Reading Saint Cyprian... [2 UPDATES]

This is why this blog was started! Tonight the real & ecumenical Old Books Club met and discussed yet another Patristics author: Cyprian of Carthage. A great discussion, which I love. Here's what I thought after our meeting...

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Really interesting discussion tonight. I still don't get how the Orthodox Church,
which I do indeed love and respect, insists that Cyprian is arguing for a de-centralized
(no pope as head) Church. I think recently the Orthodox Church did recognize
the primacy of Peter over the other Apostles though; they argue that Andrew
was however the 'first to be sent', and claim descendency from his episcopal line. [please correct me if I'm off here.]

To recap a really interesting issue: Tim had some really valid concerns about the 'legal' language
in Cyprian's writing. He felt that it gave a 'legalistic' character to the structure
of the Church.

As I thought about it on the drive home, some questions came to my mind:
1) is the 'legal' language bad? (we discussed this a bit at the OBC meeting)
2) is 'legal' language bad because it is Roman, and therefore pagan?
3) what if the 'legal' language was from the Jews; is it still bad? We are
fulfilled Jews, ya know!
4) related to the above question, are individuals outside the Church, such as
Roman pagans or Greek philosophers such as Plato, doomed to have a
pointless existence? Do their greatest ideas become completely bankrupt
for the Christian simply on the basis of their being 'pagan'?
I think this has come up other times, especially concerns of David, that the
Catholic or Orthodox churches - and the men we are reading - are 'too Greek'.
Could this question be at the heart of the 'legal' language issue? Paganism:
creeping its philosophy or law or structure into the Church?

Matt and I are both in a course together on Ecclesiology (theology of the
'churchiness' of the Church, as I love calling it.). In a text we recently read by the Dominican
Catholic theologian Henri DeLubac (early-mid 20th century), we read these
very interesting remarks:

"...the Fathers [like Cyprian, Augustine, John Chrysostom etc.] allow the pagan
world something of the light of Christ they generally set this light in a prophetic
relationship with the full light of the Gospel, and that they see the Church that is
to come in the lives both of the holy people of the Gentile world as well
as of the righteous under the Old Law. So, for Irenaeus, it must be said without
exception of all the saints who lived before the time of the Gospel that, in a
sense, 'they heralded Christ's coming and obeyed his Law.' According to Clement
of Alexandria: 'Just as God sent prophets to the Jews, so did he raise up
in the midst of Greece the most virtuous of her sons and set them as prophets
amid their nation.'" (chapter on "Salvation through the Church")

and elsewhere...

"We must not be astonished, but we must draw the necessary inference
and so find the key to our problem. For since a necessary function in the history
of our salvation was fulfilled by so great a mass of 'unbelievers'- not indeed in
that they were in formal error or in a state of degradation, but in that there is to
be found in their beliefs and consciences a certain groping after the truth, its painful
preparation or its partial anticipation, discoveries of the natural reason and tentative
solutions- so these unbelievers have an inevitable place in our humanity, a humanity
such as the fall and the promise of a Redeemer have made it." (same chapter)

In other places, DeLubac considers humanity or Adam prior to the fall like a china-doll, and
who at the fall "crashed into a million pieces" creating a humanity of divided individualism.
Reconsidering the pagans, aren't we all from the shattered 'body' of humanity
that God originally intended to be one? Don't we all (new and old
pagans too), created in the image of God, come from the same Father in Heaven?
DeLubac is suggesting strongly that even though they did not have Revelation, the
'pagans' still contributed to the development of the Body of Christ, the Church,
and if nothing else clearly such things as natural law, governing all humanity by
our unified origins in the Logos- the Word or Law in the flesh, Christ.

If we buy what DeLubac says, is 'legalistic' Roman language therefore outside
of the Church? Is borrowing from the great developments of a foreign body of people
(people created by God) so terrible? Is it impossible to imagine that God perhaps
intended it to be this way, or at least is ok with 'law' coming from pagan Rome?

The Church is indeed catholic (Greek word meaning universal), not because of
the Catholic Church or numbers of members or locations on earth, but because it was
(as DeLubac argues) from the beginning intended for all of humanity- to the very last one.
God wants us all, and he gives us the Church as an invitation to accept or reject Him.

What say you?

UPDATE:

I sense that Protestants are not keen on giving the 'pagans'
kudos for what they've contributed to human ingenuity and thought,
let alone a reluctance to even afford them Salvation.

Could it be that the Church's use of 'legal' Roman language
-or even juridical Roman law in its structure- is an example
of the fact that the Church is indeed where all the peoples
of the earth are being called back together by God?
Could it be, in fact, a really positive thing?

Also, I find it quite legalistic to simply write-off all things
pagan. I also think its legalistic to think that we only have
to go to God for forgiveness in our personal prayer life.

There is a legalism in being abhorred by any and all legalism!

Christianity is based on paradox- a little of this and a little of
that totally contradictory idea.
Virgin-birth, One God-3 Persons, Man-God, Predestination-Freewill...
There aren't many churches that are comfortable with all
of these paradoxes!

UPDATE------------------------------------------------

David responded:

I don’t have much time to respond as I am going out of town for the week. But here are a couple of thoughts. Tim is not the first to be concerned that the Catholic church was modeled off the Roman Empire. In fact this is a common topic amongst “emergent church” folks. On the idea of penance, Nate likened it to making up to our wives when we have done something wrong. But isn’t a part of the “good news’ that God is not like our wives? We are told that he washes our sins away and removes them as far as the east is from the west. I think we are also told that no matter what sin will remain a problem. It seems to me that repentance is a frame of mind amongst other things where we constantly look to God for his grace and forgiveness. No amount of penance will win God’s trust or make up for our sin. So I still need help understanding the Cyprian point of view.

I do enjoy the reading and discussion. May it help us all to lead better lives!

I responded:

Thanks for the reply, David.

Indeed, I do see strong suspicion from protestants (in general) about Catholicism or Orthodoxy adopting things from the Greco-Roman world; however, I see this as a bi-product of a narrow view of salvation. For instance, some Christians believe that they 'are saved' simply by being a member of a 'faith alone' church; there is also a large strain in this country of believing in America as manifest destiny- that the USA was ordained by God and that other countries, ethnicities, or non-Christians (even people of different denominations) are not saved. We've also come across the term 'judaizers' in our discussions in the past; this is also problematic to me in that it fails to acknowledge that Christianity is simply another name for 'fulfilled Judaism'. The Jews are thus seen as the greatest enemies of Christ because they had the Revelation, but denied the Messiah.
And so I guess my point was that I see (even in a simple objection to 'legal' Roman language) a rejection of the universality of God's saving action for all peoples: jews, gentiles, everyone (yesterday, today, & tomorrow).

Regarding Penance (or the sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation, if you like),
I would cite the Compendium of the Roman Catechism regarding David's point about God totally wiping away our sins by the cross & resurrection. (These are straight from the text)

Why is there a sacrament of Reconciliation after Baptism? (Baptism understood as giving the sanctifying grace of the cross, wiping away Original Sin and incorporating the recipient into God's people)
Since the new life of grace received in Baptism does not abolish the weakness of human nature nor the inclination to sin, Christ instituted this sacrament (Jn 20:23; 2 Cor 5:17-20; James 5:13-16; Mt 18:18 as a few examples) for the conversion of the baptized who have been separated from Him and His Body by sin.

*In other words, the Cross earns us back the gift of eternal life; this is given via Baptism. We can, however, sin after we are baptized which would then require us to repent and repair the damage done to the Body- the Church.

Do the baptized have need of conversion?
The call of Christ to conversion continues to resound in the lives of the baptized. Conversion is a continuing obligation for the whole Church. She is holy but includes sinners in her midst.

*Basically, Penance or Reconciliation is about conversion or growing in the 'life of Christ.' It calls on the believer, both spiritually and in actuality to change their ways.

What are the effects of this sacrament?
The effects of the sacrament of Penance are: reconciliation with God and therefore the forgiveness of sins; reconcilation with the Church; recovery, if it has been lost, of the state of grace; remission of the eternal punishment merited by mortal (very serious) sins, and remission, at least in part, of the temporal punishment which is the consequence of sin; peace, serenity of conscience and spiritual consolation; and an increase of spiritual strength for Christian living.

