Can Anything Good Come from the USCCB Fall Meeting ?

One shudders to think what this will yield.

Media Advisory - November Bishops' Meeting

October 3, 2006

Dear Editor/Station Manager:

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will hold its fall meeting at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront hotel, November 13-16, 2006. The agenda will include: approval of a reorganization plan for their national conference; approval of a revision of the Lectionary for Mass for selected days in the season of Advent, and a directory for music and the liturgy for use in the dioceses of the United States; approval of two documents from their Doctrine Committee- a proposed statement on receiving the sacrament of the Eucharist worthily, and proposed guidelines for ministry to persons with a homosexual inclination; and a document from the Pro-Life Committee offering pastoral guidance on the Church’s teaching concerning contraception, linked with a culture of life. The bishops will also elect a new Conference Secretary and several committee chairmen.

Please complete the required form if you seek accreditation to cover the meeting for your news organization. You must be a member of the news media to be considered for accreditation.

If you need a room at the Marriott, please call the hotel at 1-800-228-9290. Mention the USCCB group code USCUSCA.

Please let this office know if we can be of assistance to you.

Sincerely,

Bill Ryan

It is nice to note that the recent budget cuts by the USCCB will not affect their conference amenities. For a photo tour of the hotel you can go here.

A Child's Book of Lullabies

I just discovered this book and am enraptured. Why am I writing about this on Against All Heresies? Because by promoting motherhood, raising children and in general romanticizing family life we are fighting the modernist heresies of sterile individualism and self determinism.

The book is a collection of traditional lullabies, each accompanied by a Mary Cassatt painting. The audiotape has the lullabies beautifully played and sung. Each page of lyrics includes the piano music. Can't you just imagine a young lady playing these lullabies for her little sister or brother? I just ordered my copy from Half.com but make sure you get the book AND the audio tape.




And then I found this coloring book. In the series there is also a Degas coloring book for your little ballerina.

In general I do not tolerate sentimentalism. My preferred level of sentimentality would best be embodied by any one of the films composing the Rambo Trilogy. But this book, in my opinion does not fall victim to that regretable trap of overt, simpering sentimentality.

I think this will become my newest baby gift. Another excellent gift is the book Explaining the Mass to Young Children by Maria Montessori.

Milingo and pals, serving the Church

Like a lot of good articles I found this on Catholic World News affectionately known as the Catholic Drudge Report.

It is an editorial trying to promote sympathy for Bishop Milingo who is now excommunicated. The headline is eye catching- Did Milingo Marry Out of Vatican Frustation? it reads. Now that is a new way of describing one of the Seven Deadly Sins and I don't mean pride by the way. My thought was typical liberal tripe, not worth responding to or commenting on until I noticed the author:

FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO

Now it may be that Fr. Joachim is of another religion- perhaps episcopalian or the Moonie Church.

And from the article another adherent to the "new religion" of Milingo:

Bishop Milingo has been backed by a Kenyan priest Fr Godfrey Shiundu, who was recently relieved of his priestly duties after he married Stella Nangila in May this year, joining 150, 000 priests who have defied the Vatican’s mandatory law of celibacy.

According to Shiundu, Milingo did nothing wrong to warrant excommunication because the need to have Catholic priests marry is a feeling that is shared by many in the church, including priests who also want this freedom.

And is it just my imagination or is there an obvious reference to evolution here?

And with this statement:

In his book, Fished out of Mud, Milingo claims that Rev Moon had intended to use him to establish an African Catholic Church with him as its head, a gift he says he didn’t want to ignore.

we see that Milingo has done all this- marry, defy the Vatican, foment schism, for the sake of Ecumenism. Rationalization is an insidious thing. The Inquisition is too good for some people.

Bai McFarlane Back in Court Thursday

For anyone who has been following the sad events related to the McFarlane divorce, you may be interested to know that Bai will be back in court Thursday. The children's attorney, who made the recommendation to give the man who committed divorce custody of the four children, is after more money from Bai.

Her letter can be read here. I'm sure that any friends who can attend and lend their support would be most appreciated.

Bud McFarlane, who rakes in over $100,000 per year as head of the "non profit" (and I think we all know how that game works) Mary Foundation seems to be doing just fine. Bai who committed herself for life to the marriage and dedicated herself to homemaking and homeschooling, now has to find a job and pay him child support.

And that's Catholic marriage in the post modern world.

When they say Traditional they mean Antiquated

You know I got my hopes up when I saw the headline:

Four justices attend traditional church service before start of Supreme Court's new term.


But hey we'll take it.

WASHINGTON -- An audience that included four of the Supreme Court's Roman Catholics heard Washington's new archbishop on Sunday describe how religion has been a guiding principle in American history.

In a worship service traditionally held the day before the high court's new term, Cabinet members and foreign ambassadors joined the capital's legal community at the annual Red Mass.

Four of the five Roman Catholics on the high court -- Chief Justice John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas -- came to worship at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle.

Archbishop (soon to be Cardinal)Wuerl had some good thoughts:

In his first Red Mass in Washington since being appointed in May, Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl spoke of religion's relationship to public life.

"Morality and ethical considerations cannot be divorced from their religious antecedents," Wuerl said in his homily. "What we do and how we act, our morals and ethics, follow on what we believe. The religious convictions of a people sustain their moral decisions."

Wuerl said politics, law and faith mingle "because believers are also citizens. Church and state are home for the same people."

He called religious faith a "cornerstone in the American experience."

"May our religious faith, as a foundational part of our national experience, continue to nurture and sustain each branch of this society so that by its very connectedness to the vine, we can blossom and flourish," Wuerl said.

The origin:

Celebration of the Red Mass dates to the 13th century and is conducted to ask the Holy Spirit for guidance for those who seek justice. The Mass takes its name from the red vestments, symbolizing the Holy Spirit, worn by the celebrants.

Mama Lisa

According to a Fox news article, Mona Lisa was either expectant or a newly delivered mother. My vote is for newly delivered because her face looks thin.

From the article:

PARIS — Mona Lisa, the woman depicted in Leonardo da Vinci's 16th century masterpiece, was either pregnant or had recently given birth when she sat for the painting, a French art expert said Wednesday.

"Thanks to laser scanning, we were able to uncover the very fine gauze veil Mona Lisa was wearing on her dress. This was something typical for either soon-to-be or new mothers at the time," Michel Menu, research director of the French Museums' Center for Research and Restoration, said on LCI television.

Menu said a number of art historians had suggested that she was pregnant or had just given birth.

Researchers have established that the picture was of Lisa Gherardini, wife of obscure Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocond, and that da Vinci started painting it in 1503.

St. Pio photos

Some rare photos of St. Pio from a Remnant website.

Sr. Leonella, the Lioness

The body of Sr. Leonella Sgorbati may she rest in peace.

Though the facts are well known, I could not help but be struck by a few things.

1. As Sr. Leonella lay dying she said "I forgive". The similarities between her dying moments and St. Maria Goretti are unmistakable. I think we can look for her cause for canonization soon. How glorious to be martryed for the love of God. And how sad for the murderers who killed a nurse who had devoted her life to caring for babies and mothers and was in the process of beginning a new nursing school to train more nurses.

2. The website of the Consolata Missionaries can be found here. A gallery of pictures of the sisters can be seen here. At a time when so many orders have abandoned the habit, Sr. Leonella was gunned down proudly wearing the garb that distinguished her as a Bride of Christ. At 12:30pm she was shot as she crossed the street outside the hospital. She was no doubt going to lunch. Did her habit make her a target- undoubtedly.

3. Sr. Leonella used to say that there was a bullet with her name on it. Prophetic and in Somalia somehow inevitable I suppose. I admire someone who can joke about their death. The courage of a lioness she had.

