Non Tasarmi, Fratello!

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There’s always laughter and good red wine. At least I’ve always found it so. Benedicamus Domino!” Hillaire Belloc

Thursday, December 31, 2015

There Will be NO MASS in Raddle Tomorrow

Mainly because we took everything out of the St. Ann Church. Did you hear there might be flooding?


Don't worry...we saved the duck booya kettles, too!

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Monday, December 28, 2015

And God Said, "You Got Some Splainin' To Do...."

 This occurred at Our Lady Of The Miraculous Medal Parish Church in Binan, The Philippines. The priest is Fr Falbert San Jose.




Please, send this guy a copy of Summorum Pontificum!

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King of Kings, Lord of Lord, General in the Guatemalan Army

The headline reads, "Jesus statue's promotion to army general vetoes by Guatemalan president"

What???


A beloved statue of Jesus looked likely to get a promotion to general in the Guatemalan army until the church and president stepped in.
The statue, known as Jesús de la Merced, is paraded through the streets of the capital ahead of Easter in centuries-old traditions brought in by former colonial power Spain.
Orlando Aguilar, the parish priest in the neighbourhood church where the statue is kept, said in a Christmas Eve mass that on 3 January the statue would be promoted to the rank of general in the Guatemalan army.

Local media took up the story and suggested the honour was to be conferred ahead of the 300th anniversary of the blessing of the statue in 2017.

But the capital’s bishop was up-in-arms.

“Brothers and sisters, as I have said and repeated many times, nobody consulted me about ascending Jesús de la Merced to the rank of general in the army,” Archbishop Oscar Vian said.
It would not have been the statue’s first military promotion. During devastating cholera outbreaks in the 1800s, then-president Rafael Carrera gave the statue the rank of army colonel and it was marched around Guatemala in an effort to combat the epidemic.

President Alejandro Maldonado said that he had not approved the promotion to general of the statue.

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Saturday, December 26, 2015

The Cardinal Takes a Flight of Fancy

 From the New York Post:

Timothy Cardinal Dolan, in his midnight homily at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, welcomed two “refugee families who are here tonight.”
“They’re being resettled by Catholic Charities,’’ he said.


 
Dolan said he would not mention their names or ask them to stand. One of the families, he said, was from El Salvador.
The other, the cardinal added, is “a Muslim family from the Ivory Coast,’’ in Africa.
“Jesus was born into a family that had to flee and become refugees,” Dolan told the congregation.
“We welcome them here tonight.’’

Sorry, Cardinal, but I think this is a bogus comparison.

First, El Salavador is more than 50% Catholic. Do they not provide social services to those in need? If not, why not? There was a brutal civil war raging there....which ended in 1992.  The CIA Fact Book states:

The smallest country in Central America geographically, El Salvador has the fourth largest economy in the region.

The oppressed Ivorians are from a country that is a MAJORITY Muslim. See comments abut the Church in El Salvador.

But here's the thing that sticks in my craw. To my way of thinking, Jesus was a refugee in a sense that an angel appeared to Joseph and told him to go to Egypt. Why?
 
“Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.” (Matthew 2:6).
So there was a direct threat to the baby Jesus. And they moved to Egypt and lived happily ever after, right? NO. We all know that the Holy Family moved BACK to Nazareth. Any chance that Cardinal Dolan's refugees will ever return to their native lands?

And lastly....what's up with the rose chasuble? On Christmas Eve? NO! Liturgical abuse! Not really...my guess is the New York Post pulled some stock photo from Gaudete (or maybe Laetare) Sunday and didn't have any Catholics on the staff to correct the mistake.

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Merry Christmas from the Norbertines!


 I got this very nice note from the Norbertine Canonesses on Christmas.. I bought a beautiful hand-made Christmas wreath from them once...


JMJN
December 24, 2015
Christmas Eve Day
Year of Consecrated Life & Extraordinary Year of Mercy
900th Jubilee Year of St. Norbert's Conversion


Dear Norbertine Confreres and Consoeurs, Brothers and Sisters in Religious Life, Family, Friends, and Benefactors,

Laudetur Jesus Christus! With deep gratitude for your friendship in Christ, support and prayers, on behalf of Mother Mary Augustine and all the Norbertine Canonesses, we wish you a joyful and blessed Christmas (2015 e-mail Christmas card attached), and an outpouring of special graces in the remaining weeks of this Year of Consecrated Life and throughout this Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.  As we continue to thank God for your faith-filled loving presence in our lives, and all that you do for us, we hope that our daily prayers and sacrifices for you and all of your special intentions help to speak for us. May the coming New Year of the Lord 2016 bring us all to an ever deeper union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that we may be humble witnesses of His divine love, grace and mercy to all. Let us continue to pray for each other ...

