Ever Again, Again

Good Bishop Tobin doesn't want Catholic institutions aborting babies. WaPo headline: Bishop bans RI hosps from pro-health reform group.

Sigh. As Mr. W. notes, if this were 1938 Germany, the policy "mustn't gas Jews" would garner the headline: "Bishop bans Catholics from nurturing health of German people."

Meanwhile, in Italy, a baby survived his mother's abortion and was picked out of the trash can alive two days later. Think "that's Italy" if you like, but our President while in the Illinois Senate voted four separate times to ensure such a child must stay in the trash can, yet we all voted him in as the consummate gentleman and scion of hope.

It's Complicated

Look who's resisting expanding statutes of limitations for abuse now. Amazing how having laws apply to you expands your perspective. I also just want it on the record that these words appeared in the Formerly Gray Lady.

Yet there is little evidence to show there is more sexual abuse among Catholic priests than among clergy from other denominations, or, for that matter, among people from other walks of life.

Big Brown Whoopsie

ninme posts the full footage of "bigotgate," in which Gordon Brown runs into a member of his public for what appears to be the first time in years. It's long, but watch the whole thing --it's fascinating! In spite of the policy differences I have with him, I was impressed with how well he listened to her and what a nice conversation it was. But he thought it was a disaster, as you'll see --which causes him to make it a disaster indeed.

In comments at ninme's, Rueful Red observes:

I felt really sorry for Mrs Duffy, she’s from the Labour Party that no longer exists. That moment when her jaw drops when she hears what he said is in miniature how the old Labour Party feels about New Labour.

 Backwards in High Heels (curtsy: Londiniensis), in a piece that makes Gordon Brown seem a lot like Barack Obama to me, writes:

In the final, Shakespearian twist, it was Mrs Duffy, a Labour loyalist, on her way to the shops to buy a loaf of bread, who, quite without meaning to, struck the fatal blow. 

Update, also from ninme. Daniel Hannan notes the worst thing about this, and it's not the two-faced phoniness, the policy positions or the rudeness.

Gordon Brown has evinced the single ugliest feature of the Left, namely its belief that opposed views are morally, rather than intellectually, mistaken.

Obviously Not A WaPo Subscriber

Overheard while 9-yr-old Weedlet was reading:

Man! Nixon resigned?!?

Arizona Gets The Papal Treatment

If I were the Formerly Gray Lady, I wouldn't run stories written by women with the initials "LG" for awhile. First Laurie Goodstein wrote a whole story on the pope based on an erroneous yahoo translation. Now Linda Greenhouse has everyone up in arms over the wrong version of the Arizona bill.

Unfortunately, this whole "trespassing" thing, on which Greenhouse bases her outraged piece, is from an earlier Senate version of the bill, rather than the version actually signed by the governor. So the law doesn't just make it "appear as if the police are authorized to act only if they observe an undocumented-looking person actually committing a crime," it actually does that.

A thing she'd have known if she'd simply gone to the bill's website where the various versions are.

It's nice to know that at the "paper of record" we are perfectly comfortable making stuff up.

He's Right On This One

Ahmadinejad calls UN veto power "satanic tool."

In a speech in Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday the veto rights giving those nations more power than other council members are used to "suppress and destroy the nature of the human being." 

Yep. We are worried about different things altogether, but....yep.

Opposite President Strikes Again

How many times were we assured that "death panels" were utter nonsense --the product of the fevered minds of conspiracy-addled wingnuts? Comedians are still laughing at Sarah Palin for saying it. But Nancy Pelosi appears to have been right when she said we had to pass the bill to find out what's in it. Here's the White House budget director absolutely exulting over the fact that no one will be able to just pay for medical care he wants anymore. A panel will decide what is appropriate.

I'd say "unbelievable," but Inigo Montoya would accuse me of not knowing what it means. It's just another instance of Opposite President, who always does the opposite of what he says.
Curtsy: CMR

The Catholic Event of the Season

Shamelessly pinched from New Liturgical Movement ( see more good pix there)

 ...at least, here in the States, was the first solemn high pontifical mass celebrated at DC's Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in 45 years Saturday evening. Mr. W. & I had to forgo it to witness that baptism, but I sent a spy who reports:

The Mass was AWESOME.

It was celebrated in Extraordinary Form. Details on the crowd (you can see from the pic it was packed):

The parking lot was packed, the church was packed, 35 minutes before Mass.  We were able to find seats up close, but on the side - nothing was left in the middle, from the front to the back of the church. My sense is that every EF-loving Catholic within a 3 hour driving radius came to this Mass (..I'm basing this solely on the amount of veiling by the women present - I would say 50-60% at least had their heads covered).

And:

In the procession were the Knights of Columbus, the Papal Order of St. Gregory, and the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George (whew, that was a lot to type!).  In the crowd were a variety of religious orders (including some sisters that attend Mass at St. Ann's, whom I know to be otherwise cloistered), school children (there was a group of young men in suits and ties seated in front of us; I wonder if there's a local minor seminary?), and, of course, plenty of families.

The music:

Gorgeous, simply gorgeous.  Children's choirs from the area performed, including, I'm happy to say, St. Ann's Academy (I love Esco Williams, the music teacher there).  The choirs performed various plainchant for the season.  The Shrine choir sang the Mass settings as well as some motets ("Tu es Petrus", Palestrina was the setting), and the local Canticum Novum Schola, which sang the Introit, Alleluias, Credo, Offertory Chant, Communion Chant, and the Chant at the Last Gospel.

