Sniff Test for Bishops

'Cause sheep would know what a shepherd ought to smell like, right?
Whenever marginally schismatic organizations or news outlets, or incoherent bloggers begin ranting about how much better it will be when bishops are selected locally, I think of how we can already see how wonderfully that would work out.
Because, China.

I know, right?

(My snarky hostility toward this idea actually has very little to do with theology or religion, etc. - rather, it springs from waaaaaaaay too much first-hand experience of the idiotic notion that everyones opinion is valuable in practice.)

Guess Who Said It

"We are not creating a new church—it remains Catholic" - Martin Luther Cardinal Marx

 

"Certain Catholics still think that a priest must be present for the Church to function.  This is absurd!" - John Nelson Darby Cardinal Marx

"We have a lot of work to do in the theological field, not only related to the question of divorce, but also the theology of marriage. I am astonished that some can say, 'Everything is clear' on this topic." - Cardinal Wolsey Cardinal Marx

“You cannot say that somebody is in sin every day. That is not possible.” - Luci Cardinal Marx quoting unnamed bishops

"We are not a branch of Rome." -Henry VIII Cardinal Marx

Any exclusion of those whose actions deny the indissolubility of the sacrament is "incomprehensible and unmerciful." - The Pharisees trying to test Christ about divorce in Matthew 19 Cardinal Marx

Speaking of the Seamless Garment...

... I can embrace that concept without having to deny a certain obvious truth.

Some holes in your clothes are waaaaay worse than others.

See? not so bad....

  

On the other hand...

+Cupich's Target Audience?

Archbishop Cupich, successor too the great Cardinal George in Chicago is taking a certain amount of heat for a lukewarm response to the snuff films starring various Planned Parenthood collaborators that is, at best, lukewarm.
While I can see a case for a stronger defense of innocent life from him, and as to his his admonition of those responsible for the murderous destruction of the unborn -- well, let's just say he notes others' outrage without actually expressing any himself --
So, yeah, there's a kind of "Some might say....." wording to the whole thing.

And then, the seamless garment shenanigans.

No.

No, there is no moral equivalency between dismembering babies and selling the off for parts and working for less permeable national borders.
There just isn't, and his implying stating that there is is simply wrong.

But take note of who he's talking to.
Look at where his words are appearing.
He's not preaching to the choir, here, folks, he's addressing a secular constituency who, like as not, DO NOT AGREE WITH WHAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH KNOWS TO BE TRUE ABOUT THE SCOURGE OF ABORTION.

And some of them are good people, open to dialogue, and what is the argument the opposition is always throwing in pro-lifers' faces?

That we only care about human beings before they are born.

So here is a leader of the Church putting the lie to that.

How is that a bad thing?

You Know Why Know-Nothing, Nativist, Anti-Immigrant Blather is Wrong?

I thought it was the lack of charity, the denial of the principles on which this country was built, but I had it all wrong.
It's plumbing.
Let one immigrant explain it for you. (Don't worry, she is in no danger of being sent back where she came from, or rather, "from whence she came." I don't want to be called out for, you know, dangling.)

Say a Prayer for Your Priest

Tomorrow marks the memorial of St John Vianney, a pretty appropriate occasion, I think, on which to thank God for priests, intercede with God for priests, praise God for priests, ask God for more priests...
I was particularly disturbed today at some ugly, anti-clerical trolling on Facebook, with a point of view that would not have been out of place during la Terreur, (which has been on my mind of late,)from a supposedly devout Catholic - shameful, and all directed at a priest I know to be very, very good.
Pray with the Little Flower, (a spiritual mother to many a priest, I believe.)