Prayerfully and gratefully in the Christ-Child, Our Lady, St. Joseph, & St. Norbert,
The Norbertine Canonesses of the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph





 



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Monday, December 21, 2015

Rachel Lu Meets Vatican II

In 1994, the Congregation for Divine Worship issued a letter officially specifying that it is licit for females to serve the altar in the role that has traditionally been known as “altar boy.” Bishops were not bound to permit the practice, and a 2001 follow-up specified that pastors may also choose to reserve altar service to males within their own parishes. Nevertheless, the Church has specified that altar girls can exist within the Church.



The practice is permitted. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

The throw-down the mic paragraph:

 Beyond the vocations issue, we come to a more thorny problem. When men are in charge of liturgy, they generally favor austerity, solemnity and reverence. They are far more likely to have “high” liturgical sensibilities. When women claim a more central role, we frequently see a slide into lower and more culturally idiosyncratic practices. It generally starts with campy banners and popular-style hymnody, but may end with synthesizers and scantily-clad liturgical dancers. These liturgies are not beautiful or uplifting. They’re more like a never-ending hug from a grasping, obsequious aunt.

Read the whole thing!

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Where in the World Is....

 Really interesting stuff, from a site called atlasobscura.com:

Two thousand years ago, around the time that Jesus of Nazareth was born, the second Holy Temple was still standing in Jerusalem. The Great Pyramid at Giza was already 2,500 years old, but the Library of Alexandria was still around. In Rome, the Colosseum hadn’t been built yet.

 Today, the best scholarly guide to the world Jesus was born into is a man called Strabo. He was born in Amasia, a town in the central north of what’s now Turkey. One of the great works of his life was a 17-volume geography, which described in detail the contours, cities and cultures of the world as it was known to the scholars of his time.



In this world, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, modern-day Israel and Palestine, barely rated. This area was not particularly rich or accomplished, but in the Greek and Roman view of the world, it was strategically situated, providing an overland passage to Egypt.
Strabo’s account also includes some history of the Jewish people. He explains how “an Egyptian priest named Moses” led a group of followers who believed that God is “one thing which encompasses us all” to the place where Jerusalem now stood. Strabo continues:
"He easily obtained possession of it, as the spot was not such as to excite jealousy, nor for which there could be any fierce contention; for it is rocky, and, although well supplied with water, it is surrounded by a barren and waterless territory."

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Friday, December 18, 2015

Tougher Than the One About Pin Dancing Angels


Father Z answers the hard ones:
Is it ok For a Traditional Catholic to date a modernist woman he’s trying to convert?
Modernista, eh?  Convert, eh?
A swift review of Pascendi dominici gregis resulted in no specific pontifical condemnations of the dating of the modernist.  As far I can tell, there was no subsequent pontifical legislation that anathematized the practice.

Thus, barring particular legislation from the local bishop banning it (which you might have to double-check), in my highly-trained and finely-honed professional opinion, I’d say, go for it!
NB: If Miss Modernista begins to quote Loisy or Tyrrell (or the Fishwrap or Card. Kasper), grab your St. Pius X medal and hold up your Garrigou-Lagrange.
WARNING: Before things get serious, have her swear the Oath Against Modernism as a condition before your formal engagement, maybe before you even have an “understanding”.

 Unless she’s really pretty.

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Tuesday, December 15, 2015

How I Wish You Would Keep From Singing


From Eye of the Tiber, some great news:


Geneva, Switzerland–New guidelines set down by the international community during the fifth Geneva Convention this week has extensively defined the basic, spiritual wartime rights of the Church Militant by outlawing all Marty Haugen music used in and around war-zones. What is officially being called The Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Parishioners in Times of Spiritual War has become the fifth convention establishing the standards on international law for the humanitarian treatment of spiritual war. “Our new resolution states that all Catholics who are in the process of spiritual warfare are to be treated humanely,”



 Said General of the Counsel Robert Durant at a press conference earlier this morning. “The following acts are to be henceforth prohibited: Violence to life and person, in particular, cruel treatment and torture by means of being made to listen to Gather Us In (ed. note : this would also apply to "Canticle of the Sun", which is even more egregious to my way of thinking). Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment such as asking parishioners to sing along to We Remember. And finally, all acts requiring parishioners to listen to said music during the reception of communion.”

Of course, you knew the Jesuits would have something to do with it. From Wikipedia:

 The St. Louis Jesuits, a group of Catholic composers who popularized an Easy Listening/folk music style of church music through their compositions and recordings, mainly from their heyday in the mid `70s through the mid `80s. The group, made up of Jesuit scholastics at St. Louis University, originally used acoustic guitars and contemporary-style melodies and rhthyms to set biblical and other religious texts to music sung in English in response to the liturgical reforms of Vatican II.

