The Socialist Catholic

Torture - CCC 2297, 2298 & the Bush Administration's "Interrogation" Policies

2009-08-24T07:30:00.005-05:00

By STEVEN R. HURST and DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer Steven R. Hurst And Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 24, 8:24 am ET

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has moved more forcefully than ever to abandon Bush administration interrogation policies, approving creation of a special White House unit for questioning terrorism suspects, as Attorney General Eric Holder weigh a Justice Department recommendation to reopen and pursue prisoner abuse cases.

A senior administration official told The Associated Press Monday that Obama has approved establishment of the new unit, to be known as the High-Value Detainee National Security Council The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the program has not yet been officially announced.
The new group and new directives to rely soley on the Army Field Manual when interrogating prisoners is an attempt by the administration to separate itself from allegation that the Bush administration tortured some prisoners. While the practice of waterboarding — simulated drowning — has been banned, the field manual directives would also end the practice of subjecting prisoners to loud music for long periods and sleep deprivation.

The administration is announcing the new interrogation unit on the same day that the CIA inspector generalwas to unveil a report on Bush administration handling of suspects. Details were expected to show that highly questionable tactics were used.
The Justice report is said to reveal how interrogators conducted mock executions and threatened at least one man with a gun and a power drill. Threatening a prisoner with death violates U.S. anti-torture laws.

The full article can be accessed via Yahoo!News here.

UPDATE!

WASHINGTON – CIA interrogators threatened to kill the children of one detainee at the height of the Bush administration's war on terror and implied that another's mother would be sexually assaulted, newly declassified documents revealed Monday as the government launched a criminal investigation into the spy agency's "unauthorized, improvised, inhumane" practices.
At the same time, the Obama administration announced a new policy for future interrogations — under White House supervision.

With the release of the five-year-old CIA documents, the Justice Department began a probe into the spy agency's tactics, under the direction of a veteran prosecutor who has been looking into other aspects of the interrogations.

The documents released by the CIA's inspector general said interrogators went too far — even beyond what was authorized under Justice Department legal memos that have since been withdrawn and discredited.

"Ten years from now we're going to be sorry we're doing this (but) it has to be done," one unidentified CIA officer said in the report, predicting that interrogators would someday have to appear in court to answer for such tactics.

Monday's documents represent the largest single release of information about the Bush administration's once-secret system of capturing terrorism suspects and interrogating them in overseas prisons.

The updated full article can be accessed through Yahoo!News here. Please note that the full article gives details over how the prisioners were abused and spiritually, mentally, and emotionally tortured; as such I will warn you that it is both graphic and disturbing.

Bribing God

2009-08-20T07:16:00.005-05:00

First Reading: Judges 11:29-39
Psalm: Psalm 40:5, 7-10
Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14

Today's first reading is often used by evangelical atheists, absolutist "skeptics" and others out to attack Christians and people of faith. This scripture selection appears on many anti-religion and anti-Christian sites as an example of what kind of evil persons of faith commit. (If you haven't encountered this before, I'd recommend Googling and visiting some of these sites)

Does this scripture advocate human sacrifice? Does the inclusion of this incident in the Cannon mean that the Jewish people who wrote and edited this religious text condone fathers killing their children? Do modern Christians and Jews deserve to be attacked for having this pericope in their sacred book? Let's look at the scripture and see what it really says about these matters.

29 The spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and through Mizpah-Gilead as well, and from there he went on to the Ammonites.
30 Jephthah made a vow to the LORD. "If you deliver the Ammonites into my power," he said,

31 "whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites shall belong to the LORD. I shall offer him up as a holocaust."

32 Jephthah then went on to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his power,

33 so that he inflicted a severe defeat on them, from Aroer to the approach of Minnith (twenty cities in all) and as far as Abel-keramin. Thus were the Ammonites brought into subjection by the Israelites.

34 When Jephthah returned to his house in Mizpah, it was his daughter who came forth, playing the tambourines and dancing. She was an only child: he had neither son nor daughter besides her.

35 When he saw her, he rent his garments and said, "Alas, daughter, you have struck me down and brought calamity upon me. For I have made a vow to the LORD and I cannot retract."

36 "Father," she replied, "you have made a vow to the LORD. Do with me as you have vowed, because the LORD has wrought vengeance for you on your enemies the Ammonites."

37 Then she said to her father, "Let me have this favor. Spare me for two months, that I may go off down the mountains to mourn my virginity with my companions."

38 "Go," he replied, and sent her away for two months. So she departed with her companions and mourned her virginity on the mountains.

39 At the end of the two months she returned to her father, who did to her as he had vowed. She had not been intimate with man. It then became a custom in Israel

Jephthah tried to bribe God into doing what he wanted - notice the bargaining that occurs in verses 30 and 31. Jephthah says that if God does what he wants, then he will do something for God. This fails on several levels:

Jephthah thinks that he is so "tight" with God that he knows what God wants from him and the entire people of Gilead. All Jephthah really knew is what God wanted him to do, but he extrapolated from there.
Jephthah thinks that he can influence God and his actions. Jephthah thinks that he can have God act in a quid pro quo manner. By assuming this, Jephthah does not respect the power and majesty of God.
Jephthah ignores that God does not want human sacrifice by offering to make a burnt offering out of the first person that comes out of his house to greet him. Jephthah likely had many sheep, lambs, goats, and cattle that he could have chosen from to provide an appropriate thanksgiving sacrifice to God. Even a simple offering of bread, grain, or olive oil - if given with the right heart - would have sufficed.
Instead of admitting to God that he had made a rash promise before God, Jephthah decided to go through with it and kill his daughter. It was more important to keep a promise made hastily at the beginning of a battle than to honor the vows that he made to God when he presented his daughter after her birth for blessing.
He made the mistake of putting his own public image and ego above his love for the other members of his family. Jephthah made an idol out of his public image and status as a warrior-chief.
Admitting that he had rashly made a vow which could not be kept (because it involved the murder of another human being) would have caused Jephthah to be socially ostracized, and removed from power as warrior-chief. Fear of ostracism would not constitute a defense, however. Jephthah had previously been exiled to the land of Tob because he was the child of Gilead by a mistress. Because he had lived in exile, he should have known that his band of men could exist outside the social and political sphere of Gilead. Ostracism pales in comparison to the murder of an only child "in the name of god".

Jephthah should have put his daughter's life before his own efforts to save face; his narcissistic inability to admit and own his own error ended up costing his daughter her life.

These factors make it quite evident that Jephthah - like so many other individuals we meet in the biblical texts - is not held up as an example to be followed, but instead as an admonition of what not to do. He is an example of what will happen if we do not live in harmony with the will of G-d.

Like many of the other people within the book of Judges, the fact that Jephthah is a leader shows how far Israel had fallen in the short period following the Exodus. The people have the Laws of Moses, but they do not follow them. They are so ignorant of what God asks for and requires of his chosen, that Jephthah thinks that God somehow delights in murder. Jephthah thinks that offering up a member of his own household is the best sort of sacrifice possible - not something that angers and saddens God.

The main point of the story of Jephthah is that if we do not know God, and we do not know ourselves, our triumphs will become grotesque tragedies. Only if we know the true nature of God can we learn what He desires and do it.

Health Care - the USCCB statement

2009-08-18T07:31:00.001-05:00

Yesterday the Bishop William F. Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Chairman of the Committee for Domestic Justice and Human Development of the USCCB sent this letter to all members of Congress (it is in .pdf format). It was also CCed to the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Contained in the letter are several points that any health care reform should contain. These points are based upon Catholic teachings as well as basic social justice concerns.

"Health care reform needs to reflect basic ethical principles. We offer these as a guide:
a truly universal health policy with respect for human life and dignity;
access for all with a special concern for the poor and inclusion of legal immigrants;
pursuing the common good and preserving pluralism including freedom of conscience and variety of options; and
restraining costs and applying them equitably across the spectrum of payers"

A summary of the letter, as given in the USCCB press release, states:

09-161 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

U.S. Bishops Urge Congress to Observe Respect for Life, Access for All in Health Care Legislation

WASHINGTON—“Genuine health care reform that protects the life and dignity of all is a moral imperative and a vital national obligation,” said Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., as he outlined the policy priorities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on the issue of health care in a July 17 letter to Congress. The letter supported efforts to pass health care reform, but warned against inclusion of abortion.

Writing on behalf of the bishops as chairman of their Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, Bishop Murphy said the bishops have advocated comprehensive health care reform for decades and recommended four criteria for fair and just health care reform: respect for human life and dignity, access for all, pluralism and equitable costs.

“Two of these criteria need special attention as Congress moves forward with health care reform,” Bishop Murphy said.

On respecting life and dignity, he said, “No health care reform plan should compel us or others to pay for the destruction of human life, whether through government funding or mandatory coverage of abortion. Any such action would be morally wrong.”

After citing protections from public funding of abortion in U.S. law, Bishop Murphy added, “Health care reform cannot be a vehicle for abandoning this consensus which respects freedom of conscience and honors our best American traditions. Any legislation should reflect longstanding and widely supported current policies on abortion funding, mandates and conscience protections because they represent sound morality, wise policy and political reality.”

On the issue of access for all, Bishop Murphy said, “All people need and should have access to comprehensive, quality health care that they can afford, and it should not depend on their stage of life, where or whether they or their parents work, how much they earn, where they live, or where they were born. The Bishops’ Conference believes health care reform should be truly universal and it should be genuinely affordable.”

He went on to cite that, even after the implementation of health care reform, some families, including many immigrants, will not be covered and urged Congress to adequately fund clinics and hospitals that serve as a safety net for these people.

The full text of Bishop Murphy’s letter can be found online at: www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/2009-07-17-murphy-letter-congress.pdf
---

GET INFORMED: There is a lot of talk (or should I say yelling?) these days about how "socialized medicine" is evil, that it promotes abortion and euthanasia, and other falsehoods. If you would like to know what health care is like in countries with public or socialized health systems, please visit the following sites:

country profiles - which contains facts, figures, and trends on countries’ health systems
at a glance summaries - summaries of all European countries, available in English and Russian, by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
Snapshots of Health Systems - a 59pg. report that covers 16 European countries, detailing their health systems and reforms that are currently being made in them to reduce costs while providing superior care

GET INVOLVED:

PHONE: Call your members of Congress (use the Capitol Switchboard at (202)-224-3121) Keep on trying if it is busy! Make sure your voice is heard!

WRITE: to contact your Representative, Senators, or President Obama, click on the links, fill in the infos and tell them health care reform should:

Include health care coverage for all people from conception until natural death, and continue the federal ban on funding for abortions;
Include access for all with a special concern for the poor and immigrants;
Pursue the common good and preserve pluralism, including freedom of conscience; and
Restrain costs and apply costs equitably among payers.

MEET: Set up a face-to-face meeting with your members of Congress. Take the USCCB letter and talk with them about their plans to reform health care - if they have differences from what the Church teaches, make note of them. Share your experience on Catholic message boards, in your blog, or even in a tweet. Tell others in your Parish who are interested in social justice.

PRAY! Pray the Rosary, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, or your favorite novena with the intention of health care reform as outlined in the Bishops' Letter. St. Hedwig is a good person to go to with requests about social justice, welfare, and health care!

Monday in the 18th Wk of Ordinary Time

2009-08-03T05:04:00.020-05:00

First Reading: Numbers 11:4-15
Psalm: Psalm 81:12-17
Gospel: Matthew 14:13-21

Boundaries

Both of today's scripture readings deal with boundaries... a subject that you hear a lot about on shows like Dr. Phil and Oprah. What are boundaries? How do they apply to today's scripture selections?

In the book Boundaries, Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend define boundaries as parameters that "show us what we are responsible for". (32) Boundaries also "help us to define what is not on our property and what we are not responsible for".(ibid) Boundaries therefore protect us from others encroaching on our personal, emotional, and spiritual space. Simply put, boundaries are what define us. They are similar to the wall of a cell, which let in nutritious things that are good for the cell and exude bad things like waste products. Like a cell wall, our boundaries need to be permeable so that we can take in new experiences and love as well as let go of past hurts and injuries.

Where do we see boundaries in today's readings? Let us first start with the first reading, which is from Numbers 11.

4
The children of Israel lamented, "Would that we had meat for food!
5
We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.
6
But now we are famished; we see nothing before us but this manna."
7
Manna was like coriander seed and had the appearance of bdellium.
8
When they had gone about and gathered it up, the people would grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar, then cook it in a pot and make it into loaves, which tasted like cakes made with oil.
9
At night, when the dew fell upon the camp, the manna also fell.
10
When Moses heard the people, family after family, crying at the entrance of their tents, so that the LORD became very angry, he was grieved.
11
"Why do you treat your servant so badly?" Moses asked the LORD. "Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people?
12
Was it I who conceived all this people? or was it I who gave them birth, that you tell me to carry them at my bosom, like a foster father carrying an infant, to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers?
13
Where can I get meat to give to all this people? For they are crying to me, 'Give us meat for our food.'
14
I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me.
15
If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face this distress."

The first "boundary violation" that we see in this scripture is that Moses took the crying out of the people personally. He acted as if the Israelites were complaining about him. He did not accept that the Israelites were crying out to G-d, and that was between them and Him (meaning G-d, not Moses). It was not Moses' problem. Moses committed a boundary violation against both the children of Israel and G-d. He wanted to be responsible for the problems of both Israel and G-d.

Moses cries to G-d that the people "are crying out to me,'Give us meat for our food'". This is a lie however, as the people were not crying out to Moses - they did not hold him accountable for the current state of affairs - instead they were crying out to the god of Moses, whom they blamed for the current state of affairs. Moses made the mistake of thinking that if the people talked smack about G-d, they were talking smack about him. We can be guilty of the same thing today whenever someone attacks our personal faith or belief in general. Rather than the person's anger being directed where it should be (the person or institution that caused them spiritual pain) they are dumping it on us - and we take it personally. A boundary violation on the part of someone else does not mean that we can violate their boundaries in return.

Instead of taking the crying and complaining personally, Moses should have confronted the people about their behavior. He should have told the people that the manna and their hunger were both temporary things. If they would follow G-d, appreciate what they had been given (after all they at least had food and water in the desert), and keep their eyes on the Promised Land, soon their journey through the desert wilderness would be over. The land that they were traveling toward would be much better than what they were leaving behind.

Instead of doing this, Moses took all the burden of the crying, complaining, and kvetching onto himself. Moses was trying to take on the burdens of G-d! He even blamed G-d (v.11) for giving him a burden too big and heavy for him - as if G-d is to blame for our own inability to maintain healthy boundaries! As one would expect, Moses cries out " I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me". This is absolutely true - as we can only be responsible for ourselves. We cannot be responsible for others, for when we do, we violate their boundaries, steal their autonomy, and disrespect their personhood.

Taking on the responsibilities and burdens of others will only frustrate us and wear us out.

In contrast to Moses' lack of setting and respecting of boundaries, Jesus shows us how to care for others while caring for ourselves. As usual, Jesus shows us the way to live.

12
His disciples came and took away the corpse [of John the Baptist] and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.
13
When Jesus heard of it, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns.

After Jesus heard about the death of John the Baptist, he went off by himself for some personal me time in a quiet, isolated place. He withdrew from his disciples and followers in order to provide appropriate self-care.

Notice that Jesus took responsibility for his own mental and emotional well-being by taking some time off during a period of great distress. He trusted that the disciples could take care of things while he went to care for himself. If we don't take time for ourselves, like Moses, we won't be able to help or support others when the need our help.

When Jesus came back to his disciples and followers, he was ready to care for them:

14
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick.
15
When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves."
16
[Jesus] said to them, "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves."
17
But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here."
18
Then he said, "Bring them here to me,"
19
and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.
20
They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over --twelve wicker baskets full.

Because he took care of himself, Jesus was able to provide care for a large crowd with many basketfulls left over.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time & The Holy Ghost comic

2009-08-02T05:46:00.014-05:00

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's MP3 of the Readings and Homily from Our Lady of the Angels Church.

Readings and Commentary for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time,from the New St. Joseph Sunday Missal

Theme: The Lord gave them Bread from Heaven
...We should develop a feeling for symbolism since it plays such an important role in religion. Water, bread, wine, salt, yeast, fire, light, rain, dew, thunder, lightning - time and again these are used to impart a message and when properly understood they do so more efficiently than theoretical concepts can do. Symbolism contains an intuitive (suggestive) power that appeals not only to the intellect but to the total person, heart and mind.
Today's readings utilize the power of symbolism of bread to bring out the message that god wants to feed us, to take care of us on all levels of human existence. "The Lord gave them bread from heaven" (the Responsorial Psalm)

First Reading: Ex 16:2-4, 12-15 [God gives Mannah from Heaven]
Commentary on first reading from the Sunday Missal:

God's word in this tradition brings out to us that graowing toward maturity in Christ is a lifetime process. As long as we are a pilgrim Church, wandering through the desert of life, we must work hard to attain such maturity. But God is with us, providing us manna (bread) and quail (meat), in other words, giving us whatever in his infinite wisdom and love he knows we need.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 78 [Heavenly Bread]
R: The Lord gave them bread from Heaven

Second Reading: Eph 4:17, 20-24 [A New Self]
Commentary on second reading from the Sunday Missal:

"This is not how you learned Christ." Note that Paul does not say "how you learned about Christ". No, you learned Christ whom you accepted as a person in faith, with all the values that he stands for.
Christianity is not primarily a doctrine to go by; it is a person-to-person relationship with our Lord. Partaking in the Eucharist, the bread of life, should help us to "learn Christ" ever more intimately.

Alleluia: Mt 4:4b
Alleluia, alleluia.
One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Jn 6:24-35 [Christ is the True Bread of Heaven]
Commentary on the Gospel reading from the Sunday Missal:

Jesus states that he is the mannah, the bread of life, from heaven that human beings need on their way through life. Feeding the crowd was a sign that those who had eaten did not understand. Patiently, our Lord explains: "Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life... I am the bread of life."
We should be aware if this whenever we encounter our Lord in the signs of bread and wine.
The Prayer after Communion states " Lord, you give us the stregnth of new life by the gift of the eucharist. Protect us with your love and prepare us for eternal redemption".

St. Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

2009-08-01T05:32:00.003-05:00

Readings for the day:

First Reading: Leviticus 25:1, 8-17
Psalm: Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 7-8
Gospel: Matthew 14:1-12

St. Alphonsus Liguori founded the Redeptorist Order in 1732. He also dedicated his entire adult life to creating a compassionate and theologically sound response to the Jansenist heresy. His small order of brothers and priests became especially important after the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773. Up until their suppression the Jesuits had been the main defenders of Catholic theology against the assults of the Jansenists during the counter-Reformation; their opposition to the Calvinistic qualities of Jansenism was one of the reasons that they were forced to disband.

Barack Obama Elected President!

2008-11-04T22:01:00.001-06:00

Si se puede!

Yes we can!

Election 2008 Coverage

2008-11-04T16:57:00.000-06:00

Today is pregnancy and infant loss day

2008-10-15T11:34:00.003-05:00

October 15th is the National Day for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance.

As a Chaplain who has worked in the women's and children's services unit in a hospital, I feel that more people need to be aware of how many families have been affected by pre-natal, peri-natal, or infant death.

Too often the issue of infant mortality and health is something that is considered "solved" in the US - many people consider it only an issue in developing nations. Our society - which doesn't handle death in a constructive and healthy manner - ignores the fact of mis-carriage and infant death because it is a difficult subject.

Every day couples have to deal with this heartbreaking reality, and often they receive neither support nor understanding from those around them; some individuals have been judged harshly and even criticized at a time when support and acceptance is most important.

If you are currently experiencing or have experienced the death of a child - whether in utero, after birth, or during childhood - please get help:

Talk to either a therapist or chaplain experienced in grief work and the death of children.
Take time to heal - understand that it will take time, as with all losses.
Take time to remember - remember your child on key dates, talk to them, let them know that you love them and care for them, know that one day you will be able to have a full relationship with them within the afterlife.

