, has planted the seeds long ago for her own party's destruction.

For the past 30 years since Roe v. Wade, people have been availaing themselves of artificial birth control (and abortion when that "fails") to limit the sizes of their families. The people who have NOT availed themselves of this particular freedom are religious people. Now I'm sure that someone will trumpet the fact that 85% of Catholics use ABC (artificial birth control), but I have yet to see what the survey was, who was surveyed, and how the question was asked. No matter how people self-identify religiously, an undeniable fact is that religious people who don't believe in birth control and/or abortion will have larger families. These are the people who are told "if you don't like abortion, don't have one". They have been doing as they have been told.

So what we have, is people who truly believe that human life is a gift from Almighty God having larger families. These people are Evangelical Christians, devout Catholics, and devout Muslims to name a few. These groups of people are generally not Democrats. To recap, the "ignorant fundamentalist goobers" in the red states are having bigger families (read that potential voters) and the "enlightened progressive visionaries" in the blue states are exercising their "right to choose" by slipping on a condom, and when that fails, killing their progeny in the womb.

We have seen two generations of "family values" children come of voting age, while the number of anti-family voters dwindle. It's simple population politics. Those who have the numbers, win the elections.

We saw it in the last Presidential election. President Bush won on life and family issues, and I believe this is just beginning.

And there is only so much that our "institutions of higher learning" can do to counter that. Children are being molded in their faith a lot earlier, and are being given the tools to receive their degrees, produce the papers their "professors" approve of, and graduate with their ideology intact.

Other social ills are caused by the choice of "enlightened folks" not to have children. That means that my children are going to be forced to take care of them in their old age. When I get ready to retire (I'm a baby boomer), there will be two(2) workers for every one (1) retiree. And figuring 40 M potential workers who were killed in the womb (not to mention the millions who were never born due to successful ABC) there is going to be a serious crisis in Social (In)Security. By the time my children get ready to retire, if the trend continues, I would not be surprised that the ratio of worker to retiree were 1:1.

So Hillary, I can tell you why the Democrats can't stop the Republicans. For the last 30 years, you have been killing (and preempting) two generations of Democrat voters. If the Democrats continue this trend, you will NEVER be back in power again without armed revolt (and we know what you Democrats think of guns).

A life worth living

2005-06-06T18:53:00.000-07:00

I'd like to thank Clairity for her post entitled "Designer Genes". In it she writes:

The Scandinavian Cryobank is in the business of offering prospective parents "Viking babies." Their sperm bank, properly screened for genetic abnormalities, offers the prospect of blonde, blue-eyed babies to their customers.

Interesting. Building the perfect baby. With no flaws. But the question remains: "what is a flaw?" This is a pretty fundamental question. For some people, it's a baby which has Down's Syndrome. For others, having a vagina is a "genetic defect".

The whole determination of the "quality of life", and how it relates to the right to life is something that has happened to us very recently. We saw it in the Terri Schiavo case where the state starved and dehydrated a young woman to death. Pulling the plug has become a national pastime.

We are immersed in a culture of death. We kill our unborn, the most innocent and helpless of us. We kill our eldery and ill when doctors determine that their chance of "getting better" is slight.

We need to understand that each of us is created in the image and likeness of almighty God, endowed by Him with a dignity simply because of our humanity. When we can kill our own children in the womb, it's a short step to killing strangers outside of it.

Ratzinger's Rottweilers

2005-06-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

A tip of the hat to The Curt Jester for a link to this new club site. Catholic Pillow Fight is now branded as a member site. I heard that our Holy Father had been called God's Rottweiler, so I looked up the Rottweiler to find out what the temprament of this particular breed was. Certain points stuck out.