 

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Monday, December 14, 2015

Shut Up, I Explained

From the Athens News (I think in Ohio). Read the whole thing.

T he most celebrated change brought about by Vatican II was that the Mass could now be said in the vernacular – the languages of various countries; previously, it was said in Latin everywhere. This was taken to mean that it must be said in the vernacular, which was never the case.
Congregations went hog-wild. Soon there were folk-rock Masses, hootenanny Masses, puppet Masses, and so on. Encouraged to participate more actively in the Mass, congregations were soon flailing their arms around, adopting postures reserved for priests, and undertaking other alterations to the principal service of the Church. Those who looked askance were told to get with “the spirit of Vatican II.”

Priest Imitation
  Modern Mass is conducted as if silence is the enemy, that there should never be a time when there isn’t something noisy going on. Active participation is so encouraged that it sometimes seems as if there isn’t an opportunity to contemplate the mysteries of faith. Even during communion itself, the most fundamental of the seven sacraments, congregants are expected to sing rather than think about how profound it all is.


The Latin Mass is quiet, often silent or close to it. The Church teaches (and I think it stands to reason) that prayer must include listening, to hear what God tells us. This is easier to do, especially for easily distracted persons such as myself, when there’s not sensory overload. When there is music with the traditional Mass (as Fr. Jonas hopes to institute from time to time, employing seminarians), it is typically in the form of chants that encourage this phenomenon rather than replace it.

 Modern Mass has in some ways unintentionally come to resemble, say, a PTA meeting. The instant it is over, people are talking and laughing, greeting people across the room, immediately transported from whatever was going on minutes before to the modern secular world. Those who wish to stay and pray must have powers of concentration that far exceed my own. (I am as guilty of these things as anyone else, alas.) The Latin Mass ends in silence, and congregants remain silent; most remain to continue their prayer.

The Mass is ended...go in peace!


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Ialamic Outreach, Part LXXVIII


From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."


Islamic State (ISIS) has released a chilling video showing their vision of the end of the world as they make more suggestions they are plotting to assassinate the Pope.
The video named “Meeting at Dabiq”, shows shows jihadi tanks advancing on an apocalyptic Rome.
The title references the location where extremist prophecy says the end of the world will occur following a final battle between “believers” and “crusaders.”
The sinister video, set to chilling music, shows Rome turned to a desert of dust.
It features heavily-armoured terrorists approaching the Colosseum and the Vatican City, before the narrator apparently claims ISIS will take over Rome, destroying crucifixes and taking Christian women as slaves.

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Sunday, December 13, 2015

I Hope He Never Misses Again

 Justin Tucker is a Catholic playing for a team I intensely dislike, the Baltimore Ravens. I'd read the article in the Catholic Review about him, but didn't know the guy could sing.


Again, I am having a hard time embedding the video, so copy the link and follow it.

Ravens kicker Justin Tucker did not boot his most recent performance.
The 26-year-old delivered a stirring rendition of “Ave Maria” at Catholic Charities of Baltimore’s Christmas Concert Thursday night.
Tucker, a baritone, began singing opera in college. A recording technology major, he told the NFL Network that he had to take voice lessons as a part of his course load, which is how he discovered his talent.
“I’m sure there have been a couple of guys who have played football and sung a little opera on the side,” he joked with Joe Buck. 
Sam Koch, the Ravens’ punter, told the NFL Network that Tucker routinely sings opera in the shower at the team facility.
“It echos through the locker room,” he said.

 http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:14341019




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Tuesday, December 08, 2015

Solemnity of the Carbon Offset

VATICAN CITY, Dec. 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- On Dec. 8, a humanitarian coalition comprised of Paul G. Allen's Vulcan Inc., the Li Ka Shing Foundation and Okeanos, in partnership with The Oceanic Preservation Society and Obscura Digital, and under the auspices of the World Bank Group's Connect4Climate initiative, will present a gift of contemporary public art entitled "Fiat Lux: Illuminating our Common Home" to Pope Francis on the opening day of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. At this unprecedented and historic event, beautiful images of our shared natural world will be projected onto the façade of St. Peter's Basilica in a contemporary work of public art that tells the visual story of the interdependency of humans and life on earth with the planet, in order to educate and inspire change around the climate crisis across generations, cultures, languages, religions and class.


From the Catholic Encyclopedia:
 
 Sacrilege: “The irreverent treatment of sacred things, persons or places, i.e., those dedicated by God or the Church to sacred purposes.  It is a sin against the virtue of religion, of its nature grave, but admitting smallness of matter. Sacrilege may be either personal, as when violence is done to a cleric or religious; local, as when certain crimes are committed or actions done in a church; real, as by the abuse of sacraments, the theft of sacred objects or their irreverent misuse and the sin of simony. These varieties of the sin differ specifically from one another.”

