So, I was skeptical at first, but this seems to be one of the first genuine examples of ecumenical work that I've ever seen. I had a few critiques of a few points. Most notable among these critiques is that it doesn't address all of the symptoms in the "Life" section: the cheapening of life and the marital act in contraception warranted mention. It does, however, address the underlying concept of a culture of death.
All in all, this is a big step in the right direction and I would like to encourage Christians everywhere to sign it as well. Read the declaration and tell me that it doesn't take an appropriate stand on three major issues in our society today. May Christ be our light and guide us along His path.
Read and sign the declaration here.
God love you,
Bellarmine
Speaking of manhattan...
Friday, November 27, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Forthcoming talk alert.
Heard about this from a friend at Mass this past Sunday, and have contemplated posting about it...
One week from today, Wednesday, November 4, 7:30 PM at the University of Rochester's Interfaith Chapel in the "Commons Room." Fr. Dr. Curt Cadorette will be offering a talk, sponsored by the University's Catholic Newman Community. Cadorette is a Maryknoll priest who is an expert in Liberation "Theology." The talk is free, and open to the public
It is entitled: "Vatican II: When Will It End? Differing Ecclesiologies and Their Impact on the Church and Society."
I cannot personally attend, due to a prior commitment that evening, but it would be quite beneficial if couple of folks who are loyal to Holy Mother Church would be able to attend. According to this friend, a Religion major at the U of R, Cadorette is all kinds of heretical. One can only assume this talk will be chock-full of crazy.
-Arialdus
One week from today, Wednesday, November 4, 7:30 PM at the University of Rochester's Interfaith Chapel in the "Commons Room." Fr. Dr. Curt Cadorette will be offering a talk, sponsored by the University's Catholic Newman Community. Cadorette is a Maryknoll priest who is an expert in Liberation "Theology." The talk is free, and open to the public
It is entitled: "Vatican II: When Will It End? Differing Ecclesiologies and Their Impact on the Church and Society."
I cannot personally attend, due to a prior commitment that evening, but it would be quite beneficial if couple of folks who are loyal to Holy Mother Church would be able to attend. According to this friend, a Religion major at the U of R, Cadorette is all kinds of heretical. One can only assume this talk will be chock-full of crazy.
-Arialdus
No Joke, I just threw up
This story was posted on CNN yesterday. I started the post but couldn't deal with the whole article. My emphases and comments in red.
Bellevue, Nebraska (CNN) -- When you cross The Line of Death (Appropriate name, no?) onto clinic property, the protesters stare at you. They get on walkie talkies and relay information: Your car. What you look like. Any identifying detail.
"Take a look around you, sir," one woman shouts. "The place is a dump."
The parking lot at Dr. LeRoy Carhart's clinic in Bellevue, Nebraska, is crumbled. A giant sign reads "Abortion & Contraception Clinic of Nebraska." Paint peels off the sides of the building, once a motorcycle shop, a car dealership showroom and an electronics store.
Wooden stairs lead to the front door, where visitors must pass through a metal detector. The office is clean and modernized, a complete contrast to its exterior. The waiting room is lined with leather chairs. A vending machine offers M&Ms, Hershey's and condoms. (Who buys condoms from a VENDING MACHINE at an ABORTION MILL?)
Carhart -- one of about 12 doctors who perform late-term abortions in the nation (Shouldn't this number be telling? If there's nothing wrong with it, why don't more people do it?)-- sits at a desk piled with paperwork. Decked out in gray cowboy boots, a salmon-colored shirt and khakis, the 67-year-old (They're all getting older...) stares across his windowless office at an unframed poster propped against a wall.
"George Tiller, August 8, 1941 - May 31, 2009," it says. (St. George the Great, eh?)
The poster is a reminder that this isn't an ordinary office. Abortions are performed here, a job that can endanger Carhart. (Did I just read that? Maybe he's talking about his soul...) "I'm willing to put my life on the line," he says. (Amazing that, a murderer willing to "put his life on the line" in order to murder...what the...)
Bellevue, Nebraska, is the new Ground Zero in the nation's abortion debate.(That's right, folks, pro-lifers are subconsciously linked to terrorists...of course, the government already put that link on paper...)
At 10:12 a.m. on that Sunday in late May, Tiller -- Carhart's mentor -- was shot in the head in a church in Wichita, Kansas. (Yep! St George, alright. Let's see how much we can deify him)
To that end, Carhart is working to open a clinic in Kansas to replace Tiller's, which closed after his death. He is also training five younger doctors in late-term abortions. (Shudder)
That makes Carhart, to his mind, next on the target list. He and Tiller often talked about the possibility of being killed. It was, he says, always in the "back of our mind."(Minds, you idiot, minds. You don't share a single mind. You have a Doctorate and you can't even count to two? The same sort of idiocy, I suppose, leads one to be a late-term abortionist)
"Would I quit doing what I'm doing because of that? Absolutely not," he says. "I am an abortionist. ... That is what I do."(To him this isn't a job, it's a (satanic) vocation)
In Carhart's trash can is a printout from a Web site detailing a protest against him in late August by the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. "That's where it belongs," he says. "In the trash."
More than 300 miles away, in Wichita, he too is preparing for the next skirmish in the abortion war. The protest outside Carhart's clinic will mark the first major demonstration against abortion since Tiller's killing.(By that specific group)
Newman wants Carhart out of business and is seeking help in that fight, lobbying lawmakers and other "Pro-Lifers" to aid the battle.
"This is like a heavyweight fighting championship," Newman says. "You've got to keep your footing until the end of the bell."
He says he doesn't know why Carhart hates him so much. "I'd love to meet him."(He's irrational. That's why he hates the pro-lifers so much. Just like most pro-aborts, he has likely never taken the time to understand the implications of his actions, and would just as soon avoid ever doing so.)
It's a meeting that will never happen.
"He's not worth the time you and I are spending time talking about him," Carhart says in his soft-spoken voice. (Portraying the abortionist as the peaceful one)"I have abortion on the front of this building, because I think abortion isn't a four-letter word.(It's 8 letters, so I suppose he's correct about one thing) It's a part of life."
Newman is appalled. In no way is "killing a baby" a way of life, he says. He's fueled by a desire to bring attention to "the inhumanity of mankind." And to him, Carhart personifies just that: a morally repugnant human being. He refuses to call Carhart a doctor.
"Doctors heal people. Abortionists do just the opposite."(Worse than the opposite, actually. He hurts AND kills people)
Both men started their lives wanting to be preachers. They now preach two different gospels: The right to abortions and the reason why abortions must end.(Nope, the mainstream media does not understand the term gospel. Neither of these is a gospel)
Each believes God is on his side. (See what they're doing? It's making God pick a side, rather than following Him. Total role reversal here. Clearly the abortionist was never properly catechized.)
Troy Newman, 43, twirls the Plexiglas paperweight in his hands, his eyes transfixed on the image inside: the molded face of an aborted fetus. "I can see the baby's perfectly formed chin and nose and ears."
His desk sits in what once was an abortion clinic in Wichita. "Train my hands for war" is painted on his office wall in bold letters. A spear hangs just below the message.
On the opposite wall, a bumper sticker sits on a ledge. "Guns don't kill people, Abortion Clinics kill people." Newman acknowledges the sticker was more appropriate before Tiller was murdered.
As with Carhart's facility, visitors must get buzzed in to enter Operation Rescue. Newman's office has a monitor facing his desk, providing surveillance at all times. He too gets death threats. The ones against his children bug him the most.
It irks him that more people, especially those on the right, don't rally against those who perform late-term abortions. "This is low lying fruit for the Pro-Lifers," he says. "Why can't we shut them down?"
The legal definition of late-term abortion varies from state to state. Medical professionals generally define it as an abortion performed at 24 weeks or beyond, a time in pregnancy when a fetus can survive outside the womb.
In 2002, Newman's organization moved from California to Kansas, a state that has restrictions on late-term abortions, including requiring a second physician's approval.
In Wichita, Newman targeted Tiller's clinic and worked through legal means to try to put him out of business. Newman believes Operation Rescue was about two months away from closing Tiller's clinic when he was shot in May. Abortion rights supporters (Again, not the language...those on the other side don't support abortion "rights." It sets up an image of the pro-life movement as 'against rights' )dispute that claim and accuse Operation Rescue of harassing Tiller with endless lawsuits and picketing.
Scott Roeder, an active anti-abortion protester(See the language?), has been charged in the killing. He has pleaded not guilty.
Newman distances his organization from the killing and refers to Roeder as a "loon and idiot."
"Shooting someone in the head in a church," he says, "is not a Pro-Life act."(True! This is an important distinction...We must be pro-life, not simply pro-birth!)
Since May 31, Newman has turned his focus to Carhart.
It irritates him that Carhart relishes his work. Anyone who would do that "doesn't have a moral bone in their body."
"If he's so proud of what he's doing, I'm going to put it on the sides of these billboard trucks," says Newman, referring to his fleet of "Truth Trucks," which display graphic images of dismembered fetuses.
"I'll put them in front of their office, I'll put them in their communities, I'll put them down at City Hall. I'll put them everywhere!"(I really dislike seeing these graphic images...I'm not sure if they help or hurt the cause, but it is very difficult to pray when looking at such images. Perhaps they're effective, though)
Newman preaches a message of peaceful protest. Of Carhart, he says: "Just praying he turns back to the healing arts and not taking babies' lives."(Some terrorist, huh? He doesn't want revenge, he doesn't want injury or death...just conversion of heart. How awful!)
A staff member, hearing this comment, hollers from across the hall: "Or that he loses his license."
The staffer, Cheryl Sullenger, is Operation Rescue's senior policy adviser. She served time in the late 1980s for conspiracy to blow up a San Diego abortion clinic. The device failed to go off. She has since denounced violence. "It didn't accomplish anything except to keep me away from my family," she says. "My record for the last 20 years should speak for how I feel about violence now."
When Roeder was arrested for the killing of Tiller, Sullenger's phone number was found inside Roeder's car. She says Roeder would call her about court times on legal proceedings against Tiller. "That was the extent of my relationship with him."
Newman says his organization suffered after Tiller's death and that it forced his group to re-establish its core principle: "That all human life is sacred."
Operation Rescue has mostly shifted away from picketing abortion clinics; now, they're scrutinizing doctors' backgrounds, investigating their practices and lobbying local power players to act. The group has pressed Nebraska's state attorney general to investigate Carhart, raising allegations he had clinic workers without proper licensing performing medical duties. Carhart disputes the charges as just more of the same from opponents: unsubstantiated allegations.