The Rottweiler is calm, trainable, courageous, and devoted to their owner and family.
They have a reliable temperament.
Protective, he will defend his family fiercely.
These are strong fighters that seem immune to pain.
...
They are highly intelligent and have proven their worth beyond question in police, military, and customs work over many centuries.
...
This breed needs a lot of companionship and socialization to be truly happy.
...
When the Rottweiler is consistently brought up and trained, it will be a good playmate for the children.
It will accept cats and other household pets as long as the dog has had a positive experience with them while it was young.
Friends and relatives of the family are normally enthusiastically welcomed. Strangers can get no further than the sidewalk.

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/rottweiler.htm

I thought it was interesting that the majority of this description fit our new Holy Father to a "T". You can find a link to Ratzinger's Rottweilers on the bottom left hand side of the home page.

Why bother blogging?

2005-06-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

I was pointed by The Anchoress to a post by Baldilocks entitled Why Bother.

Hmmm... Good question. I guess I ought to hang up the Blog. (Just kidding, non-existant readers. I just started, it's probably going to take me a while to get to that level of angst, and if I do, I'm hoping someone will kick me in the ass much like I'm going to do to poor Baldilocks. (I have read a couple of her pieces, and have liked what I have seen, so here goes...)

From that consideration stems this question: should devout Christians cool their heels until the Messiah returns? Should we all devote ourselves to prayerand contemplation until the Day?
I believe that is a profoundly selfish sentiment. Blogging, to me, is like sitting behind the mike in a radio station's studio. You are hoping you reach a ton of people with your words of wisdom, and the transmitter could be out, or it could be up and you're reaching millions.

You will get the occasional detractor, and like in your case someone you respect. What you have to understand is that in responding to these people, you may or may not reach the person who you are speaking to who you may desperately want to reach, but you may be reaching thousands of people some of who will have a "eurika!" moment.

Of course I'm interested in my own salvation, but I am interested in the salvation of others too. The line that needs to be drawn is if in helping others find their salvation, you are endangering yours. If that is the case, you need to stop. If it is not, you should continue.

After all, according to scripture, world events, large- and small-scale, will only get worse and worse until then; and the name of JesusChrist is starting to make more and more demons screech in protest.

Many times the demons screech as they are leaving. And in many cases, that demon screech (as we heard in the case of Penn and Teller with regard to Mother Teresa) might be a pre-conversion purging. That sort of screeching is music to my ears. Cause the demons enough pain, and they will leave.

So why should I continue to beat my head against a brick wall when there is world outrage over the non-flushing of a Koran and five reported mishandlings of other Korans at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorists? You know the place: the dreaded gulag from which a prisoner leaves weighing more than when he entered? (The next time he visits Russia, President Bushought to go visit Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s dacha; the president is obviously unclear on the gulag concept, but then so is Amnesty International.)

I don't know. I know that in many cases I blog (and I've just started) to reinforce my belief system. To address points as calmly and logically as I'm able, and to get my ducks in a row. In many cases I do it for me, because right now I don't believe I have a whole lot of readers. But you really need to find your own reasons to continue. Keep looking. I enjoy your stuff. (I have a special affinity to you because I'm a bald guy :))

Libertarians for Life

2005-06-02T07:27:00.000-07:00

A tip of the hat to Insight Scoop for their link to the Libertarians for Life website. Some of the tenets listed on the site are:

1. Human offspring are human beings, persons from fertilization.
2. Abortion is homicide -- the killing of one person by another.
3. There is never a right to kill an innocent person. Prenatally, we are all innocent persons.
4. A prenatal child has the right to be in the mother's body. Parents have no right to evict their children from the crib or from the womb and let them die. Instead both parents, the father as well as the mother, owe them support and protection from harm.
5. No government, nor any individual, has a just power to legally depersonify any one of us, born or preborn.
6. The proper purpose of the law is to side with the innocent, not against them.

It is really refreshing to see some of our secular bretheren with secular arguments against this holocaust. Right on, L4L!