Finally, understand that it not because of anything that you or your child did - unfortunately we are immortal souls in mortal, physical bodies. Eventually those bodies become unable to support life, and that is when death occurs; while it seems normal to expect that babies should be exempt from this dictum, it is not. It is not a failure of God, yourself, medicine, the doctors, the nurses, or the child him/herself. It is not the "fault" of anyone, it simply is.

If anyone reading this would like more information, resources, or counseling, please contact me and I will help you.

Pax!

The Truth About Iraq

2008-10-13T15:58:00.001-05:00

Christians moving towards Obama

2008-10-08T18:04:00.011-05:00

In a significant political shift, monthly churchgoers are backing Democrat Barack Obama in this year’s presidential race, according to a new poll by the nonpartisan group Faith in Public Life.

The results of this poll show that Mr. Obama's move to reach out to faith-based voters has been very successful; the survey shows that over 60 percent of Americans who attend religious services once or twice a month support Obama/Biden. This demographic shift is significant because Democrat John Kerry lost that group in 2004, and it may have cost him the election.

It is also important to look at how Christians of different generations are viewing the election and the candidates:

On a broader range of issues from gay marriage to the role of government at home and abroad, the survey suggests that the contours of the culture war are fading.

“Younger Americans, including younger Americans of faith, are not the culture war generation,” said Robert Jones, who conducted the survey. “Young Catholics, Protestants and evangelicals are really bridging the divides that have really entrenched the older generation.”

For example, white evangelicals between 18 and 35 strongly oppose abortion rights but are less conservative than older evangelicals about same-sex marriage and more supportive of active government providing services at home and engaged in diplomacy abroad. Young first-time voters are heavily supporting Mr. Obama. Among those voting for the first time, 71 percent favor the Illinois senator.

Younger Catholics more strongly support Mr. Obama, abortion rights and more active government than their elders. While older Catholics are split between the presidential candidates, those 18-35 favor Mr. Obama by 15 points (55 percent to 40 percent).

Support for same-sex marriage is significant among young religious Americans. Among young white mainline Protestants and Catholics, close to half (48 percent and 44 percent respectively) support same-sex marriage. And Young white evangelicals are twice as likely as older evangelicals to say that gay couples should be allowed to marry.

Latinos are driving the young Catholic vote. Four in 10 young Catholics are Latinos. Mr. Lindsay cites Texas as an example where many young Hispanics are mobilizing for the election, motivated in part by Catholic social teaching to encourage a bigger role for government in solving society’s ills.

When analysing the above information, it is important to also consider the following:

Shortly before he became Pope Benedict, in his letter to Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger explained what a voter’s attitude should be toward abortion.

“There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty,” he said, “but not, however, with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”

But he added that a Catholic must sometimes vote for a candidate who is not perfect: “When a Catholic does not share a candidate’s stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia, but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered remote material cooperation, which can be permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons.”

While Obama is not 100% in line with all of Catholic Tradition and Teaching -- and why should he be, since he is a member of a United Churches of Christ congregation? -- many Catholic youth and young adults feel that in the words of Benedict XVI, they have good reason to vote for Obama/Biden on Election Day because they support key beliefs about the life and dignity of the human person.

Pax!

The survey of 2,000 adults, conducted Aug. 28-Sept. 19, has an error margin of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, meaning results can vary by that much in either direction. For results among young adults, the error margin is 3 percentage points.

Torture in the News and the Catechism

2008-10-07T13:41:00.001-05:00

Our Lady Help of the Abandoned Ones

Today, in an article written by AP News reporter Pamela Hess, a U.S. military officer warned Pentagon officials over six years ago that an American detainee was being slowly, cruely, driven insane by months of punishing isolation and sensory deprivation in a U.S. military jail. An American, in an American jail, on American soil was being subjected to grueling mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual torture... and this was brought to the US Government's attention in 2002!

The treatment of prisoners at detention facilities located off of US soil - like those in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Eastern Europe; Afghanistan; and Iraq have long been the subject of human rights abuses and protests by religious and secular groups who complain about them. Members of the Bush Administration, as well as others in the US Government stated that these jails only existed off of US soil and did not contain any US citizens or residents. The new documents reveal how at least two American citizens and a legal U.S. resident were treated in military jails inside the United States. The documents also reveal how the Bush administration ordered the men to be held in military jails as "enemy combatants" for years of interrogations without criminal charges, which would not have been allowed if they were held in regular civilian jails. This is clear evidence that the Bush administration violated the most basic of human rights, and is involved in the abuse and detainment of US Citizens and Residents.

The documents given to the AP also show that the men were interrogated by the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency. They were repeatedly denied access to attorneys, mail from home, and contact with anyone other than guards and their interrogators. This sort of isolation would not be tolerated in even the most secure of civilian prisions. It is clearly cruel and inhumane to treat prisoners in this manner.

In addition to an environment of social and religious isolation, the prisoners were also subjected to a physical environment of abuse and neglect. All of the men were deprived of natural light for months. For years they have been forbidden hobbies or amusements - not even books for personal reading, a soccer ball, or a dictionary. Nothing. This is detrimental to the emotional and mental well-being of the men, as it begins to erode their sense of self. As one of the officials who was responsible for prisoner Yaser Esam Hamdi in 2002 stated, "I will continue to do what I can to help this individual maintain his sanity, but in my opinion we're working with borrowed time. I would like to have some form of an incentive program in place to reward him for his continued good behavior, but more so, to keep him from whacking out on me."

That's right - one of the jailers is worried that the prisioners they are responsible for are in danger of "whacking out" due to the pressures of the environment and the abuse they are recieving.

As Catholics, Chrisitans, and members of the human world community, we MUST speak out against this. The Catechism CLEARLY teaches against both TORTURE and the INHUMANE and CRUEL treatment of prisioners - both civil and military. The following is from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Respect for bodily integrity

2297 Kidnapping and hostage taking bring on a reign of terror; by means of threats they subject their victims to intolerable pressures. They are morally wrong. Terrorism threatens, wounds, and kills indiscriminately; it is gravely against justice and charity. Torture which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity. Except when performedfor strictly therapeutic medical reasons,directly intended amputations, mutilations, and sterilizations performed on innocent persons are against the moral law.

2298 In times past, cruel practices were commonly used by legitimate governments to maintain law and order, often without protest from the Pastors of the Church, who themselves adopted in their own tribunals the prescriptions of Roman law concerning torture. Regrettable as these facts are, the Church always taught the duty of clemency and mercy. She forbade clerics to shed blood. In recent times it has become evident that these cruel practices were neither necessary for public order, nor in conformity with the legitimate rights of the human person. On the contrary, these practices led to ones even more degrading. It is necessary to work for their abolition. We must pray for the victims and their tormentors.

These paragraphs make it clear that by using torture, we have become like those we sought to oppose in the "War against Terror". We have become just like those who George W. Bush and members of his administration labeled "The Axis of Evil".

The CCC also talks at great legnths about what Peace is, how it is to be achieved, and even what it looks like in modern society. Peace is what we should be working for - not a way to vent our anger and frustration onto others. Let us learn how to be peacemakers, instead of abusers.

The CCC has the following to say in regards to being Peaceful and Peacemakers:

Peace

2302 By recalling the commandment, "You shall not kill,"94 our Lord asked for peace of heart and denounced murderous anger and hatred as immoral.

Anger is a desire for revenge. "To desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit," but it is praiseworthy to impose restitution "to correct vices and maintain justice." If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin. The Lord says, "Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment."

2303 Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven."

2304 Respect for and development of human life require peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is "the tranquillity of order." Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity.

2305 Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic "Prince of Peace." By the blood of his Cross, "in his own person he killed the hostility," he reconciled men with God and made his Church the sacrament of the unity of the human race and of its union with God. "He is our peace." He has declared: "Blessed are the peacemakers."

These paragraphs from the Catechism link to Monday's Gospel reading of Luke 10:25-37:

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.

Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”

He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Now it is clear that American citizens and residents are being treated as political prisioners by the Bush Administration. As Jonathan Hafetz of the ACLU's National Security Project in New York said, "These documents are the first clear confirmation of what we've suspected all along, that the brig was run as a prison beyond the law. There was an effort to create a Gitmo inside the United States." This is important because the Guantanamo jail was created by the Bush administration specifically to avoid allowing detainees any constitutional rights. The Bush Administration's lawyers believe and act as if the Constitution does not apply outside the US... which shows that the Bush Administration has no respect for international human rights as contained in the UNDHR.

This November, remember these three men - and the others that we do not know about - when you vote for President and local government. Please vote for the candidate who is most likely to be a force of change and end these abuses - Barack Obama. And please remember that John McCain blasted both Obama and the Supreme Court earlier this year when both moved to give prisioners more rights and protections.

Our Lady of the Rosary

2008-10-07T12:41:00.007-05:00

Today is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary; this most holy feast of our lady was established as the Feast of the Holy Rosary in 1573 by Pope Gregory XIII
.

The earliest traditions of the Holy Rosary dates back to the year 1208, when Saint Dominic had a Marian Apparition of Our Lady of the Rosary, who revealed the chaplet of either fifty or one hundred and fifty Hail Marys to him.

To help with devotion to this particular method of prayer and meditations, I have made a slideshow so that you can say the Rosary while online.

The Joyful Mysteries (Mondays and Saturdays; also Sundays in Advent)

The Luminous Mysteries (Thursday; Sundays in Ordinary Time from Epiphany to Palm Sunday)

The Sorrowful Mysteries (Tuesday and Friday;the Sundays of Lent)

The Glorious Mysteries (Wednesday; Sundays of Ordinary Time from Easter to Advent)

The Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary

2008-10-07T06:38:00.000-05:00

Pray for those lost in Hurricane Ike

2008-10-04T14:37:00.003-05:00

For most people in the US, Hurricane Ike is old news... it is something that "just happened" and in many ways is "still happening" for those on the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts. I urge you to pray for those who are continuing the long, slow, and emotionally draining process of rebuilding their lives after the storm.

I also urge you to pray for those who are still missing, as well as for those who died in the storm; pray for their families and friends also, as they are facing the duty of rebuilding their lives while mounrning the loss of a loved one.

If you can afford it, please donate to either the American Red Cross or Catholic Charities to help people rebuild their lives.

By MONICA RHOR,
Associated Press Writer –
1 hr 18 mins ago
GALVESTON, Texas –

The final hours brought the awful realization to victims of Hurricane Ike that they had waited too long. This storm wasn't like the others, the ones that left nothing worse than a harrowing tale to tell.

George Helmond, a hardy Galveston salt, watched the water rise and told a buddy: I was born on this island and I'll die on this island.

Gail Ettenger, a free spirit who adopted the Bolivar Peninsula as her home 15 years ago, told a friend in a last phone call: I really messed up this time.

Within hours, the old salt and the free spirit were gone as the powerful Category 2 hurricane wracked the Texas Gulf Coast on Sept. 13, flattening houses, obliterating entire towns and claiming at least 33 lives.

The dead — as young as 4, as old as 79 — included lifelong Galvestonians firmly rooted on the island and transplants drawn by the quiet of coastal living.

Seven people drowned in a storm surge that moved in earlier and with more ferocity than expected. Nine others died in the grimy, sweaty aftermath, when lack of power and medicine exacted its toll. Eleven people were poisoned by carbon monoxide or killed in fires from the generators they used in their own attempts to survive.

Hundreds of people remain missing three weeks after Ike's assault on Texas. Local and city officials are no longer keeping their own count of missing residents, and the estimate varies wildly from one agency to another.

According to the nonprofit Laura Recovery Center, about 300 people are missing. Of those, about 200 from Galveston. However, the number "goes up and down by the minute" as people call in to remove or add names, cautioned executive director Bob Walcutt.

Some vanished during the evacuation of towns in the storm's path. Many were last heard in desperate, last-ditch calls for help.

Immediately after the hurricane, Galveston officials conducted door-to-door searches for survivors and possible victims. But the city is no longer taking an active role in the search, city spokeswoman Alicia Cahill said.

Instead, search teams of sheriff's deputies, volunteer firefighters and special K-9 search and recovery units have been using airboats and all-terrain vehicles to sift through debris fields, tangled and fetid marshlands, and the rubble left behind by Ike.

Bodies could have been tossed anywhere in the marshes, where thickets of trees are littered with the contents of houses. Refrigerators, office chairs, and television sets are scattered everywhere __ in the mud, in bushes, on treetops.

"We are definitely looking and are going to do anything we can to find them, but there may not be any answers to be given," said Galveston County emergency management spokesman Colin Rizzo. "There are definitely going to be people from Hurricane Ike that are never found."

_____

Gail Ettenger stumbled upon her house in Gilchrist by accident. But once she saw the site on the bay side of Bolivar Peninsula, she knew she would never leave.

Ettenger, a native of New Jersey, instilled the house with her own energy and style. The 58-year-old's garden bloomed with vibrant birds-of-paradise.

And Reba, an 11-year-old Great Dane hobbled by arthritis, was her baby. Ettenger loved to treat the dog to dinners of chicken and roast beef, recalled JoAnne Burks, Ettenger's neighbor and close friend.

Ettenger, a chemist at ExxonMobil, didn't evacuate, reasoning that her house had weathered Hurricane Rita in 2005 without a problem. She also did not want to leave Reba, who could no longer climb into Ettenger's Jeep.

Burks and her husband pleaded with Ettenger to change her mind. But she insisted.

Hours before Ike made landfall, Ettenger knew she had made the wrong choice. She called Burks and described the water pushing up under her feet, the propane tanks and other household items drifting by her windows, and wondered which would float better: her Jeep or her house.

Her voice was shaky with fear, Burks said.

Burks spent the next 10 days searching for her friend, calling local, county and state officials without success. She tried the American Red Cross, FEMA, even private investigators.

"I didn't want her to wind up like the victims of Katrina, who were never found or identified," Burks said.

Ettenger's body was found Sept. 23, tossed on a debris field in a Chambers County marsh about 10 miles from her house.

Amid the muck and remnants of homes, Burks found a pink leather collar. The name Reba was spelled out in rhinestones.

_____

At 72, George Helmond had ridden out many storms and thought he could take on Ike, too, neighbor Don Hanson said. "A lot of old Galvestonians are like that."

Helmond had been one of the first residents of Sydnor Lane, which overlooks a bayou on one side and a golf course on the other. A retired electrician, Helmond was a die-hard fisherman, a dove hunter and straight-shooter intensely proud of his Galveston roots.

Around 10 a.m., Helmond called Hanson, who had already left, to say the water had already slipped over the road and toward his house. The street — the only way out of the neighborhood — was already impassable.

At 9:30 p.m., Helmond and Hanson talked for the last time. By then, the water had pummeled through Helmond's garage, crushing the doors and submerging his Cadillac. Hanson begged his friend to grab a life vest at his house or to seek shelter there.

But at 2:30 a.m., for reasons no one knows, Helmond got in his pickup truck and drove off at the height of Ike's fury.

Neighbors found Helmond's body the next day inside the truck, which had slammed into the white golf course fence. The windshield was shattered.

Helmond's home suffered little damage. The water had reached above the first-floor garage, but not inside the house.

"If he had stayed home and hadn't gone out, he'd be OK, but he panicked," said Hanson, 66. "Life goes on, but I will miss a good friend and I will think about him."

_____

Even as Ike bore down on Texas, Jim Devine refused to leave his cream-colored house within sight of the bay in San Leon. Devine had moved to the fishing town after retiring and loved the tranquil way of life there, neighbors said.

The 76-year-old Devine drowned when Ike sent water barreling through his house, picking him off the second-story porch and dropping him a block away. Days later, Devine's empty home still bore the scars of the storm — shattered windows, twisted wood, and his boat, the Seabar, jammed under the front steps.

His daughter left a warning and a memorial in orange spray paint: "Jim Devine. No Trespassing."

_____

Port Bolivar held special meaning for 79-year-old Marian Violet Arrambide. She met her husband there during World War II. Many years later, he built the beach house where they could retire.

Arrambide, a retired nurse suffering the onset of dementia, lived with her daughter, Magdalena Strickland, and nephew, Shane Williams, in that beach house before Ike struck.

All three have been missing since the morning of Sept. 12, just as Ike began to come ashore.

"My sister said 'I'm walking out the door in a hurry. Everything's taken care of, I'll see you in a few hours.' That was it," said son Raul Arrambide, describing a 6:15 a.m. phone call.

Since then, Arrambide has had little luck getting help or information. Instead, Arrambide said, he's been passed from one agency to another.

"They send you back and forth until you're worn out," said Arrambide, his voice showing the strain of the last weeks.

After five days with no word and no answers, Arrambide borrowed a boat to search the area himself, but sheriff's deputies turned people away. He finally found a local contractor who is helping search for missing residents. That man found his relatives' vehicles, which had been washed off the road into a tree grove.

"I want to keep the hope that they are still alive, but by not hearing from any of them, that hope is getting smaller and smaller," he said. "They helped people all their lives. They did not deserve to go this way."

Reflections on Lessons Learned From Financial Crisis

2008-10-01T20:39:00.005-05:00

Today, an Archbishop addressed the faithful on issues of the economic crisis, ethics, and caring.
The news of the Economic Rescue Bill in the US House of Representatives has sent shock waves across the globe... worldwide people are asking themselves, "Are we facing another Great Depression?"

Churches in New York's financial district have had greater numbers of worshippers in attendance over the past week as economic storm clouds gather on the horizon. People are asking themselves what The Church has to say about the current economic climate; the following statement by The Most Reverend Diarmuid Martin sums Church up teaching on the economy, as it pertains to the current crisis:

The economy has a social function. Economic growth, no matter how important, is never simply an end in itself. It should lead to social equity, to an equitable growth of society and to enhancing the people and the human infrastructures which strengthen society. Economic growth always brings with it social responsibility. Uncontrolled growth has rarely produced sustainability.

If I were asked for my description of uncontrolled economic growth I would turn to the biblical insight of the Tower of Babel. The biblical story talks about people who felt that they now had the ability to build a tower which would link heaven and earth. When people think that they can have uncontrolled growth, very often what happens is what happened at Babel -- the tower collapses and the people become divided.

Let me not be drawn into “I told you so”; far from it. The market is vital, but the market has an essentially social function. It can only function in an ethical and judicial framework where the vulnerable are protected and the natural arrogance of the powerful is curbed. We see today how gross and unregulated individual misbehaviour in market activity affects the stability of companies but also of countries and then of the men and women who make up the society in which we live. Irresponsible traders do not just gamble with the future of a big multinational firm -- they eventually affect the lives of people all over the world.

Government and business need to work together. Government and business have the same interest in many ways when one is talking about economic growth. This means that there can be a legitimate corporate interest in shaping aspects of the politico-economic environment. But this interest can also easily become damaging if there are insufficient regulatory mechanisms in place. Unregulated market speculation or unfair interference in competition law damage the economy. But powerful governments can also fall prey to corruption. We need both market and government.

We need the market and we need a market which has the freedom to operate as it should. We also need government. Smaller government may be more desirable than some of the past experiences of massive and unproductive government interference in society and the market. But lack of effective government is equally disastrous, just as inefficient government is. Government is essential to guarantee the ethical and juridical framework within which the market can flourish and within which ethical market behaviour will be fostered.

Some would say -- and to a certain extent rightly -- that running a good business means ensuring gain for the shareholders, making a profit through providing a quality product or service and of course that this also involves giving employment. The market involves risk, they would say, and no one should complain when the person who takes risk makes a healthy profit. That has traditionally been the way in which the businessperson looked at good business. And anyone who challenged that viewpoint would be reminded -- also rightly -- that putting yourself out of business through increasing your costs helps no one.

On the other hand there are many, myself included, whose conscience is left uneasy by a discomfort about huge profit and would stress that business is embedded in the reality of society and shares some responsibility for society. In some way, part of that profit should be directed not just to the shareholders but also to wider concerns of the society in which the business is embedded and from which it benefits. Investment will be attracted to places where a creative and innovative workforce is available. But can business simply take that for granted and the plea for a form of small government which is then less able to provide ongoing investment in the type of education and research which made strong growth possible in the first place? Everyone must assume responsibility.