*Something often overlooked is the fact that at the sacrament, the person gives up the burden of the sin. It has been 'let out of the closet' as they say. This is why so many people, I think, are in psycological therapy these days- they need to talk to someone about the hurt (either from themselves, or even others). Sin hurts the Body of believers; to confess eliminates the weight of burden and liberates the individual!

Great discussion! Indeed, I agree with David: let us hope and pray that these readings make us better men in Christ.

take care,
Mike

Great Reuter's photo!

Survey: U.S. Christians in flux

Poll finds Protestant churches in decline [Catholics hurting too, but some retention numbers not revealed, which makes one wonder...]

DENVER - The U.S. religious marketplace is extremely volatile, with nearly half of American adults leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether, a new survey finds.

The study released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is unusual for its sheer scope, relying on interviews with more than 35,000 adults to document a diverse and dynamic U.S. religious population.

While much of the study confirms earlier findings — mainline Protestant churches are in decline, non-denominational churches are gaining and the ranks of the unaffiliated are growing — it also provides a deeper look behind those trends, and of smaller religious groups.

"The American religious economy is like a marketplace -- very dynamic, very competitive," said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. "Everyone is losing, everyone is gaining. There are net winners and losers, but no one can stand still. Those groups that are losing significant numbers have to recoup them to stay vibrant."

78 percent Christian
The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey estimates the United States is 78 percent Christian and about to lose its status as a majority Protestant nation, at 51 percent and slipping.

More than one-quarter of American adults have left the faith of their childhood for another religion or no religion at all, the survey found. Factoring in moves from one stream or denomination of Protestantism to another, the number rises to 44 percent.

One in four adults ages 18 to 29 claim no affiliation with a religious institution.

"In the past, certain religions had a real holding power, where people from one generation to the next would stay," said Penn State University sociologist Roger Finke, who consulted in the survey planning. "Right now, there is a dropping confidence in organized religion, especially in the traditional religious forms."

Lugo said the 44 percent figure is "a very conservative estimate," and more research is planned to determine the causes.

"It does seem in keeping with the high tolerance among Americans for change," Lugo said. "People move a lot, people change jobs a lot. It's a very fluid society."

The religious demographic benefiting the most from this religious churn is those who claim no religious affiliation. People moving into that category outnumber those moving out of it by a three-to-one margin.

The majority of the unaffiliated — 12 percent of the overall population — describe their religion as "nothing in particular," and about half of those say faith is at least somewhat important to them. Atheists or agnostics account for 4 percent of the total population.

Affiliation swapping
The Roman Catholic Church has lost more members than any faith tradition because of affiliation swapping, the survey found. While nearly one in three Americans were raised Catholic, fewer than one in four say they're Catholic today. That means roughly 10 percent of all Americans are ex-Catholics.

The share of the population that identifies as Catholic, however, has remained fairly stable in recent decades thanks to an influx of immigrant Catholics, mostly from Latin America. Nearly half of all Catholics under 30 are Hispanic, the survey found.

On the Protestant side, changes in affiliation are swelling the ranks of nondenominational churches, while Baptist and Methodist traditions are showing net losses.

Many Americans have vague denominational ties at best. People who call themselves "just a Protestant," in fact, account for nearly 10 percent of all Protestants.

Read the full story here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23337807

New York pro-life video

Archbishop Censures Clinton Stop at Catholic University

Says Senator's Record Not Consistent With Church Teaching

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, FEB. 13, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The archbishop of San Antonio said he was "surprised" to hear that a local Catholic university will be the spot for a campaign rally for Senator Hilary Clinton, whose records he says are not consistent with Church teaching.

Archbishop José Gomez said this today in a press statement ahead of Clinton's scheduled campaign rally at St. Mary's University this evening. Clinton, a longtime supporter of abortion rights, is holding the event as part of her bid for the White House.

In an official message from the communications office of the archdiocese, Archbishop Gomez said, "I was surprised to learn of Senator Hillary Clinton’s appearance at St. Mary’s University. I was neither advised nor consulted by the university before the decision was made to have Senator Clinton speak at the university."

The prelate affirmed: "Catholic institutions are obliged to teach and promote Catholic values in all instances. This is especially important when people look to our Catholic universities and colleges to provide leadership and clarity to the often complicated and conflicting political discourse.

"It is clear that the records of Senator Clinton and some of the other candidates for president on important life issues are not consistent with the teaching of the Catholic Church." [nice work, fella!]

In the message that drew the support of Bishop Patrick Zurek of Amarillo and Bishop Thomas Flanagan, retired auxiliary bishop of San Antonio, Archbishop Gomez stated clearly, "It is not my intention to tell people for whom to vote."

"However," he continued, "I encourage Catholics to understand the teachings of the Church on the broad spectrum of public issues that are of great concern today."

The 56-year-old archbishop recalled a 2004 document from the U.S. episcopal conference that "affirmed that when dealing with political candidates and public office holders, 'The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.'"

Archbishop Gomez acknowledged that a disclaimer from St. Mary's said the institution "as a Catholic tax-exempt university," does not "endorse political candidates or their positions on issues and acknowledges the fundamental differences between those of the presidential candidates and the Catholic Church."

But the San Antonio archbishop affirmed, "Our Catholic institutions must promote the clear understanding of our deep moral convictions on an issue like abortion, an act that the Church calls 'an unspeakable crime' and a non-negotiable issue."

New interview on the Shroud of Turin

A New Era for the Shroud of Turin
Interview With Expert Father Gianfranco Berbenni

By Paolo Centofanti

ROME, FEB. 15, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Leaked information about a BBC interview to air on Holy Saturday reports that Christopher Bronk Ramsey, director of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, thinks the 1998 tests on the Shroud of Turin should be re-evaluated.

The 1988 carbon-14 tests -- done in the Oxford laboratories -- dated the shroud in the Middle Ages, thereby negating that it could be Christ's burial cloth.

ZENIT spoke with Capuchin Father Gianfranco Berbenni, professor of "Science and Theology Regarding the Holy Shroud" at Rome's Regina Apostolorum university. In this interview, he comments on the long history of research on the shroud, as well as photographic reproduction made for display at this summer's World Youth Day.

Q: How do you see these possible new elements related to the Holy Shroud and to a possible disproving of the 1988 carbon-14 analyses?

Father Berbenni: Going beyond the leaked information, I think that a new era of investigations about the Shroud is opening; 20 years have passed since those scientific studies.

Q: Did Ramsey form part of the 1988 analysis team?

Father Berbenni: He worked in the laboratory in which the analyses were done. We could say that this is a new generation of scientists who are joining the research on the Shroud. Many of the older generation have left us, even physically, and this new generation rightly is taking up again the investigations, also because of a refining of the methods and instruments for archaeological dating over these years.

Some have even spoken about a kind of conspiracy, as if the $1 million offered for verifying the non-authenticity of the Shroud could have motivated the scientists, let's not say to falsify, but at least to direct the final results.

Perhaps this could be considered a bit of "scientific gossip." Little credit should be given to rumors when they do not have serious proof. The problem perhaps is that both sides, the one favorable to the Holy Shroud and the other against it were very much in conflict. Perhaps both sides brought to the surface their best arguments in that period. Both probably need to historically review those events.

Q: Regarding your statement about "scientific gossip," how do you evaluate the communication and information generally published about the Holy Shroud and up to what point do you think that at times it is used to make a circus of the information?

Father Berbenni: One of the weak points, recently examined as well in the International Center of Turin, is indeed ensuring the quality of information related to the Holy Shroud. Because of this a good press office is fundamental in order to give journalists trustworthy materials. It is, therefore, more than anything, a task of organizing communication. Information, if incomplete, becomes more easily manipulated.

Q: Therefore the manipulation of information can even be involuntary?

Father Berbenni: About the willfulness of it, there are many hints, but beyond the hints, there are no proofs.

Q: What do you think about the photographic enlargement being made of the Holy Shroud to be displayed in Novara, Italy, and then for World Youth Day in Sydney? Do you think that it can run the risk of trivializing the Holy Shroud?

