Kevin Russell found out it's not easy trying to cash a check from God. The 21-year-old man was arrested Monday after he tried to cash a check for $50,000 at the Chase Bank in Hobart that was signed "King Savior, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Servant," Hobart police Detective Jeff White said.
Russell was charged with one count attempted check fraud and one count intimidation, both felonies, and one count resisting law enforcement, a misdemeanor. He could face prison time.
Police were called to the bank after Russell tried to cash the check, which was written on an invalid Bank One check with no imprint, White said. Russell had several other checks with him that were signed the same way but made out in different dollar amounts, including one for $100,000.
Russell struggled with police as they tried to detain him, White said, and then threatened police as they transported him to the Hobart Police Department.
"I've heard about God giving out eternal life, but this is the first time I've heard of him giving out cash," White said.
No court date has been set for Russell. He was being held Wednesday at the Lake County Jail on a $1,000 bond.
Ed O'Neill's bank account just got a lot bigger, thanks to a co-worker who told him some "idiot" hasn't claimed an $800,000 Powerball lottery prize.
O'Neill, 58, who works for the Clinton Chamber of Commerce, bought the ticket for a January 6 Powerball drawing. He told Iowa Lottery staffers he didn't think to check the results until a couple days afterward, when a chamber receptionist pointed out an article in the local newspaper.
"She said, 'Read this article about the idiot that hasn't claimed his ticket.' So I read it and noticed where the ticket was bought," O'Neill said. "I thought, 'Gee, I better look at my ticket.' That's when I said, 'I think I won."'
Then he called his wife, Diane, 58, who thought he was pulling a prank.
O'Neill said his wife told him to "quit horsing around. I'm watching Oprah."
O'Neill countered: "No really, Diane. I won."
Hysteria soon ensued as Diane realized he wasn't joking.
On Monday, the couple cashed in the ticket at the lottery headquarters in Des Moines, but not before meeting with an accountant and planning how to handle the winnings.
"There's a lot of responsibility that comes with that kind of money," O'Neill said.
O'Neill won by matching five white balls in the Powerball game. He also had purchased the Power Play option, multiplying a $200,000 prize by four.
After taxes, the couple will get about $560,000 -- much of which will go to pay off their mortgage, pay off their children's mortgages and save for retirement.
There will be a little left for fun, too. O'Neill said he and his wife are planning a trip to Ireland.
They also plan to donate money to Prince of Peace Catholic Parish in Clinton to help pay for construction of another church.
Continuing an 80-year-old papal tradition, Pope Benedict XVI is canceling regular audiences and clearing his calendar to make a weeklong Lenten retreat.
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Chosen to preach the Feb. 25-March 3 retreat this year was Italian Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, the retired archbishop of Bologna, who is making an unusual second appearance. In 1989, he led the Lenten retreat for Pope John Paul II.
Cardinal Biffi has a reputation for outspokenness, and perhaps his history of verbal fireworks led the pope to bring him back for another round. The papal retreat is attended by the Roman Curia and involves many hours of sermons and meditations, and the ability to keep people awake is a requisite for the job.
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Cardinal Biffi, who is 78, will preach on the theme, "The Things Above," which refers to St. Paul's letter advising early Christians to "think of what is above, not of what is on earth."
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The retreat opens with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, an evening prayer service and an introductory talk. Each day afterward, the retreat master gives three meditations in morning and afternoon sessions, accompanied by prayer and reflection.
As the retreat goes on, the Roman Curia machinery winds down. Not everyone attends the entire program of spiritual exercises, but the top officials in each office are encouraged to do so, and the pope's Redemptoris Mater Chapel fills up quickly.
The pope disappears for a week, too. No private audiences, no liturgies, no working lunches. Even the Wednesday general audience is canceled, to the disappointment of pilgrims who chose this week to be in Rome.
Pope Benedict certainly has plenty to do: the final review of a long-awaited post-synodal document, a book on Jesus due out this spring, a backlog of "ad limina" appointments with bishops and a string of homilies and talks to prepare for the coming weeks.
On Good Friday, when Capuchin Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, the Preacher of the Papal Household, delivers his annual homily in St. Peter’s Basilica before the pope, he’s likely to reflect on modern martyrdom and the suffering of Christians for the faith, though without addressing the issue of “reciprocity” in Christian-Muslim relations, he said Feb. 21.
Cantalamessa sat down for an interview with NCR on the margins of his Feb. 21 appearance at Seton Hall University.
When Cantalamessa preaches in St. Peter's on April 6, it will mark the 28th time the 72-year-old Italian Capuchin has delivered the Good Friday homily before the pope. The homily is considered a cornerstone of the Catholic year, and is broadcast around the world on television and radio, as well as reprinted in full in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.
Cantalamessa told NCR this his style over the years has been to try to “remain open” to inspiration up to the last minute. He has not yet begun writing a text for this year, he said. Because the homily must be distributed to translators a few days before Good Friday, he said he’ll probably produce a draft in late March. Even so, Cantalamessa said, he reserves the right to amend it on the fly if he feels the Spirit nudging him in a given direction.
