Spot the Fake

Two tales from current events, about spotting something fake:

A wedding procession is stopped near Bagdad, Iraq, by those meddling American troops:

Upon inspecting the convoy, soldiers found a stubbly-faced man, Haider al-Bahadli, decked out in a white bride's dress and veil.

Bahadli was wanted on terror-related charges, as was his groom, Abbas al-Dobbi, the official said.

It may be a good thing that the soldiers intervened. Whatever would betray such an oddly conceived masquerade?

The soldiers became suspicious of the convoy because its members -- save the "bride" -- were all male and because one of the cars in the convoy did not heed orders to stop, the official said.

Also, soldiers said, the people in the car seemed nervous and the groom refused to lift his bride's veil when soldiers asked him to, according to the official.

Ahh, so the behavior of the party and composition of the group belied its appearance. That's something to remember.

A homily is delivered by a Roman Catholic priest, at a Roman Catholic Mass, at a Roman Catholic church:

"Two people came into Church to pray. One was an Evangelical pastor whose regional services are broadcast nationally who prayed " I give you thanks oh God that I am not like others - greedy, dishonest or like others who give into same gender sex drives which the bible calls an abomination."

The others who came into Church to pray for a same sex couple raising children born by way of donor insemination who prayed: "Oh god, be merciful to us for not finding our own medium to share with the broader audience the biblical passage of 1 John 4:16 – God is love and when we abide in love we abide in God and God in us."

Jesus concluded the last ones went home more worthy in God's sight than the first."

Hmm, the person delivering this alternative view of the Gospel looks like a Roman Catholic priest, but he's showing a decidedly firm deviation from the doctrines of the Catholic Church. I sense that he's closer to an Episcopalian than a Catholic. What other cards is the priest playing?

Two people came into Church to pray, one was a Catholic Archbishop who refuses communion to Rainbow Sash people at the Cathedral on Pentecost Sunday who prayed " I give you thanks oh God that I am not like others – greedy, dishonest or like others who need to make their dissent from official Church teaching so public and divisive."

The other were Rainbow parents of GLBT people at the Cathedral on Pentecost who stood off on the side and prayed, "Oh God be merciful to us for failing to attend our own Churches more often; they say they love God then turn there backs on us in hate directly contrary to 1:John,4 – whoever loves God must also love the neighbor."

Jesus concluded the last ones went home more worthy in God's sight than the first.

There's another straw man argument against the doctrines of the Church whose uniform he's sporting. He's not supportive of Catholic doctrine on sexuality, and he's promoted the LGBTQI agenda before, and only backed down when promised some heat.

So, we have a terrorist dressed as a bride, and an Episcopalian dressed as a Roman Catholic priest. Which do you think will end up doing more damage?

h/t Curt Jester

Orthodoxy Enforced, to a Degree

Fox News reports on a story of a Catholic university that's enforcing orthodoxy, of a sort:

The private Chicago Catholic university recently informed professor Norman Finkelstein that his three courses were canceled after a dispute over tenure that drew charges of anti-Semitism against him.

Critics find issue with Finkelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors, who believes that some Jews have exploited the Holocaust. Finkelstein is the author of five books, including "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering."

I wish that DePaul University was so zealous in defending the Catholic Faith as it is defending Jewish victimhood. Not too long ago, De Paul started turning heads with it's avant garde Gay Studies program.

"I understand that there's a tension there," says Assistant Prof. Gary Cestaro, the program's director. "Institutions of higher learning, even if they are Catholic, aren't spokespeople for the Vatican," he says. "Like any university, there should be room for free inquiry."

I guess that some inquiry should be more free than others? Or is it that the only kind of free inquiry desired is that inquiry free of Catholic doctrine. What ever happened to Ex Corde Ecclesiae?

Looking over the course offerings and course descriptions for the LGBTQ Studies, I don't see anything that points to a discussion on Catholic doctrine on human sexuality. Maybe the topic will be touched upon at the upcoming "Out There Conference" at DePaul in October. There's a session in the program called “Roman Catholicism and its Teaching on Homosexuality: Past, Present, Future” with James Halstead and Tom Judge from DePaul University, and Patricia Jung, Loyola University Chicago. The rest of the sessions seem to be the usual rah-rah for gay causes.

Halstead's not the most solid bulwark against the prevailing culture, as evidenced by his comment on CNN in regard to pro-abortion politicians and the Eucharist:

"It's precisely the people that are sick or in error that need to be going to communion. It's not a reward. It's a help on the journey."