Deacons, sub-deacons and other notables (I think I'm correct that there is no concelebration in the EF, so the many priests in attendance played other roles):

His Em. Cardinal Baum was present; several diocesan priests from various places, from what I can gather, FSSP, a few Franciscans and Capuchins, more than a few Dominicans from across the street, and a smattering of orders who I did not recognize. Also, my husband's favorite Chicago parish, St. John Cantius, provided a few priests and brothers as well - they are dedicated to the revival of liturgy and art. It was nice to see many familiar faces co-celebrating, such as the OPs and Msgr. Rossi. [I recogize Msgr. Charles Pope of the Archd of Washington and Fr. Paul Scalia of D. of Arlington from photos -ed]

My spy reports --and she is backed up unanimously by every blog report I've seen-- that Bishop Slattery gave an extraordinary homily. Fr. Z. tweeted it as the best homily he's ever heard. It is definitely Benedict-worthy.

It's a little difficult to do it justice with excerpts, so I will just tease you with a few quotations and hope you RTWT, it really is extraordinary. Or give it a listen here.

it is the sufferings of our people that define the culture of our modern secular age.

(very intrigued by that remark: thinking about it) or:

Suffering by itself is simply the reminder that death will claim these mortal bodies of ours, but suffering in Christ is the promise that we will be raised with Christ, when our mortality will be remade in his immortality and all that in our lives which is broken because it is perishable and finite will be made imperishable and incorrupt. 

try this:

For those whose lives are centered in Christ, obedience is that movement which the heart makes when it leaps in joy having once discovered the truth. 

or this:

ten men who whisper the truth speak louder than a hundred million who lie.

Update: a second spy took great photos. 

Road To Serfdom

Thomas Sowell on the limits of power. He notes that wherever slavery has existed, there have been always been certain slaves who were paid for their services --usually for work involving skill, judgment or creativity as opposed to brute work.

Tasks involving judgment or talents were different because no one can know how much judgment or talent someone else has. In short, knowledge is an inherent constraint on power. Payment can bring forth the knowledge or talent by giving those who have it an incentive to reveal it and to develop it.

This is the point that people criticizing capitalism miss (except when they are not actually criticizing capitalism at all, but crony capitalism, in which big business colludes with government to impede competition).

so much of what is said and done by those who rely on the power of government to direct ever more sweeping areas of our life seem to have no sense of the limits of what can be accomplished that way.
Even the totalitarian governments of the 20th century eventually learned the hard way the limits of what could be accomplished by power alone. China still has a totalitarian government today but, after the death of Mao, the Chinese government began to loosen its controls on some parts of the economy, in order to reap the economic benefits of freer markets. 

That's important to understand from the point of view of economic recovery. Even more important is that this Congress & this administration don't understand that they are creating a race of brutes and passives by setting up an economy that stifles all the aspects of work that make it human.

Saw It With My Own Eyes

The great Hadley Arkes finally "poped" this afternoon. Will leave it to him to tell his story, as undoubtedly he will. But too good not to share.

Update: I shamelessly pinched this photo from the dinner afterwards from K-Lo's facebook page. It won't enlarge to anything but blur as it was taken by phone, but it shows Hadley making remarks to his friends and admirers. He was moving and hilarious, as you might expect. Michael Novak was his sponsor.

Update 2: And here is his brief account of his conversion, "Finalmente." Also Robbie George's account.

Not That There's Anything Wrong With Eating Chicken

Bolivian president Evo Morales at a climate conference this week, telling folks that eating hormone-treated chicken causes homosexuality.

The Prophet Tocqueville

I don't know why anyone gives a fig for Nostradamus when Tocqueville's predictions are specific, identifiable and come true. Here he is on environmentalism. He blames democracy. And lax believers.

It cannot be denied that pantheism has made great progress in our age. The writings of a part of Europe bear visible marks of it: the Germans introduce it into philosophy, and the French into literature. Most of the works of imagination published in France contain some opinions or some tinge caught from pantheistic doctrines or they disclose some tendency to such doctrines in their authors. This appears to me not to proceed only from an accidental, but from a permanent cause.
When the conditions of society are becoming more equal and each individual man becomes more like all the rest, more weak and insignificant, a habit grows up of ceasing to notice the citizens and considering only the people, of overlooking individuals to think only of their kind. At such times the human mind seeks to embrace a multitude of different objects at once, and it constantly strives to connect a variety of consequences with a single cause. The idea of unity so possesses man and is sought by him so generally that if he thinks he has found it, he readily yields himself to repose in that belief. Not content with the discovery that there is nothing in the world but a creation and a Creator, he is still embarrassed by this primary division of things and seeks to expand and simplify his conception by including God and the universe in one great whole.
If there is a philosophical system which teaches that all things material and immaterial, visible and invisible, which the world contains are to be considered only as the several parts of an immense Being, who alone remains eternal amidst the continual change and ceaseless transformation of all that constitutes him, we may readily infer that such a system, although it destroy the individuality of man, or rather because it destroys that individuality, will have secret charms for men living in democracies. 

Like the last line? Tree-huggers are just democrats frightened to be free. And here's Al Gore explained.

All their habits of thought prepare them to conceive it and predispose them to adopt it. It naturally attracts and fixes their imagination; it fosters the pride while it soothes the indolence of their minds.

His opinion?

Among the different systems by whose aid philosophy endeavors to explain the universe I believe pantheism to be one of those most fitted to seduce the human mind in democratic times. Against it all who abide in their attachment to the true greatness of man should combine and struggle.