4. Mogadishu, Somalia. It's like deja vu all over again. This is where it all began with Al Qaeda and Bin Laden and their attack on the West and civilization. And I am relieved that Sr. Leonella was not subject to the same indignities as our American soldiers who were dragged through the streets for the crime of feeding the hungry in Somalia.

No good deed ever goes unpunished. God bless Sr. Leonella and may her example inspire us to greater things than we might otherwise have attempted.

Fait Accompli?

We have a Press Release from the Vatican but not a document. I suppose it's a start.

COMMUNIQUE CONCERNING ARCHBISHOP EMMANUEL MILINGO

VATICAN CITY, SEP 26, 2006 (VIS) - The Holy See Press Office today released a communique concerning the present ecclesial position of Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo. The text of the communique is given below:

"With great concern, the Holy See has followed the recent activities of Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, emeritus of Lusaka, Zambia, with his new association of married priests, spreading division and confusion among the faithful.

"Church representatives of various levels have tried in vain to contact Archbishop Milingo in order to dissuade him from persisting in actions that provoke scandal, especially among the faithful who followed his pastoral ministry in favor of the poor and the sick.

"Bearing in mind the understanding shown, also recently, by Peter's Successor towards this aged pastor of the Church, the Holy See has awaited with vigilant patience the evolution of events which, unfortunately, have led Archbishop Milingo to a position of irregularity and of progressively open rupture of communion with the Church, first with his attempted marriage and then with the ordination of four bishops on Sunday, September 24, in Washington D.C., U.S.A.

"For this public act both Archbishop Milingo and the four ordinands have incurred excommunication 'latae sententiae,' as laid down in Canon 1382 of the Code of Canon Law. Moreover, the Church does not recognize, nor does she intend to recognize in the future, these ordinations and all ordinations deriving from them; and she considers the canonical status of the four supposed-bishops as being that they held prior to this ordination.

The Apostolic See, attentive to the unity and peace of the flock of Christ, had hoped that the fraternal influence of people close to Archbishop Milingo would cause him to rethink and return to full communion with the Pope. Unfortunately the latest developments have made these hopes more unlikely.

"At times of ecclesial suffering such as these, may prayers intensify among all the community of the faithful."
OP/ARCHBISHOP MILINGO/... VIS 060926 (330)

Scooped on Milingo?

I've had a few comments that I've been "scooped" on Bishop Milingo. Now how could I be "scooped" when I'm not a reporter? I guess the confusion is natural since what I write is true and real.

But to get back to the matter at hand in the strange and illuminating case of Bishop Milingo. The reason this whole unpleasantness came up arose from a discussion about the SSPX and how it was disciplined by Rome. Our contention was that liberals are allowed freedom to spew their error and heresy without correction while Traditionalists are smacked down immediately.

"Give us an example" the comboxes screamed.

Well Bishop Milingo fell right into my lap. (my apologies to Maria Sung) A few years ago he married during a Moonie religious service. After several months he repudiated the marriage and was back in the good graces of all. Forgive and forget. Then last Spring he disappeared from Rome. He resurfaced this past July at a Washington press conference calling for married priests, vowing to reunite with his "wife" and proposing to start a new movement of married Roman Catholic Clergy. His statements promoted "concern" from the Vatican but no official action.

Until this letter, detailed in this story:

"Your behavior, activities and public statements during these past few months are completely contrary to the obligation of every bishop," Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re wrote in a letter to Milingo that the archbishop showed The Associated Press. "In the name of Jesus Christ, I beg you to reflect seriously on your behavior and all its consequences."

Bishop Milingo was unrepentant and defiant and sponsored a "Married Priests Now" weekend in New Jersey. Details of his organization and the weekend are on his yahoogroups website.

The very latest and the scoop is that this past weekend, September 23rd to be exact, Bishop Milingo "installed" four Bishops, all married. The similarities to the SSPX are unbelievable. Well, except for one tiny thing.

Anyone remember Eccesia Dei Afflicta?

On June 30, 1988 Archbishop Lefevre installed four Bishops.
On July 1, 1988 Archbishop Lefevre as warned by the Prefect for the Congregation of Bishops that he could be excommunicated under Canon 1382.
On July 2, 1988 the document from Pope John Paul II was delivered to Archbishop Lefevre.

So by my calculations the warning should have been issued yesterday the 24th and the document of excommunication should be delivered today.

Did You Ever Notice?

Muslims can insult us but we can't offend them.
They own all the oil but they can't get it out of the ground without us.
We can't defend ourselves but they can call for jihad.

Do you remember when on 9/11 George Bush asked Americans to fly the American flag as a show of solidarity and unity and hope. I think in this present time all Catholics should fly the Vatican flag. And I suggest this only because it appears impossible to purchase a Crusader flag. (Here is an idea for an entrepreneur).

Those Who Live By the Sword

Well you know what I mean.

First the Muslims were rioting because France wasn't giving them jobs and money.
Then the Muslims were rioting because they didn't like some political cartoons.
Now the Muslims are rioting because of a 14th century medieval statement that the Holy Father quoted.

Using violence to prove that you are the religion of peace- brilliant.

What the Pope quoted:

"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".

Hard to argue with that, especially when the flag of Saudi Arabia depicts- a sword.

Holy Trinity Indult in Boston

In the last month, on 2 occasions, Parishoners who arrived at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Boston to attend the Traditional Latin Mass have been told that the Mass would be in English due to scheduling conflicts.

The article is here in South End News.

It appears there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Question: Is the Indult on the decline?

Intelligence and the Divine Creation

About the Sculpture:

In his decoration of the Cathedral of Saint Lazare in Autun, France, French sculptor Gislebertus produced some of the most inventive, expressive work of the Romanesque period. Carved in the early 12th century, his elongated, snakelike Eve was the first large-scale nude to appear in European art since the days of ancient Rome. The sculpture is in the Musée Rolin in Autun.

Today in this study, John Philippe Rushton, a scientist states that he has proven that men are smarter than women and by a full 4 IQ points no less. The reasons for men's intellectual superiority are thought to be related to brain size, more neurons equalling better and faster reasoning.

This all reminds me of a joke I once heard. Adam was walking with God in the Garden of Eden and he had a few questions to ask of God. "God", he asked, "Why did you make woman so beautiful?" God answered, "So that you would love her my son. And God, "Why did you make woman so soft?" Again God answered, "So that you would love her my son."

Adam had one final question for God. "But God, why did you make woman so stupid?". God's answer, "So that she would love you, my son."

Loyalty

What constitutes loyalty to Rome, the Chair and its occupant, the Holy Father? Obedience and loyalty are the hallmark of the saint. Has a false sense of loyalty misled people? Has the mantra of "obedience" been the brickbat we have allowed ourselves to be bludgeoned with in some cases?

When I first read about the newly erected Institute of the Good Shepherd, yet another Traditional Latin Mass order of priests, I wondered what is wrong with the Fraternity of St. Peter or even Institute of Christ the King? Why were the priests and seminarians who have been kicked out of the SSPX been given an entirely new Institute rather than be assigned to an established order?

And how can anyone forget the disastrous results of the establishement of the Society of St. John.

On one hand you could say that Rome is intent on producing numerous Latin Mass orders and as the numbers of parishoners and vocations increases there will be less a question of Tridentine or Novus Ordo but of which Church has a priest who says Mass rather than a Communion service led by a Pastoral Associate. Some see this is an indication of a sign to the SSPX that Rome is waiting with arms outstretched. The cynical amongst us says it is a simple strategy of divide and conquer.

In 1988, a group of former SSPX priests approached Rome and received permission to form the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter, choosing the name to demonstrate their loyalty to Rome and Tradition. After the Protocol 1411, their fortunes appear to have suffered and the bloom is off the rose. In a public relations sense I don't think they have recovered from it. Doubted by Traditionalists as having been forced to compromise and suspected by liberals for their "schismatic tendencies" they were dealt a blow.