And to do it on THE SOLEMNITY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION??? Was Mary born without a carbon footprint?


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Islamic Outreach, Part LXXVII

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."



Meanwhile....


Four people have been arrested over alleged threats made by jihadists to kill Pope Franics.
The arrests, made in Italy and Kosovo, were conducted by anti-terror police who had been monitory a "highly dangerous group" on social media.
All four were Kosovan nationals said to have links to Syria.
Police said threats had been made warning Pope Francis "would be the last Pope".

There were also threats made against the ex-US ambassador in Kosovo and praise for the Paris terror attacks which left 130 people dead.
The arrests followed raids in the Italian cities Brescia, Vicenza and Perugia as well as Kosovo.
Police said "the [alleged] terrorist team propagated the ideology of jihad through social networks".
The alleged 'ringleader' of the group is believed to have lived in Italy before being arrested in Kosovo.
ISIS has threatened the Pope's life for months, with the Islamic fanatics accusing him of being the 'bearer of false truth.'

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Sister Buck


From the Associated Press:


A Roman Catholic diocese has taken down the Facebook photo of a nun with a 10-point buck she bagged after the posting drew criticism, some of it vulgar, by anti-hunting and animal rights activists, the diocese said.
Sister John Paul Bauer killed the deer on Nov. 30, the first day of hunting season.
The photo posted on the Erie Diocese’s Facebook page showed her, in her nun’s habit, at the back of a pickup holding her trophy deer by the antlers.
Initial comments were largely positive, Anne-Marie Welsh, spokeswoman for the Erie Diocese, in northwestern Pennsylvania, said Monday. But as the page neared 1.5 million views, animal rights activists began taking offense, she said.
“We recognize that social media needs to be a two-way conversation, but unfortunately, many of those who oppose hunting posted vulgar comments, using profanity and even an obscene photograph,” Welsh said. “After careful consideration, we decided to delete the post due to its inflammatory nature.”

Reminds me of a politician who said that conservatives go to work, then go home and do family type things. Liberals, on the other hand, right angry letters to the editor

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Saturday, December 05, 2015

And Jesus Wept

The Wrath of Father Murray





As Father Z says, "Dear Lord, send us more priests like Fr. Murray. Mary, Queen of Priests, defend all priests with your mantle and ask Your Son, the Eternal High Priest, to give them courage to speak the truth with clarity and mercy."

I am having trouble embedding the video, so here's the link:

 http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4644447500001/catholic-priest-sounds-off-on-daily-news-god-cover/?#sp=show-clips
 

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Islamic Outreach, Part LXXVI

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

Meanwhile.....


A complaint that says crosses at Catholic school are “offensive”, and prevent Muslim prayers, has been filed against Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

It is only the latest in an endless series of demands for Sharia Law adherence by Muslims in America.

The complaint to the Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights, filed by a leftist professor from rival George Washington University, says there are “too many crosses in every room of Catholic University” which is a “human rights violation that prevents Muslim students from praying there.”
Baffled Catholic University officials say they have never received a complaint from any of the schools Muslim students, but in fact, a prior complaint from active students is ongoing (see Hannity video below).

Banzhaf, who already has a pending lawsuit against the university over ending its policy of allowing mixed-gender dormitories and has a history of filing civil rights suits on such topics as childhood obesity and smoking, filed the complaint alleging that Muslim students are not given their own prayer rooms.

I CAN NOT PRAY!



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Saturday, November 28, 2015

This Guy Is Still a Priest?

From "Father" Michael Pfleger's Twitter page:
Today was a GREAT Success...The MAG MILE was shut down!!!! We are still a little divided, but the fact was we shut it down and their was NO VIOLENCE...What's sad and tragic is that in 2015 we are still fighting these battles of Corruption and Racism.....Who knew what and when and for How long....IT'S A DAMN SHAME.....The System isn't Broken, it's working just like it wants and it's Corrupt!!!!!....




 From WIkipedia:

On Wednesday, April 27, 2011, the homepage of the website of the Archdiocese of Chicago released a statement from Cardinal Francis George in the form of a letter, temporarily suspending Father Pfleger from administering any of the sacraments (save for the administration of the Sacrament of Penance in an emergency, which even laicized or excommunicated priests may do) and from his active ministry as pastor of St. Sabina's Parish. George had recently suggested that Pfleger take the position of president at Chicago's Leo Catholic High School, but Pfleger said he would consider leaving the Catholic Church if forced to leave his parish. Cardinal George replied, in part, "If that is truly your attitude, you have already left the Catholic Church." Cardinal George lifted the suspension on May 20, 2011.