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The first year he delivered the Good Friday homily, he timed his text based on his normal rate of delivery. Just before he began, however, one of the ceremonial officials from the papal household warned him that the echoes in St. Peter’s tend to reverberate, and therefore he should slow down. Cantalamessa said that by the time he was finished, it took him fully ten minutes longer than expected to deliver the homily. He said he was nervous about exceeding his time limit, especially because he could see one of John Paul’s aides repeatedly checking his watch as the homily drug on.
Later, however, he bumped into the aide while doing other Vatican business, and the aide told him something which put his mind at ease. Apparently, Cantalamessa was not the only one who noticed the aide fretting about the time.
“The pope called me in the next day,” the aide said to Cantalamessa, “and told me, ‘When a man of God is speaking, you shouldn’t be looking at your watch.’”
From that point forward, Cantalamessa said, time limits were never an issue.
You may remember last year's homily in which he spoke about the Gospel of Judas and The DaVinci Code. This homily is always something to watch carefully.
Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, has imposed strict deadlines on eulogies delivered at Catholic funerals.
In a move to protect the sacred character of the liturgy, the cardinal has ruled that any speaker at a funeral must confine himself to at most a 5-minute talk. Only one talk is allowed, and the tone of the eulogy should be in keeping with the spirit of prayer for the deceased, avoiding jokes about his weaknesses, the guidelines add.
Cardinal Pell explained that the guidelines were necessary to prevent abuses in the funeral liturgy. In some cases, he said, a series of eulogists spoke at length, resulting in overly long services; in other cases a highly emotional speaker added to the grief of the families. In most extreme cases, laughing references to the drinking or sexual conduct of the deceased profaned the ceremony.
The cardinal noted that in some countries-- including the US-- Catholic funeral guidelines do not allow for any eulogy (as distinct from the priest’s homily at the funeral Mass). In the Sydney archdiocese, he said, the new rules “uphold the principle that the funeral Mass is an act of worship and prayer that should not admit elements foreign to its intrinsic nature."
I cannot count the number of inappropriate eulogies I've heard in my short career. My friend's former pastor had a sign in the rectory: funerals are not to be scheduled until the family has agreed to our 'no eulogy' policy.
As the mild weather cooled off at sunset yesterday, more than 100 students with red shirts and balloons gathered at the front gates of Providence College, armed with signs saying "We will not stop fighting for an end to sexual assault," and "Vaginas are not vulgar, rape is vulgar." For the second year in a row, PC students protested the decision of Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P., president of Providence College, to ban the production of The Vagina Monologues on campus.
Many who saw a similar protest one year ago are asking, is this déjà vu? Perhaps, but the cast and crew of The Vagina Monologues and many other supporters said they will not stop protesting just because the production was banned last year.
"We want the entire administration to know that we're not going to go away," said Francis Ford '07, president of Women Will. She added that educating students about sexual assault is "too important an issue" to give up on.
Father Shanley said he has not changed his position on the Monologues but has come to see why the play is such a passionate issue for the students. He added that the protest does not bother him.
"As an educator, controversies like this are great because they force people to talk about issues," he said. "I admire the passion and determination of the students."
Father Shanley's rejection of the play's performance on campus is due to its incongruity with the Roman Catholic values of the College.
"Roman Catholic teaching sees female sexuality as ordered toward a loving giving of self to another in a union of body, mind, and soul that is ordered to the procreation of new life," said Father Shanley in a statement posted on the Providence College Web site. ". . . Any depiction of female sexuality that neglects its unitive and procreative dimensions diminishes its complexity, its mystery, and its dignity."
In the few dealings I've had with Fr. Shanley, he seems to be a very nice man and extremely personable. What I want to know is this: why is the performance of this play required in order to talk about and discuss female sexuality and sexual abuse? Why is this mandatory? Surely a discussion of Mulieris Dignitatem would work too? Why are these students so focused on just this particular work? Instead of wasting time protesting (let's be honest, their protest made little impact), they could have held a school-sanctioned forum.
Here's a life lesson: very few people in this world do what they want. We all have bosses. Your boss (President Shanley, OP) has given you the parameters. Are they to your liking? Well, no, join the rest of the real world. Instead of whining like little kids, work within the system. Once you're out of the system (that you have freely put yourself in and pay inordinate amounts of money to be in, by the way), then do what you want.
Three CD players hidden under a cathedral's pews blared sexually explicit language in the middle of an Ash Wednesday Mass, leading a bomb squad to detonate two of the devices.
Authorities determined the music players were not dangerous and kept the third one to check it for clues, said police Capt. Gary Johnson.
The CD players, duct-taped to the bottoms of the pews, were set to turn on in the middle of noon Mass on Wednesday at the Roman Catholic Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.
The recordings, made on store-bought blank discs, featured people using foul language and "pornographic messages," Johnson said. He would not elaborate because of the ongoing investigation.
Church staff members took the CD players to the basement and called police, who sent the bomb squad, Johnson said.
The bomb squad blew up two players outside and kept the third one to test for fingerprints or DNA and trace its components, he said.
Like every good canon lawyer, Fr. Francis Hoffman knows there is much more to the Catholic Church than canon law. Thus, in answering people's questions for Our Sunday Visitor's The Catholic Answer, Fr. Hoffman draws with equal facility on Sacred Scriptures, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Code of Canon Law, and a generally rich storehouse of ecclesiastical wisdom. I never fail to learn something by reading his column.