But Newman shows an unwavering certainty. "We're winning," he says, smiling from his desk, a giant pair of longhorns mounted on the wall behind him.
The conversation is interrupted by a call on Newman's cell phone. The ring tone is a theme song from one of the Rocky movies, "Eye of the Tiger." The fight is on.
Two paths diverged
Carhart and Newman represent the passionate extremes of the abortion debate. One operates by the law of the land, Roe vs. Wade, and a belief that abortion is "both religious and moral."(Please, oh please elaborate! I'd love to hear this fully explained. How? In what possible way could this be the case? Even if you have the idiotic argument of 'my body my choice' or something similar, that still does not justify LATE TERM abortion. How does he believe that, an hour before birth would have happened, the child is not a child?) The other relishes free speech, guided by a love of God and the "humanity of the baby."
Their paths are set to cross at the protest outside Carhart's clinic on this weekend in late August. Yet they took divergent roads long ago -- paths that shaped who they are today, as well as their causes.
Carhart witnessed his first abortion in 1970 while in medical school in Philadelphia. That was before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortions. In Pennsylvania at that time, women wanting abortions had to go before a committee of doctors.(Abortions were not illegal prior to Roe, they were simply more restricted. This is poor reporting with misleading facts. In addition, what possible motivation is there to observe abortion as a student? How does a school justify this?)
Carhart was struck by the women's explanations. "All of them had the same degree of necessity, how urgent and how important in their life it was for them not to deliver this child."(In other news, it was important for them to continue having sex for pleasure's sake. How self-absorbed these women are! They fail to understand true urgency and importance.)
He opened his first clinic in Omaha in 1988, and moved into his current building in Bellevue, just south of Omaha, in 1994. He charges anywhere from $430 to $10,000 for an abortion. The price depends on how far along the pregnancy is.(The more it looks like a baby, the more it costs to murder! Shrewd businessman, capitalizing on the fact that nearly every doctor in the country refuses to perform late-term abortions (due to some wee semblance of morality, perhaps). How disgusting!)
Of the 60,000 abortions he says he's performed, he says about 400 were beyond 24 weeks, so-called late-term abortions. In each case, he says, there was a medical reason for the procedure.
"I am not pro-abortion," he says. "That's the very one clear thing I want you to understand. Abortion is not the right answer for every pregnancy."(Thanks, glad you support the occasional birth! Good to propogate the species occasionally.)
The latest abortion he's ever performed was at 36 weeks, he says, because the fetus had not developed a brain.(Again, terrible reporting. This does not exist as a medical condition, to the best of my knowledge, in a single case. He is likely referring to Anencephaly, which means that MOST of the brain has not developed. While there is no cure, and the child will almost certainly die within days, it remains alive. Life is sacred, independent of the life. The argument prevails, however, that since the child could never gain consciousness, its life doesn't count. I ask, though: who are we to judge that another's life is not worth living? Whether you kill the child a few weeks prior to birth, or it dies a few days afterwards does not change the fact that it was alive and is now dead. It's the difference between murder and naturdal causes, though!)
His youngest patient was 10, a victim of incest.
Carhart doesn't mask his language. He's open and honest about what he does, sometimes uncomfortably so.
It was 1991 when he was shown a photograph of an aborted fetus. "That was the start," he says. "I said, 'This can't be happening in our country.'"
Newman had no idea then that he would become one of the nation's most outspoken activists against abortion -- despised by women's groups(See the language again? Turns into 'Newman is a sexist pig' in the eyes of many, when exactly the opposite is true) and supporters of abortion rights.(See the perpetually skewed diction?)
The issue is also personal. Being adopted makes it that way.
About 19 percent of women having abortions in the U.S. are teens; 33 percent are between the ages of 20 and 24; and 48 percent are ages 25 and older, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
About 89 percent of legal abortions in the U.S. are performed before 12 weeks of gestation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 1 percent of abortions occur after 21 weeks of gestation.
He grew up knowing he was adopted as an infant, yet he never knew anything about his biological parents. In the early 1990s, after his adoptive father died and Newman's first child was born, he began to search for his biological father, Ron Mariotti.
He penned a letter to his dad in 1994 and included photos of his family. On a Sunday morning in San Diego, his phone rang.
"I've been waiting for this phone call for 27 years," Newman told his dad.
Both men cried.
Of his dedication to stop abortions, he says, "Maybe it hits me a little bit closer to home. ... I'm not a 'problem' to be gotten rid of."
Symbolic but not decisive
A Truth Truck rolls up outside Carhart's clinic on the day of the protest, the last Saturday in August. The tattooed driver smiles as the vehicle comes to a stop, with its shocking photos of dismembered fetuses for all to see. It parks next to another Truth Truck in an area police designated as "Pro-Life."
Women gasp.(And men don't? I wasn't there, but...my guess is that this is terrible reporting again.)
Carhart supporters quickly huddle with police and scramble to find a vehicle of their own. They're allowed to park an SUV near the Truth Trucks, in a "Pro-Choice" protest area. Abortion rights supporters hastily adorn their vehicle with posters: "Keep abortion legal."(Their arguments are so intellectually stimulating, sometimes!)
It's a symbolic contest, but not decisive -- much like the protest this day.
By the time Troy Newman arrives, his supporters are outnumbered 2 to 1. Women's rights groups have traveled from all over the country, from California to New York to Pennsylvania, to support Carhart.
Newman strolls along a temporary orange snow-fence that separates both factions. He tries to hand ultrasound pictures to his opponents.(Terrorist! A simple ultrasound picture is in no way offensive, folks...I think this frames the civility of the debate)
"Did you want one of these pictures?" he says, his arm outstretched.
The opposition stands with their backs turned. "Welcome! Welcome! This clinic stays open," they shout.
As the first major protest since Tiller's killing, the events this day have attracted an extra level of security. The man who has become America's most-visible doctor who performs abortions is more concerned about what comes next, after the protesters and the cameras go away.
"You try to do all you can to prevent it,(To prevent what, getting murdered? How about not killing 60,000 people and coming back everyday for more, pompous and derisive as ever?) but obviously Dr. Tiller thought he was safe in church." He pauses. "I didn't."
The man who once wanted to be a preacher stopped going to church around 1989, for his own safety. He found a different calling.(WOW! It sure is nice that someone who hasn't been to church in 20 years can tell the country what constitutes religious and moral behavior! He's an expert, I tell ya! If only this poor man feared for the safety of his soul.)
Tomorrow, just before and after performing abortions, Carhart will pray at the bedside of his patients. (FOR WHAT?! See why I felt sick upon reading this?)
Bellevue, Nebraska (CNN) -- When you cross The Line of Death (Appropriate name, no?) onto clinic property, the protesters stare at you. They get on walkie talkies and relay information: Your car. What you look like. Any identifying detail.
"Take a look around you, sir," one woman shouts. "The place is a dump."
The parking lot at Dr. LeRoy Carhart's clinic in Bellevue, Nebraska, is crumbled. A giant sign reads "Abortion & Contraception Clinic of Nebraska." Paint peels off the sides of the building, once a motorcycle shop, a car dealership showroom and an electronics store.
Wooden stairs lead to the front door, where visitors must pass through a metal detector. The office is clean and modernized, a complete contrast to its exterior. The waiting room is lined with leather chairs. A vending machine offers M&Ms, Hershey's and condoms. (Who buys condoms from a VENDING MACHINE at an ABORTION MILL?)
Carhart -- one of about 12 doctors who perform late-term abortions in the nation (Shouldn't this number be telling? If there's nothing wrong with it, why don't more people do it?)-- sits at a desk piled with paperwork. Decked out in gray cowboy boots, a salmon-colored shirt and khakis, the 67-year-old (They're all getting older...) stares across his windowless office at an unframed poster propped against a wall.
"George Tiller, August 8, 1941 - May 31, 2009," it says. (St. George the Great, eh?)
The poster is a reminder that this isn't an ordinary office. Abortions are performed here, a job that can endanger Carhart. (Did I just read that? Maybe he's talking about his soul...) "I'm willing to put my life on the line," he says. (Amazing that, a murderer willing to "put his life on the line" in order to murder...what the...)
Bellevue, Nebraska, is the new Ground Zero in the nation's abortion debate.(That's right, folks, pro-lifers are subconsciously linked to terrorists...of course, the government already put that link on paper...)
At 10:12 a.m. on that Sunday in late May, Tiller -- Carhart's mentor -- was shot in the head in a church in Wichita, Kansas. (Yep! St George, alright. Let's see how much we can deify him)
Carhart was performing an abortion in Procedure Room No. 1 when his cell phone buzzed with the news. He didn't have time to grieve for his best friend. He still had 12 abortions to do.
"I finished them all," he says proudly. (This is where I threw up. Proudly! PROUDLY?! HE RUTHLESSLY MURDERED TWELVE MORE HUMAN LIVES?)
He glances at the poster of Tiller. "I don't want his death to be in vain." (Dammit, they're making him a martyr!)To that end, Carhart is working to open a clinic in Kansas to replace Tiller's, which closed after his death. He is also training five younger doctors in late-term abortions. (Shudder)
That makes Carhart, to his mind, next on the target list. He and Tiller often talked about the possibility of being killed. It was, he says, always in the "back of our mind."(Minds, you idiot, minds. You don't share a single mind. You have a Doctorate and you can't even count to two? The same sort of idiocy, I suppose, leads one to be a late-term abortionist)
"Would I quit doing what I'm doing because of that? Absolutely not," he says. "I am an abortionist. ... That is what I do."(To him this isn't a job, it's a (satanic) vocation)
In Carhart's trash can is a printout from a Web site detailing a protest against him in late August by the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. "That's where it belongs," he says. "In the trash."
"They're fundamentalist religious terrorists."(Terrorists. Might I point out what terrorists do? They kill people. They do not protest in favor of life. They KILL PEOPLE!)
If Carhart is the new face of late-term abortions, then Troy Newman of Operation Rescue is his nemesis -- a man on a crusade to end abortions. (In mainstream speak, crusaders are bad...see the subtle digs in diction?)More than 300 miles away, in Wichita, he too is preparing for the next skirmish in the abortion war. The protest outside Carhart's clinic will mark the first major demonstration against abortion since Tiller's killing.(By that specific group)
Newman wants Carhart out of business and is seeking help in that fight, lobbying lawmakers and other "Pro-Lifers" to aid the battle.
"This is like a heavyweight fighting championship," Newman says. "You've got to keep your footing until the end of the bell."
