tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82244995369352184282024-02-06T21:31:54.840-08:00the German EgyptianRamblings from a Tradition lover caught in the time warp of Spirit of V2 happy clappy crap. In other words don't hug me I'm prayingthe Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.comBlogger245125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-12912205270368377662013-04-03T09:38:00.001-07:002013-04-03T09:38:28.942-07:00Marriage, Procreation and Historical Amnesia<div class="entry-content">
best i have read yet, hope to find the followups as well</div>
<div class="entry-content">
E<br /><b> </b></div>
<div class="entry-content">
<b>By Ross Douthat</b></div>
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<b> </b></div>
<div class="entry-content">
<a href="http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/marriage-procreation-and-historical-amnesia/" target="_blank"><b> http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/marriage-procreation-and-historical-amnesia/</b></a></div>
<div class="entry-content">
<b> </b><br /><br />
Not surprisingly, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/opinion/sunday/douthat-marriage-looks-different-now.html">my Sunday column</a>
raising the possibility that the successes of the gay marriage movement
might be having some modest influence on marriage’s overall decline
left liberals (and many others) unpersuaded. Kevin Drum has <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/03/gay-marriage-debate-has-probably-not-affected-straight-marriage-much#.UVl5hK7RIjo.twitter">a usefully representative rebuttal</a>,
whose three major points I think I’ll take up in separate posts. Here’s
the first, which dismisses the idea that the push for same-sex marriage
has tended to weaken the legal and cultural connection between marriage
and procreation by … blaming social conservatives for injecting that
supposed connection into the debate in the first place:<br />
<blockquote>
My
sense of the debate is that the procreation argument was introduced by
opponents of same-sex marriage, not supporters. Those advocating SSM
just wanted gays and lesbians to be able to marry each other. It was
opponents, after realizing that Old Testament jeremiads weren’t cutting
it any more, who began claiming that SSM should remain banned because
gays couldn’t have children. This turned out to be both a tactical and
strategic disaster, partly because the argument was so transparently
silly (what about old people? what about women who had hysterectomies?
etc.) and partly because it suggested that SSM opponents didn’t have any
better arguments to offer. But disaster or not, they’re the ones
responsible for making this into a cornerstone of the anti-SSM debates
in the aughts. Without that, I doubt that most ordinary people would
ever have connected gay marriage to procreation within straight
marriages in the first place. If this really has had an impact on
traditional marriage, the anti-SSM forces have mostly themselves to
blame.</blockquote>
The notion that nobody would have entertained
what Drum later calls the “esoteric” idea that marriage has an essential
link to the way that human beings procreate if desperate social
conservatives hadn’t grasped at it is apparently quite a popular view,
judging by the fact that other writers raised it on Twitter over the
weekend, and its popularity testifies to the way that the gay marriage
debate has encouraged a strange historical amnesia about the origins of
marriage law.<br />
If gay marriage opponents <em>had</em> essentially
invented a procreative foundation for marriage in order to justify
opposing same-sex wedlock, it would indeed be telling evidence of a
movement groping for reasons to justify its bigotry. But of course that
essential connection was assumed in Western law and culture long before
gay marriage emerged as a controversy or a cause. You don’t have to look
very hard to find quotes (like the ones collected in <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/01/the-constitutionality-of-traditional-marriage">this Heritage Foundation brief</a>)
from jurists, scholars, anthropologists and others, writing
in historical contexts entirely removed from the gay marriage
debate, making the case that “the first purpose of matrimony, by the
laws of nature and society, is procreation” (that’s a California Supreme
Court ruling in 1859), describing the institution of marriage as
one “founded in nature, but modified by civil society: the one directing
man to continue and multiply his species, the other prescribing the
manner in which that natural impulse must be confined and regulated”
(that’s William Blackstone), and acknowledging that “it is through
children alone that sexual relations become important to society, and
worthy to be taken cognizance of by a legal institution” (that’s the
well-known reactionary Bertrand Russell).<br />
Nor, perhaps more
importantly, is it difficult to find various traditional features of
marriage law that only make sense given the procreative understanding:
For instance, the granting, not of divorces, but <em>annulments</em> in
the case of marriages that weren’t or couldn’t be consummated — a
provision with deep roots in the common law tradition, and one that
remains in force today in contexts as diverse as <a href="http://www.courts.ca.gov/1037.htm">California</a> and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/10/legal-definition-consummation-gay-marriage">England</a>. (Current English annulment law went on the books all the way back in the dark medieval year of … 1973.)<br />
Note,
too, that by saying that a marriage left unconsummated through coitus
is invalid, the common-law tradition makes precisely the distinction
that Drum (and many others) find so self-evidently ridiculous and assume
was obviously just invented for the gay marriage debate — a distinction
between relationships that involve the reproductive act and those that
don’t, with the former being valid marriages even when they’re infertile
and the latter not. This <a href="http://www.encounterbooks.com/books/what-is-marriage/">Robert George-esque view</a>
of what is and isn’t marriage may or may not make sense, but it was
considered a perfectly reasonable way of drawing distinctions between <em>heterosexual</em>
relationships long before the homosexual claim to equal marriage rights
began to be advanced. Wise or not, it was a distinction inherited from
centuries of legal tradition, not invented as a made-up way to keep the
gays from contaminating marriage.<br />
Now if Drum wants to argue that this “first purpose of matrimony” understanding was <em>eroding</em>
by the time the gay marriage debate began, and that its post-sexual
revolution erosion explains why marriage’s inherent connection to
reproduction went from being self-evident in 1971’s Baker v. Nelson
decision (the first major gay marriage ruling, whose invocation of
marriage’s necessary connection to the <a href="http://www.cas.umt.edu/phil/faculty/walton/bakrvnel.htm">“procreation and rearing of children”</a> nobody
at the time found “transparently silly”) to being contested in the
1990s and dismissed in the 2000s — well then, yes, he would have an
entirely plausible case. But he and others seem to be making a much
stronger claim than this — that basically <em>nobody</em> would have
imagined that the gay marriage debate had any implications for
marriage’s connection to procreation if the anti-gay marriage cause
hadn’t seized on the idea, and that the marriage-procreation link is (at
best) a medieval relic exhumed to serve the ends of homophobia, and at
worst just something invented by social conservatives out of animus and
desperation.<br />
That so many people find this claim credible or even
self-evident is a small but potent example of exactly the two phenemona
that my column’s conclusion discussed: First, the way that gay marriage
inevitably has widening cultural ripple effects, in this case revising
not only the law itself but also the stories people tell about where
those laws came from and what they’re meant to do; and second, the way
that some of these ripple effects are making it almost impossible for
liberals to show magnanimity in victory, and accept the continued
existence of people and institutions that still take the older view of
what marriage is and means. After all, if that supposedly “older” view
was just invented by Clinton or Bush-era homophobes when their
Bible-thumping stopped working, then what’s to respect or even tolerate?
Once you’ve rewritten the past to make your opponents look worse, then
you’re well on your way to justifying writing them out of the future
entirely.</div>
the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-30744522606730772572013-03-27T06:02:00.003-07:002013-03-27T06:02:43.539-07:00Hello Supremes?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpBCIkIGALGSTpBnDafJM3w8oPEc36Vn1FeEe2Uf62EcUBW08jeE9OKKDEs_bcs_EkBPHOJJAYS-neLbHEiLN0klYaLFj1TflyW3m6Vfq4AWrmCGNx81jAXAB-jWotuRtIJMTfgNW8QDzs/s1600/The-three-trees-WEB.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpBCIkIGALGSTpBnDafJM3w8oPEc36Vn1FeEe2Uf62EcUBW08jeE9OKKDEs_bcs_EkBPHOJJAYS-neLbHEiLN0klYaLFj1TflyW3m6Vfq4AWrmCGNx81jAXAB-jWotuRtIJMTfgNW8QDzs/s640/The-three-trees-WEB.jpg" width="640" /> </a></div>
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once again from the <a href="http://swordofpeter.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Sword of Peter </a></div>
the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-39105305899601459802013-03-27T05:59:00.000-07:002013-03-27T05:59:08.747-07:00this says a mouth full<h1 class="entry-title">
Stupidity: A Malady of the Cultural Elite</h1>
<div class="headline_meta">
Nail meet Hammer, explains so many Catholics in name only, poorly educated and taught to "feel" not "think". If you notice Rush has said that for years, "what do you THINK, I don't care how you feel, feel is a sigh of intellectual laziness. Liberalism and the progressives constantly appeal to feelings and shout down intellectual debate</div>
<div class="headline_meta">
<br /></div>
<div class="headline_meta">
Egyptain</div>
<div class="headline_meta">
<br /></div>
<div class="headline_meta">
by <span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn" href="http://www.crisismagazine.com/author/james-kalb">James Kalb</a></span></div>
<img alt="dunce-cap" class="post-image wp-post-image" height="320" src="http://www.crisismagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/dunce-cap-599x320.jpg" width="599" /><div class="first-child ">
<strong><span class="cap" title="W"><span>W</span></span>e live in something of a meritocracy,</strong>
and our rulers believe they are by far the most enlightened and
well-informed people who ever lived. For that reason they feel entitled
to make the aspirations of the present day, or what they consider such,
the compulsory standard for public life. They view the claim that there
are principles that transcend those aspirations as the sort of thing
that led to 9/11, and treat the past as worth considering only as
something to escape from or a foreshadowing of the glories of the
present.</div>
Nonetheless, a variety of conditions, from the state of education and
the arts to that of political discussion, makes it evident that Western
society is growing less and less able to think clearly and effectively.
That’s a big problem, and one that’s hard to deal with, because it is
difficult to cure oneself of mindlessness. Still, we should do our best
to understand what’s going on.<br />
A basic part of the problem is that the kind of meritocracy we have
leads to stupidity. Its effect is that local and subordinate groupings
are deprived of talent and respect, and the leadership at the top
becomes unable to think or function outside established understandings.