Conservation and stewardship? Yes. Environmentalism? No.
Curtsy: Powerblog

Heh.

Shamelessly pinched from Brutally Honest

An Earth Day Message I Can Support

The Future Is Now

Ramirez' latest, shamelessly pinched from someone's twitter feed

Almost Tomato Season

Robin Eley

WSJ has a feature on the new "hybrid heirlooms." False advertising, but anything that puts more flavorful tomatoes on the vine is fine by me. I have found that rare thing, a reporter who understands her subject: 

Planted now or in the coming weeks, most tomatoes are ready to be picked at high summer—July and August in most parts of the country. Eating home-grown tomatoes that have delicately ripened on the vine (and not been battered in shipping) is one of the best eating experiences money can't buy. Just add salt, a little olive oil—or nothing at all.

Neighbors

The latest Ramirez (click to enlarge)

Which reminds me tardily to note the extension of unemployment benefits to up to 99 weeks. Which tells you how many jobs, green or otherwise, the President & Congress actually expect to create in the next few years.

By the way, I would like to publicly apologize to Peggy Joseph for snickering at her incomprehension. I was the one who did not understand.

Doctor Kills The "Wrong" Baby

You've heard of removing the wrong leg or kidney, but this beats all. Is it right to call what we're living in a culture? Seems like too good a word for it.

What To Do About Iran

So my friends the usual Conservative suspects are talking about the leaked Gates memo in which he tells the President the US has no plan for dealing with Iran. We're all outraged and sarcastic.

But I still haven't heard (that post is from Feb.) anyone else's plan for preventing Iran from getting nukes. What is there to do except let the Israelis bomb their reactors? I am really asking, because it doesn't seem that Bush had much of a plan, either.

Human Rights Ain't What They Used To Be

Vacationing a human right, EU chief says. And not just vacationing, vacationing abroad.

The European Union has declared travelling a human right, and is launching a scheme to subsidize vacations with taxpayers' dollars for those too poor to afford their own trips.

Some people are oppressed by sharia. Others are oppressed by never having been to Euro Disney. There's a lot of suffering in this world.

Curtsy: Mark Steyn

The Age of Untruth

VDH sounds like he's really had it this time. He enumerates 5 lies we live with every day. RTWT, but this is the problem with lies:

The problem I think right now for the liberal cause is not just the Tea Parties. Rather, tens of millions of Americans have tuned out the sermons, and no longer believe much of what they are told.

That is dangerous. We are creating an unreasoning culture; where trust breaks down, conspiracy theories and tribalism replace reason and dialogue.

The Fewtrility of Existence

Haven't checked in with our favorite curmudgeon in awhile.

Fewtril #274

There has been raised a horde of men, if so honorific a title may still be retained for them, who cry out “sky-fairy!” whenever they hear the word “God”, rather as Ivan Pavlov’s dogs salivated whenever they heard bells and whistles, albeit with a crucial difference: the dogs could not be inculcated to fancy that in their mindless reflexes they were on the side of reason.

Fewtril # 273

Some liberals say that, in order to defend the West, we must defend “western values”, by which they mean “liberal values”, by which I understand those newly-invented values which have done more than any other to dissolve the West. It is like taking health-tips from disease-germs. 

Fewtril # 272

It is funny when ministers and parliamentarians make a promise of treating the voting public like grown-ups and responsible adults; it is just the kind of language to use when one wishes to flatter children and adolescents.

Incidentally, some time ago Deogowulf started two more blogs. One's called Gleanings; the other includes a character I can't write here so here it is. 

Contemporary European Culture In One Image

Shamelessly pinched from All That's Interesting via American Digest

Give Me That Damn Gavel

I know nothing whatever about Col. Allen West, apart from he's running for Congress. But seeing these videos, I want to know more.

On being called an "oreo," and worse:


And on Islam:


On Islam he doesn't quite take the Pope's position, but I am astonished anyone running for office would have the guts to say such a thing.

So...what do we know about this guy?

Curtsy: CMR

Potpourri of Popery, Maltese Edition

Cathedral in Rabat, site of St. Paul's shipwreck. Photo credit.

The Pope was in Malta all weekend. The purpose of the trip, planned long before we entered all child abuse all the time mode, was to commemorate the 1950th anniversary of St. Paul's shipwreck, which led to the Maltese faith.

Popery
What has garnered all the headlines thus far this weekend is not the trip to Malta, but an off-the-cuff homily the Pope gave last Thursday to the Pontifical Biblical Commission. A text is not yet available, but just the Vatican Radio summary is blockbuster:

for Christians, true obedience to God depends on our truly knowing Him, and he warned against the danger of using “obedience to God” as a pretext for following our own desires.
“We have,” he said, “a certain fear of speaking about eternal life.”

“We talk of things that are useful to the world,” continued Pope Benedict, “we show that Christianity can help make the world a better place, but we do not dare say that the end of the world and the goal of Christianity is eternal life – and that the criteria of life in this world come from the goal – this we dare not say.”

We must rather have the courage, the joy, the great hope that there is eternal life, that eternal life is real life and that from this real life comes the light that illuminates this world as well.

The Pope noted that, when we look at things this way, penitence is a grace – even though of late we have sought to avoid this word, too.

Now, under the attacks of the world, which speak to us of our sins, we see that to be able to do penance is a grace – and we see how necessary it is to do penance, that is, to recognize what is wrong in our lives: to recognize one’s sin, to open oneself to forgiveness, to prepare for pardon, to allow oneself to be transformed.

