I got up fairly early this morning and read the Holy See Press Bulletin and saw that the U.S. got an appointment today... on a Saturday!

Detroit got an auxiliary: Msgr. Daniel Flores from Corpus Christi, TX. This is strange because everyone is expecting Cardinal Maida's retirement shortly.

Rocco's coverage

Today we don't have school because of a Diocesan In-Service Day. Apparently the bishop begins the day with Mass so it will be nice to actually see him in person. Hopefully the day won't be dreadfully boring and that the sessions will present something useful (a plus would be to present this in an engaging manner!).

Last night was the school's Halloween Dance. I'm prepared to say very little about it at this point. I will say that I won the teacher's costume contest. Most of the other teachers didn't dress up but there were other costumes that were really nice. Frankly, I didn't even vote for myself because I thought there were better costumes than mine! In any case, it's over and I hope to forget the entire experience quite soon.

My students finished their projects last week. I'll try and find some time to post some pictures of them so you can see the great job they did.

Lastly, the disappointment of my existence: the school's website is not yet posted. Please pray that I finish it this weekend.

Interesting site I was just browsing:

Saint Theodora's Blog from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis on Saint Theodore Guerin, canonized by Pope Benedict on Sunday.

As many of you know, I really enjoy listening to the rantings of Father Reggie Foster on Vatican Radio each Saturday. He's the Pope's Latinist and he taught at the Greg for the 30 years... yes, that's taught. CNS is reporting that the Greg cancelled his classes due to low enrollment. Of course, it's not because old Reggie is all of a sudden unpopular:

Though Father Foster's Latin classes at the university had been enormously popular, most students had not been paying for the course, according to the staffers and Father Foster.

The priest said the lack of registered students "is my fault for the simple reason that I told the students if you want to come for Latin, I will teach you ... and of course they're not (registering) and they're not paying."

Typically, school records would show that only three out of 65 students paid and "that's what (the university) didn't like," he said.

Students had been taking advantage of the Milwaukee-born priest's open-door, free-for-all instruction for the past 20 years, he said, and now that he is freed from duties at the university this year, he wants to set up and run his own informal Latin academy. Courses will be gratis, he said.

It goes on to say that 150 students showed up for class on the first day! What a guy!

In this week's America, there's an interview featuring Fr. Coyne, SJ who just retired as the head of the Vatican Observatory. He's made some pretty controversial comments over the years and he even took on Cardinal Schonborn, one of the most respected hierarchical theologians in the world, on his now famous op-ed piece last summer in the NY Times regarding the compatibility of Darwinism and Catholic theology.

Some of his more interesting quotes from this interview:

It [Big Bang Theory] says that God did not create a ready-made universe, he did not create a universe like a Lego kit, putting all the pieces out and having somebody out there, over time, assemble them. He created a universe that has a dynamism, a creativity of its own. He shared his own creativity with the universe that he made.

You know, theologians have for centuries had this notion of continuous creation, creation as not a single event in the past, 14 billion years ago, but ongoing. It really helps me in my religious belief, in my prayer for instance, to think of a god who is constantly nurturing the universe; he gave the universe its own creativity, its own dynamism, and he’s working with the universe rather than dominating the universe.

This requires reinterpreting what we mean by omnipotence and omniscience. Did life come to be in such a necessary way that in the very beginning of the expansion, God could have predicted that life would come to be? It is an open question, but I lean toward no, he couldn’t, because it’s not certain that it would come to be. There were some chance processes involved. It wasn’t just chance, but there were chance events involved in the evolution of life.

It seems as though your thinking makes the subject of God’s attention the whole universe rather than just human beings.

That’s correct. I’m not denying that human beings are especially loved by God, but they’re seen against the background of the whole universe.

Responding to another question, Fr. Coyne says:

But working at the Vatican Observatory and spending many years in Rome, I’ve always felt, and still feel somewhat, there’s something about the church that gets on my nerves. It’s this suspicion, with Galileo to begin with and with Darwin, that science is tainted with atheism. There’s this feeling that if it all happened this way, then God does not have everything under control.

My point is: God doesn’t want to have everything under control. He wants the universe to have its own autonomy and dynamism. The universe shares in his autonomy and dynamism.

Ok, I'm hardly a theologian, I'm only finishing an M.Div... but this does not sound like good theology to me. His speculation seems to diminish the properties of God superbly described by Aquinas. At least Aquinas could back up his claims, even refute arguments to the contrary. This smacks of Deism to me, only on a more universal scale. How nice of God to create a universe in which we were created by chance!

Here's where his stuff breaks down for me: If God wanted to create humankind (or at very least a creature in his own image), why would he create a universe where it might happen by chance instead of actually making it happen?

A crude example: if a man wants to have a child, he'll just lay in bed. Perhaps a woman will lay beside him someday. If that happens, perhaps they'll accidentally rub against each other in just the right way that he might impregnate her (but only if she is by chance fertile). To this, most reasonable people would say: hey, idiot... just go out, find a girl, get married and have sex in order to conceive if you want a kid so bad.