Prune-faced purveyors of geriatricity at mass

2005-06-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

In her blog A Mom(ent) for Truth, Catholic Mom writes in Bringing Children to Mass:

I made the humiliating walk down the center aisle of church during the beginning of the first reading. (I like to sit up front because there is less distraction for Isabella) So there I was sitting six pews from the front when a lady in the pew ahead of me gave me “the look”. Any parent with young children knows that look. It is the look that says ‘Oh great, a little Neanderthal child who is going to fuss, cry and ruin my Mass.” I smiled at her to reassure her that we would behave (please God, let Isabella behave!).

It's been a bout 10 years since I've taken that kind of walk, but we've had it lucky in our parish. We have a lot of young adults with little children. The older children love playing and laughing with the younger children, and I believe they are all a joy.

But you always have someone who gives you "the look". The look is usually on a wrinkly face covered with a fuzz of blue hair. These are usually seniors who do not have any grandchildren, and whose lives are quite lonely. I think there's a degree of jealousy in the attitude of a "child ruining their experience".

I have had to deal with misbehaving children, and I have come to realize over the years that they are children. They are not robots, they are not monsters. Other people's children sometimes misbehave, sometimes they talk out of turn, sometimes they stand up in the middle of the consecration, and swing a rosary around their head yelling: "Hang on, Jesus, you're goin' for a RIDE!!!!!" (true story).

But all in all, they are there. And if they don't completely understand it, they are absorbing much of it through osmosis and are learning how to behave at a solemn occasion even if they don't do it all the time.

My prayer would be: "Please God, let Isabella be a child. She'll have far too few years of that simple joy and far too many years without it".

Anatomy of a murder

2005-05-31T15:09:00.000-07:00

A tip of the hat to Amy Welborn for her link to a piece by the LA Times entitled "A late Decision, a Lasting Anguish".

I was weeping reading through this. I didn't know where to begin. Let me attempt to try:

"I don't know what I would have done had [Dr. Tiller] not been available to me," said Katie Plazio, a financial analyst from New Jersey. "That's selfish, I know. I feel selfish. But … doesn't everyone want the best for themselves and their family?"

Yes, M'am, everyone wants what's best for their family. But I don't believe killing one of your family members is the way to do it.

Like Becker and most women who spoke for this story, Plazio asked to use her middle and maiden names to protect her privacy. Many of Tiller's patients have not told their co-workers, friends or even close relatives that they had terminated pregnancies. Their abortions were verified by a review of clinic records they supplied.

Of course they didn't. What a horrible thing to do. My eldest daughter was born 7 weeks early (third trimester). She was a perfectly formed, albeit small, baby. When I think about this woman's baby, I think of my daughter.

For Plazio, the heartache began with the unexpected. After a decade of infertility, she was stunned to feel a kick to her ribs as she sat through a meeting in February 2001. She had been dieting for weeks, running five miles a day — and wondering why she still couldn't squeeze into her pants. She was six months pregnant.

Overjoyed, Plazio and her husband scheduled an amniocentesis. The preliminary results were clean; bursting with excitement, Plazio, then 43, bought a baby blanket dotted with pale blue bunnies. Ten days later, her doctor called with devastating news: More complete genetic tests had determined that their son had Down syndrome.

What a blessing! I know a number of Down's Syndrome children and each and every one is a loving, gentle and innocent child. They remain loving, gentle and innocent children for their entire lives. Every Down's Syndrome parent I know realizes that God has given them and extra special blessing. And when I use "special" I do not mean it as a PC euphemism for "handicapped", I mean special, as in "extraordinary".

Plazio had studied special education in college; working with adults with Down syndrome, she had seen their lives as lonely, frustrating, full of hurt. She was not sure she could find joy in raising her son to such a future. She didn't think she could cope with what she expected would be a lifetime of sadness and struggle.

She has no clue as to what their lives were like. Every one I've met, has a life full of wonder, as most children do. They remain constant sources of joy for their parents and siblings.