The pain of penance, the pain of purification and transformation – this pain is grace, because it is renewal – it is the work of the Divine Mercy.

Now on to Malta. Fun fact: Archbishop Cremona of Malta drummed up youth attendance for the papal events by barhopping.


B16's statement on the airplane. No press conference this time, no doubt because we know what the questions would have been and he didn't wish to make news before arriving. He did make an oblique reference though. His reasons for coming to Malta were three: to celebrate the anniversary of the shipwreck; to be with the Maltese Church; and to address immigration (Malta being the place where African immigrants "knock at the door" of Europe).

I know that Malta loves Christ, and loves his church, which is his body. And [Malta] knows that even if this body is wounded by our sins, the Lord still loves this Church, and its Gospel is the true strength that purifies and heals.

The airport address upon arrival. (Golly, look at the Maltese sentences he speaks. That is a weird language.) He encourages the Maltese to be a "bridge of understanding" between cultures, and congratulates them for their missionary work in Africa. Both he and the President of Malta (whose welcome of the Holy Father was fantastic, by the way) speak about Malta being key to "reciprocity" --which is Vatican-speak for insisting that Muslim nations permit non-Muslims the same free exercise afforded Muslims in non-Muslim lands.

At the Grotto of St. Paul, he asked the Maltese to share their faith in imitation of St. Paul and not be afraid of the vicissitudes of life.

Saint Paul’s arrival in Malta was not planned. As we know, he was travelling to Rome when a violent storm arose and his ship ran aground on this island. Sailors can map a journey, but God, in his wisdom and providence, charts a course of his own

Homily at Mass in Floriana. Here he again takes up the idea of Malta as a crossroads of cultures, and asks the Maltese to be discerning in what they take in and generous in giving Christ to others.

Our first reading at Mass today is one that I know you love to hear, the account of Paul’s shipwreck on the coast of Malta, and his warm reception by the people of these islands. Notice how the crew of the ship, in order to survive, were forced to throw overboard the cargo, the ship’s tackle, even the wheat which was their only sustenance. Paul urged them to place their trust in God alone, while the ship was tossed to and fro upon the waves. We too must place our trust in him alone. It is tempting to think that today’s advanced technology can answer all our needs and save us from all the perils and dangers that beset us. But it is not so. At every moment of our lives we depend entirely on God, in whom we live and move and have our being. Only he can protect us from harm, only he can guide us through the storms of life, only he can bring us to a safe haven, as he did for Paul and his companions adrift off the cast of Malta. They did as Paul urged them to do, and so it was “that they all escaped safely to the land” (Acts 27:44).
More than any of the cargo we might carry with us – in terms of our human accomplishments, our possessions, our technology – it is our relationship with the Lord that provides the key to our happiness and our human fulfillment.

He took an "unscheduled" (meaning, the press not invited or informed beforehand) with abuse victims, too. I always find the victims' accounts of such meetings very moving. Just imagine the human drama. The gentle and righteous Paterfamilias meeting with his "grandchildren," so to speak, who have been deeply harmed by his own sons, in betrayal of everything he ever taught them.

More coverage at the Catholic Herald's Malta page, and their correspondent Anna Arco's blog.
Papal pilgrimages for the remainder of the year have been announced. He's going to Turin, Fatima, Cyprus and Britain, among other places. And here's how the Pope spent his 83rd birthday.

Update: More from Malta. Address to Maltese youth. (The Pope got to go on a boat tour of Valletta after: fun). This is my favorite of his addresses in Malta, and it becomes more powerful when you understand that he was responding to some very incisive questions from young people, particularly this one.

I wish to speak on behalf of those young people who, like me feel they are on the outskirts of the Church. We are the ones who do not fit comfortably into stereo-typed roles. This is due to various factors among them: either because we have experienced substance abuse; or because we are experiencing the misfortune of broken or dysfunctional families; or because we are of a different sexual orientation; among us are also our immigrant brothers and sisters, all of us in some way or another have encountered experiences that have estranged us from the Church. Other Catholics put us all in one basket. For them we are those “who claim to believe yet do not live up to the commitment of faith.”

To us, faith is a confusing reality and this causes us great suffering. We feel that not even the Church herself recognizes our worth. One of our deepest wounds stems from the fact that although the political forces are prepared to realize our desire for integration, the Church community still considers us to be a problem. It seems almost as if we are less readily accepted and treated with dignity by the Christian community than we are by all other members of society.

 We understand that our way of life puts the Church in an ambiguous position, yet we feel that we should be treated with more compassion – without being judged and with more love.

We are made to feel that we are living in error. This lack of comprehension on the part of other Christians causes us to entertain grave doubts, not only with regards to community life, but also regarding our personal relationship with God. How can we believe that God accepts us unconditionally when his own people reject us?

Your Holiness, we wish to tell you that on a personal level – and some of us, even in our respective communities – are persevering to find ways in which we may remain united in Jesus, who we consider to be our salvation.

However, it is not that easy for us to proclaim God as our Father, a God who responds to all those who love him without prejudice. It is a contradiction in terms when we bless God’s Holy Name, whilst those around us make us feel that we are worth nothing to him.

We feel emarginated, almost as if we had not been invited to the banquet. God has called to him all those who are in the squares and in the towns, those who are on the wayside and in the country side, however we feel he has bypassed our streets. Your Holiness, please tell us what exactly is Jesus’ call for us. We wish you to show to us and the rest of the Church just how valid is our faith, and whether our prayers are also heard. We too wish to give our contribution to the Catholic community.