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Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Poignant, but....STOOPID

What do Barack Obama and the auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles have in common? The massacres in Paris mean more to them because, well they were there. A long time ago....

 Breitbart reports:

President Obama used a press conference with French President Francois Hollande to recall a moment he shared with the First Lady in France.
“By my bed in the residence is a picture of me and Michelle in Luxembourg Gardens, kissing,” Obama said. “Those are the memories we have of Paris, as early on I had no gray hair.”


From Jihad Watch:
 
 Barron began with a self-reverential response that carried a hint of conceit for having been placed among the great and the good. Our new bishop has ascended above even just anger. The massacre aroused no outrage, not even a wince of distaste. Rather, his first words were on fire with . . . nostalgia. He found the atrocity “especially poignant” because he had studied in Paris for three years. And because he remembered some of the locations involved, the attacks were “moving and poignant.”



So the problem with radical Islam is that it messes up your happy memories of long ago? Geez...no wonder we're losing.

I Do Not Feel Nostalgic!



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The Time the Franciscans Saved Thanksgiving

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Looks Like the Dog Ate It

Last January, Geoffrey Smith, a scholar of early Christianity at the University of Texas, noticed something startling: an eBay listing for an ancient Greek papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John — with an opening bid of only $99.


“I thought, This can’t be allowed to sell on eBay,” Dr. Smith said. “It will just disappear into a private collection.”
Dr. Smith contacted the seller and urged him to halt the online auction — apparently the first on eBay for a Greek New Testament papyrus, he and other scholars said — and let him study the fragment. The seller agreed, and now, on Saturday, Mr. Smith will present his research at the annual conference of the Society of Biblical Scholars in Atlanta.

There's a market for this? 

Many scholars refuse to study manuscripts that may have left their country of origin illegally, and some refuse to study material in private collections, on the grounds it helps drive the market.
That market is certainly robust. A third-century fragment of Romans on vellum, Dr. Jones noted, sold last year at Sotheby’s for nearly $500,000. The seller of the John papyrus, meanwhile, was “harassed by collectors offering him absurd amounts of money,” Dr. Smith said, declining to cite a specific figure.

PSST...Wanna buy some papyrus?

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The Trouble With the Congregation of the Holy Cross


NOTRE DAME, IN — We are obliged to inform our subscribers that Rev. Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C., is no longer associated with the website NDCatholic.com, which we established to house Father's recommendations of Notre Dame faculty whom students could count on for an authentic Catholic education.  The radical reduction of Catholic presence on the Notre Dame faculty makes such information essential. Nevertheless, two days after the inauguration of the website Father sent us this message: "I regret that I can say only that I am required to end my involvement with the NDCatholic site and am not at liberty to say why." 



 In more detail, the facts are these:
On November 9, 2015, we unveiled the NDCatholic.com website, which is designed to assist students seeking a Catholic education at Notre Dame.  They need this sort of help because of the alarming reduction over recent decades in Catholic representation on the faculty.  The faculty no longer comes close to meeting the University's own Mission Statement test of Catholic identity: a majority of committed Catholics on the faculty.  Perhaps 25% to 30% of the faculty fit this description, as we will show again in a coming bulletin using the most recent data available.
The consequences of this steep decline in Catholic faculty have been described in concrete terms by Professor Emeritus Walter Nicgorski, who retired recently after more than forty years as one of Notre Dame's most highly regarded teachers and scholars:
It is increasingly the case today that a young person going through the critical and formative years of a Catholic education at Notre Dame might not encounter a practicing Catholic informed and engaged by the Catholic intellectual tradition.
Father Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C., prepared the instructive recommendations of faculty and courses that appear on this website to assist students in making the choices necessary to insure that they receive an authentic Catholic education.  As a long time Notre Dame professor and  a nationally recognized historian who has served as chairman of the History Department and rector of Moreau Seminary, Father Miscamble was admirably suited to this task.  

Father Miscamble


So why did Father Miscamble give for his disassociation? 

Father responded: "Dear Bill, I regret that I can say only that I am required to end my involvement with the NDCatholic site and am not at liberty to say why. 


UND administrators and CSC superiors determined that Fr. Miscamble was engendering dissension within the UND and CSC communities by agitating for a more demonstrably Catholic UND.


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Monday, November 23, 2015

History Repeats Itself

Remember the story about the priest killed in Mexico (see the post, "Will The Last Sane Person to Leave Mexico Please Turn Off the Lights?" ? This is old news in Mexico. Here's the video story of Blessed Miguel Pro, who is honored today in the Church calendar.