O Jesus,
I pray for your faithful and fervent priests;
for your unfaithful and tepid priests;v for your priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields.v for your tempted priests;
for your lonely and desolate priests;
For your young priests;
for your dying priests;
for the souls of your priests in Purgatory.
But above all, I recommend to you the priests dearest to me:
the priest who baptized me;
the priests who absolved me from my sins;
the priests at whose Masses I assisted and who gave me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion;
the priests who taught and instructed me;
all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way
(especially …)
O Jesus, keep them all close to your heart,
and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity.
Amen

Of Priests and Puns and Penetration

In one episode of Big Bang, "Shamey," in the course of conducting a social experiment that involves the two of them starting a rumor that their relationship has become intimate, have a conversation. that goes something like this-

Amy: The meme has reached full penetration.
Sheldon: Pun intended?
Amy: No. Happy accident.
Sheldon: Interesting! So it went beyond the mere fact  to a blow by blow account, as it were.
Amy: Pun intended?
Sheldon: I'm sorry, what pun?

Well, what do you think of this -

 The church should smell like the world that it penetrates.

 - from a priest breaking open the Holy Father's admonishment to “be shepherds with the smell of sheep”  - happy accident, or intentional?

I don't know much of Fr Rosica, I gather he's sort of the Mother Angelica of Canada, is he wont to be humorous?

A Once Thought Endangered[?] Species, Rising Like the Phoenix

No, nothing to do with poor Cecil.... though it is Cecilian, after a fashion.

I am not a subscriber, but Church Times, (British and Anglican church, that is,) has a piece on the resurgence of plainchant, (the "oldest continuously sung repertoire in Western Europe." Was the qualifier of "Europe" necessary?)  that others may wish to, and have the means to, read.
It is in reference to Christopher Hodkinson reflecting on the publication by the RSCM of a guide to plainchant, and a revision of a work by Dr Mary Berry, .(all bow.. eh, Scott? :oD) whose current successor Mr Hodkinson is (not sure how many others in the years intervening...).
He also had this to say, about a Mass in Barking, (a place name I admit to having always loved) -

There are rare moments in life when we are privileged to see the world not merely as it is, but as it could be.
One such was a rainy Sunday morning a few months ago, when I was able to attend Mass in a parish I hadn’t visited before. By the time Mass began the church was packed full, with close to three hundred people present, including many families with children (fifty of the younger ones went out to the Sunday School during the Liturgy of the Word). A team of about eight boys processed with the priest to the altar, carrying candles and incense.
During the Introit, as at the Offertory and Communion, the small choir chanted the Proper texts of the day in English using Adam Bartlett’s Simple English Propers with light organ accompaniment. The music for the antiphon was provided to the congregation so that they could join in, but there was also time at each of these points to sing good, time-honoured hymns. As Mass continued, the priest sang his words to the tunes in the Roman Missal, and the congregation responded confidently. The Ordinary of the Mass was sung in Latin chant: Mass XI (Orbis factor) rather than the more widely-known Missa de Angelis. The strength of the congregational singing suggested deep familiarity with the Gregorian melodies, and this was demonstrated in stunning fashion at the Alleluia, where the whole congregation joined the choir in singing one of the authentic Gregorian Alleluia tones, complete with its melismatic jubilus.
Considered from an artistic point of view, the Mass demonstrated a pleasing aesthetic unity: a happy marriage of English and Latin chants and with some familiar hymns interspersed. In other words, the music served the liturgy, and was for the most part an integral part of it, so that the aesthetic experience was also a liturgical experience. The essential key to achieving this was the priest singing of his parts: the sung dialogue between priest and congregation impressing silently upon us that music was the medium by which the words of the liturgy became the praise of Almighty God.
Where, you might wonder, was this remarkable parish, this model of good liturgical praxis? This was a typical Sunday at St Mary and St Ethelburga, Barking.
At first sight Barking might seem like an unlikely venue for the scene I have described. The church is a modest brick building constructed in the 1970’s, with pews on three sides of the altar and a leaky roof. The congregation I saw was as diverse as any in the country; people who might be described as ‘White, British’ were certainly a minority, and the parish could hardly be described as wealthy. The choir consisted of a handful of faithful volunteers, led by an organist who helps out playing sacred music on Sunday mornings even though his real métier is jazz piano on Saturday nights. Perhaps the only indisputably excellent feature of the church is its small pipe organ, a chamber instrument with a lovely tone which was donated to the church some years ago.
If you are familiar with English parish life you will already realise—it could hardly be otherwise—that the liturgical achievements of the parish are largely due to the tireless work over many years of the parish priest, Fr William Young. Possessed of few resources and largely self-taught, he has nevertheless achieved a genuine realisation of the spirit of the liturgy in his parish; a celebration that is at once genuinely inclusive, culturally rooted and faithful to the practice of the Church.
If this can be achieved in Barking, it is hard to see why it cannot be achieved everywhere.