Your Holiness, what must we do?

I love that question because it is so sincere and "real," and because it is so like Benedict not to fear a real question. The Pope responds in part:

Maybe some of you will say to me, Saint Paul is often severe in his writings. How can I say that he was spreading a message of love? My answer is this. God loves every one of us with a depth and intensity that we can hardly begin to imagine. And he knows us intimately, he knows all our strengths and all our faults. Because he loves us so much, he wants to purify us of our faults and build up our virtues so that we can have life in abundance. When he challenges us because something in our lives is displeasing to him, he is not rejecting us, but he is asking us to change and become more perfect. That is what he asked of Saint Paul on the road to Damascus. God rejects no one. And the Church rejects no one. Yet in his great love, God challenges all of us to change and to become more perfect.

It's not noble of me to point this out, perhaps, but I note this passage:

I say, do not be afraid! You may well encounter opposition to the Gospel message. Today’s culture, like every culture, promotes ideas and values that are sometimes at variance with those lived and preached by our Lord Jesus Christ. Often they are presented with great persuasive power, reinforced by the media and by social pressure from groups hostile to the Christian faith. It is easy, when we are young and impressionable, to be swayed by our peers to accept ideas and values that we know are not what the Lord truly wants for us. That is why I say to you: do not be afraid, but rejoice in his love for you; trust him, answer his call to discipleship, and find nourishment and spiritual healing in the sacraments of the Church.

I think that passage reinforces the correctness of my observation that reporters at times are useless.

And: the parting address at the airport.

Potpourri

• Abuse crisis must-reads: Fantastic interview with sex abuse expert. A sociologist for L'Avvenire writes about "moral panic," a "crisis" with some basis in fact, but ginned up artificially.Absolutely fascinating. Also John Allen's condemnation of the Vatican PR corps. Concur in part & dissent in part; might have to do a separate post on that, but the column is important. Vatican has added a page to its site documenting its response over the years to abuse cases, includes guide to basic CDF procedures. Card. Hoyos in hot water, possibly rightly, possibly just a defense of the seal of the confessional that looks awry in retrospect. Diogenes: why Irish bishops resigned, but US bishops didn't. Fr. Barron with defense, plus an excellent round-up. One abuse victim's defense of the Pope. Atheist ex-Catholic's defense of the Church.
• Vatican: the opening of the papal archives about WWII is leading to all kinds of interesting discoveries. Card. Hummes invites priest to Rome. Archb. Burke gets tough on unfaithful nuns.
• Australia: A(ustralia)BC runs a column suggesting we bomb the Vatican and "riddle the Pope with bullets as he staggers out of the flames." Ah, Reason.
• Brazil: Bishops facing death threats for opposing massive hydro-electric dam. When Vatican speaks of environmental crises and exploitation, this is what it has in mind, by the way --not whether or not you are recycling.
• Great Britain. God bless John Allen for speaking reason to Brits trying to have the Pope arrested when he visits soon.
• Laos: thousands attend episcopal ordination. 
• Poland: buries its President, many can't travel for the funeral.
• Thailand: Interesting perspective on abuse from a priest whose expertise is in getting children out of sex trade.
• U.S. Fr. Pfleger honored with an award.What was Cardinal George thinking? Good habits coming back. 20 most brilliant Christian professors. Believing in Flannery O'Connor.Fr. Owen of the Register apologizes for defending Fr. Maciel.

And finally: Ramirez. And threat alert Jesus. And 12 Sweetest Pope Pictures (to combat that other 'net meme).

Credit Where It's Due

This blogger links to stories from Newsweek, ABC and the NYT (sort of....NYT blogger Ross Douthat) backing off the all the Church is a cage, and all the priests and bishops merely playas meme.

He also notes this chart from the John Jay report, which studied credible reports of abuse in Catholic clergy from 1950-1992. The Jay report concluded that about 4% of 110,000 active priests had been accused of sexual misconduct (anything from sexual talk to rape). But what the blogger notes, and I do as well, is the moment of precipitous decline.

Do you see how that red line (number of cases) and that blue line (number of priests committing abuse) both begin a REALLY rapid descent? Well, if you look closely at the year when that rapid fall begins, that year would be 1981 - two years after John Paul II is elected Pope and the same year Ratzinger is picked to head the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Even though the CDF won't streamline the process and gain sole jurisdiction over abuse cases until 2001, the chart shows that the minute Ratzinger became the head of CDF, someone, somewhere started shutting these abusive priests down. By 1995, most of the rat holes had been closed.

Arrest that man!

Things Has Changed

Ramirez, shamelessly pinched from Kaching!

Brooching The Topic of Religion

The jizya is bad enough without our imposing it on ourselves. This is Britain, but it is yet another example of the West's rejection of the principle of equal treatment under law. (See previous post.) Over the weekend, a British nurse lost her bid to be able to continue wearing the modest crucifix she's worn around her neck for 30 years. NHS says it's a safety hazard. She's allowed to wear it as a brooch instead, so it's not exactly suppressing Christianity. But look who gets an exception.

Non-Muslim staff in direct contact with patients must keep their arms bare to the elbow for important hygiene reasons — to make sure their sleeves do not become contaminated and so they can wash their hands thoroughly on ward rounds.
Their Muslim female counterparts, however, have been given a special dispensation by the Department of Health. Because some Muslims consider nudity of the female forearm to be immodest, Muslim doctors and nurses are to be issued with disposable sleeves, elasticated at wrist and elbow, to cover up the erogenous zone that lies between. This is absurd, unfair, wasteful and yet another example, as Chaplin and her episcopal supporters (and I) all feel, of the bias in favour of a vociferous religious minority.