There are few better ways to tell someone that they are sick or in error by declaring that they are not in communion with the Church, but you won't hear that from Halstead. Patricia Jung, inline skating gold medalist at the 1994 Gay Games, is not a notorious stalwart for true Catholic doctrine either. In her paper, "The Call to Wed: Why Catholics Should Celebrate Same Sex Marriage," Ms. Jung displays her ignorance/disregard for catholic teaching:

"When the church’s long-standing emphasis on the significance of procreativity to marriage is
critically analyzed, it becomes clear that both the church and society should encourage all those so called – whether queer or straight – to wed."

"Critical analysis", in Academe-speak, is code for rationalized dismissal. With Halstead's and Jung's records, it looks like the deck is stacked against any straight, pardon the pun, discussion of Church teaching on human sexuality at this conference.

Representing

Nine members of the group Call to Action stood outside the Cathedral of the Risen Christ Friday to call attention to Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz’s refusal to participate in an annual sex abuse audit.

But they were upstaged by more than 100 local Catholics who came together on less than an hour’s notice to show support for the bishop

That was from the Lincoln Journal Star's account of CTAN's histrionic bid for some attention. To try and scrape up some ill will against their nemesis, bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, the heretics trot out the bete noire of sexual abuse. Despite that fact that it has been a rare but quickly dealt with problem in Lincoln, some are leary of Lincoln's non-participation in the USCCB's backside-covering sex abuse audits.

Nevertheless, the non-participation raises questions, said John Krejci, a Call to Action member from Lincoln. “We have no guarantee that the children of this diocese are protected,” he said.

I wish that people could be honest in their beefs. Call To Action isn't primarily concerned about sexual abuse, they want the excommunications recinded by Bruskewitz. The sexual abuse audit question is the only thing that they can get any media traction on, in order to try to pressure the bishop. Well, here's the big claim:

Despite the greater numbers on the other side, Pokora said she believes Call to Action represents the majority of Catholics nationwide who want bishops to fully comply with the annual sex abuse study.

“We are the church, and it is important that the voices of the faithful who are concerned about the children of the diocese are heard,” she said.

Well, if CTA represent a majority of Catholics, then why did it take months to get 1000 signatures on their petition. The pro-Bruskewitz petition got 1400 signatures in 31 hours. As for "We are the church", I wasn't aware that the excommunicated had any claim on the Church.

Bruskewitz, as he's always done, called for the dissidents to repent and rejoin the Church. As for the faithful laity of Lincoln, Bruskewitz had the usual request:

He asked them to pray for Call to Action members, that they return to the true Catholic faith.

Yes, let's do.

That All ?

From the Omaha World Herald, Group Targets Actions of Bruskewitz:

More than 1,000 Catholics from all corners of the country have signed a petition protesting Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz's actions against members of the Lincoln-based Call to Action Nebraska.

One thousand?! That's the best you can do? Heck, our small parish packs that many in on any given Sunday.

"We are not happy with the way Bishop Bruskewitz has been handling things in the diocese and wanted to draw attention to that," said Rachel Pokora, president of Call to Action Nebraska.

Ms. Pokora thinks herself ill-used, excommunicated by the bishop for belonging to an organization that inherently defies catholic teaching and doctrine.

..the petition criticizes Bruskewitz's refusal to allow girls to serve at the altar and his 1996 excommunication of Call to Action Nebraska members.

Having not gotten any sympathy for their heretical views, Call To Action plays the Abuse card:

The petition also included criticism of his refusal to participate in the annual nationwide audit to determine whether churches are compliant with church policies regarding sex abuse.

"We find this to be very disappointing because we feel the children of Lincoln and the diocese are at risk," said Nicole Sotelo, spokeswoman for the Chicago-based Call to Action U.S.A.

Unlike Call To Action, the USCCB is less hysterical about Lincoln's non-participation in the audits:

A spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said the Lincoln Diocese's lack of participation in the audit does not mean it isn't adhering to church policies regarding sexual abuse.

"The clergy sexual abuse crisis is a serious issue for all the bishops, and I can't see any bishop not doing all they can to ensure children are safe in their diocese," said Teresa Kettelkamp, executive director of the Office of Child and Youth Protection, which administers the audit.

In a written statement, Bruskewitz affirmed that his diocese is operating in full compliance with all civil and church laws concerning the abuse of minors.

I don't worry much about the children in Lincoln, because the Bishop's policy is clear to the local clergy. I think it's something along the lines of "If you abuse children, I promise I'll visit you in prison."

"The Catholic Church teaches that all homosexual acts and any sexual abuse of minors or others are mortal sins," Bruskewitz said in the statement. "Such sins and heinous crimes should be appropriately punished by the authorities of the church and the state."