He says he doesn't know why Carhart hates him so much. "I'd love to meet him."(He's irrational. That's why he hates the pro-lifers so much. Just like most pro-aborts, he has likely never taken the time to understand the implications of his actions, and would just as soon avoid ever doing so.)
It's a meeting that will never happen.
"He's not worth the time you and I are spending time talking about him," Carhart says in his soft-spoken voice. (Portraying the abortionist as the peaceful one)"I have abortion on the front of this building, because I think abortion isn't a four-letter word.(It's 8 letters, so I suppose he's correct about one thing) It's a part of life."
Newman is appalled. In no way is "killing a baby" a way of life, he says. He's fueled by a desire to bring attention to "the inhumanity of mankind." And to him, Carhart personifies just that: a morally repugnant human being. He refuses to call Carhart a doctor.
"Doctors heal people. Abortionists do just the opposite."(Worse than the opposite, actually. He hurts AND kills people)
Both men started their lives wanting to be preachers. They now preach two different gospels: The right to abortions and the reason why abortions must end.(Nope, the mainstream media does not understand the term gospel. Neither of these is a gospel)
Each believes God is on his side. (See what they're doing? It's making God pick a side, rather than following Him. Total role reversal here. Clearly the abortionist was never properly catechized.)
Troy Newman, 43, twirls the Plexiglas paperweight in his hands, his eyes transfixed on the image inside: the molded face of an aborted fetus. "I can see the baby's perfectly formed chin and nose and ears."
His desk sits in what once was an abortion clinic in Wichita. "Train my hands for war" is painted on his office wall in bold letters. A spear hangs just below the message.
On the opposite wall, a bumper sticker sits on a ledge. "Guns don't kill people, Abortion Clinics kill people." Newman acknowledges the sticker was more appropriate before Tiller was murdered.
As with Carhart's facility, visitors must get buzzed in to enter Operation Rescue. Newman's office has a monitor facing his desk, providing surveillance at all times. He too gets death threats. The ones against his children bug him the most.
It irks him that more people, especially those on the right, don't rally against those who perform late-term abortions. "This is low lying fruit for the Pro-Lifers," he says. "Why can't we shut them down?"
The legal definition of late-term abortion varies from state to state. Medical professionals generally define it as an abortion performed at 24 weeks or beyond, a time in pregnancy when a fetus can survive outside the womb.
What part of wanting to save a baby's life is so bad that it makes people hate me?(You're inconveniencing them, making them face the consequences of their actions. Never underestimate how pathetically lazy and self-absorbed people can be.)
--Troy Newman
--Troy Newman
In Wichita, Newman targeted Tiller's clinic and worked through legal means to try to put him out of business. Newman believes Operation Rescue was about two months away from closing Tiller's clinic when he was shot in May. Abortion rights supporters (Again, not the language...those on the other side don't support abortion "rights." It sets up an image of the pro-life movement as 'against rights' )dispute that claim and accuse Operation Rescue of harassing Tiller with endless lawsuits and picketing.
Scott Roeder, an active anti-abortion protester(See the language?), has been charged in the killing. He has pleaded not guilty.
Newman distances his organization from the killing and refers to Roeder as a "loon and idiot."
"Shooting someone in the head in a church," he says, "is not a Pro-Life act."(True! This is an important distinction...We must be pro-life, not simply pro-birth!)
Since May 31, Newman has turned his focus to Carhart.
It irritates him that Carhart relishes his work. Anyone who would do that "doesn't have a moral bone in their body."
"If he's so proud of what he's doing, I'm going to put it on the sides of these billboard trucks," says Newman, referring to his fleet of "Truth Trucks," which display graphic images of dismembered fetuses.
"I'll put them in front of their office, I'll put them in their communities, I'll put them down at City Hall. I'll put them everywhere!"(I really dislike seeing these graphic images...I'm not sure if they help or hurt the cause, but it is very difficult to pray when looking at such images. Perhaps they're effective, though)
Newman preaches a message of peaceful protest. Of Carhart, he says: "Just praying he turns back to the healing arts and not taking babies' lives."(Some terrorist, huh? He doesn't want revenge, he doesn't want injury or death...just conversion of heart. How awful!)
A staff member, hearing this comment, hollers from across the hall: "Or that he loses his license."
The staffer, Cheryl Sullenger, is Operation Rescue's senior policy adviser. She served time in the late 1980s for conspiracy to blow up a San Diego abortion clinic. The device failed to go off. She has since denounced violence. "It didn't accomplish anything except to keep me away from my family," she says. "My record for the last 20 years should speak for how I feel about violence now."
When Roeder was arrested for the killing of Tiller, Sullenger's phone number was found inside Roeder's car. She says Roeder would call her about court times on legal proceedings against Tiller. "That was the extent of my relationship with him."
Newman says his organization suffered after Tiller's death and that it forced his group to re-establish its core principle: "That all human life is sacred."
Operation Rescue has mostly shifted away from picketing abortion clinics; now, they're scrutinizing doctors' backgrounds, investigating their practices and lobbying local power players to act. The group has pressed Nebraska's state attorney general to investigate Carhart, raising allegations he had clinic workers without proper licensing performing medical duties. Carhart disputes the charges as just more of the same from opponents: unsubstantiated allegations.
But Newman shows an unwavering certainty. "We're winning," he says, smiling from his desk, a giant pair of longhorns mounted on the wall behind him.
The conversation is interrupted by a call on Newman's cell phone. The ring tone is a theme song from one of the Rocky movies, "Eye of the Tiger." The fight is on.
Two paths diverged
Carhart and Newman represent the passionate extremes of the abortion debate. One operates by the law of the land, Roe vs. Wade, and a belief that abortion is "both religious and moral."(Please, oh please elaborate! I'd love to hear this fully explained. How? In what possible way could this be the case? Even if you have the idiotic argument of 'my body my choice' or something similar, that still does not justify LATE TERM abortion. How does he believe that, an hour before birth would have happened, the child is not a child?) The other relishes free speech, guided by a love of God and the "humanity of the baby."
Their paths are set to cross at the protest outside Carhart's clinic on this weekend in late August. Yet they took divergent roads long ago -- paths that shaped who they are today, as well as their causes.
Carhart witnessed his first abortion in 1970 while in medical school in Philadelphia. That was before Roe vs. Wade legalized abortions. In Pennsylvania at that time, women wanting abortions had to go before a committee of doctors.(Abortions were not illegal prior to Roe, they were simply more restricted. This is poor reporting with misleading facts. In addition, what possible motivation is there to observe abortion as a student? How does a school justify this?)
Carhart was struck by the women's explanations. "All of them had the same degree of necessity, how urgent and how important in their life it was for them not to deliver this child."(In other news, it was important for them to continue having sex for pleasure's sake. How self-absorbed these women are! They fail to understand true urgency and importance.)
He opened his first clinic in Omaha in 1988, and moved into his current building in Bellevue, just south of Omaha, in 1994. He charges anywhere from $430 to $10,000 for an abortion. The price depends on how far along the pregnancy is.(The more it looks like a baby, the more it costs to murder! Shrewd businessman, capitalizing on the fact that nearly every doctor in the country refuses to perform late-term abortions (due to some wee semblance of morality, perhaps). How disgusting!)
"I am not pro-abortion," he says. "That's the very one clear thing I want you to understand. Abortion is not the right answer for every pregnancy."(Thanks, glad you support the occasional birth! Good to propogate the species occasionally.)
The latest abortion he's ever performed was at 36 weeks, he says, because the fetus had not developed a brain.(Again, terrible reporting. This does not exist as a medical condition, to the best of my knowledge, in a single case. He is likely referring to Anencephaly, which means that MOST of the brain has not developed. While there is no cure, and the child will almost certainly die within days, it remains alive. Life is sacred, independent of the life. The argument prevails, however, that since the child could never gain consciousness, its life doesn't count. I ask, though: who are we to judge that another's life is not worth living? Whether you kill the child a few weeks prior to birth, or it dies a few days afterwards does not change the fact that it was alive and is now dead. It's the difference between murder and naturdal causes, though!)
His youngest patient was 10, a victim of incest.
Carhart doesn't mask his language. He's open and honest about what he does, sometimes uncomfortably so.
"We do kill fetuses," he says. "It dies because we give an injection into the fetus that causes the heart to just slowdown."(The same way most evils are justified: make the other seem less than human. This is the same tactic that was used to justify US Slavery...)
While Carhart was setting up shop in the Midwest, a young Troy Newman became immersed in the anti-abortion movement on the West Coast.It was 1991 when he was shown a photograph of an aborted fetus. "That was the start," he says. "I said, 'This can't be happening in our country.'"
Newman had no idea then that he would become one of the nation's most outspoken activists against abortion -- despised by women's groups(See the language again? Turns into 'Newman is a sexist pig' in the eyes of many, when exactly the opposite is true) and supporters of abortion rights.(See the perpetually skewed diction?)
The issue is also personal. Being adopted makes it that way.
Abortion Facts
About one-fifth of the 6.4 million pregnancies occurring annually in the U.S. end in abortion, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.(This is a very low estimate...Incidentally, in NY, the figure is something like 409 per 1000 live births over the past decades...)About 19 percent of women having abortions in the U.S. are teens; 33 percent are between the ages of 20 and 24; and 48 percent are ages 25 and older, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
About 89 percent of legal abortions in the U.S. are performed before 12 weeks of gestation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 1 percent of abortions occur after 21 weeks of gestation.
He penned a letter to his dad in 1994 and included photos of his family. On a Sunday morning in San Diego, his phone rang.
"I've been waiting for this phone call for 27 years," Newman told his dad.
Both men cried.
Of his dedication to stop abortions, he says, "Maybe it hits me a little bit closer to home. ... I'm not a 'problem' to be gotten rid of."
Symbolic but not decisive
A Truth Truck rolls up outside Carhart's clinic on the day of the protest, the last Saturday in August. The tattooed driver smiles as the vehicle comes to a stop, with its shocking photos of dismembered fetuses for all to see. It parks next to another Truth Truck in an area police designated as "Pro-Life."
Women gasp.(And men don't? I wasn't there, but...my guess is that this is terrible reporting again.)
Carhart supporters quickly huddle with police and scramble to find a vehicle of their own. They're allowed to park an SUV near the Truth Trucks, in a "Pro-Choice" protest area. Abortion rights supporters hastily adorn their vehicle with posters: "Keep abortion legal."(Their arguments are so intellectually stimulating, sometimes!)
It's a symbolic contest, but not decisive -- much like the protest this day.
By the time Troy Newman arrives, his supporters are outnumbered 2 to 1. Women's rights groups have traveled from all over the country, from California to New York to Pennsylvania, to support Carhart.