The people at the top mostly went to the same highly competitive
schools, where they were all told the same things, and it’s taken all
their effort and devotion to get where they are today. The result is
that they’re absorbed in their social function and setting, and would
find it very difficult to adopt an independent perspective if the desire
to do so ever entered their heads.<br />
The results are evident in our public life. How often do our leaders
say or write anything that would be of interest if a different name were
attached? Can anyone imagine Hilary Clinton thinking something she
isn’t supposed to think? And to get to the bottom line, do our rulers
give the impression that they know what’s going on or what to do about
it?<br />
Naturally, meritocracy isn’t the only culprit. There are other
factors at work that also stem from the nature of a society ruled by
technology and technocratic ideals. Their effect is that the
understandings that guide thought are becoming increasingly
nonfunctional:<br />
<ul>
<li>Electronic diversions train people out of the habit of consecutive
thought. Tweets, texting, and multitasking mean discussions never get to
the point and are hardly discussions at all.</li>
<li>Rejection of transcendent standards leads to denial of the good,
beautiful, and true in favor of rhetoric and power. That means the
subordination of thought to politics, propaganda, and partisanship.</li>
<li>Bureaucracy, commerce, and the media absorb functions once performed
by individuals, families, and tradition. Instead of the arts of life,
which require thought, we have consumer goods, social programs, and
industrially-produced pop culture. The result is that thought becomes
less important as a day-to-day matter.</li>
<li>Thought requires engagement with reality. Electronic entertainment
and the distance between cause and effect in a complex globalized
society mean people do not engage reality, while skepticism as to truth
means they consider it theoretically impossible to do so.</li>
<li>A technological approach to society means mechanical unity of
components, and thought and discussion are not mechanical. Common
histories, understandings, and commitments, as well as freedom of
association, are necessary for complex and subtle activities such as
scholarly inquiry and speculative thought, and technocracy disrupts such
things.</li>
<li>Thought depends on recognizing and applying patterns, and technology
rejects pattern recognition in favor of simple relations of cause and
effect. To make matters worse, relating individual cases to patterns
means stereotyping and discrimination. Ideals of diversity and
inclusiveness, which draw their institutional strength from the
technocratic desire to turn people into interchangeable components, thus
require suppression of the habits of mind that make thought possible.</li>
<li>Thought also depends on standards of cogency, which are disfavored
because they are at odds with diversity. People want to include
marginalized voices, so they feel called upon to treat thoughts
nonjudgmentally, as long as they are politically acceptable.</li>
<li>In any event, standards require effort, so they’re at odds with
consumerism, comfort, and lifestyle libertarianism, and the
technological outlook makes those the goals of life. Such an attitude
may help explain the <a href="http://http//www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-myth-of-american-meritocracy/">recent startling decline of academic achievement</a> among thoroughly assimilated Jewish and Japanese Americans.</li>
</ul>
If America and the West are getting stupider as a result of the basic
nature and tendency of our society, including the measures that have
been adopted to increase the intelligence with which it is run, we have
to ask about the future. Some say that the no-nonsense Chinese will take
over everything, others that genetic engineering will save the day,
still others predict a period of general disorder, something like the
Middle East but on a global scale.<br />
It seems unlikely the Chinese will take over, since they have their
own problems. For starters, selective abortion and the one-child rule
mean they’re going to have a huge population of young men with no
prospect of marriage, and an even huger population of elderly people
with no one to support and look after them. Nor does genetic engineering
look like a cure-all for stupidity, if only because the problems are
mostly cultural and grow out of an understanding of man and society that
reduces human life to an engineering problem. So the obvious outcome of
present trends in the West is growing incoherence of thought, leading
to nonfunctional public life and a retreat into inward-turning networks
of survival. We’ve tried to turn Iraq into Minnesota, but it’s more
likely we’ll turn Minnesota into Iraq.<br />
What’s needed, then, is a basic change of cultural direction that
allows better things to develop. That’s not impossible. Intelligence is
more functional than stupidity, and cooperation works better than chaos,
so why shouldn’t they have a competitive advantage?<br />
What’s caused the problem is the habit of viewing the world
exclusively as a mechanical system. That approach has been fruitful in
the physical sciences, but it has no place for intelligence, meaning, or
agency, so it defeats itself when applied to the world as a whole. It
can deal with protons, but not with physics as a science carried on by
intelligent human beings, so in the long run it undermines even science.<br />
Man is rational, at least to the extent that if he drives
intelligence and meaning out of his understanding of the world he will
eventually drive them out of his way of life. What we need, then, is a
fundamental change of understanding that makes intelligence and meaning
integral to how things are. To be functional and stable the new
understanding must be concrete enough to give determinate results, and
to deserve confidence it must have a way that can be counted on to
settle disruptive questions.<br />
That sounds a lot like Catholicism. Things haven’t been going well
for the Church lately, but we’re not the only ones with problems. In the
long run basic principles determine results, so if we can remain true
to what we are then even from a purely this-worldly standpoint we have
advantages that the forces of secular modernity can’t match. The
conversion of the Roman Empire became final when thinkers like Augustine
found they needed the Church to make sense of life and the world. What
works best wins out, so there are reasons to expect something similar to
happen again.the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-41071605697679497832013-03-14T07:45:00.000-07:002013-03-15T05:14:11.401-07:00In honor of the new Pope, Francis Just in case you have the wrong impression of St Francis, he did NOT go around prancing among the birds and wildflowers hugging everyone and everything,
he was a REAL piece of work, this could be very interesting. Hopefully he will "kick some butt" if you'll pardon the slang, however it is needed in the Curia and the church as a whole.<br />
<br />
God Bless Him, and may His Pontificate be a good one.<br />
E<br />
<br />
From the <a href="http://swordofpeter.blogspot.com/">Sword of Peter</a>, one good catholic cartoon site<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FZnLXxsMlsc/TxuG8PTtx1I/AAAAAAAAAGo/8si1XgepPG0/s1600/St.+Francis+%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="494" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FZnLXxsMlsc/TxuG8PTtx1I/AAAAAAAAAGo/8si1XgepPG0/s640/St.+Francis+%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-8253065411220323152013-03-11T12:14:00.000-07:002013-03-11T12:14:59.082-07:00But they won't be lib religion hating leftist progressives like us<br />
from the blog of <a href="http://www.althouse.blogspot.com/2013/03/daily-beast-writers-harry-siegel-and.html" target="_blank">Ann Althouse</a><br />
<br />
Clueless, totally CLUELESS, almost painful to hear, realizing that contracepting aborting libs are facing the biological solution<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8224499536935218428" name="6440294130804044846">Priceless</a><br />
E
<br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title">
<a href="http://www.althouse.blogspot.com/2013/03/daily-beast-writers-harry-siegel-and.html">Daily Beast writers Harry Siegel and Allison Yarrow get the vapors over the possibility that conservative religion...</a>
</h3>
... might be the only viable solution to America's low birth rate problem. They get the vapors, they might be vapid, and Harry <i>vapes</i>.<br />
<br />
<embed allowscriptaccess="always" flashvars="diavlogid=15758&file=http://bloggingheads.tv/playlist.php/15758/26:18/30:20&config=http://static.bloggingheads.tv/ramon/_live/files/2012/offsite_config.xml&topics=false" height="288" id="bhtv15758" name="bhtv15758" src="http://static.bloggingheads.tv/ramon/_live/players/player_v5.2-licensed.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="380"></embed><br />
<br />
Listen to the desperation as they sidetrack into the topic of whether
the children of conservative religionists will veer into decently
acceptable liberalism (and become... <i>tattoo artists!</i>). They never
return to the issue of whether religion is needed to keep the
population going into the future. If the offspring don't maintain the
conservative values that caused their parents to have children, how do
you get the <i>next</i> generation?
the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-64513630583938722682013-03-09T13:06:00.002-08:002013-03-09T13:06:43.255-08:00same old same old, the liberals keep trying<a href="http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/19584_469981756383910_2023855850_n.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="" border="0" class="fbPhotoImage img" height="244" id="fbPhotoImage" src="http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/19584_469981756383910_2023855850_n.jpg" width="640" /> </a><br />
they keep hoping to drag the church into the "Modern World" <br />
<br />
We are to be in this world not of this worldthe Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-38806771347742065162013-03-08T08:35:00.000-08:002013-03-09T11:34:02.809-08:00why does it take an athiest to explain thingsHe makes Piers Morgan look like the ass he is, Penn is closer to an understanding of Catholicism that the idiot catholic on the other side of the table<br />
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
</h3>
<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.cato.org/longtail-iframe/node/45125/field_longtail_player/0" width="640"></iframe><br />the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-12757854488280925702013-03-08T08:29:00.001-08:002013-03-08T08:29:10.550-08:00To Anonymous<dl id="comments-block">
<dt id="c5347482915457060111">
<img alt="Anonymous" class="comment-icon anon-comment" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" />
<span dir="ltr">Anonymous</span> said...</dt>
<dd>I'd love to hear about how your parish finally decided that they
needed to hire a Youth Minister, prompting the Coordinator of Religious
Education to "spend more time with her family."<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
Which parish are you referring to? <br />
an explanation, I was born and raised in the Egypt area, but now reside just over the line to the west in the "Marion School district, however my heart will always be in that little parish church full of farmers and their kids that was built on my families land<br />
--------------------------------------------- <br />
That being said, over here in the Marion catholic Community,<br />
<br />
If you are talking about our new "old" deacon, well I have some reservations about him that is for sure. He seems to be another 80's holdover, I sent him a post from Holy Souls Hermitage about servers<br />
<a href="http://holysoulshermitage.com/2013/02/20/on-acolytes-altar-boys-girl-altar-boys-altar-servers/#comments" target="_blank"> http://holysoulshermitage.com/2013/02/20/on-acolytes-altar-boys-girl-altar-boys-altar-servers/#comments</a><br />
<br />
I was hoping to stir some kind of improvement in the absolutely sloppy, who cares attitude in our servers. Lets just say the response was underwhelming at best. <br />
<br />
" My formative years were prior to the mid-sixties. So, I know a little about the
pre-Vatican approach to worship and truly, I don't ever want to go back there".<br />
<br />
His remarks told me that any discussion with him is a dead end, regardless of the Holy Fathers wishes<br />
<br />
To quote Twain <span class="st">"When the end of the world comes, I want to be in <em>Cincinnati</em> because it's always twenty years behind the times."</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">and it seems there is another 5 to 10 till it gets up here </span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">I guess if i want to attend a truly holy NO mass I'll have to go to Russia and Fr Amberger, I suggest that all try to go to at least one. I'm not talking about a Latin mass, his NO mass is outstanding, it literally moved me to tears the last time, something I will never experience with the hand holding, happy clappy semi prot activity in our local parishes.</span><br />
<span class="st"><br /></span>
<span class="st">Even my 14 year old son is sensing something wrong, he is questioning the Mass and told me very few of his friends really want to go and claim that it is boring and they get absolutely get NOTHING out of it, just go because they are forced. Oh and the "hip relevant music" bores the teens to tears, it is "hip" to the "old" organist.and her age group not the kids, and don't go there, we do NOT need a drummer and guitars in the sanctuary. I would love to expose some of them to chant and polyphony, but for now I grit my teeth and pray, "forgive them they know no what they do"</span><br />
<br />
<span class="st">As we worship and pray, so we believe </span><br />
<br />
</dd></dl>
the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-40173075614374108862013-03-04T01:00:00.000-08:002013-03-05T09:58:32.989-08:00well I'm backWell I guess I'm back, group blogs aren't for everyone, my interests were too broad and eclectic for the group and so with no malice to Rich or anyone at <a href="http://otritt.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Over the Rhine and into the Tiber</a> I take my leave, It was fun however my interests go far and wide beyond the Arch Diocese of Cincinnati and involve a critical and sometimes snarky, love of the Church and the world as a whole, I will endeavor to post my opinion and views, occasionally an update from the farm, usually expressed through articles and pictures from others and sometimes my own. (I'm a hopeless cut and paster)<br />
<br />