 From the Knights of Columbus website:

The 1920s brought a revolution to Mexico, along with the widespread persecution of Catholics.
Missionaries were expelled from the country, Catholic seminaries and schools were closed, and the Church was forbidden to own property. Priests and laymen were told to denounce Jesus and their faith in public; if they refused, they faced not just punishment but torture and death.
During this time of oppression and cruelty, the Knights of Columbus did not retreat in Mexico but grew dramatically, from 400 members in 1918 to 43 councils and 6,000 members just five years later. In the United States at the time, the Knights handed out five million pamphlets that described the brutality of the Mexican government toward Catholics. As a result, the Mexican government greatly feared and eventually outlawed the Order.

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The Puritans' Revenge


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The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 43

 From the Cardinal Newman Society:


Fordham University (ed. Jesuit university)recently approved the removal of common restroom signage indicating use for either the male or female sex at one building on the Lincoln Center campus, embracing part of a student-led campaign to make the University more “gender inclusive.”


According to The Fordham Observer, the changes to signs in the Leon Lowenstein building were pushed by The Positive, a student activist group. The restroom signage initiative started during the 2015 spring semester when The Positive reportedly entered into dialogue with Fordham’s administration and student government.he Positive’s student leader, who identifies as a transgender male (a woman living as a man), told the Observer, “Having a restroom I could use without fear was definitely something I wanted.”but the student readily noted that “this was never about bathrooms … this was always about more than that.”he Observer reported that new signs were installed in single stall restrooms in the Leon Lowenstein building’s third floor. The new signs are “void of gender icons, include braille, the latest New York State handicap symbol and simply say ‘restroom.’”



- See more at: http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/4512/Fordham-Changes-Restroom-Signs-as-Part-of-%E2%80%98Gender-Inclusive%E2%80%99-Campaign.aspx#sthash.9iq1Lsve.dpufFordham University recently approved the removal of common restroom signage indicating use for either the male or female sex at one building on the Lincoln Center campus, embracing part of a student-led campaign to make the University more “gender inclusive.”
According to The Fordham Observer, the changes to signs in the Leon Lowenstein building were pushed by The Positive, a student activist group. The restroom signage initiative started during the 2015 spring semester when The Positive reportedly entered into dialogue with Fordham’s administration and student government.
The Positive’s student leader, who identifies as a transgender male (a woman living as a man), told the Observer, “Having a restroom I could use without fear was definitely something I wanted.”
But the student readily noted that “this was never about bathrooms … this was always about more than that.”
The Observer reported that new signs were installed in single stall restrooms in the Leon Lowenstein building’s third floor. The new signs are “void of gender icons, include braille, the latest New York State handicap symbol and simply say ‘restroom.’”
- See more at: http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/4512/Fordham-Changes-Restroom-Signs-as-Part-of-%E2%80%98Gender-Inclusive%E2%80%99-Campaign.aspx#sthash.9iq1L

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Friday, November 20, 2015

I've Got a Whale of Tale

 From Catholic World News:

 In its annual message for World Fisheries Day, the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People called for greater attention to labor conditions in the fishing industry.“In recent months, because of the number of tragic happenings especially in South East Asia, the issues of trafficking, forced labor, exploitation and abuses of fishers have been reported in several mass media, but sadly this did not attract much of attention and interest from the people in general,” the pontifical council stated.“We appeal to the consumers to be vigilant and more conscious not only of the quality of the seafood that they are buying but also of the human and labor conditions of the fishers.”

I don't know...they look OK to me.






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Hair Club for Men Feast of St Edmund of East Anglia, November 20

 A severed head, a wolf....can't get a better story.




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Thursday, November 19, 2015

It's All Fun and Games

Until you have to explain your religious (non)beliefs when you shuffles off this mortal coil....

Woman wins fight to wear spaghetti strainer on her head for driving license photo

The Registry of Motor Vehicles has allowed a Massachusetts woman to wear a spaghetti strainer on her head in her driving licence picture as an expression of her “Pastafarian” religion. Lindsay Miller fought the RMV to wear the metal headgear as a sign of her religion. The RMV does not allow drivers to wear hats in their pictures, unless it is for a medical or religious purpose. Miller won her appeal with the RMV thanks to the help of an attorney associated with the American Humanist Association.

 As a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I feel delighted that my Pastafarianism has been respected by the Massachusetts RMV,” Miller said. “While I don’t think the government can involve itself in matters of religion, I do hope this decision encourages my fellow Pastafarian atheists to come out and express themselves as I have.” When Miller initially applied for her driving licence, she was denied the ability to wear the colander.

A friend of Miller’s contacted the American Humanist Association on her behalf, and the group helped file an administrative appeal. Miller was due to attend an October hearing on the subject, but it was postponed and the RMV opted to let her obtain a drivering licence wearing the colander on Thursday. The American Humanist Association said Pastafarians believe the existence of a Flying Spaghetti Monster is “just as probable as the existence of the Christian God.”