We also need law and we need law enforcement and we need that today within an architecture of business which has become international and reaches beyond national boundaries, both as regards its activities and its effects. It is interesting to note that organized crime was one of the first groups to recognize the advantages of globalisation. I don’t just mean drug or weapons dealers, but also new forms of irresponsible speculation and dishonest behaviour within the business community. An ethical framework is not just pretty words on a piece of paper or in a mission statement but is something that must be integral to the way people work and their role in society. The new globalised nature of the economy requires new structures on an international level to combat irresponsible behaviour.

What can and should a religious leader say in the current situation. Should he or she just leave it to “the experts” and return to the sacristy? Can religious values influence economic and social stability?

The job of the Christian churches is to preach the message of the Gospel. This is a message that is addressed to every individual and that has social implications for the people who follow the message of Jesus Christ. The basic message of the Christian churches is about the love of God, and there are two characteristics of the love of God that I believe are particularly interesting in the modern world. One is gratuity.

God loves people without any conditions. Take the story of the Prodigal Son, who comes back home to find that his father is there, waiting for him. The son has his little negotiating speech ready, but he doesn’t have to use it. The son is just welcomed -- that is gratuity, going beyond what is expected or necessary. The other is super-abundance. The love of God surprises you -- it is so generous that it turns you head over heels.

These two values stand in opposition to a market-driven consumer society in which everything is precisely measured out. If the label says 16 ounces, you won’t get an ounce more. If we truly lived in an environment like this, where you got only what you paid for and nothing beyond, none of us would be where we are today. The world needs these values that create generosity; that make you care about another person even if that person is weak; that motivate you to make a huge investment in a person.

The market is an extraordinarily effective instrument. But there are basic human needs which do not belong in the marketplace, which cannot be bought or sold like commodities. For those we need something else. The economy will attain its role if it is complemented by effective government, but also by a society with a heart and with generosity. This last will be needed more and more in hard times.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin is the archbishop of Dublin, Ireland. That's right. Ireland. The problem isn't just confined to the United States - although depending on where and how you recieve your news, it mightn't seem that way.

Pray a Rosary for the economic leaders of the world, so that they may take the proper action at the proper times, and protect the common good of all peoples on Earth. Pray for Peace and Social Justice for all people.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, The Little Flower

2008-10-01T12:10:00.004-05:00

I sense in myself the vocation
of Warrior, Priest, Apostle,
Doctor, and Martyr.

In the heart of the Church,
my Mother,
I will be love.

—St. Thérèse

Today is the feast day of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, who is also known as "The Little Flower". She is the patron of Missions, even though she herself never left her cloister. How can this be? Thérèse Martin entered the convent at the age of 15 and died in 1897 at the age of 24, yet she is one of the most popular Saints of our day.

From Saint of the Day:

All her life St. Thérèse suffered from illness. As a young girl she underwent a three-month malady characterized by violent crises, extended delirium and prolonged fainting spells. Afterwards she was ever frail and yet she worked hard in the laundry and refectory of the convent. Psychologically, she endured prolonged periods of darkness when the light of faith seemed all but extinguished. The last year of her life she slowly wasted away from tuberculosis. And yet shortly before her death on September 30 she murmured, "I would not suffer less."

Truly she was a valiant woman who did not whimper about her illnesses and anxieties. Here was a person who saw the power of love, that divine alchemy which can change everything, including weakness and illness, into service and redemptive power for others. Is it any wonder that she is patroness of the missions? Who else but those who embrace suffering with their love really convert the world?

Some people today may mock St. Thérèse and her simple love for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; the simplicity and unobtrusiveness of her life is the very opposite of what most people in the modern world aspire towards. In the simple day to day duties of life inside a convent, Thérèse found a simple way to Jesus - which is outlined in her Spiritual Autobiography, "Story of a Soul". St. Thérèse described her "little way" as "being a lift (elevator) to the arms of Jesus". It is a simple, practical way to live a holy life in the modern world.

Novena prayer to St. Thérèse:

"St. Thérèse, the Little Flower, please pick me a rose from the heavenly garden and send it to me with a message of love. Ask God to grant me the favor I thee implore [state intention here], and tell him I will love him each day more and more."

Tradition holds that if you say the novena prayer, followed by five Our Fathers, five Hail Marys, and five Glory Be's each day for five days, you will receive a shower of roses on the fifth day.

A Special Note:
Later this month, Thérèse's parents will be beatified. Slated to take place at their daughter's shrine at Lisieux, the 19 October rites for Louis and Zelie Guerin Martin will coincide with Mission Sunday -- the same day when, in 1997, Therese became the second woman declared a Doctor of the Church.

New Years (yes, it's plural)

2008-09-30T08:53:00.004-05:00

Today marks not only the Jewish High Holiday of Rosh HaShanah, but also the Greek New Year.

In the Jewish faith, Rosh HaShanah is a time of rebirth, blessing, and renewal for all of creation. To watch a short video about the spiritual meaning of Rosh HaShanah, click here. Not only is Rosh HaShanah seen as a New Year of the religious calendar - much like the First Sunday of Advent is within the Christian faith - it is also considered the birthday of all of nature! I am reminded of our own period of Advent and the upcoming (Oct. 4th!) Feast-day of Saint Francis of Assisi when I meditate on the meaning of Rosh HaShanah in my life.

The Greek New Year is also a time of rebirth and renewal. In the ancient Greek Faith (Hellenism), today is the day when Persephone leaves her mother, Demeter, and returns to the side of her husband, Hades, who lives in the Underworld. It was seen as a time of harvest, remebering, and getting ready for the coming winter. It was a time for families to gather together - not just the human members, but the goats, sheep, chickens, and other livestock as well. Once again, the Greek holiday - much like the Jewish one - can be found in this liturgical season's feast-days.

Resources to help you celebrate the birthday of Nature:

Dare to Dream - a short movie about the meaning and blessings of Rosh HaShanah.

US Conference of Catholic Bishops - Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence, and the Common Good.

Catholic Education Resource Center's page on current environmental issues.

A beautiful view of God's Creation

2008-09-29T08:21:00.001-05:00

This breath-taking photo is a single exposure image that embraces the near, the far, and the in between. Astrophotographer Wally Pacholka took this photo inside one of the caves of the Canyonlands National Park in Utah, USA. In this single image, we see mother Earth, represented by the beautiful mesas in the foreground, another planet, the milky way, and deep space. In the upper left of the image we see another member of our Solar System, Jupiter. It may have been a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in about 7 BCE (according to our way of reckoning time) that comprised the "star" of the second chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew.

The ring of stones in the foreground is known as a false kiva, as it is merely a ring of stones on the surface without a subterranean room. It is uncertain when it was made, nor who made it. It is a class II archaeological site, which means that it is not on maps, but park personel will let you know its location if you ask in person.

Hockey Fans for Obama/Biden

2008-09-28T19:35:00.002-05:00

US Conference of Catholic Bishops Statement on the Economy

2008-09-26T16:37:00.000-05:00

September 26, 2008

Dear Secretary Paulson, Majority Leader Reid, Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Boehner:

The economic crisis facing our nation is both terribly disturbing and enormously complicated. I write to offer the prayers of the U.S. Catholic Bishops and express the concerns of our Conference as you face difficult choices on how to limit the damage and move forward with prudence and justice. As pastors and teachers, my brother bishops and I do not bring technical expertise to these complicated matters. However, we believe our faith and moral principles can help guide the search for just and effective responses to the economic turmoil threatening our people.

* Human and Moral Dimensions: This crisis involves far more than just economic or technical matters, but has enormous human impact and clear ethical dimensions which should be at the center of debate and decisions on how to move forward. Families are losing their homes. Retirement savings are at risk. People are losing jobs and benefits. Economic arrangements, structures and remedies should have as a fundamental purpose safeguarding human life and dignity. The scandalous search for excessive economic rewards even to the point of dangerous speculation that exacerbates the pain and losses of the more vulnerable are egregious examples of an economic ethic that places economic gain above all other values. This ignores the impact of economic decisions on the lives of real people as well as the ethical dimension of the choices we make and the moral responsibility we have for their effect on people.

* Responsibility and Accountability: Clearly, effective measures are required which address and alter the behaviors, practices and misjudgments that led to this crisis. Sadly, greed, speculation, exploitation of vulnerable people and dishonest practices helped to bring about this serious situation. Many blameless and vulnerable people have been and will be harmed. Those who directly contributed to this crisis or profited from it should not be rewarded or escape accountability for the harm they have done. Any response of government ought to seek greater responsibility, accountability and transparency in both economic and public life.

* Advantages and Limitations of the Market: Pope John Paul II pointed out that the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs, but there are many human needs which find no place on the market. It is a strict duty of justice and truth not to allow fundamental human needs to remain unsatisfied. Both public and private institutions have failed in responding to fundamental human needs. A new sense of responsibility on the part of all should include a renewal of instruments of monitoring and correction within economic institutions and the financial industry as well as effective public regulation and protection to the extent this may be clearly necessary.

* Solidarity and the Common Good: The principle of solidarity reminds us that we are in this together and warns us that concern for narrow interests alone can make things worse. The principle of solidarity commits us to the pursuit of the common good, not the search for partisan gain or economic advantage. Protection of the vulnerable - workers, business owners, homeowners, renters, and stockholders - must be included in the commitment to protect economic institutions. As Church leaders we ask that you give proper priority to the poor and the most vulnerable.

* Subsidiarity: Subsidiarity places a responsibility on the private actors and institutions to accept their own obligations. If they do not do so, then the larger entities, including the government, will have to step in to do what private institutions will have failed to do.

This is a challenging time for our nation. Everyone who carries responsibility should exercise it according to their respective roles and with a great sensitivity to reforming practices and setting forth new guidelines that will serve all people, all institutions of the economy and the common good of the people as a nation. This includes not just the leaders of the economic life of our country. It means the political leaders and all those whose own expertise can contribute to a resolution of the current situation.

Our Catholic tradition calls for a society of work, enterprise and participation - which is not directed against the market, but demands that the market be appropriately controlled by the forces of society and by the state to assure that the basic needs of the whole society are satisfied (Centesimus Annus). These words of John Paul II should be adopted as a standard for all those who carry this responsibility for our nation, the world and the common good of all.

Sincerely,

Most Reverend William F. Murphy
Bishop of Rockville Centre
Chairman, Committee on Domestic Justice and
Human Development

Saints Cosmas and Damian

2008-09-26T11:24:00.000-05:00

Lectio of the Day
Readings of the Day

Ss. Cosmas and Damian

Little is known of the lives of this set of twins from Aleppo, Syria. They are honoured throughout the Mediterranean, where they are called the anargyroi, or the money-less ones. They acquired this appellation because they were doctors who healed people without pay. It is known that they healed people in Syria and Arabia, and taught many the Catholico-Orthodox faith (as they taught what has become in the region the modern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches).

Palin "blessed to be free of witchcraft"?!?

2008-09-25T21:09:00.006-05:00

Today, Yahoo!News reported that Sarah Palin was once "blessed to be free of witchcraft" at one of the churches which she attends. This may sound quaint or possibly reminiscent of another era, but it is both disturbing and bigoted. I feel that this news story needs to recieve more coverage in the press, as it points to the fact that having an Administration with Palin in it would be far worse than the Bush Administration has been. Numerous people have made fun of Bush's mis-interpretations and mis-applications of Christianity over the past eight years; Palin it seems would provide even more egregious examples of "bad Christianity".

The You Tube Video of the blessing is problematic because the Bishop Thomas Muthee (note he is NOT a Bishop in the Catholic or Othodox faith, but in the Word of Faith Church!) and the church of which he is a part focuses their doctrine and actions "on ridding the world of demons — and witches". This is disturbing as many conserative "christian" sects view Catholicism and Orthodoxy as being "pagan" or "witchcraft". Consider how members of faiths such as Heathenism, Wicca, Asatru, Hellenismos, Hindusm and others which practise polytheism or pantheism would be viewed by Palin.

I am so upset by this, that I can't really say much more than this is just one more reason why I do not see how a Christian who beleives in Social Justice, Human Rights and Good Stewardship as taught by Christ himself in the Gospels can vote for McCain/Palin.

I will comment more later.

St. Padre Pio

2008-09-23T10:10:00.005-05:00

"The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain" (a saying of Padre Pio)

Lectio of the Day
Daily Mass Readings Online

Saint of the Day:
Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

EWTN has a special site set up to celebrate the life of Padre Pio, which is loaded with facts, quotes, personal history, and photos of the saint.

Today's First Reading, from the Wisdom book of Proverbs is most interesting and relevant considering the economic news :

Like a stream is the king's heart in the hand of the Lord;
wherever it pleases him, he directs it.

All the ways of a man may be right in his own eyes,
but it is the Lord who proves hearts.

To do what is right and just
is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrafice.

Haughty eyes and a proud heart --
the tillage of the wicked is sin.

The plans of the diligent are sure of profit,
but all rash haste leads certainly to poverty.

Whoever makes a fortune by a lying tongue
is chasing a bubble over deadly snares.

The soul of the wicked one desires evil;
his neighbour finds no pity in his eyes.

When the arrogant man is punished, the simple are the wiser;
when the wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge.

THe just man appraises the house of the wicked;
there is one who brings down the wicked to ruin.

He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor
will himself also call out and not be heard.

My Personal Commentary:

I look at the news headlines and consider how ignorance of these proverbs on the part of our leaders has led to the crisis we now face. It isn't that people have not been speaking out for months that our economy was headed for trouble - it was that the Bush Administration and those responsible for the health of the economy in our country didn't heed their warnings. The Bush Administration and the Republicans worked hard to deregulate the mortgage and investment banking industries so that they could profit, and now the retribution for their risky behaviour and predatory lending to the economically disadvantaged is at hand.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his recent visit to Lourdes warned against placing too much reliance upon money and material goods. The Pope focused on the ills of modern materialism, taking time to specifically condemn unbridled passions for power, possessions, and money. It seems as if the past eight years in this country have been ruled by these very passions; despite all their talk about being "good Christians", the Republicans have made idols out of money and power.

Let us consider the following as we meditate on today's proverbs:

"Have not money, the thirst for possessions, for power - and even knowledge - diverted man from his true destiny?" Pope Benedict XVI

The Autumn Equinox

2008-09-22T10:30:00.004-05:00

Today is the Autumn Equinox, which is a harvest festival in many faiths. The beginning of Autumn is viewed as a time for introspection and balancing. This festival is sometimes called Second Harvest or Harvest Home because it is the time of the harvesting and preparation of the second round of crops. It is a time to store up goods and foods for the coming winter months. The full moon following the equinox is known as the "harvest moon" because before electric lights, the full moon's bright light helped workers in the fields to gather crops.

The Fall Equinox is a holiday that Catholics share with Pagans, Wiccans, and anyone wanting to live in harmony with nature and the seasons. An inclusive way to celebrate the holiday with friends and family of other faiths is to decorate your home and altar with brilliant autumn leaves, ears of corn, stalks of wheat, pine cones, and gourds as an offering of thanks for the harvest, and have a dinner party that incorporates fresh fruit, vegetables, and meats harvested locally by farmers in your area.

Over the next few weeks, make sure that you take time for reflection on your words, thoughts, and actions, as this can help you to analyze your own personal harvest... this is also a good period of the year to take time to bring projects to a close (especially those that are taking many moons and seasons to complete) so that you can accept newness in your life. It is also a time for you to look at areas of your life to see if there is chaff which needs to be winnowed out - fall is a good time to get rid of the old to make way for the new which is to come in future seasons.

Finally, be sure to enjoy the changing of the seasons - appreciate the cooler air, say thanks that soon the hurricane season will be over, praise God that we have a harvest and food, and most of rejoice and praise the beauty of the leaves. If possible, go to a state or national park near you and just spend some time among the trees and nature and thank God for life and the seasons. If you do visit a park, make sure to make a donation to the park rangers and staff in thanks for their work and to support the preservation of nature!

To see where fall foliage is changing in your area, or to see pictures on your computer, click here.

Opus Comic for 19-08-07

2007-08-20T23:23:00.000-05:00

Religions for Peace

2007-08-05T22:47:00.000-05:00

Here is a good article about how religion can be a force for peace and unity in the world:

Waging peace in the name of religion
By Charles C. Haynes
08.05.07

Iraq, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Palestine. In a world torn by sectarian violence, religion is often seen as the problem, not the solution.

But an international coalition called Religions for Peace is working hard to change that perception by mobilizing religious leaders to fight back against those who use religion to promote violence.

Inter-religious dialogue is often dismissed (or overlooked) as a well-meaning but benign endeavor — certainly not risky or life-threatening. Hayder Karim knows better.

Karim, a 31-year-old Iraqi surgeon, was forced to leave his country this summer because he had the audacity to bring together Shiite and Sunni religious leaders in the cause of peace. As Iraq coordinator for Religions for Peace, he is no longer safe in Baghdad.

“Often I have expected death,” Karim wrote recently in The Washington Post, "my neighbors', my loved ones', my own."

In the wake of the U.S. invasion four years ago, Karim was treating patients round-the-clock (literally) on a worn-out sofa in a makeshift clinic located in a Sunni mosque. Son of a Shiite father and a Sunni mother, Karim was appalled and angered by those who exploited long-simmering sectarian differences to cause death and destruction.

Karim’s decision to work for peace by bringing together Iraqi religious leaders (the first such gathering took place in Amman, Jordan, in 2003) may seem naive. After all, the religious divisions plaguing the Middle East — among Muslims and between Muslims, Christians and Jews — are grounded in centuries of conflict and distrust.

But insurgent groups, sectarian militias and al-Qaida forces all understand the power of reconciliation across religious lines. That’s why Karim and anyone else who supports Religions for Peace in Iraq courts death.

Of course, the big question is: Does inter-religious cooperation make a difference? While it’s hard to measure “success” in the Sisyphean struggle against violent conflict, Religions for Peace has worked for more than 40 years to create grassroots alliances in local communities throughout the world. Today, the group supports multi-religious partnerships in some 55 nations.

This makes sense. Religious communities are the most prevalent and influential civil institutions in the world. With so much media attention focused on “religion the problem,” it’s easy to forget the daily efforts of countless religious groups to combat poverty, disease and war itself.

The idea is to focus religious groups on their shared struggle against the common enemies of humankind — and harness that energy for common action. Religions for Peace claims this works, citing successful inter-religious coalitions fighting such problems as violence against children, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and poverty — as well as helping to mediate conflicts in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere.

Idealistic? Yes, but Hayder Karim will tell you that idealism is precisely what is most needed in places like Iraq. Until religious groups in Iraq and other war-torn nations find the will to work together to end the cycle of violence, no religious community — big or small — will be truly free.

It may be a long shot, but Religions for Peace deserves our support. Why not take a small fraction of what we spend waging war and invest it in winning the peace?

Charles C. Haynes is senior scholar at the:
First Amendment Center, 1101 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22209.
Web: www.firstamendmentcenter.org.
E-mail: chaynes@freedomforum.org.

For more information, please visit the homepage for the World Conference of Religions for Peace.

Well, duh...

2007-07-31T16:30:00.000-05:00

Lately it seems that in modern discourse there are only two possibilities when it comes to belief: atheism and Christianism. I am sooo sick of this mischaracterisation of faith and belief...

Anyway, the NYTimes (yeh, yeh, I know, *NYTs*) had an interesting article today that declares that even atheists can have belief in an afterlife. If this is new or shocking in any way, I must've missed something. I guess tomorrow they will have an article on how you can be an atheist and have faith - in Buddhism! ~~~shock!~~~ (I guess having a chest cold has made me even more sarcastic and silly than usual) Here is the article from the Times:

If God is dead, does that mean we cannot survive our own deaths? Recent best-selling books against religion agree that immortality is a myth we ought to outgrow. But there are a few thinkers with unimpeachable scientific credentials who have been waving their arms and shouting: not so fast. Even without God, they say, we have reason to hope for — or possibly fear — an afterlife.

Curiously, the doctrine of immortality is more a pagan legacy than a religious one. The notion that each of us is essentially an immortal soul goes back to Plato. Whereas the body is a compound thing that eventually falls apart, Plato argued, the soul is simple and therefore imperishable. Contrast this view with that of the Bible. In the Old Testament there is little mention of an afterlife; the rewards and punishments invoked by Moses were to take place in this world, not the next one. Only near the beginning of the Christian era did one Jewish sect, the Pharisees, take the afterlife seriously, in the form of the resurrection of the body. The idea that “the dead shall be raised” was then brought into Christianity by St. Paul.