If anyone has any hints at goings on that are worth covering, drop me a line in the comments box, there is so much going on here in our little slice of heaven, good and bad but it usually goes unnoticed. It is about time to put many of the bad things going on in the mass in the light of day. Don't worry i wont use you name and if you would like to post we can use a blog namethe Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-17482772320943472342012-09-09T12:21:00.000-07:002012-09-09T12:21:18.845-07:00to anyone happening on this old blog, I now post at <a href="http://otritt.wordpress.com/">Over the Rhine and into the Tiber,</a> come on in and lok around, it's a group effort, enjoythe Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-13101002516154713652010-04-29T05:52:00.000-07:002010-04-29T05:53:11.773-07:00aint it a BITCH<h3 class="post-title"> <a href="http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2010/04/pro-lifers-make-women-cry.html">Pro-Lifers Make Women Cry</a> </h3> <div class="post-body"> <p>Pro-aborts are actually accusing pro-lifers of making women cry. Yup. That's the new tactic. The ol' "pro-lifers are a bunch of meany pants" defense.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/28/clinic-new-oklahoma-abortion-law-hard-patients/">Fox News</a> reports:</p><blockquote>The requirements of Oklahoma's new abortion law are drawing some emotional responses from patients, a clinic director said Wednesday, now that women must have an ultrasound and hear a detailed description of the fetus before the procedure can be done.<br /><br />The law went into effect a day earlier, when the state Senate overrode Gov. Brad Henry's veto of that measure and one that prohibits pregnant women from seeking damages if physicians withhold information or provide inaccurate information about their pregnancy.<br /><br /><strong>"It's been difficult for some of the patients," said Linda Meek, executive director of Reproductive Services of Tulsa. "We've had patients leave the ultrasound room in tears because of what they had to hear."</strong><br /><br />...The new statute requires the person performing the ultrasound to describe the dimensions of the fetus, whether arms, legs and internal organs are visible and whether there is cardiac activity. It also requires the doctor to turn a screen depicting the ultrasound images toward the woman to see them.<br /><br />Meek said no patient at the clinic had yet canceled an abortion after hearing a description of the fetus. Jennifer Mondino, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights that filed the lawsuit, said that so far no patient at the Tulsa clinic has decided to view the images.</blockquote> You can understand how hard it must be for abortionists to hear crying in their clinic as they're not used to hearing the screams of their victims (See the Silent Scream).<br /><br />And here's the kicker. I don't believe them anyway. They're lying that the law is having no effect on the women's decision. It's interesting to watch because these abortionists are really walking a fine line here because they have to argue that the information these women is so traumatizing that they're breaking out in tears but then they have to turn around and argue that it also has no effect on the women's decision. It's really a Catch-22 for abortionists.<br /><br />These abortionists are fighting tooth and nail to have this law overturned because they know when a woman hears the truth or sees the truth they are much more likely not to get an abortion. They don't give a hoot about these women. They care about the cost of the abortion. That's it. </div> <div style="float: right;"><script type="text/javascript">var addthis_pub="edppar";</script> <a id="http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2010/04/pro-lifers-make-women-cry.html" name="Pro-Lifers Make Women Cry" onclick="return addthis_sendto()" onmouseout="addthis_close()" onmouseover="'return"><img alt="Bookmark and Share" src="http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/lg-share-en.gif" style="border: 0pt none;" width="125" height="16" /></a><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/200/addthis_widget.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div> <span class="post-author"> Posted by matthew archbold </span> <span class="post-timestamp"> at <a class="timestamp-link" href="http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2010/04/pro-lifers-make-women-cry.html" title="permanent link">8:54 PM</a> </span> <span class="post-comment-link"> </span> <span class="post-icons"> <span class="item-action"> <a href="email-post.g?blogID=6745409605496062834&postID=3586030690152887150" title="Email Post"> <span class="email-post-icon"> </span></a><a href="email-post.g?blogID=6745409605496062834&postID=3586030690152887150" title="Email Post"> </a> </span></span>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-64238029158338670072010-04-23T06:16:00.000-07:002010-04-23T06:24:30.122-07:00In honor of Marx's Birthday err, sorry, Earth DayYou did know that Earth Day is on Carl Marx birthday didn't you? I believe on purpose, to vilify capitalism and catholic and Christian belief. I mean, really, the first video shows Earth Firsters acting out their pagan religion. Marx would be proud. The second is a hoot but only makes sense if you watch the first one, puts the Tree worshipers in their place, enjoy.<br />The Egyptian<br />ps. I agree with the elm tree<br /><br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tFUDEmMjC-c&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tFUDEmMjC-c&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HIULIJxVr7A&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HIULIJxVr7A&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-15896521358106971282010-04-15T05:52:00.000-07:002010-04-15T05:54:54.242-07:00The human being is a threat to the ideals of a Progressive New World Order.<span style="font-style: italic;">I will be running Michaels columns as they become available, he is right up my alley<br />The Egyptian<br /><br /></span><br /> <div class="photo"> <div class="image"> <code> <a href="http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/author/mmoriarty"><code><img src="http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/files/userphoto/1714.thumbnail.jpg" alt="Michael Moriarty" class="photo" width="64" height="80" /></code></a> </code> </div> </div> <h2><a href="http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mmoriarty/2010/04/14/ordinary-miracle/">Ordinary Miracle</a></h2> <span class="postheader">by <strong><a href="http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/author/mmoriarty"> Michael Moriarty </a> </strong> </span> <!-- Article Start --> <div id="lazyload_post_0"> <p>For me the human being is a miracle.</p> <p>For Progressive Americans, however, because of the particularly Progressive Supreme Court’s <em>Roe v Wade Decision</em> of 1973, the human being has become less than ordinary.</p> <p>The human being is now an easily disposable or aborted threat to the ideals of a Progressive New World Order.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img style="display: block;" class="size-full wp-image-334250 aligncenter" title="Portrait of 4 month old boy" src="http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/files/2010/04/BabyPortraitSantaFe1.jpg" original="http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/files/2010/04/BabyPortraitSantaFe1.jpg" alt="Portrait of 4 month old boy" width="300" height="300" /></p> <p>With this “fundamental transformation of the United States of America,” as President Barack Obama has reminded us, I begin the first excerpt of a possibly endless series entitled, <em>The Ordinary Miracle</em>.</p> <p>As a self-imposed exile, my life’s journey from my birthplace in Detroit, Michigan to Canada is a bit longer than the mild jaunt across the Ambassador Bridge from Detroit to Windsor, Ontario.</p> <p>The country I left under the subtly unconstitutional care of Bill and Hillary Clinton has now exploded into the incipiently treasonous arrogance of the Obama Nation.<span id="more-332998"></span></p> <p>My life is now a miraculous melodrama in which those who would make me and many fellow members of the human family less than ordinary are an indisputable villainy.</p> <p>From my personal experience, the American Progressive Movement has endeavored to paint what is traditionally American into an increasingly vilified form of irrelevance.</p> <p>Meanwhile, the Progressives now move from legalized abortion to Health Care Death Panels.</p> <p>It’s progress, you see.</p> <p>It is actually <em>thanatos</em>, the love of death … as versus <em>eros</em> and <em>agap<strong>e</strong></em>, the love of life … that is being offered as the best solution to the problems of life.</p> <p>More on those wonderfully ancient words in later excerpts of this offering.</p> <p>It is, indeed, the replacement of a Judeo-Christian God with the Marxist God of Science.</p> <p>To Karl Marx even his suicidal economic theories were a science.</p> <p>Now with Global Warming, a tyrannizing delusion arising from Marxist Science, we’re in the last big chapter of the <em>Bible</em>.</p> <p><em>Revelations</em>.</p> <p>And we’re the Good Guys!</p> <p>This is as certain as the goodness of the Allies versus the evil of the Nazi, Fascist and Imperialized Japanese Axis.</p> <p>Instead of the Axis we face Red Islam, Communist Jihads best represented by our unquestionably mortal enemy, Osama bin Laden and the equally Marxist imprint that President Barack Obama would like to leave upon not just the earth, but all of Mankind.</p> <p>This cast of good guys and bad guys is so clear, so eternally indelible, that this editorial series of mine may soon turn into either a Batman/Superman epic or into <em>The Ordinary Miracle of G.I. Joe</em>.</p> <p>Those to the rescue, however, are in the millions and, yes, most of them are <strong><em>The Ordinary Miracles of the Tea Party Movement</em></strong>.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img style="display: block;" class="size-full wp-image-334258 aligncenter" title="6-kid---im-only-11-sign" src="http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/files/2010/04/6-kid-im-only-11-sign1.jpg" original="http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/files/2010/04/6-kid-im-only-11-sign1.jpg" alt="6-kid---im-only-11-sign" width="422" height="285" /></p> <p>With that intensely short introduction, let me begin my American recollections, not necessarily in chronological order.</p> <p>Much of this will be an improvisation which I am occasionally good at.</p> <p>Let’s start with my first introduction to Andrew Breitbart’s <em>Big Hollywood</em>.</p> <p>Yes, many of you were there and, of course, <em>Big Hollywood’s</em> interest in me was its discovery of my persistently dedicated commitment, through my writings for <a href="http://www.enterstageright.com/">enterstageright.com</a>, my immense trust in the proven power of not the American Constitution but her Declaration of Independence and its “inalienable” tribute to our “Creator.”</p> <p>I am, indeed, a self-described, pro-life, Catholic libertarian.</p> <p>Catholic libertarian may seem like a contradiction in terms.</p> <p>However, when you compare my own form of faith to the Progressive Catholic hypocrisy of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, their pro-abortion defilement of a Judeo-Christian, five thousand year old commandment, “Thou shalt not kill”?!</p> <p>Well … here’s my first <em>Moriarty Pause</em> in this possibly endless trip down memory lane.</p> <p>I sigh and take a breath to recover from the cardinal sins committed every passing second by the Biden/Pelosi hypocrisy.</p> <p>“Ye hypocrites!”</p> <p>“Ye lawyers, you heap on people pains that you yourselves could not endure!”</p> <p>That’s my rather Dionysian version of Christ engaging in a counter-revolutionary but very French pastime entitled <em>J’accuse</em>!</p> <p>Ye Progressives!</p> <p>You heap on your citizens, and their future generations, agonies which you, as Congressmen, Congresswomen and White House CEO’s cannot, will not and could never, in your most hypocritically brave or falsely humble moments, endure!</p> <p>If you don’t like my Dionysian Catholicism blame it on the Jesuits who fed me Greek and Latin for two to four years.</p> <p>My vocation in the theater was ordained by the Black Robes as certainly as they themselves were ordained priests.</p> <p>Meanwhile, back amidst the counter-revolutionary dens of <em>Big Hollywood</em>, I have the great privilege of not only having a Tea Party audience but the very Third Millennium freedom to carry on a post-editorial conversation via an entirely state-of-the-art Town-Hall Meeting.</p> <p>And we all have the courage to “go on the record!”</p> <p>Life is good.</p> <p>It is and can be <em>so</em> good that Christ’s words are confirmed daily.</p> <p><em>“Unless ye become like little children, ye shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”</em></p> <p>What is our counter-revolution but the classic child’s exclamation, “The Emperor has no clothes … and our President obviously cannot tell the truth about anything.”</p> <p>His <strong><em>“</em></strong><em>transparency<strong>”</strong></em> is a big, fat, juicy, utterly irreversible, historically recorded <em>Lie</em>!</p> <p>Now there’s a truth that cannot only set you free, it can release you into a whole new level of <em>catharsis</em>.</p> <p>I also highlight that word because it, along with <em>thanatos</em>, <em>eros</em> and <em>agape</em>, will return repeatedly as the main force and rules of evidence for unseating the entire American Progressive Movement.</p> <p>Send Progressivism back to France, where the whole, Communist nightmare began!</p> <p>Here is my lesson for the day.</p> <p>There has been a human genius so old that the “enlightened despots” of Harvard think it so antiquated that it no longer has contemporary relevance, except as a foil for their Progressive Comparative History Lessons, their “teachable moments”, their vision of Mankind’s inevitably scientific progress to the clearly envisioned destination: <em>The Completion of The Progressive, One-Thousand-Year Plan For All of Humanity</em>.</p> <p>In other words, The New World Order.</p> <p>The last Progressive of that ilk was Adolf Hitler.</p> <p>We have seen and spoken of … repeatedly … the image of our President looking down his flared nostrils at us, and we’ve heard the words that accompany such arrogant certainty.</p> <p>“The fundamental transformation of the United States of America!”</p> <p>Within one year of office, President Obama has been captured in photos that make some of Mussolini’s grandstanding grimaces look reticent.</p> <p>Oh, before I leave off, I will leave a “teaser” for you, one previously left on the response blog for my editorial,<strong> <em>Bradley’s</em></strong>.</p> <p>“Who is the new Jane Fonda?”</p> <p>I’ll await your guesses with a few hints in future offerings from this, my apparently autobiographical series, <strong><em>The Ordinary Miracle.</em></strong></p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">jQuery('#lazyload_post_0 img').lazyload({placeholder: '/wp-includes/images/blank.gif'});</script><span class="fdPrintIncludeParentsPreviousSiblings"></span><span class="fdPrintIncludeParentsChildren"></span><span class="fdPrintExcludeNextSiblings"></span>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-70265444744723342942010-04-12T17:31:00.000-07:002010-04-12T17:36:32.219-07:00Real Priests, we have it so easy today<h3 class="post-title entry-title">How sad the poor people in attendance could not participate, they were so deprived and didn't even know it. Bet they appreciated it more.<br /></h3>The Egyptian<br />From the Crescat.<br /><h3 class="post-title entry-title"><a href="http://thecrescat.blogspot.com/2010/04/mass-in-bataan.html">mass in Bataan... </a> </h3> <div class="post-header"> </div> <div class="post-body entry-content"> <img src="http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c145/solekat205/bataanmass.jpg" /> </div> <span class="post-author vcard"> Posted by <span class="fn">The Crescat</span> </span> <span class="post-comment-link"> </span> <span class="post-icons"> <span class="item-action"> <a href="email-post.g?blogID=18613340&postID=4935290052377589399" title="Email Post"> <img alt="" class="icon-action" src="img/icon18_email.gif" width="18" height="13" /></a><a href="email-post.g?blogID=18613340&postID=4935290052377589399" title="Email Post"> </a> </span> </span>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-22122371047803741192010-04-08T06:41:00.000-07:002010-04-08T06:50:20.086-07:00We now find out what is all in this piece of crap health care bill, a standing domestic army,A few quotes for you<br /><br />"I propose a standing domestic army as strong as the regular army" Barrack Obama<br />Proof here <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwaAVJITx1Y&feature=player_embedded">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwaAVJITx1Y&feature=player_embedded</a><br /><br />"We have to vote this bill through to find out what is in it", Nancy Pisslousy<br />proof here <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoE1R-xH5To">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoE1R-xH5To</a><br /><br />Well guess what is in the fine print of this "health care bill" watch and try to not bitch out loud.