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The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 42

 The Washington Post reports:


Georgetown University will rename two buildings named for school presidents who organized the sale of Jesuit-owned slaves to help pay off campus debt in the 1830s, the university’s president announced.


 Mulledy Hall, a new student dormitory named for the president who authorized the sale of about 272 slaves to a Louisiana plantation owner in 1838, will be called Freedom Hall until a permanent name is chosen.
McSherry Hall, which houses a meditation center and was named for another university president who served as an adviser on the slave sale, will be called Remembrance Hall until it is renamed.

In a letter e-mailed to the Georgetown community Saturday evening, President John J. DeGioia said he was changing the names based on a recommendation he received Friday from his Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation. DeGioia appointed the panel of 16 administrators, faculty and students in September to examine slavery­-related sites on campus.

“As a university,” DeGioia wrote, “we are a place where conversations are convened and dialogue is encouraged, even on topics that may be difficult.”


I had no idea. Turns out the place was called St. Thomas Manor which sounds like an amzing place to visit.

From Wikipedia:


During the years of slavery and after the American Civil War, when most southern governments classified people as only black or white in a binary system related to the racial caste of slavery, St. Ignatius was among the Catholic parishes that continued to record their Native congregational members as Indian, regardless of whether they were of mixed race. In colonial and United States records, by contrast, the tribal identities of some Native Americans were lost when they were classified by outsiders as free people of color, "colored," or "white," regardless of how they identified ethnically. Research in Catholic records has helped some tribes document their continuous cultural history and identification as Native American, and to gain state and federal recognition as tribes since the late 20th century.

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A Priest, A Bulldog, and a Bull Walk Into a Bar

Turns out they have something in common.


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Pope Benedict XVI on The Shroud of Turin

 Not LITERALLY. The Pope was making a speech about it.
 
 The Anchoress provides an excerpt from the book,"The Vatican Prophesies" by John Thavis:



 As one might expect, Pope Benedict, who was often called “the pope of reason,” was much more circumspect on the [Shroud, than Pope John Paul II.] He, too, was interested in the Shroud and had stood before it as a cardinal. As pope he ordered the extraordinary exhibition of the Shroud in 2010. Benedict himself flew to Turin to venerate the cloth and gave a speech in which he described the Shroud as an “icon,” a term that disappointed some of its devotees. In the code language of the Shroud, “icon” denotes just a holy image, while “relic” is the genuine object. But this was an icon with a capital “I” — literally, in the official text of the papal speech — which signaled some support for authenticity. Benedict added that the Shroud was “a winding-sheet that was wrapped round the body of a man who was crucified, corresponding in every way to what the Gospels tell us of Jesus.” That appeared to reject out of hand the theory that it was a medieval artistic creation. 



The pope then went o to speak of the Shroud in dramatic and poetic language that moved many of his listeners: “The Shroud is an Icon written in blood; the blood of a man who was scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified and whose right side was pierced The Image impressed upon the Shroud is that of a dead man, but the blood speaks of his life. Every trace of blood speaks of love and of life. Especially that huge stain near his rib, made by the blood and water that flowed copious from the great wound inflicted by the tip of a Roman spear. That blood and that water speak of life. It is like a spring that murmurs in the silence, and we can hear it.”

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Will The Last Sane Person to Leave Mexico Please Turn Off the Lights?

A priest who went missing in Mexico has been found dead on an isolated country road.
The priest is the latest victim in a string of murders in the country.

The body of Fr Erasmo Pliego de Jesus was discovered in Nopalucan municipality in the Mexican state of Puebla on Monday.

According to the state prosecutor he was found with head injuries and burn marks on several parts of his body.

His death brings the number of priests killed in Mexico since 2013 to 11, with another two still missing.

The motive for the killings is unclear but it is thought that some priests have been targeted for opposing drug cartels and criminal gangs.



 From the CIA World Factbook, the religious make-up of Mexico:


Roman Catholic 82.7%, Pentecostal 1.6%, Jehovah's Witnesses 1.4%, other Evangelical Churches 5%, other 1.9%, none 4.7%, unspecified 2.7% (2010 est.)

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Islamic Outreach, Part LXXV

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

Meanwhile......


Security Message for U.S. Citizens: Potential for Terrorist Attacks
November 18, 2015

U.S. Embassy Rome informs U.S. citizens that the following locations have been identified as potential targets in Rome and Milan for terrorist attacks:
  • St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City (Rome)

  • the Duomo and La Scala in Milan
  • General venues such as churches, synagogues, restaurants, theatres, and hotels in both cities are possible targets as well.
Terrorist groups may possibly utilize similar methods used in the recent Paris attacks.  The Italian authorities are aware of these threats.
U.S. citizens are advised to remain vigilant and aware of their surroundings.  We encourage U.S. citizens to monitor media and local information sources and factor updated information into personal travel plans and activities.