The columnist's view is tough toenails for the Muslims. I disagree: the system seems to have come up with a reasonable accomodation, which is what tolerant people do. (Although I think the NHS was right to forbid doctors from veiling their faces with patients.) What I object to is the double-standard. We bend over backwards to accomodate Muslims. Christians must bend or else. Intended or not, this is a way of saying --with the authority of the state-- that some are more equal than others. The law is a teacher and transmits attitudes and modes of thinking with minor regulations.

Curtsy: ninme

Returning To Constitutional Government

Paul Ryan interviewed by Glenn Beck.

Bonaparte Complex

Christopher Hitchens (with Richard Dawkins) is going to arrest the Pope. Awesome idea. Maybe he can bring back Penal Laws as well.

Lovely to see the author of god is not good eschewing prejudice, acting by reason alone, and rising above wars of religion.

Help From Unexpected Places

Ed Koch (well, that's not so unexpected) and Alan Dershowitz (!) in defense of the Pope & the Church.

Not Only Nearly Dead

He's really most sincerely dead. Meinhardt Raabe, one of the last surviving "Munchkins," passed away at 94. He was a pilot, among other things:

Mr. Raabe received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1937, and an M.B.A. from Drexel University in Philadelphia in 1970. A skilled aviator, he served stateside in the Civil Air Patrol in World War II, by all accounts the smallest pilot in uniform.

I though this was interesting. He had no real idea of being a little person until a trip to the World's Fair.

Though he never surpassed 4 feet 7 inches at his tallest (he continued to grow till he was in his 30s), he did not hear the word “dwarf,” or even “midget,” until he was a young adult. No one in his community had seen a person with dwarfism before. Growing up, he later said, he assumed there was no one else in the world like him.
That changed in 1933, when the young Mr. Raabe visited the Midget Village at the Chicago World’s Fair. There before his eyes was a world of men and women just like him. Thrilled, he took a job as a barker there the next summer.

It's interesting both that people just thought he was short and that a midget village, which presumably we'd think of as demeaning today, was a refuge for him.

Magisterial

I think of Sandro Magister as gloomy and such a conventional thinker, but I think this piece on the Pope is brilliant. He connects the dots among 6 instances of major attacks on the pope --each time in areas where he is most leading the world.

every time, on different terrain, striking Benedict XVI means striking the very man who has worked and is working, on that same terrain, with the greatest foresight, resolve, and success.

Russian Soccer Hooligans

They're chanting, "Christ is risen!"
"Truly he is risen!"

Curtsy: CMR

Aptly Named Yahoo Translator

The Formerly Gray Lady, employing the dispassionate search for truth and professionalism that increasingly characterize her, relied for its recent hit job on the Vatican on Yahoo Translator to understand a technical document concerning canon law. Because nowhere in Gotham does there exist anyone who reads or speaks Italian. And the Times has no Italian bureau.

Imagine an Italian trying to ascertain what was going on in an American court proceeding by using a mechanical translator to "read" the prosecuting attorney's memo. Wouldn't you like to know how such a translator would render terms of art such as "work product," "fruit of the poison tree," "privilege," "Mirandize," "standing," "substantive vs. procedural due process," "means testing," "health of the mother," "undue burden"?

Anyone relying on such a document would inevitably reach very mistaken conclusions, indeed might well be utterly clueless about what was actually being said, and that is exactly the case here. The Times reports the Vatican stopped a canonical trial that it in fact urged. The Times claims the Vatican urged "secrecy," which is preposterous, since the case was in the secular papers and was therefore already not secret. Did that give them pause, make a curious reportorial mind wonder what was going on? No, it did not. The Times rushes ahead with its assertion, relying on a bad translation, when the actual document says and means something quite different. What the Times (and Sully and others who ran with the mechanical translation) interprets as "strict secrecy" in fact were the words "in the strict sense." In context, the Sec. of the CDF was explaining the constraints of canon law and the need to prove the crime in the strict sense. Not in strict secrecy as the machine translation says.

And there's more. The entire Times story hinges on the aptly named Yahoo translation.

Italy's Il foglio is not amused.

Didn't Even Know He Was Jewish

So much more to Curious George than I knew.

Blockbuster Appointment

B16 appoints San Antonio's Bishop Jose Gomez as coadjutor archbishop of L.A. (meaning he'll be archb. when Cardinal Mahoney retires in a year or so). Check out Bishop Gomez' recent pastoral letter to his flock to see where he's coming from.

/does happy dance

Update: the bishop's opening remarks in LA are lovely.

How Is The Welfare State Like A Muslim Regime?

Fr. Schall, in what is believe it or not a hopeful and uplifting reflection, reflects on Obamacare, Catholic voter complicity and the increasing welfare state's effect on free exercise:

We are becoming like Jews and Christians in Muslim lands. If we politely agree to have no effect in the public order, if we submissively pay the taxes to support this new system, we will be allowed to survive after a fashion. We can have a private, not a public presence.

Richard & Henry

Before they close this weekend I want to put in a word for the Shakespeare Theatre's "Leadership Repertory": Richard II & Henry V in rotating rep.

Two very solid, credible productions --which I intend as sincere not faint praise, as so often performances are marred by unevenness, and these are simply fine all the way around. No weak links among the actors, traditional yet inventive costuming and staging that enhance the stories, neither distracting from them nor boring us with the feeling we've seen this 1000 times.