The Judeo-Christian version of immortality doesn’t work very well without God: who but a divine agent could miraculously reconstitute each of us after our death as a “spiritual body”? Plato’s version has no such need; since our platonic souls are simple and thus enduring, we are immortal by nature.

The Platonic picture may be pleasing, but it is hard to square with what we have learned from neuroscience. Everything that gives each of us our personal identities — consciousness, character, memories and so on — seems rooted in the electrochemical processes of our brains. As Bertrand Russell observed, “A virtuous person may be rendered vicious by encephalitis lethargica, and . . . a clever child can be turned into an idiot by a lack of iodine.” The dependence is most cruelly apparent in cases of Alzheimer’s disease, where the dissolution of the self proceeds in direct proportion to the physical deterioration of the brain.

Where does this leave those who, while secular in outlook, still pine after immortality? A little more than a century ago, the American philosopher William James proposed an interesting way of keeping open the door to an afterlife. We know that the mind depends on the physical brain, James said. But that doesn’t mean that our brain processes actually produce our mental life, as opposed to merely transmitting it. Perhaps, he conjectured, our brains allow our minds to filter through to this world from some transcendent “mother sea” of consciousness. Had James given his lecture a few decades later, he might have used the radio as a metaphor. When a radio is damaged, the music becomes distorted. When it is smashed, the music stops altogether. All the while, however, the signal is still out there, uncorrupted.

James’s idea of immortality may sound far-fetched, but for him and other scientifically minded thinkers of his time it had one great virtue. It explained the existence of what were thought to be psychic phenomena: ghostly apparitions, communications from the dead at séances and seeming cases of reincarnation. Alas, little of this supposed evidence for an afterlife has held up under the scrutiny of rigorous investigation.

In the 1970s, a new hope for survivalists emerged: the near-death experience. In the best-selling book “Life After Life,” a doctor and parapsychologist named Raymond A. Moody Jr. presented a number of cases in which patients who had flat-lined and then been revived told of entering a long tunnel and emerging into a dazzling pool of light, where they communed with departed loved ones. In 1988, the atheist philosopher A. J. Ayer had such an adventure when he choked on a piece of smoked salmon and his heart stopped for a few minutes. Soon afterward, Ayer reported that his near-death experience, in which he saw a red light that seemed to govern the universe, “slightly weakened my conviction that my genuine death . . . will be the end of me.” But he later dismissed it as a hallucination caused by a temporary lack of oxygen in his brain.

The most interesting possibilities for an afterlife proposed in recent years are based on hard science with a dash of speculation. In his 1994 book, “The Physics of Immortality,” Frank J. Tipler, a specialist in relativity theory at Tulane University, showed how future beings might, in their drive for total knowledge, “resurrect” us in the form of computer simulations. (If this seems implausible to you, think how close we are right now to “resurrecting” extinct species through knowledge of their genomes.) John Leslie, a Canadian who ranks as one of the world’s leading philosophers of cosmology, draws on quantum physics in his painstakingly argued new book, “Immortality Defended.” Each of us, Leslie submits, is immortal because our life patterns are but an aspect of an “existentially unified” cosmos that will persist after our death. Both Tipler and Leslie are, in different ways, heirs to the view of William James. The mind or “soul,” as they see it, consists of information, not matter. And one of the deepest principles of quantum theory, called “unitarity,” forbids the disappearance of information. (Stephen Hawking used to think you could destroy your information by heaving yourself into a black hole, but a few years ago he changed his mind.)

If death is not extinction, what might it be like? That’s a question the Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick, who died five years ago, enjoyed pondering. One of the more rococo possibilities he considered was that the dying person’s organized energy might bubble into a new universe created in that person’s image. Although his reflections were inconclusive, Nozick hit on a seductive maxim: first, imagine what form of immortality would be best; then live your life right now as though it were true. And, who knows, it may be true. “Life is a great surprise,” Vladimir Nabokov once observed. “I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.”

The original article can be found here.

The Economic Costs of the Bush Administration

2007-07-18T13:54:00.000-05:00

Thomas F. Schaller, of the UMBC Political Science Department, wrote an article for the Baltimore Sun today that outlines what impact the Bush Administration is having on the American economy.

Despite decades of conservative emphasis on economic opportunity, Americans who work for a living aren't buying the "ownership society" and other presidential platitudes. Working people value "economic security" over "economic opportunity," 69 percent to 26 percent - and by security they mean health care reform and retirement security.

"Only 1 percent of Americans said the American dream means obtaining wealth," noted Ms. Lake, in direct rebuke to the familiar but false claims from conservatives that people think getting rich is the core of our national identity.

The American dream used to be simply stated: Work hard and you get ahead. But Americans are working harder than ever: Productivity is up, vacation time down. The fruits of their labor, though hardly spoiled, just don't taste as sweet.

Read the entire story here.

Schaller is the author of Whistling Past Dixie: how the Democrats can win without the South.

Vital Distinctions in Transplantation

2007-07-18T13:03:00.000-05:00

Hospital Chaplains not only provide spiritual and emotional support to patients, staff and familes of all faiths - and none - but they also help patients, families and staff members to come to ethical decisions relating to the difficult life transitions of birth, life, death, organ donation, withdrawl of life support, and the decision to seek treatment (or not).

An article which explains the current Catholic ethical outlook follows.

Vital Distinctions in Transplantation
by Paul A. Byrne, MD

Organ and tissue donation can be divided into four general categories:

(1) A living person can give nonvital organs and tissues to another person without causing death, severe injury, or disabling mutilation to self. For example, one might give one of two kidneys, or bone marrow.

(2) Tissues including corneas, heart valves, bones, skin, ligaments and tendons can be taken after death—that is, after the heart is no longer beating and there is destruction of the vital systems, including circulatory, respiratory, and central nervous systems.

(3) Vital organs, such as the heart, liver, lungs, pancreas, and intestine, are harvested from persons declared "brain dead." Such persons are beating-heart "donors." Calling such living persons "Heart Beating Cadaver Donors" misleads the public and even members of the medical community. Can a cadaver have a beating heart and circulation?

(4) Organs are taken from "non-heart-beating donors (NHBD)." A NHBD is a living person with normal vital signs and a brain that is functioning. These persons are first taken off all life support, including the ventilator. When the pulse is no longer palpated, the organs are taken. After the organs are taken, the patient is dead. The public are continually misled. To stop a ventilator to get organs for another person is clearly an evil action.

The first two categories encompass organ and tissue donation that may constitute charitable acts, even commendable gifts of life. The latter, however, constitute a form of epivalothanasia ("imposed death") in which the "gift of life" is the immoral taking of the life of the "donor" through the excision of a vital organ or organs.

Note that organs are taken after a declaration of "brain death"—not after factual, true death, which is the end of natural life. The person from whom a beating heart is taken could well have been a person not very different from you and me. Most likely, he or she was able to walk and talk, but then something happened—possibly, brain injury from an accident, a stroke, or decreased oxygen to the brain. Now he or she is in an intensive care unit (ICU) and a ventilator is assisting breathing.

The ventilator—commonly mislabeled a "respirator"—is a machine that moves air into the lungs. It can be effective only if there are functioning respiratory and circulatory systems to add oxygen to the blood and carry the blood to and from the tissues of the body. The heart is beating; there is normal blood pressure. Intact internal organs and systems maintain the unity of the body. When a light is shined into the eye, the pupil response is not seen. When ice water is put into the ear, there is no response. No cough or gag would be observed. Other brain stem reflexes might be evaluated. A neurologist makes a declaration of "brain death" using one of many different sets of criteria. The neurologist or hospital can use any of these divergent sets. Thus, a person could be declared "brain dead" if one set is used, but not be declared "brain dead" if another set was employed.

Every set of criteria for "brain death" includes an apnea test. ("Apnea" means the absence of breathing.) This test, which has no benefit for the comatose patient and, in fact, aggravates the patient's condition, is done without the knowledge or consent of family members. The apnea test, during which the ventilator is turned off for up to 10 minutes, can induce "brain death" or cardiac arrest. Its sole purpose is to determine the patient's inability to breathe on his own in order to declare "brain death."

When patients declared "brain dead" are treated, instead of having their beating hearts cut out, they can continue to live. Pregnant women have given birth months after having been declared "brain dead." Thus, the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association wrote,

Now we are told a brain dead patient can nurture a child in the womb, which permits live birth several weeks "post-mortem." Perhaps this is the straw that breaks the conceptual camel's back. Death of the brain seems not to serve as a boundary; it is a tragic ultimately fatal loss, but not death itself.

In the case of transplantation, after "brain death" has been declared, the ventilator and other life support are continued until it is convenient to harvest the "donor's" organs. Everyone present can witness the intact circulatory system via the beeping of the heart monitor and the visual display of the signals from the beating heart, as well as the recordable blood pressure. The intact respiratory system is manifest through the normal color of the skin. The exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide can be verified by determining blood gasses (pH, pCO2, and pO2). The intact interdependence of circulatory and respiratory systems can be readily observed by applying pressure to the skin, resulting in blanching, which will be followed by return of normal color within a few seconds after removal of the pressure. Through more sophisticated means, an intact endocrine system (pituitary, thyroid, and adrenal hormone production) can be demonstrated. An intact functioning liver can be documented through laboratory tests.

Clearly, there are many signs present in "brain dead" patients, including vital signs that physicians and laymen are accustomed to associate with being alive. After the beating heart is excised, however, findings more commonly identified with the fact of death—that is, no circulation or breathing—can be observed. Deprived of organs needed to sustain life, the "donor" will be cold, blue, pale, and stiff—in short, dead.

Are we not being asked to accept two medically distinguishable situations as legally equivalent? To say that a patient with a beating heart, normal pulse, normal blood pressure, normal color, and normal temperature is "dead" is a lie. The force of law will not make it true.

Great care must be taken not to declare a person dead even one moment before death has occurred. Death should be declared only after, not before, the fact. To declare death prematurely is to commit a fundamental injustice. A person is living even a moment before death and must be treated as such. Every time a heart is taken for transplant, it is a beating heart that is stopped by the surgeon just prior to excision. It takes about an hour of surgery to remove the heart. During this time, it is common for the so-called "donor" to be given a paralyzing drug, but not an anesthetic. It has been reported that when the incision is made to take the organs, there is an increase in heart rate and blood pressure. Could this occur if the person were dead? The answer is no. A doctor or other medical personnel must never impose death on a patient.

It is easy to move one's emotions with images of organ recipients resuming "normal lives" after they have received a heart, but what about the life of the donor? Was the donor in fact dead? If there is any doubt about the fact of death, may one rightfully carry out an action that will impose death on another? Who sheds tears for the victims of utilitarian euthanasia?

It is wrong to impose death on an innocent human being and to participate in its imposition. Likewise, we should not encourage others to participate in organ transplantation unless all doubts about death have been removed. Everyone getting a driver's license ought to be informed of the truth about "brain death" and organ transplantation before answering the question "Do you want to be an organ donor?" After all, your life may well depend on your answer.
Dr. Paul A. Byrne, a Neonatologist, is Director of Neonatology and Director of Pediatrics at St. Charles Mercy Hospital in Oregon, Ohio, is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics University of Toledo College of Medicine, Board Certified in Pediatrics and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, Member of Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.

Dr. Byrne is past-President of the Catholic Medical Association (USA), formerly Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, NE, and at St. Louis University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO. He is author and producer of the film "Continuum of Life" and author of the books "Life, Life Support and Death," "Beyond Brain Death," and "Brain Death Is Not Death."

Dr. Byrne has presented testimony on "life issues" to eight state legislatures beginning in 1967. He opposed Dr. Kevorkian on the television program "Cross-Fire." He has been interviewed on Good Morning America, public television in Japan and participated in the British Broadcasting Corporation Documentary "Are the Donors Really Dead?" Dr. Byrne has authored articles against euthanasia, abortion, and "brain death" in medical journals, law literature and lay press.

Paul was married to Shirley for forty-eight years until she entered her eternal reward on Christmas 2005. They are the proud parents of twelve children and grandparents of twenty-six grandchildren.

http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=7656

This item 7656 digitally provided courtesy of CatholicCulture.org

For more on the definition of death in Catholic ethics:

Evangelium Vitae:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae_en.html
(at Vatican official site)
http://www.ewtn.com/library/encyc/jp2evang.htm
(from EWTN Library)
Wikipedia Page on Evangelium Vitae
Wikipedia article on Culture of Life

The Culture of Life Top Ten

The law that George W. Bush signed as Govenor of Texas that allows for the euthanasia of patients by Doctors acting under "economic considerations". That is right: GEORGE BUSH ADVOCATES EUTHANASIA AND THE CULTURE OF DEATH.

(For those of you who think that this doesn't affect you because you live outside of Texas, you have "good insurance", or are wealthy, understand this: so far the cases that have been affected by this law have involved patients who were unable to continue/maintain medical treatment due to monetary concerns. The problem is that there have been cases where patients who were conscious and responsive were taken off of ventilators by doctors and medical staff against patient and family wishes and forced to die. This is a violation of medical ethics and the right of individuals to have equal standing in society despite financial value. Currently this only affects those who "are beyond medical hope" or "unable to bear the financial responsibility of treatment"... but these laws are making it possible for Doctors and Insurance Companies to play God.

Another disturbing consequence of George Bush's law is that physicians and hospitals are given immune from civil or legal actions being taken against them under the law as long as it can be shown that they acted "reasonably". Do you trust lawyers, politicans and medical staff to act more justly and rightly than the Lord?

1 Samuel 2:6

"The LORD brings death and makes alive;
he brings down to the grave and raises up.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, July 16, 2007

2007-07-16T11:35:00.000-05:00

Collect:

Father, may the prayers of the Virgin Mary protect us and help us to reach Christ her Son who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.

First Reading: Exodus 1:8-14, 22
Psalm: Psalm 124:1-8
Gospel: Matthew 10:34 -- 11:1

What Revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our own experience. For when man looks into his own heart he finds that he is drawn towards what is wrong and sunk in many evils which cannot come from his good Creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his source, man has also upset the relationship which should link him to his last end, and at the same time he has broken the right order that should reign within himself as well as between himself and other men and all creatures.

-- Gaudium et spes

A picture of Mt. Carmel from BiblePlaces.com

History and Promises of Our Lady of Mount Carmel:

Sacred Scripture celebrates the beauty of Mount Carmel, where the prophet Elijah defended the purity of Israel's faith in the living God.

In the early centuries of the Current Era, Christian hermits withdrew to the area around the base of (and even on the slopes of) Mount Carmel to live out a simple life dedicated to Christ. Eventually, so many pius individuals had congregated in the area, that it was no longer able for them to live in seclusion as hermits; in the mid-12th Century, the Carmelite Order, which is devoted to living the contemplative life in community with other Brothers or Nuns in seclusion from the world was established. The community is under the patronage of Mary, the holy Theotokos.

Our Blessed Mother appeared to St. Simon Stock (the General of the Holy Order of Carmelites) on July 16, 1251. During the apparition, Mary gave him the Brown Scapular and said: "This will be for you and for all Carmelites the privilege, that he who dies in this will not suffer eternal fire."

The feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was instituted by the Carmelites on July 16th, 1332, and extended to the whole Church by Benedict XIII in 1726.

Even today, the devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel has spread through the entire world and all cultural, social and economic groups. Most modern "practising" Catholics are familiar with the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (the Brown Scapular) even if it is just because they remember recievning one at their First Communion.

The conditions of the Sabbatine Privilege are:
1. Wear the Brown Scapular faithfully and constantly.
2. Observe chastitiy according to your particular state in life.
3. Recite the Little Office of the BVM daily, or with the permission of your Priest, you may substitute another pious work - such as saying the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, praying the Psalms, Study of Holy Scriptures and writings,and Lectio Divina - for this daily Spiritual Exercise.

*Any* Priest who can hear Confessions (and that is most Priests!) can enroll you in the Society of the Brown Scapular, as well as help you develop the particular devotional that you will use for the third condition.

From CatholicCulture.org:
Things to Do:

* If you have not already done so, have a priest enroll you in the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or popularly known as the "Brown Scapular" and begin wearing it as a sign of your love for Our Lady. A priest enrolls people in the Brown Scapular only once. The Scapular can then be replaced afterwards by other scapulars or the scapular medal, which has on one side the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and on the other, the image of Mary. The medal needs to be blessed by a priest, but the cloth scapulars do not require a blessing (separate from enrollment).

* Wearing the Brown Scapular is not an automatic guarantee of salvation. It is not a magical charm, nor is it an excuse to live in a way contrary to the teachings of the Church. It is a sacramental which has been approved by the Church for over seven centuries and is a sign of one's decision to follow Jesus as did Mary, the perfect model of all the disciples of Christ. In addition to being an introduction into the Family of Carmel, the Brown Scapular is an expression of our belief that we will meet God in eternal life, aided by the intercession and prayer of Mary. While sacramentals prepare us to receive grace if we are in the right disposition, the Church emphasizes that only sacraments can confer sanctifying grace. (see Catechism, no. 1670.)

* Periodically the Church reexamines devotions and popular piety to make sure they are "not at odds with the centrality of the Sacred Liturgy. Rather, in promoting the faith of the people, who regard popular piety as a natural religious expression, they predispose the people for the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries" (John Paul II, September 2001). In accordance with Vatican II, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued the Directory on Popular Piety in 2001 to reevaluate different devotions and popular piety. Though the Brown Scapular is included in the document as a wonderful pious practice, the Directory does not mention the Sabbatine Privilege, which continues to present historical difficulties. The Directory rather emphasizes the beautiful sign of the "filial relationship" with the faithful and Mary:

The history of Marian piety also includes "devotion" to various scapulars, the most common of which is devotion to the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Its use is truly universal and, undoubtedly, it is one of those pious practices which the Council described as "recommended by the Magisterium throughout the centuries."

The Scapular of Mount Carmel is a reduced form of the religious habit of the Order of the Friars of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel. Its use is very diffuse and often independent of the life and spirituality of the Carmelite family.

The Scapular is an external sign of the filial relationship established between the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother and Queen of Mount Carmel, and the faithful who entrust themselves totally to her protection, who have recourse to her maternal intercession, who are mindful of the primacy of the spiritual life and the need for prayer.

The Scapular is imposed by a special rite of the Church which describes it as "a reminder that in Baptism we have been clothed in Christ, with the assistance of the Blessed Virgin Mary, solicitous for our conformation to the Word Incarnate, to the praise of the Trinity, we may come to our heavenly home wearing our nuptial garb."

The imposition of the Scapular should be celebrated with "the seriousness of its origins. It should not be improvised. The Scapular should be imposed following a period of preparation during which the faithful are made aware of the nature and ends of the association they are about to join and of the obligations they assume."

* Pope John Paul II wore the scapular for a long time. The Holy Father's talk on The Scapular of Carmel, A Treasure for the Church mentions:

Therefore two truths are evoked by the sign of the Scapular: on the one hand, the constant protection of the Blessed Virgin, not only on life's journey, but also at the moment of passing into the fullness of eternal glory; on the other, the awareness that devotion to her cannot be limited to prayers and tributes in her honor on certain occasions, but must become a "habit", that is, a permanent orientation of one's own Christian conduct, woven of prayer and interior life, through frequent reception of the sacraments and the concrete practice of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. In this way the Scapular becomes a sign of the "covenant" and reciprocal communion between Mary and the faithful: indeed, it concretely translates the gift of his Mother, which Jesus gave on the Cross to John and, through him, to all of us, and the entrustment of the beloved Apostle and of us to her, who became our spiritual Mother.

* For the definitive treatment on the brown scapular, read The Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel: Catechesis and Ritual.

* The Blessed Virgin's scapular should remind us that Christians have an apostolate against current extremes and extravagances in modes of dress. Clothes are a symbol of the person. Like the Christian heart, dress must be chaste and simple, for one judges the interior from the exterior. It should not be necessary to add that special attention be given this matter when preparing for church attendance. Examine yourself on how well you reflect Christian modesty in your dress and if you are a parent, how well you ensure that your children are modestly dressed.