He cracks down on heretics as well. It's going to take much more than a pathetic petition to change Bp. Bruskewitz' mind on the Call To Action Nebraska excommunications. Maybe they should try renouncing their heresies and reconciling with the Church. It's been known to work.

VOTF FUBAR

"Voice of the Faithful facing financial, membership crisis"

Aww, it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of heretics and dissenters. So, what's happening, you may ask?

Folks just aren't giving money like they used to (at the start of the Abuse crisis in the Church) and their member base has become so broad, it's hard to get a meaningful consensus on anything. VOTF has become a big tent for anti-hierarchians, women's ordinationistas, Choicers, Polygamist Priests (Christ and wife), and any other stripe of dissent from Magisterial teaching. While many camps are sympathetic to others, most folks are there to primarily support their own agenda.

“In addition to the financial crisis facing VOTF, Bill Casey identified a crisis in leadership. Evidence of this comes from the low response rates (a range of 1 percent to 5 percent) when members are asked for input on proposals,” [the Vinyard newsletter] said.
“VOTF as a whole has difficulty in reaching closure on decisions, Bill said, as well as difficulty in respecting others' positions. In the past few years, rather than leading, many have simply been engaged in fighting about leadership.

It's hard to get dissenters to stop dissenting sometimes, eh? Makes it difficult to get anything constructive done if people are always griping about the direction of the group. Reminds me of the Judean People's Front, or was that the People's Front of Judea?

There are financial issues as well:

Part of VOTF’s financial difficulties may lie in the rising amounts it spends soliciting contributions. It reported $64,224 in fund-raising expenses in 2003. It then reported $111,089 in fund-raising expenses for 2004, $151,549 for 2005 and $143,603 in “development” expenses in 2006. It reported $133,261 in development expenses for the first seven months of its current fiscal year

I guess it's getting harder and harder to get the big donations, so they're bringing in bigger sticks to beat the bushes with. There's another, more ironic problem:

Figures up to 2005 come from audited financial reports posted on its Web site. VOTF, which led an unsuccessful effort in Massachusetts to require churches to file an annual audited financial statement with the state each year, has not yet posted an audited statement of its own finances for the last fiscal year.

Everyone loves a hypocrite, especially as an accuser.

h/t CWNews

Better Bread Needed

Headline:

Nun still hungry for experiences

'I want the church to be relevant,' the skydiving, bungee jumping and 88-year-old former NASA employee says

Why doesn’t sister think that the Church is relevant? Let’s look at her career:

Lolich is a nun with the Community of the Holy Spirit, a Catholic order she and 15 other sisters created when they left the more restrictive Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose in 1970.

It was within this new community that she was able to do something unusual for a nun — work outside of the order. For years she was employed by NASA and broke the stereotype of what people typically associate with nuns. In her 70s, she bungee-jumped, and skydived on her 80th birthday — her third time.

Okay, so she helped form a looser religious life, and worked in the world for a scientific organization. So she’s really not so different from us lay-folk, right? What drove her quest for a different religious order?

"The rules were anachronistic," said Lolich, of the order that had very strict rules requiring them to wear wool habits, travel in pairs and not have any money with them.

In 1970, after Vatican II — when the Pope decreed to renew the church, and to lessen the restrictions set on nuns — Lolich and 15 others decided to form the Community of the Holy Spirit, knowing the Dominican Sisters would resist change.

Ahh, yes, the Spirit of Vatican II™, vent of all discontent and dissatisfaction with all things Catholic. Not that the Second Vatican Council was at all bad, but it gave many folks enough rope, like poor Sister here, and now they’re spiritually dangling in the wind.

"We were searching for a way to be authentically religious women, but have the opportunities to develop and grow according to our God-given talents," she said. "That was an innovative thing to do at the time — creating the community from the ground up, and making sure we were well founded."

Faith is not built from the ground up, but centers on Christ, and builds outward. The order may have been well founded, but well formed would have been better. The article leads on to believe that this nun's order was more about personal fulfillment with the veneer of religious life.

And it was within that community where Lolich was able to find her niche in aerospace education.

In 1976, she became an education specialist for NASA at the Ames Research Center, Moffett Field in Mountain View. For six years, Lolich traveled alone in a white work van filled with moon rocks, space suits and models of spacecraft, visiting school assemblies and classroom programs.
After that, she visited inner city schools for NASA's headquarters in Washington, D.C., for another six years.

I wonder if it ever occurred to Sister that instead of evangelizing for NASA, she could have rode around in a van proclaiming Christ to children and adults, or even teaching in a nearby catholic school.