Newman strolls along a temporary orange snow-fence that separates both factions. He tries to hand ultrasound pictures to his opponents.(Terrorist! A simple ultrasound picture is in no way offensive, folks...I think this frames the civility of the debate)
"Did you want one of these pictures?" he says, his arm outstretched.
The opposition stands with their backs turned. "Welcome! Welcome! This clinic stays open," they shout.
A day earlier, inside the clinic, women's rights groups hailed Carhart as a hero, a champion of their cause. He was moved to tears.(Pathetic)
But on this day, he is mostly oblivious to what's happening outside. He's too busy performing abortions.As the first major protest since Tiller's killing, the events this day have attracted an extra level of security. The man who has become America's most-visible doctor who performs abortions is more concerned about what comes next, after the protesters and the cameras go away.
"You try to do all you can to prevent it,(To prevent what, getting murdered? How about not killing 60,000 people and coming back everyday for more, pompous and derisive as ever?) but obviously Dr. Tiller thought he was safe in church." He pauses. "I didn't."
The man who once wanted to be a preacher stopped going to church around 1989, for his own safety. He found a different calling.(WOW! It sure is nice that someone who hasn't been to church in 20 years can tell the country what constitutes religious and moral behavior! He's an expert, I tell ya! If only this poor man feared for the safety of his soul.)
Tomorrow, just before and after performing abortions, Carhart will pray at the bedside of his patients. (FOR WHAT?! See why I felt sick upon reading this?)
Newman will pray, too -- that the abortionist will change his ways.(And so will I)
-Arialdus
-Arialdus
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
On the nature of Protestantism
So, we all know that life begins at conception. We know that the Gospels are the authoritative sources on Christ's life. At least one of them, Luke, claims that John the Baptist leapt in the womb of his mother Elizabeth at the presence of the first trimester Jesus. We also know that murder (the killing of innocents) is contrary to Christ's teaching and therefore all Christian religion.
Now we have the following excerpts from a LifeSite news article from October 2, 2009 entitled Baptist, Bretheren, Lutheran, Methodist Churches Ask Senate for Abortion Funds.
Now we have the following excerpts from a LifeSite news article from October 2, 2009 entitled Baptist, Bretheren, Lutheran, Methodist Churches Ask Senate for Abortion Funds.
A coalition of mainline Protestant churches have authored a letter to members of Congress asking them to make certain the health care bills they are considering contain taxpayer funding for abortions. The letter comes from a group of churches that have long advocated the pro-abortion position
The letter calls abortion a "morally justifiable decision" and opposed any amendments to the House and Senate bills, which current contain massive abortion funding, to strike that taxpayer-financing."So, let me get this straight, even the most basic glossing of the Gospels reveals in stark terms that abortion is a grave moral evil and we have THIS!?!? How do Christians go so far astray??? I look at the Catholic Church and see a great many Catholics have gone just as far astray (Catholics for a Free Choice, anyone?), but what I also see is that their leadership holds a very different position. The Vatican requires that ambassadors sent there must be pro-life on abortion. Numerous other magisterial documents have been released and summarily ignored by such Catholics, but at least the institution (and no small portion of the laity) holds to the truth of the truth of this issue. We just don't see this near universal advocacy of evil. I guess that promise to Peter about the gates of Hell not prevailing means something?
"Already, federal policy unfairly prevents low-income women and federal employees from receiving subsidized (abortions)," Rev. Debra W. Haffner, executive director of the Religious Institute complained.So, it gets worse, not only is it wrong to deny funding for mass murder, it's morally unjust not to fund it or to restrict its funding! She isn't even playing the "safe, legal, and rare" card. More an IRreverend if you ask me!
The letter added that she doesn't want more abortion funding bans in place and complained that additional "restrictions" on abortion funding constitute a "serious moral injustice."
The denominations endorsing the letter include the American Baptist Churches, Church of the Brethren, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church and others.So, in other words, if you belong to any of these denominations and take Jesus and His faith seriously, you'd better jump ship because your denominations have just reaffirmed their separation from Christ.
I don't know what to say here; I know I've ranted a lot today, but I just don't know how to comprehend such madness! But such is the nature of Protestantism, I suspect. Without the guidance of a magisterial body protected from error by the Holy Spirit, they just can't keep their heads on straight. Such is what happens when one relies on human means to come to truth; one gets it wrong eventually.
I don't know, I just see how Protestant communions fracture, alter beliefs that have been held for centuries, abandon traditions, drop books of the Bible, ignore the Gospels and just fail to understand the appeal. I mean yeah, there's emotional support, there is, to some extent a message of Christ or something akin to it in most of the denominations, and a broad cultural context for it, but under serious inquiry, the system of Protestantism just doesn't hold water. An honest look at Catholicism won't yield such conclusions, but when your religion is based on breaking away and radical reform, it's bound to stumble in some really embarrassing ways.
-Bellarmine
P.S. I know that not all Protestants and not all Protestant denominations have endorsed this particular bit of stupidity; I'm not saying that you have. I'm saying that your religious perspective is uniquely vulnerable to it as is evidenced by the above article. This was not intended as a particularly scholarly piece, but rather as a specific commentary on a general trend that I have observed over the years. A real exposition of my reasons for this belief would take much more time than I have now. I'm sorry if you're offended, but an abandonment of doctrinal truth is called heresy or apostasy. Either way, it's wrong and something that I am confident that history will side with the Catholic Church on.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Let us rise and speak our minds
The Chocolaty Morsels Affair (CMA) is upon us again. Just as chocolaty morsels are not truly chocolate chips, the CMA does not spend nearly enough on actually CATHOLIC Ministries. Every year an assessment is made on each parish of the diocese (much like New York "assesses" our electric bills, coercively and in support of profligate spending) for a program that spends more money keeping itself going than it does on Catholic schools. Not surprisingly, many Catholics in Rochester are opposed to feeding a huuuguh slush fund, particularly those who have felt its administrators' coldness.
We have no issue with certain aspects of CMA spending. We fully support the funding allocated to Catholic Schools, Faith Formation, Parish Support Ministries, Catholic Charities, Stewardship, and Hospital Chaplaincy. However, this amounts to between 50 and 60 percent of CMA funding. It is unreasonable to ask the remaining Catholics in a failing diocese to spend over $2,500,000 on HR, IT, overhead costs, and a pastoral center in which very few regularly set foot. Why, precisely, do we spend CMA dollars on St Bernard's, when we need a separate drive to fund our semenarians? Shouldn't funding the education of our future priests come ahead of funding the educations of lay folks? And what of planning services? Why should any parish slated to be closed be the very folks who pay for their own demise? This seems not only illogical, but absurd! Finally, $329,400 went to...fliers and a video which makes many parishioners at St Stanislaus sick to their stomaches? This is an outrage!
It is time that more Catholics in Rochester stand up to this bullying. Some have been doing so admirably for years, but not enough. And it is not enough merely to refrain from sending money to the diocese for this fund. If we do nothing, the money will be extorted from our parishes like a tax and that will be the end of it. We need to be more active.
That is why Arialdus and I are proposing a different kind of campaign to counter the CMA. In his recent "envirolope" message to the diocese, Bishop Clark states that: "Your pledge to this year's annual appeal will help us to continue to preach, to teach, and to serve." He is right about one thing, we must preach, teach, and serve. But what does he preach, what does he teach, and whom does he serve? It seems not to be the children in our Monroe County Catholic School System. He seems not to serve our parishes as still more are slated for closure. It certainly doesn't seem to be that he wants the truth of Christ to get out, what with lay "pastoral" administrators like Joan Sobala running around. It seems that the CMA would not be an appropriate place for our scarce funds in such difficult economic times.
What we can do, however, is give to other, more reputable, more orthodox organizations who preach, who teach, and who serve God and His Church faithfully. We propose that you let the diocese have its cake and send back the envelopes with a message of our faith and a pledge to support other, more orthodox, ministries. Enclose a note explaining clearly your actions and their reasons.
For example, we will be donating $20 to:
the Catholics Come Home Campaign for its preaching.
Una Voce for its preaching and teaching.
the Sisters of Reparation for their serving.
the Seminarian Fund for their preaching, teaching, and serving.
the Station of the Cross for its preaching, teaching, and serving
and the Archangels School for its preaching and teaching.
We will be happy to contribute to the CMA when 1. Schools stop closing, 2. Parishes stop closing, 3. Catholics stop leaving, 4. Nuns in albs or jeans stop ruling with an iron fist, and 5. Talks by notorious dissenters like Charles Curran cease to be sponsored by diocesan entities
In the interim, however, this is our approach. It serves dual purposes--it sends the message that we disagree with the spending of the CMA, and it supports Authentic Catholic Ministries, which is, after all, the whole point of the CMA.
Let us pray for the restoration of authentic, traditional, Catholic faith to the Diocese of Rochester.
-Arialdus and Bellarmine
We have no issue with certain aspects of CMA spending. We fully support the funding allocated to Catholic Schools, Faith Formation, Parish Support Ministries, Catholic Charities, Stewardship, and Hospital Chaplaincy. However, this amounts to between 50 and 60 percent of CMA funding. It is unreasonable to ask the remaining Catholics in a failing diocese to spend over $2,500,000 on HR, IT, overhead costs, and a pastoral center in which very few regularly set foot. Why, precisely, do we spend CMA dollars on St Bernard's, when we need a separate drive to fund our semenarians? Shouldn't funding the education of our future priests come ahead of funding the educations of lay folks? And what of planning services? Why should any parish slated to be closed be the very folks who pay for their own demise? This seems not only illogical, but absurd! Finally, $329,400 went to...fliers and a video which makes many parishioners at St Stanislaus sick to their stomaches? This is an outrage!
It is time that more Catholics in Rochester stand up to this bullying. Some have been doing so admirably for years, but not enough. And it is not enough merely to refrain from sending money to the diocese for this fund. If we do nothing, the money will be extorted from our parishes like a tax and that will be the end of it. We need to be more active.
That is why Arialdus and I are proposing a different kind of campaign to counter the CMA. In his recent "envirolope" message to the diocese, Bishop Clark states that: "Your pledge to this year's annual appeal will help us to continue to preach, to teach, and to serve." He is right about one thing, we must preach, teach, and serve. But what does he preach, what does he teach, and whom does he serve? It seems not to be the children in our Monroe County Catholic School System. He seems not to serve our parishes as still more are slated for closure. It certainly doesn't seem to be that he wants the truth of Christ to get out, what with lay "pastoral" administrators like Joan Sobala running around. It seems that the CMA would not be an appropriate place for our scarce funds in such difficult economic times.