* In New York City in East Harlem is one of the oldest festivals in America for Our Lady of Mount Carmel. See Our Lady of Mount Carmel Shrine of East Harlem -- since 1881. In Brooklyn, New York, there is an annual festival for Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Find out more about the tradition of the Giglio Feast. Also look around your area for Italian parishes, maybe one named after Our Lady of Mount Carmel? Many times the parish will host wonderful festivals in her honor.

* From the Catholic Culture library, the Scapular Devotion, a description of Different Kinds of Scapulars, The Brown Scapular and information on the Scapular Medal.

* Learn more about St. Simon Stock and the Brown Scapular.

It's never too late to start a Novena to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel!

More information on :
The different kinds of Scapulars in use in the Catholic Church.
The Carmelites and the Brown Scapular
The Wikipepdia Article about Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

Apparently the Netherlands doesn't have freedom of religion...

2007-07-16T11:25:00.000-05:00

... or the "Freedom Party" wants to take it away.

The AP reports:

The Associated Press
THE HAGUE, Netherlands

A right-wing Dutch lawmaker wants women jailed for wearing the head-to-toe Islamic robe known as a burqa, calling it a "symbol of oppression."

Geert Wilders, whose Freedom Party has nine lawmakers in the 150-seat lower house of Dutch parliament, filed a proposal Thursday to make wearing a burqa in public a crime punishable by up to 12 days jail.

"The burqa and niqab are a symbol of oppression of women," Wilders told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He said burqas and the niqab _ a full-faced veil with only a slit for the eyes _ hindered integration of Muslim women into Dutch society and also posed a security risk.

An Islamic community spokesman, Ayhan Tonca, called Wilders' proposal "totally out of proportion" and accused him of seeking to broaden a rift between Muslims and the rest of Dutch society.

Last November, the Dutch government said it was drawing up legislation to ban burqas, but that administration was defeated in elections the same month. The new centrist coalition of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende has no plans to implement a burqa ban, meaning Wilders' proposal has little chance of becoming law.

Few women wear the burqa in the Netherlands, but the debate over whether to outlaw it underscores a drift away from traditional Dutch tolerance and unease with the growing influence of Islam in the country. About 6 percent of the Dutch population of 16 million is Muslim.

I just think that it is terribly ironic that a group/coalition/party that calls itself the "Freedom Party" wants to take away the basic right of human beings to worship God as they see him. Instead of encouraging Muslim women and men to "integrate themselves into Dutch society", measures such as this will only make them more culturally and religiously distrustful and insular.

If Mr. Geert Wilders is a Christian, I pray that he will take the time to read what happened when another goverment (Rome) tried to suppress the culture, faith and social structure of another religion (Christianity) in the first couple of centuries of the Christian era. The suppression, oppression, and martyrdom of the Early Christian Church only served in its spread (in additon to its Teachings and Truth) throughout the Roman Empire.

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
--Tertullian

Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time « July 15, 2007 »

2007-07-15T17:49:00.000-05:00

Who is my neighbour?

First Reading: Deuteronomy 30:10-14
Psalm: Psalm 69:14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36-37 or Psalm 19:8-11
Second Reading: Colossians 1:15-20
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37

No one really wants to sin against God, even though we do all sin without being forced to do so.

-- St. John Climacus

Prayer for Social Justice

Lord Jesus, carpenter and king, supreme sovereign of all men, look with tender mercy upon the multitudes of our day who bear the indignities of injustice everywhere. Raise up leaders in every land dedicated to Your standards of order, equity, and justice. Grant unto us, Lord Jesus, the grace to be worthy members of Your mystical body, laboring unceasingly to fulfill our vocation in the social apostolate of Your Church. Sharpen our intellects to pierce the pettiness of prejudice; to perceive the beauty of true human brotherhood. Guide our minds to a meaningful understanding of the problems of the poor, of the oppressed, of the unemployed, of all in need of assistance anywhere. Guide our hearts against the subtle lure of earthly things and undue regard for those who possess them. May we hunger and thirst after justice always.

Amen

Prayer Source: Catholic Prayer Book by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J., Eternal Life, February 15, 1999

This week's Lectio Divina

Memorial of St. Benedict, Abbot (Wednesday, July 11, 2007 )

2007-07-11T05:13:00.000-05:00

Modern Calendar - St. Benedict, abbot
Old Calendar - St. Pius I, pope and martyr

Saint of the Day :

First Reading: Genesis 41:55-57; 42:5-7, 17-24
Psalm: Psalm 33:2-3, 10-11, 18-19
Gospel: Matthew 10:1-7

There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death.

-- St. John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa. 2, 4

Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

2007-07-10T05:49:00.000-05:00

Saint of the Day:
Old Calendar - Seven Holy Brothers, martyrs and
Sts. Rufina and Secunda, virgins and martyrs

Modern Calendar - St. Veronica Giuliani, Virgin, Incorruptible (Feast)

First Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:6-11, 16, 17
Psalm: Psalm 59:2, 10, 17-18
Gospel: Matthew 16:24-27

In the same way a powerful medicine cures an illness, so illness itself is a medicine to cure passion. And there is much profit of soul in bearing illness quietly and giving thanks to God.

-- St. Amma Syncletice

Monday, July 9, 2007 (Feria)

2007-07-09T05:00:00.000-05:00

(Optional Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong, priest and companions, Chinese martyrs)

First Reading: Genesis 28:10-22
Psalm: Psalm 91:1-4, 14-15
Gospel: Matthew 9:18-26

God is seen by those who have the capacity to see him, provided that they keep the eyes of their mind open. All have eyes, but some have eyes that are shrouded in darkness, unable to see the light of the sun. Because the blind cannot see it, it does not follow that the sun does not shine. The blind must trace the cause back to themselves and their eyes. In the same way, you have eyes in your mind that are shrouded in darkness because of your sins and evil deeds. No one who has sin within him can see God. If you understand this, and live in purity and holiness and justice, you may see God.

-- Saint Theophilus of Antioch

If Space Invaders were People in a Theatre...

2007-07-08T19:50:00.000-05:00

This is what the classic video game "Space Invaders" would look like if a Theatre was the vid screen:

They have a whole bunch of "__________ in Real Life" vids that are funny and cool on this YouTube page.

Two Random Vids...

2007-07-08T19:01:00.000-05:00

Here are two vids that I am currently enjoying on YouTube:

It's a Series of Tubes! (The Internets I mean!)

and

Heck No! I'll Never Listen to Techno! (a music video made using a Lite Brite for stop motion animation!)

Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2007-07-08T18:27:00.000-05:00

First Reading (Isaiah 66: 10 - 14) :

10 "Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her;
11 that you may suck and be satisfied with her consoling breasts; that you may drink deeply with delight from the abundance of her glory."
12 For thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall suck, you shall be carried upon her hip, and dandled upon her knees.
13 As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14 You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass; and it shall be known that the hand of the LORD is with his servants, and his indignation is against his enemies.

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The Second Reading (Galatians 6: 14 - 18) :

14 But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
16 Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God.
17 Henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.

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The Psalm (Psalm 66: 1 - 7, 16, 20) :

1 Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise!
3 Say to God, "How terrible are thy deeds! So great is thy power that thy enemies cringe before thee.
4 All the earth worships thee; they sing praises to thee, sing praises to thy name." [Selah]
5 Come and see what God has done: he is terrible in his deeds among men.
6 He turned the sea into dry land; men passed through the river on foot. There did we rejoice in him,
7 who rules by his might for ever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations -- let not the rebellious exalt themselves. [Selah]
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.
20 Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!

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The Gospel (Luke 10: 1 - 12, 17 - 20):

1 After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come.
2 And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
3 Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.
4 Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and salute no one on the road.
5 Whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace be to this house!'
6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you.
7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages; do not go from house to house.
8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you;
9 heal the sick in it and say to them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.'
10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say,
11 `Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you; nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.'
12 I tell you, it shall be more tolerable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!"
18 And he said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you.
20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

Catholic News for the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time

2007-07-07T21:03:00.000-05:00

Pope Benedict XVI has "dropped restrictions on using the 1962 Latin Mass"
CBSNews.com reports:

In a major gesture to traditional, conservative Roman Catholics, PopeBenedict XVI on Saturday removed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass, reviving a rite that was all but swept away by the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Catholic World News reports:

With a motu proprio entitled Summorum Pontificum, made public on July 7, Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) has provided for a much broader use of the Roman Missal of 1962, explaining that he hopes to encourage "interior reconciliation in the heart of the Church."

The long-awaited motu proprio, which had been the subject of intensive speculation within the Church for more than a year, gives every priest the right to celebrate the Mass using the 1962 Missal, and instructs pastors to "willingly accept" requests from the faithful for access to the older liturgical form.

This second story sounds much more positive in tone and conveys the tone that Benedict sets in his apostolic letter.

The CWN story also gives an explination of the background history that has made this motu proprio necessarry on the part of the Holy See.

The USCCB has published a newsletter for American parishoners to explain this motu proprio through catechesis that includes both the papal documents themselves and a FAQ about the new norms and the "extraordinary form" of the liturgy.

For those of us who prefer to read in German, kath.net has posted the entirety of Benedict XVI's letter online.

Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, Archbishop Emeritus of Munich and Freising, Germany, has been appointed "Special Papal Envoy to Celebrations To Mark The Millennium Of The Archdiocese of Bamberg, Germany" by Benedict XVI. The Pope appointed Cardinal Wetter to head up the Celebration to be held on July 8 (along with the help of Fr. Gerhard Forch, Pastor of the Cathedral, and Msgr. Michael Hofmann, pastor of the parish of Allerheiligen in Nuremberg.

Pope Benedict XVI has announced his Prayer Intentions for July:

"That all citizens, individually and in groups, may be enabled to participate actively in the life and management of the common good."

His mission intention for the month of July is:

"That, aware of their own missionary duty, all Christians may actively help all those engaged in the evangelization of peoples."

The Catholic Church in China is still suffering difficulty and persecution from the Government:

On the first of July, Benedict XVI issued a letter Calling for ecclesial unity in China, while urging Communion among all Bishops.

In "Letter of the Holy Father Benedict XVI to the Bishops, Priests, Consecrated Persons and Lay Faithful of the Catholic Church in the People's Republic of China", Benedict XVI called for unity and reconciliation for the Church in China.

The letter, was signed by the Pope on May 27th, which marks the Solemnity of Pentecost on the Church Calendar. Benedict spoke of the Vatican's openness to dialogue with government officials in China while emphasizing that The Holy See "does not want to interfere in the affairs of the political community" (i.e. the Communist/Totalitarian State).

The Political Church established by the Communist Party (The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association) does recognises neither the Holy See nor the Magisterium of the Church. The CPCA has been appointing its own PC "Bishops" to perform the work of Bishops - trying to remove the authority of the Pope to appoint Bishoprics.

Benedict stated that CPCA appointed Bishops "are illegitimate, but validly ordained. Therefore, although not in communion with the Pope, they exercise their ministry validly in the administration of the sacraments, even if they do so illegitimately".

Benedict XVI continued: "What great spiritual enrichment would ensue for the Church in China if, the necessary conditions having been established, these pastors too were to enter into communion with the Successor of Peter and with the entire Catholic episcopate!"

The letter continued: The Holy See would desire to be completely free to appoint bishops; therefore, considering the recent particular developments of the Church in China, I trust that an accord can be reached with the government so as to resolve certain questions regarding the choice of candidates for the episcopate, the publication of the appointment of bishops, and the recognition -- concerning civil effects where necessary -- of the new bishops on the part of the civil authorities."

The entire text of the letter, which is titled "LETTER OF THE HOLY FATHER POPE BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS, PRIESTS, CONSECRATED PERSONS AND LAY FAITHFUL OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA", maybe found online here.

On the 1st of July, the Goverment of China responded to the Pope's letter:

The Chinese government expressed a desire to promote "constructive dialogue" with the Vatican in a statement released after the publication of Benedict XVI's letter to Catholics in that country.

In an official declaration issued Saturday, the same day the Vatican published the Pope's letter, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang said that China had "taken note of the letter released by the Pope."

The statement said: "China has always stood for the improvement of the China-Vatican relationship, and made positive efforts for that. China is willing to continue candid and constructive dialogue with the Vatican so as to resolve our differences.

"China's stance on improving China-Vatican ties is consistent, that is, the Vatican must sever its so-called diplomatic ties with Taiwan and recognize the People's Republic of China as the sole legitimate government representing the whole of China."

Vatican representatives have explained in the past that there are no problems in principle with accepting this condition in view of diplomatic relations with Beijing.

The Chinese government, the declaration continues, asks that the Vatican "never interfere in China's internal affairs, including in the name of religion."

Qin added: "We hope the Vatican side takes concrete actions and does not create new barriers."

In order to help Catholic faithful understand the Papal letter, and the history of the Catholic Church in China over the last 150 years, Benedict issued an Explanitory Note on the Pastoral Letter to the Church in China.
The complete text of the explanitory note can be found here.

Despite the assurances given to the Vatican and Magesterium that the Chinese Government supports the political, social, and religious rights of its citizens, the Chinese Goverment is doing all that it can to supress the Letter from the Holy See.

Catholic News reports:

Beijing, Jul 2, 2007 (CNA).- Several Catholic websites that are housed in mainland China were forced by the government to remove the Pope’s letter to the Catholics in China from their website, reports UCA News.

As of today, some sites still have the full 19,763 Chinese character text, but these are mostly all run by Catholics that are “underground.”

At 6:00 p.m. Beijing time on the day that the letter was issued, several mainland Catholic websites had already been forced to substitute a simplified version of the letter for the full length one they had published only hours earlier.

A priest in charge of such a website registered with the government told UCA News on July 2 he felt helpless because he strongly believes that "China church websites should publish the pope's letter."

The priest, who asked not to be named, said some government officials came to his office on June 29 and asked about the letter but did not explicitly say he could not carry it. The next evening, he uploaded the letter to his site, but was told on July 1 morning he was not allowed to upload the text.

Other popular Catholic websites in China were warned to remove or not upload the letter. Some sites even informed their readers on June 29 that the long-awaited papal letter would be released the next evening, and urged their readers to watch for it and related reports. But since then, the same sites have only carried Vatican news since the government has refused to let the letter or any news about it be published.

After the release of the letter, Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See's Press Office, said that Pope Benedict XVI's letter to Chinese Catholics "is motivated by two great loves: his love for China and his love for the Catholic Church."

On July 1st Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, Bishop of Hong Kong, took part in a pro-democracy demonstration marking the 10th anniversary of the city's return to China.

Cardinal Zen recalled that 10 years ago, during the Mass to mark the hand over, he said: "I hope the political return to the motherland may bring also a return to our traditional culture."

"Looking back now what do we find?" the 75-year-old cardinal asked. "The traditional values of decency, justice, honesty and self-respect have given way to a new culture of toadying the powerful and oppressing the weak."

Cardinal Zen urged: "Let us put down our feeling of helplessness, take courage again and carry on the march for democracy. May the Lord show us a more just and peaceful society at the end of the journey."

Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Patriotic Association, reproached Cardinal Zen for taking part in the pro-democracy protest. He said political activism is why Beijing is reluctant to let the Vatican appoint Chinese bishops, the Associated Press reported today.

''If all Catholics in Hong Kong followed suit by demonstrating, how can Hong Kong achieve stability?" Liu said. "If the Vatican supports someone like him [Cardinal Zen], how can it win China's trust?"

The CPCA responded to the Criticisms of Cardinal Zen as well as the letter from Benedict XVI by issuing the following statements:

Cardinal Zen recalled that 10 years ago, during the Mass to mark the hand over, he said: "I hope the political return to the motherland may bring also a return to our traditional culture."

"Looking back now what do we find?" the 75-year-old cardinal asked. "The traditional values of decency, justice, honesty and self-respect have given way to a new culture of toadying the powerful and oppressing the weak."

Cardinal Zen urged: "Let us put down our feeling of helplessness, take courage again and carry on the march for democracy. May the Lord show us a more just and peaceful society at the end of the journey."

Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Patriotic Association, reproached Cardinal Zen for taking part in the pro-democracy protest. He said political activism is why Beijing is reluctant to let the Vatican appoint Chinese bishops, the Associated Press reported today.

''If all Catholics in Hong Kong followed suit by demonstrating, how can Hong Kong achieve stability?" Liu said. "If the Vatican supports someone like him [Cardinal Zen], how can it win China's trust?"

The USCCB criticised American politicians for not effecting true immigration reform:

Washington, Jul. 2, 2007 (CWNews.com) - The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has decried the failure of American lawmakers to enact real immigration reform, saying that the current situation causes the exploitation of immigrants.

"As a nation we cannot continue to employ an immigration system that leads to the exploitation of millions of our fellow human beings," said Bishop Gerald Barnes of San Bernardino, California, the chairman of the USCCB committee on migration.

Bishop Barnes said that American immigration policy has created "a large underclass which does not have full rights in our society." This situation is "morally unacceptable," he said.

The USCCB statement urged Congress to make another effort to achieve meaningful immigration reform after the collapse of support for the latest proposal.

Bendict, in a message to the Bishops of Puerto Rico, stated that:

Over the last few years many things have changed in the social, economic and even religious field, at times opening the way to religious indifference and to a certain moral relativism that influences Christian practices and which, indirectly, also affects the structures of society.

This religious situation calls out to you as pastors and requires that you remain united, in order to make the presence of the Lord more palpable among mankind through joint pastoral initiatives that respond to these new realities.

...the spread of a mentality inspired by secularism which, more or less consciously, gradually leads to derision or ignorance of the sacred, relegating faith to a merely private sphere.

A correct notion of religious freedom is not compatible with such an ideology, which at times presents itself as the only voice of reason.

A group of seventy-five people which included teachers, parents, pricinpals, and students picketed the NEA convention in Philadelphia July 1. The protest was intended to bring awareness to the members of the NEA who are either ignorant of or in denial about the NEA's Family Planning Resolution, which supports "reproductive freedom" and "all methods of family planning" - including abortion. Most of the union members are also not aware that the NEA is one of Planned Parenthood's primary advocates (financially and through volunteer action). The auppport of PP by the NEA extends to the fact that the union has co-sponsored large pro-abortion rallies in Washington in 2004, 1992, and 1989.

Benedict XVI used the conclusion of his general audience on July 4th to address young people who are currently preparing for the next World Youth Day (WYD), due to be held in July 2008 in Sydney, Australia. The Holy Father encouraged the young people to:

prepare well for this marvelous celebration of the faith. ... Enter fully into the life of your parishes and participate enthusiastically in diocesan events! In this way you will be equipped spiritually to experience new depths of understanding of all that we believe when we gather in Sydney next July.

CWN reports that:

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has renewed his attacks on the country's Catholic hierarchy, saying that the Venezuelan bishops' conference had misled the public by criticizing his plans for constitutional revisions.

"It saddens me to see these bishops from our Catholic Church lie," Chavez said during a July 3 television address. "They are either ignorant, perverse, or perverts."

The Venezuelan leader was responding to a statement by Archbishop Ubaldo Ramon Santana of Maracaibo, the president of the Venezuelan episcopal conference, questioning the plans for constitutional revisions. Chavez has appointed a committee to draft amendments working without publicity. The Catholic bishops have argued that the process should be open to the public.

The Venezuelan bishops have frequently chided Chavez for his strongarm political tactics and his efforts to centralize power in his presidential administration.

Finally, the Catholic news from Iraq continues to worsen:

U.S. bishops are calling for an immediate halt to what they called deliberate violence against Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq.

In a statement released Monday, Bishop Thomas Wenski, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Policy, said: "The deadly cycle of violence must stop if peace with justice for all Iraqis is to be achieved."

The bishops' statement cited a recent attack on the shrine in Samarra and the slayings earlier this month of a Catholic priest and three subdeacons after Sunday Mass.

"These incidences of violence make the possibilities of a secure, stable and democratic Iraq ever more difficult to achieve," the statement said.