Here’s the whole hook of the story, now that they’ve painted a saintly, albeit secular as possible, portrait of our nun:

She also wants to see change in the Catholic Church.
"I want the church to be relevant," said Lolich who still has close ties with the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose. "I want priests to be allowed to marry if they wish, I want women priests, and bishops selected by the people. I may not see those happen, but I think it will be possible that you will.

Going back to the headline, let’s see if there’s an answer for Sister’s hunger:

John 6:32-36
Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.
"For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world."
Then they said to Him, "Lord, always give us this bread."
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
"But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.”

h/t CWNews

Dad29 Brings it.

Homosexual Marriage is a big issue, and one that's facing Wisconsin voters. The Catholic Archbishop of Milwaukee, Timothy Dolan, has supported and encouraged Wisconsin catholics to vote for the measure, banning gay marriage. Clergy and laity that dissent from Catholic teaching and the archbishop's exhortations, are rallying to at least muddy the waters surrounding the gay marriage issue. One such dissenting cleric was planning on speaking at St. John Vianney parish in Brookfield. Enter Dad29, catholic blogger and amateur Inquisitor:

So at around 7:00 yours truly hauls through the parking lot at St John's. Counted cars, because there would be a "magic flyers" assignment--the news item would appear on all those cars' windshields during the lecture on Dissent.

Got back from Kinko's and most of the cars were gone. A few people (quite old, by the way) were standing around outside.

The lecture was cancelled. Awwwwww......

Aww indeed. Not that his presence alone made the dissenters flee, I do believe that he, with other faithful catholic bloggers, are raising general awareness of dissenters' activities. Heretics love attention. Sometimes. They love to chat with Commonweal writers and National Catholic Reporter columnists (calumnists?). It makes them feel authoratative in the Church.

But the thrill dissipates when people start complaining to their bishop. Then, the dissident can put on the airs of a martyr, fighting against the rigidly orthodox. More chats with Commonweal ensue.

It seems to be a never-ending cycle of public griping and sniping in the press. Orthodoxy just doesn't get much play in the MSCM, and many catholics easily dismiss the EWTN crowd as overly scrupulous and pious. Bloggers provide the counterbalance, collating small, unnoticed items, and circulating the news. Like the USCCB publishing thier calendar with a Call To Action conference on it. Bloggers quickly nailed it, and the USCCB made it vanish in a twinkle.

Keep the heat on, ladies and gentlemen, it's Springtime.

Inquisition Needed

"Indeed it is all too difficult to get the heretics to reveal themselves when they hide their errors, instead of frankly confessing them, or when reliable and adequate testimony against them is lacking. In such a case all kinds of problems confront the Inquisitor... Laymen of staunch faith find it a scandalous matter if an inquisitorial trial, once begun, is abandoned for some kind of lack of method. When they see the learned thus deceived by common and vile persons, the faith of the Faithful is to some degree weakened; for they believe that we have at our disposal luminous and certain arguments that cannot be refuted, and that they expect us to be able to vanquish [the heretics] in such a way that even a layman can clearly follow the arguments. It is therefore inexpedient in the presence of laymen to debate matters of faith with heretics who are so astute."

Practica Inquisitionis Heretice Pravitatis
Bernardo Gui, 1323.
trans. Peter Amann. 1967.

Heretics running amok in Wisconsin, take notice! Dad29 has your number, and is gathering the firewood.
Fr. Massengale at St. John Vianney 10/24
Abp Dolan's Problem
List of Milwaukee Dissenting Priests

Motivated

(psst, it's Richard P. McBrien)

Another entry for the Lapped Catholic motivation contest, "Mortification"

For extra motivation, this.

Do your own here.

h/t Crescat

Circular Disqualifier: Motes and Beams.

Our Saviour's guide to criticising others:

" Judge not, that you may not be judged, For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged: and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. Any why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: Let me cast the mote out of thy eye; and behold a beam is in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

Now, many times, this verse from the Gospel according to Matthew is quoted to either criticise someone who has made a criticism, or to shield oneself from criticism. Case in point for the former; Thomas Gumbleton, retired bishop, commenting on Pope Benedict XVI's recent speech at Regensburg:

But there's another short passage that Jesus proclaimed, that it seems to me if Pope Benedict had been thinking about this, he would have been much more careful in what he said.

Remember the part when Jesus is talking to the people who are correcting other people. He challenged them, "Look, you can see the speck in somebody else's eye, but you can't see the beam in your own eye!" If you look at others but don't look at yourself. Pope Benedict in speaking about Islam -- yes, at times, there has been those who have used it in a violent way, who spread their message through war, through killing. But you don't have to look very far into the history of the Christian religion to discover that we've done the same thing many, many times.