Father Berbenni: The essential thing is that this initiative of the enlargement maintains that elegance of communication that the Holy Shroud has always brought to its surroundings. Thus this is a very good initiative; the essential thing is that a non-superficial tone is protected.

Q: Is there anything new in the studies about the Holy Shroud?

Father Berbenni: Beyond the intervention regarding protecting the preservation of the Holy Shroud, in these days, I think the Church does not intend to accelerate, at least at the moment, new investigations. The essential thing is its optimal conservation, something that has been verified for almost 10 years with its placement in the new, and splendid chest.

Q: Are there misunderstandings about the theological meaning of the Holy Shroud?

Father Berbenni: Sadly this is one of the weakest areas right now, in the popular and social perception of this cloth. In part because of the conflict that has sometimes marked it.

It is a splendid cloth, but is always at the center of aggravated discussions with a cultural character, and at times even about theological positions.

Q: Can you speak to us about the scientific or chemical theories about the way in which the image of the Holy Shroud could have formed?

Father Berbenni: Substantially there are two major schools. Our center in Rome, which is inclined toward accepting a normal physical-chemical formation, and the majority, at least presently, of the scientific positions, in which there are groups with hypotheses going from the mysterious, because they do not yet have demonstrated bases, to the esoteric.

Investigations about the formation of the image are very linked to the characteristics of the investigations of the STURP [Project of Investigation of the Shroud of Turn] from 1976 to 1988, but with some presuppositions.

The important thing is that they continue investigations without exaggerated positions of "scientific fantasy" but with freedom of investigation.

Regarding ourselves, we would suggest returning to much simpler, "normal" hypothesis, given that we always have available the high resolution photo of the negative of the Holy Shroud, which until 2002 was not analyzable except in small parts. It helps in that which refers to the technical aspects of formation of the image.

More on Catholic - Orthodox relations...

More Cardinal Kasper on Orthodox relations...

Ravenna Was "Breakthrough" in Orthodox-Catholic Ties
Cardinal Kasper Looks Ahead

ROME, FEB. 18, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The so-called Ravenna Document is a real breakthrough in Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, says the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

In an interview with Gerard O'Connell for Our Sunday Visitor, Cardinal Walter Kasper explained what made the breakthrough possible, and what's left in the process of achieving full unity.

His comments centered on the concluding document of the Oct. 8-14, 2007, plenary assembly of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, held in Ravenna, Italy.

"We started the dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches as a whole in 1980. The first phase of the dialogue between the 1980s and 90s sought to reaffirm what we have in common: the Eucharist and the other sacraments, episcopacy and priesthood," Cardinal Kasper explained. "Now, we are discussing the canonical and theological consequences; for the first time, we approach the questions: What is the Church? Where is the Church? What are the structures of the Church?

"We came to the concept that the Church is realized on three levels: the local level, that is, the diocese with the bishop; the regional level, that is, the metropolitan or patriarchate; and the universal level. And on every level we have a tension between authority -- bishop, patriarch, and the ‘protos,' Greek for primate, that is, ‘the first of the bishops' -- and the principle of synodality, synodal structures."

Cardinal Kasper explained that at each level, there is a tension between authority and synodality, "which is essential to the nature of the Church -- "ecclesiologically constitutive" -- and that is already an important point on which to have agreement."

But the real breakthrough, he said, was that "the Orthodox agreed to speak about the universal level -- because before there were some who denied that there could even be institutional structures on the universal level. The second point is that we agreed that at the universal level there is a primate. It was clear that there is only one candidate for this post, that is the Bishop of Rome, because according to the old order -- ‘taxis' in Greek -- of the Church of the first millennium the see of Rome is the first among them.

"Many problems remain to be resolved, but we have laid a foundation upon which we can build."

A Catholic challenge

Cardinal Kasper clarified that the foundation reached is a challenge also for the Catholic Church.

"Whereas the Orthodox must clarify more deeply the question of ‘primacy, 'protos,' on the universal level, we Catholics have to reflect more clearly on the problem of synodality and conciliarity, especially on the universal level," he said.

The prelate continued: "The Ravenna document is only a first step and a basic statement. It quotes the Letter of Ignatius of Antioch to the Romans -- around 100 A.D. -- stating that the community of Rome presides in love. Other early statements concur. When in the first millennium local churches were in difficulty or in distress, they often appealed to Rome. Rome was an instance of appeal, and had therefore already in the first millennium an important role to play.

"The Ravenna document mentions this, but when we in Ravenna spoke in detail about it, it became obvious that there are often different interpretations of the same facts.

"These differences existed partly already in the first millennium. For instance, the doctrine of primacy was much more developed in the West than in the East. Therefore, it is necessary to study the first millennium in detail, in order to come to a common understanding of the Fathers, both the Western and the Eastern ones. I hope we will find a common view of the first millennium."

The pontifical council president clarified that a common view does not mean "a totally unified view."

"There can still be a difference in understanding," he affirmed. "For we have to distinguish between differences that are complementary and those that are contradictory. Complementarity existed already in the first millennium. So we have to look if we can transform our contradictions into new, fruitful complementary positions."

Cardinal Kasper said the atmosphere in Ravenna was "so positive" that he is hoping to reach such a point of agreement with the Orthodox.

"We will not arrive at uniformity, that is not the goal, but we can come to a common view, a common basic understanding; and within this common basic understanding there can be different accents and different emphases. This does not necessarily prevent Church unity. But we must overcome the contradictions of the first millennium."

Moving on

The president of the pontifical council clarified that a consensus on the first millennium is not enough.

"When we have finalized the discussion about the first millennium, then we have to go to the second millennium," he said.

The cardinal clarified that in the second millennium there was "a decisive development not only in the Latin Church, but also in the Eastern Churches, a development which till today continues to give reason for the existing schism."

He explained: "In the first millennium we had five Patriarchates, now we have 15 Patriarchates and some autonomous Churches. In the West we had the development that led to the First Vatican Council -- 1869-70 -- with the definition of the primacy of jurisdiction and the infallibility of the Pope, a development the Orthodox never accepted. Therefore, we have to discuss how to interpret these different developments on the basis of the first millennium. This will not be an easy discussion; on the contrary, it will be very difficult to reach an agreement about the First and the Second Vatican Councils.

"So the next step after the study of the first millennium will be the study of the second millennium, and only when we have finished that discussion will we be able to draw the consequences for the future of our relationship. Only then will the documents be mature enough to be formally submitted to the respective authorities of the Churches."

Asked how long he thinks this process will take, the cardinal answered: "Nobody can know exactly. But I think at least one decade! But we should leave this to God's providence and in his hands. We should only keep in mind that this is not just an intellectual and an academic process, but that we have to involve the whole body of our Churches, thus entailing also an emotional process.

"We are aware that much resentment, prejudice, and misunderstanding continue to persist, and that all kinds of oppositions and obstacles need to be overcome. Such a change of deep-rooted mentalities takes time; you cannot do it from one day to another.

"We need a reception process not only on the level of our hierarchies but also on the level of our faithful. Or to put it in a more spiritual way: Ecumenical rapprochement is not possible without the conversion of hearts. Here everybody has to begin with himself or herself."

A guiding light

In the extensive interview, Cardinal Kasper gave some hints as to how varying concepts of primacy could be reconciled.

"In this context it should be noted that already today we have two forms of exercise of Roman primacy within the Catholic Church," he explained. "We have two Codes of Canon Law: one for the Latin Church, the other for the Eastern Churches which are in full communion with Rome. According to these Codes of Canon Law, primacy is exercised in a different way in the Latin Church and in the Eastern Churches.

"So we do not want to impose the system which today is in the Latin Church on the Orthodox Churches. In the case of the restoration of full communion, a new form of the exercise of the primacy needs to be found for the Orthodox Churches.

"Already the apostolic constitution enforcing the Eastern Code of Canon Law stated that its regulations were valid only in the intermediate term, that is, until full reconciliation with the Eastern Churches not in full communion. Thus, the model of the exercise of primacy we have in the Eastern Catholic Churches is not necessarily the model for the future reconciliation with the Orthodox Churches.

"At this stage, however, it would be premature to speculate on what form the final outcome will take."