One of the things I like most is Fr. Hoffman's lawyer-like, straight-talk approach. He answers the question posed, and then sometimes elaborates, qualifies, or goes beyond the surface to comment on other things. A recent example (TCA, March/April 2007, p. 22) was Fr. Hoffman's correct response to a reader who wondered whether the absolution he received was valid, given that the confessor changed the words of absolution from "I absolve you from your sins" to "May God . . . absolve you from your sins." Fr. Hoffman told the reader that such an absolution was invalid. Now, who wants to tell people that their submission to the authority of the Church was invalid though no fault of their own? No one. But Fr. Hoffman had to give the correct answer, and he did.
My concern is not with Fr. Hoffman's answer but with an additional comment he offered at the end: "Nevertheless, the penitent's sins are forgiven because it was no fault of his own the priest used an invalid formula." Hmmm. Careful here. Continuing: "In this case, as sacramental theologians point out, Ecclesia supplet, that is, the Church provides, out of her treasury of grace, the proper remedy for the defect of the minister's actions." Maybe this is a quibble between canonists, but I'm not so sure.
I understand the concept of Ecclesia supplet (1983 CIC 144.1) to describe the Church's power to supply, under limited circumstances, jurisdiction for an act. But there is no question in this case about whether the confessor had jurisdiction; rather, what was missing were sacramental words, that is, some of the words which the Church holds to be necessary for validity of the sacrament. Since what was defective was sacramental form, I don't see how the Church's ability to supply jurisdiction helps our penitent. To adapt a phrase, Ecclesia non supplet quod Ecclesia non habet; the Church cannot supply what the Church does not have, and the Church does not have the ability to supply sacramental form to a minister's deficient utterance. Many historical examples of invalid baptisms, confirmations, or ordinations would seem to bear this out. Ecclesia supplet does not remedy those cases wherein innocent persons bore the consequences of ministers making invalidating changes in sacramental form, and I don't think it does so for confession, either.
He goes on to give a solution of his own which seems quite reasonable.
You have to wonder what the outcry would be like if these journalists simulated or misrepresented themselves in a Muslim ritual. From CNA:
Bishop Cristián Contreras Villarroel the Auxilary Bishop of Santiago has firmly condemned a recent article in the Chilean newspaper “Las Ultimas Noticias,” in which a journalist falsely entered the confessional, on a number of occasions. The Bishop said the reporter’s actions, which copied a recent Italian news stunt, desecrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation and are an affront to religious sensitivities.
The journalistic stunt attempted to replicate a story published by the Italian newspaper ‘L' Espresso,’ and sought to manipulate the Sacrament in order to "to reveal" what Chilean Catholic priests teach in the confessionals on topics such as euthanasia, abortion, cohabitation, and in-vitro fertilization. A reporter for ‘Las Ultimas Noticias’ went to several churches in Chile and gave false “confessions” to various priests, a sacrilegious act given the sacred nature of confession.
The morning Mass at Boston College, that usually brings together 15 to 20 people, today saw 40 to 50 gather. The noon Mass at the parish where I live usually assembles 20 to 30 people. Today there were 140.
It is no secret that Ash Wednesday is a holy day, not by episcopal injunction, but by popular celebration. But what is the secret of the secret? Can it be the liberating confrontation with our mortality in a culture often bent on denying it? "Remember that you are dust and unto dust you shall return!"
I went to Mass at my home parish today and of the hundreds who were present, I only recognized about a dozen. It's safe to assume many who were there don't usually darken the doorstep of a church too often (this can be judged by the way many of them receive communion).
Now I don't claim to know why many go to Mass on Ash Wednesday. But I know one reason that it isn't: people cognizant of their mortality. I venture to say that most of the people I saw today at Mass have no clue what the symbol of the ashes is. Most just think it's what we do at the beginning of Lent. Not that they think it's devoid of meaning, but I can imagine few of them pondering their eternal futures today.
What has always struck me about his Lenten sermons are two themes delicately balanced: On the one hand, Newman sets the bar of Christian holiness very high; yet, on the other, he shows an acute awareness of the weaknesses that beset Christians and so understands them when they fail (as we are all bound to do) to measure up to his extraordinarily demanding standards. As to the first theme, take this typical passage from his sermon “The Religion of the Day”:
We dwell in the full light of the Gospel, and the full grace of the Sacraments. We ought then to have the holiness of the Apostles. There is no reason except our own willful corruption, that we are not by this time walking in the steps of St. Paul or St. John, and following them as they followed Christ. . . . Nothing is more difficult than to be disciplined and regular in our religion. It is very easy to be religious by fits and starts, and to keep up our feelings by artificial stimulants; but regularity seems to trammel us, and we become impatient.
The trick for any preacher when treating of sin, not least because he is a sinner himself, is to steer between this dilemma: First, he must not do anything to mitigate the Bible’s uncompromising demand for Christian holiness; but second, he must avoid the tub-thumping rhetoric of those preachers who think that mere denunciation will motivate their flocks to the abjuration of sin and the pursuit of holiness. In other words, the preacher must fuse together a high demand for a consistently pursued holiness with a shrewd—and compassionate—sense of human psychology, with its attendant weaknesses.