Now, the Mote/Beam missile can only be used by those who are entirely sure of their unquestionable holiness, or are completely oblivious to the irony of using an argument against criticism to criticise someone. It is a weapon that, once launched, negates the legitimacy of the launcher.

As for Gumbleton, and to bring this in full circle: Remember the part when Jesus is talking to the people who are correcting other people. He challenged them, "Look, you can see the speck in somebody else's eye, but you can't see the beam in your own eye!" If you look at others but don't look at yourself. Thomas Gumbleton in speaking about Pope Benedict -- yes, at times, there has been those who have questioned other's theology, who spread their message through blunt discussion, through unvetted polemic. But you don't have to look very far into the history of american Catholic prelates to discover that we've done the same thing many, many times.

You saw this coming, right?

The DaVinci Code was just the beginning. From the pen of Kathleen McGowan comes The Expected One:

Maureen’s extraordinary journey takes her from the dusty streets of Jerusalem to the cathedrals of Paris, and ultimately to the scrolls themselves. She must unravel clues that link history’s great artistic masters including Botticelli and Jean Cocteau; the Medici, Bourbon, and Borgia dynasties; and great scientific minds like Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton. Ultimately, she, and the reader, come face to face with Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, Judas, and Salome in the pages of a deeply moving and powerful new gospel, the life of Jesus told by Mary Magdalene.

She apparently had trouble getting traction to publish this dreck until The DaVinci Code broke the barrier for her. USA Today goes on to gush a bit:

Is the world ready for a book and an author more controversial than Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code?

Meet Kathleen McGowan, novelist and self-proclaimed descendant of a union between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. McGowan, who says she is from the "sacred bloodline" Brown made famous in his mega-selling novel, says she's ready to cope with people who think she's crazy or a heretic.

I'm sure it'll be a hit on the Call to Action reading list. The gullible are already there:

"It's an interesting back story, but we're marketing this fabulous novel," says Trish Todd, editor in chief at Touchstone, a division of Simon & Schuster.

Todd says she has no problem believing McGowan's claim that she descends from a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. "Yes, I believe her. Her passion and her mission are so strong, how can she not be?"

Gumbleton's new Gospel

Apparently, retired bishop Gumbleton thinks that "Hitler's Pope" is gospel truth, and is parroting those accusations for his own ends. I don't have much to say about that...but I do have a picture!



h/t Dad29 and Gerald Augustinius

Women Priests and Dead Parrots...

I was stumbling along the shoulder of the Information Super highway (thanks, Al), and spotted this paper explaining the philosophic genius of Monty Python:

Mr. Praline, the man attempting to return the parrot, is our verificationist, as is evidenced by his attempt to verify the death of the parrot by reference to experience, such as seeing that it's dead, its falling to the ground when sent aloft, its being nailed to its perch, and so on. The shopkeeper is our philosophically more sophisticated holist. He knows that maintaining the truth of other statements, concerning for example the bird's strength and its affection for the fiords, will allow him to maintain that the parrot is alive. Notice who wins: the shopkeeper is never brought to accept that the parrot is dead. Indeed, the sketch could go on indefinitely without that ever happening.

Makes me think of the spate of faux ordinations foisted by self-acclaimed "Women Priests".
A paraphrase and parody:

Mr. Praline: Look, I took the liberty of examining that issue when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that it had been sitting on its perch in the first place was that it had been heralded by the mainstream media.

(pause)

Owner: Well, o'course it was heralded by the mainstream media! If I hadn't heralded that issue in the mainstream media, it would have nuzzled up to the USCCB, bent 'em apart with the Spirit of Vatican II, and
VOOM! Feeweeweewee!

Mr. Praline: "VOOM"?!? Mate, this issue wouldn't "voom" if you put four million volts through it! 'E's bleedin' demised!

Owner: No no! 'E's pining!

Mr. Praline: 'E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This issue is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! Read Ordinatio Sacerdotalis! If you hadn't hoisted these women on a barge on the St. Lawrence River, They'd be blessing twinkies in their kitchens! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the
bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-ISSUE!!
...
So. There you have it. Random thought for a Tuesday night.

TakingBackTheirCrutch

Watch out, Boomers, there another group with which you can share your gripes about the Church, and plot to "Take Back Our Church". As if there weren't enough outlets for neo-retro-heretical musings, Robert Blair Kaiser wants you:

In fact, without your help, and the help of a million others like you, we won't be able to demand the action necessary to create the Church we need.