On September 1, 1990, the Institute of Christ the King was erected canonically. Currently, they seem to be the golden boy of the Traditionalist movement. They have 35 houses in 10 countries and 60 seminarians. They seem to avoid controversy. Maybe it is their commitment to charity that has aided them.

On September 8, 2004 Bishop Rifan of Campos, Brazil is accused of having concelebrated the Novus Ordo. A claim the Bishop denies saying he was present at the Mass in a show of unity. Lambasted by intractable conservatives and the SSPX alike he seems to have lost some of his sheen. Critics say he compromised and betrayed the movement.

Just 2 years later on September 8, 2006- which seems like an interesting coincidence the Institute of the Good Shepherd is announced and its priests will say the Traditional Latin Mass exclusively. They are based in Bordeaux, France and consist of 5 priests and a number of seminarians who will be ordained by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos.

It's almost like deja vu all over again. The Fraternity began as an Order who wished to say the Traditional Latin Mass exclusively. Their aspirations were checked. Will the Institute of the Good Shepherd fare in the same way?

One interesting note- the Fraternity priests who formed the FSSP left the SSPX on their own initiative. The Society of St. John priests (now disbanded) were kicked out. The priests and seminarians of the Institute of the Good Shepherd were also kicked out. I'm not drawing any comparisons- please God there won't be any- but it is interesting to note.

One ancillary point, when 2 of the priests of the SSPX were removed and expelled they appealed to the local diocese for reinstatement. The Diocese ruled that they did have jurisdiction. They ruled (though to no avail) that the priests should be reinstated. For those who say the SSPX has absolutely no status and are effectively a protestant church, this obviously invalidates that point.

Death First

Before:

1. Surrender
2. Cowardice
3. Idolatry
4. Compromise
5. Sacrilege
6. Apostasy
7. Political Expediencey
8. Political Ambition
9. Schism
10. Sin

Traditional Catholic Women and Sports

It has been suggested that Traditional Catholic women, or girls for that matter should never engage in sports or any physical activity that involves competition. Critics believe that engaging in sports or athletics will make girls less feminine, more aggressive and compromise their modesty.

Leaving philosophy aside for a moment (never my strongpoint anyway)what is the natural and unfortunate result for the girl or young lady who never engages in physical exercise? Sadly I think obesity, poor health and a lack of stamina are the unavoidable eventualities. In marriage, once the babies start coming every year, as they do in the blessed Catholic marriage, it is difficult if not impossible to avoid it when one has never been active. Childbearing, child rearing, carrying around toddlers, especially uncooperative ones, heavy housework, moving furniture and keeping up with the day's demands are challenging enough when a mother is in excellent physical shape. When she is not the work is overwhelming.



If a prospective groom is looking for a wife who will lie upon a divan all day, direct the servants, supervise the nanny, entertain fainting spells, nurse depressed spirits and a nervous condition he would do very well to marry a woman who has never engaged in any activities or sports.

We have at least two examples of holy women who were avid athletes- St. Gianna del Molla was a mountaineer and skier and Venerable Maria Theresa Quevedo was a champion tennis player and the captain of her high school girls' basketball team. Neither compromised their femininity or modesty I dare say.

Philosophically speaking, what are the effects of sport on a woman's character? A woman learns perserverance, to overcome difficulty, to maintain a consistent effort in the face of adversity, to discipline her body, to work hard, graciousness in defeat and victory, teamwork, sacrifice, obedience to authority; all excellent attributes for the wife and mother.

Myspace: Your Kids Uncensored

Wondering if your teenagers have ever tried drugs, are drinking alcohol, use profanity, or have friends who do?

There's an easy way to find out- Just check out their profiles on Myspace, Facebook, Xanga, Friendster, Bebo or My Yearbook. Though some teens have learned not to use their real names as titles it is easy to find them by searching using a nickname, their zip code and their age. Once you find your teen's site you can read their friends' comments, see the pictures they have posted and you have a peek into their world. You might be surprised at what you discover.

These sites are the equivalent on cyber Spring break- no adults (many teens believe), no rules, no restrictions and check your conscience at the door.

Is Myspace and the like neutral? Merely a tool than can be used or misused? I don't think so. Humans learn by imitation. When a young teen immerses him or herself in a world that glamorizes rebellion, rock and roll, rap, drug use, alcohol, and impure and suggestive poses your mind becomes imprinted with these images and values.

The tainting of Myspace with pornography is easily experienced with just a few minutes. Naturally the presence of 100 million members is an attractive audience to pornographers.

According to Wikipedia, Playboy in the June of 2006 issue featured a nude photo display called "Women of Myspace".

Some private schools are banning Myspace websites for their students. Colleges and employers are checking profiles to find out what candidates are really like and more importantly what values they hold.

Princeton Review Ranks Party Schools

According to this article, the top ten party schools are:

1. The University of Texas at Austin
2. Penn State University Park
3. West Virginia University
4. University of Wisconsin-Madison
5. University of Mississippi
6. Ohio University-Athens
7. University of Massachusetts-Amherst
8. Louisiana State University
9. University of Iowa
10. University of California-Santa Barbara

According to the Princeton Review's website these determinations were made:

"Based on a combination of survey questions concerning the use of alcohol and drugs, hours of study each day, and the popularity of the Greek system."

So the term party really means depravity and we all know what, though unmeasured follows from such decadent hedonism. Even more listing is the rankings of the "Stone Cold Sober Schools". It would be hard to be more perjorative than that!

They are:

1. Brigham Young University (UT)
2. Wheaton College (IL)
3. College of the Ozarks
4. Grove City College
5. United States Naval Academy
6. United States Coast Guard Academy
7. United States Air Force Academy
8. CUNY - Queens College
9. Wellesley College
10. Calvin College

Interestingly, BYU is Mormon. Wheaton, College of the Ozarks, Grove City and Calvin are Evangelical Protestant schools. The military academies speak for themselves and I can't imagine how Wellesley ended up on this list.

Now, I enjoy a drink as much as the next person. Well maybe even more than the next person, afterall I am Irish, but I am sorry to see that no Catholic schools made the list of those eschewing debauchery. Of course one could make the argument that the likes of Notre Dame, Boston College, Holy Cross, Georgetown, Catholic U are no longer really Catholic so it doesn't really matter.

The Holy Father to See Veronica's Veil

The Holy Father to journey to see Veronica's Veil this week.

"Lay Pope, Icon, Secular Saint"

This nut has a best selling book in Catholic Italy or should I say post-Catholic Italy. Some members of the hierarchy are rightly concerned. From this article by the Times ONline which can be found here in its entirety.

A spiritual book by a former journalist turned Asian mystic is having a far from peaceful impact in Italy. A book offering Asian mysticism and spirituality as the keys to life has become this summer’s bestseller in Roman Catholic Italy, provoking growing alarm at the Vatican.

La Fine è Il Mio Inizio (The End is My Beginning), by Tiziano Terzani, a former war correspondent, has sold 400,000 copies and gone into four editions since it was published posthumously in March — an astonishing figure in a country where bestseller normally means 100,000 copies.

Terzani, an expert on China and Japan who covered wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan before adopting a long white beard and robe and living in an Indian ashram, argues that people have an “innate moral sense” and do not need institutionalised religion to teach them right and wrong.

The former Communist, whose mother was a devout Catholic, outlines a philosophy of Indian spirituality, communion with nature and “the harmony of opposites” that he said helped him in his fight against cancer. He deplores the impact of Western materialism on Asia and describes how his growing pacifism made him a bitter opponent of war, and especially of the Bush Administration’s War on Terror.