Also, word of a workshop

Prurience...

Did you know the root of that word is the Latin for "itch"?

Suffering  from pruritus because apparently I am illiterate.
Or just careless... how did I not know that some pre-grated cheeses are coated with corn starch to prevent caking? (I thought they all used cellulose.)
It's not as if I didn't know that the particular allergen behind my problems is ubiquitous.

Anyway, ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

“Thailand is a heaven for the transgender community. I believe America has much to learn from this beautiful culture”

'Cause it's all about "education”.

And what is it that we can learn from the Thai approach to human sexuality? their appreciation of human dignity?

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/24/fighting-child-sex-slavery-in-thailand/

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/637492/tip-report-a-harsh-picture

http://wgbhnews.org/post/human-trafficking-one-town-thailand

http://www.travelculturemag.com/thailands-sex-trade-industry/

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/28/thailand-us-human-trafficking-slavery-report

http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/thailand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_trafficking_of_women_and_children_in_Thailand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_prostitution_in_Thailand

http://www.theindependent.com/news/local/kearney-woman-tells-of-abuse-in-sex-trade-as-a/article_1cb6fc38-a9d1-11e4-ba0c-ab76294bb88f.html


Technically, prostitution in the Kingdom has been illegal since the 1960’s but the Thai Government has encouraged it due to the vast amount of revenue it brings to the country’s economy. Truth be told Thailand has gained an international reputation for the mass availability of girls for sale and the nation has been referred to as “the brothel of the world. "

Godfather.... erm, Godmother... Godparent?

The selection by parents of godparents has become a very debased procedure in the Church in this country, as far as I can observe.
In what I take, (from movies and tv,) to be the Anglican/British understanding, godparents are chosen as a way to honor ones friend or relative, and insure the receipt of sterling baby mugs, so really, the more the merrier, let's get some swag!
And that is the way far too many Catholics look on the proceedings in this country.
Is the father who seeks to rope his baptised Catholic but now vaguely agnostic drinking buddy into the role, or the Mom who asks her best friend, oh, really, you're Jewish? at much remove from the poor souls in this story, when it gets right down to it?

Alex Salinas is 21 years old. [S]He was assigned [observed to be] female at birth, but is now living as his authentic self as a man. [S]He is a "firm believer" and wants to be a godparent at his her nephew's baptism but the diocese of Cadiz and Ceuta is standing in his her way. According to them, [s]he is not a "suitable" person because of the life [s]he leads, a life not "congruent with faith.”
However, they do not find their argument to be discriminatory.The diocese says that. in responding to the petition they received from Salinas to be a godparent at the baptism, the priest maintained a "cordial conversation" with him [her], indicating that [s]he must fulfill the requisites stated in the Code of Canon Law which requires that any godfather or godmother at a baptism "be Catholic, be confirmed, have received the holy sacrament of the Eucharist and, at the same time, live a life congruent with faith and the mission they are assuming."
The statement insists that in the "long chat that protected the feelings of the applicant, the priest encouraged him [her] to live congruently with faith" and that, despite not being a godparent at the baptism, [s] he could participate in some way as a "spiritual godparent," and able to encourage and help his her nephew in his life of faith....