Roadblocks

Asked what is the biggest obstacle in moving forward to unity, Cardinal Kasper affirmed that a "'spirit of possessiveness' is a main obstacle, which can also be seen as lack of willingness to 'metanoia,' that is, to conversion. It is also a lack of love, an unwillingness to open oneself to a partner, to learn from and be enriched by the other, and to share with the other.

"This implies purification of memories, to ask for forgiveness and to correct wrong and non-evangelical attitudes of the past. Pope John Paul II often affirmed that there cannot be ecumenism without the conversion of hearts. The same Pope defined the ecumenical dialogue as the sharing of gifts. All this is a spiritual problem and a spiritual task, which can be done only in the power of the Holy Spirit."

It's because of this that spiritual ecumenism is so important, the cardinal said.

"According to the Second Vatican Council spiritual ecumenism is the heart of ecumenism," Cardinal Kasper affirmed. "This means: personal conversion of the heart, sanctification of life, of shared Bible study and above all of prayer. We as weak human beings cannot ‘make' or organize the unity of the Church; unity is a gift of the Spirit. We have to pray for the Spirit to make ours the prayer of Jesus on the eve of his suffering and death 'that all may be one.'

"Spiritual ecumenism is also an ecumenism that is not reduced to academic circles and academic dialogue or to a kind of Church diplomacy. All this is important, but it is too far away from the basis of the Church. In spiritual ecumenism everybody can participate. This is important for the reception of the ecumenical documents, because without reception in the body of the Church they remain just pieces of paper."

Russian Orthodox - Catholic relations slowly improving...

Cardinal Kasper Hails "New Climate" With Russian Orthodox
Pontifical Council President Looks Ahead

ROME, FEB. 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The ice is melting in relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, and there is good will for cooperation, says the president of the Pontifical Council for Promotion Christian Unity.

In an interview with Gerard O'Connell for Our Sunday Visitor, Cardinal Walter Kasper said relations with the Russian Orthodox Church are much better than when he began as president of that Vatican dicastery. And he discussed what lies ahead on the path toward unity.

"Very soon after I was appointed as president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity [March 2001], the four Catholic dioceses in Russia were established, and this caused a profound crisis with the Russian Orthodox Church," Cardinal Kasper explained. "In the meantime the situation has improved; it’s no longer ice, the ice is melting.

"We are of the opinion that a personal encounter between the Pope and Patriarch Alexy II would be very helpful for the further development of our relations. The Moscow Patriarchate has never in principle excluded such an encounter, but it claims that some problems have to be resolved beforehand, i.e., the problem of what they call proselytism and uniatism.

"We are working to solve these problems and we hope we are able to do so even though there are different approaches and concerns. At this moment the Moscow Patriarchate is interested in cooperating on the questions relating to the Christian roots and values of Europe."

Blocks

The two questions of "proselytism" and "uniatism" are the two main issues blocking a possible meeting between the Pope and the patriarch, the cardinal affirmed.

"We have explained several times what we mean and what we do not mean with regard to these two problems. In particular, we have explained that the Catholic Church too does not accept proselytism," the cardinal said. "But the problem is that we have a different understanding of this term."

Cardinal Kasper clarified: "This problem is linked with the Russian Orthodox understanding of their canonical territory. The Catholic Church recognizes that Russia has a longstanding Christian tradition and culture. We recognize all the sacraments, the episcopate and the priesthood of the Russian Orthodox Church.

"Thus, while Catholic Christians living in Russia may clearly give witness of their Catholic faith, there cannot be an evangelization as such, as this can only be undertaken in a pagan context. Therefore, it is not our policy or strategy to convert the Orthodox to the Catholic Church. […] We do not undertake missionary work in Russia as we do in the pagan regions of the world. We want to collaborate with the Russian Orthodox in missionary work and in evangelization, which is needed in modern Russia after more then 70 years of atheistic propaganda and education."

Solving problems

But despite work to clarify the terms, Cardinal Kasper said he has the "impression that doubts still remain, because I feel they think that there is a discrepancy between what we are saying and what we are doing."

"For this reason, two or three years ago, I was very active in setting up a joint commission to investigate complaints," the pontifical council president stated. "If a complaint is valid, then we have to change; but if it is not correct, then the given complaint should be retracted. This commission works well and could solve some concrete problems.

"When I was in Kiev only one week ago I had the impression that now, thanks to God, something is moving and the situation is slowly improving also between the Orthodox under Moscow and the Greek Catholics, even though relations -- by virtue of historical reasons -- are still difficult.

"I had a very friendly meeting with Metropolitan Vladimir. We were able to inaugurate St. Clement Ecumenical Center with the blessing of Metropolitan Vladimir from the Russian Orthodox Church, of Cardinal Lubomyr Husar from the Greek Catholic Church, and of Cardinal Marian Jarworski from the Latin Catholic Church.

"This accord is in itself a little miracle. This center is still a small plant, but it is set to grow. I hope it will become a common reference and meeting point, a place of dialogue and communication between the Churches."

Still, the cardinal confirmed, the problem of uniatism still remains.

"We say that 'uniatism,' understood as a method, today and in the future, is no longer a means of achieving Church unity," Cardinal Kasper said. "But the so-called uniate Churches, which emerged in the past under circumstances very different from today, are a historical reality and have a right to exist.

"But they must open themselves to ecumenical relations with the Orthodox mother Churches. As I see it, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is ready to do so, and has a good ecumenical program in the academy of Leopoli. Finally, we agreed that both sides should recognize the religious freedom of individual Christians who by reason of their conscience want to join another Church."

Going forward

Cardinal Kasper agreed that there is still debate over alleged Catholic proselytism in what the Russian Orthodox consider their canonical territory.

There was even, he said, a statement made by Metropolitan Kirill regarding a wish that Benedict XVI would abolish the four dioceses established by John Paul II, a statement Cardinal Kasper called "very surprising."

"But," the cardinal said, "during [the metropolitan's] recent visit in Rome he did not mention this point. I think it must be clear also to him that the Holy See cannot and will not step back.

"It is hard to see a qualitative difference between our Catholic dioceses in Russia and the Russian Orthodox dioceses in the West. The Russian Orthodox Church should therefore look at nurturing the same openness that we offer to Russian Orthodox Christians and to their parishes and dioceses here in Western Europe and in America."

In any case, Cardinal Kasper said, "I am convinced the dialogue will now go on. Each Church has to face the reality that there is no realistic and responsible alternative to dialogue in today’s world. Faced with the challenge of secularization, Christians have to stand together and give common witness of their faith and of Christian values."

"Patriarch Alexy II has expressed several times his high esteem for Benedict XVI, as a theologian with a profound understanding of the Church Fathers and as a Pope who stands for conservative values, conservative understood in the positive meaning of the term," the cardinal affirmed. "Letters and greetings are regularly exchanged between them, and both are committed to improving relations."

Obama of Nazareth: "We are the ones we've been waiting for."

Obama, messiah of the infanticide movement, spews rhetoric that rivals the stupidity of some Bushisms with its own gnosticism.

Obama, the Platitude Salesman

By Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON -- There's no better path to success than getting people to buy a free commodity. Like the genius who figured out how to get people to pay for water: bottle it (Aquafina was revealed to be nothing more than reprocessed tap water) and charge more than they pay for gasoline. Or consider how Google found a way to sell dictionary nouns -- boat, shoe, clock -- by charging advertisers zillions to be listed whenever the word is searched.

And now, in the most amazing trick of all, a silver-tongued freshman senator has found a way to sell hope. To get it, you need only give him your vote. Barack Obama is getting millions.


Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., smiles as he answers a question during a town hall meeting in Waukesha, Wis., Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Related Media:
VIDEO: Obama Offers $210 Billion Economic Plan
VIDEO: Obama, McCain Look to Maintain Momentum

This kind of sale is hardly new. Organized religion has been offering a similar commodity -- salvation -- for millennia. Which is why the Obama campaign has the feel of a religious revival with, as writer James Wolcott observed, a "salvational fervor" and "idealistic zeal divorced from any particular policy or cause and chariot-driven by pure euphoria."

"We are the hope of the future," sayeth Obama. We can "remake this world as it should be." Believe in me and I shall redeem not just you but your country -- nay, we can become "a hymn that will heal this nation, repair this world, and make this time different than all the rest."