Mr. Kaiser, like the millions of others that he's seeking, was not properly catachised as to the origins of the Church:
Matt 16:
18"I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

19"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."

Notice that Jesus said "I will build My church": The Church we need is already built, and was built by Christ. Why does someone need to build another? Ask Photius, Henry VII, Luther, and Rev. Jonas Q. Biblethumper why a "New Church" needs to be made, and how that Men are worthy to build it.

The need of another SoVIIette (Spirit of Vatican II worshipper) group is also in question. Here's a poster in TakeBackOurChurch's forum:

Honestly, aren't the goals (both stated and implicit) of takebackourchurch.org pretty much the same goals of the "We Are Church" movement, Voice of the Faithful, the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church (ARCC), and those of a myriad of other dissident groups?

Even Commonweal is a bit skeptical:

I'm all for having a serious discussion of Roman centralism, a problem the Church has been struggling with since at least the Gregorian Reform, if not earlier. But pretending that the Council fathers at Vatican II had the same mindset of the Founding Fathers of the American revolution is just nonsense.

Mr Kaiser responds to the Commonweal argument:

Those in favor of "the divinely instituted hierararchical constitution of the Church" can, of course, like Talmudic scholarsm, quote paragraphs 18 and 19 of LG [Lumen Gentium](and other grafs) to support a position that simply isn't working in the context of our times.

FYI, I think it is poor scholarship to quote verses from Vatican II in order to make any kind of case for anything. We have to look at the legislative history of the Council, some of which is written down, and some of which I was personally privvy to because I was there, conducting Sunday night salons and watching the drama of the Council unfold for four sessions. I can attest that phrases like "the divinely instituted hierararchical constitution of the Church" were inserted AFTER the decisions for a people's Church were already made by huge conciliar majorities.

Hearsay also makes for poor scholarship, Mr. Kaiser, but you probably already know that. But, these assertions also highlight my contention with anti-Vatican II bloggers, that the cancer of dissent was already in the Church before the documents hit the street, as evidenced by the popular reaction to Humanae Vitae.
I'll take Jesus' Church over a 'people's Church' any day, and twice on Christmas. You want a 'people's Church'? Check out the Episcopalians, and their weather vane doctrines.

Power and Courage in Richmond

h/t Amy Welborn

From A Voice in the Diocese of Richmond, an exhortation to courageous rebellion, from...an anonymous poster.

I'm deeply distrubed by the Catholic heirarchy. Power, authority, and control appear to be their criteria. It is as if the heirachy believe all the laity is good for to follow whatever they dictate. Well, do you know what, it aint so. We the laity do have power. All we need to do is exercise our power. The powers-that-be seem to believe we are helpless. All the power, authority and control of the heirarchy will only operate for them if we permit it to have power, authority and control over us.

What power is this person talking about? The power of performing all the duties of a parish priest, from Matins to Vespers, and every pastoral and business task in between? I'm sure that the 'power' that those posessed by the Spirit of Vatican II&trade (SoVIIs, for short) are seeking is the power to change Catholic doctrine. In that case, they will forever be disappointed, not matter how many extraordinary Eucharistic ministers they co-opt, diocesan positions they fill, or DREs they plant, for the power to change doctrine is not in the Church.
They speak like marxist revolutionaries, substituting the word 'laity' in for 'proletariat', and 'heirarchy' for 'bourgeoisie'. What Would Lenin Do?

To defy this authority we must all have courage, the courage of our convictions.

Courage? Why then hide behind anonymity, if thou art so confident in thine righteous convictions?

If there are people who are afraid. that's ok too.

I believe that category is for anonymous agitators.

Sometimes Catholic brainwashing is so ingrained in a person's mind they will not, or cannot, defy Catholic authority and tradition. Our Church trained us to believe if the Church said it was so, then it was, no questions asked. A few of us have broken the mold and are using the brain power the good Lord gave us.

I guess that it's only after a trip to Room 101 that we can love the Church, to hear it from 'anonymous'. And here I am, sipping clove-flavoured gin, and loving God as He has been worshipped by 2000 years of Catholic tradition. 1 + 1 + 1 = 1.
I choose to harness the brain power in service to the heart power, which reports to the soul power, which is guided by the Holy Spirit. God wants us to use all three in our love of Him.

The new bishop in Richmond must be doing something right, if the SoVIIs' knickers are in such a twist. God bless him and his endeavors.

Theologians, or Lupi Rapaces, pt 1

Dad29 has been detailing some of Marqette University theology prof Daniel Maguire's, counter-catholic activities and propagandizing, so I thought I'd do a little digging.