This week Avvenire, Italy’s leading Catholic daily, accused Terzani of “leading people astray”. He had “completely lost sight of the incarnate and historical dimension of religious experience”. Alessandro Gnocchi, a Catholic author and television presenter, accused Terzani in the conservative newspaper Libero of peddling “a confused mixture of Oriental philosophy, Marxism and Christianity” that muddled “St Francis with Zen Buddhism”.

Vatican sources said that this was anathema to Pope Benedict XVI, who, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, warned of the dangers of trying to reconcile Oriental and New Age spirituality with Catholicism.

Terzani’s website has been indundated with admiring e-mails. The book was “a beautiful journey towards the authentic meaning of life,” reads one from Carlo. “I was knocked out,” writes Luisa.

“Terzani has become the lay Pope,” said Panorama magazine. La Stampa said that a “cult” had grown up around the former journalist, making him “an icon, a secular saint”.

Do you think it could have anything to do with this?



Scenes from the Interfaith Service at the Fatima Shrine where a Hindi "priest" offered a prayer to Vishnu and flowers to Devi at a Catholic altar. The "priest" came to the Shrine to take advantage of the "spiritual vibrations". Source- this article.

Ad Jesu Per Mariam

An excellent blog that you won't want to miss. Check out today's post entitled:

"Okay, Honey, Where's the Burqa?"

Great visuals and having lived in Saudi Arabia (known by its inhabitants as the "Royal Kingdom")this has a special appeal for me.

Family Tragedy in Dorcester, MA

Please pray for the repose of the souls of William and Dominic Davulis. Dominic Davulis was diagnosed with a brain tumor last December and died at 12:50am. As he was dying he was asking family members to "go with him". His oldest brother William, 26 said he would. In a tragic accident, William was killed in a motorcycle accident on his way to say good bye to Dominic. He died at 4:35pm just 8 1/2 hours before Dominic died.

The Boston Herald Article is here. Dominic was an altar boy at Holy Trinity Church, the Indult in Boston and had attended Montfort Catholic Boys camp run by the Saint Benedict Center.

Donations for burial costs would be very much appreciated and can be sent here:

c/o the Davulis Family
3 Oyster Bay Road. Apt. 36
Dorchester, MA 02125


Eternal rest grant unto them and may perpetual light shine upon them. Amen

The Noble, the Beautiful, and the Heroic

A very interesting article about how things have changed and what this author remembers are true leisure can be found here.


Mitchell Kalpakgian is an Adjunct Professor of English at St. Anselm College and Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire. I'm sorry to say with countercultural statements like these he is unlikely to make tenure. Couldn't he write something about how rap and hip hop are freeing our souls?

A sample:

This habit of daily reading has become rare in the lives of young people, who are diverted by video games, the Internet, and DVD players, and who lack the imaginative life cultivated by the reading of good and great literature. Reading forms the memory, develops the interior life, whets an appetite for the magic of words, and provides a knowledge of men and manners that video culture and information highways can never duplicate. Reading the classics exposes a person to the timeless realities of the noble, the beautiful, and the heroic. When reading ceases to be a normal activity and daily pleasure, the mind dulls. The wisdom of the past does not inform the thought of the present, and a standard of comparison that judges modern life by contrasting it with older times is missing. A simple joy, the exquisite pleasure of reading is replaced with superficial diversions.

She's Come Undone

Has she finally gone too far? Will she be excommunicated for blasphemy? It took Sinead O'Connor being "ordained" for her to be excommunicated. Nice to see Muslim and Jewish leaders join in the denunciation. That's my kind of ecumenism.

From the article:

Cardinal Ersilio Tonino, speaking with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI said: "This time the limits have really been pushed too far.

"This concert is a blashphemous challenge to the faith and a profanation of the cross. She should be excommunicated."

"It is disrespectful, in bad taste and provocative," Father Manfredo Leone from Rome's Santa Maria Liberatrice church said late on Wednesday about the star's latest stage stunt.

"Being raised on a cross with a crown of thorns like a modern Christ is absurd. Doing it in the cradle of Christianity comes close to blasphemy."

Unfailing Novena to St. Joseph

Oh, St Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires. Oh, St Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your divine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers. Oh, St Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. St Joseph, Patron of departing souls, Pray for me.

The Early Church Fathers on No Salvation Outside the Church

Saint Irenaeus (died A.D. 202): "[The Church] is the entrance to
life; all others are thieves and robbers. On this account we are
bound to avoid them... We hear it declared of the unbelieving and
the blinded of this world that they shall not inherit the world of
life which is to come... Resist them in defense of the only true and
life giving faith, which the Church has received from the Apostles
and imparted to her sons." (Against Heresies, Book III)

Origen (died A.D. 254): "Let no man deceive himself. Outside this
house, that is, outside the Church no one is saved." (In Iesu Nave
homiliae)

Saint Cyprian (died A.D. 258): "He who has turned his back on the
Church of Christ shall not come to the rewards of Christ; he is an
alien, a worldling, an enemy. You cannot have God for your Father if
you have not the Church for your mother. Our Lord warns us when He
says: `he that is not with Me is against Me, and he that gathereth
not with Me scattereth.' Whosoever breaks the peace and harmony of
Christ acts against Christ; whoever gathers elsewhere than in the
Church scatters the Church of Christ." (Unity of the Catholic Church)

"He who does not hold this unity, does not hold the law of God, does
not hold the faith of the Father and the Son, does not hold life and
salvation." (Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Latina, Father Migne)

"Nay, though they should suffer death for the confession of the
Name, the guilt of such men is not removed even by their blood...No
martyr can he be who is not in the Church." (Ancient Christian
Writers)

Bishop Firmilean (died A.D. 269): "What is the greatness of his
error, and what the depth of his blindness, who says that remission
of sins can be granted in the synagogues of heretics, and does not
abide on the foundation of the one Church." (Anti-Nicene Fathers)

Lactantius (died A.D. 310): "It is the Catholic Church alone which
retains true worship. This is the fountain of truth, this is the
abode of the Faith, this is the temple of God; into which if anyone
shall not enter, or from which if anyone shall go out, he is a
stranger to the hope of life and eternal salvation." (The Divine
Institutes)

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (died A.D. 386): "Abhor all heretics...heed
not their fair speaking or their mock humility; for they are
serpents, a `brood of vipers.' Remember that, when Judas said `Hail
Rabbi,' the salutation was an act of betrayal. Do not be deceived by
the kiss but beware of the venom. Abhor such men, therefore, and
shun the blasphemers of the Holy Spirit, for whom there is no
pardon. For what fellowship have you with men without hope. Let us
confidently say to God regarding all heretics, `Did I not hate, O
Lord, those who hated Thee, and did I not pine away because of Your
enemies?' For there is an enmity that is laudable, as it is written,
`I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and
her seed.' Friendship with the serpent produces enmity with God, and
death. Let us shun those from whom God turns away." (The Fathers of
the Church)

Saint Ambrose (died A.D. 397): "Where Peter is therefore, there is
the Church. Where the Church is there is not death but life
eternal. ...Although many call themselves Christians, they usurp the
name and do not have the reward." (The Fathers of the Church)

Bishop Niceta of Remesiana (died A.D. 415): "He is the Way along
which we journey to our salvation; the Truth, because He rejects
what is false; the Life, because He destroys death. ...All who from
the beginning of the world were, or are, or will be justified -
whether Patriarchs, like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or Prophets,
whether Apostles or martyrs, or any others - make up one Church,
because they are made holy by one faith and way of life, stamped
with one Spirit, made into one Body whose Head, as we are told, is
Christ. I go further. The angels and virtues and powers in heaven
are co-members in this one Church, for, as the Apostle teaches us,
in Christ `all things whether on the earth or in the heavens have
been reconciled.' You must believe, therefore, that in this one
Church you are gathered into the Communion of Saints. You must know
that this is the one Catholic Church established throughout the
world, and with it you must remain in unshaken communion. There are,
indeed, other so called `churches' with which you can have no
communion. ...These `churches' cease to be holy, because they were
deceived by the doctrines of the devil to believe and behave
differently from what Christ commanded and from the tradition of the
Apostles." (The Fathers of the Church)