It continued: "In a special way, we are deeply concerned for Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq who are especially vulnerable. We call for an immediate halt to the deliberate violence against our Christian sisters and brothers and other religious minorities in Iraq.

"The situation of Christians is particularly dire. The estimated prewar Christian population of 1.2 million has dropped dramatically to an estimated several hundred thousand."

The bishops' statement listed crimes against Christians in Iraq, such as demanding removal of crosses from churches, requiring non-Muslims to pay special religious taxes, mandating that Christian women wear veils, and calling for Christians to abandon their faith and become Muslims.

"Many Christians no longer feel safe gathering in churches and Christian institutions, resulting in the closing of parishes, seminaries and convents," the statement said.

It continued: "These targeted actions against Christians and other religious minorities are not simply signs of general societal violence, but are also attacks on Christianity and religious freedom by the most extreme elements within Iraqi society.

"As an expression of solidarity with our brother bishops in Iraq, we urge U.S. and Iraqi authorities and religious leaders within Iraq to do everything possible to help end the violence and the targeting of Christians and other religious minorities."

Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

2007-07-07T20:39:00.000-05:00

Saint of the Day:

Blessed Emmanuel Ruiz and Companions(1804-1860)

The world in which Emmanuel and his companions lived was very different from our own. We cherish the freedom to worship as we choose. No one is likely to threaten us with torture and death if we refuse to follow another path. The peril we face is much more subtle: the lure of a materialistic culture. It may not persuade us to give up the practice of our faith, but neither does it encourage us to live it fully. Just as Emmanuel and his companions were generous with their lifeblood, so must we be generous with our goods and our time.

Readings for the Day:

Reading 1 - Gn 27:1-5, 15-29

Responsorial Psalm - Ps 135:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6

Gospel - Mt 9:14-17

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.
No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth,
for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.
People do not put new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.
Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Today was traditionally the Feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Bishops and Holy Martyrs. This feast is still preserved in Eastern European Catholic parishes in the United States and Canada.

Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road

2007-06-19T12:19:00.000-05:00

The Holy See released "Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road" this morning. Published by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, the document is divided into four sections on: the pastoral care of road users, pastoral ministry for the liberation of those enmeshed in human and sexual trafficking, the pastoral care of "street children", and the pastoral care of the homeless.

Participating in the press conference were Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itenerant People and Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of that Pontifical Council.

The document is available on the Vatican's website in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian.

Read the article at EWTN.com
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=79943

I know, I know...

2007-06-18T18:04:00.000-05:00

I still haven't posted here... I have just been busier than expected lately - and there's no spare time for blogging!

Till I blog again, just remember:

Well, I finished it!!!

2007-05-23T18:58:00.000-05:00

I have just finished my first unit of CPE... for those of you who don't know what CPE is... I'll fill you in.

CPE is Continuing Clinical Pastoral Education. I completed my unit at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.

The semester was very long, involved many hours of study and writing papers, personal reflection, spiritual growth, theological wrestling, and even some frustration! I now have 400 hours of experience in a hospital chaplaincy setting!

This was one of the most awesome experiences of my life, and I am so thankful that I got to participate in the unit.

Now I can get back to posting theological ramblings here - since I will actually have some free time again!

Peace,
Sister JMD

2007-01-12T18:56:00.000-06:00

An excellent post from VirtualTalmud :
( http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/virtualtalmud/ )

Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Saddam:
Punished with Justice?
The ancient rabbis who wrote the Talmud (in modern-day Falluja, incidentally) understood something very important about capital punishment that we in this country–to say nothing of those in Iraq–seem to have forgotten. It’s not that capital punishment is philosophically indefensible, as some suggest. Extreme as this sanction is, there are some crimes for which the only just punishment is death, and to my mind Saddam Hussein fully deserved to be executed.The problem with capital punishment is that it is nearly indefensible from a practical point of vie: How do you create a system with enough safeguards to guarantee the rights of the defendant? How do you create enough certainty about the correctness of the verdict? How do you execute in a way that still protects the dignity of the victim and of the society that carries it out, and how do you ensure that the aftermath of the punishment will lead to more healing and not more recriminations?All of these vital questions are exhaustively taken up by the rabbis who, in a brilliant act of ingenuity, proclaim the theoretical possibility of capital punishment while simultaneously putting so many
safeguards in place as to make it almost impossible in practical terms. The current situation in Iraq bears witness to what happens when the rush to punish outstrips the demands of justice.
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A fun little Catholic Quiz

2007-01-10T20:21:00.000-06:00

Here are my results...

"You scored 75, on a scale of 0 to 100. Here's how to interpret your score:

0 - 25		You are a Centering Prayer (very progressive) Catholic. More about you.
26 - 50		You are an Ignatian Exercises (moderately progressive) Catholic. More about you.
51 - 75		You are a Divine Office (moderately traditional) Catholic. More about you.
76 - 100		You are a Daily Rosary (very traditional) Catholic. More about you.

When I clicked on the link to read about what exactly a "Divine Office Catholic" was, I was suprised that everything except the Nichole Kidman is true! ( I didn't really even know who she was...)

Definition of a "Divine Office Catholic" with my comments:

You Are a Divine Office (Moderately Traditional) Catholic

The Second Vatican Council was much needed, as far as you're concerned, but you see no reason to push the church further in the direction of change, as many progressives urge.

I was two when PJP II was elected I have only know worship in a post-Vatican II Church, and yes, I am Neo-Orthodox.

You like the dynamic combination of the traditional approach toward doctrine with the opening of the church to the world that Pope John Paul II (your favorite pope) represented.

I got to yell "PJP II WE LOVE YOU!!!" out at the top of my lungs once - and I like to think he heard me... but I dunno if the Popemobile is soundproof.

As far as liturgy is concerned, a reverent Mass in the vernacular is your favorite, as is a vernacular hymn with a feeling for the transcendent such as "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence."

Yeh.

When Nicole Kidman returned to her childhood Catholicism and regular Mass attendance, you were thrilled.

Who? Does she go to Saint Patrick's?

Favorite Apparition of the Madonna: Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Whoah! How'd they know that?

Read stories of interest to you:

The Design of Evolution
Interview with Cardinal Christoph Schonborn

The Slave Who Became a Saint
By John Zmirak

Mother Teresa's Dark Night
Interview by Fr. Raymond J. de Souza

Lord, Please Don't Hear This Canned Intercession
By George Weigel

Catholic-Bashing: America's Last Acceptable Prejudice
By Philip Jenkins

Wednesday, January 10th, 2006

2007-01-10T17:10:00.000-06:00

Wednesday in the 1st week of Ordinary Time.

Readings for the Day:

First Reading: Hebrews 2:14-18
Psalm: Psalm 105:1-4, 6-9
Gospel: Mark 1:29-39

He who was crucified in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, is true God, Lord of glory, and one of the Holy Trinity.
-- Council of Constantinople II

Saint of the Day:

Gregory of Nyssa (c. 330 - 395)

The son of two saints, Basil and Emmilia, young Gregory was raised by his older brother, St. Basil the Great, and his sister, Macrina, in modern-day Turkey. Gregory's success in his studies suggested great things were ahead for him. After becoming a professor of rhetoric, he was persuaded to devote his learning and efforts to the Church. By then married, Gregory went on to study for the priesthood and become ordained (this at a time when celibacy was not a matter of law for priests).
He was elected Bishop of Nyssa (in Lower Armenia) in 372, a period of great tension over the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ. Briefly arrested after being falsely accused of embezzling Church funds, Gregory was restored to his see in 378, an act met with great joy by his people.
It was after the death of his beloved brother, Basil, that Gregory really came into his own. He wrote with great effectiveness against Arianism and other questionable doctrines, gaining a reputation as a defender of orthodoxy. He was sent on missions to counter other heresies and held a position of prominence at the Council of Constantinople. His fine reputation stayed with him for the remainder of his life, but over the centuries it gradually declined as the authorship of his writings became less and less certain. But, thanks to the work of scholars in the 20th century, his stature is once again appreciated. Indeed, St. Gregory of Nyssa is seen not simply as a pillar of orthodoxy but as one of the great contributors to the mystical tradition in Christian spirituality and to monasticism itself.

Catholic News of the Day

A national report on the homeless states that there are currently over 774,000 homeless people in the United States. This is equivalent to the entire population of WY, VT, ND, SD, DC, AK, or DE being homeless. What does it say about our country when more people are homeless than the entire populations of six states or even the capital of our nation? The Republicans that were in total control of our nation for the past six years claimed to follow Jesus and be faithful to his teachings, yet under their watch our homeless population has skyrocketed. I think the Republican Christianists should brush up on Scripture by reading Matthew25: 31 - 46.

CBSNews.com gives an update on a sad fraternity hazing event that occured in Austin, Texas last year. Please continue to pray for the family of Phanta "Jack" Phoummarath, who will need extra prayers and support in the coming weeks and months as the case against those responsible for their son's death and the defacement of his corpse goes to court. Please continue to pray for the peaceful repose of Jack's soul.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today that they will vote against President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq. Yesterday Senator Ted Kennedy introduced legislation that will prohibit President Bush from sending more troops without the consent of Congress. Please call or write an email to these corageous leaders, thanking them for taking a stand against Bush's further violation of the Just War Doctrine; also call or email your own Senators and Representatives to let them know you want to stop Bush from sending more troops to Iraq.

Senator Kennedy is speaking up in the Congressional debate over Universal Health Care. "The federal government should join the state of Massachusetts in enacting universal health coverage", said Sen. Edward Kennedy, the new chairman of the Senate committee over health and medical coverage issues. Senator Kennedy proposes that Medicare would be extended to all Americans. Republicans are also proposing Universal Health Care Coverage; California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a plan that would extend health care to 6.5 million uninsured Californians. Under Governor Schwarzenegger's proposal, all Californians would be required to have health insurance, with the poorest citizens having their insurance costs subsidized by the State of California.

Americans are beginning to eat a more Mediterranean diet... or maybe there are just more Mediterranean-Americans around. "Consumption of olive oil in the United States has risen 272 percent since 1991, according to the International Olive Oil Council. By 2002, Americans were consuming a little over a half liter (about a pint) each year — about what the average Greek uses in a week. " (CBSNews.com)

Today the House voted to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour; the measure now moves to the Senate where it will likely gain approval. Catholic Charities of America has spoken up in favor of the raise, as this will help the working poor of America immensely. The last raise to the minimum wage was in 1997 when President Clinton forced the Republican Congress to support the working class. The bill would raise the wage floor in three steps. Minimum wage will be increased to $5.85 an hour 60 days after signed into law by the President, to $6.55 a year later (2008), and to $7.25 a year after that (2009).

Maybe all this political change is happening because Catholics form the largest religious group/bloc in Congress. Catholics now outnumber the second largest group (the Baptists) 2:1. A religious break down comes to: Catholics (155), Baptists (67), Methodists (61), Presbyterians (44), Jews (43), Mormons (15), 7th Day Adventists (15), Buddhists (2), and the first Muslim ever to serve in Congress.

Scientists of Wake Forest and Harvard University reported on Sunday that they had found a source of stem cells in the amniotic fluid donated by pregnant women which produced a variety of tissue types Because these cells are donated by living women from living fetuses, these cells would allow researcers to completely avoid the controversy over destroying embryos for research. Italian scientists responsible for another breakthrough in stem-cell research have reported that they encountered heavy resistance to the publication of thier research because it used stem cells obtained from amniotic fluids rather than from embryonic tissues. It is interesting to note that while De Coppi personally has no objections to the embryonic research, his research was unwelcome because within the field there exists “'a resistance to the idea of finding an alternative to embryonic stem cells' because many leading researchers-- particularly in the US-- are so heavily invested in embryo research". Vatican ethicists are currently mulling over the issue... and President Bush, who isn't very well informed about either side of the argument is claiming that he knows what is best in the matter. (And for those who think this is a purely American debate, the Swiss are having tsuris over the matter of what to do with embryos.

The Pope's comments on the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord.

Too bad we aren't like Europe... where they are pushing for a "low carbon" economic, social and political lifestyle to combat pollution and the Greenhouse Effect... which is really evident - as 2006 is once again the hottest year on record.

And for all that has been going on in Catholic Poland lately... a Vatican spokesman now claims that there is a "vindetta against Poland". I'm not really sure about that... but I am sure that former Archbishop-elect Stanislaw Wielgus was an informant for the Secret Police of the Communist State. Benedict accepted his resignation before he became Archbishop. And Tuesday, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow has accepted the resignation of Msgr. Janusz Bielanski, the rector of the city’s cathedral, who was also accused of cooperation with the secret police during the Communist era.

American Christian, or more accurately American Christianist William Boykin will be released from his position as a senior Pentagon Intelligence Officer. In case you don't know who William Boykin is, he is the officer who was ordered to investigate claims of prisoner abuse by "Task Force 6-26," and concluded that there was no wrongdoing or abuse on the part of the US soldiers because "If [the US military personell] don't make them bleed, they can't prosecute for it." (which was the slogan of Task Force 6-26). Reading about Task Force 6-26 reminded me of this and this.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

January 6th, 2007

2007-01-06T12:51:00.000-06:00

The Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord

Readings for the Day:

First Reading: 1 John 5:5-13
Psalm: Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20
Gospel: Mark 1:7-11 or Luke 3:23-38 or Luke 3:23, 31-34, 36, 38
By the very nature of creation, material being is endowed with its own stability, truth and excellence, its own order and laws.
-- Gaudium et spes

Saints of the Day:

My favourite Theologian, Shepherd and Pope, John Paul II was known for the number of Venerables, Blessed and Saints that he recognised during his pontificate. John Paul felt that all members of the Church are called to live a life characterised by Apotheosis - regardless of their being lay people leading ordinary lives. Today, while I was praying my morning office and reading the news, I came across the following story. While the individuals in this article may never be officially recognised as Venerable, Blessed or Saint in the Church, I confer upon them the title μακάριος.

Here is the story, in full, from Yahoo!News:

Two defining characteristics of heroes are that they often risk their own lives almost instinctively, and that they usually think what they've done is no big deal.
Wesley Autrey meets that definition. "I don't feel like I did something spectacular," the 50-year-old construction worker told The New York Times after he jumped into the path of a New York City subway train Tuesday to rescue a 20-year-old student who had had a seizure and fallen onto the tracks. "I just saw someone who needed help. I did what I felt was right."

The nation is rightly celebrating Autrey's remarkably selfless act: As his two little daughters looked on in horror from the platform above, he wrestled the student off the rails and then tucked him into a shallow trough between the tracks as the oncoming train passed inches above their heads. Then Autrey yelled to onlookers to reassure his girls that he was OK.

Many others on the platform had the same chance to act, but it was hardly surprising that none of them jumped in front of a train to try to save a stranger. What's remarkable, and inspiring, is how often someone unexpectedly emerges from the crowd to demonstrate astonishing courage.

Think of Lenny Skutnik, a 28-year-old federal worker who swam out into the ice-choked Potomac River in January 1982 to save a drowning woman when an Air Florida jet crashed shortly after takeoff. "I couldn't just stand there and do nothing to help," Skutnik said later.

Think of Michael Monsoor and Ross McGinnis, who might have said something similarly self-effacing after what they did, but we'll never know. Both died.

Monsoor, a Navy SEAL, was 25 last September when an Iraqi grenade hit him in the chest inside the sniper hideout where he and four other SEALs were concealed. Monsoor threw himself on the grenade and saved his buddies.

Army Pfc. McGinnis was just 19 last month when an Iraqi insurgent threw a grenade into the Humvee that carried him and four other soldiers. McGinnis dove backwards onto the grenade and absorbed the blast, saving the others.

Autrey, Skutnik, Monsoor, McGinnis and others like them deserve our deepest admiration and gratitude, not just for saving the lives they did, but also for displaying extraordinary sparks of nobility that remind us of the heroic side of human nature.

These individuals deserve the title Makarios because they completely and selflessly followed the teachings of Jesus in John 15:

My Father's glory is shown by your bearing much fruit; and in this way you become my disciples. I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that your joy may be complete. My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you. The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them.

These Makarioi did what they knew to be right, even though it might (and in two cases did) cost them thier lives; may their names and memories be forever praised.

This week's Lectio Divina.

January 3rd, 2007

2007-01-03T20:13:00.000-06:00

This week's Lectio Divina (from the Carmelite Site).

The Memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus (as celebrated according to the General Roman Calendar).

El Greco's Adoration of the Holy Name of Jesus 1578/9

This memorial is celebrated today on the General Roman Calendar, but on the 14th of January according to the Franciscan and Carmelite calendars. More about this feast from the Catholic Encyclopedia and Wikipedia.

Catholic News Headlines

The Vatican has once again reaffirmed its stance on the Death Penalty. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, stated the following on Saturday, December 30th, the day that Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging:

A capital execution is always tragic news... reasons for sadness, even if it is about a person who has been guilty of grave crimes. To kill the guilty one is not the way to rebuild justice and to reconcile society. The risk also exists that, on the contrary, the spirit of vengeance will be fueled and new violence be sown. In this dark time of the life of the Iraqi people one cannot but hope that all those responsible will make every effort so that in a dramatic situation channels of reconciliation and peace will finally be opened.

from EWTN.com, and Zenit.org #ZE07010107.

Cardinal Giovanni Cheli, who served from 1978 to 1986 by appointment of Pope John Paul I as the Holy See’s permanent observer at UN headquarters in New York, is supporting a proposal by his successor, Cardinal Renato Martino, which calls for an international moratorium on the death penalty. Cardinal Martino is known as "the Vatican’s most outspoken critic of the death penalty" (a title to be proud of!).

from EWTN.com .

Pope Benedict XVI stated in his public statement on January 1st, The Solemnity of Mary Mother of God:

Today we contemplate Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, in His attribute of true 'Prince of Peace.' He 'is our peace,' Who came to break down the wall that divides men and peoples, in other words 'hostility'... it was Paul VI who wished "that the year should begin under the protection of Most Holy Mary, venerated as the Mother of God" and that January 1 "should mark the World Day of Peace, so that each year may start in the light of Christ, the great pacifier of humanity...
Today, I renew my hope for peace to the governors and leaders of nations and of international organizations, and to all men and women of good will. I do so particularly with the special Message that I prepared together with my collaborators in the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace and that has as its theme this year: 'The Human Person, the Heart of Peace'.
That Message, touches upon an essential point: the value of the human person, who is the column that supports the entire grand edifice of peace. Today there is much talk of human rights, but it is often forgotten that they need a foundation that is firm, not relative or subjective. This foundation can only be the dignity of the person. And respect for this dignity begins with the recognition and protection of people's right to live and profess their own religion freely.
...To the Holy Mother of God we trustingly address our prayer that sacred respect for all human beings and the firm refusal of war and violence may develop in people's consciences. Help us, Mary, you who brought Jesus into the world, to welcome from Him the gift of peace and to be sincere and courageous builders of peace.

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver has protested that international officials are ignoring the suffering of Christians in Iraq. In the Washington Times, Archbishop Chaput observed that the Christian minority in Iraq has endured “a disproportionate burden of violent attacks and other human-rights abuses.” The archbishop co-authored the Times essay along with Felice Gaer, who chairs the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
The Times column observed that religious minorities in Iraq are being subjected to intimidation by extremist Muslim groups, who have attacked their churches, shops, and homes. As a result many Christians have fled the country. The archbishop noted that while Christians constitute only 3% of the Iraqi population, they account for 40% of the refugees leaving the country.
The plight of these Christian refugees is aggravated, Archbishop Chaput and Gaer continued, because the UN has not yet recognized them as constituting a class of refugees in special need of protection and aid.
It should be noted also that the persecution of Christians in Iraq only began after the US invasion in March 2003.

Holiday Greetings!

2006-12-24T13:12:00.000-06:00

24th of December
4th Sunday of Advent
Christmas Eve

I am spending the day eating, drinking soda and being Merry with my family at home. I wish that everyone has a equally wonderful and blessed Holiday doing what they enjoy with people that they love. A very Happy Christmas and Blessed Be!

Catholic News of the Day

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem has issued his annual Christmas Message of Peace, this year emphasizing that "our fundamental need is for Peace, Justice, and Freedom".

Benedict has issued a message on the Major Issues of 2006.