<br />The Egyptian<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IM-JiGGYJ5w&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IM-JiGGYJ5w&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-38185690919390894512010-04-07T05:27:00.000-07:002010-04-07T05:28:23.479-07:00Try to hold your Breakfast<h3 class="post-title"> <a href="http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2010/04/abortionist-abortion-is-birth-control.html">Abortionist: "Abortion is Birth Control”</a> </h3> <p>Here's your stomach turning quote of the day from Lila Rose's blog. Abortionist Peter Kopf said in a recent interview:</p><blockquote>Abortion is birth control. Adoption is giving up your child and not accepting your duties as a mother. Most women are not interested in that. It’s only in a religiously-altered mind that that’s a true option.</blockquote> What?! Check out the rest at <a href="http://liveaction.org/blog/abortionist-in-interview-abortion-is-birth-control/">Lila Rose's Live Action blog.</a>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-2179075554531674262010-04-07T05:20:00.000-07:002010-04-07T05:22:36.085-07:00Another Progressive False God, er, OK Fruitcup will do<div class="blogEntryTitle"><a href="http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/04/leftist-fruitcup-deepak-chopra-blames-his-powerful-meditative-state-for-baja-quake/" rel="bookmark">Leftist Fruitcup Deepak Chopra Knows What Caused Baja Quake… His Powerful Meditation</a></div> <div class="blogEntryDate">Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 9:58 PM</div> <div class="blogEntryAuthor">Jim Hoft</div> <div class="storycontent"> <p>Leftist fruitcup <a href="http://twitter.com/DeepakChopra/status/11610151300">Deepak Chopra</a> knows what caused the Baja earthquake on Sunday…<br />His powerful meditation.<br /><a href="http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/chopra-tweet.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-21178" title="chopra tweet" src="http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/chopra-tweet-e1270612211672.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="229" /></a></p> <p>Remind me not to mess with this guy.<br /><a href="http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/chopra-blames-own-meditation-for-baja-quake/19426755?icid=main%7Cwelcome%7Cdl2%7Clink5%7Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2Fchopra-blames-own-meditation-for-baja-quake%2F19426755">AOL News</a> reported:</p> <blockquote><p>The U.S. Geological Survey is blaming day-to-day seismological changes for Sunday’s 7.2 earthquake along the U.S.-Mexico border. But Deepak Chopra, the famed alternative-medicine practitioner and transcendental meditation guru, is pretty sure he knows what really happened.</p> <p>“Had a powerful meditation just now — caused an earthquake in Southern California,” Chopra wrote to his nearly 179,000 Twitter followers shortly after the quake.</p> <p>And then, to clarify: “Was meditating on Shiva mantra & earth began to shake,” he tweeted. “Sorry about that.”</p> <p>Chopra might want to apologize directly to those in California, who haven’t suffered significant infrastructure damage but are still bracing for more temblors, and to those in Mexico, where two are dead, hundreds are injured and thousands are still without power.</p></blockquote> <p> Maybe this is progress?…<br />Last time he was pointing fingers he <a href="http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2008/11/deepak-chopra-blames-washington-for-mumbai-terrorist-attacks-update-iran-agrees/">blamed the US</a> for the Mumbai terror attacks.</p> </div>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-25731536321112385802010-04-03T17:34:00.001-07:002010-04-03T17:45:03.244-07:00My Rant on the Bogus Attacks on the Pope<strong style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);"><center>IT'S THE LAVENDER PRIESTHOOD<br />THAT CAUSES CATHOLIC CHURCH SCANDALS<br />BUT NOBODY WANTS TO SAY SO</center></strong><br />Finally, Finally the truth of the matter is the VAST MAJORITY of abuse, SEXUAL ABUSE, by priests is NOT pedophilia, ( the abuse of a female child by an adult male) but GAY assault, these gay priests will not be helped or changed by marrying, THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED IN WOMEN. They are rump rangers on the prowl, and the whole mess can be laid at the feet of the Second Vatican Calamity, liberalism is a sickness in society and the church, we have confused tolerance with acceptance and are now paying the price. Please read the LONG piece I post just below, the facts are not pretty, but the POPE is not the culprit, just the scapegoat to attack any return to proper worship and catechists. to quote Rush" <span id="Par_4584" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> <span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The Catholic Church has a bunch of leftists in it who would just as soon destroy the church and remake it, as the government has liberals in it who want to remake our government and destroy the Constitution. Liberals are liberals. They do not value institutions until they run them and remake them in their own way, and nothing is sacred. Not the Catholic Church, not the Methodist Church. Nothing! Zilch, zero, nada</span>.</span></span></span> "<br /><br />Second the definition of assault has changed, the Popes brother is accused of "boxing the ears of a choir boy" WHOOPTY DO probably not half a hard as the ass kickings I got and deserved as a mouthy kid, GROW UP, these people are out for money, nothing elsethe Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-43583068325487114542010-04-03T17:22:00.000-07:002010-04-03T17:35:57.398-07:00Finally someone is bringing this up.<h3 class="post-title entry-title"><a href="http://stjohnsvaldosta.blogspot.com/2010/03/ignoring-obvious.html"><center>IGNORING THE OBVIOUS</center></a> </h3> <div class="post-header"> </div> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cENyJEnpDHdtnsurhEIM9RCfyLBVHEsbZGaPnuCAuxGl7llpM6xNVLRT-70H2oURNka-a7ZmXSy0BF1D0wg2Ra3Rz6uqLdqfhtB0s79ySr1oxcImVEbFBci-QqUm-rfzXIbEV-lMBmM/s1600/elephant-714269.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 374px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1cENyJEnpDHdtnsurhEIM9RCfyLBVHEsbZGaPnuCAuxGl7llpM6xNVLRT-70H2oURNka-a7ZmXSy0BF1D0wg2Ra3Rz6uqLdqfhtB0s79ySr1oxcImVEbFBci-QqUm-rfzXIbEV-lMBmM/s400/elephant-714269.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454817538497795922" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><strong><center>IT'S THE LAVENDER PRIESTHOOD<br />THAT CAUSES CATHOLIC CHURCH SCANDALS<br />BUT NOBODY WANTS TO SAY SO</center></strong><br /><br />by Tom Roeser<br /><a href="http://blog.tomroeser.com/2010/03/personal-aside-its-lavender-priesthood.html">"On The Other Hand"</a><br /><br />The last time I wrote about the responsibility the Vatican has for sweeping pedophilia and other sexual sins under the rug, some guy contacted me brimming with erroneous theological rectitude saying—<em>“who are YOU to judge the Popes?”</em><br /><br />Huh?<strong><em> All of us</em></strong> can judge popes--since we have the gifts of free-will, critical judgment and <strong><em>utterly no prohibition on making our views known if they are malice-free and informed</em></strong>. Criticism in historic context is not verboten. But at the same time,<em> those who have accepted the Faith under the magisterium of the Church can never have any just reason for changing that faith or calling it into doubt</em>. Why not? Because God is never sparing with His grace and the evidence for accepting the Faith is such that a Catholic does not have objectively valid grounds for doubting or denying what he claims is trouble in believing.<br /> <br />Criticism of past popes if one the issues should <em>not</em> be confused with Satan’s work.<br /> <br /><strong>Peter</strong> was the greatest. Viewing popes in my lifetime, <strong>Pius XI</strong> was a liberal scholar, he a forerunner (with <strong>Leo XIII</strong> who was far more balanced skewing excesses of capitalism, socialism) of the “social justice” papal and theological mindset seeking to instill some “morality” in the capital markets --<em>Quadragisimo Anno</em> implied international bankers are wicked: okay but then as with most clerics, economics was not his strong suit.<br /> <br /><strong>Pius XII</strong> outstanding, maintaining an even keel in World War II, promulgating brilliantly that Communism was an evil force; and for this as payback, victimized cruelly because of this to allege he was a crypto Nazi from a fictitious play, “The Deputy,” that fabricated his alleged anti-Semitism out of whole cloth (ignoring his heroic rescue efforts of hundreds of Jews for which he received accolades from the chief rabbi of Jerusalem).<br /><br /><strong> John XXIII</strong> rightly called Vatican II into session but it was the so-called “spirit of Vatican II” in his latter years and following his death that embraced often thoughtless, excessive and mindless “reform” by theological liberals. Read the documents and you’ll see that the doctrines ratified were sound—sample: pantheism condemned…clerical celibacy upheld….abortion condemned…the Bible prominent…brilliant on the essence of religious life, freedom of education, historicity of the Gospels, the morality of war, purgatory, on the teaching of sexual pleasure, on the universal call to holiness, on veneration of saints etc. Paul VI suffered mightily in striving to turn back the revolutionaries imbued with the “spirit of Vatican II”… saving the day and who by the grace of God rallied and wrote Humanae Vitae which earns him 4 stars in my book.<br /><br /><strong>JPI</strong> died too early to be rated. <strong>JPII</strong> a classic world leader despite administrative curial difficulties who collaborated with Reagan, Thatcher and Lech Walesa to help overthrow communism. <strong>Benedict XVI</strong> with a weakness for eco-liberalism and “capitalist greed is bad” theories is still one of the world’s greatest theologians…and even enforced more strictly rules against priestly sexual abuse despite serious personal and curial administrative lapses which let some erring bishops go free.<br /> <br />You shouldn’t judge popes? That’s the kind of goofy misplaced robot-style blind-folded-ness that led the human side of the papacy into grievous error many times in the past…has produced the Protestant reformation…as it threatens to stir disunion again. Fortunately sometimes deluged by a sea of zircons the Church has developed great diamonds… popes who served civilization brilliantly every 500 years or so…including:<br /> <br /><strong>Gregory II</strong>, five hundred years after the crucifixion of Peter, a former Roman senator turned Benedictine monk, who stood tall against the barbarian tidal wave that threatened to sweep away all vestiges of Christianity—starting the counter-revolution that converted the barbarians into the ballast that became Christian Europe for a thousand years…<br /><br /><strong>Gregory VII</strong>, another Benedictine monk 500 or so years later… who inspired scholasticism, saving the great manuscripts of antiquity…including Aristotle and Plato…to enrich and fortify the ages….<strong>Pius V</strong> a great Dominican 500 years after <em>that</em> who applied the doctrines of the Council of Trent building a canonical structure that exists to this day…and 500 years after <em>that</em> John Paul II with all his imperfections administratively who strove mightily to overturn communism and who with aforementioned help <em>did</em>.<br /> <br />But lest you think the litany of popes is the <em>whole story</em> of Catholicism, hang tight to the end of this long (I confess) post.<br /> <br /><strong></strong><center><strong>The Lavender Emerges</strong></center><br /> Largely the institutional laxity of curia and diocesan functionaries is responsible for undue toleration of the <strong><em>Lavender Priesthoo</em></strong><em></em> including failure to discipline the seminaries, religious orders and so-called “Catholic” universities…due to a largely absentee and compliant papacy, aided by weak, bishops, putty in the hands of their bureaucracies —dominated by a mindset that prattles <em>“we must not allow scandal that engulfs the Church to scandalize the world.”</em> Important: not <em>all</em> homosexuals are child abusers—but <strong><em>all</em></strong> child abusers…especially of little boys…are homosexuals. Spurious so-called statistics from the psychological industry are politically correct accommodations.<br /><br />Permissiveness of the <strong><em>Lavender Priesthood</em></strong> has been… and will continue to be… disastrous unless it is corrected immediately. The toleration and winking at it…as with the case of the Chicago jailed pedophile ex-priest Dan McCormack where the then rector of Mundelein told the <em>Sun-Times</em> he would ordain McCormack yet again…and went from there to auxiliary bishop of Chicago…bishop of Tucson and number two in the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops—soon to be number one…while the paper’s religious reporter was let go since after its publication <strong><em>she could get no archdiocesan spokesman to return her call</em></strong>--is inexcusable…and shows that in pushing her out, the ultra-liberal paper collaborated with the archdiocese.<br /><br />--That and the fact that the p. r. spokesman for the archdiocese was quoted as telling the press<strong><em> “well, he didn’t rape anybody”</em></strong>. How’d you like to have your 8-year-old boy sexually fondled and hear that comment?<br /><br />In all too many cases the papacy, curia and offending bishops have not applied the view of the Apostle Paul who said<br /><br /><blockquote>“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolators nor adulterers, <strong>nor effeminate</strong>, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortionists shall inherit the kingdom of God.” </blockquote><br /><br /> Lest some other Simple Mind thinks I am going south on the Church I love and have venerated since childhood, let’s review the theological facts.<br /> <br /><strong><center>7 Inflexible Truths</center></strong><br /> Let’s review the bidding of indelible lessons from Fr. Ernie.<br /><br />It has been the unanimous teaching of the ancient Fathers that<br />the Church was born from the side of Jesus Christ on the cross. 2. By Christ’s death and resurrection, the New Testament replaced the Old Law. 3. By His death on the cross, Christ merited human salvation—making it possible for those before and since to receive the manifold graces they need to reach heaven. 4. In Against Heresies, St. Ireneus identified the root of all heresies as the unwillingness to accept the Church’s teaching centered in the Vicar of Christ on earth, the visible head of the Church, the bishop of Rome.<br /> <br />5. This means there is<em> one Church</em> established by Christ: the Catholic Church which is governed by the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him. Does this mean other Christian churches have no standing? No, but they exist in greater or less measure in their divinely ordained fullness (read this as<em> subsisting</em>) in the Roman Catholic Church.<br /> <br />6. The infallibility of the popes, defined by Vatican I teaches that when they speak <em>ex cathedra</em> or “from the chair” on doctrines of faith and morals, they are immune from error. This may seem like hair-splitting but being <em>immune from error</em> on faith or morals is not the same as the perception that everything they say on any subject is <em>infallible</em>. So far a perfect record although Honorius I came close, did not attend a consistory where his representative promulgated error and shrugged it off pragmatically—for which he was properly anathematized.<br /> <br />7. Again: Infallibility <em>does not</em> mean that popes are immune from error on matters where they don’t speak<em> ex cathedra</em> or judgments they may make on social issues as human beings or administrative failings…nor that their judgments are free from error in the realm of non-doctrinal matters. To think otherwise is to confer on them <strong><em>impeccability</em></strong> which is a far different thing.<br /> <br /><strong><em>What we have here with pedophilia swept under the rug is this: <span style="color:purple;">This disgraceful condition of toleration for the Lavender Priesthood has invaded the bureaucracies of many archdioceses including Chicago’s…and has permeated the Vatican curia.</span> The latest case is toxic. But let’s be clear anent <u>The New York Times’</u> revelations insisting Benedict alone is to blame.