Saint Jerome (died A.D. 420): "As I follow no leader save Christ, so
I communicate with none but your blessedness, that is, with the
Chair of Peter. For this, I know, is the rock on which the Church is
built. ...This is the ark of Noah, and he who is not found in it
shall perish when the flood prevails. ...And as for heretics, I have
never spared them; on the contrary, I have seen to it in every
possible way that the Church's enemies are also my enemies." (Manual
of Patrology and History of Theology)

Saint Augustine (died A.D. 430): "No man can find salvation except
in the Catholic Church. Outside the Catholic Church one can have
everything except salvation. One can have honor, one can have the
sacraments, one can sing alleluia, one can answer amen, one can have
faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost, and preach it too, but never can one find salvation except in
the Catholic Church." (Sermo ad Caesariensis Ecclesia plebem)

Saint Fulgentius (died A.D. 533): "Most firmly hold and never doubt
that not only pagans, but also all Jews, all heretics, and all
schismatics who finish this life outside of the Catholic Church,
will go into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his
angels." (Enchiridion Patristicum)

St. Bede the Venerable (died A.D. 735): "Just as all within the ark
were saved and all outside of it were carried away when the flood
came, so when all who are pre-ordained to eternal life have entered
the Church, the end of the world will come and all will perish who
are found outside." (Hexaemeron)

Saint Thomas Aquinas (died A.D. 1274): "There is no entering into
salvation outside the Church, just as in the time of the deluge
there was none outside the ark, which denotes the Church." (Summa
Theologiae)

Saint Peter Canisius (died A.D. 1597): "Outside of this communion -
as outside of the ark of Noah - there is absolutely no salvation for
mortals: not for Jews or pagans who never received the faith of the
Church, nor for heretics who, having received it, corrupted it;
neither for the excommunicated or those who for any other serious
cause deserve to be put away and separated from the body of the
Church like pernicious members...for the rule of Cyprian and
Augustine is certain: he will not have God for his Father who would
not have the Church for his mother." (Catechismi Latini et Germanici)

Saint Robert Bellarmine (died A.D. 1621): "Outside the Church there
is no salvation...therefore in the symbol [Apostles Creed] we join
together the Church with the remission of sins: `I believe in the
Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of
sins'...For this reason the Church is compared with the ark of Noah,
because just as during the deluge, everyone perished who was not in
the ark, so now those perish who are not in the Church." (De
Sacramento Baptismi)

This list is not exhaustive, but our point is made. It is clear
that, throughout her 2000-year history, the Church has constantly
and consistently taught that, if a man does not accept the faith of
Christ and enter into His Church and subject himself to the
authority of the Roman Pontiff, he cannot be saved. The language
used to express this doctrine has always been simple, direct and
unequivocal - no "if"s, "and"s or "but"s. This is the true "context
of the entire teaching of the Church on this matter" down through
the centuries.

No Salvation Outside the Church

The excellent Diogenes has this post about Mel Gibson and the anti-Catholic Boston Globe. It's just too good to miss.

New Traditionalist Blog of note

A new and very worthy blog- Dust of Time. She will be added to my Les Femmes Sinister list and referred to frequently.

Milingo at large

Photo taken at the National Press Club July 2006


...for any official action on Bishop Milingo, you will have to wait a bit longer. Bishop Lungu says that the Church is "aggrieved" at Milingo's actions and statements.

The Bishop's comments:

"We were proud of him because he is a child of Chipata Diocese. We were proud of his gifts, he was a model of our priesthood in terms of loving the Church. He used to strengthen us by his service to the Church, but what has prompted him to do what he did, to say what he said, what message is he going to give to us young ones?" Bishop Lungu asked. He urged Christians to pray for Archbishop Milingo for what he had done.

"To us our conclusion is to put him in prayers. We are not putting him in the hands of Maria Sung, but in the hands of Mary the mother of the Saviour. It's no laughing matter, he needs prayers, he is our son, the son of this diocese," he said.

Archbishop Milingo, whose 2001 marriage to a Korean acupuncturist caused a series of controversial actions, announced on July 12 in Washington that he wanted to change the Roman Catholic discipline on celibacy and reconcile an estimated 150,000 married priests worldwide with the Church to allow them to resume priestly ministry.

Bishop Lungu added that Catholic priests in Chipata Diocese would try to be faithful to their vow of celibacy.

"On behalf of my fellow Catholic clergy in this diocese, I would like to assure the Catholic community in Eastern Province, the Catholic community in the world, Christians from other churches and sympathisers that we the clergy in this diocese shall strive to remain faithful to our vow of celibacy, vow of chastity until death," he said.

Bishop Lungu said although it was difficult for priests to remain unmarried because they were also human beings, they should strive to maintain their vow of celibacy.

Is it much of a concern- priests leaving the priesthood to marry? I think it is.

Missionary Trip to the Dominican Republic

The Sisters from Saint Benedict Center have just returned from a missionary trip to the Dominican Republic. You can see a slide show of their trip here.
You need quicktime and it does take a few minutes to load.

This is their second trip this year and they are focusing on the "bateys" villages where Haitian workers live. They work in the sugar cane fields of the Dominican Republic and I'm sure you can imagine what the conditions in which they live are like. And yet they are happy and always smiling. (Just like us, right?)

Breaking- Boston Archdiocesan Employee "Ordained"

An employee of the Boston Archdiocese admitted she used a pseudonym and was "ordained" on the St. Lawrence Seaway last year. She resigned when this became known. The article from the front page of the Globe.

Authentic Religious

Nuns in Burlington, Vermont.


Don't ever search for "Nuns" on google images if you can help it. Most of the pictures either profane religious sisters or worse. But I did find this wonderful website with pictures of Sisters from all over the world and most of the pictures are 75-50 years old. A nice website to show your daughters. Hint. Hint.

It was this article in the Boston Globe that sent me looking for images. Upshot- older nuns are retiring and there isn't enough money to take care of them. The moral is once again how awful the Catholic Church is and now they won't even take care of retired sisters. Sigh. I haven't seen any homeless nuns so somehow I think they are going to be okay.

I knew of only two religious sisters growing up in Vermont- no,not these two. They wore polyester pantsuits and lived in an apartment. It was all very progressive... and boring. But there are still a few good sisters around.

Man and Wife: Demonstrating the Ideal

Since marriage seems to be such a riveting topic, I thought I would excerpt this passage from a book I'm reading, Teta, Mother and Me by Jean Said Makdisa. It is a book about 3 generations of women in a prominent Lebanese family.

In the chapter entitled, Men, Women, Girls and Boys I read:

From the beginning of my life my father was held up to me as the ideal man, and it became clear to me that it was my duty to honour and uphold this manhood. Indeed, what it meant to be 'a man' was a leitmovitv of our moral education. When Daddy died, decades after the time I am writing about, Mother wanted Mark Antony's eulogy of Brutus from Julius Caesar read at his funeral. She often quoted the lines and applied them to him:

His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world "This was a man!'

At the same time, a generous reciprocity caused him to represent my mother to me, and to my sisters, as the ideal woman, on whose example we would do well to model our lives. If this sort of gender idealism sounds quaintly old-fashioned today and even faintly amusing, if not downright reprehensible, I am not sure that it was such a totally bad thing. The manhood that my father represented had nothing whatever to do with the emptily macho or the physically brutal or repressive; quite the contrary. The word as it came down to me suggests gentleness, goodness, consideration, thoughtfulness, tenderness, kindness, loyalty, determination, and above all the physical and moral courage that allows a man to stand up to powerful and wrong-doing oppressors.