Pope John Paull II, in August of 1990, promulgated a document called Ex Corde Ecclesiae, and was approved for application in the US by the USCCB in November of 1999. This apostolic constitution asserts the authority of the Church in relation to Catholic universities, and much to their ire, catholic theologians. Many catholic theologians have resented and loudly resisted this concept.

Daniel Maguire, much like his peer at Notre Dame, Fr. Richard McBrien, has publicly disparaged Ex Corde Ecclesiae and refused to humbly request a mandate from the local Bishop. Here's Maguire's explanation of his resistance to submitting to the bishop:

"The mandatum would anomalously subject professional theologians to the judgment of those who are outside academe and are not professional theologians. In my judgment, no theologian could accept this without violating the integrity of his or her discipline. It also puts the bishops into the embarrassing and impossible position of judging scholars without the benefit of the appropriate expertise."

He's somehow thinking that being a theologian trumps being catholic, and that his utterances about the Catholic Church should have no accountability.

" Published theologians are always subject to corrective criticism from their peers, that is, from those who are professionally qualified to judge their work."

Hence, the bishop, being a successor to the Apostles, has no business criticising a "catholic" theologian's work.

"However, the focus of Ex Corde is not on the epistemological subtlety of the effect of changed personal commitments on cognitive objectivity. Its mission, as I see it, is thought control and a denial of the legitimacy of the theological magisterium."

That precious "theological magisterium" is only authoritative if it is in harmony with the Magisterium of the Church, not in constant defiance of it. Maguire's activities with Planned Parenthood would incur a latae sententiae excommunication in Lincoln, Nebraska, but I imagine that his own bishop is not so ready to do something so bold. Here's a stumper: Do catholic theologians have to be Catholic?

Matt 7:15-20
"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?

"So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.

"A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.

"Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

"So then, you will know them by their fruits.

Spiritual Disarmament

H/t Titus One Nine, Anglican Mainstream

From the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop-elect Jefferts Shori's sermon this morning:

"Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation and we are his children. We are going to have to give up fear. Do not be afraid. God is with you. You are God’s beloved and God is well pleased with you. When we know ourselves as beloved. We can recognise another beloved in a homeless man, a rhetorical opponent. We can reach beyond the defences of others. Our invitation in the last work of this convention is to lay down our fear and love the world. Lay down our shield and sword, lay down our narrow self interest. Lay down our need for power and control, and bow to God’s image in the weakest, poorest and most excluded."

Whoa, nelly! Our mother Jesus? Gives birth? Uhm, she seems to be preaching an entirely different gospel. Ahh, yes, love the World, slide into it's warm and fuzzy embrace, there is no sin here, only goodness and light. Lay down your shield (Eph 6:16)and sword, take off that cumbersome armor(Eph 6:10-12), you don't really need it. Bow to God's image (Man) in the weakest (sinful), poorest(corrupt), and most excluded (proud).


I'm not one for the schadenfreude, but this is really telling for what lies in store for not only the Episcopal Church, but via gradual osmosis, the entire Anglican Communion. The frightening thing is that there are many in the Roman Catholic Church who already think Shori's way, and would use this language if they could get away with it. If the Chittisters, Gumbletons, and McBriens in the Catholic Church had their way, we would be following the Anglicans down the same rabbit hole.

Ephesians 6:10-16
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Time To Clean Out the Bathtub

Msgr. Timothy Stein of the Altoona-Johnstown diocese thinks that traditional worship is just bath water:

“Smells and bells” and other assorted paraphernalia are supposed to help us nurture our relationship with Jesus. When they become a stumbling block, and prevent us from seeing Jesus, knowing Jesus, walking with Jesus, or when they obscure the path to Jesus for others, they must be put aside, or at least, reassessed. There were good reasons for throwing out so much of the bathwater. It had become murky. It was no longer serving a good purpose. It was time to take the baby from the bath, and move on.

Well, if traditional worship was a stumbling block, than contemporary worship is a complete blockade. By his logic, after ridding ourselves of inhibitive traditions, we should be booming, a nation of saints. Would anyone state that there has there been any meaningful growth, either in numbers or in devotion, to the Church here in America, aside from heretical groups? To the contrary, the last thirty years have been rife with apostasy, heresies, and schisms.

Beware the bathwater! Hidden in its depths may be a dose of pretty poison - - the temptation to idolatry - - the temptation to worship fleeting forms while ignoring lasting, enduring substance. Don’t mistake devotion to exterior signs for an interior conversion to life in union with Jesus.