[snip]

ABC's Jake Tapper notes the "Helter-Skelter cultish qualities" of "Obama worshipers," what Joel Stein of the Los Angeles Times calls "the Cult of Obama." Obama's Super Tuesday victory speech was a classic of the genre. Its effect was electric, eliciting a rhythmic fervor in the audience

-- to such rhetorical nonsense as "We are the ones we've been waiting for.

(Cheers, applause.) We are the change that we seek."

That was too much for Time's Joe Klein. "There was something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism ... ," he wrote. "The message is becoming dangerously self-referential. The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is."

Read the whole thing here:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2008/02/15
/obama,_the_platitude_salesman

Sicilian bishop threatened by mafia

'Tis Outrage!

Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev

Geneva, Feb 15, 2008 / 07:36 pm (CNA).- Russian Orthodox bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, the Moscow Patriarchate’s delegate for international relationships, said on February 15 that liberal Christianity is on its way to extinction. [Well, maybe not yet, but it is heading that way slowly, kicking and gnashing its teeth. I hope he's right in any case.]

"Liberal Christianity will not survive long and political correctness within the Christian environment is destined to die," said during a conference addressing the Ecumenical Council of Churches at Geneva, Switzerland.

The Orthodox bishop also criticized the words of the Anglican primate, Rowan Williams, regarding the "inevitability" of introducing the "sharia" (Muslim Law) in England. [Criticizing Williams is like taking candy from a baby; Williams is a fool not so much because of his Sharia comments, but because he has totally embraced the idea of surrender. He's unwilling to put aside his liberalism to experiment with unity through orthodoxy; we'll see, but I bet the Anglican communion dissolves at this summer's Lambeth Conference.]

"I would like to warn you about the perils of liberal Christianity," a trend, he said, that has sharply divided the Christian community in the last decades.

"Today we can't talk about Christian morality because the standards of 'traditional' and 'liberal' Christians are dramatically different and the abyss between these two branches of Christianity is growing," he added.

[snip]

Finally in a veiled criticism to the Anglican primate, Hilarion said that "it is not our duty to defend sharia, promote alternative lifestyles or secularized values. Our mission is to announce what Christ himself announced".

Read the full article here:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=11800

Mother refuses to abort twin babies... babies save her life!

Michelle Stepney with her girls Alice and Harriet / Photo Credit: The Daily Mail

Mother refuses to abort twin girls who knocked loose tumor

London, Feb 7, 2008 / 04:41 am (CNA).- A British woman’s twin girls saved her life when, while still in the womb, they kicked free a tumor growing in their mother’s uterus, the Daily Mail reports.

Though advised she needed to abort the twins so she could be treated for cancer, the mother avoided harsh cancer treatment so her babies could be born.

Michelle Stepney, 35, was expecting twins when she went to a hospital with a suspected miscarriage. The doctors realized that she had cervical cancer, saying that the kicking of the twins had dislodged a tumor.

Had the tumor not been dislodged, the cancer may not have been discovered in time for successful treatment.

After the discovery of the cancer, Stepney’s doctors told her that she would need to undergo chemotherapy and a hysterectomy. To do this, she would need to abort the twins.

Stepney refused. "I couldn't believe it when the doctors told me that the babies had dislodged the tumor," she said, according to the Daily Mail.

"I'd felt them kicking, but I didn't realize just how important their kicking would turn out to be.

"I owe my life to my girls, and that's why I could have never agreed with a termination."

"I knew I could have an operation straight away and it would cure me of the cancer, but that would mean getting rid of my babies and I couldn't do that.

"I had two lives inside me and I just couldn't give up on them - especially after they had saved me like this," Stepney said.

The twins are now one year old and thriving. She and her husband, Scott, also have a five-year-old son.

"I feel so lucky. And one day I will tell my daughters how they saved their mummy's life."

Read the full story here:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=11713

Watch: Colbert gets the better of a smarmy liberal theologian

Colbert slams the secular theologian pretty hard; forgive the bleeped swear word at the end, but I think you might cheer this one on!

Christians persecuted? ....No, never.

Christians are persecuted all around the world, even in the west were persecution comes in the form of atheistic legislation or suppression of religious freedom and expression in the public square. In India, things are just like they were in the 1st century... pray for our brethren in the middle east.

Christians in the crosshairs in Madhya Pradesh: "they're using girls to defame the Church"
by Nirmala Carvalho
Demonstrations against the arrest in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, of a priest accused of child molestation. The churches and schools of the diocese have suspended their normal activities as a sign of protest, and will meet with the governor to ask for justice.

Madhya Pradesh (AsiaNews) - The Christians of the diocese of Ujjain are protesting against the arrest of Fr Joseph Kappiliparampil, and are dismissing as unfounded the reason for the February 12 arrest.

Together with a few religious sisters, Fr Joseph is responsible for managing a school and boarding house that serves 22 girls. On February 12, a group of about 300 Hindu nationalists together with Bajrang Dal activists attacked the house, seized the priest, and after roughing him up had him arrested together with one of the sisters. The superintendent of the police who arrested him says that in reality "we have not arrested the priest, but have taken him to save his life from the mob led by fundamental organisations".

The event followed charges levelled by two girls, aged 12 and 15, who have accused the priest of molestation and abuse. It seems that the two girls do not agree with some of the strict rules imposed by the priest and the sisters at the boarding house, and their rebellion against their guardians has erupted in weighty accusations against Fr Joseph.

The extremist movements have exploited the opportunity to commit further abuses against Christians, who are increasingly the target of those who aspire to a Hindu nation, and do not tolerate religious minorities.

The attacks against the Church in Madhya Preadesh have increased since the Indian Popular Party (BJP) - which includes ultra-nationalist and extremist fringe groups - came to power in December of 2003.

Fr Hans Puthiakulangara, spokesman for the diocese of Ujjain, says that the fundamentalist organisations are coaching children to make accusations and using them to defame the Church.

Archbishop Leo Cornelio, Bishop Sebastian Vadakel of Ujjain Diocese, and the bishops' council of Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh have condemned the use of girls to dishonour the priest and discredit the Church. "It is the most heinous and most shameless method the timid fundamental organisations are using to assert themselves through hooliganism. We condemn the incident and ask the state government to deliver justice". Christians fear that episodes of this kind will increase with the approach of the elections.

Education in America: a sad update

This is John Corcoran... a teacher who couldn't read and write for 17 years... he's now the CEO of "The John Corcoran Foundation for kids who can't read good".


Check this absurd statement out:

"I'm just an optimistic hopeful person that believes in the impossible and miracles," said Corcoran.

This is what a John Corcoran said of his learning to read after being a teacher for 17 years.

It's not a miracle that you learned to read, you idiot. It's a miracle, or an anti-miracle, that you were able to get away with it for so long. This is case in point about how terrible education is in our country.

Read the whole story about this absolute fraud here:
http://www.10news.com/news/15274005/detail.html

That's not where it ends though; apparently this fraud is now a national hero and has been given positions of authority in federal education bureaucracies. Unbelievable...

Here's what his website, "The John Corcoran Foundation" says about him:

John Corcoran has been a passionate advocate for literacy for over ten years. Author of the amazing autobiography, The Teacher Who Couldn't Read, John was appointed to the National Institute for Literacy by President George Bush, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and subsequently served on the Board of the Institute under President Bush and President Clinton.

John has given presentations in forty-four states, in Canada and Europe to students, professional and volunteer teachers, teacher candidates, service organizations, policy makers, and prison inmates, as well as numerous small business and Fortune 500 companies. He has appeared on 20/20, the Oprah Winfrey show, Larry King Live, and Phil Donahue.

The John Corcoran Foundation was created to promote literacy through John's advocacy efforts, through support of special literacy projects, and through the development of tutoring programs which provide the highest quality research-based instruction. Come into our website to learn about John's amazing story and about how to contact him to order his book and/or tape; to speak to your group or organization, or to provide high quality tutoring services for your school.

Lohfink Reflection #2... mind dump!