Giving her son up for adoption seemed even worse — to wake each morning not knowing where he was, imagining him scared and alone. "I could not live with that fear all my life," Plazio said.

"I don't want anyone to think that I did this all for Matthew," she said. "I was not just sparing him problems. I was sparing my daughter, my husband, me and all those who depend on me…. I knew the limits of my family and my marriage. Maybe there are families who can handle it all. Maybe they are better people. But I knew I could not do it."

It's all about me, Me, ME. Don't think about the child you are killing. This is the attitude of considering babies not as gifts from Almighty God, but as inconveniences.

In March 2001, a week into her third trimester, she and her husband flew to Tiller's clinic. They took the bunny blanket and a teddy bear with a big red heart on its chest — a gift to the baby from their daughter, then 11.

A bunny blanket from the sister? This is gruesome! Did the sister know what was going to be happening to her sibling?

Since her abortion, Plazio has suffered such severe panic attacks that she can't drive even as far as the high school to watch her daughter cheerlead. She has gained 60 pounds as she battles depression. The abortion she sought to preserve her mental health has left her deeply shaken; doctors say she suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

So it was all for naught. Her mental health was still adversely affected.

Her mental health, she is convinced, would be even worse had she tried to raise a profoundly disabled son — or had she given him up for adoption.

She really needs to convince herself of this. If she entertains the thought that things would have been better if her child had lived, it would probably push her completely off the deep end.

The abortion "released my poor sick baby back to the angels," she said. "The only thing I wish I had done differently was realize I was pregnant months earlier."

The only regret she has is that she didn't do it sooner. This woman really needs to go to confession, and get in and see a Project Rachel counselor.

This story is disturbing on so many levels. I'm going to try and touch on a few of them.

1. The total disregard for the life of a child in the womb. This is a child she felt kick within her, and she still chose to end the child's life.

2. The spin of the article. This article spins this travesty in the best way possible for those involved in it. The fact that it was filed under "Kids' Health" pegged my irony meter.

3. The fact that the child was Down's Syndrome. These children are a light in every life they touch. This smacks of the sorts of atrocities performed in Nazi Germany during World War II. They exterminated people who didn't live up to their idea of genetic perfection. We are seeing that now in our society. There are even people who think the gender of the unborn baby is a "genetic defect". Interestingly enough, these ideas about the extermination of unwanted races prompted Margaret Sanger to found Planned Parenthood.

Childress added that the abortion business targets blacks for another reason besides financial returns. Whether intentional or not, he said, the abortion industry is following in the footsteps of Planned Parenthood's "founding mother," Margaret Sanger, a leader in the eugenics movement who in 1939 created the so-called "Negro Project" to promote birth control to black women. You can read the full text of the article here.

I know it's uncharitable of me, but I believe there is going to be a special place in hell for "doctor" Tiller.

Which 20th century Pope are you?

2005-05-31T07:07:00.000-07:00

This is a neato little quiz (tip of the hat to Fr. Shane). Interesting enough, my results are here.

You are Pope St. Pius X. You'd rather be right than
newfangled.

Which Twentieth Century Pope Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Thanks again, Fr. Shane.

Food for the journey, Brother.

2005-05-30T17:02:00.000-07:00

I was turned on to a neat blog called Luminious Miseries (tip of the hat to Amy Welborn for this particular gem). Saintos writes in a post entitled Who in converting whom? (I think he meant "Who is converting whom?" :))

I am coming closer to the place where I do believe the Catholic church to be the fullest and most accurate expression of our Christian faith. And I agree with my daughter when she says, "Dad, it just seems a more intimate faith." With all the talk there has been in the recent past among two groups largely comprised of Protestants, postmoderns and emergents, about "being" church not "doing" church there seems to me no truer expression of that being than the great tradition of the holy Catholic church.

I think this strikes to the heart of man's search for God, a more personal, fulfilling and yes intimate relationship with his creator, redeemer and sanctifier.