</em></strong><br /> <br />Not so. To insist that Benedict or John Paul II<strong><em> solely</em></strong> are responsible for laxity in dealing with pedophilia is akin to saying a president of the United States is guilty of the derelictions of subordinates (though conceding, that in Watergate Nixon was personally involved in cover-up and in Bill Clinton’s abuse of the intern Monica Lewinsky after which he lied under oath, he undeniably <strong><em>was</em></strong>). As we know from a practical point of history, there have been given latitude to presidents…JFK for the Bay of Pigs (by believing without checking what the CIA’s Alan Dulles and Richard Helms insisted would be a success)…Jimmy Carter for believing that the stupid rescue attempt of the Iranian hostages via helicopters could work.<br /> <br />In most cases of gross error, popes and rulers aren’t personally involved. But they must take responsibility. There is no doubt that the secular media want to indict Benedict personally for dereliction for one reason alone: <em>He stands for absolutes in moral theology that the relativist media find objectionable.</em> God-hater and atheist fulminator Christopher Hitchens who assailed Mother Teresa on TV during her funeral and Irish rock singer baldy Sinead O’Connor are the most extreme examples.<br /> <br />Saying this<strong>doesn’t</strong> absolve the Vatican of responsibility or popes who are supposed to administer their office meticulously. And it is a fact that the Vatican declined to defrock a Milwaukee priest who abused as many as 200 deaf boys even though a number of bishops repeatedly warned it about the consequences. It is also a fact that correspondence addressed to then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was often ignored and that he and/or his subordinates did <em>not</em> alert civilian authorities or discipline priests when he served as an archbishop in Germany or as the Vatican’s chief doctrinal enforcer. But before you make the final judgment, consider this:<br /> <br /><strong><center><em>The New York Times</em> Inquisition</center></strong><br /> For these things <em>The New York Times</em> is assailing Benedict. If they were objective <em>they would also be assailing Obama for evading culpability for allegedly offering the post of secretary of the navy to ex-admiral Rep. Joe Sestak get him out of the way from running against Arlen Specter—<strong>a federal crime worthy of impeachmen</strong>t if provable. <strong>If they wanted to be true to their so-called “objective” investigative image The Times wouldn’t be sweeping THAT under the rug…as indeed it IS.</strong></em><strong></strong><br /> <br />Several reservations must be considered before we get to the facts. <strong><em>First,</em></strong> , contrary to implications in The Times Ratzinger was not the point man from 1981 until his election as pope in April 2005. He did not have any responsibility for handling the overall Vatican sex abuse response until 2001, four years before he became pope.<br /><br /><strong><em>Second,</em></strong> that which the media considers a “smoking gun” is<strong> no</strong>. They refer to a May, 2001 letter from Ratzinger to the bishops recommending that certain grave crimes including sexual abuse of a minor should be referred to his Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and that they are subject to <em>“the pontifical secret.”</em> Sounds conspiratorial but it pertains to the church’s disciplinary measures—not to be construed as holding back on reporting cases to the police.<br /> <br /><strong>Third,</strong> a story that relatively few cases were subjected to a full canonical trial is misleading. Strong American bishops fought canonical trials because Roman trials can last years and even then may not be conclusive. In fact handling 60% of the cases by the bishops themselves is seen as evidence of renewed need for action. In the recent past, Pittsburgh Bishop Donald Wuerl removed a priest after allegations of sexual abuse. The priest appealed to Rome. The Vatican ordered the priest reinstated. Wuerl himself went to Rome and got the job done—but the experience convinced many U.S. bishops that canonical trials were not the right way to handle this. The problem seemed to be then that the Vatican was more concerned about the rights of accused priests than the child victims.<br /> <br /><strong><center>The Milwaukee Case</center></strong><br /> Still, the facts are extremely serious. The case against the Milwaukee priest was called to the Vatican’s attention in 1996 by none other than Archbishop Rembert Weakland (himself later a self-admitted homosexual…although there could be some speculation as to his motivation). Whoever was responsible…Ratzinger’s staff or him personally…the fact remains that Cardinal Ratzinger failed to respond to two letters from Weakland.<br /><br />After eight months of inexcusable laxity and non-response Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, now the Vatican’s secretary of state, instructed the Wisconsin bishops to begin a secret canonical trial that could lead to the priest’s dismissal. The fact remains that Bertone ended the process after the priest wrote to Ratzinger saying he should not be put on trial because he had already repented and was beyond the Church’s own statute of limitations—and was given a pass.<br /> <br />Meaning the criminally guilty pedophile priest was never tried or disciplined by the Church itself but got a pass from police and prosecutors who ignored reports from the victims. A total of three archbishops of Milwaukee were told about the priest’s derelictions <em>but never told civil authorities</em>. So don’t get the idea the Milwaukee case was an exception. We all know <em>it isn’t. In fact, while Dan McCormack was awaiting sentencing for a crime he confessed, he and a group of archdiocesan clergy…including at least one Higher Up—not the archbishop, though-- went off on a vacation together. </em><br /> <br />The question remains: <em>What will the Church and the Pope do about this laxity? Merely writing tracts and issuing statements of remorse without reforming the Curial deficiencies are insufficient</em>. Everyone dealing with the Curial bureaucracy on this and other matters know the legendary Italianate winking and inefficiency. The anomaly of last week was Benedict’s lecturing Irish bishops for laxity which he himself showed as bishop of Munich. There’s no avoidance of the fact that his handling of the crisis, in Munich, at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith or as pope cannot be improved. <em>To me, it should include far more than the ordinary reforms—but should concentrate on <strong>The Lavender Priesthood</strong> that also affects too many bishops. </em><br /> <br />Benedict must reform it now and replace it with an alert immediate response action team. The cases are endemic. More than a decade ago a downstate Illinois prelate was reported as constantly on the prowl in his automobile for young men to pick up. What happened? Nothing: the guy was allowed to retire when his successor was appointed.<br /><strong><span style="color:purple;">(For more on that click <a href="http://www.badbishops.com/bsh/bsh/ryan_daniel.html">HERE</a> and <a href="http://www.rcf.org/press/releases/1997FEB05RYANWITNESSES.htm">HERE</a>)</span></strong><br /> <br />The laxity throughout the Church on the <strong><em>Lavender Priesthood</em></strong> was and <em>is</em> a virulent disgrace.<br /> Then there is this fact: Most of the charges and convictions come from an organization known as SNAP.<br /> <br /><strong><center>SNAP’s Denial of Fact</center></strong><br /> While there is no doubt the media enjoys exploiting leaks in the bark of Peter, slurring of the curia and its officials including the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger now Benedict XVI…much of their reports have come not from their investigations…but from an organization which is worthy of some scrutiny itself.<br /><br />I say this as one who works as a columnist for <em>The Wanderer</em>, the oldest and most venerable national Catholic weekly in America…the first and to a startling degree the <em>onl</em>y Catholic newspaper to sustainedly spotlight these abuses with definitude…investigators who belong to an organization called SNAP [Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests]…whom I interviewed repeatedly…<strong><em>have personal axes to grind against the Church beyond the immediate charges they make.</em></strong> Those axes do not erase the validity or their original charges but nevertheless exist. Two major points.<br /><br /><strong>First:</strong> The SNAP people as social and political liberals cannot bring themselves to admit that <strong><em>homosexuality which has run rife, producing the Lavender Priesthood, is the overwhelming cause of the scandal.</em></strong> They have adopted the same cultural bias of today’s liberals and media about homosexuality…that it is not a sinful choice or a weakness and definitely not an abuse of the sexual faculty…but misled by certain liberal pathologies they believe that it is neither reversible but merely a normal variation, like being left-handed.<br /><br />In fact if SNAP had used its findings to blast the Lavender Priesthood, the chances are great that the media would be loath to run the stories. <br /><br />Most SNAP authorities declare that if in fact homosexuality is the cause, the so-called “repression” factor is responsible: victims are those too ashamed of the sin that “dare not tell its name.” Many feel that matters would be improved if only the Church would relent in its insistence of the male only priesthood. Others have told me that celibacy should be relaxed (not understanding that the celibate priesthood is not covered by inflexible moral norm but is a tradition).<br /> <br /><strong><em>But most important: The conclusion of the SNAP people is adamant—that homosexuality is NOT the cause of pedophilia.</em></strong> That’s every bit as much denial as the Church has done with erring priests. This goes hand-in-hand with a drive, popular in our culture, that homosexuality is on the way to being accepted by the nation, the armed services and <em><strong>it’s only a matter of time when it is embraced by the Church totally.</strong></em><br /> <br /><strong><center>Louvain’s Heresy</center></strong><br /> Such is the statement of none other than the chairman of the department of moral theology of the up-to-now renowned Catholic University of Louvain:<br /><br /><blockquote><strong>“I think we are virtually on the edge of accepting the homosexual relationship. The Church will accept the homosexual relationship like those divorced and remarried. We must live as brother or sister or brother and brother and sister and sister as the case may be…What is important is that the relationship be recognized as valuable, fruitful, meaningful, alternative, creative relationship. We are on the verge of accepting this.” </strong>[The Meanings of Human Sexuality, New Ways Ministry, 4th National Symposium] as cited in Catechism on Homosexuality [Eternal Life publication 2003, written by the late theologian Fr. John Hardon SJ and published with the imprimatur of Bishop Raymond Burke, then bishop of LaCrosse, Wis.].</blockquote><br /> <br />The Louvain chairman’s words are, of course, heretical and at total variance with the traditional teaching of the 2000-plus year old Catholic Church. The definitive position that while homosexual inclination is of itself not a sin but something to be disciplined…practiced homosexuality is a mortal sin and has been declared many times by the Popes as matters of faith and morals.<br /><br />The document of Vatican II <em>On the Church in the Modern World</em> states that in matters of morality man cannot make value judgments according to personal whim. <em> “In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose on himself but which holds him to obedience…For man has in his heart a law written by God. To obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged.”</em>><br /> <br />That is this: the sexual nature of man and the human faculty of procreation are essentially superior to all other lower forms of life. At the root of this superiority is that<em> human sexuality pertains exclusively to marriage</em> and to a finality which is unique in the visible world of living beings.<br /> <br />Further that sexual actions belong to conjugal life, do not depend solely on sincere intentions or on people’s motives but are determined <em>by objective standards—based on the nature of human beings and their acts while preserving the full sense of mutual self-giving and procreation in the context of true love.</em><br /> <br />Cultural decadence and laxity have led some thinkers and theologians to defend homosexuality by analyzing the morality of human acts regarding their intention. <em>How</em> a person enjoys sexual pleasure is seen by many as unimportant…and the sin that the Apostle Paul maintained excludes one from the kingdom of heaven is seen…with tortured linguistics…as a form of gay-ness or gayety.<br /> <br /><strong>Second:</strong> I asked both the founder and the executive director of SNAP to tell me if their organization is funded heavily…or at all… by the Personal Injury Bar which has a direct financial stake in suing the Church…making SNAP a direct beneficiary of their largesse as well. <em>That was several years ago. To date I have not received any systematic denial that they are not so funded and they have not submitted financial records that would deny it.</em> The conclusion is that they <strong><em>indeed do</em></strong> have a tie-in with the personal injury bar.<br /><br /> Thus they have a pecuniary reason for digging up scandal that harms the Church: <strong><em>their jobs and livelihood depend on it.</em></strong> Nor do they make a pretense of being devout Catholics who fulfill their obligations by going to Mass each Sunday. The founder told me she does when she thinks of it but her attendance if irregular at best. The executive director makes no pretense that he is an observant Catholic—in fact he told me he is no longer a Catholic at all.<br /> <br /><strong><center>Catholicism’s Greatness Beyond the Popes</center></strong><br /> In conclusion, Catholicism’s priceless lineage is <strong>far more</strong> than the litany of popes. Consider the brilliant examples of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Padre Pio, Theresa of Avila, Theresa of Lisieux, Dominic, Benedict the founder of monasticism, Thomas Aquinas, Francis of Assisi, Augustine, Anselm, John of The Cross…on and on through the ages.<br /><br />Moreover who can not acknowledge that civilization was saved by the monks, the creation of academic life by the great clerical professors, the contribution the Church made to science (notwithstanding the fiction concerning Galileo which cannot stand scrutiny), its gigantic contributions to art and architecture…its devising the foundations of international law, its birthing the original idea of widespread charity, its inscribing the origins of western law, its up-building of the concept of western morality.<br /> <br />If this article puts into perspective the contemporary scandals with the stature of the Church as an essential conduit for eternal salvation and a civilizing treasure—at the forefront of the development of laws, science, and institutions constituting western civilization—it will serve this writer’s intention.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12hfFjSAnbIdczVYthQyLjENrY2h_GYZa9VwSgB2MCnLLc5bDJRNf_Ck_R2RTcKO6YLx3AaVj05gyuXmPTjMwf-dk0niARBDFZe2aD0ZBHX7SLvW_vk4ozZhRNEV5E3Nm5oHtxUPjcZ0/s1600/tomroeserhs3.gif"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 165px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12hfFjSAnbIdczVYthQyLjENrY2h_GYZa9VwSgB2MCnLLc5bDJRNf_Ck_R2RTcKO6YLx3AaVj05gyuXmPTjMwf-dk0niARBDFZe2aD0ZBHX7SLvW_vk4ozZhRNEV5E3Nm5oHtxUPjcZ0/s400/tomroeserhs3.