Final thoughts on Lohfink and class…

Lohfink does a wonderful job of underlining the importance of a visible church with offices and ministries within it. He totally debunks the notion of an invisible church or the idea that the Church benefits from the diversity of division. He debunks these effectively with scripture itself. He also does a nice job of underlining the point that the old and new covenants are not different; the new covenant in jesus is simply a fulfillment of the eschatological people of God, and the covenants are not different at all. He spends a lot of time connecting the Jews to Christianity and to the Gentiles as the vehicle by which they bring them into the ecclesia. This is great. Lohfink also wonderfully addresses the importance of freedom of God’s people as well as the importance of the Torah as a social construct for God’s visible people as well as honoring God’s will and being the foundation of their life. Very powerful is Israel’s self-criticism; it could only have occurred if they really encountered God in the Torah; no people could be so critical of itself and sense such an importance of being in ‘exodus’ unless God had really revealed his divine will to them. This is amazing stuff. Lohfink also does a good job defending things like infant baptism and the petrine authority. He also addresses very well the fact that Christian life is radical and is a calling to a life that is more than other-worldly, but the world itself: as God intended life to be- a witness to Truth in a sense. Memory and identity also play an important role in the Church as well as the material world. Lohfink cites the disturbing quote about how the Jews were concerned with even how to deal with excrement, and Nietze cynically claims: “God should have been more concerned about spiritual matters rather than how to go to the bathroom.” This anti-semitism combined with a theology that blames the Jews for the death of Christ miss the point and contribute to the holocaust. Also, this misses the point that nothing in creation is below the God of Israel; even going to the bathroom is dignified to YHWH. Amazing stuff.
So in sum, Lohfink defends the Church well against protestant ecclesiology as well as liberal views of modernizing or changing the church’s hierarchy or visible structure.

What Lohfink does not do well is discuss Scripture and the Sacraments and their connection to the visible structure of the Church. Also not address are Traditions, miracles, revelation, Resurrection of human life, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. I almost forgot that Grace was totally ignored. These are big things to simply gloss. To me this shows an emphasis on the people and the people’s work. This is to anthropocentric and borders on heresy. God needs the people as a community to do his work in the world. The ‘miracles’ that we see are because the community provides for one another, not because a miracle happened. I would also argue that Lohfink only believes that the sacraments and tradition are only part of our identity, reminding us that we are in exile, like Israel did way back then. That is why he does not discuss them at all with regard to the hierarchical ministries of the Church; they are not essential, but good and helpful. What is most important is the organization of community and the work that we do; everything else is secondary. The way we are organized as a people is almost more important than what we believe. The book also uphold the early Church as a sort of apex of the Church as a reality in the world. This is putting on rose-colored glasses however. The Church is richer because of its development of doctrine; we know more about how to live well and be a people and how to worship than they did back then in many ways. Lohfink’s view is otherwise. He, as he clearly states in the book, views the Church’s moving through time as stumbling on error after error. He never mentions, in this context, that the Church even in the beginning when Christ was here, had problems. Some argue that he is a NT theologian and he cannot do all things, but there is quite a bit to talk about between Constantine and today that he does not even attempt; he does however make sure to touch on the cliché issues as the Crusades, “book burning” by the Church, and the ever-evil Church and state connection of the horrid middle ages.... blah, blah, blah. So, it is clear that Lohfink has a vision of the Church, and that he’s not simply bound to Scripture in the analysis; the fact is that he (clearly as can be shown in the text) does not honor what comes after the Scriptural model of the early Church. This is my argument. The Eucharist is most commonly referred to as “table sharing” and “supper.” This is very problematic.
Robotically quoting Ratzinger here and there (and this is clearly forced and stuffy with random, pointless quotes of zero weight or value to the discussion), as well as pointless quotes of Vatican II (which he admits was “not enough”), and the dedication to Ratzinger; these all seem to be simple assurances that he’s still orthodox. That does not deal with the issues unaddressed. He spends a large portion of the text moralizing about how the Church should behave, as opposed to discussing ecclesiology. He also spends oodles of time flogging his German guilt about the holocaust by discussing and over discussing and over-defending the Jews to an exhaustive, but interesting point… still, no ecclesiology per se. (Obviously the Jews need to be discussed in ecclesiology to some extent). Lohfink even suggests that Christians and Jews not ‘getting together’ is the cause of the rise of Islam… this is just weird. How are the two religions to ‘get together’ as independent entities when they are completely incompatable? Let’s face it, the two, although one is a fulfillment of the other, don’t mix nicely; hence, the historical animosity.

Very frustrating is that when I address these in class, Cavanaugh brushes them aside. It is clear that he does not want to go there. Instead we discuss Baptism and infant Baptism; the course is clearly a waste because poorly formed Catholics are arguing about things we should already assume. The class is fascinated with the parts of the book we should be taking for granted, and thus my classmates are annoyed and dismayed when I attempt to question Lohfink and his ideas. They are poorly catechized so these ideas of discipleship or a counter-cultural life are new to them and they focus on that rather than the doctrinal and theological import of his sloppy remarks.

This is frustrating!

What the $%$#?????

You won't believe this until you read it:

Hardwired for love: Are robots the sex partners of the future?

from Briebart.com- Read the whole absurdity here:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080212144453
.spddtsz8&show_article=1

In the mood for a little skin-to-skin?" coos a lover slipping between the sheets.

"Not tonight," mumbles the partner, turning around. "Just make it with the robot, if you want."

A kinky sci-fi fantasy? Love and lust in the 23rd century?

Not at all, says David Levy, a PhD in gender studies and artificial intelligence and author of "Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relations".

By mid-century, predicts the 62-year-old expert, getting it on with an electronic femme-fatale or a superstud sexbot will become an accepted part of the human landscape.

"Think of it: great sex on tap, 24/7," he said. People may even fall in love with their hard-wired sex slaves, he adds.

[WHAT THE HELL????? -Old Books Club]

Not everyone embraces Levy's vision of a future where humanoids guarantee satisfaction in bed along with pre-programmed post-coital conversation.

But many agree it is on the cards, given exponential leaps in computer power, progress in mimicking human muscles and movements, and headway in artificial intelligence (AI) software to replicate emotions and personality.

"Already today, the best quality synthetic voices cannot be distinguished from human voices," Levy told AFP, adding that some artificial skins now rival the smoothest of baby bottoms.

Last November, researchers at Waseda University in Japan unveiled a robot, named Twendy-One, that can cook, talk, obey verbal commands, and use its soft silicon-wrapped hands -- each equipped with 241 pressure sensors -- to interact with humans.

Even so, it will be a long time, Levy acknowledges, before we cannot tell the difference between human and humanoid.

The sexbot Gigolo Joe played by Jude Law in Steven Spielberg's 2001 film "Artificial Intelligence: A.I.," providing chat and emotional support as well as sex, is at least 40 decades away, he thinks.

Not all AI experts agree. "I don't think we will have convincing 'human-like' robots" within that time frame," said Frederic Kaplan, a researcher at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Kaplan, who pushed the envelope of robot intelligence in programming the brain of Sony's eerily adorable robot dog Aibo, also wonders whether we even want robots made in our own image.

"Human-machine interactions will be interesting in their own right, not as 'simulation' of human relations," he said.

But Levy is convinced the demand is there, and that market forces will provide the financial drive to overcome any technical -- or psychological -- obstacles.

"It is only a matter of time before someone in the adult entertainment industry, which is awash in money, thinks, 'Gee, I could make a pile of money'," he said.

A company in Japan, Axis, has already produced the world's first, rudimentary, sexbot -- for men.

Called Honeydolls, the lifesize figures are made from surgical-grade silicone and resin, and are equipped with voice-emitting sensors in each breast. Pinch the nipples, and Cindy (or Soari or Maria, depending on the model) will react with a squeal and whisper pre-programmed sweet nothings in one's ear.

Customised MP3 audio files can be substituted for a more personal touch. Price tag: 7,000 dollars (4,800 euros).

Women, too, are bound to be lured to sexbots, contended Levy.

Jim Sleeper: Pornification of the public square

In this YouTube video, conservative political commentator and radio host Laura Ingraham speaks the painful truth.