Michael Hayden plays both roles impressively, which heightens the opportunity for comparison and contrast and asking ourselves questions about problems of leadership. The most obvious contrast is between Richard II, so utterly certain of himself he doesn't see the weakness of his throne and Henry, painfully aware of the precariousness of his claims, nonetheless able to project strength and seize victory.

The biggest contrast in my mind, however, was not so much between Richard and Henry as between Hayden's Henry and Kenneth Branagh's film version. I love the Branagh film, but he salts Henry's heroic attributes and cuts some ambiguous scenes (notably the slaying of French captives), making him seem more like a fellow rising bravely to meet misfortunes cast upon him by the ignoble French, whereas Shakespeare's figure creates the situations he "finds himself" in --notably by manipulating religion-- and his qualities are decidedly mixed.

If Your Child Met A Journalist, Would He Know What To Do?

Save the children from these sick predators. (Language alert.)

So Glad Lent Is Over

Heh. Hey, look kids! It's the special Easter Octave edition of Wheat & Weeds!

Alleluia

Easter Vigil, Slow News Day

Front page of WaPo this morning, and apparently world wide news: Vatican priest likens criticism of Church to anti-semitism.

Really? A homilist at the Vatican (a great one, too --the aptly named Fr. Cantalmessa) invokes the cliche that anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable bigotry, and this is front page news?

It's worth noting this offensive comparison came when he was quoting a nice letter of solidarity he'd received from a Jewish friend.

So the worldwide headline is, "Jew's remark offends other Jews."  I rest easy knowing that's all that's wrong in the world today.

More seriously, in context the remark is very lovely, and has to do with the coincidence of Passover & Easter this year.

By a rare coincidence, this year our Easter falls on the same week of the Jewish Passover which is the ancestor and matrix within which it was formed. This pushes us to direct a thought to our Jewish brothers. They know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms. I received in this week the letter of a Jewish friend and, with his permission, I share here a part of it.

He said: "I am following with indignation the violent and concentric attacks against the Church, the Pope and all the faithful by the whole world. The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism. Therefore I desire to express to you personally, to the Pope and to the whole Church my solidarity as Jew of dialogue and of all those that in the Jewish world (and there are many) share these sentiments of brotherhood. Our Passover and yours undoubtedly have different elements, but we both live with Messianic hope that surely will reunite us in the love of our common Father. I wish you and all Catholics a Good Easter."

And also we Catholics wish our Jewish brothers a Good Passover. We do so with the words of their ancient teacher Gamaliel, entered in the Jewish Passover Seder and from there passed into the most ancient Christian liturgy:

"He made us pass
From slavery to liberty,
From sadness to joy,
From mourning to celebration,
From darkness to light,
From servitude to redemption
Because of this before him we say: Alleluia.

Happy Easter & Happy Passover, Friends

Update: Fr. Z. thinks Fr. Cantalamessa should have known better, since Good Friday is always criticized by Jewish groups, so everyone's just poised ready to freak out. An eyewitness says the pope looked like he wanted to fall through the floor at the time, and Fr. Cantalamessa has apologized. I guess I see the point from a PR standpoint, but it's tiresome that on the highest Christian holy days, a priest in the Vatican has to preach not to his actual flock, but to grievance groups and the press.

Waiting

Pieta, John Collier

Last week I made the truly foolish mistake of confusing contemporary artist John Collier with the famous atheist artist of about 110 years ago of the same name. I would say "even Plato nods," but I ain't even close to being Plato, and working mom bloggers nod quite a bit. It was a weed moment, not a wheaty one. Delightfully, however, the living John Collier wrote in to tell me he was not an atheist at all, but in fact in RCIA...so perhaps will be Catholic by the time of my next post? Hope so!

At any rate, I liked his Annunciation and love this Pieta.

Potpourri of Popery, Holy Thursday Edition

James Tissot, Communion of the Apostles

Popery:

Palm Sunday homily Lots of kids in attendance, as it was also World Youth Day. I point it out because the press, loving scandal and eager to exacerbate one if it possibly can, seized on one line of this homily

...the courage that does not let itself be intimidated by the gossip of dominant opinions...

and made it seem as if the Pope intended it as a thinly veiled reference to their attacks on him this week. Many of the Pope's defenders took that at face value and shouted, "Rah!"  I'm sorry, if you think Joseph Ratzinger has it in him to use the occasion of a homily to praise himself and take a cheap shot, you have obviously not been paying attention.

He was talking to young people about the demands of Christian discipleship and resisting their culture --the one that mocks chastity and substitutes ideology for truth. He began with this thesis:

Being Christian means seeing the way of Jesus Christ as the right way of being human -- as that way that leads to the goal, to a humanity that is fully realized and authentic.

And then amplified:

Man can choose an easy path and avoid all toil. He can also descend to what is lower. He can sink into lies and dishonesty. Jesus goes ahead of us, and he goes up to what is above. He leads us to what is great, pure, he leads us to the healthy air of the heights: to life according to truth; to the courage that does not let itself be intimidated by the gossip of dominant opinions; to the patience that stands up for and supports the other. He leads us to availability to the suffering, to the abandoned; to the loyalty that stands with the other even when the situation makes it difficult.He leads us to availability to bring help; to the goodness that does not let itself be disarmed not even by ingratitude. He leads us to love -- he leads us to God.

So, sorry to disappoint you, Media, but not everything is about you, and the text was probably drafted before the latest attacks on the Pope began. /sighs wearily


What a beautiful, beautiful homily lies in the rest of the text.