What we can do, however, is give to other, more reputable, more orthodox organizations who preach, who teach, and who serve God and His Church faithfully. We propose that you let the diocese have its cake and send back the envelopes with a message of our faith and a pledge to support other, more orthodox, ministries. Enclose a note explaining clearly your actions and their reasons.
For example, we will be donating $20 to:
the Catholics Come Home Campaign for its preaching.
Una Voce for its preaching and teaching.
the Sisters of Reparation for their serving.
the Seminarian Fund for their preaching, teaching, and serving.
the Station of the Cross for its preaching, teaching, and serving
and the Archangels School for its preaching and teaching.
We will be happy to contribute to the CMA when 1. Schools stop closing, 2. Parishes stop closing, 3. Catholics stop leaving, 4. Nuns in albs or jeans stop ruling with an iron fist, and 5. Talks by notorious dissenters like Charles Curran cease to be sponsored by diocesan entities
In the interim, however, this is our approach. It serves dual purposes--it sends the message that we disagree with the spending of the CMA, and it supports Authentic Catholic Ministries, which is, after all, the whole point of the CMA.
Let us pray for the restoration of authentic, traditional, Catholic faith to the Diocese of Rochester.
-Arialdus and Bellarmine
Monday, August 31, 2009
Apparently, God has nothing to do with it!
http://www.catholiccourier.com/tmp1.cfm?nid=88&articleid=108674&cfid=1797499&cftoken=77341329
And finally, a post that seems to focus largely on the U of R, or as it has apparently branded itself, UR...we'll work from quotes, most from a girl named Kellie Ileto...my comments in red
"Newman is a nonjudgmental environment. We all introduce ourselves, and there's no cliques.
Nonjudgemental in what way? I recall a post from Gene Michael that mentioned a "homosexual" student "coming out" during his...well, why he was talking during the homily baffles me, but mid-mass. There's a big difference between being judgemental and ignoring Catholic morality. I had the distinct displeasure of going to Mass at the U of R once...what she doesn't mention is that they all introduce themselves...at Mass...during the liturgy!
Ileto, who is minoring in religion at UR, has come to accept that "there's not just one way to feel close to God"
This sounds an awful lot like it's not Catholic...the paper seems to imply she is correct, and despite her previous convictions, she now realizes that Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. work well too? Has she been reading THE SHACK? Presumably the Religion Department at U of R teaches the same crap every other religion department teaches at a secular University--that all religion is essentially the same, and that it's a great sociological phenomenon.
Ileto acknowledged that transitioning your Catholic faith to college is no easy process for many. She said that some students are jarred by a style and setting for Catholic worship that is much different than in their home parishes;
WHY?! The U of R Newman Club...Community?...worships in the basement of an ugly building that lacks any Catholic character. It should be jarring. They don't kneel, they sit in chairs, and they face each other across a big aisle, on one end of which is the "altar" and on the other is the "ambo" though it's a bit of a stretch to call either by those names.
"One big thing is, who am I going to be friends with? You may be 18, but still very insecure. It's all about fitting in."
I never knew the U of R was a middle school. How about that. It's all about fitting in. It's not about learning, it's not about God, it's not about growing up and being independent, it's all about fitting in. Remind me to send my daughter there for middle school!
It's not about God, just that they're all really close, it seems...Apparently, God has nothing to do with it!
And finally, a post that seems to focus largely on the U of R, or as it has apparently branded itself, UR...we'll work from quotes, most from a girl named Kellie Ileto...my comments in red
"Newman is a nonjudgmental environment. We all introduce ourselves, and there's no cliques.
Nonjudgemental in what way? I recall a post from Gene Michael that mentioned a "homosexual" student "coming out" during his...well, why he was talking during the homily baffles me, but mid-mass. There's a big difference between being judgemental and ignoring Catholic morality. I had the distinct displeasure of going to Mass at the U of R once...what she doesn't mention is that they all introduce themselves...at Mass...during the liturgy!
Ileto, who is minoring in religion at UR, has come to accept that "there's not just one way to feel close to God"
This sounds an awful lot like it's not Catholic...the paper seems to imply she is correct, and despite her previous convictions, she now realizes that Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. work well too? Has she been reading THE SHACK? Presumably the Religion Department at U of R teaches the same crap every other religion department teaches at a secular University--that all religion is essentially the same, and that it's a great sociological phenomenon.
Ileto acknowledged that transitioning your Catholic faith to college is no easy process for many. She said that some students are jarred by a style and setting for Catholic worship that is much different than in their home parishes;
WHY?! The U of R Newman Club...Community?...worships in the basement of an ugly building that lacks any Catholic character. It should be jarring. They don't kneel, they sit in chairs, and they face each other across a big aisle, on one end of which is the "altar" and on the other is the "ambo" though it's a bit of a stretch to call either by those names.
"One big thing is, who am I going to be friends with? You may be 18, but still very insecure. It's all about fitting in."
I never knew the U of R was a middle school. How about that. It's all about fitting in. It's not about learning, it's not about God, it's not about growing up and being independent, it's all about fitting in. Remind me to send my daughter there for middle school!
Loughlin gave special credit to her campus ministers at the time, Wes Kennison and Father Jim Hewes, for guiding her through that period. "They're why I'm still Catholic," remarked Loughlin
God has nothing to do with it! Nope, not grace, nothing to do with God...Jim and Wes, though, they're great!
It's not about God, just that they're all really close, it seems...Apparently, God has nothing to do with it!
-Arialdus
Busted Halo, Busted Haehl-o
The second in my series of issues with this Catholic Courier theme issue...
http://www.catholiccourier.com/tmp1.cfm?nid=88&articleid=108679&cfid=1797499&cftoken=77341329
HUH?! Why? Why should it be different? I mean...the rubrics are the same...and...the purpose of going to Mass is to prevent you from being homesick? And the way that it helps...is...not prayer...nothing to do with God...just...that it's an anchor to your week?
Of course, our CATHOLIC NEWSPAPER cites something from BustedHalo, a site with an entire section on sex and relationships, The Freshmen Survival Guide encourages you to be chaste for the first few weeks...so you don't hook up with a jerk...and this is a book we want to sell our teens? Wait a few weeks? Great. Somebody get Jason Evert on the line and tell him he's asking too much. Purity is only required for the first month of college!
The site also includes this article:
In any case, Nora Haehl often preaches at St Paul's in Webster, since apparently, she fails to understand that...well, she's not a priest. As many of my friends know her well, and I have spent some time with her, I can guarantee that this woman is never ever ever ever ever meeting (nor falsely catechizing) my kids. So, apparently, my children will never see the beautiful interior of St Paul's in Webster.
-Arialdus
http://www.catholiccourier.com/tmp1.cfm?nid=88&articleid=108679&cfid=1797499&cftoken=77341329
"Try campus ministry."
"It will be different from your parish back home, but give it a try," she said. "Once is not enough. You've got to give yourself a chance to get used to it. There will be enough that's familiar, and it can be a great anchor to your week."
HUH?! Why? Why should it be different? I mean...the rubrics are the same...and...the purpose of going to Mass is to prevent you from being homesick? And the way that it helps...is...not prayer...nothing to do with God...just...that it's an anchor to your week?
Of course, our CATHOLIC NEWSPAPER cites something from BustedHalo, a site with an entire section on sex and relationships, The Freshmen Survival Guide encourages you to be chaste for the first few weeks...so you don't hook up with a jerk...and this is a book we want to sell our teens? Wait a few weeks? Great. Somebody get Jason Evert on the line and tell him he's asking too much. Purity is only required for the first month of college!
The site also includes this article:
http://www.bustedhalo.com/features/back-from-vocation/Apparently, the chain smoking kept Freud here from tormenting some poor bishop...
In any case, Nora Haehl often preaches at St Paul's in Webster, since apparently, she fails to understand that...well, she's not a priest. As many of my friends know her well, and I have spent some time with her, I can guarantee that this woman is never ever ever ever ever meeting (nor falsely catechizing) my kids. So, apparently, my children will never see the beautiful interior of St Paul's in Webster.
-Arialdus
And to think, I considered the salvation of souls!
This is the first in a series of posts I hate to have to make.
The Catholic Courier is officially a less trustworthy source than Wikipedia.
http://www.catholiccourier.com/tmp1.cfm?nid=88&articleid=108675&cfid=1797499&cftoken=77341329
Let's discuss the book that's mentioned in our CATHOLIC newspaper...
If anyone finds this book encouraged by someone in your parish, please give them a smack of the crozier!
Back to the article and the main point of this post
HUH?!
The point of ministering to college students is to engage them in conversation? That's it?! That's why Newman Centers/Clubs/Communities exist?! Remind me to shake the hands of Richard Hunt over at RIT and Brian Cool over at U of R. They are actually doing their jobs! We must stop criticizing them. After all, it appears they don't need to seek the salvation of souls, only genuine conversation.
-Arialdus
The Catholic Courier is officially a less trustworthy source than Wikipedia.
http://www.catholiccourier.com/tmp1.cfm?nid=88&articleid=108675&cfid=1797499&cftoken=77341329
"Loughlin noted that students may be more willing to try new things and join new groups when they are in a group of their peers.
"The goal is to give them experiences and faith and skills that they bring back to their parish experience," Loughlin said."
NEW IN 2009: THE PARISH EXPERIENCE! Activities include a scavenger hunt entitled: Where the heck is the Tabernacle?, a prayer labyrinth, and an opportunity to come together as a community by holding hands and sitting on couches, rather than archaically kneeling for the consecration! Get your tickets today!
All joking aside, the phrase "parish experience" gives me the heebie-jeebies. After all, would this parish experience include readings of The Shack?Let's discuss the book that's mentioned in our CATHOLIC newspaper...
“I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring from the inside. It’s not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it”
“When we three spoke ourself into human existence as the Son of God, we became fully human. We also chose to embrace all the limitations that this entailed. Even though we have always been present in this created universe, we now became flesh and blood”
"Evil and darkness can only be understood in relation to Light and Good; they do not have any actual existence."
"Authority, as you usually think of it, is merely the excuse the strong use to make others conform to what they want.... We carefully respect your choices...."
"'Are you saying I don't have to follow the rules?'...
"'Yes. In Jesus you are not under any law. All things are lawful.'
"'You can't be serious! You're messing with me again,' moaned Mack.
"'Child,' interrupted papa, 'you ain't heard nuthin' yet.'...
"'...enforcing rules [says Sarayu] ...is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse.'"