Fr. Z. is blogging his translations of the Lenten prayers as we go through the season. It's nice to see what a "really literal translation" of the prayers is. Here's today.
So, what did you all experience at Mass today?
I experienced a Penitential Rite that was supposed to be omitted, saw flowers decorating the altar, which should have been bare, and heard lovely instrumental music that is also not allowed.
Well, that's all the complaining I'm allowed to do on a day of fast. Hope your Lent is off to a good start!
I happened to see it at the bookstore today and picked it up on a whim. It's basically a popular historical account. I got interested in the whole thing with a series of Vatican Radio programs celebrating the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the construction of the basilica last year.
I don't know who this author is and I hadn't heard of the book. I was just wondering if anyone had read it or heard of it. Once I finish it, I'll let you know what I think.
Forty years have gone by since the Second Vatican Council concluded its work. The 16 conciliar documents have brought about many changes in the Catholic Church. One of the most visible changes is the way the Mass in the Latin rite is celebrated.
Unfortunately, shortly after the close of the council, the liturgical reforms the council set in motion have been upset by ignorance, misinterpretation, and even infidelity. The liturgy in America has become an ongoing battle between three groups of Catholics.
One group rejects the Missal of Pope Paul VI. Another group has misconstrued the liturgical norms of the missal and continues to spread errors and abuses that have nothing to do with the liturgy. Yet another group attempts to show the importance and beauty of the liturgical changes brought about by the council through a delicate fidelity to all the liturgical norms of the Church.
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But what went wrong? Why is the liturgy in a state of emergency? Why is the Mass almost unrecognizable in many parishes around the country? There are a number of causes behind the liturgical abuses that we still experience today,
First of all, we have the problem that many bishops have taken Bishop Walter Curtis's position. They have spent their time building hospitals and parishes, but have done nothing to properly educate and correct their priests.
Secondly, it seems the council presumed the bishops would go home and properly implement the council's teachings. Some of them did.
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Thirdly, it is well known that after the council, certain forces went to work to create a parallel church in America. This movement was spearheaded by Cardinal John Francis Dearden, of Detroit; Papal Nuncio Jean Jadot, and then-Fr. Joseph Bernardin, who later became the popular prelate of Chicago. They were the masterminds behind the Call to Action movement. Presently, Call to Action's Web site openly states the following:
'We call upon the church to discard the medieval discipline of mandatory priestly celibacy, and to open the priesthood to women and married men, including resigned priests, so that the Eucharist may continue to be the center of the spiritual life of all Catholics.'
Catholics younger than 50 are having a hard time understanding exactly what went wrong in America after the council. The problem is not the council, nor is it the reformed liturgy.
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Fourthly, liturgical abuses are rooted in two major heresies that are common among the American clergy, especially the older members of the clergy. The first heresy is that many members of the clergy no longer believe in the ministerial priesthood. Secondly, many priests deny transubstantiation, or minimally, have a very ambiguous idea of what it really means.
If the priest is no different than the layman sitting in the pews, and if he no longer believes in the Real Presence, then the Mass is converted into a Protestant service. He then believes that the liturgy can be made up as he goes along. He assumes it needs to be creative in order to make it interesting for the people.
Finally, another cause of the present state of emergency with regard to the liturgy could be the underlying cause of the entire mess we're in.
Having taught the Catechism of the Catholic Church to a large number of parishioners, I have found the following insight of the Catechism to be quite amazing. When discussing the Ninth Commandment, the Catechism states:
'The sixth beatitude proclaims, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' Pure in heart refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God's holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of the truth and orthodoxy of faith. There is a connection between purity of heart, of body, and of faith' (#2518).
It is interesting to note, based upon a lifetime of observation, that those priests who habitually carry on with women, or those active homosexual priests who carry on with their proclivities, are guilty of the most obtrusive and bizarre liturgical abuses. There is a connection between purity of heart, of body, and of faith.
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First and foremost, bishops need to be courageous shepherds. As George Weigel pointed out in his excellent work, The Courage to be Catholic, something needs to be done to reform the way bishops are selected in America. The present system is broken. It encourages ambition and favoritism.
Secondly, a serious renewal of the clergy is vital. A severe selection of candidates for the seminary is of utmost importance. Some bishops, rectors of seminaries, and vocations directors are purposely ignoring the current directive from the Vatican on homosexual candidates for the seminary.
Thirdly, a serious reform of seminaries has to take place. Many leave the seminary with insufficient liturgical formation, and many do not even know how to celebrate Mass! Just observe what takes place during a concelebrated Mass — it is utterly disgusting and unbelievable. Bishops and priests need to be faithfully obedient to all of the rubrics of the Roman Missal. Here is a simple rule to follow: Say what is in black, and do what is in red. What's so difficult about that?
Another solution is that all the clergy, the American bishops included, need to read the council documents and the Magisterium of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. There is much intellectual laziness among the clergy. They need to study, and study very seriously: less time on the golf course, and more time hitting the books.
An interesting analysis, well worth reading the whole column. His diagnosis gets to the heart of the issue and I wish more people would listen to his advice. With Lent beginning, it might be nice if we all prayed and sacrificed for this intention: well-celebrated liturgies.