I don't think I want to believe in a moronic and illogical god who doesn't just create what he wants to create. I'll leave Fr. Coyne with his god who only loves me because the dynamic universe he set in motion created my ancestors by chance.

Thank you to Bill for the heads up on this. From the Baltimore Sun:

Cardinal William H. Keeler was injured in a car accident Saturday that killed another priest while vacationing about 60 miles outside of Rome, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Baltimore said.

A car struck the passenger side of their vehicle as they drove through the city of Terni, archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine said.

Fr. Bernard Quinn, 78, a retired priest from the Diocese of Harrisburg, was riding in the back seat and was killed in the crash, Caine said. Both the driver, Msgr. Thomas Smith, 75, pastor of St. Joseph parish in Lancaster, Pa., and Keeler, 75, who was in the passenger seat, were injured, Caine said.

Keeler, who suffered a broken ankle, and Smith, who broke several ribs, remain hospitalized, Caine said. The cardinal was due to return to Baltimore later this week.

Information about the accident was not released until today so Quinn's family could be notified. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced. The three men were friends who often vacationed together, Caine said.

An interesting way to avoid having to actually make a decision:

In a novel approach to the tensions that have accompanied the same-sex marriage debate in many religious denominations, the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts this month will consider getting out of the marriage business.

A group of local Episcopal priests, saying that the gay marriage debate has intensified their longtime concern about acting as agents of the state by officiating at marriages, is proposing that the Episcopal Church adopt a new approach. Any couples qualified to get married under state law could be married by a justice of the peace, and then, if they want a religious imprimatur for their marriage, they could come to the Episcopal Church seeking a blessing from a priest.

The approach, radical for the United States, is commonly practiced in Europe. The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, which covers the eastern part of the state, has scheduled a vote in three weeks , at its 221st annual convention. A similar proposal was tabled at the Episcopal Church's general convention this summer; in Massachusetts, it is thought to have a better chance of passage because the clergy is more liberal.

Episcopal priests in Massachusetts have been particularly engaged in the issue of gay marriage, because the diocese here has been strongly supportive of gay rights, but the national church's regulations define marriage as a heterosexual institution. The local bishop, M. Thomas Shaw , a supporter of same-sex marriage, has decreed that local Episcopal priests cannot sign the marriage licenses of same-sex couples, but can bless those couples after they are legally married by clergy of another denomination or by a civil official.

``I feel this is a way to equalize an inequity in what Episcopal clergy can do for gay folks and straight folks," said the Rev. Margaret (Mally) E. Lloyd , rector of Christ Church in Plymouth. Lloyd is one of five Episcopal priests sponsoring the resolution.

``Right now, we can only offer blessings for gay folks who are married, and it's not fair," she said. ``The church moves slowly to make changes in canon law, so what can we do in the meantime? This is something good for the diocese to wrestle with."

The resolution would declare diocesan convention's desire that, starting in January 2008, Episcopal marriages be presided over by an agent of the state, and not Episcopal clergy, whose role would be limited to blessing a married couple. That is the system currently in place for gay and lesbian couples at Episcopal churches. In some cases, the civil and religious ceremonies both take place in the church; the couple can bring a justice of the peace, or a minister of another denomination, who signs the state marriage license and pronounces the couple married, and then the Episcopal priest blesses the couple. In other cases, the civil and religious ceremonies take place separately.

The resolutions will be discussed at regional meetings starting Friday, and then voted on Oct. 28, on the second day of a two-day convention that will draw an estimated 800 voting delegates, clergy and lay, to Trinity Church in Boston. If approved, it would be up to Shaw to decide what steps to take next. Shaw has taken no position on the resolution and declined to comment.

At Mass on Sunday back home the lector was supposed to say: Joshua, son of Nun. Instead, she said "Joshua, son of THE Nun."

I'd love to know which nun she was talking about.

More "Red" to come

With this being my last post from Rome, I am happy to announce to you that I will continue to communicate directly with you through my blog each week when I return to Boston. It’s my hope to make a post once a week, on Friday of each week, starting this coming Friday. So, I invite you back to my blog and look forward to sharing and communicating with you well into the future.

From the Southern Nebraska Register:

A family of the Diocese of Lincoln, which desires to remain anonymous, has generously gifted funds for the purchase of a home at 5225 A Street.

Each diocese is required to provide a home for its present bishop and any retired bishop.

According to Church Law, in less than four years, Bishop Bruskewitz will be required to submit his resignation to the Holy Father and a new bishop of Lincoln will be appointed.

This home will serve in the meantime as a home for clergy and/or religious and then will be available to the next bishop of the diocese when he is appointed.

The one-story ranch home has three bedrooms, which can accommodate a bishop, a priest-secretary, housekeeper or family member, and a guest. It will also have a chapel. The cost of the house was $275,000.

Because of that family’s devoted generosity, no funds from the diocesan patrimony were used for its purchase.