"That made Mack smile. This lady was fully enjoying herself...“We created you to share in that. But then Adam chose to go it on his own, as we knew he would, and everything got messed up. But instead of scrapping the whole Creation we rolled up our sleeves and entered into the middle of the mess—that’s what we have done in Jesus.... When we three spoke ourself into human existence as the Son of God, we became fully human. We also chose to embrace all the limitations that this entailed. ...flesh and blood.".
"Those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslims.... I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want to join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa, into my brothers and sisters.”
If anyone finds this book encouraged by someone in your parish, please give them a smack of the crozier!
Back to the article and the main point of this post
"The goal of the essay contest -- and of campus ministry in general -- is to engage students in genuine conversation, Father Smith said.''
HUH?!
The point of ministering to college students is to engage them in conversation? That's it?! That's why Newman Centers/Clubs/Communities exist?! Remind me to shake the hands of Richard Hunt over at RIT and Brian Cool over at U of R. They are actually doing their jobs! We must stop criticizing them. After all, it appears they don't need to seek the salvation of souls, only genuine conversation.
-Arialdus
Thursday, August 6, 2009
He's Baaaaack!
After a long absence, the writings of Fr. Richard McBrien once again taint the pages of the Catholic Courier. This time he is addressing the issue of the upcoming visitation of women’s religious communities, particularly that of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The point of McBrien’s piece is to question the objectivity of the CDF’s investigation and to suggest that they are setting up straw-men now so that they can harass women’s religious communities in the United States. “one has reason to wonder how objective and dispassionate the visitation of religious communities of women in the U.S. will be.” Of course, this notion is preposterous, given the CDF’s role in safeguarding the objective truths of the faith.
He then summarizes Cardinal Rode’s outlining of four distinct approaches to religious life today.
“The cardinal-prefect listed four distinct approaches to religious life today: new communities that bring energy to old traditions, older communities that have revived their traditions, and older communities that have, according to The Boston Pilot, simply accepted their decline and have acquiesced. Again, no examples were given.
Cardinal Rodé described the fourth approach in even more ominous terms. He claimed that "there are those who have opted for ways that take them outside communion with Christ in the Catholic Church, although they themselves may have opted to ‘stay’ in the church physically."…
Nonetheless, Cardinal Rodé’s was a serious allegation and should not have been made without evidence. Perhaps it is expected that such "evidence" will be gathered during the course of the visitation of religious communities of women in the U.S. and in the CDF’s investigation of the LCWR.”
McBrien seems plenty ready to hurl accusations here. He insists on examples of abuses being given and lambasts Cardinal Rode over his mention of religious communities that have broken with the Catholic tradition without specific examples. He seems to think that we’re going on a witch hunt for ills that aren’t there.
If Fr. McBrien needs evidence of heterodoxy within US womens’ religious societies, he need look no farther than here, here, or here! Then again, in McBrien's world, orthodoxy is outdated and madness is the hip thing. In any event, let the investigation begin!
-Bellarmine
The point of McBrien’s piece is to question the objectivity of the CDF’s investigation and to suggest that they are setting up straw-men now so that they can harass women’s religious communities in the United States. “one has reason to wonder how objective and dispassionate the visitation of religious communities of women in the U.S. will be.” Of course, this notion is preposterous, given the CDF’s role in safeguarding the objective truths of the faith.
He then summarizes Cardinal Rode’s outlining of four distinct approaches to religious life today.
“The cardinal-prefect listed four distinct approaches to religious life today: new communities that bring energy to old traditions, older communities that have revived their traditions, and older communities that have, according to The Boston Pilot, simply accepted their decline and have acquiesced. Again, no examples were given.
Cardinal Rodé described the fourth approach in even more ominous terms. He claimed that "there are those who have opted for ways that take them outside communion with Christ in the Catholic Church, although they themselves may have opted to ‘stay’ in the church physically."…
Nonetheless, Cardinal Rodé’s was a serious allegation and should not have been made without evidence. Perhaps it is expected that such "evidence" will be gathered during the course of the visitation of religious communities of women in the U.S. and in the CDF’s investigation of the LCWR.”
McBrien seems plenty ready to hurl accusations here. He insists on examples of abuses being given and lambasts Cardinal Rode over his mention of religious communities that have broken with the Catholic tradition without specific examples. He seems to think that we’re going on a witch hunt for ills that aren’t there.
If Fr. McBrien needs evidence of heterodoxy within US womens’ religious societies, he need look no farther than here, here, or here! Then again, in McBrien's world, orthodoxy is outdated and madness is the hip thing. In any event, let the investigation begin!
-Bellarmine
Monday, August 3, 2009
An Important Announcement
Guinness is good for you. Apparently it contains antioxidants that help prevent heart disease. It's the luck of the Irish I tell ya! Props to Kevin at New Advent for finding that one!
-Bellarmine
-Bellarmine
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Hell and Its Torments
I spent most of today reading on a variety of topics. Perhaps the most challenging and interesting reading that I did today was a sermon of St. Robert Bellarmine's, Hell and Its Torments. To quote the man from whom I took my pen name, "I have considered that I shall be doing a work most pleasing to God an useful to yourselves if today... I call to your memories and place before your very eyes how horrible, how atrocious and how abiding are the tortures which God has prepared for wicked and impious people." So, without further adieu, let us have a look at just what this Doctor of the Church had to say about Hell.
Bellarmine begins his 1574 sermon by expressing his astonishment that anyone could not be Catholic in light of the prophets, miracles of Christ, and the hope that nourishes Christ's Church. He then bemoans that fact that a great many Catholics live in sin despite Jesus's teachings on Hell.
Having wondered at the tendency of even Catholics to sin, St. Robert attributes this to three factors: 1. a lack of consideration, 2. ignorance, and 3. self-love. St. Bellarmine exhorts us to consider Hell and its torments in order that we might repent and refrain from sin on account of our understanding what will happen should we be condemned. He then moves to ignorance; particularly to the ignorance of those who fail to understand the magnitude of sin. He quotes St. Augustine in saying: "Now eternal punishment seems hard and unjust to human senses for the reason that in (our) infirmity of dying senses there is lacking that sense of the highest and purest wisdom, whereby it can be felt what a great outrage was committed in that first prevarication." In other words, we mortals cannot sense the severity of an offense against the infinite and eternal God. Finally, Bellarmine decries the self-love that persuades us to believe that in spite of our wickedness, God will have mercy because our good deeds can be attributed to us whereas the evil that we do can be attributed to external factors. He then refutes several other excuses for sin put forth by misguided Catholics.
After establishing reasons why those who should know better sin, St. Bellarmine turns his attention to the wage of sin, death. He explains the dual punishments of the loss of Heaven and the active torments of both body and soul reserved for the damned. He emphasizes that the condemned must continually be aware of what they have lost, excruciating physical and mental pain that intensify one another continually, and the never-ending nature of condemnation.
In doing all of this, St. Bellarmine reminds us that forgiveness is no farther away than repentance and confession; a paltry price to pay for eternal life with God.
Perhaps the most chilling aspect of this account of Hell is that it is not so simple as eternal death, rather, it is a combination of what can be the worst parts of life and death. Like life, Hell endures and unlike death, it never ends.
St. Robert Bellarmine's goal, the one I now more emphatically share with him, is to seek to alert souls to the dangers of Hell and the promises of eternal life. May the Lord have mercy on us and help us to see even our hidden faults so that we might repent and believe. Please consider reading this work and definitely be sure to examine your conscience carefully, but not scrupulously.
God love you,
-Bellarmine
Bellarmine begins his 1574 sermon by expressing his astonishment that anyone could not be Catholic in light of the prophets, miracles of Christ, and the hope that nourishes Christ's Church. He then bemoans that fact that a great many Catholics live in sin despite Jesus's teachings on Hell.
Having wondered at the tendency of even Catholics to sin, St. Robert attributes this to three factors: 1. a lack of consideration, 2. ignorance, and 3. self-love. St. Bellarmine exhorts us to consider Hell and its torments in order that we might repent and refrain from sin on account of our understanding what will happen should we be condemned. He then moves to ignorance; particularly to the ignorance of those who fail to understand the magnitude of sin. He quotes St. Augustine in saying: "Now eternal punishment seems hard and unjust to human senses for the reason that in (our) infirmity of dying senses there is lacking that sense of the highest and purest wisdom, whereby it can be felt what a great outrage was committed in that first prevarication." In other words, we mortals cannot sense the severity of an offense against the infinite and eternal God. Finally, Bellarmine decries the self-love that persuades us to believe that in spite of our wickedness, God will have mercy because our good deeds can be attributed to us whereas the evil that we do can be attributed to external factors. He then refutes several other excuses for sin put forth by misguided Catholics.
After establishing reasons why those who should know better sin, St. Bellarmine turns his attention to the wage of sin, death. He explains the dual punishments of the loss of Heaven and the active torments of both body and soul reserved for the damned. He emphasizes that the condemned must continually be aware of what they have lost, excruciating physical and mental pain that intensify one another continually, and the never-ending nature of condemnation.
In doing all of this, St. Bellarmine reminds us that forgiveness is no farther away than repentance and confession; a paltry price to pay for eternal life with God.
Perhaps the most chilling aspect of this account of Hell is that it is not so simple as eternal death, rather, it is a combination of what can be the worst parts of life and death. Like life, Hell endures and unlike death, it never ends.
St. Robert Bellarmine's goal, the one I now more emphatically share with him, is to seek to alert souls to the dangers of Hell and the promises of eternal life. May the Lord have mercy on us and help us to see even our hidden faults so that we might repent and believe. Please consider reading this work and definitely be sure to examine your conscience carefully, but not scrupulously.
God love you,
-Bellarmine
Somewhere, some village is missing their idiot
Since we've got two here in Rochester!
Okay, fine...I suppose we've got more than that, but the picture made me chuckle...Grosswirth and the Bish...tehe
-Arialdus
-Arialdus
C'mon, Bish, just 2 more!
As you've all heard by now, it appears that St. Thomas the Apostle is on the chopping block. And this, just as I was trying to find a good time to get over there on occasion this summer. Just as I was excited that perhaps Fr. Peter Abas would be saying Mass there at times (as he is at Christ the King for the next 6 months), these self-serving idiots wind up reccomending the closure of one of the few decent churches in this diocese.
This would leave a mere two places in the entire diocese I trust to go to Mass when I have my choice...Our Lady of Victory/St. Joseph's and, of course, at St. Stanislaus.
It also sounds like they're trying to destroy St Monica's. Great. Nothing I like more than ruining a beautiful church in favor of hiding the tabernacle.