Sandro Magister's column today reflects on how the Pope's Lenten message reveals his opposition to homosexual unions in Italy.
As he did in the encyclical “Deus Caritas Est,” Benedict XVI has thus placed love, in its dizzying divine and human fullness, at the center of this message for the beginning of Lent.
He has done so even as he sees just how much love, in the present culture, is “such a disfigured, worn-out, and abused word.”
He has done so even as he sees Italy, Europe, and the world giving legal and cultural approval to “weak” forms of love that undermine the “extremely strong” love that makes a man and a woman “one flesh” in the family.
He has done so even as certain famous Catholic intellectuals – like minister Rosy Bindi and historian Pietro Scoppola in Italy – accuse the Church of “talking about the Pacs [the laws on de facto heterosexual and homosexual unions] more than it does about the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection.”
In short, this message for the beginning of Lent thus makes clear – with its profound reasoning - why Benedict XVI insists so strenuously, and at every opportunity, on the defense of the family as a “divine institution” ("Gaudium et Spes", 48), founded not by human will, but by that God who is love.
At the end, he mentions next week's curia retreat:
On the afternoon of the first Sunday of Lent, February 25, Benedict XVI and his collaborators in the Roman curia will begin their spiritual exercises, which will continue until the morning of Saturday, March 3.
So for one week, the ordinary activities of the pope and the curia will be suspended. Even the Wednesday audience will be cancelled.
The preacher that the pope has chosen for these exercises is cardinal Giacomo Biffi, 79, archbishop of Bologna from 1984 to 2003. He will preach three times each day, on the general topic: “Seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God: think about the things above, not about earthly things” (Colossians 3:1-2).
Frances Kissling, founder of the pro-abortion Catholics for a Free Choice, an organization composed of basically a few people supported by some very big foundations, is retiring. Kissling has waged a one-woman war to advance the proposition that it is acceptable for Catholics to dissent from the Church’s teachings on abortion, contraception, sexual moral ethics, and other fundamental matters. She has worked to have the United Nations strip the Holy See of its observer status and has orchestrated worldwide advertising campaigns blaming the Church’s bishops for millions of AIDS deaths through the tortuous logic that the Church’s call to abstinence somehow forces fornicators not to use condoms but to fornicate anyway.
Good riddance to Kissling, but don’t let down your guard: There are plenty of others willing to step into her shoes.
The ARCIC (Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission) saga of the past three days has been insane. It all started with this article in the London Times, which I disregarded (other than the fact that it was in the Times which intrigued me) because it sounded exaggerated.
Well, apparently I was right. You have this statement from the Holy See today (via VIS):
Made public today was a note signed by Catholic Archbishop John Bathersby and Anglican Bishop David Beetge, co-presidents of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission (IARCCUM), regarding an article published yesterday in the British newspaper "The Times" on the IARCCUM document: "Growing Together in Unity and Mission."
"'Growing Together in Unity and Mission' has not yet been officially published," the English-language note reads. "It is unfortunate that is contents have been prematurely reported in a way which misrepresents its intentions and sensationalizes its conclusions. The first part of the document, which treats doctrinal matters, is an attempt to synthesize the work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) over the past 35 years. It identifies the level of agreement which has been reached by ARCIC, but is also very clear in identifying ongoing areas of disagreement, and in raising questions which still need to be addressed in dialogue. Those ongoing questions and areas of disagreement are highlighted in boxed sections interspersed throughout the text. It is a very honest document assessing the state of Anglican-Roman Catholic relations at the present moment."
The note continues: "The Times article speculates about the Catholic Church's response to a possible schism within the Anglican Communion. It should be pointed out that the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity has consistently spoken of the value of the Anglican Communion remaining a communion, rooted in the Apostolic faith, as indicated in this statement from 2004: 'It is our overwhelming desire that the Anglican Communion stays together, rooted in the historic faith which our dialogue and relations over four decades have led us to believe that we share to a large degree'."
Read Ruth Gledhill's blog (the Times' religion correspondent). She has several interesting posts. This one is about how Katherine Jefferts Schori, the lightning rod for much of the tension at the meeting, has been elected to the all-important Standing Committee.
Anglican leaders demanded Monday that the U.S. Episcopal Church unequivocally bar official prayers for gay couples and the consecration of more gay bishops to undo the damage that North Americans have caused the Anglican family.
In a statement ending a tense six-day meeting, the leaders said that past pledges by Episcopalians for a moratorium on gay unions and consecrations have been so ambiguous that they have failed to fully mend ``broken relationships'' in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.
The Episcopal Church, the U.S. wing of world Anglicanism, must clarify its position by Sept. 30 or its relations with other Anglicans will remain ``damaged at best.''
Bishop Anthony Pilla, who resigned last year as head of the Cleveland, Ohio diocese, has been charged with using secret bank accounts to support his personal spending of diocesan funds.
The charges against the former bishop are contained in court filings by two former officials of the Cleveland diocese, who have been indicted on charges of defrauding the Church. Bishop Pilla resigned in April 2006, citing reasons of health, shortly after the public revelation that finance officers in the Cleveland diocese would face charges for allegedly defrauding the diocese of over $700,000.