Santos' daughter has stumbled on what I discovered I loved about that "ol' time Catholicism" (pre-Vatican II). Catholicism was a very sensual faith. It had (and still has) sights, sounds, textures, tastes and smells. The old time Catholic imagery in the form of swelling music, beautiful paintings and stained glass, vaulted ceilings that you're sure must reach straight to heaven are not gone for good, I believe they are on the way back. This antiseptic faith that I've found in many post Conciliar churches (which is disturbingly reminiscent of that espoused by our separated bretheren) will soon be replaced by a more sensual and encompassing experience.

Goodspeed on your journey Brother Saintos, and tell your daughter she hit the nail right on the head.

Oy Vey!!! Jewish Rabbi supports Embryonic Stem Cell Research.

2005-05-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

I was listening to the Mike Gallagher radio program, and he mentioned being in a Synagogue for an occasion, and heard a sermon from a Rabbi supporting embryonic stem cell research. I was literally blown away! I could not believe that a Jewish Rabbi could support scientific research on humans, so I searched on the web, and the second one I found was Sermon by Rabbi Denise L. Eger, October 8, 2004, so I guess it's true. She writes:

While embryos have the potential for life. Jewish tradition does not believe that the clump of cells is yet life. Thus the embryos that would merely be destroyed or thrown out should be used for research—according to Jewish tradition.

That is why proposition 71 viewed from a Jewish perspective is a proposition I support. We Californians can do and should do what our federal government refuses to do—and that is save life.

"Jewish tradition does not believe that the clump of cells is yet life". This sounds suspiciously like.

[Dr. Josef] Mengele adhered to the Nazi belief that Gypsies were a subspecies of the human race, and therefore were "unworthy life".

The first step in subjugating humans is to dehumanize them by using terms such as "embryo", "fetus", "clump of cells" and my favorite, "parasite" so that you can kill them or perform experiments on them without having to worry about that pesky "conscience" thing.

While I find this attitude reprehensible in most people, I find it especially disgusting in a Jewish Rabbi who is supposed to "always remember" what happened to 6 million of her fellow Jews in concentration camps. Jews who were first dehumanized, then killed or experimented on for the sake of "scientific advancement".

A vicious attack

2005-05-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

I have been reading the Ragemonkeys for quite a few months. I enjoy the posts, much of it on the lives of the three priests who blog. Usually I'll respond with a comment, but I think in this case I'll blog it.

Father Shane came up with an excellent piece regarding the train wreck of the Penn & Teller show. We don't get Showtime in our house. We have a couple of young daughters, and we buy the bottom 14 channels so we don't have to wade through and filter the slimy ooze that is modern cable TV.

The post in question is called "Why these men are most fittingly called 'illusionists'". In it Father Shane states:

What might be lurking here is something that Benedict XVI alludes to in his book Introduction to Christianity. For people of unbelief, the most damning argument is not the one that is for belief but rather the one that is against unbelief. The venomous yawping of those who choke in their thunder boxes upon the poison of our age, cannot drowned out the testimony of charity, embodied, incarnated in those who are baptized. Call me the "starry-eyed optimist" but this furious nashing of teeth is nothing more than the confusion that proceeds before conversion, as one both remains attached to the vile stuff they have consumed and brutally wants to cough up the whole tainted pile. Staring, unblinking, into raw charity in a creature we assume unredeemable forces every illusion to fall leading to the unmistakable confrontation with a reality greater than we could have imagined.

This is one of the most enlightening pieces that describe what might be the anger against, and even hatred for Catholicism by the self proclaimed atheists and secular humanists. They work their whole life acquiring things. More and more things. Each new height, each new accomplishment doesn't fill the vacuum inside, the vacuum that God places in each and every one which is designed to be filled by Him alone.

Some try to fill it with drugs. Others with fame. Others with power. Others with illicit sexual encounters and pornography, but the vacuum remains.