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454805673319848898" border="0" /></a><br /><em>Thomas F. Roeser is radio talk show host, writer, lecturer, teacher and former VP of The Quaker Oats Company of Chicago. A former John F. Kennedy Fellow, Harvard and Woodrow Wilson International Fellow, Princeton, N. J., Roeser is the author of the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0971975000?ie=UTF8&tag=rhodesschool-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0971975000"><u>Father Mac: The Life and Times of Ignatius D. McDermott</u></a>. To read more about Tom, <a href="http://blog.tomroeser.com/2009/01/about-tom.html">Click here</a>.</em>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-32689757852482042902010-04-03T10:07:00.000-07:002010-04-03T10:14:15.795-07:00A True PriestAnd now days we have ecumenicism, and interfaith talks, would any priests be willing to serve as father Coyle ? Many are afraid (or embarrassed) to even act Catholic.<br />The Egyptian<br /><br />From the <a href="http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/publications/columbia/detail/549315.html">Knights of Columbus</a><br /><br /><br /><table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td><img src="http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/common/images//shield_large.gif" alt="" vspace="2" width="14" border="0" height="14" /></td> <td class="ColumbiaHeader">Tragedy in Birmingham</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" class="BlueUnderline"><img src="http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/common/images//1px_transparent.gif" alt="" border="0" height="1" /></td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td><br /></td> <td> <p class="ColumbiaAuthor"><strong>by Sharon Davies</strong></p> <p><strong>Remembering the 1921 slaying of Father James E. Coyle</strong></p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td> <div class="img_r img_221 caption_l"> <img style="border: 1px solid rgb(0, 0, 0);" src="http://www.kofc.org/un/cmf/images/pubs/columbia/FatherCoyle2.jpg" alt="Father James E. Coyle courageously spoke against anti-Catholic prejudice in the South. (Bill Fex Collection, Birmingham, Alabama)" title="Father James E. Coyle courageously spoke against anti-Catholic prejudice in the South. (Bill Fex Collection, Birmingham, Alabama)" /> <p>Father James E. Coyle courageously spoke against anti-Catholic prejudice in the South. (Bill Fex Collection, Birmingham, Alabama)</p> </div> <p>Father James E. Coyle, an extraordinary priest and Knight of Columbus in the early 20th century, courageously stood up against widely-held anti-Catholic views at the risk, and then cost, of his life. </p> <p>The Irish-born priest was scarcely in his 20s when, after his ordination in Rome, he was dispatched to Alabama to begin his priesthood. The Catholic population in Alabama had exploded with a promise of jobs, especially in and around Birmingham’s network of coal mines, steel mills and iron foundries. Father Coyle arrived in the city shortly before a wave of anti-Catholicism flooded the country, and the revived Ku Klux Klan (KKK) rebranded itself as a “patriotic” fraternity, targeting blacks, Catholics, Jews and foreigners.</p> <p>It was a tense time in America, and fear of the new immigrants gripped more than a small band of hysterics. A number of states passed “convent inspection laws,” which authorized the warrantless search of convents, monasteries and even Catholic hospitals. Investigators looked for Protestant women and children purportedly being held against their will and for weapons and ammunition the Knights of Columbus had supposedly stashed there. Knights were plotting an insurrection, the fear-mongers said. They were the pope’s secret foot soldiers and could never be “true Americans.” </p> <p>Against these baseless accusations, Father Coyle defended the faith and the Order, becoming a lightning rod for attacks. Federal agents warned Bishop Edward Allen of Mobile, Ala., of threats against Father Coyle’s life and of plans to burn his church to the ground.</p> <p>Then, on Aug. 11, 1921, Rev. Edwin R. Stephenson, a Methodist minister and Klansman, stepped onto the porch of St. Paul’s rectory with a loaded handgun. About an hour earlier, Father Coyle had officiated the wedding of Rev. Stephenson’s 18-year-old daughter, Ruth, to Pedro Gussman, a Catholic migrant from Puerto Rico. Like many other Klansmen, Rev. Stephenson despised Catholics. When he learned that Father Coyle had married his daughter to Gussman, he was livid. He shot the priest in cold blood, and Father Coyle died within minutes. </p> <p>The climate for bringing Rev. Stephenson to justice could not have been worse. A veteran prosecutor spent weeks trying to convince a grand jury to return an indictment, and when it finally did, the Klan ran a statewide drive to raise funds to hire a young lawyer named Hugo Black to lead Rev. Stephenson’s defense. Black would later be elected to the U.S. Senate and appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. </p> <p>The Klan’s presence at Rev. Stephenson’s October 1921 trial was manifest. Historians would later report that the jury foreman and the presiding judge were both Klansmen. Hugo Black himself would join the ranks of the KKK less than two years later to forward his own political aspirations. </p> <p>On the eve of trial, Rev. Stephenson’s lawyers announced they would amend his plea to “not guilty by reason of insanity” to permit the argument that Rev. Stephenson was not responsible for his actions after he learned Father Coyle had married Ruth to Pedro. The minister and his wife both claimed that “the Catholics” had tried to seduce Ruth away from her Protestant faith; news of their daughter’s marriage was the last straw. </p> <p>Though little remembered today, Rev. Stephenson’s weeklong trial was a national sensation. Reporters from far-flung cities raced to Birmingham to observe the spectacle. The jury, however, took only a few hours to return their verdict: “Not guilty.”</p> <p>Catholics in Birmingham have never forgotten the outrage. “It is our hope that the sharing of the life and death of this holy man may promote greater understanding, reconciliation and peace among all of God’s children,” writes James Pinto Jr., a member of Father James E. Coyle Council 9862 and an organizer for the Father James E. Coyle Memorial Project.</p> <p>Before his death, Father Coyle served as the chaplain of Birmingham (Ala.) Council 635 and was a charter member of Mobile (Ala.) Council 666. He remains a model of faithful and courageous priestly service today.</p> <p>For more information about Father James E. Coyle, visit <a href="http://www.fathercoyle.org"> www.fathercoyle.org</a>.</p></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-20810464886553556322010-04-01T18:40:00.000-07:002010-04-01T18:50:40.249-07:00PAGAN catholics, sure looks that way, you decideThis is an example of the modernists cited in the previous post.<br /> From <a href="http://cathcon.blogspot.com/2010/03/closing-liturgical-abuse-at-2010-los.html">Catholic Church Conservation</a> , go to them to see the other 11 videos if the first one posted here doesn't make you lose your lunch, positively pagan.<br /><br />PS. Deacons wives are not to process up with their Husbands, the wives are not ordained.<br /><br />The Egyptian<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nZ5it20gKqw&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nZ5it20gKqw&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-23648446373960873632010-04-01T18:31:00.000-07:002010-04-01T18:39:27.640-07:00Why does it take a LUTHERAN theologian to explain the problem,Pardon me but where the HELL are you Catholic theologians, for the love of Pete defend the man will you or are you glad to see him suffer, perhaps your true colors are being displayed by your silence, Angels defend him from the wolves and all of us pray for him. God Bless Papa<br />I know this is long but the read is absolutely worth it, the polyester nightmares and happy clappy types really do HATE the Pope, and it shows<br /><br />The Egyptian<br /><br />from <a href="http://www.logia.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=59">Logia, a journal of Lutheran theology</a><br /><br /><table class="contentpaneopen"><tbody><tr><td class="contentheading" width="100%"><a href="http://www.logia.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=121&catid=39:web-forum&Itemid=18" class="contentpagetitle">The dictatorship of relativism strikes back—and goes nuclear</a> </td> <td class="buttonheading" width="100%" align="right"> <a href="http://www.logia.org/index.php?view=article&catid=39%3Aweb-forum&id=121&format=pdf&option=com_content&Itemid=18" title="PDF" onclick="window.open(this.href,'win2','status=no,toolbar=no,scrollbars=yes,titlebar=no,menubar=no,resizable=yes,width=640,height=480,directories=no,location=no'); return false;" rel="nofollow"><br /></a> </td> <td class="buttonheading" width="100%" align="right"> <a href="http://www.logia.org/index.php?view=article&catid=39%3Aweb-forum&id=121&tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page=&option=com_content&Itemid=18" title="Print" onclick="window.open(this.href,'win2','status=no,toolbar=no,scrollbars=yes,titlebar=no,menubar=no,resizable=yes,width=640,height=480,directories=no,location=no'); return false;" rel="nofollow"><br /></a> </td> <td class="buttonheading" width="100%" align="right"> <br /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table class="contentpaneopen"> <tbody><tr> <td class="createdate" valign="top"> Wednesday, 31 March 2010 15:43 </td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"> <p><em>Some ecumenical thoughts at Holy Week 2010 from John Stephenson</em><em></em></p> <p>The secular press has had it in for Joseph Ratzinger for going on three decades. Before his election as Pope in the spring of 2005, he was routinely derided in his homeland as the<em> Panzerkardinal</em> (“tank cardinal”) and caricatured in North America as the “Enforcer” or even the “Rottweiler.” The roots of this negative reputation stretch back at least as far as the book-length interview he granted to the Italian journalist Vittorio Messori that catapulted him to global fame when published as <em>The Ratzinger Report</em> in 1985. Prior to that juncture, as a heavyweight German academic who had leapfrogged over a major episcopal see (Munich-Freising) to become a leading official in the Roman curia (as cardinal prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) under the still new John Paul II, Ratzinger’s was hardly a household name.</p> <p>But shrewd observers must wonder about the startling disproportion between the enormous hue and cry artificially whipped up by the media and the softly spoken real life figure who seems always to have avoided hyperbole like the plague. Even though the curial department over which he presided for almost a quarter century is the direct heir to the 16<sup>th</sup>-century Inquisition, the disciplinary measures dealt out by Ratzinger against barely a score of wildly Modernist (actually mostly apostate) theologians over more than two decades add up to a string of fairly mild censures, gentle slaps on the wrist in most cases. Hans Küng lost the right to teach theology as an accredited representative of the magisterium (as his <em>missio canonica</em> was stripped from him), but (despite his clear disavowal of the divinity of Christ!) retained his status as an incardinated (=rostered) Roman Catholic priest, and he has, well, greatly profited in fame and fortune from his much trumpeted role as Rome’s chief dissident. Had he rather than Ratzinger landed in the chair of cardinal prefect back in the early 1980s, the media would have shown no sympathy for the advocates of traditional Christianity that a totalitarian liberal such as Küng would have hounded to the remotest margins of Church life; ironically, there is no more illiberal force on earth than a liberal with his hands on the levers of power.</p> <p> Moreover, when someone takes the trouble to examine Ratzinger’s huge opus over close to six decades as a professional theologian, they make the discovery that he occupies a centrist position in the constellation of modern Roman Catholic theology; he is at most mildly “conservative”, the “ultra-conservative” label routinely affixed to him by most sections of the press being sheerly laughable.</p> <p>As I set forth the Roman Catholic reality in our St. Catharines Religious Bodies (Comparative Symbolics) course, I point out the current uneasy coexistence of three groupings in that vast church body.</p> <p><strong>Modernism on the rampage (or the elephant actually destroying the living room)</strong></p> <p>In the one corner are the media-supported Modernists, those who do not acknowledge the definitive quality of God’s unsurpassable self-revelation in Christ, and who thus regard faith and practice not as givens to be handed down intact but as man-made constructs to be refashioned at whim according to the capricious desire of succeeding generations. Roundly condemned and solemnly proscribed by Pius X (1903-1914) and still held back to a great extent by Pius XII (1939-1958), the Modernists crawled out of the woodwork during the reign of John XXIII (1958-1963), and Modernism swiftly rose to a dominant position in Roman Catholic theology in, with, under, and around the (sixteen) officially promulgated documents of Vatican II (1962-1965).</p> <p>As a young theologian, Ratzinger attended Vatican II as a <em>peritus</em> (=expert) of somewhat “progressive” tendencies. By Council’s close he was uneasy over the tone and content of its last document, <em>Gaudium et spes</em>, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church and the Modern World. Shocked to the core by the virulently anti-Christian positions embraced even by theology students (led by such figures as the radical Tübingen exegete Ernst Käsemann) in the student uprisings of 1968 (<em>Achtundsechziger</em> [“68ers”] is an actual word in modern German), Ratzinger firmed up his centrist credentials and switched his support from the left-leaning magazine <em>Concilium</em> (the house organ of Küng & Co.) to the middle of the road <em>Communio</em> (the substitute publication of von Balthasar and friends).</p> <p>Clearly, the Modernists who surged forth to theological dominance in the wake of Vatican II have never forgiven Ratzinger for his “betrayal” of their cause; in their books (literally, in the case of Küng’s interminable memoirs) he is and remains a cross between Brutus and Judas Iscariot. At least some of his media woes are attributable to the Modernists’ insatiable thirst for revenge for, say, his pointed critique of <em>Gaudium et spes</em> written ten years after the close of the Council. But these pages of sober commentary are surely sweet music to orthodox Lutheran ears. Yes, Vatican II <em>was </em>infected by the dementedly <em>schwärmerisch</em> optimism of the Kennedy era (<em>Principles of Catholic Theology</em>, 372; 383). Yes, <em>Gaudium et spes</em> considers the “world” a positive entity, with which it seeks dialogue and cooperation with a view to building jointly with it a better global state of affairs (<em>Principles</em>, 379f.). Had he lived much longer, Hermann Sasse, who was careful to register both the strengths and the weaknesses of Vatican II, would surely have added his Yea and Amen to Ratzinger’s analysis of <em>Gaudium et spes</em>.</p> <p>As they still pretend that everything in the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic garden is fine and dandy, the Modernists undoubtedly continue greatly to resent Ratzinger’s telling Vittorio Messori in the early 1980s how “we must speak …of a crisis of faith and of the Church” (<em>Ratzinger Report</em>, 44; “the gravity of the crisis,” 62; “in this confused period, when truly every type of heretical aberration seems to be pressing upon the doors of the authentic faith,” 105). Later in the same decade I headed the first chapter of CLD’s <em>Eschatology</em> volume “General Apostasy: the Sign of our Time.” Guess what? Ratzinger, the GAFCON Anglicans, and I are spot on. Might there be something slightly fishy in the direction ELCA, ELCiC, TEC (the US Episcopalians), and the Anglican Church of Canada have been heading lately? The Modernists and their media allies would much prefer that no one notice these developments.