The two indicted officials, Joseph Smith and Anton Zgoznik, argue that Bishop Pilla was aware of their financial schemes, which included setting up unlisted bank accounts. In a motion presented to an Ohio federal court, the two defendants are seeking to force the Cleveland diocese to disclose records of those bank accounts, claiming that the records will support their defense.
According to the defendants’ motion, Bishop Pilla had control of over $500,000 in a bank account set up as a charitable trust, from which he withdrew funds for his personal use.
Bishop Pilla has declined to comment on the charges against him, but the Cleveland diocese insists that the charges are false.
Effective vocation strategies compiled by the National Catholic Register:
Six Habits of Highly Effective Dioceses
Based on what we learned, here are six questions successful dioceses all answer “Yes.”
1. Is the Eucharist the center of vocation efforts?
2. Is the diocese unabashed about personally inviting men to be priests?
3. Is the seminary faithful to the magisterium of the Church?
The seminaries that are booming, like Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Md., St. Vincent in Latrobe, Pa., and St. Gregory the Great in Seward, Neb., are ones with a reputation for being faithful to the magisterium.
4. Are there many strong and faithful families to draw from?
5. Do young men know and interact with priests?
6. Did young people in the area go to World Youth Day?
His administration has mishandled the logistics of the war and the politics of its perception in nearly equal measure, from Abu Ghraib to the execution of Saddam Hussein. Conservatives voted for George W. Bush in 2000 because they expected him to be the opposite of Bill Clinton-and so, unfortunately, he has proved. Where Clinton seemed a man of enormous political competence and no principle, Bush has been a man of principle and very little political competence. The security concerns after the attacks of September 11 and the general tide of American conservatism carried Republicans through the elections of 2002 and 2004. But by 2006 Bush had squandered his party’s advantages, until even the specter of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House was not enough to keep the Republicans in power.
To abandon Iraq now would be the height of irresponsibility. It would lock in place the perception of defeat, with all the predictable consequences, and it would abandon the Iraqis to whom we promised freedom and democracy. President Bush has clearly done the right thing in refusing retreat and pledging to stay the course in Iraq.
But hasn’t that always been the problem? Again and again, he has done the right thing in the wrong way, until, at last, his wrongness has overwhelmed his rightness. How can conservatives continue to support this man in much of anything he tries to do? Iraq is not America’s failure, and it is not conservatism’s failure. We are where we are because of George W. Bush’s failure.
All the 2008 Republican presidential candidates should understand the task they face over the next two years. George Bush’s ideals have gotten him elected president twice, and his incompetence has finally delivered the Congress to his domestic opponents and empowered his nation’s enemies abroad. Iraq needs an American president who embraces Bush’s principles-and rejects his policies. The United States needs much the same thing.
Another question he asks earlier is this: are the causes that we hold dear, the issues for which we elected him, any closer to what we want now, six years into his presidency? How far have we come on abortion, for example? I've asked myself this on a number of occasions. Bottum writes:
We’ve been warned by the media, over and over again, that Republicans are reshaping America into a Puritan’s paradise. But, at the end of the day, the media mostly won and the Republicans mostly lost. Social conservatism is in little better shape now than it was when Bush was first elected. In many ways, it is in worse shape.
A point, I think, that needed to be made.
Novak, while taking Bottum's criticisms to heart, tries to overcome them (he falls short, I think). He does make a good point, though:
By no means should President Bush get a pass for his errors and misperceptions, or his slowness in correcting them. Still, one ought to use standards that are cut to the cloth of human nature. In politics, Aristotle wrote, we must expect “a tincture of virtue.” Expectations too high for anyone in the presidential office are no proper criterion for evaluation. Besides, despite enormous blows to our banking, investment, and transportation systems, the decisive steps President Bush took allowed our economy not only to recoup the dreadful financial losses of September 11 but also to climb unparalleled heights.
I think it's true that Americans expect too much of their leaders. They are not perfect. They often misspeak and slip up. Of course, we demand an unnatural level of knowledge and foresight that belong only to One. Novak rightly calls our attention to the good things President Bush has done during his terms so far, also mentioning that he's been the most openly pro-life president we've ever had.
On this Presidents' Day, keeping all of this in mind, I plan to pray for those who bear the great burden of making these decisions that not only impact our lives now, but these choices that reach into generations to come. Regardless of one's political affiliation or affection/lack of affection toward President Bush, we should pray for him. He's what we've got, for better or for worse, for the next two years. And as the 2008 elections start shaping up, let's pray for guidance, that our next leader may serve our country with distinction.
The word “scrotum” does not often appear in polite conversation. Or children’s literature, for that matter.
Yet there it is on the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky,” by Susan Patron, this year’s winner of the Newbery Medal, the most prestigious award in children’s literature. The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.
“Scrotum sounded to Lucky like something green that comes up when you have the flu and cough too much,” the book continues. “It sounded medical and secret, but also important.”
The inclusion of the word has shocked some school librarians, who have pledged to ban the book from elementary schools, and reopened the debate over what constitutes acceptable content in children’s books. The controversy was first reported by Publishers Weekly, a trade magazine.
OK, so far nothing too major here. But then this:
Pat Scales, a former chairwoman of the Newbery Award committee, said that declining to stock the book in libraries was nothing short of censorship.