On the plus side, I did get out to Our Lady of Victory for Mass this weekend. As is always the case, the music was beautiful, the preaching of Fr. Antinarelli did not sugar-coat a thing, and the church was reverent throughout the pre- and post-Mass times, and reverently focused throughout the liturgy.
Everytime I see a child receive our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament on the tongue (which happens quite often there!), I can't help but smile. I always want to shake the hands of the few parents around who raise their children with Catholic Orthodoxy at the forefront of their lives. And, I think to myself..."Brick by brick!" 1098 days, I suppose, and perhaps the diocese will be turning around.
-Arialdus
This would leave a mere two places in the entire diocese I trust to go to Mass when I have my choice...Our Lady of Victory/St. Joseph's and, of course, at St. Stanislaus.
It also sounds like they're trying to destroy St Monica's. Great. Nothing I like more than ruining a beautiful church in favor of hiding the tabernacle.
On the plus side, I did get out to Our Lady of Victory for Mass this weekend. As is always the case, the music was beautiful, the preaching of Fr. Antinarelli did not sugar-coat a thing, and the church was reverent throughout the pre- and post-Mass times, and reverently focused throughout the liturgy.
Everytime I see a child receive our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament on the tongue (which happens quite often there!), I can't help but smile. I always want to shake the hands of the few parents around who raise their children with Catholic Orthodoxy at the forefront of their lives. And, I think to myself..."Brick by brick!" 1098 days, I suppose, and perhaps the diocese will be turning around.
-Arialdus
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Caritas in Veritate
Friday, July 3, 2009
The bishop's column: as delusional as Fr. Richard McHeretic?
The quotes come from the latest Catholic Courier Bishop's Column.
"Nevertheless, as we near the end of our pledge payment period for our Partners in Faith capital campaign — which to date has raised more than $44 million dollars to build a new theology and ministry school, renovate our cathedral as well as provide much-needed funds for our parishes — we all are amazed at how generous our parishioners really are."
Ha! Let's discuss this, shall we? We've expanded the French Road Center for Heresy, Dissent, and Schism. We've turned Fulton Sheen's lovely Cathedral into a protestant barn, and...the funds for the parishes?? What's happened in my childhood parish goes like this...we paid the diocese great sums of money, some of which they gave back. With this we built a parish center, with a daily Mass chapel and a new "Parish Hall." But, since we couldn't afford to keep this and other things heated, all winter, twe don't have daily Mass in a legitimate church. Also, we closed down the wonderful 3+ story building that was used for parish offices, religious ed, youth ministry, and sacramental preparation. Now all of this is jammed into the existing Catholic School, which has lost well over 60% of its enrollment since 1995
Works out great!
While it is no secret that Mass attendance has generally declined since the mid-1960s nationwide — not unlike attendance for other mainline Christian denominations — we saw last year in our own diocese a leveling off of that trend. I can only attribute that leveling off to our Spirit Alive-related efforts. Even as we engage the people already in the pews through this spiritual renewal, we also are reaching out in new 21st century ways to people we want to welcome back — and especially to attract young people to become active member of our faith communities. This is so important in an age in which all religious groups must vie with Hollywood, the Internet and other media in touching and forming the lives of the young.
ARGH! How pompous can this man be? We have not leveled off at all? The numbers don't lie! We have lost...
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOy2aclzdOETNefgYO2kXnBeJz83k85FN90-h9iku_wKUDPdLGwLzf6zF5ZfYwFWwK_qTrbDWh-QuvXXKktv7ENwoQL-gJZ7uJnDhGj-8UG6iU6FK7peyg-toM65_R7wmYE8asT6teCs/s1600-h/DOR-AOA.JPG
There, there's a graph! We lost another 4000 per week in the last october-october comparison. In fact, since Spirit Alive! began, we've continued losing people at exactly the same rate. In the same time period, Dioceses with Orthodox Bishops (see Charles Chaput and Fabian Bruskewitz...both of their diocese are quite healthy!) have not really declined at all...in fact, nationally, Mass attendance has been relatively consistent for the past few years...but since 2001 we've lost over 25%...what gives?
Does he honestly believe his own greatness? How about some legitimate catechesis, Bishop Clark? Show your flock that Orthodoxy is important. Replace "Illiturgical Prancing" with Eucharistic Processions, and nuns in albs with altar boys in cassocks. Since the mid-60's, even the heterodox admit the church hasn't done as well. Shocking how much better orthodoxy works, eh?
-Arialdus
"Nevertheless, as we near the end of our pledge payment period for our Partners in Faith capital campaign — which to date has raised more than $44 million dollars to build a new theology and ministry school, renovate our cathedral as well as provide much-needed funds for our parishes — we all are amazed at how generous our parishioners really are."
Ha! Let's discuss this, shall we? We've expanded the French Road Center for Heresy, Dissent, and Schism. We've turned Fulton Sheen's lovely Cathedral into a protestant barn, and...the funds for the parishes?? What's happened in my childhood parish goes like this...we paid the diocese great sums of money, some of which they gave back. With this we built a parish center, with a daily Mass chapel and a new "Parish Hall." But, since we couldn't afford to keep this and other things heated, all winter, twe don't have daily Mass in a legitimate church. Also, we closed down the wonderful 3+ story building that was used for parish offices, religious ed, youth ministry, and sacramental preparation. Now all of this is jammed into the existing Catholic School, which has lost well over 60% of its enrollment since 1995
Works out great!
While it is no secret that Mass attendance has generally declined since the mid-1960s nationwide — not unlike attendance for other mainline Christian denominations — we saw last year in our own diocese a leveling off of that trend. I can only attribute that leveling off to our Spirit Alive-related efforts. Even as we engage the people already in the pews through this spiritual renewal, we also are reaching out in new 21st century ways to people we want to welcome back — and especially to attract young people to become active member of our faith communities. This is so important in an age in which all religious groups must vie with Hollywood, the Internet and other media in touching and forming the lives of the young.
ARGH! How pompous can this man be? We have not leveled off at all? The numbers don't lie! We have lost...
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOy2aclzdOETNefgYO2kXnBeJz83k85FN90-h9iku_wKUDPdLGwLzf6zF5ZfYwFWwK_qTrbDWh-QuvXXKktv7ENwoQL-gJZ7uJnDhGj-8UG6iU6FK7peyg-toM65_R7wmYE8asT6teCs/s1600-h/DOR-AOA.JPG
There, there's a graph! We lost another 4000 per week in the last october-october comparison. In fact, since Spirit Alive! began, we've continued losing people at exactly the same rate. In the same time period, Dioceses with Orthodox Bishops (see Charles Chaput and Fabian Bruskewitz...both of their diocese are quite healthy!) have not really declined at all...in fact, nationally, Mass attendance has been relatively consistent for the past few years...but since 2001 we've lost over 25%...what gives?
Does he honestly believe his own greatness? How about some legitimate catechesis, Bishop Clark? Show your flock that Orthodoxy is important. Replace "Illiturgical Prancing" with Eucharistic Processions, and nuns in albs with altar boys in cassocks. Since the mid-60's, even the heterodox admit the church hasn't done as well. Shocking how much better orthodoxy works, eh?
-Arialdus
Douay-Rheims etc.
So I've been spending a wee bit of money lately, and got an old Douay-Rheims...which is awesome! I'm working up a collection of good translations to keep in a prayer room/library. I suppose I should pick up a Vulgate at some point, then learn some Latin. In any case, the next thing I desperately want is a Liber Usualis, but...the cheapest one I can find is $110 online! I'm not sure if I want one badly enough to pay that much...It's free online and all, but...I would love a hard copy. Hmm
Other interesting pickups of late:
Both old and new St. Joseph's Daily Missals
An Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis deSales
Apologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry Cardinal Newman
Wish I had more time to read and study them over the summer!
-Arialdus
Other interesting pickups of late:
Both old and new St. Joseph's Daily Missals
An Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis deSales
Apologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry Cardinal Newman
Wish I had more time to read and study them over the summer!
-Arialdus
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
I saw this little post over at Rochester Catholic, and couldn't help commenting here in some depth.
I will quote a bit of Chestertonian wit throughout, as in the title.
“The word ‘adult faith’ has in recent decades become a popular slogan. It is often used to refer to the attitude of those who no longer adhere to the Church and her pastors, but choose for themselves what they want to believe and not believe - a kind of do-it-yourself faith.” - Pope Benedict XVI
It's true, ladies and gentlemen...the pope just called out Cafeteria Catholics! The fact of the matter is that as a Roman Catholic, it is just fine to question anything, to say that you do not understand something, why it is, how it is, what it is, etc. Dissent is quite another matter.
But, the heterodox will argue, we need to search for unity! It's minutia! Who cares if they:
Fail to properly vest themselves for Mass
Randomly add greeting time during Mass
Sing Happy Birthday during Mass
Use He's got the whole world in His hands as an offertory hymn
Stand for the Consecration
Dance in the aisles during Mass
Omit the Sanctus
Allow laypeople to preach the homily
Ad-lib the prayers
Read the Gospel from the Epistle side of the Altar
Hide the Tabernacle
Don't use a Tabernacle Candle
Include their favorite sports team or cartoon character into a homily
Play some popular music from an ipod during the Homily
"I understand that you love the liturgy but when you begin to love the liturgy more than you love your neighbor...well I think you now the rest." These words from a dissenting Youth Minister in the Diocese shed some light on an entire attitude. It's not the ad-libbed prayer, really, it's not the crappy music, really, nor is it any of these things alone...it's that this behavior conveys an entire attitude--one that believes that the magisterium matters not. But without the magisterium, what authority do we have? None, really. Without apostolic succession, an uninterrupted line, we cannot say things with authority. But the church is not simply an group of men who control things. This is not about politics, it is about truth.
But, then, people will say, you need to celebrate the diversity! You should be impartial. I argue, as Chesterton did, that "Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance." Diversity is wonderful, I agree...there is so much diversity among particular churches! Greek Catholics, Maronite Catholics, The Extraordinary Form and the Ordinary Form within the Latin Rite, there's the Anglican Use...the list goes on, and all in full communion with the Bishop of Rome! But all of this unity must be, as Father Corapi has put it, a subset of TRUTH.
“Rather it takes courage to adhere to the faith of the Church, even if it contradicts the ’scheme’ of the contemporary world,” said the Pope. Just as Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they are fashions.
-Arialdus
I will quote a bit of Chestertonian wit throughout, as in the title.