There is a modern Virginal Pregnancy at the Chester Zoo in northern England. While parthenogenesis is quite common in amphibians and lower reptiles, this is the first case of parthenogenesis to be scientifically recorded in Komodo Dragons, which are the most intelligent, largest, and most advanced species of Reptiles on the planet.

In anthropological news, Nativity scenes and Creches in Spain have an extra figurine... "El Cagañer" or "the great defecator" is a popular (though pooping!) figure in the Catalonia region.
This is part of an entire series of feces-related festivities for the holiday season - it is also popular to share pastries shaped like feces and have piñatas that are beaten in the hope that they will "defecate out" (to put it politely) candies and gifts.

JKRowling has announced the name of Book Seven of the Harry Potter septology: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Even though a release date has not been made public, the book is already #1 on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de! (At the time of my writing this, the Room of Requirement door on JKR's site is still open!)

In sad Christmas news, more US Soldiers and Iraqis have been killed in the war. Pray for the peace of thier souls and their families at this especially difficult time.

In mixed Christmas news, a school boy's death brings new life to at least seven people.

In happy Christmas news, some people are bringing the spirit of the Holiday to real life.

The oldest Hockey stick in existence has just sold for $2.2 million (Canadian) - which is $1.9 million US.

In other sports news, the Vatican may be fielding a Soccer team soon...

In Bethlehem this year, Holy Day celebrations have been markedly low key due to concerns about violence. Bishop Raymond Field has issued a message to his flock to make parishoners aware of the "plight of Christians in Bethlehem".

For those whose families live far away, there is a new technology that may allow them to have meals together more often!

Speaking of virtual technology... a new web site allows Iranian Jews to mourn according to traditional Jewish customs.

In space news, scientists have been learning from White Dwarves how our own Solar System may die one day (a few billion years in the future, of course!)

Benedict XVI has issued a statement reminding all Catholic faithful to "defend Christmas against materialism" by not falling for the common pitfall of "sometimes seek tempting but illusory shortcuts to happiness." This is quite ironic given that a report released on the 22nd states that embezzlement is rampant in US Dioceses... in that 85% of US Dioceses have reported embezzelment within the past five years!

And if all this news has been stressful for you, scientists report that you just need to grab the hand of your significant other and enjoy a good embrace!

Peace and Blessings!

Pope John Paul II's Rosary for Peace

2006-12-13T10:31:00.000-06:00

The following is a Rosary for Peace that was composed by Pope John Paul II. In each of the meditations, he calls upon different titles of Our Most Holy Queen, Mary to help us make our world more like the mystical Kingdom of God.

The Joyful Mysteries
The Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word, may we contemplate in hope your Son who is the source and model of a renewed humanity in which we encounter each other as brothers and sisters and live in a peaceful spirit.

The Visitation of Mary to Her Cousin Elizabeth
Mary, Mother Most Amiable, may all Christians feel their responsibility to bring Christ to others, for it is he who can unite what is divided, destroy sin and hatred, and reawaken humanity to its vocation to unity and solidarity.

The Birth of Jesus at Bethlehem
Mary, Mother of the Prince of Peace, may all people open themselves to God who gives us the hope of a new era of peace and whose love, fully revealed in Jesus, is the foundation of universal peace.

The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
Mary, Queen of the Universe, obtain for us the courage to work together to become one family, the fundamental calling of the human race.

The Finding of Jesus in the Temple
Mary, Mother of Refugees, as you sought for your Son when he was lost in Jerusalem, comfort all mothers and fathers who must flee their countries with their children, in a desperate attempt to find the basic necessities of life.

The Luminous Mysteries

John Baptizes Jesus in the Jordan
Mary, Mother of Hope, may we put all our confidence in God's power, for it is only God who can create openings for peace in humanity's endless history of division and conflict.

Jesus Reveals His Glory at the Wedding of Cana
Mary, Cause of Our Joy, teach us that human events are always accompanied by the merciful providence of God, who knows how to touch even the most hardened of hearts and bring good fruits even from what seems utterly barren soil.

Jesus Proclaims the Kingdom of God and Calls Us to Conversion
Mary, Mother of the Poor, open our eyes so that we will see the poverty around us, the inequalities between rich and poor nations, and the human and environmental degradation brought about by the irresponsible use of natural resources.

The Transfiguration of Jesus
Mary, Mother of the Living, teach us that human life is the most sacred and inviolable earthly reality, and that there can be no peace when this most basic good is not protected.

Jesus Gives Us the Eucharist
Mary, Mother of Christ the High Priest, help us believe that in a world in which the power of evil seems once again to have the upper hand, your Son is present and acting to transform it into a world in which true peace will prevail.

The Sorrowful Mysteries

Jesus Prays in the Garden of Gethsemane
Mary, Mother Most Merciful, obtain for us who live in a world order subjected to horrific violence the strength of heart to respond with justice and forgiveness.

Jesus Is Scourged
Mary, Tower of Ivory, may governments of nations have the courage to complete justice with a forgiveness that heals and rebuilds troubled human relations from their foundations.

Jesus Is Crowned with Thorns
Mary, Mystical Rose, protect and assist the countless millions of men and women who are barely able to survive and who are the most grievously affected by economic and political chaos.

Jesus Carries the Cross to Calvary
Mary, Morning Star, obtain a change of heart for those who, despairing of humanity, of life, and of the future, kill by acts of terrorism.

Jesus Is Crucified
Mary, Mother of Divine Charity, give Christians the courage to choose forgiveness, to make the decision to go against the natural instinct to pay back evil with evil.

The Glorious Mysteries

Jesus Rises from the Dead
Mary, Dawn of the Eternal Tomorrow, guide our societies to allow people the chance to start all over again, to raise their eyes to the future, and to discover new possibilities of trust and commitment.

Jesus Ascends into Heaven
Mary, Mother of the King of Kings, lead politicians and government leaders to submit to the Kingdom of your Son, leaving aside all desires aimed at dominating and exploiting others, ideologies of power, crazed nationalisms, and ancient tribal hatreds.

The Holy Spirit Descends on the Apostles
Mary, Spouse of the Spirit, inspire reconciliation and dialogue among Christians, Jews, and Muslims, that the healing power of the Spirit may be unleashed in the world.

Mary Is Assumed into Heaven
Mary, Assumed into Heaven, lead governments to treat the poor with justice, to consider the poor not as a problem, but as people who can become the principal builders of a new and more human future for everyone.

Mary Is Crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth
Mary, Queen of Peace, give those of us who live in abundance the courage to change lifestyles and models of production and consumption, in order to help entire peoples who today are excluded or marginalized to enter into the sphere of economic and human development.

This Rosary from:
The Rosary : Contemplating the Face of Christ, Introduction and Reflections from Pope John Paul II. by Linda Salvatore Boccia, FSP and Kathryn James Hermes, FSP

More about Pope John Paul II.
An interesting site about Mary.

Wednesday, December 13th, 2006

2006-12-13T10:06:00.000-06:00

9th Day of Advent

23^rd Day of the Lunar Month

Saint of the Day:

Saint Lucy (d. )

Saint Lucy was killed during the persecutions of Diocletian for rejecting the advances of the Governor of Syracuse. The Governor wanted to have his way with Lucy, but Lucy had dedicated her life (and body) to God. In the hopes that he could have revenge on her, the Governor had Lucy sold to a brothel. The owner of the brother was ordered to set her on fire if she would not perform work for her new owners. Instead of burning her alive, the owner was said to have gouged out Lucy's eyes and then cut her throat with a sword.

Saint Lucy is now the patron saint of persons with eye problems and young girls who have devoted themselves to God.

Ikon from - http://www.fleckensteingallery.com/1lucy2.jpg

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse
How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

-- Ps 119:103

Reflection
The seven words or phrases of Mary found in the Gospels are voiced in accord with a wonderful progression and order.

They impart to the devout soul the ardor of a holy love.

-- St. Bernardine of Siena

Prayer
O Mary, help me to emulate what each of your words imparts; virginal reserve (Lk 1:34); zealous service (Lk 1:38a); faithful obedience (Lk 1:38b); joyful praise (Lk 1:46-55); authoritative gentleness (Lk 2:48); tender charity (Jn 2:3); and firm faith (Jn 2:5).

Amen.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

2006-12-12T00:31:00.000-06:00

10th day of Advent

22nd day of the Lunar Month

Saint of the Day:

Frances de Chantal (d. 1641 )

Saint Frances de Chantal founded the Carmelite order of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary after being consulted by Saint Frances de Sales on the matter. At the time of her death, Saint Frances had founded more than 80 convents of the Visitation Order.

and Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas.

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse

You have visited the earth and watered it; you have enriched it abundantly.

-- Ps 65:10

Reflection

Mary is the fruitful Virgin everywhere.

Thus, she produces in the soul wherein

she dwells purity of heart and of body,

purity of intention

and of putpose,

and fruitfullness in good works.

-- St. Louis Grignion de Montfort

Prayer

O Mary, today the Church recalls your appearance as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

As I honor you under this glourious title, grant me the graces I need for my state of life.

Amen.

News for the Day:

Two car bombs set off today in central Baghdad have killed at least 57 and wounded at least 151, according to official news reports. The attack centered on Tayaran Square, a place where Iraqi men gather in hopes of being hired as day labourers.

Bush is supposedly still "reviewing his options" on Iraq, while most Americans are totally pessimistic about our involvement in Iraq. (A Yahoo!News video on the poll results can be watched here.)

Kofi Annan, as predicted, did not soften his criticism of Bush for his farewell speech yesterday... and of course, the far right was frothing at the mouth about it. More here... here... and here.

And of course, my latest installment of "maths and science of the day" which I offer up as an intro to particle physics... hope you enjoy.

Pope Benedict XVI states "Human rights must always be protected"

Today Benedict XVI released his annual message for The World Day of Peace, which is celebrated on January 1st. In it, he states that human rights must be defended - even in the "war on terror"... hmmmm... good thing Bush isn't Catholic... he might have to do some theological reflection on what the Pope's message means to him.The entire text of THE HUMAN PERSON, THE HEART OF PEACE can be found here. (Please consider Benedict's theological statements in this message in light of Section 80 of Gaudium et Spes, Sollicitudo rei Socialis, and CCC 2309 - 2314.)

The scientists who figured out the concept of "nuclear winter" have a theory on how a regional nuclear war would "devastate the environment", which only makes the above theological statements more important.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!
Today's Mysteries: Sorrowful Mysteries

Monday, December 11th, 2006

2006-12-11T14:02:00.000-06:00

9th Day of Advent
21^st day of the Lunar Month

Saint of the Day:

Daniel the Stylite (d. 493)

St. Daniel the Stylite was influenced by a meeting he had with St. Simeon (the most famous Stylite) when he was still a student at monastery. He lived in a monastery until he was forty-two years old; St Simeon passed away and Daniel felt called to follow in the footsteps of his mentor. Daniel lived on pillars for the next thirty-three years, but had little peace and quiet, as many came to him for advice and wisdom. At the age of eighty, before he passed away, Daniel left his teachings to his followers which emphasized love and charity as the most important virtues of the Christian life.

Ikon from : http://www.serfes.org/images/StDanieltheStylite.jpg

More about St. Daniel http://www.serfes.org/spiritual/september2002.htm

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse

Within her is a spirit that is

intelligent, holy,

unique, manifold,

subtle, mobile,

clear and undefined.

-- WIs 7:22

Reflection
How good Mary is!

How beautiful she is!

How worthy she is of all respect!

-- St. John Eudes

Prayer
O Mary, you are all-beautiful, and there is no stain of sin in you.

Grant that I may praise you as you deserve – both by my words and by my actions

Amen.

Catholic News of the Day

Newsweek has a special section this week called "Holy Family Values" that focuses on the Advent season, the Nativity and how these events affected Christian culture.

The article Holy Family Values discusses (with great respect for the Traditional view and beliefs of Christianity) how Jewish social and cultural customs (mores, taboos and restrictions) became part of the Christian culture; it also discusses how this "Christian culture" affected the development of Western Civilisation. The most interesting part of this article however is the way in which it emphasizes the revolutionary nature of Jesus' message that family is important - not just the "biological" or "nuclear" family, which was important in Jewish culture - but rather the entire family of man. Just as in Jesus' day certain prominent religious leaders (think of the Saducees, "Scribes" and Pharisees that you meet in the Gospel stories) liked to use religion to further their socio-political goals, today we have leaders who claim to follow Christ while acting like the Saducees.

The article Nativity of the Jews looks at the intersection of Jewish and Christian faith. It asks what the differences are between the two faiths by looking at the differences in the way each faith was "born".

The very interesting Whitewashing Jesus asks the important question "How white was Jesus?". Throughout history, many pictures of Jesus of Nazareth, called Christ have been made... but in very few of them does he look like a first-century Palestinian Jew. What's with that?

A video put together by Jan Grarup puts together photos she took in Dafur with Happy Xmas - War is Over by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

My interest in historical sites and landmarks was piqued by the article A Sacred Mission which talks about Endangered Religious sites in America... and why preserving former houses of worship is difficult. (and what we as Americans can do about it!)

Today in Iran, David Duke, former KKK Grand Wizard, is giving a speech at a "Holocaust Conference". Lemme guess... Elie Wiesel isn't going to speak...

Scientists have found the skeleton of a Plesiosaur in Antarctica.

Some biologists are learning more about the squirrels that inhabit our cities.

Another intersting article that was sent to me... nothing to do with religion really... or Advent... just some good ol' maths... I include it here so that persons interested in math and science can become conversant in faith matters and vice-versa.

Today the Vatican issued an update on the archaeological exploration of what is assumed to be St. Paul's tomb.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

In lieu of my usual closing graphic, I ask you to go to:

http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2006/12/from_years_end_.html

and

http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/news/finalSalute/pdf/FinalWhole10mb.PDF

Please pray for the soldiers and their families.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

2006-12-10T18:28:00.000-06:00

2nd Sunday of Advent
20th day of the Lunar Month.

Saint of the Day:

St. Eulalia (d. 304) , also called St. Eulalia of Merida.

According to traditional Hagiography, Saint Eulalia was martyred in Spain. She was only 12 when she was sentenced to death by Dacian, the local judge, for the crime of “athiesm” or failing to worship the Roman Dieties because of her Christian faith. Tradition states that she was first tortured by having her flesh torn with hooks, then killed by being burned to death. It is also stated in several traditional sources that she was “spared” from the full pain of being burned to death because of “the fotunate fact“ that her long hair caught fire and choked her to death quickly.

St. Eulalia comes to us from the Visigothic Church and has reached us through the Mozarabic Liturgy, in which today is her feast day.

picture from; http://www.portcult.com/OPS_103.gif

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse
Rise and shine!

Your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

-- Isa 60:1

Reflection
The Holy Spirit did not describe Mary in the Gospels but left it to you to picture her in your heart.

In this way, you might comprehend that there is no grace, no perfection, and no glory conceivable in a simple creature that is lacking to her.

-- St. Thomas of Villanova

Prayer
O Mary, help me to meditate often on your life in the Mysteries of Christ. May I come to appreciate the true glory that is yours.

Amen.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

Happy Saint Nicholas' Day!

2006-12-06T14:30:00.000-06:00

Today is Saint Nicholas' Day:
Nicholas is the patron saint of children and sailors.

http://www.byzantines.net/epiphany/nicholas.htm

First Reading: Isaiah 25:6-10
Psalm: Psalm 23:1-6
Gospel: Matthew 15:29-37

Catholic News

Excerpts of the Iraq Study Group have been released and are available online.

Yahoo!News' coverage of the group's report can be found here. One of the most interesting (and disturbing) facts reported in the report is that the US military has been systematically under-reporting violence in Iraq. This reminds me of what I learned my Vietnam War class in grad school...

Representatives Udall and Reyes today announced that six Marines will be charged in the deaths of 24 individuals who were killed in Haditha last year.

Meanwhile, while the poiticans are debating how the war is going, eight people were killed in a Baghdad resale shop and ten US Soldiers were killed in various locations today.

Vatican archaeologists report that they may have found the remains of St. Paul. More from EWTN.com and CWNews.com.

Remember to pray the Rosary for Peace!

Monday, December 4th, 2006

2006-12-04T22:21:00.000-06:00

Weekday in Advent

Thought of the day from EWTN.com:

Don't give in to discouragement....... If you are discouraged it is a sign of pride because it shows you trust in your own powers. Never bother about people's opinions. Be obedient to truth. For with humble obedience, you will never be disturbed.
-- Blessed Mother Teresa

I was reading an article today which struck me with its initial statement that only 10% of Evangelical Christians are "Biblically Literate" (http://www.alternet.org/story/44934/ ) . This surprised me, as the most common criticism which I encounter against the Catholic and Orthodox branches of Christianity is that members of my faith-group neglect the Holy Scriptures. It is often stated by Evangelical Protestants that Catholics are "idolaters" who "add the traditions of men to the Holy writings of faith" and that we are "unfamiliar with the teachings of Christ as written in the Bible". It seems that once again, Fundamentalists are very hypocritical in their criticism of others. Upon closer reading of the article, I became even more upset when I realised that the very premise of the "truth" that this group is teaching is based upon theological absurdity.

Alexander Zaitchik writes that, "by fully embracing Truth, religious conservatives" believe that they "can 'recapture Western Civilization'", which they "invented but have lost." This is most frightening when one considers the damage that has been done to individuals and the faith throughout history when individuals have sought to establish a theocracy (think of the persecution of Jews, Christians and other minorities under the Roman Empire - or more recently the persecution that occurred in 1692 in the Massachusetts Colony by Christians against Christians). It is especially scary when this statement is made by people who claim to follow Christ's teachings (literally!) as espoused in Matt 22:15-22, John 18:33-38, and other locations where it is made perfectly clear that the Kingdom of God is not a human governmental enterprise.

Zaitchik goes on to state that for Evangelical Fundamentalists "..the questions that will ultimately lead to recapturing the flag of civilization is born-again boilerplate: Is absolute truth defined by the Bible? Did Jesus Christ live a sinless life? Is God the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe, and does He still rule it today? Is Satan real?".

These questions, while couched in traditional Christian language, are exactly what a follower of Jesus Christ should not be asking. The first question that forms the basis of this "born-again boilerplate" statement would not even be possible for an Orthodox or Catholic Christian to conceive of - much less utter.

In the Orthodox and Catholic faith traditions, the question "is absolute truth defined by the Bible" would be either an absurd or ignorant thing to say. This is because of the definition or concept of "truth" in Orthodox and Catholic theology (saying this would be like looking up the entry for "English" in the dictionary instead of looking at the whole dictionary itself to gain an understanding of the English Language). We can read the Bible to learn about God, but we should not limit the definition of "God" to what is revealed in its pages alone.

To begin with, let's start with a simple point of Theology: God is the absolute truth, all other truth is Revealed Truth. Only God is Absolute Truth.

The Bible is a revealed truth, and as such is subject to the culture and circumstances of the people who received the revelation. Revealed Truth is merely a communication from God about some element or aspect of Absolute Truth. This is where the concept of "inspiration" comes into play; the writers of the collection of books that we call the Bible were "inspired" to write about the revelation of truth as he or she experienced it directly from God, who is the Absolute Truth. Prophets and holy writers, who are human beings like the rest of us, are incapable of completely revealing the Absolute Truth (John 21^24f).

Fundamentalism such as that of the group in the article confuses the importance of the circumstances during which GodÂs revelation(s) occurs and the importance of the message that is being revealed. Christian fundamentalists believe that one should replicate the social, political and religious conditions that existed at the time of the Bible. This is ignorant of the message of many of the prophets who spoke against the sociopolitical conditions of their time in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Instead of thinking of life in the ancient world in idealistic terms, one needs to look to cultural anthropology and archaeology of the Ancient Middle East to gain an understanding of the cultural milieu of the Bible. It also helps if those reading and studying the Bible remember that during the times of the Bible women were treated as sub-human, children were considered expendable until they were approximately 5 years of age (because they were likely to die of disease or injury during early childhood), slavery was an accepted social institution, there was little hope of climbing out of the poverty that was endemic for those who chose to eschew the Roman way of life in the name of Judaism, and there were exorbitant taxes to an oppressive, hostile government. A final thing to remember during Biblical study is that even religious life of the time was complicated by sectarian conflict over the Scriptures and how one should properly live out the Law of Torah (remember all the conflicts Jesus had with the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots and John's followers?).