In how many marriages is this type of respect demonstrated for the children, the inlaws and the outside world? How different would homes be that had parents like this? I grew up in a family where my father was always held in respect. I absolutely cringe when I see husbands or wives who treat one another or address one another disrespectfully. I would happily go back to the time when husbands and wives addressed one another as Mr. and Mrs.

The picture above is from the movie Emma and besides being a perfect movie to demonstrate proper, respectful courtship this scene is memorable because after Mr. Knightley has professed his intentions Emma responds by saying that, "Now I no longer need call you Mr. Knightley, I may call you my Mr. Knightley."

Sentire Cum Ecclesia

St. Ignatius of Loyola who coined the phrase, "Think with the mind of the Church" was mentioned in our sermon this Sunday. I was unfamiliar with this quote and with the help of a friend discovered this Rules for Thinking with the Church that are part of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises.

I noticed that the blog Pontifications had posted these Rules and they had inspired all sorts of dismay from neo-cons. In a twisted sort of way it was amusing to read. The major complaint seemed to be that Ignatius was expressing our relationship to God as a "servile" one. That just doesn't jive with us as a "Resurrection" people who bow our knee to no one.

We have a distinct choice. Do we say "Fiat"? or "Non serviam"? Think of it as one of those books where you choose the ending. See where it takes you.

For Once and For All.

"Are not my words like fire and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Jeremiah 23:29 Quoted by St. Athanasius


From the comments section:

Anonymous said...

Sin is sin, Mary. And some of what you have written has crossed over into the sins derision and detraction (the description of these sins are very clear). Detraction.
Making known the sins of our neighbour, with the intention of injuring his character and/or spreading scandal. Your post on Milingo did this. (Note, I am not saying I agree with Milingo's action, I don't).

Derision: Mocking at another is intended to put him to shame. Again, the Milingo post and the tone of some of the other posts

Usually I would not address something so elementary especially when it is posted by a person who choses to hide his wonderful holiness behind the label "Anonymous". Truly if one is well meaning, honorable and honest they should not be ashamed to stand behind what they say. But it is not the lack of courage or courtesy that I wish to address but the complete lack of common sense.

I see this slanderous accusation made on blogs when a commenter is losing the argument. They cannot respond adequately (usually because they have no idea what they are talking about) and rather than admit the obvious they bring out the mudslinging terms- detraction, rash judgment and now derision.

First of all, I did not make the sins of Bishop Milingo known to others. Bishop Milingo called a press conference. Bishop Milingo gave statements to the press with the express intention of having his errors published, proclaimed and made widely known. He is now rallying priests who have left the priesthood to marry to assert their rights to continue as priests. And I think you are forgetting (or omitting) something in your definition of detraction- it is making know the hidden faults of another.

Secondly, I am far from mocking what Bishop Milingo has done. I take it deadly seriously. He is in a state of mortal sin. Worse still he is attempting to draw others into his errors. There is nothing funny about the possibility of someone losing their salvation. But of course that would require one actually believing that you can in fact go to hell.

We are the Church Militant, however currently unpopular that term is. We are to pray as if all depends on God and act as if all depends on us. That does not mean standing by with a pollyanna attitude that everything is wonderful while souls are descending into hell like snowflakes. (according to Our Lady of Fatima).

I read this quote in an article by Thaddeus J. Kozinski in Latin Mass Magazine yesterday. It reminded me of this argument and this attitude that we are to pretend all is well.

"For the general public is being reduced to a state where people not only are unable to find out the truth but also become unable to search for the truth because they are satisfied with deception and trickery that have determined their convictions, satisfied with a fictitious reality created by design through the abuse of language." Josef Pieper

St. Athanasius was the hammer of heretics, St. James slayed the Moors, Our Lord drove the moneylenders from the temple. I wonder why when everything was just fine. The Da Vinci Code- who cares, just don't expose the faults of Ron Howard, abuse of children- doesn't matter, just avoid scandal, women being "ordained" as priests- just send them a valentine, diocesan sex education- be obedient, Terri Schiavo being starved to death- don't condemn Michael- we can't judge his heart.

St. Lawrence of Brindisi, a Man for His Time

Today is the feast of St. Lawrence of Brindisi born in 1559 in Lisbon, Portugal. During his life time St. Lawrence preached to and baptized numerous Jews, led a victorious army as the Imperial Chaplain against 80,000 muslims bearing only a crucifix, established convents in Vienna, Prague and Graz, inspite of opposition from heretics and converted many heretics especially in Germany. St. Lawrence is a doctor of the Franciscan order. The author of sermons and several treatises against Luther.

I'm glad that St. Lawrence didn't live now because he would have nothing to do. Islam is the religion of peace, war is always wrong, the Jews are our elder brothers in the Faith and not in need of conversion and correcting and condemning heretics is now rash judgment. Amazing how things change in just a few hundred years.

Saw This Coming....

From innocence to:



This:




When Charlotte Church first became famous for her Traditional Catholic music I was thrilled that a modest, talented, Catholic young lady was setting a standard for the music industry. I happily bought 2 of her cds- Voice of An Angel and Dream a Dream. When her third CD came out with her posing nude on the cover I knew it was over. Well Lifesite breaks this story that Ignatius Press is discontinuing carrying her music because of her blasphemous and irreverent behavior on a television show. Disappointing but not terribly surprising. Let's hope she has a change of heart.

The problem:

The pilot for The Charlotte Church Show was recorded before a live audience on July 12 in London. During the show, the hostess Charlotte Church, dressed as drug-using nun, smashed open a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary revealing a hidden can of cider, and spoke about worshipping “St. Fortified Wine.” Along the same vein of comic blasphemy, the pop diva pretended to hallucinate while consuming communion wafers branded with Ecstasy smiley faces, and denigrated Pope Benedict XVI as a “Nazi”, even though she had performed for the late Holy Father, John Paul II, when she was a 12 year-old girl.

In an official statement, Ignatius Press stated, “It is with regret that we do this; Miss Church possesses a great gift from God, and in the past she has used her talent often to offer praise and glory to our Lord.” While Ignatius Press praised the sacred music Charlotte had done in the past, they said, “We cannot stand by a young woman who uses her stature in the media to mock the Eucharist, slander the Holy Father, and denigrate the vows of religious women. Therefore, our catalogs and website will immediately withdraw all compact discs, cassette tapes, DVDs and VHS tapes that feature Miss Church. Please join us in praying for this troubled young woman.”

The Holy Father visits the St. Bernards

I had been looking for this picture since I first read yesterday that the Holy Father had crossed the border into Switzerland to visit the Kennels of the Augustinian Fathers where the St. Bernard dogs have been raised for 100s of years.

As the owner of this breed of gentle giant I have to say there is no better nor more loyal dog.

My thanks to the blog In Nomine Domini.

Liturgical Abuses

The Inquisitor Generalis noted an interesting admission from the Head of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Archbishop Ranjith. To read some of the comments on this blog I was ready to conclude that I could emerge from my self imposed Traditional ghetto as illicit Masses and other liturgical abuses were nearly unheard of. Sadly this does not seem to be the experience of the Congregation. The relevant quote from CWNews:

"Every day, the archbishop [Abp. Ranjith] disclosed, the Congregation for Divine Worship receives new complaints about serious liturgical abuses, and complaints that local bishops have failed to correct them. If the Church fails to curb these abuses, he said, "people will attend the Tridentine [sic] Mass, and our churches will be empty."