“The people who are reacting to that word are not reading the book as a whole,” she said. “That’s what censors do — they pick out words and don’t look at the total merit of the book.”
Now getting beyond the definition of censorship... isn't censorship ok when it comes to dealing with children? Don't we say that they are not allowed by law to see R rated movies? Isn't that censorship? What about the v-chip? Don't we watch our language around kids?
Folks, if people think it's inappropriate for children, then it's ok not to show them. The real world is too much for a child. If you want proof, look at children who grow up seeing the "real world." They're a sad breed. Of course, the world should be revealed to them, but progressively, as they become ready. (On the flip side of my example, children who have absolutely no clue of the real world are a sad breed too!).
Later in the article:
Ms. Patron, who is a public librarian in Los Angeles, said the book was written for children 9 to 12 years old. But some librarians countered that since the heroine of “The Higher Power of Lucky” is 10, children older than that would not be interested in reading it.
“I think it’s a good case of an author not realizing her audience,” said Frederick Muller, a librarian at Halsted Middle School in Newton, N.J. “If I were a third- or fourth-grade teacher, I wouldn’t want to have to explain that.”
With Ash Wednesday just a few days away, Sister Mary Martha once again impresses me with her sound spiritual advice:
First, don't go berserk because it's about to be Lent and gorge yourself on things you are about to give up. New Orleans may need the tourist trade these days, but you don't need the girls gone wild. Or all those beads.
Second, think very carefully about what you are going to give up for Lent. The things people give up for Lent is a singular pet peeve of mine.
If you want to lose weight or quit smoking, do it on your own time. Lent isn't about looking better in your jeans or avoiding emphysema, although we wish you the best on both those counts.
Lent is about giving up something that will be a daily reminder of the fact that it's Lent. Then while you're thinking about the fact that it's Lent, maybe you'll remember what Lent is all about.
We're leading up to Jesus' death here, so we're thinking about why Jesus died and what he gave up for us. He died for our sins. Mel Gibson did a wonderful job of depicting what he gave up, subsequent drunken tirade not withstanding.
It would be great if you would stop biting your nails, but it's not going to cut it for Lent. You're not going to give up physical things for physical self help. You're going to give up physical things for spiritual self improvement.
I can't think of a better way to enjoy the weekend, than to hurl a jab at ICEL. The March issue of First Things was just posted and Fr. Neuhaus writes the following in the Public Square (available only to subscribers):
There is a new plaque in Rome with this inscription:
SEMPER MEMORIA SERVETUR FAUSTI DIEI XII ANTE KAL NOVEMBRIS MMVI QUO BENEDICTUS XVI PONTIFEX MAXIMUS DECESSORUM SUORUM VESTIGIA SECUTUS ACADEMICA COMMUNITATE SUMMA LAETITIA RECEPTUS PONTIFICIAM UNIVERSITATEM LATERANENSEM INVISIT NOVAM BIBLIOTHECAM UTI STUDIORUM ET INVESTIGATIONIS SEDEM AD SACRAM TRADITIONEM ALENDAM BENEDIXIT AULAM MAGNAM SIBI DICATAM INAUGURAVIT COMITANTIBUS CAMILLO S.R.E. CARDINALE RUINI MAGNO CANCELLARIO ET RINO FISICHELLA EPISCOPO TIT VICOHABENTINO MAGNIFICO RECTORE QUI OPUS SUSCIPIENDUM AC PERFICIENDUM CURAVIT
That translates as: “May the memory always be preserved of the auspicious day of 21 October 2006 on which Benedict XVI, Pontifex Maximus, following the footsteps of his predecessors, and having been received with greatest joy by the academic community, visited the Pontifical Lateran University, blessed the new library as a seat of studies and research to foster sacred tradition, and inaugurated the Great Hall dedicated to himself. Accompanying him were Camillo Ruini, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, the Grand Chancellor, and Rino Fisichella, titular bishop of Voghenza, the Magnificent Rector, who saw to it that the work was begun and completed.” But Fr. George Rutler sends along this translation, from Fr. Tim Finigan’s blog, as it might have been rendered by the old unreformed ICEL: “One day last year, the Pope came to our school. He made us all very happy when he said a prayer for the new bookcases and a big room with his name on it. Cardinal Ruini (who is very important) was there and so was Bishop Rino who got it all done.”
The Third World Championship of Priests’ Soccer ended Wednesday in Sarajevo with the Poland beating out home team Croatia in a dramatic penalty kick finale.
The World Championship of Priests’ Soccer, which was held in 2005 in Austria and in 2006 in Croatia, was organized this year by the Archdiocese of Sarajevo and the Franciscan Order.
The championship began last Tuesday with teams competing from Austria, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and Poland. Cardinal Vinko Puljic, Archbishop of Sarajevo, thanked the organizers of the event and said, “In this way, too, priests communicate the message of the Gospel to all of society.”
The final game between Poland and the defending champions from Croatia, was a closely contested match which was ultimately decided by penalty kicks.
The new Adoremus Bulletin is posted for February. It has two lengthy articles: one on liturgical translations and the other on liturgical music, including some popular misconceptions. There is also an article listing chant resources.