"To the church, I am still a woman, even though my documents of identification have changed," explained Alex Salinas, who wants the diocese to reconsider their decision, which [s]he took "as a kick in the stomach" because he is a "firm believer."
Salinas, who since February of last year has had the I.D. of a man and is on a waiting list for a gender confirmation surgery, [well, there's some Newspeak, for you, "gender CONFIRMATION surgery"?] does not understand the Church's refusal ...
The young man, who identifies as Catholic, said at first the parish of San Fernando de Cadiz did not object to him being a godparent in the religious ceremony.

However, upon asking the diocese for documentation for the baptism, the parish told him he could not carry out the role.
The young [wo]man then appealed to other parishes in the town, but found all of them greeted him [her] with the same response.

"Identifies as" is rapidly becoming the most over-used and finally, meaningless phrase in the language.
Is a person who does not believe what the Church says, or do as the Church asks, or follow what the Church teaches, really "Catholic" in any meaningful sense, regardless of how he "identifies"?

I now identify as someone in want of another cup of coffee, so I shall make an end to this....

"Who Should Be Allowed to Compete as a Female Athlete?"

Well, apparently, anyone who claims to be female.
EARLY ENOUGH.

Yes, it seems that there was an unrealistic and unreasonable physiological standard created, and the solution to that unfair practice, instead of, oh, I dunno, common sense? chromosomes and genitalia? no, it ought to be whatever the athlete "felt," himself to be at a youngish age.
So now, you see, there really IS a reason, (at least among those skilled in athletics,) for children being pressed into a decision, into taking life-altering stands, while still, well, children, an acceptance, of... what?

My Life as Sitcom

So, asked to do some voice-over work.
First actual work in, well, forever, it seems.
On my way to studio.
Stop for a quick cup o' joe.
Now suffering, (only very slightly,) from two ills, horrific and highly visible urticaria, and coffee-breath.
Have a remedy for each, diphenhydramine for the hives, spearmint gum for the halitosis.
I keep gum tablets in an old pill bottle, because I can't stand the way those foil packs fall apart in my purse.
The bottle happens to be an old one from the antihistimine I use.
I shake out one electric blue gelcap and one piece of gum into their respective bottle caps.

        

(You can see where this is going, can't you?)
So yeah, I pop the gum in my mouth, swallow it with a bit of water and chomp down on the medicine, contents of gelcap gushes out.
Worst taste I have ever had, EVER had, in my mouth.
No biggie, right?

Except it turns out that this liquid form of diphenhydramine numbs my tongue and gums and cheek, so I now can't feel one whole side of my mouth.
Kramer knows what I'm talking about.

Claire Dunphy know what I'm talking about.

 

Soldier on, head to studio and try to record copy in my altered state.
Hilarity ensues.
Honest, I wouldn't let me out without a keeper.....

"It Should Be Admitted That Love Can Indeed End"

Or so says a German moral theologian.

“If two persons make the definitive decision of a common project of life, this does not mean they cannot review their choice.”

Okay, great, a performance review, maybe every six months or so, even quarterly at the beginning.

You know, because being a spouse is like being a priest, it is, first and foremost, a job. A "project."
Well, of course! Sometimes, on a big project, your team needs to bring in outside help.

Perhaps a second or third marriage should be understood in that light, outside help, to keep the project going on budget and on schedule.
Hell, mistresses and lovers could be looked at that way, couldn't they?
Thanks, Professor Schokenhoff! 

You know, I used to love crunchy peanut butter. 
So when I went to the supermarket, since that's what I preferred, that's what I bought.
It was a "definitive decision," unquestionably.
But upon review, this year I decided I'd rather have creamy.
More to the point, love had indeed ended.
I don't love any kind of peanut butter anymore.

I can't help it.