But I still can't figure out what to do with Catholics who actually enjoy this type of buffoonery:

Milingo Update

...or a little salt in the wound. I ask myself as I read this- why is it that Rome does not know what is going on with Bishop Milingo? According to this article in the National Catholic Reporter in an exclusive interview with Bishop Milingo, Milingo has written to the Holy Father and apprised him of his actions and beliefs.

I also found this blog that has a very complete post on Milingo with lots of useful links. Fr. Joe is here.

According to Zenit, the Legionaire's news site:

ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome

Date: 2006-07-13

Holy See Comments on Archbishop Milingo

VATICAN CITY, JULY 13, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo is again in the news, this time reportedly to campaign for a change in Church discipline on priestly celibacy.

The Vatican issued a statement today, saying: "The Holy See has not yet received precise news on the purpose of the trip to the United States of Monsignor Emmanuel Milingo, archbishop emeritus of Lusaka, Zambia.

"However, if the statements attributed to him about ecclesiastical celibacy are true, there would be no alternative but to deplore them, the discipline of the Church in this respect being well known," concluded the brief communiqué.

On his return to the Catholic Church at the request of Pope John Paul II in August 2001, Archbishop Milingo, native of Zambia, acknowledged that, having gone through a crisis, he sought recognition for his work in the "Moon" sect.

A few months earlier in that year, he had entered a supposed marriage -- not recognized by the Catholic Church -- with Maria Sung, in Korean Reverend Sung Myug Moon's "Federation of the Family for World Peace and Unification."

Today, the Italian newspaper Avvenire reported that, after a few weeks of not knowing Monsignor Milingo's whereabouts, he appeared on Wednesday in Washington.

According to the Italian Catholic newspaper, the prelate said at a press conference that he has gone back to Maria Sung, that he has met again with Moon himself and that he is contesting priestly celibacy.

Crime and punishment

In the debate on the SSPX and the sanctions that have been enacted against them by Rome several detractors stated that NEVER will you find a priest or Bishop who blatantly defied Rome and was not corrected or excommunicated.

Well I offer you exhibit 1A:

Bishop Emmanuel Milingo of Zambia, Africa. Bishop Milingo, as you may remember married a woman named Maria in 2001 and went AWOL. They made a lovely couple don't you think? For this Bishop Milingo was not punished, censored or excommunicated. Bishop Milingo was welcomed back to Rome and retained his status as Bishop. Maria was sent away quietly. In 2003, Bishop Milingo went back to Africa in defiance of the Vatican. Again, there were no consequences.

About a month ago Bishop Milingo again vanished and his whereabouts were unknown. He has resurfaced in Washington, D.C. and held a press conference calling for the Church to end its discipline of celibacy for priests.

What will it take for the Vatican to correct him? Suspend him? Sanction him?

Seems that as long as Bishop Milingo does not make the mistake of saying the Latin Mass he will be fine, and recognized as fully in union with Rome unlike the nefarious, the devious, the contemptible priest of the SSPX.

It will be interesting if this post generates the same level of vitriol and condemnation. Somehow I don't think it will.

Obedience, remember, obedience.

Know They Neighbor instead of Love Thy Neighbor

Homosexuals, famous for their tolerance and compassion, are now the perpetrators of a hate crimes in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Ironic when they are probably the ones who campaigned and organized the most intensely to get those laws on the books. You know the laws, the ones that tell us how to think. But have no fear, though they are perpetrating hate crimes against Jamaicans and straight people, the police won't prosecute them. So it's all good.

This article in the Boston Globe mentions the incidents- Jamaicans being subjected to racial slurs and straight people being called breeders.

More interestingly, the article describes a group called Knowthyneighbor.org that is "outing" the the opponents of gay "marriage". The names and addresses of those who signed petitions opposing gay marriage are being posted on the internet website so that homosexual rights activists can target them for hate.

The article specifically mentions the Catholic Church, a warning shot over the bow if you will:

The names of 43 Provincetown residents are listed on the website. Most of the petition signers attend St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church, which serves the Portuguese community and others in town. The Catholic Church has helped lead the fight against same-sex marriage.

One St. Peter's parishioner, Yvonne Cabral, was verbally accosted last Friday by Provincetown Magazine publisher Rick Hines after Hines learned that Cabral signed the petition, according to police.

Now the point of this article is not to expose the hypocrisy of the homosexual activists who are trying to intimidate those who don't support gay marriage and Jamaicans, remember this IS the Boston Globe. No, the point of the article is to warn the Catholic Church that it is in the sights of the activists and they will not rest until the Church has been silenced or destroyed in Massachusetts.

Remember that St. Peter the Apostle Church just burned down in January - a very strange coincidence if you ask me. Especially when knowthyneighbor.org has a special webpage dedicated to the sponsors of the petition. The Catholic Church receives special mention.. Found here.

Followup to Flesh of My Flesh

In the previous post there were interesting comments about the article by Dr. Peter Chojnowski. To illustrate the importance of the article I am going to highlight some quotes of especial interest that I think make the case for why this article had to be written:

One commenter wrote that the last thing we need is a man telling women how to be women. Well if we didn't have 4400 babies killed a day by abortion and all the other attendant evils of feminism I might I might agree with you. What do you think of this quote:

A husband's constitutional helplessness in the face of his wife's desire to abort their unborn child is one of the gravest manifestations of his legal and social castration.

Overall I thought the article was about MEN and not women. It was demonstrating the massive and awesome responsibility that men have to society and the family. This section of what should occur with courtship and dating especially stood out for me because it just doesn't happen anymore. Women are running after men, trying to make up their minds for them and passive men wake up one day and find themselves married, strong men can't find a woman who won't throw herself at him first.

The quote:

Just as it was the male's place to work to establish the nascent relationship by indicating interest and by struggling to win the affections of the female, who should only reciprocate interest if he struggles in a manly way to get her attention so too must he be the one, in the social and economic ventures of the family are to suceed, who injects his ideas, talents, labors into both family life and the civic order.

I should say too that I don't see the role of raising childen, homemaking and being a wife as inferior or of less importance than manly endeavor. I think if you have that view perhaps subconsciously you will be offended by these statements.

And to the lady who objected to the article because the author lectured for the Society of Pius X I would say that if the Jews are our "elder brothers" and the Protestants are our "separated brethern" then surely there must be a place for the SSPX.

Flesh of My Flesh

Fascinating article on the role of men and women, philosophical but simply presented- in other words even I could understand it.

Dr. Peter Chojnowski, professor on Flesh of My Flesh.

The USCCB batting 1000

Diogenes points out another problematic movie review by the USCCB. In case there are any Catholics out there who are still guided by the movie reviews, and judging from the Harry Potter question there are a lot out there, here you go.

The title of the movie is "Loverboy". It's list of questionable elements:

Promiscuity, some brief sexual encounters, artificial insemination, partial rear and upper female nudity, breastfeeding, some crude language, an act of animal cruelty, suicide, and murder attempt.

This film is rated L for limited adult audience. Naturally those who would oppose the breastfeeding I imagine.

From Brokeback Mountain to The Passion of the Christ to Loverboy, at least they are consistent, though consistently wrong.The entire review is here.

What's Wrong with Harry Potter?

What's wrong with Harry Potter? After all they are all in harmless fun. Mildly entertaining and they are getting kids to read. And that is the important thing right? How can they be so appealing if they are truly evil?

These are the defenses that I hear from people who quite self-defensively promote reading the Harry Potter series. There are several objections. The first is aesthetic- the books are banal, poorly written and the American versions specfically "dumbed down" for our public school educated audience. I wouldn't lower myself but that is the snobby English major in me talking.