Those with the inability to fill it properly, look to those of us who are filled and continue to be filled with envy, jealousy and sometimes hatred. What these folks don't realize is what we have, the peace we've found, they can have too. They simply need to ask.

The only other requirement is to empty themselves of the worldly baggage to allow God to live in that space. That takes a leap of faith... A leap of faith that some are just not ready to take.

I will pray for Penn and Teller. Father Shane may be right. This might be the primal scream of someone who finally realizes they are empty, and long to be filled by God. I pray they are given the grace to simply ask for it.

Thanks, Father Shane, for the great post.

A crisis in vocations? Really?

2005-05-27T15:49:00.000-07:00

On his blog, In Today's News, jcecil3 writes about The Vocation Crisis:

In a single year from 2000 to 2001, the Catholic Church saw a gain of 15,783,000 memebers. The growth rate of the worldwide Catholic population from 1975 to 2002 was 52% to reach 1.7 billion.

That's the good news.

However,...

In 2000 there were 801,185 nuns worldwide compared to 968,526 in 1975. The average and median age in many women's communities is in the 70's.

In 1975 we had 404,783 priests compared to 405,058 priests in 2002. They are aging as well, and recently rocked with scandal on a global scale.

Really, jcecil3? On a global scale? It seems that the vast majority of the abuse cases happened in heterodox diocese like Boston and Los Angeles. And it hasn't been on a global scale, it has happened primarily in the united states.

We have a mere 275 priests added in 27 years of explosive growth in the numbers of Catholics worldwide.

It's probably going to take a little while for all those new Catholics, to have children who wish to become priests. In my parish, we are ordaining a priest in two weeks. In a parish in Zimbabwe, they are ordaining 27 of them. I figure in another generation of heterodox Catholicism in Africa, we will have enough priests to populate all the diocese worldwide.

The number of women religious is on the downswing (I wonder why).

Interesting question. I don't think it's why he imagines it is (probably something to do with the marginalizing of women or some such pap). Let's take a look at a couple of different religious communities.

The Anchoress has quite nicely addressed the whys and wherefores of growing communities of holy women, and the disintegrating communities of "new-agey", drum-banging "womyn" in this post entitled More Distressingly Whacky Nuns.

The fact is, those who remain firmly grafted to the Catholic vine prosper and grow. Those that cut themselves off from it wither and die.

Meanwhile, the permanent married deaconate, not uniforml(sic) encouraged throughout the world, has grwon(sic) from the early 1970's to about 28,238 by 1998 and continues to grow at a rate of 17% per year. So far, little to no scandal is known of the permanent deacons.

There are also a number of permanent deacons who decided not to take that final step to the priesthood and decided to serve in a lesser ordained capacity.

The argument that conservative orders are growing is misconstrued by comparing local statistics.

If there 10,000 people joining 100 communities in 1960 (100 for each community), and 90 communities lost their attractiveness by changing their charism, one would expect the 10,000 people attracted to the traditional way to join the 10 communities still holding the old way.

There'd be an increase of ten-fold in those ten communities to 1,000 new members per community.

But this is not what occured. The vocations to the old way did not remain constant. In proportion to the global growth of Catholics, the vocations declined - all across the globe.

It's the global number that matters.

jcecil3 started one conversation, pertaining to an increase in vocations in "conservative" (I'd like to term orthodox) parishes and diocese, then turned it into a discussion of "It's the global number that matters".

Let's take a look at this for a minute.

"a survey conducted from 1986 to 1996 by Human Life International (HLI) the results revealed that in orthodox dioceses there are currently nearly five times as many ordinations of diocesan priests per million active Catholics as there are in progressive dioceses."

http://www.catholicmediacoalition.org/vocations.htm

"Progressive" Catholics have been telling us: "If only you'd ordain women and let priests marry you'd increase vocations in the Catholic Church". What the above statistics are proving is that it's that very "progressive" attitude that is leading to a decrease in vocations. So if you have more of the very thing that is decreasing vocations, you'll increase vocations. The logic of this totally escapes me.