Sleeper's article:
Sex sells. And until liberals challenge the free speech that permits it, and conservatives protest the free market that pushes it, our kids will pay the price

02:14 PM CST on Sunday, February 19, 2006

My friend Dave wrote me awhile back: "Channel-surfing with Jessica, who's 9, we stopped at an early evening rerun of Jon Stewart's Daily Show – irreverent, we figured, but not wrong for her.

"Came the bit about the gay male escort/model who'd mysteriously gotten White House press clearance to represent a Republican-funded online 'news' service and lob the president softball questions. The show flashed a photo from the escort service's Web site showing the man naked, spread-eagle, his genitals blurred. "Jessie gasped. Her face clouded over and she looked our way but didn't ask anything, and sometimes you just let things roll. We clutched hands silently, knowing damage had been done. I don't want to beat up on Stewart; I'm a liberal. Maybe I should have used better judgment, but, man, my parents never had to think about jumping up and shielding my eyes when we watched Walter Cronkite."

Why was the photo flashed? Was it news? Social commentary? Ratings lust? All of that, surely – even news of conservative sexual hypocrisy, of which there is no end. But "sex" itself is what sells: "People want it, so we are trying to provide it; the more X's, the more popular," an Adelphia Communications spokeswoman told The Boston Globe after the company, among its other dubious distinctions, became the first U.S. cable provider to offer triple-X rated pornography.

What Dave's family got wasn't porn, exactly, but it forced him to think about how he'd explain to his 9-year-old that people sell their bodies – and that TV "sells" their doing it. That Dave faults his own judgment doesn't quite make him fair game. It certainly doesn't explain what's coming to us unbidden in roadside "Erotic Empire" billboards, bus-shelter underwear posters, fashion-cum-kiddie porn ads, commercials for erectile dysfunction cures and the fetid currents wafting suddenly through our homes at prime time.

Get the rest here:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/
DN-sleeper_19edi.ART1.State.Edition1.3f35dbc.html

Dutch Catholicism: RIP

Dutch Catholics have re-branded the Lent fast as the "Christian Ramadan" in an attempt to appeal to young people who are more likely to know about Islam than Christianity.

The Catholic charity Vastenaktie, which collects for the Third World across the Netherlands during the Lent period, is concerned that the Christian festival has become less important for the Dutch over the last generation.

"The image of the Catholic Lent must be polished. The fact that we use a Muslim term is related to the fact that Ramadan is a better-known concept among young people than Lent," said Vastenaktie Director, Martin Van der Kuil.

Go visit Rod Dreher's blog for this ridiculousness...
http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2008/02/dutch-catholicism-rip.html

More madness from Rowan Williams, archb. of Canterbury

Read the following and pray for the Lord's will to be done in the crumbling Anglican communion.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has today said that the adoption of Islamic Sharia law in the UK is "unavoidable" and that it would help maintain social cohesion.

Rowan Williams told BBC Radio 4's World At One that the UK has to "face up to the fact" that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system.

He says that Muslims could choose to have marital disputes or financial matters dealt with in a Sharia court. He added Muslims should not have to choose between "the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty".

Dr Williams said there was a place for finding a "constructive accommodation" in areas such as marriage - allowing Muslim women to avoid Western divorce proceedings.

Other religions enjoyed such tolerance of their own laws, he pointed out, but stressed that it could never be allowed to take precedence over an individual's rights as a citizen.

He said it would also require a change in perception of what Sharia involved beyond the "inhumanity" of extreme punishments and attitudes to women seen in some Islamic states.

Dr Williams said: "It seems unavoidable and, as a matter of fact, certain conditions of Sharia are already recognised in our society and under our law, so it is not as if we are bringing in an alien and rival system.

"We already have in this country a number of situations in which the internal law of religious communities is recognised by the law of the land as justifying conscientious objections in certain circumstances."

Here's the full story: (sorry, I still can't put in links!)
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23436203-
details/Adoption+of+Islamic+Sharia+law+in+Britain+is+'unavoidable'
%2C+says+Archbishop+of+Canterbury/article.do

More sickness...

The following adds to our "Church Scandal" series...

Here's what I suggest: clean house, even if it means selling parishes.
This is unconscionable. Sick. This not only hurts everyone spiritually, but it is a disaster for the visible life of the Church. No wonder why we have such 'gay' music at mass. No wonder why Tradition and Truth have been absolutely neutered; gay clergy all the way to the episcopacy have a twisted sub-culture of cover-ups. This is a problem not of celibacy, but of the authorities that be to be honest. The bishops coming out (no, not in the gay way) and being honest and de-frocking these dispicable frauds immediately, turning them over to the cops. I'm pissed (sorry for the language).

Oremus:
Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

This gay priest no longer a problem

Dirtbag Michael Moynihan is no longer a gay priest problem. The Roman Catholic Church has suspended him, and he ought to be defrocked. From today's New York Post:

A popular Catholic chaplain at SUNY Maritime College in The Bronx has been fired and barred from acting as a priest after The Post told church officials that he has lived with another man in a pricey Manhattan one- bedroom apartment for years. The Rev. Michael Moynihan's suspension as a cleric late last week comes a year after he resigned as the beloved pastor of a ritzy Connecticut parish amid a financial scandal there.

And it came after his Bridgeport [Conn.] Diocese bosses - who earlier caught Moynihan lying about the existence of secret bank accounts at his former parish - learned that the dapper, white-haired cleric misled them about living with a man in Midtown.

That roommate - a handsome television actor and singer named Michael Fawcett - for years was the children's choir director at Moynihan's ex-parish, St. Michael the Archangel in Greenwich, Conn.

More:


He resigned as St. Michael's pastor in January 2007, much to the dismay of many parishioners, after a probe found he had spent more than $500,000 in church funds from two secret bank accounts he had set up without being able to properly document the expenditures.

Despite losing his Connecticut job, Moynihan for the past year remained a priest in good standing and continued working as the longtime chaplain at SUNY Maritime College, a staterun school in the Throgs Neck section of The Bronx.

OK, here's what I want to know: how does a priest believed by church authorities to have swindled, or at least misappropriated, a half-million dollars still be given power to run a church institution (a question similar to the one that lots of members of my own church, the OCA, are asking of Metropolitan Herman, who is not a parish priest but the head of the church). According to the Post account, the Diocese of Bridgeport (Conn.) said it had heard rumors that Moynihan was keeping house with Fawcett, but couldn't substantiate them.

I call bulls**t. Any journalist could confirm that in an hour or less by looking at official records, or even staking out the apartment building. I don't know how the Post got the story, but chances are someone tipped them off to Moynihan, and they cross-checked property records, phone records, etc. The diocese didn't want to know what Fr. Moynihan was up to, period. And you need to ask yourself why. Why wouldn't a diocese want to know if one of its priests, a man it believes hived away a half-million dollars in a secret account, was violating his chastity and celibacy vows and shacking up with a male lover (or, if it came to that, a female lover)?

What did Fr. Moynihan have on whom, if anything? What kind of clerical culture turns a blind eye to this sort of thing -- and why? Why was Fr. Moynihan being protected?

Moynihan is a fraud, pure and simple. If he was in love with Fawcett, and felt he could not extricate himself from the relationship, he should have done the courageous thing, the only principled thing, and left the priesthood. But Fr. Moynihan didn't want to do that. He wanted the perks and the privileges of being a priest, without the call to holiness. I have no way of knowing, of course, but I'd bet cash money that his living arrangements were no secret to his bosses in the chancery, and that they moved against him only because they knew when the Post reporter called that the news was going to come out anyway.

The lingering question is: who in positions of church authority (including laymen) knew the truth about Father Moynihan, and why did they protect his secret? This is not, I think, tangential to issues raised in yesterday's gay-priest megapost.

Catholic Accountability...

This site is wicked... literally.

www.bishop-accountability.org/

Rod Dreher reports about the gay-priest scandal in the Church; sickening.

Read it and weep. How could this ever happen?

The Gay Priest problem

Well, it is Ash Wednesday, so let's talk about something difficult, something that requires penitential self-examination.