Snarking aside -what in blazes does this theologian think "love" is, to what adolescent definition does he hold?
An emotion? coupled with a stirring of the loins?
No!
Not just "no," but  HELL, NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To the Christian, love, and especially marital love is an act of the will, a resolution to persevere in self-donation, an echo, however faint, of God's unconditional and unending love.

It is not the lightly considered acceptance of a responsibility, a burden that one is later free to cast aside.
It is not some temporary preference, which alters when it alteration finds.

A "love" which cost nothing, a "love" that doe not call us to sacrifice, a "love" for which we are willing to lay out nothing - this is not Love.

God's passionate love for his people—for humanity—is at the same time a forgiving love. It is so great that it turns God against himself, his love against his justice.... His death on the Cross is the culmination of that turning of God against himself in which he gives himself in order to raise man up and save him. This is love in its most radical form. By contemplating the pierced side of Christ we can understand the starting-point of this Encyclical Letter: “God is love”.  It is there that this truth can be contemplated. It is from there that our definition of love must begin. 

There has been a bit of a buzz in the nation of Catholicistan here on those Interwebs, about the way instead of our acknowledging that God is love, we make love into our God.
I say that if we know that Love is the highest good, we cannot claim that we have given our love to another unless we have also tried to give God to him.

And how could such a love ever end?

Can America " Respect the Legitimate Values and World View of Other Peoples"?

Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of Oyo, who is Nigerian, responded to Obama's advocacy [of homosexual rights] saying, “Most Africans care about religious values, about the family, about the complementary nature of man and woman and the culture that makes us Africans. Why can we not choose what 'benevolence' to accept from the West? Why can we not just be helped to fight corruption, terrorism, unemployment disease and illiteracy?”
“Nobody should be killed for private wayward or immoral behaviors that do not compromise other people's lives,” the bishop affirmed, “but that does not mean all kinds of exotic sexual adventure must be foisted on other nationalities in the name of rights.”
“America claims to be a great democracy and the proof of that fact will be found in her capacity for sincere dialogue and readiness to respect the legitimate values and world view of other peoples,” Bishop Badejo concluded.

Before Obama’s visit, 700 evangelical pastors in Africa had written asking him not to use his trip gender ideology and the homosexual agenda.

Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila has noted that foreign aid given to the Philippines is oftentimes is linked to some measures that the receiving country is somehow forced to accept … some of the conditions for the aid seem to be an acceptance or a welcoming of some views regarding marriage, or sexuality, or what, which could be alien to the vision of the receiving country or culture.”
And Bishop Badejo, the Nigerian who chairs communications for the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), said in a February interview with Aleteia that the U.S. has made its help in fighting the radical Islamist group Boko Haram contingent on the Nigeria's support of homosexual acts.
“The United States actually said it would help Nigeria with Boko Haram only if we modify our laws concerning homosexuality, family planning and birth control,” he said.
“It’s very clear that a cultural imperialism exists. In fact, I think that Africa is suffering greatly from a cultural imperialism that threatens to erode our cultural values.”

Let me get this straight.
In offering to lift economic sanctions against a foreign power that unquestionably means us harm, it was not expedient to tie the deal to the release of Americans being held hostage there, (and I'm willing to believe that that was indeed the best deal that could be brokered at this time,) but we have no qualms about withholding support to friendly nations in their conflict against a terrorist oganization that is part of a global network which would wipe us off the face of the earth without hesitation because those nations and their peoples do not subscribe to the views currently in vogue in our country regarding sex?
Do I have that right?

Thanks anyway, America....

 

Want to Help Middle East Christians?

Heres how.