“The word ‘adult faith’ has in recent decades become a popular slogan. It is often used to refer to the attitude of those who no longer adhere to the Church and her pastors, but choose for themselves what they want to believe and not believe - a kind of do-it-yourself faith.” - Pope Benedict XVI
It's true, ladies and gentlemen...the pope just called out Cafeteria Catholics! The fact of the matter is that as a Roman Catholic, it is just fine to question anything, to say that you do not understand something, why it is, how it is, what it is, etc. Dissent is quite another matter.
But, the heterodox will argue, we need to search for unity! It's minutia! Who cares if they:
Fail to properly vest themselves for Mass
Randomly add greeting time during Mass
Sing Happy Birthday during Mass
Use He's got the whole world in His hands as an offertory hymn
Stand for the Consecration
Dance in the aisles during Mass
Omit the Sanctus
Allow laypeople to preach the homily
Ad-lib the prayers
Read the Gospel from the Epistle side of the Altar
Hide the Tabernacle
Don't use a Tabernacle Candle
Include their favorite sports team or cartoon character into a homily
Play some popular music from an ipod during the Homily
"I understand that you love the liturgy but when you begin to love the liturgy more than you love your neighbor...well I think you now the rest." These words from a dissenting Youth Minister in the Diocese shed some light on an entire attitude. It's not the ad-libbed prayer, really, it's not the crappy music, really, nor is it any of these things alone...it's that this behavior conveys an entire attitude--one that believes that the magisterium matters not. But without the magisterium, what authority do we have? None, really. Without apostolic succession, an uninterrupted line, we cannot say things with authority. But the church is not simply an group of men who control things. This is not about politics, it is about truth.
But, then, people will say, you need to celebrate the diversity! You should be impartial. I argue, as Chesterton did, that "Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance." Diversity is wonderful, I agree...there is so much diversity among particular churches! Greek Catholics, Maronite Catholics, The Extraordinary Form and the Ordinary Form within the Latin Rite, there's the Anglican Use...the list goes on, and all in full communion with the Bishop of Rome! But all of this unity must be, as Father Corapi has put it, a subset of TRUTH.
“Rather it takes courage to adhere to the faith of the Church, even if it contradicts the ’scheme’ of the contemporary world,” said the Pope. Just as Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they are fashions.
-Arialdus
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Caritas in Veritate
Rocco Palmo has come across some very interesting news about Pope Benedict's newest encyclical. I'm going to have to have a look out for its release early next week! I'll be sure to read it immediately and post some thoughts as well as a link.
-Bellarmine
-Bellarmine
Sunday, June 28, 2009
A Tale of Two Masses
Though this comes a couple weeks late, I had been meaning to blog about my experiences at two of the Diocese's three early afternoon, non-English Masses.
Week one: Novus Ordo Spanish Mass, 1PM, St Francis DeSales, Geneva: 7 June 2009
The priest decided against fully dressing himself, skipping the chasuble and stole entirely, settling on a simple Alb, with Crocs as his footwear. Crikey!
This seemed to mesh perfectly with the music, a guitar-player and a tamborine player in the sanctuary. St. Francis has an absolutely beautiful Pipe Organ in the Choir Loft, which I have not seen used the past three times I have attended Mass there. Incidentally, the music was horrendous once again.
Idle chatter and irreverance abounded, even as the Sign of Peace took a great deal of time. Of course, the priest also kept a dixie cup handy about the sanctuary to sip from throughout Mass, should the idle chatter parch his throat.
There was a baptism as well. Save for the actual baptism itself, all of the dialogue/questioning with parents and Godparents was done by the nun, who apparently was also celebrating her birthday. During Mass, to show our appreciation, we had the distinct pleasure of singing Happy Birthday to her in both Spanish and English.
Finally, in the spirit of unity, the priest, nun, and all 15 others inexplicably in the sanctuary (I don't believe any were serving Mass...perhaps one) gathered and held hands. On the plus side, not one person broke out in a chorus of kumbayah.
Fast Forward One Week
Week 2: Tridentine Latin High Mass, 1 PM St. Stanislaus Kostka, Rochester 14 June 2009
The church proper was silent before and after a most beautiful liturgy.
The Choir sang incredibly, from the Asperges through Mass, to the Eucharistic Procession and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Perhaps I am biased, as my favorite song was sung...Panis Angelicus
Reverent Altar Boys and a Liturgically Dressed Fr. Bonsignore were the only people in the Sanctuary.
There were lines for confession.
Rather than the crazy rush to leave immediately after communion, nearly the entire congregation remained through a lengthy and beautiful Eucharistic Procession and Benediction.
If only I could get to Latin Mass more often!
And in closing, with English Translation:
Panis angelicus
fit panis hominum;
Dat panis caelicus
figuris terminum:
O res mirabilis!
Manducat Dominum.
Pauper, servus et humilis.
Te trina Deitas
unaque poscimus:
Sic nos tu visita,
sicut te colimus;
Per tuas semitas
duc nos quo tendimus,
Ad lucem quam inhabitas.
Amen.
The angelic bread
becomes the bread of men;
The heavenly bread
ends all prefigurations:
What wonder!
consumes the Lord
a poor and humble servant.
Triune God,
We beg of You,
that you visit us,
as we worship You.
By your ways,
lead us who seek
the light in which You dwell.
Amen.
Tell me that's not more beautiful than Halle! Halle! Halle! *shudder*
-Arialdus
Week one: Novus Ordo Spanish Mass, 1PM, St Francis DeSales, Geneva: 7 June 2009
The priest decided against fully dressing himself, skipping the chasuble and stole entirely, settling on a simple Alb, with Crocs as his footwear. Crikey!
This seemed to mesh perfectly with the music, a guitar-player and a tamborine player in the sanctuary. St. Francis has an absolutely beautiful Pipe Organ in the Choir Loft, which I have not seen used the past three times I have attended Mass there. Incidentally, the music was horrendous once again.
Idle chatter and irreverance abounded, even as the Sign of Peace took a great deal of time. Of course, the priest also kept a dixie cup handy about the sanctuary to sip from throughout Mass, should the idle chatter parch his throat.
There was a baptism as well. Save for the actual baptism itself, all of the dialogue/questioning with parents and Godparents was done by the nun, who apparently was also celebrating her birthday. During Mass, to show our appreciation, we had the distinct pleasure of singing Happy Birthday to her in both Spanish and English.
Finally, in the spirit of unity, the priest, nun, and all 15 others inexplicably in the sanctuary (I don't believe any were serving Mass...perhaps one) gathered and held hands. On the plus side, not one person broke out in a chorus of kumbayah.
Fast Forward One Week
Week 2: Tridentine Latin High Mass, 1 PM St. Stanislaus Kostka, Rochester 14 June 2009
The church proper was silent before and after a most beautiful liturgy.
The Choir sang incredibly, from the Asperges through Mass, to the Eucharistic Procession and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Perhaps I am biased, as my favorite song was sung...Panis Angelicus
Reverent Altar Boys and a Liturgically Dressed Fr. Bonsignore were the only people in the Sanctuary.
There were lines for confession.
Rather than the crazy rush to leave immediately after communion, nearly the entire congregation remained through a lengthy and beautiful Eucharistic Procession and Benediction.
If only I could get to Latin Mass more often!
And in closing, with English Translation:
Panis angelicus
fit panis hominum;
Dat panis caelicus
figuris terminum:
O res mirabilis!
Manducat Dominum.
Pauper, servus et humilis.
Te trina Deitas
unaque poscimus:
Sic nos tu visita,
sicut te colimus;
Per tuas semitas
duc nos quo tendimus,
Ad lucem quam inhabitas.
Amen.
The angelic bread
becomes the bread of men;
The heavenly bread
ends all prefigurations:
What wonder!
consumes the Lord
a poor and humble servant.
Triune God,
We beg of You,
that you visit us,
as we worship You.
By your ways,
lead us who seek
the light in which You dwell.
Amen.
Tell me that's not more beautiful than Halle! Halle! Halle! *shudder*
-Arialdus
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
On Devotion to the Blessed Virgin
After work today I stuck around a few moments to watch a few videos, starting with one at the Cleansing Fire DoR blog, and before I knew it I had found some videos of St. Josemaria Escriva speaking before crowds. One, in particular, stood out to me today.
St. Josemaria's emphasis on the holiness of the laity was instrumental in the development of my prayer life as I was leaving behind the heterodoxy I was raised with. He helped me to break away from the perception that active participation in faith must be a visible thing with his constant exhortations to holiness in all matters. Praise God for his Saints
-Bellarmine
St. Josemaria's emphasis on the holiness of the laity was instrumental in the development of my prayer life as I was leaving behind the heterodoxy I was raised with. He helped me to break away from the perception that active participation in faith must be a visible thing with his constant exhortations to holiness in all matters. Praise God for his Saints
-Bellarmine
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Romanovs 18, Obama 20
Yay we win! ...wait... not so much.
A communist revolution followed the Romanovs, I sure hope that Obama doesn't accelerate it 300 years. Much as we never liked the guy, McCain sure does have a good point on this one.
Arialdus & Bellarmine
P.S. Sarcasm is not our native language, honest!
A communist revolution followed the Romanovs, I sure hope that Obama doesn't accelerate it 300 years. Much as we never liked the guy, McCain sure does have a good point on this one.
Arialdus & Bellarmine
P.S. Sarcasm is not our native language, honest!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Working...
It's been a busy week and I am way behind where I had hoped to be with this blog. On the plus side, Arialdus and I have taken names for ourselves and are both able to access the site now.
The next step will be to start building a network and make some posts that someone might actually care to read. Here goes!
-Bellarmine
*Edit* We seem to have been flagged as a possible spam blog. There are actual people running this thing and, presumably, we might occasionally come up with something interesting to say. We'll see how that goes, I guess.
The next step will be to start building a network and make some posts that someone might actually care to read. Here goes!
-Bellarmine
*Edit* We seem to have been flagged as a possible spam blog. There are actual people running this thing and, presumably, we might occasionally come up with something interesting to say. We'll see how that goes, I guess.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Challoner-Rheims
Today is Divine Mercy Sunday and life is good; it was a Latin Mass day. The exciting news of the day is that I picked up a copy of the Challoner-Rheims translation of the New Testament. I look forward to reading from a "new" translation and at first glance, the footnotes are looking more reliable than I've ever seen before.
This is also the inaugural post of the blog that Arialdus and I have been talking about for some weeks. He doesn't know that I set it up yet, but we'll get there in due time.
Farewell and God bless!
-Bellarmine
This is also the inaugural post of the blog that Arialdus and I have been talking about for some weeks. He doesn't know that I set it up yet, but we'll get there in due time.
Farewell and God bless!
-Bellarmine
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