Father Neuhaus calls "The Faithful Departed" by Phil Lawler "the best book-length treatment of the [Catholic] sex abuse crisis, its origins and larger implications, published to date." Again, let me commend this excellent book to all Christian readers, not just Catholics, who want to know how it is that a church's leadership class can become corrupted by trading fidelity to the church's true mission for worldly power and comfort. Here's a quote Neuhaus cites from Lawler's book, one that originated in "The Gay Priest Problem," a powerful Catholic World Report essay from the year 2000, by the Jesuit Father Paul Shaughnessy:

If we examine any trust-invested agency at any given point in its history, whether that agency be a police force, a military unit, or a religious community, we might find that, say, out of every hundred men, five are scoundrels, five are heroes, and the rest are neither one nor the other: ordinarily upright men who live with a mixture of moral timidity and moral courage. When the institution is healthy, the gutsier few set the overall tone, and the less courageous but tractable majority works along with these men to minimize misbehavior; more importantly, the healthy institution is able to identify its own rotten apples and remove them before the institution itself is enfeebled. However, when an institution becomes corrupt, its guiding spirit mysteriously shifts away from the morally intrepid few, and with that shift the institution becomes more interested in protecting itself against outside critics than in tackling the problem members that subvert its mission. For example, when we say a certain police force is corrupt, we don’t usually mean that every policeman is on the take—perhaps only five out of a hundred actually accept bribes—rather we mean that this police force can no longer diagnose and cure its own problems, and consequently, if reform is to take place, an outside agency has to be brought in to make the changes.

That is worth pondering in sorrow.

Neuhaus continues with this critical point:


Lawler adds: “Homosexual influence within the American clergy was not in itself the cause of the sex abuse crisis. The corruption wrought by that influence was a more important factor.” He very gingerly addresses a theory proposed by a number of commentators on the crisis, namely, that bishops engaged in cover-ups and other deceptions because they were threatened with homosexual blackmail. He cites a number of instances in which this appears to be the case and bishops were permitted to resign when their misdeeds could no longer be denied. “The blackmail hypothesis,” he writes, “provides a logical explanation for behavior that is otherwise inexplicable: the bishops’ willingness to risk the welfare of the faithful and their own reputations in order to protect abusive priests.”

This is a difficult topic to discuss, for obvious reasons.

Read the depressing rest below...
http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2008/02/the-gay-priest-problem-1.html

Orthodox Accountability...

This is an interesting website... unfortunate that OCA has to have such a site. It is too bad that clergy in any church fail to live up to the dignity of their offices. We have suffered this as well in Catholicism; luckily for the OCA, the media isn't as interested in directly picking on smaller churches in the US- just Christianity in general!

It's called: Orthodox Christians for Accountability
http://ocanews.org/serendipity/

On modern art...

An interesting reflection on the banality of modern art and architecture.

In a 2003 interview with Steve Sailer to promote his book Human Accomplishment, Charles Murray said the following:

I think that the number of novels, songs, and paintings done since 1950 that anyone will still care about 200 years from now is somewhere in the vicinity of zero. Not exactly zero, but close. I find a good way to make this point is to ask anyone who disagrees with me to name a work that will survive -- and then ask, "Seriously?" Very few works indeed can defend themselves against the "Seriously?" question.

To which, Steve challenged his readers to come up with works that would meet that criteria. (Steve’s review of the book is here.) Well, I have belatedly taken up the challenge.

Hat tip to "The Man Who Was Thursday" blog; below is the entire post:
http://manwhoisthursday.blogspot.com/2007/12/charles-
murray-challenge-belated.html

A Rich Market for Russian Icons

An icon is restored at a Moscow gallery opened by tycoon Mikhail Abramov to display his extensive collection. (By Peter Finn -- The Washington Post)

As Tycoons Reclaim National Treasures, Counterfeiters Also Emerge
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 5, 2008; Page A15

MOSCOW -- Last May, Maria Paphiti, an icons specialist at Christie's auction house in London, was invited to inspect some religious paintings on wood that were among the contents of a building recently bought by an English family. The artworks had been found wrapped in plastic, and the building's new owners wondered what, if anything, they were worth.

The answer: a lot, particularly if they drew the attention of Russian buyers who have embarked on a massive spending spree to recover the country's exiled treasures.

Paphiti quickly singled out one piece as quite valuable. The 1894 icon "St. Nicholas the Miracle Worker of Myra" had a rare signature by the acclaimed Russian icon painter Mikhail Dikarev. It had also been framed in gilt and enamel by Jakov Mischukov, a well-known Moscow craftsman.

Adding to the icon's value was a dedication on the back saying it had been presented to the last czar, Nicholas II, by the Old Believers community, which broke with the established Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century over changes to the church's rites.

How the icon got to London, only to be discarded in an obscure building, remains a mystery, Paphiti said.

The icon was put on the block last June 11. Bidding started slowly at 20,000 pounds, or almost $40,000 -- Christie's pre-sale estimate. An impatient Russian bidder quickly stepped in with an offer of $200,000 and then two bidders, both unidentified Russians, faced off in bids made by intermediaries over the phone until the icon was sold to one of them for $854,000, a world record for an icon at auction.

For the happily bewildered English family, who told Christie's they wished to remain anonymous, it was an astonishing windfall. "They couldn't believe it," Paphiti said in a telephone interview from London.

Read the rest here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2008/02/04/AR2008020403089.html?referrer=emailarticle

CHRISTUS VINCET (Christ will overcome)

Check out this video of a church being destroyed by Stalin's regime; very tragic, but there is hope in the end.

Sickening: Mentally Retarded Women Used in Suicide Bombings

BAGHDAD (AP) - Two mentally retarded women strapped with remote-control explosives—and possibly used as unwitting suicide bombers—brought carnage Friday to two pet bazaars, killing at 73 people in the deadliest day since Washington flooded the capital with extra troops last spring.

The coordinated blasts—coming 20 minutes apart in different parts of the city—appeared to reinforce U.S. claims al-Qaida in Iraq may be increasingly desperate and running short of able-bodied men willing or available for such missions.

But they also served as a reminder that Iraqi insurgents are constantly shifting their strategies in attempts to unravel recent security gains around the country. Women have been used in ever greater frequency in suicide attacks.

The twin attacks at the pet markets, however, could mark a disturbing use of unknowing agents of death.

Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, Iraq's chief military spokesman in Baghdad, said the women had Down syndrome and may not have known they were on suicide missions. He said the bombs were detonated by remote control.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the bombings prove al-Qaida is "the most brutal and bankrupt of movements" and will strengthen Iraqi resolve to reject terrorism.

The first bomb was detonated about 10:20 a.m. in the central al-Ghazl market, the home of a weekly pet bazaar with various small animals but mostly birds. At least 46 people were killed and more than 100 wounded, said police and hospital officials.

Police said the woman wearing the bomb sold cream in the mornings at the market and was known to locals as "the crazy lady."

The pet bazaar has been bombed repeatedly, but with violence declining in the capital, the market had regained popularity as a shopping district and place to stroll on Fridays, the Muslim day of prayer.

But on Friday, it was returned to a scene straight out of the worst days of the conflict. Firefighters scooped up debris scattered among pools of blood, clothing and pigeon carcasses.

A pigeon vendor said the market had been unusually crowded, with people taking advantage of a pleasantly crisp and clear winter day after a particularly harsh January.

"I have been going to the pet market with my friend every Friday, selling and buying pigeons," said Ali Ahmed, who was hit by shrapnel in his legs and chest. "It was nice weather today and the market was so crowded."

He said he was worried about his friend, Zaki, who disappeared after the blast about 40 yards away.

"I just remember the horrible scene of the bodies of dead and wounded people mixed with the blood of animals and birds, then I found myself lying in a hospital bed," Ali said.

About 20 minutes after the first attack, the second female suicide bomber was blown apart in a bird market in a predominantly Shiite area in southeastern Baghdad. As many as 27 people died and 67 were wounded, police and hospital officials said.

Rae Muhsin, the 21-year-old owner of a cell phone store, said he was walking toward the New Baghdad bird market when the explosion shattered the windows of nearby stores.

"I ran toward the bird market and saw charred pieces of flesh, small spots of blood and several damaged cars," Muhsin said. "I thought that we had achieved real security in Baghdad, but it turned that we were wrong."

The bombings were the latest in a series that has frayed Iraqi confidence in the permanence of recent security gains.

Read the rest of this sickening story here:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UHNN081&show_article=1