Communion with Christ is being on a journey, a permanent ascent to the true height of our calling. Journeying together with Jesus is always at the same time a traveling together in the "we" of those who want to follow him. It brings us into this community. Because this journey to true life, to being men conformed to the model of the Son of God Jesus Christ is beyond our powers, this journeying is also always a state of being carried. We find ourselves, so to speak, in a "roped party" [1] with Jesus Christ -- together with him in the ascent to the heights of God. He pulls us and supports us. Letting oneself be part of a roped party is part of following Christ; we accept that we cannot do it on our own. The humble act of entering into the "we" of the Church is part of it -- holding on to the roped party, the responsibility of communion, not letting go of the rope because of our bullheadedness and conceit.
Humbly believing with the Church, like being bound together in a roped party ascending to God, is an essential condition for following Christ. Not acting as the owners of the Word of God, not chasing after a mistaken idea of emancipation -- this is also part of being together in the roped party. The humility of "being-with" is essential to the ascent. Letting the Lord take us by the hand through the sacraments is another part of it. We let ourselves be purified and strengthened by him, we let ourselves accept the discipline of the ascent, even if we are tired.

Here's yesterday's Audience on how to live the Triduum.
His homily on the 5th anniversary of Venerable John Paul II's passing.
His homily with the priests of Rome for the chrism mass this morning. It's a very interesting "unpacking" (to use theological jargon I dislike) of the material elements of sacraments: water, bread, wine, oil. Difficult to summarize, but here's the conclusion:

In the early Church, the consecrated oil was considered a special sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit, who communicates himself to us as a gift from Christ. He is the oil of gladness. This gladness is different from entertainment and from the outward happiness that modern society seeks for itself. Entertainment, in its proper place, is certainly good and enjoyable. It is good to be able to laugh. But entertainment is not everything. It is only a small part of our lives, and when it tries to be the whole, it becomes a mask behind which despair lurks, or at least doubt over whether life is really good, or whether non-existence might perhaps be better than existence. The gladness that comes to us from Christ is different. It does indeed make us happy, but it can also perfectly well coexist with suffering. It gives us the capacity to suffer and, in suffering, to remain nevertheless profoundly glad. It gives us the capacity to share the suffering of others and thus by placing ourselves at one another's disposal, to express tangibly the light and the goodness of God. I am always struck by the passage in the Acts of the Apostles which recounts that after the Apostles had been whipped by order of the Sanhedrin, they "rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name of Jesus" (Acts 5:41). Anyone who loves is ready to suffer for the beloved and for the sake of his love, and in this way he experiences a deeper joy. The joy of the martyrs was stronger than the torments inflicted on them. This joy was ultimately victorious and opened the gates of history for Christ. As priests, we are - in Saint Paul's words - "co-workers with you for your joy" (2 Cor 1:24). In the fruit of the olive-tree, in the consecrated oil, we are touched by the goodness of the Creator, the love of the Redeemer. Let us pray that his gladness may pervade us ever more deeply and that we may be capable of bringing it anew to a world in such urgent need of the joy that has its source in truth.

Mass of the Lord's Supper homily.
Tomorrow the Pope will lead Stations at the Colisseum as usual. Cardinal Ruini's reflections are already up.

Potpourri:
Worn out by the viciousness and unfairness of attacks on the Pope and the whole Church. And it will never end, because rather than rip the bandaid off all at once, we have to go national church by national church, each round picking at the scabs and hurts from the previous. Things were bad in seminaries and chancery offices from the late 60s-to the mid-80s all over the world, and the latest news is not really new, it's just each national body dealing with the same phenomenon at a different pace. So we've had the U.S., Ireland, Austria, Germany. Next we are to have the Danes, Swiss and Italians and then I suppose we can go to South America. Ugh.

Not suggesting it doesn't have to be dealt with --light is the best disinfectant-- just wish we could do it all at once. Very tired of watching faithful young guys (and faithful old guys like B16!) having to carry the guilt and shame of aging boomers --and only 2% of them. (Not that even one is acceptable, but honestly, to read the papers, you'd think wearing a collar was equivalent to being a pedophile, when, as Philip Jenkins notes in his study on the topic, the safest place in the world for a child is in a Catholic church.)

Anyway, I'm letting Mr. Blosser do the heavy lifting with his two excellent round-ups. You do have to read what the judge in Fr. Murphy's case has to say. Cardinal Levada (Ratzinger's successor at CDF) is on the case (w/ Fr. Z's comments).

I like this reflection on how to handle all this turmoil during the Triduum (it is odd, not to say mystical, that these painful stories always break right as we enter Holy Week). Catholics Come Home has launched a project to EncouragePriests.

Anything else going on?

• China: the defection of a bishop to the Patriotic Church has caused a painful situation. I can't quite follow it, but Cardinal Zen writes to 30Giorni about it.
• Israel: What would Passover and Holy Week be without religious people not getting along? (Come, Lord Jesus!)
• Lebanon: Christians & Muslims celebrate Annunciation together
• Mexico: drug cartels kill 10 youth missionaries
• Pakistan: Christians determined to go to Church in spite of threats; Christian couple brutalized for refusing to convert
• U.S. : New hero.Catholic actor fired for refusing to do a nude scene; how Obamacare will affect Catholic hospitals. Exorcist to be re-released w/ spirituality scenes restored.

Signing off until Easter, although I did pre-load a picture for tomorrow. Have a blessed and Holy Triduum.