Morally is where the real problem lies and is the only reason that ANYONE cares who is reading Harry Potter. We hear they are appealing and therefore cannot be evil. When we made our Baptism vows we promised to avoid the "glamour of evil". So if evil were not glamourous it would not tempt us. That argument is easily dismissed. We cannot rely upon whether something is good based upon our feelings about it. I could easily convince myself to eat an entire box of chocolates. After all, food is good for you and nourishing, chocolate is high in iron and the box was a gift so it must be good to do show my appreciation in such a dramatic way? Feelings are no basis for anything except concern and suspicion. Our dedication to the good must be objective and overcome our inclinations.

There is the small matter of the subject of the books. After all they are about sorcery and witchcraft right? The sorcery does not represent grace as it does in the Lord of the Rings, written by the very devout J.R.R. Tolkien. Sorcery in Harry Potter represents power, and specifically power over "muggles" the normal, average people. In the Lord of the Rings, the normal people (or hobbits their representatives) are the means by which God shows his grace. The humans become conduits of His grace and cooperate with His divine plan. In Harry Potter the only plan is Harry's revenge. A bit of a difference, no?

In this article, the greatest threat or obstacle to evanglizing people with the Truth is sorcery and witchcraft. Strange to us who don't really believe in evil or sorcery and that is why we do not have the proper fear of books like Harry Potter. We think we are superior to them and any appeal they hold. These evangelists understand that this is not the case and witness the playing out of the battle between good and evil for souls. This article further explains that the Holy Father is on record as saying that the Harry Potter books are a type of seduction to evil. Fr. Gabriel Amorth, Rome's chief excorcist who believes very much in evil agrees. But what do they know?

There is also the consideration of what do you want to dwell upon in your mind? What is pure, godly, salvific, encouraging? Or what is evil masquerading as good? Women used to labor over their embroidery samplers that contained a pious verse, sing hymns while they worked, read the Bible on Sundays. Haven't we fallen very far indeed when our entertainment is watching Inside Edition, reading People magazine and watching sitcoms on TV? When you acclimate yourself to evil by immersing yourself in it you lose your ability to protect yourself from it. And you cannot advance spiritually.

I often think of the Bible verse, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." A good sentiment that rallies one to righteousness.

Boys Will Be Boys- Let Them

A must read for summer, "The Dangerous Book for Boys".

The Dangerous Book for Boys by the British brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden is a practical manual that returns boys to the wonder and almost lost world of tree houses and pirate flags. It celebrates the art of teaching an old mutt new tricks and accepts skinned knees as an acceptable risk for running through fields with the same dog yapping along.

As of July 3, The Dangerous Book is the number one seller on Amazon UK and it is holding steady at about 7,000 on Amazon in the U.S., where it was published on June 5. The Australian News reports that the book "has made it to the top five of…Amazon [Australia], after just a week."

Those results make publishers take notice. But social commentators are also reacting with both applause and condemnation.

Condemnation arises because The Dangerous Book breaks the dominant and politically correct stereotype for children's books. It presents boys as being deeply different than girls in terms of their interests and pursuits. Although it is highly probable that bookstores will sell the book to girls who then will go on to practice skimming stones, nevertheless the genders are separated within the book's pages.

The authors clearly believe that the majority of children interested in learning to build a catapult are boys. Girls are included only through a final chapter in which boys are admonished to treat them with respect.

snip

The brothers state, "In this age of video games and mobile phones, there must still be a place for knots, tree-houses and stories of incredible courage." They advise children to "play sport of some kind. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it replaces the corpse-like pallor of the computer programmer with a ruddy glow."

Their vision is not utopian or even impractical. For example, a tree house requires only a blueprint, some scrap lumber and a willing parent. The latter requirement turns The Dangerous Book into something more than a work for boys. It is also a guide for parents, especially for fathers who wish to establish an old-fashioned connection with their children.

Indeed, since parents purchase most children's books, it is reasonable to assume that the run-away success of The Dangerous Book is partly due to their longing for a better connection.

One father describes his experience with the book, "I gave it to my 11-year-old son Charles and his friend…Then I stood well back." Raised on The Lord of the Rings, "they immediately turned to the section of the book that showed them how to create their own Legolas-style archery kit, using bits of old branch no longer needed by the Ents. When they began stripping the bark off with a big, shiny, sharp-bladed Swiss Army knife, I had to dig down deep in order to ignore the parental risk-ometer readings that were going off the scale, accompanied by vivid flash-forwards of the inevitable long, bloodstained-bandaged hours ahead in casualty."

Happily, the only injury was to evildoers who lurked in the garden shrubbery.

These days, the news about boys is not happy and often contains the word 'crisis.' The Education Sector, a non-profit think tank, offers a typical description of the perceived 'crisis' within education.

"After decades spent worrying about how schools 'shortchange girls,' the eyes of the nation's education commentariat are now fixed on how they shortchange boys. In 2006 alone, a Newsweek cover story, a major New Republic article, a long article in Esquire, a 'Today' show segment, and numerous op-eds have informed the public that boys are falling behind girls in elementary and secondary school and are increasingly outnumbered on college campuses."

Society is awakening to the possibility that boys have been disadvantaged. In past decades, what it means to be a boy has been redefined, deconstructed, reconstructed, politically analyzed and mathematically modeled. In the process, the meaning of being a boy's father has become jumbled as well.

The Black Legend

On the 4th of July it makes an interesting contrast to see how the Catholic country of Spain, ruled by Queen Isabella colonized what is now the United States and South America and how the English governed their settlements.

From this essay that appeared in Free Republic:

For almost 500 years there has been a campaign of defamation against the legacy of Spain in America. It is sad to find that this lack of historical perspective, along with an entrenched Hispanophobia, has been going on for centuries in the Anglo-Saxon countries and consequently has brought about a subconscious, almost automatic, rejection of Hispanic values. According to historian Dr. Powell: “Jaundiced views of the Hispanic world are taught very early in our schools and they are thoroughly inculcated by the time we enter college and university...The standard simplistic version of Spanish rule in America as a slavocracy, filled with tyranny, looting, bleeding taxation, and suffocating obscurantism, does not conform to the facts.” (1) (*) This attitude, based upon prejudices and ignorance, is damaging the image of the Hispanics in this country. Sometimes the Hispanics themselves, either by action or omission or simply because they were not aware of the truth of their history, have contributed to demean their own heritage.

Dr. Philip Wayne Powell, Emeritus Professor of history at the University of California, in his research on the "Black Legend" titled the “Tree of Hate” , (a book that every Hispanist should read) asserts that the study of 16th century Europe clearly reveals the universal pattern of cruelty, intolerance, and inhumanity which characterized the social, religious, and economic life throughout the continent...Examples of this were the reigns of Elizabeth I of England and her successor James I which were known for their most barbarous cruelty. However, Dr. Powell affirms "that the Spain of the conquest period was a deeply civilized nation by all discernible European standards of that day, ...In jurisprudence, diplomacy, monarchical, religious and imperial concepts, and total culture, Spain was a European leader throughout the sixteen century and in much of the next.” (2) (*)

To Summarize some of Spain's Accomplishments:

-Queen Isabella the Catholic took the Indians under her protectsion considering them subjects of the Spanish Crown.

-Fr. Bartolome de Las Casas, the Protector of the Indian and the first prophet of human rights in America.

- Pope Paul III declared that the Indian should not be deprived of their liberty or the possession of their property, eventhough they were outside the faith of Jesus Christ.

- The University of Salamanca and the College of San Gregorio of Valldolid, recognized the Indian's rights to keep their own laws and territories.

- Emperor Charles V (grandson to Isabella) reaffrimed the prohibition of the Indian's slavery.

Inspired Traditionalist

A new Traditional Blog- The Inspired Traditionalist by Ginny.

Her page has a beautiful quote from St. Ambrose:

"Ignorance is no excuse when we have neglected to learn what we are obliged to know."