What has been shown is that an increase in orthodoxy translates directly into an increase in vocations. So to increase vocations we have to become less "progressive". This seems, to me, to be pretty basic stuff.

An excellent article by Jeff Miller at The Curt Jester that outlines the actual rise in seminarians can be found here.

What does the Church need to do to bring back women willing to commit their lives to the Church?

It needs to give the women (like the men) something outside themselves and something larger than themselves to dedicate themselves to. Most of the arguments regarding married clergy and women's ordination is not about what is pleasing to God, it is about what is pleasing to the men and women. That is not what a vocation to the priesthood is about. And the correlation between orthodoxy and vocations is undeniable and compelling. It is underlining that these men and women also understand that they are dedicating their life to something bigger than themselves.

And is it fair to the Catholic laity to hold the Eucharist hostage in exchange for celibate male vocations?

And this is the final misconception. jcecil3 has an overblown sense of the laity's importance to the Catholic Church. He seems to believe that the Church is some sort of democracy in which the laity get a vote. He also seems to think that God is impressed by sheer numbers, and if he and others who think like him leave the Church, the Church will have to care.

The attitude is so completely backward, that I don't even know where to begin.

Time to whack the other side.

2005-05-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

I have been reading stuff by an admitted "progressive" Catholic who goes by the handle of jcecil3 and blogs at In Today's News. As an orthodox Catholic, who is in communion with the Pope and Magesterium of the Catholic Church, this guy drives me nuts. This is the sort of thing that St. Augustine meant when he said: "In necessasariis, unitas" which translated means, "In what's necessary, Unity". In a post entitled "A Conservative Catholic Blogger Admits OS is Not an Act of Papal Infallibility!" he writes:

I don't know if Jimmy ever reads my blog, but it's good to see that even those with unquestionable loyalty to the Vatican have the good sense to see the truth as it really is.

Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is not an infallible document in itself, and you don't have to be a flaming liberal biased in favor of women's ordination to recognize this!

The huge problem with this is the appeal to legalism reminiscent of President Clinton "the meaning of 'is'" statement. jcecil3 completely dismisses the authority of the Pope and Magesterium with a statement comperable to "you didn't say Simon says!!!".

We Catholics are called ultimately to obey. If you believe that the Pope and Magesterium are guided by the Holy Spirit, you're Catholic. If you don't, and you wish to place your own private revelation in place of that of the Catholic Church, you're... well... Protestant.

And it doesn't matter how many conservative commentators share your opinion.

That ol' time Catholic music

2005-05-27T06:32:00.000-07:00

Gerald Augistinus from The Cafeteria Is Closed opines about the state of Catholic Music:

It's sad that art, music, architecture, once hallmarks of Catholic culture have degenerated like this. The 1960s-70s are the true Dark Ages. Churches used to LOOK Catholic, SOUND Catholic and SMELL Catholic. Time to fight back and take back that old time religion.

I am a HUGE fan of old Catholic architecture, art and music. But what, exactly, defines "Catholic culture"? In the middle ages, when my favorite cathedrals were built, Catholicism was decidedly European, and churches were built, not by some strange Catholic Cathedral Cookbook (hmmm... could that be a name for a new book?), but by the artistic preferences at the time. Today, not only are we in a more "modern" time, but we're worldwide. This means churches from Amarillo to Zimbabwe.

Here in the US in the year 2005, we see Cathedrals like the one being built in Oakland, or the one affectionately called the Taj Mahony, and those of us that appreciate the "classics" bristle, our sensibilities offended.

But as long as the rules are followed, they are still Catholic churches. Jesus is present there body, soul and divinity in the species of bread and wine every Sunday (and on weekdays if they do that).

We need to concentrate our ire on REAL liturgical abuses, and stop sniping at cultural differences.