</p> <p><strong>The traditionalist rump</strong></p> <p>In the opposite corner to the Modernists who can do no wrong in the eyes of the mainstream media stands the numerically much smaller traditionalist minority that can do no right. When did you last read a fair account of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991) in the “quality” press? When did you ever read there an objective appraisal of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) that Lefebvre founded to withstand the Modernist juggernaut that came out of the Council? But the sainted Professor Marquart would have rejoiced at the clear profession of Ac 4:11-12 (“no other Name”) with which the SSPX politely responded to Benedict XVI’s address at the Jewish synagogue in Rome on Sunday 17 January 2010 (<a href="http://www.dici.org/en/?p=4263">http://www.dici.org/en/?p=4263</a>). After Archbishop Lefebvre (without papal permission) ordained four bishops in 1988 to continue his work, he and they incurred automatic excommunication, with the result that the SSPX has (paradoxically, given its deepest intent) been out of communion with Rome since that date.</p> <p>With his vast breadth of learning and his generosity of spirit towards the Orthodox and the heirs of the Reformation (especially the Lutherans: “The Lutherans are to Ratzinger what the Orthodox are to John Paul: the separated brethren he knows best, and for whom he has the greatest natural affinity.” John Allen, <em>Cardinal Ratzinger</em>, 231), Ratzinger is far removed from the wavelength of the SSPX and of the former members of that body who have returned to full communion with Rome under the auspices of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP). Of course, these groups are well aware that it is humanly impossible for them to face a more favourable occupant of the papal chair in the foreseeable future, with the result that the SSPX<em> </em>has lately toned down its anti-papal polemics and willingly begun to participate in a theological dialogue with the CDF.</p> <p><strong>In the centre receiving shots from both (all) sides</strong></p> <p>Ratzinger belongs to the centrist mass of Roman Catholics who accept Vatican II, but decline to see the Council (as do Küng & Co.) as a brutal rupture with the foregoing tradition. To understand his papal programme (inasmuch as we may talk of such a thing), we must realise that he is endeavouring to steer his massive ecclesial ship back into a centrist channel after a good forty years of disastrous leftward lurch—just consider the pitiful liturgical shambles that emerged from Paul VI’s <em>Novus Ordo</em> of 1968, causing Hermann Sasse to remark in his last years how Rome had suddenly “canonised St. Zwingli.” A few years ago, in his new capacity as Pope Benedict XVI, Ratzinger coined the phrase “hermeneutic of continuity” to describe an approach to Vatican II that seeks to interpret its documents in harmony with what went before. A major task awaits orthodox Lutheran theology in the shape of updating Chemnitz’s <em>Examen Concilii Tridentini</em> by performing the same service for the documents of Vatican II. Applying the hermeneutic of continuity to these texts, a Chemnitz of our time would discern areas of interconfessional agreement and rapprochement, on the one hand, and of ongoing dissent and debate, on the other.</p> <p>As, in company with his predecessor on the papal throne, Ratzinger has occupied Rome’s middle ground, significant differences of interpretation and emphasis have certainly existed between the close colleagues. With his undying commitment to <em>Gaudium et spes</em>, Woytyla was some degrees to the “left” of Ratzinger, who is very much a man of <em>Lumen Gentium</em>, the Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. As he approved my copious quotations from Ratzinger in the CLD volume on <em>Eschatology</em>, the sainted Robert Preus commented to me that Raztinger (whom he respected) was “more Catholic in the best sense” than the Pope under whom he served.</p> <p><strong>By the way, the world still hates, loathes, & detests Christ and His Church!</strong></p> <p>In addition to the unremitting hostility directed at him from the Modernist wing of his own Communion, even prior to his election as Pope, Ratzinger was a favourite target of the unbelieving world’s impassioned hatred for Christ Jesus our Lord and the members of His mystical body. Some years ago, the British <em>Daily Telegraph</em> (which at one time had the reputation of being a “quality” newspaper) reported that the then cardinal had committed a terrible “gaffe” by publicly expressing hope for the conversion of the Jews. Fancy that, a Christian wishing salvation for a sizeable group of his neighbours, a faux pas indeed! A Google search has confirmed my memory that British journalists were likewise incensed by the then cardinal’s comparison of Buddhism with spiritual autoeroticism. How scandalous that a Christian spokesman should speak candidly of religions that offer a spurious salvation!</p> <p>The Canadian mainstream media were frenziedly sharpening their knives against Joseph Ratzinger in the weeks when he was a strong candidate to succeed John Paul II. His papacy was barely a few hours old when the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) evening news ran a segment on an aged Italian woman (a “good Catholic”, of course) who stood crestfallen amid a jubilant crowd as Benedict XVI appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s, walking dejectedly away as she realized that women’s ordination, contraception, sexual licence, abortion on demand, and all that good stuff would still be denied the papal seal of approval. That bloody hatchet job had been carefully prepared way ahead of a cardinal’s booming “Habemus papam—reverendissimum dominum Josephum Cardinalem Ratzinger” from the balcony!</p> <p>Reason was thrown to the winds and sheer hysteria set in on Benedict XVI’s second visit to his German homeland, when he delivered a thoughtful lecture to the University of Regensburg in his capacity as emeritus professor of its faculty of theology. How sheerly outrageous that Ratzinger dared quote a harassed Byzantine emperor to the effect that Islam first conquers and then sustains itself by the sword! As the media, with the BBC in the forefront, stoked Islamic wrath and liberal outrage, they failed to state that the orchestrated acts of violence that rapidly broke out from one end of the Islamic world to the other only corroborated the simple, incontestable fact that Islam is, well, not quite a religion of peace as President Bush once fantasised.</p> <p>Remarkably, when the press manufactured further storms of outrage on his lifting of the excommunications still hanging over the four remaining SSPX bishops in January 2009, one of the strongest defences made of Benedict XVI in his homeland came from the word processor of Germany’s leading orthodox Lutheran theologian. Gottfried Martens once told me that he shares Joseph Ratzinger’s appraisal of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, namely that he also takes the view that the laboriously achieved document does not in fact represent an authentic, deeply based agreement on the topic in question. And yet, with much greater clarity and conviction that most German Roman Catholic spokesmen could muster, Dr. Martens pointed out in his parish newsletter that the Pope had simply smoothed the way for talks between the SSPX and the CDF by graciously lifting the excommunication of the four renegade bishops; he had not granted them a recognized public ministry in the Roman Catholic Church—they remain unrostered, to use our terminology; and least of all did he knowingly “rehabilitate” a Holocaust denier. But instead of surfing in search of better information to <a href="http://www.logia.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79&catid=39:web-forum&Itemid=18">http://www.logia.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=79&catid=39:web-forum&Itemid=18</a>, the mainstream media take every opportunity to add the charge of “rehabilitating a Holocaust denier” to their already lengthy list of Ratzinger’s many sins. The day after his election to the papacy, the headline of a British tabloid read, “From Hitler Youth to Papa Ratzi!” For as is well known, conscripted teenagers forced into the collapsing armies of the Third Reich shared all the guilt of the worst war criminals, especially if these young men happened to be German nationals.</p> <p>The negative reaction aroused already by the <em>Ratzinger Report</em> laid bare the sheer fury shared by Roman Catholic Modernists and the unbelieving world in general against anyone who dares to intimate that the historic Christian religion is, to put it bluntly, true. Neither apostates within Holy Christendom nor naked unbelievers outside her borders will ever forgive Ratzinger for the grave breach of secularist, pluralist etiquette involved in the first volume of his <em>Jesus of Nazareth</em>. It goes without saying (and around the Holy Week of each year the several forms of mainstream media say it loudly, often, and emphatically) that Jesus was an ordinary man, a wacko apocalyptist, or a failed political revolutionary. Stones must fly and clubs be brandished against a learned man fully familiar with all the “Jesus of history” literature from Reimarus to the present, who winsomely draws on believing scholarship of all confessions to offer a calm and cogent argument that the real, actual Jesus is the one who meets us in the Gospel record. Where the North American liberal intelligentsia can offer no refutation, they spit contempt. And a Western Europe sunk in a new heathenism and undergoing Islamic takeover can only howl at this attempt to arrest its suicidal downward slide.</p> <p>Preaching the homily at the opening Eucharist of the 2005 papal conclave, an address that he likely regarded as his swan song before heading back to private life in a Bavarian retirement, Ratzinger dared to call a spade a spade by drawing attention to <em>la dittatura del relativismo</em>, a now familiar phrase that surely needs no translation. So, as even more lamentable reports surface of the horror of sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic priests and religious brothers, it goes without saying that the secular press has tried, convicted, and executed Ratzinger for a string of alleged cover-ups as archbishop, cardinal, and Pope. The declining John Paul II may indeed have been somewhat remiss in addressing this evil, but the press, spoon-fed by Roman Catholic Modernists, cannot be expected to highlight insignificant details such as the fact that Benedict XVI has vigorously addressed this issue from the first days of his papacy (remember the disciplining of Fr. Maciel, once the protecting hand of the former Pope was withdrawn?). The Manchester <em>Guardian</em> (another allegedly “quality” newspaper from the UK) announced the other day that, for twenty-four years, Ratzinger failed to act on clerical sexual abuse of children; its journalists forgot to mention that the issue was only directly handed to his congregation in 2001! (Check out <a href="http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/keeping-record-straight-benedict-and-crisis">http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/keeping-record-straight-benedict-and-crisis</a> ) When guilt is foreordained and execution already carried out, mere supporting evidence is of no account. Barely a week ago the <em>New York Times</em> headlined the “news” that, as cardinal prefect in 1996, Ratzinger quashed the canonical trial of a priest of the Milwaukee archdiocese accused (and believably guilty) of unspeakable crimes. There is no likelihood of the <em>NYT</em> apologising for its barefaced lie, uttered after it declined to interview the canon lawyer who presided over the judicial proceedings in Milwaukee. <a href="http://catholicanchor.org/wordpress/?p=601">http://catholicanchor.org/wordpress/?p=601</a> According to him, the canonical process was still in full swing when the accused priest died; we can’t expect the secular press to get the point that the case then moved to the final court of appeal.</p> <p><strong>Christendom as a whole is under attack</strong></p> <p>In a letter to the Sunday Telegraph published in that newspaper’s 28 March 2010 edition (<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/7528487/The-religious-rights-of-Christians-are-treated-with-disrespect.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/7528487/The-religious-rights-of-Christians-are-treated-with-disrespect.html</a>), five Evangelical bishops of the Church of England have politely drawn attention to the increasing volume of persecution of Christians in England and, in a governessy sort of way, insisted that the antichristian forces in British society cease and desist forthwith. The bishops’ reproach fell somewhat short of white-hot prophetic vigour: “We are deeply concerned at the apparent discrimination shown against Christians and we call on the Government to remedy this serious development.”</p> <p>As the bishops’ letter begins with a protest over the case of a middle-aged English nurse dismissed for insisting on displaying, when on duty, a crucifix that she has worn since her confirmation decades ago, it demonstrates how British society in particular (along with European society in general) has lurched dramatically back to a stage prior to the work of the much maligned Constantine the Great. While the bishops’ concern is genuine and the issue they address real, one wonders whether they are taking the right approach. Can we picture Peter and Paul, around the year 68, stamping their feet and stressing the paramount need for Nero to respect the human rights of the nascent Christian community in Rome? Can we get our hands on evidence that the bishops and other ecclesial spokesmen of the day adopted the tone of these Anglican Evangelical prelates toward Decius and Diocletian? More to the point, can we imagine Diocletian, Decius, and Nero meekly agreeing to “remedy the serious developments” that had occurred on their respective imperial watches? Rather than issuing impotent appeals to the successive beasts that arise from the earth, bishops are to prepare and equip the Christian faithful to undergo the fires of tribulation that the Lord permits to come their way. For, make no doubt about it, the days of Diocletian and Decius and perhaps of Nero also are fast returning to the Western world.</p> <p><strong>Not in the same ballpark as Leo X & Co.</strong></p> <p>Orthodox Lutherans would have to be churlish in the extreme if they could not spare an ounce of affection for Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI as perhaps the first Pope in history to have a good idea what the Lutheran Reformation was and is all about, and, moreover, to have at least a shred of sympathy for its core concerns. In his writings Ratzinger routinely quotes Luther from the Weimar Edition and the Confessions from Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht’s edition of the <em>Bekenntnisschriften</em>; not all Lutheran professors of theology do the same. His aversion to the philosophical trajectory of Karl Rahner took concrete form in Ratzinger’s preference for the Bible and the Church Fathers, especially Augustine, over Thomas Aquinas (see <em>Milestones</em>, 44, 52f., 128f.). Isn’t this how we too want to do theology?</p> <p>The following quotations randomly chosen from a couple of his works show that Ratzinger “gets it” in a way that the Renaissance (and Tridentine?) Popes did not. For starters, some words from the <em>Ratzinger Report</em> on sacramental confession, where the cardinal spoke of “the seriousness of the encounter between two persons aware of being in the presence of the shattering mystery of Christ’s forgiveness that arrives through the words and gestures of a sinful man” (<em>Ratzinger Report</em>, 57). And then: </p> <p>...at the inmost core of the new commission [Mt 18:15-18; Jn 20:23], which robs the forces of destruction of their power, is the grace of forgiveness. It constitutes the Church. The Church is founded upon forgiveness. ...The Church is by nature the home of forgiveness, and it is thus that chaos is banished from within her. She is held together by forgiveness …she is not a communion of the perfect but a communion of sinners who need and seek forgiveness (<em>Called to Communion</em>, 64).