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Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Shut Up, I Explained

Just when you thought Chris Matthews (MSNBC, of course) couldn't possible get any dumber...





CHRIS MATTHEWS: There is 1.75 billion Islamic people in the world. There are Islamic people who are as far from Arab as you and I are far from Arab. They are not Arabs: they happen to be Muslims. They live in India. They live in Pakistan. They live in Indonesia. Why do we want to declare war on them by calling our terrorist opponents Islamic? 

 EUGENE ROBINSON: Well we don't. Or we shouldn't. In fact, George W. Bush did not. Right after 9/11, George W. Bush, in a moment that actually filled me with pride, George W. Bush came right out and said we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with this crazy al Qaeda group. We're going to get them, and we're going to get them good. But we are not at war with one of the world's great religions. And it is a ridiculous thing. I sincerely hope that none of these characters, if they were to become president, would repeat such a thing. Because it is a sentiment that no President of the United States who is responsibly discharging his duties would ever utter. 


MATTHEWS: I don't think Franklin Roosevelt, as angry as he was at Mussolini, never declared war on the Catholics. Anyway, that would have been a stupid thing to say.

We DARE you, FDR!

Mussolini was a fascist. He founded a POLITICAL party called the National Fascist Party. The National Fascist Party was rooted in Italian Nationalism and the desire to restore and expand  Italian territory, which Italian Fascists deemed necessary for a nation to assert its superiority and strength and to avoid succumbing to decay. Italian Fascists claimed that modern Italy is the heir to ancient Rome and its legacy, and historically supported the creation of an Italian Empire to provide spazio vitale ("living space") for colonization by Italian settlers and to establish control over the Mediterranean Sea.

Ancient Rome....as in the reign of the Caesars. Not very Catholic, that. And Julius Caesar died in 44 B.C., so the Catholic Church had not even been founded yet.

You can't spell ISIS without "Islamic".





CHRIS MATTHEWS: There is 1.75 billion Islamic people in the world. There are Islamic people who are as far from Arab as you and I are far from Arab. They are not Arabs: they happen to be Muslims. They live in India. They live in Pakistan. They live in Indonesia. Why do we want to declare war on them by calling our terrorist opponents Islamic?  - See more at: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2015/11/16/matthews-fdr-didnt-declare-war-catholics-so-dont-blame-islam#sthash.npKAEnjZ.dpuf
CHRIS MATTHEWS: There is 1.75 billion Islamic people in the world. There are Islamic people who are as far from Arab as you and I are far from Arab. They are not Arabs: they happen to be Muslims. They live in India. They live in Pakistan. They live in Indonesia. Why do we want to declare war on them by calling our terrorist opponents Islamic? 
EUGENE ROBINSON: Well we don't. Or we shouldn't. In fact, George W. Bush did not. Right after 9/11, George W. Bush, in a moment that actually filled me with pride, George W. Bush came right out and said we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with this crazy al Qaeda group. We're going to get them, and we're going to get them good. But we are not at war with one of the world's great religions. And it is a ridiculous thing. I sincerely hope that none of these characters, if they were to become president, would repeat such a thing. Because it is a sentiment that no President of the United States who is responsibly discharging his duties would ever utter.
MATTHEWS: I don't think Franklin Roosevelt, as angry as he was at Mussolini, never declared war on the Catholics. Anyway, that would have been a stupid thing to say.
- See more at: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2015/11/16/matthews-fdr-didnt-declare-war-catholics-so-dont-blame-islam#sthash.npKAEnjZ.dpuf
CHRIS MATTHEWS: There is 1.75 billion Islamic people in the world. There are Islamic people who are as far from Arab as you and I are far from Arab. They are not Arabs: they happen to be Muslims. They live in India. They live in Pakistan. They live in Indonesia. Why do we want to declare war on them by calling our terrorist opponents Islamic? 
EUGENE ROBINSON: Well we don't. Or we shouldn't. In fact, George W. Bush did not. Right after 9/11, George W. Bush, in a moment that actually filled me with pride, George W. Bush came right out and said we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with this crazy al Qaeda group. We're going to get them, and we're going to get them good. But we are not at war with one of the world's great religions. And it is a ridiculous thing. I sincerely hope that none of these characters, if they were to become president, would repeat such a thing. Because it is a sentiment that no President of the United States who is responsibly discharging his duties would ever utter.
MATTHEWS: I don't think Franklin Roosevelt, as angry as he was at Mussolini, never declared war on the Catholics. Anyway, that would have been a stupid thing to say.
- See more at: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2015/11/16/matthews-fdr-didnt-declare-war-catholics-so-dont-blame-islam#sthash.npKAEnjZ.dpuf

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