Fundamentalists ignore that even within the Bible itself we can see that there are successive levels of revelation that occur. Christians believe that the Noachide Covenant was the first giving of the revealed truth of God to the human race. It was applicable to all children of Noah, or all of the entire human race, since all people are his descendants. Next came the covenants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These covenants are recognised by Jews, Christians and Muslims. Next came the supreme Covenant of Moses with God, which is the covenant which forms the basis of Judaism. It is not merely the Decalogue or Ten Commandments, but the entire 622 commandments of the Torah, as applied to daily life in communion with 'הוה. In later years, this covenant was expounded upon in the Mishneh and Talmudic writings. Some sects of modern Judaism believe that it is up to the persons of each generation to apply the Torah and teachings of the Rabbis to current issues. This is very similar to the belief in the Catholic and Orthodox faith which states that modern theological positions are to be derived from Holy Scripture interpreted through the insights of the Church Fathers and Tradition of the Faith. Finally, for Catholics and Orthodox believers came the ultimate Revealed Truth of Jesus' teachings. For Christians of the Orthodox and Catholic faith, we are able to learn directly what it means to be fully human and yet fully God from the life and actions of Jesus. We believe that "God became man so that men can become God". In Jesus, we have the most complete revealing of Absolute Truth that is available to human beings. This is why we seek to follow Jesus in the way in which we live our lives; by following Jesus in thought, word and deed we are able to participate in that which is called Divinization by the theologians.

Another reason Orthodox and Catholic Christians would feel that the belief of the Christians in the article is simplistic is because of the way in which Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians view creation and mysticism. Catholic and Orthodox believers would state that Natural Truth and Experienced Truth have to be included alongside Revealed Truth (Holy Scripture and Tradition) in the definition of God. Natural Truth is the truth of the world around us, while Experienced Truth is the truth of God that is revealed to us personally -it is what we experience in our own faith. These forms of revelation are necesarry for us to reach spiritual maturity - if we rely only on Revealed Truth, we will maintain a limited and childlike view of both God and the Universe. Unlike Revealed Truth and Tradition, which are handed down to us through scholarship from our faith's past, Natural Truth and Experienced Truth are meant to be participated in during our life.

In the writings of Christian Theologians, Natural Truth is often referred to as "the Book of Nature". Because Orthodox and Catholic Christians see the natural order as being a revelation of the Absolute Truth itself, learning about this natural order and how it works is learning about God. Because the Universe derives its existence from the Absolute Truth of God (for He alone exists independently ( remember 'הוה literally means "I exist") and cannot exist independently of God, it is absurd to speak of the "natural" and "super-natural" as most modern believers do. This terminology has rather recent origin and comes from faulty theology of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. (I will go more into that in another article...) but for now its enough to know that the Natural world, and the discipline most able to help us learn from it, Science, does not have to be inimical towards Religion and Theology.

Only faiths and practices that set themselves up against the Natural or Created order of God would experience conflict between these two fields; if one thinks that Nature is somehow disordered or evil, then it is easy to see the study of it as something to be feared and despised. However, as Catholics and Orthodox believers, we are able to have a proper relationship with Nature and God. We are able to have science and faith. (Or to put it bluntly like St. Thomas Aquinas, "only an ignorant fool would see a conflict between the two disciplines").

The very question that often is seen as the "basis" of a conflict between science and faith can be seen in the third question of the "boilerplate" theology: "is God the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe, and does He still rule it today ?" This query is just as misguided to an Orthodox or Catholic believer as the first two questions are. "Does he still rule it today?" smacks of the very imperialistic imagery and theistic limitations that make Fundamentalist Theologies so disordered and full of fear (for more on this subject, I reccomend reading: Bsp. Spong, John Shelby. A New Christianity for a New World. )

As Catholic and Orthodox Theologians have noted in books and articles, if Christianity is to continue being relevant to humanity, it must adapt to the shift in religious consciousness from a strictly theistic view of God as a vengeful, severe and religiously rigid person interested in only one particular tribe to that of a loving, forgiving, accepting God who shows to us the true Kingdom of God in the teachings and actions of Jesus of Nazareth. When we communicate with God, we need to be open to receive his Love and His Holy Spirit into our Lives. We must be willing to reach out beyond ourselves and our fears to those around us (Luke 10:25-37).

An area where we can easily apply this openness is to our prayer lives. When we pray, we need to express thanks for our life and the opportunity to experience all that we do.

Praying is not a time for believers to go through a litany of wants, needs, desires and grievances. It is not a Divinely ordained "bitch session". It is not a time for us to use "holy language" to grovel before the divine being as a means of building up our own importance in the eyes of others (Matt 6:5-18).

Praying with a litany of complaints and whining is the ultimate expression of an immature faith: it is the childish hope and expectation that God will "come down" as a "cosmic parent" and solve all our problems for us. This is absurd, as asking God to intervene in problems that we should take care of ourselves is expecting him to come down to our level when we should be moving toward his. It is an incredibly arrogant and ethnocentrist view that the Absolute Truth, the Ulitmate Reality, That Which Exists Independently, i.e. "God" has any interest or responsibility in our petty concerns! (Who the heck really prays that one team or another will win?) We should be praying to God so that we can have the inner strength and wisdom to conform our wills to his, not to have him bend the Universe to our petty wishes and desires. Most Christians need to learn from the Islamic example of prayer - Muslims pray as instructed by Muhammad, not "for things" like most Christians.

It would be good for most believers (be they Catholic, Orthodox, or Fundamentalist) to incorporate this practice of "Christ-centered" prayers into their own lives during this season of Advent. The next time you feel compelled to "pray for" something or someone, quietly contemplate how you could instead pray one of the prayers of Our Lord or Our Lady to be conformed to the Will of God (examples of this would be praying the Rosary, the Lord's Prayer or the Jesus Prayer). Doing this simple act will help us to find the Truth in Matthew 5:1 - 7:29. It is the Truth which is beyond all human understanding - and most importantly - is beyond all human fear, uncertainty, insecurity, ineptitude, division and tribalism... it is the Truth that Fundamentalists and Evangelicals long for, but are unable to experience because they have such a limited view of the world that they even limit the very God they worship fanatically.

Happy New Year!

2006-12-03T22:13:00.000-06:00

First Sunday of Advent
Sunday, December 3, 2006

Readings:

First Reading: Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm: Psalm 25:4-5, 8-10, 14
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:12 - 4:2
Gospel: Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

This Sunday is the first Sunday in the Liturgical Season of Advent, and is the New Year's Day of the Christian calendar. Like Lent, Advent is one of the two periods within the Church Year that focuses on penitence and fasting. During this season we, as believers are called to journey inward to find the Light that is within us. As we light the candles of the advent wreath, may we be drawn to the Light of the World, Jesus.

Advent Calendar for 2006 from the National Cathedral
has daily links for giving

Another Calendar from Beliefnet

The true cost of the war in Iraq...

2006-10-26T22:29:00.000-05:00

CBSNews' title for this article was "The Iraq War Gets Personal".

So far this war has "gotten personal" for:

2,809 American families,
2 Australian families,
119 British families,
13 Bulgarian families,
6 Danish families,
2 Dutch families,
2 Estonian families,
1 Fijian family,
1 Hungarian family,
32 Italian families,
1 Kazakhi family,
1 Latvian family,
17 Polish families,
2 Romanian families,
2 Salvadoran families,
3 Slovakian families,
11 Spanish families,
2 Thai families,
and 18 Ukrainian families.

(as of 22:39 26th October, 2006).

It has also "become personal" for the many families affected IN IRAQ by the deaths of civilian friends and family members. The number of Iraqi civilian deaths is estimated to be AT THE VERY LEAST between 45,000 and 49,000, but no "official body count" exists. The Lancet medical journal just published an article estimating over 650,000 deaths in Iraq.

Please remember all these individuals in your upcoming prayers for All Saints' and All Souls' Day.

October 26th, 2006

2006-10-26T08:12:00.000-05:00

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse
My dear children, for whom I am again in labour pains until Christ is formed in you! I wish I could be with you now.

-- Gal 4:19-20

Reflection
If Paul by his care and heartfelt tenderness gives birth to his children again and again till Christ be formed in them, how much more so does Mary!

In a manner far more holy and godlike, she begot her children by giving birth to the Word himself.

-- Blessed Guerric of ‘Igny

Prayer
O Mary, you beget us in Christ. Help me to live as benefits someone who has Christ as a Brother, God as a Father, and you as a Mother.

Amen.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

Today's Mystery - Luminous Mysteries

October 24 2006

2006-10-24T09:13:00.000-05:00

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse

Jesus went down with Mary and Joseph and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them; and his mother treasured all these things carefully in her heart.

-- Luke 2:51

Reflection

In imitation of Jesus, Christians should love Mary and think the best of her.

They should take her as their Mother and love, serve, wait upon her, and like Jesus be completely obedient to her.

-- St. Anthony Claret

Prayer

O Mary, increase my love and regard for you as my Mother. Help me to serve you in all things, for in doing so I will be serving and obeying your Divine Son.

Amen.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

Today's Mystery - Sorrowful Mysteries

October 23, 2006

2006-10-23T18:49:00.000-05:00

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse

Peace I bequeath to you; my peace I grant to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be fearful.

-- John 14:27

Reflection

Queen of Peace, it is through your Immaculate Heart that the God of peace has been given to the world.
Let this sweet peace reign in the Church and in our souls.

-- St. John Eudes

Prayer

O Mary, you are the Queen of Peace. Bring us to my heart, so that I may work for peace in my family, in my Church, and in my community, and in the world.

Amen.

Today's Meditation:

To my mind, democracy is more compassionate, more harmonious, more friendly than any other system. It respects others' rights and considers others equally as human brothers and sisters. Although you might disagree with them, you have to respect their wishes.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

From "The Pocket Dalai Lama," edited by Mary Craig, 2002. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Boston, www.shambhala.com.

http://www.catholicculture.org/lit/calendar/month.cfm?y=2006&m=10

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

Today's Mystery - Joyful Mysteries

October 18, 2006

2006-10-18T13:08:00.000-05:00

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse
I ask that requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone... that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all piety and dignity.

-- 1 Tim 2:1-2

Reflection
Our heart can include in the decades of the Rosary all the events that comprise the life of the individual, the family, the nation and all humankind.

It can include our own circumstances, those of our neighbour, and especially those of people dear to us.

-- Pope John Paul II

Prayer
O Mary, the Rosary beats out the rhythm of human life. Help me to meditate on the Mysteries of Jesus and apply them to life.

Amen.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

Today's Mystery - Glorious Mysteries

An antiwar quote...

2006-10-17T13:10:00.000-05:00

"I also came to the conclusion that, given the technology of modern warfare, war is inevitably a war against children, against civilians. When you look at the ratio of civilian to military dead, it changes from 50-50 in World War II to 80-20 in Vietnam, maybe as high as 90-10 today. Do you know this Italian war surgeon, Gino Strada? He wrote Green Parrots: A War Surgeon's Diary. He was doing war surgery in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places. Ninety percent of the people he operated on were civilians. When you face that fact, war is now always a war against civilians, and so against children. No political goal can justify it, and so the great challenge before the human race in our time is to solve the problems of tyranny and aggression, and do it without war. [He laughs quietly.] A very complex and difficult job, but something that has to be faced -- and that's what accounts for my becoming involved in antiwar movements ever since the end of World War II."
-- Historian Howard Zinn

Protest Details

2006-10-17T08:38:00.000-05:00

Citizens will be gathering this morning for a "mourning vigil and people's signing ceremony,"

in front of the Federal Building (Commerce and Griffin), at 9:00 am.

This is not an "organized event" per se, but it is in conjunction with the organized event in Washington D.C. this morning.

For more information please go to:
www.bordc.org
(or more specifically http://www.bordc.org/newsletter/bordc-act-alert1013.php )

Many persons of faith have worked hard for the defeat of the S. 3930: Military Commissions Act of 2006 that "limits habeas corpus, permits indefinite detention without judicial oversight, permits torture and cruel and degrading treatment, and limits accountability for abuses perpetrated by U.S. officials..."; this demonstration gives all of us a chance to respond on the day and at the time of signing - a turning point for our country that must be marked by people who stand for justice and rule of law consistent with our constitution.

October 17,2006

2006-10-16T23:11:00.000-05:00

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse
The manifestation of the Spirit is given to all for some benefit... All these things are produced by the same Spirit who distributes to everyone as he wills.

-- 1 Cor 12:7-11

Reflection
The Holy Spirit distributes His gifts, His virtues, and His grace through Mary.

He distributes them to whomever He wills, as many as He wills, and in the way that He wills.

-- St. Ignatius of Antioch

Prayer
O Mary, it is through you that the Spirit pours forth His graces.

Help me to cooperate fully with the particular gifts of the Spirit that are bestowed on me.

Amen.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

Today's Mystery - Sorrowful Mysteries

October 16, 2006

2006-10-16T19:54:00.000-05:00

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse
On that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

-- John 14:20

Saint of the Day:

Margaret Mary Alacoque

Reflection
O Mary, our sweet hope, make us experience your power with the loving Heart of Jesus.

Employ your credit to make us lodge there forever.

-- St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Prayer
O Mary, you are the Mother of Hope. I put all my trust in you. Keep me safe in the Heart of your Divine Son forever.

Amen.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

Today's Mystery - Joyful Mysteries

October 14, 2006

2006-10-16T19:40:00.000-05:00

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse
One who sows in the spirit will reap everlasting life from the spirit.

Let us not grow weary in doing good.

-- Gal 6:8

Reflection
The Rosary is all-powerful to touch the Heart of Our Lady.

It is the most excellent and fruitful type of prayer for obtaining above all eternal life.

-- Pope Leo XIII

Prayer
O Mary, help me to recite the Rosary faithfully. Grant that it may keep me close to you on Earth and gain for me eternal life and union with you in Heaven.

Amen.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

Today's Mystery - Sorrowful Mysteries

October 15, 2006

2006-10-15T10:41:00.000-05:00

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse
There were certain Greeks among those who had gone up to worship on the feast...

...They came to Philip... and asked him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."

-- John 12:20-21

Reflection
The Rosary is a devotion that, through the Blessed Mother, leads us to Jesus.

It is He Who is the goal of this long and repeated invocation to Mary.

-- Pope Paul VI

Prayer
O Mary, the Rosary is our ticket to Jesus. We speak to you and we come to Jesus.

Help me to recite my Rosary with attention and devotion.

Amen.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

Today's Mystery - Glorious Mysteries

October 13, 2006

2006-10-13T11:28:00.000-05:00

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse
Be persevering in prayer;
Be watchful and thankful.
At the same time,
Pray for us also.

-- Col 4: 2-3

Reflection
Rising or going to bed,
leaving or returning,
away or at home,
I have the “Hail Mary” always on my lips.
I am insuperable when I say it.
To become perfect say a Rosary daily.

-- St. Louis Grignion de Montfort

Prayer

O Mary, let me follow St. Louis’ advice and say a Rosary a day.
But if I cannot always do that, let me at least say a “Hail Mary” in your honor.

Amen.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

Today's Mystery - Glorious Mysteries

October 12, 2006

2006-10-12T19:07:00.000-05:00

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse

Now hope that is seen is not really hope…
but if we hope for what we do not yet see,
we wait with patience.

-- Romans 8: 24-25

Reflection

The Rosary enlivens the hope for things above that endure forever.
As we meditate upon the glory of Jesus and His Mother,
we have seen heaven opened and are heartened in our striving to gain the eternal home.

-- Pope Pius XI

Prayer

O Mary, as I recite my Rosary,
Foster the virtue of hope in me.
Teach me to wait with patience for the fulfillment of God’s promises.

Amen.

Catholic News for Today:

The Bloomberg School of Health at Johns Hopkins, in conjunction with Baghdad University and MIT have conducted a mortality study of the Iraqi populaion. This population study uses demographic data and anthropological methods to determine an accurate body count for the Iraq war.

President Bush, despite protests from Russia, Japan and China wishes to impose tough economic sanctions, travel restrictions and other resolutions on North Korea. President Bush is pushing for the inclusion of the condition that "any resolution should be adopted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter, which means it could be enforced militarily". This is especially disturbing given Bush's proclivity to invade countries he feels are "part of the Axis of Evil".

Britain has a new military commander, General Richard Dannatt. What was General Dannatt's first act as commander of the UK's Military forces? He declared that: British troops in Iraq are making matters worse, that Britain needs to remove troops from the region as soon as possible, and that Tony Blair's political views and actions are "naive". Sounds like Her Majesty's armed forces are fairing better than those of the United States under King George.

Bishop William Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), sent a letter to President George W. Bush yesterday urging him to veto H.R. 6061, the Secure Fence Act of 2006 that would authorize construction of up to 700 miles of fencing and barriers along the U.S-Mexico.

Cardinal Bertone has an interesting way of interpreting Benedict's recent "attempts at interreligious dialogue"...

Pope Benedict has long favored moves to accommodate traditionalist Catholics, and is now moving towards allowing the Latin Tridentine Mass to be celebrated regularly, in all parishes, by all Priests without approval of local Bishops. This shows that he identifies more with the "Traditionalist" members of the Church instead of the "Liberation Theology" and "Neo-Orthodox" Catholics (exemplified by Pope John Paul II).

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

Today's Mystery - Luminous Mysteries

The Human Toll in Iraq

2006-10-11T23:49:00.000-05:00

Here is a map that shows where American military and civilian individuals have died in Iraq since the beginning of the US led occupation.

It shows the real impact that this war is having.

How can the man (George W. Bush) who institued this war call himself a Christian and follower of Just War theory?

Peace:
In Hebrew שלום means totality, wholeness, well-being, prosperity, and freedom from violence or misfortune. It was central in the Old Testament (Tanakh) and was expected to be a dominant characteristic of the kingdom established by the Messiah.

In the New Testament:
1. It was the work of John the Baptist to prepare for this peace Luke 1: 79
2. The birth of Jesus was the beginning of peace Luke 2:14
3. Jesus hailed as the bringer of peace Luke 19: 38
4. Peace is the greeting of the risen Jesus John 20: 19-26
5. The message of Jesus is a "gospel of peace" Acts 10:36 and Ephesians 6:15
6. God is the God of peace Romans 15:33; 16:20; I Corinthians 14:33; Philemon 4:9; Hebrews 13:20.
7. Peace should mark the Christian life Ephesians 4:3; 2 Timothy 2:22-23; James 3:16-18

-- From The New Testament of The New American Bible, St. Joseph Edition.

October 11, 2006

2006-10-11T10:29:00.000-05:00

Marian Meditation of the Day:

Verse
My soul longs for your salvation;

I trust in your Word.

My eyes fail longing for your promise.

-- Psalm 119: 81-82

Reflection
The well-meditated Rosary consists in a three-fold element.

For each decade there is a picture,

and for each picture a three-fold emphasis which is simultaneously:

mystical contemplation

intimate reflection

pious intention

Prayer
O Mary, teach me to understand each Mystery by contemplation,

apply it to my life by reflection,

and offer it for some personal or public good by intention.

Amen.

Remember to Pray the Rosary for Peace!

Catholic Peace News to Pray About:

North Korea threatens the United States with war; government leaders say that "the U.S. must stop hostilities".

North Korea threatens war or "physical action" if the U.S. (and nations of the U.N.) enforce economic sanctions against the country and its people.

Condoleezza Rice reassures the nation that the U.S. will not invade North Korea like we did Iraq.

The U.N. has issued a report on violence against women. Please pray for men, women, and children who are in abusive situations; pray that they have the stregnth, courage, resources, and support to get the help they need.

In other news of importance to Catholics:

Microsoft has issued yet another "patch" - this one is critical, so GO DOWNLOAD IT!!! (Now that I think about it, this might require prayer to St. Isadore of Seville... the patron saint of computers, computing and the internet. )

Today's Mystery - Glorious Mysteries