</p> <p>And:</p> <p>…we are all in need of forgiveness, which is the heart of all true reform. …The Church is not a communion of those “who have no need of the physician” (Mk 2:17) but a communion of converted sinners who live by the grace of forgiveness and transmit it themselves. …I believe that the core of the spiritual crisis of our time has its basis in the obscuration of the grace of forgiveness (<em>Called to Communion</em>, 148f.).</p> <p>Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogue got off to a skewered start at the very outset when Luther proposed a discussion on soteriology only to have Sylvester Prierias (in terms of curial office the 1981-2005 Ratzinger of that day) use ecclesiastical strong-arm tactics with a distorted account of Scripture and tradition by way of response. If a formal dialogue were ever to take place between the orthodox Lutheran Churches of the world and the Holy See, some critical questions would certainly need to be posed, and spirited discussion would certainly ensue. Perhaps another perspective might be offered on the 11<sup>th</sup>-century Cluniac Reform from the account given by Benedict XVI in his catechesis of 11 November 2009: <a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20091111_en.html">http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20091111_en.html</a>. And maybe we might explore a little further Ratzinger’s rationale for priestly celibacy, in the course of which he made the barbed remark that the married clergy of the East are not real pastors, just liturgical ministers (<em>Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millennium</em>, 199). Ouch! Should a panel of our theologians ever sit down with a group of their Roman Catholic counterparts, concern might be raised that Benedict XVI has been somewhat profligate in his granting of indulgences, a form of bounty that all Lutherans will forever denounce as counterfeit spiritual currency. As Easter of 2010 approaches, though, if for no other reason than that we remember Martin Niemöller’s post-war regret at not having spoken up for the Jews in due season, we might fitly major in sympathy, understanding, and prayer for the courteous and learned aged prelate who is right now a walking target for innumerable hellish darts launched by theological Modernists and by the unbelieving world that have between them zero tolerance for any crisp, clear, and confident confession of Christ Jesus our Incarnate God.</p></td></tr></tbody></table>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-2949508936268247922010-03-29T18:48:00.000-07:002010-03-29T18:49:42.338-07:00Ass Hats<div id="content"> <h2 id="headline">Iowa Town Renames Good Friday to 'Spring Holiday'</h2> <h3 id="dek">Citing the Separation of Church and State, Davenport Nixes Holy Day</h3> <h4 id="byline">By RUSSELL GOLDMAN</h4> <p> <strong>March 29, 2010—</strong> </p> <p> </p><p> One week before the most solemn day in the Christian year, the city of Davenport, Iowa removed <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=10200183" target="external">Good Friday</a> from its municipal calendar, setting off a storm of complaints from Christians and union members whose contracts give them that day off. </p><p> Taking a recommendation by the Davenport Civil Rights Commission to change the holiday's name to something more ecumenical, City Administrator Craig Malin sent a memo to municipal employees announcing <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=81233&page=1" target="external">Good Friday</a> would officially be known as "Spring Holiday." </p><p> "My phone has been ringing off the hook since Saturday," said city council alderman Bill Edmond. "People are genuinely upset because this is nothing but political correctness run amok." </p><p> Edmond said the city administrator made the change unilaterally and did not bring it to the council for a vote, a requirement for a change in policy. </p><p> "The city council didn't know anything about the change. We were blind sided and now we've got to clean this mess up. How do you tell people the city renamed a 2,000 year old holiday?" said Edmond. </p><p> It didn't take long for the city the resurrect the name Good Friday. Malin was overruled today and the words "Spring Holiday" disappeared. </p><p> Good Friday commemorates the day Jesus was crucified and died. Christians celebrate his resurrection the following Sunday, Easter. </p><p> The Civil Rights Commission said it recommended changing the name to better reflect the city's diversity and maintain a separation of church and state when it came to official municipal holidays. </p><p> "We merely made a recommendation that the name be changed to something other than Good Friday," said Tim Hart, the commission's chairman. "Our Constitution calls for separation of church and state. Davenport touts itself as a diverse city and given all the different types of religious and ethnic backgrounds we represent, we suggested the change." </p><p> News of the change could not have come at more significant time in the Christian calendar. News of the name change spread through the town on Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, becoming a topic of conversation at church services throughout Davenport.<!-- page --> </p><p> </p><h3>Davenport Dispute Over Good Friday</h3> <p> "If you deny the idea of Good Friday then you have to deny Easter," Monsignor Robert Schmidt told ABC affiliate <a href="http://www.wqad.com/news/wqad-davenport-good-friday-032810,0,7525187.story" target="external">WQAD</a>. </p><p> Hart said the commission had no plans to change the name of Easter Sunday, because it fell on a weekend and government offices were already closed. The commission, he said, discussed changing Christmas, but decided enough other religions celebrate Christmas too. Hart, however, could not name one. </p><p> The religious right has attacked town governments that have removed public Christmas displays, calling such practices a "<a href="http://www.wqad.com/news/wqad-davenport-good-friday-032810,0,7525187.story" target="external">war on Christmas</a>." </p><p> City employees, beginning with local police, feared the name change would violate their union contracts with the city, which specifies Good Friday as an official municipal holiday. Employees that work city holidays are paid time and a half. </p><p> Davenport officials called the name change an "error." </p><p> "The City of Davenport will be observing "Good Friday" as a City Holiday on April 2," read a statement released today. </p><p> "City Administrator Malin, in error, forwarded the recommendation to staff for further review and action, leading to release of a holiday notice with the holiday named 'Spring Holiday,' rather than "Good Friday," read the release. </p><p> Davenport's mayor said people were right to be angry but that Good Friday would continue to be acknowledged. </p><p> "I understand why people were so upset," said Mayor Bill Gluba. "My position is we have a lot more important issues. We'll fix this and move on." </p><p> <em>This story was revised at 5:50pm ET</em></p> </div> <div id="footer"> <p>Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures</p> </div>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-86042071626935392432010-03-29T18:42:00.000-07:002010-03-29T18:51:07.198-07:00Politics<p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">I like Pat, years ago he wrote of the return of the Latin Mass in glowing terms, SSPX, and he predicted its return. I know this is politics but read it and think what has happened to our church</span></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">The Egyptian<br /></span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">By Patrick J. Buchanan<br /></span></span></p><hr style="font-size:78%;"> <span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style=""><span style=""> <!-- copyright --> <!-- end copyright --> </span> </span></span><p> </p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">As Democrats, after a Sunday rally on the Capitol grounds, marched to the House hand-in-hand to vote for health-care reform, tea partiers reportedly shouted the "N-word" at John Lewis and another black congressman. A third was allegedly spat upon. And Barney Frank was called a nasty name. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">Tea partiers deny it all. And neither audio nor video of this alleged incident has been produced, though TV cameras and voice recorders were everywhere on the Hill. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">Other Democrats say their offices were vandalized and they've been threatened. A few received, and eagerly played for cable TV, obscene phone calls they got. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">If true, this is crude and inexcusable behavior. And any threat should be investigated. But Democrats are also exploiting these real, imaginary or hoked-up slurs to portray themselves as political martyrs and to smear opponents as racists and bigots. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">This is the politics of desperation. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">Majority Whip James Clyburn accuses Republicans of "aiding and abetting ... terrorism." New York Times columnist Frank Rich compared the tea-party treatment of Democrats to Nazi treatment of the Jews during Kristallnacht: </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">"How curious that a mob fond of likening President Obama to Hitler knows so little about history that it doesn't recognize its own small-scale mimicry of Kristallnacht." </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">Kristallnacht, "Crystal Night," the "Night of Broken Glass," was the worst pogrom in Germany since the Middle Ages. Synagogues were torched and hundreds of businesses smashed. Shattered glass covered the streets. Women were assaulted and men beaten and murdered. After that terrible night, half the Jews remaining in Germany fled. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">To compare a brick tossed through the window of a congressional office and two shouted slurs to Kristallnacht suggests a growing paranoia on the left about the populist right. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">Not since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made "some Americans run off the rails," said Rich, have we seen anything like this. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">Was Rich awake in 1964? Because it wasn't the right that went off the rails. The really big riot in 1964 was in Harlem, lasting five days, with 500 injured and as many arrested. The Watts riot in 1965, Detroit and Newark in 1967, Washington, D.C., and 100 other cities in 1968, all bringing troops into American cities, were not the work of George Wallace populists or Barry Goldwater conservatives. They were the work of folks who went "all the way with LBJ." </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">Nor was it Young Americans for Freedom that burned ROTC buildings, vandalized professors' offices, toted the guns at Cornell or took over Columbia in 1968. And it was not the Birchers who set off that 1970 explosion in the Greenwich Village townhouse that killed three radicals and aborted the terrorist bombing of the NCO club at Fort Dix. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">No, this was not the New Right. This was the New Left, and it was Obama not John Boehner who used to "pal around" with one of the boys who did the Pentagon and Capitol Hill bombings. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style=""><em>(Column continues below)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">As for calling Barney Frank a naughty name, that is not nice. But one wonders what Rich thought of the students marching under Viet Cong flags chanting, about the man who signed that Civil Rights Act, "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" and, "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, the NLF is going to win," when American boys were dying in the hundreds every week fighting the communist NLF? </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">The 1967 attack on the Pentagon, where thousands tried to break through military police to get into the building, was the work of left-wing radicals. Did the tea-party folks who chanted, "Kill the bill," outside the House behave worse than that? </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">Some of us recall the anarchy of May Day 1971, when 15,000 leftists tried to shut down Washington on a Monday morning by rolling logs onto Canal Road, smashing car windows, blocking traffic circles and wilding in Georgetown. Most wound up behind a chain-link fence at the Armory. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">How many were arrested on Capitol Hill Sunday a week ago? </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">Not one tea partier, man or woman. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">The "mass hysteria" of the tea-party right, writes Rich, is at root about race. "By 2012 ... non-Hispanic white births will be in the minority. The tea party is virtually all white. ... Their anxieties about a rapidly changing America are well-grounded." </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">Rich is implying that when America's white majority disappears, in 2042 according to 2008 Census Bureau projections, the day of the white conservative is over. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">Given the rise in ethnic consciousness among all Americans, Rich may be right. But it is not just white folks who want illegal aliens deported and legal immigration curtailed, while 25 million of our own are out of work or underemployed. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">A Zogby poll for the Center for Immigration Studies found that 56 percent of Hispanics, 57 percent of Asian-Americans and 68 percent of African-Americans think legal immigration is too high. </span></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:palatino,times new roman,georgia,times;font-size:100%;" ><span times="" new="" serif="" style="">If the tea-party folks think it is leftist elites who detest and wish to be rid of the America they grew up in and love, they are right.</span></span></p>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8224499536935218428.post-86940414302393340672010-03-22T16:41:00.000-07:002010-03-22T16:46:22.399-07:00Rush hits it on the head, especially the polyester nightmares<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="784"><span id="Par_4584" style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">RUSH: And you're really distressed because there may not be that there's a pro-life church, anymore. The left is taking over every institution. They have to be stopped, and it's about time, maybe... You know, I'm not trying to be Pollyannaish and look at the bright side of this (because I don't, frankly, see many) but one of them is: Don't doubt me anymore! It's out in front of your eyes! Believe what you see, believe what you hear. It is real! <span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Catholic Church has a bunch of leftists in it who would just as soon destroy the church and remake it, as the government has liberals in it who want to remake our government and destroy the Constitution. Liberals are liberals. They do not value institutions until they run them and remake them in their own way, and nothing is sacred. Not the Catholic Church, not the Methodist Church. Nothing! Zilch, zero, nada.</span></span> I shouldn't have to say this, especially after this weekend. The real challenge -- and it's hard; I know it's hard -- is you can't believe that we've elected people to run this country who don't like it. Well, we did, but not on purpose. They were fooled, lied to, defrauded, everything else. So it's out there right in the open for everyone to see and take note of. They don't deserve to win another election ever. The country cannot withstand them winning another major election. Don't doubt me.</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src="http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/spc.gif" width="1" height="9" /></td></tr></tbody></table>the Egyptianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07215093180074844386noreply@blogger.com0