Yes, and don't mistake disregard of external signs for an interior conversion as well. It's just the opposite, if I recall scripture right, a good tree will produce good fruit, a very external sign. The tree that the monsignor is satisfied with has resulted in a lot of bad fruits. How about we dump the bathwater of the Spirit of Vatican II&trade theology, clean out the tub, then get back to the clean water?

Fr. McBrien is STILL Demoralized..

. and shows no sign of stopping. More Unhappy tidings to come.

Fr. McBrien parses Catholics into four camps: Ultra Conservatives, Moderate Conservatives, Moderate Liberals, Radical Liberal. He then illustrates a bit on the Ultracons:

Centrist Catholics do not view their moderate counterparts on the left or the right as an "ultimate threat" (Father Radcliffe's words) to their own place in the Church. Only Catholics of the far right view fellow Catholics that way --- in this case, moderately liberal Catholics and probably some moderate conservatives as well.

I beg to differ wih the good father, as his last column illustrates his terror at the conservative actions of conservative bishops. Fr. McBrien then shows some of the roots of his demoralization:

Father Andrew Greeley, a distinguished author and sociologist, has frequently pointed out that it was not the Council but Pope Paul VI's 1968 birth-control encyclical, Humanae Vitae, that opened the breach within the post-conciliar Church. If the pope had sided with the 2-1 majority of his Birth Control Commission and modified the official teaching on contraception, the post-Vatican II history of the Church might look entirely different.

And if his successor, John Paul I, had not died after only 33 days in office, the Church's hierarchy around the world might look entirely different as well.

He's absolutely right, it does go all the way back to Humanae Vitae, and the clergy's and laity's responses to it: Who can submit to the Church, and who will demand that the Church submit to the World. " If only the pope had sided with the 2-1 majority" is a crock, the Pope always has to side with the Magisterium, and guided by the Holy Spirit, he did just that. If, as Fr. McBrien fervently wishes, the Pope had sided with the majority opinion, we'd be in the same dire straits as the Anglican Communion and the divided United Methodist Church. Public opinion is the shifting sands on which no church can last.

Catholics of the far right, and bishops who share and enforce their ecclesiology, insist that obedience is one of Catholicism's primary virtues and that the teaching of the hierarchy, and especially the pope's, is the only sure guide to saving truth.

Obedience was one of Jesus' primary virtues as well, an obedience unto death, as with his mother Mary, by whose obedience unto life gave us our Savior. It's such an alien thought to the hippies, this concept of obedience. The article devolves from there into another gripe about Bishop Finn and his iron-fisted gardening style. Suffice to say, Fr. McBrien is still demoralized, and I'll bet that he'll continue to sulk in the future.

Fr. McBrien is Demoralized..

In an article called Demoralization in the Church, Fr. Richard McBrien lays some smack down on Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, over a speech Fr. Radcliffe gave at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress:

He had spoken, for example, of the gap between church teaching and the views of many ordinary Catholics without acknowledging the possibility that the gap exists, not simply because of a lack of understanding on the laity's part or a failure on the hierarchy's part to communicate its teachings effectively, but because many ordinary Catholics regard certain teachings as wrong.

Fr. McBrien is not "acknowledging the possibility" that the Church's teaching is right, and that he and many other catholics are wrong. Yes, ordinary Catholics may think some teachings are wrong, because they don't understand neither the teachings themselves nor the Magisterium of the Church. Apparently, Fr. McBrien also has trouble with those topics as well. It's a good thing that the Magisterium, and truth of Catholic doctrine, do not hinge on Catholics understanding or support of those teachings.

Conservative bishops (or what he would now refer to as Communion Catholics) hold a disproportionate amount of power that makes real brotherly and sisterly conversation impossible, for all practical purposes.

Yes, dialog with those pesky conservative bishops is difficult, with them always bringing Scripture and the Catechism into the conversation. It's hard to sway someone if they're always holding onto a firm position. Fr. McBrien insists on overstating the number of conservative bishops, but I imagine that he's just projecting his phobias a wee bit.

Only in those dioceses where a bishop who operates --- mentally, emotionally and pastorally --- outside of the broad center of Catholicism do we find any "strangulation" of missionary and evangelizing activities. One such diocese, Kansas City-St. Joseph, was featured in the May 12 issue of NCR.

Fr. McBrien is still sulking over that affair? Missionary and evangelizing activities abound in the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, home of every liberal's arch-nemesis, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz. I think it's time for the embittered catholics, lay and clergy, to get a grip that the Church is NOT a democracy and that the Truth is not negotiable.