For the record, I sing in my church choir, and we sing everything from "Panis Angelicus" to "The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy" (an East Indies hymn with a decidedly calypso flavor). I can hear the voice of God in all this music (though I still have to listen REAL hard for His voice in "On Angel's Wings" :))

We greedy orthodox

2005-05-26T20:06:00.000-07:00

Karen Marie of the Anchor Hold responded to The Curt Jester regarding A Divide:

How would you categorize us greedy orthodox who want it all? Who know that Holy Mass is both the re-presentation of the one Sacrifice of Calvary _and_ the forming and nourishing of the Body of Christ active in _this_ world? Who acknowledge the reality of both Heaven and Earth? Who love all the beautiful --- music of all eras, chant forms and polyphony, Palestrina
and Peloquin and Messaen and Foley and Fabing, All Creature with the German-titled tune and All Creatures with the Swahili-titled tune, a cappella and organ and piano and orchesta and timpani .... Our Lady of Perpetual Help _and_ Maria Mater Ecclesiae, the saints in classical Greek clothes in stained glass and the saints in jeans and tennis shoes in
tapestries ......

I back the wise ones who bring from the Church's great storehouse things both old and new.

I feel precisely the same way. This attitude brought to me one weekend in a different way by Vince Ambrosetti, allowed me to finally after 32 years, to come to grips with Vatican II. The feeling I get is that the old rite (Tridentine) is a "Good Friday rite" while the new rite (Novus Ordo) is an "Easter" rite. Our faith requires both Good Friday (Christ's Sacrifice) and Easter (Christ's Triumph).

As long as we are true to the essentials, there is room for flexibility in the non-essentials. Essentials being described as those practices which are either specifically prescribed or proscribed by either the Holy Father and the Living Magesterium of the Catholic Church or the Bishop of a specific diocese, following latitudes granted to him.

You might be a "faith community" if...

2005-05-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

Oh, heck. I'm going to take my first shot at a guy I really enjoy reading. His name is Jeff Miller, and he runs an excellent Catholic satire blog called The Curt Jester. He posted a submission from one of his readers called: You might be in a faith community if.... This seemed to be a take-off on Jeff Foxworthy's famous "You might be a redneck..." jokes, with "faith community" being a term of derision, like "redneck".

I read through it, and maybe I'm overly sensitive, but one of the entries ticked me off:

If the baptismal font has running and heated water, you might be a faith community.

This implies that baptismal fonts are supposed to be cold and stagnant. And to listen to many of those who are "Vatican II challenged", you would think that the closer a Catholic church gets to the original catacombs in which the early Christians worshipped, the better. In other words, the darker, and danker the church, the better they seem to like it.

Don't get me wrong. I hated Vatican II. I love the old churches with statues, frescoes, stained glass and murals of the saints and angels. But Jesus said: "Wherever two or more are gathered in my name, I am among them". This means that in a church that is a little more "modern" in design (as long as no liturgical norms are violated) , Jesus is also with us. You may prefer something a little more traditional, but Holy Mass is not about you. It is about the worship of God.

That having been said, I believe in the Holy Spirit, not the "spirit of Vatican II". That latter statement reminds me of those American "progressives" who claim that the U.S. Constitution is a "living document".

Oh well... Here we go... Hey Jeff... *THWAP!*

THWAP!!!!

2005-05-26T09:16:00.000-07:00

Let me start out by saying that I am Catholic. What it means (to me) to be Catholic is that you are in communion with our Holy Father (Pope Benedict XVI), and the living Magesterium of the Roman Catholic Church. I left the "cafeteria" a few years ago, and am attempting to live an authentic Catholic life.

Why "Catholic Pillowfight"? Well, I think we can take potshots at each other, but like being whacked with a pillow, we can do it gently and in the end, we all end up laughing.

This is my first crack at blogging. I have read a bunch, commented on some of it, but haven't up to this point felt required to burden you with this. We'll see what happens