As Christians continue to face unprecedented persecution – especially in the Middle East – the Knights of Columbus have announced a new campaign to send humanitarian aid and raise awareness about their plight.
...the Knights of Columbus is responding by asking our own members, and the public at large, to help us save the lives of people who are being persecuted simply because of their Christian faith,” Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said...
The Knights launched their Christian Refugee Relief Fund last August with a $1 million matching fund, but the need for support still remains great today. To date, the organization and its members have given over $3 million in support of the cause.
In her July 22 article for The New York Times Magazine, “Is This The End of Christianity in the Middle East?” Eliza Oswold cited a Pew study which said that Christians are now facing more persecution “than at any time since their early history.”
Mr. Anderson voiced his concern over the lack of attention given to the issue saying, “Christians in the Middle East are facing a dire situation – and even extinction – while the response from the international community has been woefully inadequate.”
Those who wish to help the Knights of Columbus in providing assistance to persecuted Christians can make a donation on their website, christiansatrisk.org or send a check or money order payable to Knights of Columbus Charities at P.O. Box 1966, New Haven, CT 06509-1966. The memo portion should indicate that the check is for Christian Refugee Relief.

Show me the way to go home....

...I'm tired and I want to go to bed.
No, that's not true.
Or actually, it is true, but it's not my theme.
On a thread over at the CMAA messageboard wherein the oft vaunted virtues of vernacular are invoked, and by some, vented upon, the merits of Latin as the Roman Church's sacred language was neatly put like this, by the musician blogger Adam Wood:

The most important reason to retain Latin is that language carries culture.

Every immigrant group has realized this, and every native tribe after colonization --- when the children stop learning the old language, they abandon the old culture. When hegemonic political regimes want to control and subdue a culture, they forcibly remove the language --- think of Ireland, Native Americans, Native Australians, and Cantonese speakers in China....

Latin is the language of Catholic culture. If we lose it, we lose who we are as a people. Or perhaps we already have. 

I do not share his pessimism, or at least his doubt. We, the Church, the Faith, the faithful have not and we shall not lose it.
Not to say that  their aren't plenty of poor little lambs who have gone astray out there, just that the Shepherd will supply ... you know the rest.
There will always be that remnant, even when the glories of the Israel's forest, 

and of his fruitful land the Lord will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away. The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down.
In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean upon him that smote them, but will lean upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

I firmly believe that so long as a single child remembers the way home, the family can never be truly lost.

The Evangelical Power of Beauty

This is just far too lovely a story not to share every way possible.
It's titled "What it's all about", (and I'll give you a clue, it ain't the bass,) and it comes from a musician on the CMAA forum called Hugh:

We said farewell today to a wonderful young man who is about to return to France after a year's study here in Melbourne (Australia). As I said goodbye, he reminded me of another French student he had brought along in Holy Week to listen to our choir at Tenebrae (Victoria Responses, Allegri Miserere, chant).

That young man, already back in Paris, rang my friend recently to say he was now receiving instruction and will be baptized in a couple of weeks!

My friend put it beautifully: "He came for the music. He left with the Faith." 

"Of course I accepted the brains. It really wasn't my concern where they came from and how they were brought to me.”

So said one scientist, some years ago.
A modern day doctor has pretty much the same take on procuring human organs, because the donation is a “compassionate gesture...that is very generous and very altruistic.”

Thank goodness we have journalists to inform us, “fetal tissue extraction is for medical purposes and in some ways, is the silver lining of a very difficult process.”

If only Oskar Groening had had the compassion and generosity and altruism to keep track of body parts instead of cash - he could have received acclaim from the media, and grants from grateful governments, instead of, oh... standing trial  for war crimes.

He could have been the silver lining in the Holocaust.
And before anyone goes calling the Godwin's Law Corallary on me...

You compared my actions to the Nazis', therefore...

YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID! 

In some situations what would otherwise be hyperbolic comparisons are apt.

Moral Theologian Fay Vincent On the Year Of Mercy

“We are a terrifically forgiving country, in part because we have such a low standard of morality."

Okay, the former commissioner  of Major League Baseball was actually talking about Barry Bonds' steroid use, but it's a pretty hard truth there, huh?