Roman Catholics will soon become the largest religious group in Great Britain, outnumbering Anglicans for the first time since the Reformation, the London Times reports.
Weekly Mass attendance at Catholic parishes now stands at about 1 million, roughly equal to the number attending Anglican services. But the Catholic population of Britain is steadily expanding, mostly because of immigration, while the Anglican community is in decline, the Times observes.
One of my seniors scored his 1,000th career point last night. What an exciting game! He did it with a lot of class surrounded by his family and classmates. One of the local TV stations was there. Of course, their little report can't possibly do it justice, but at least you can see it.
I couldn't find a link to directly get to the video, so you have to go to the video page. Scroll down to "Alex Barnes joins the 1,000 point club."
The Anglican Primate meeting in Tanzania this week has the possibility to be explosive. The First Things blog has a great analysis that is great for those who want a primer before the stuff hits the fan:
“I fear schism,” Rowan Williams told the BBC, and with good reason. Today the annual meeting of the Anglican Communion officially begins in Tanzania, and it is not at all clear that the communion will last the week. No fewer than thirty-seven Anglican archbishops have assembled at a hotel in Dar-es-Salaam, charged with the task of deciding what to do about the communion’s recalcitrant American branch, otherwise known as the Episcopal Church. Archbishop Williams’ biggest problem is that not all the archbishops are on speaking terms with one another. “I fear the situation slipping out of my control,” he went on to tell the BBC. Indeed, it may already have done so.
Archbishop Williams, in a sermon last summer titled “The Challenge and Hope of Being an Anglican Today,” noted that Anglicans have uneasily coexisted for generations as three distinct groups in one church: evangelicals, catholics, and liberals. Part of being an Anglican, he argued, is believing that all three groups have something to learn from one another. Most Christians would agree with his point. But the practical difficulty of it is that the three groups increasingly live in separate thought-worlds, each with its own distinct vocabularies and ideas about what it means to be a Christian. These divisions, long simmering beneath the surface of the maddeningly diverse Anglican brew, have now come to the surface in Tanzania. If this week’s meeting results in serious schism—which is a very distinct possibility—it will be because the three camps finally prove unable to talk to one another, and hence go their separate ways.
He goes on to analyze each of the three groups. Seems like a sharp analysis and worth a read.
I was listening to the daily homily on EWTN and the priest told the following story (obviously paraphrased based on my amazing memory):
A man and a woman were married for 60 years. The wife had a shoebox and when they got married, she told her husband that he was never to look inside or even ask about it. As the years went by, he forgot about it.
One day, the woman was ill and dying. The husband went and got the shoebox and gave it to his wife, asking if perhaps it was time to reveal its contents. Knowing the end was near, she agreed. He opened it and there were two crocheted dolls and $95,000. He was surprised and asked for an explanation.
She said that her grandmother had told her that the secret of a happy marriage was never to fight or argue. Every time she was angry, her grandmother told her, she should crochet a doll. Well, the man was overcome, realizing that his wife had only been angry with him twice in the 60 years they were married. So, knowing the explanation for the dolls, he asked her what the money was from. And she said,
"That's the money I made selling the dolls."
So... Happy SAINT Valentine's Day everyone! We have a snow day here so I'm relaxing, praying, and working.
"Sister, how serious is it to miss Mass on Sunday?"
"Did you go to Saturday Mass?"
"No, Sister."
"Were you in ICU, hooked up to monitors?"
"No, Sister."
"Were you struck on the head and had amnesia?"
"No, Sister."
"Then unless you make it to confession before you fall down the basement stairs or your grandmother hits the gas instead of the brake while you're standing behind the car getting the groceries out of the trunk, you can expect to go straight to Hell."
Sorry.
Another gem:
"We were so busy, and everyone was tired, and we looked at the clock and missed the last Mass. We didn't miss Mass on purpose."
Too bad. You'll pay really close attention to the clock in Hell, hoping it will be over soon, but it never will be.
During the weekend of February 10-11, Catholics and other faith groups throughout the world will mark the 14th annual observance of World Marriage Day. This year, the Catholic Bishops of New Jersey are calling on the more than 3 million faithful in the state to celebrate the Sacrament of Marriage at all liturgies and to work actively to reinforce and strengthen the traditional and historic definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
The Bishops have also designated Sunday, February 25 as a Day of Special Prayer for the Preservation of Marriage.
In a letter to the faithful to be read at all Masses in New Jersey this weekend, the Bishops expressed their grave concerns that the recently enacted Civil Union Act may undermine the institution of marriage, which "has its roots not only in human tradition and history, but also in natural law, which transcends all man-made law."
They also emphasized that "marriage is distinct in essence from every other arrangement." Citing Church teaching and Scripture and emphasizing their roles as teachers of the Faith, the Bishops expressed that this understanding of marriage reiterates a truth that is evident to right reason and recognized as such by all the major cultures of the world. In a cover letter to pastors that accompanies the letter to parishioners, the bishops stated: "No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely as the union of a man and a women."
Finally, in addition to prayer, the Bishops urge in their letter that all Catholics "reach out to their neighbors, legislators and the Governor with the simple message: ‘preserve the definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman."
Gay marriage opponents launched a petition drive Monday in hopes of persuading lawmakers to amend the state constitution to include a definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
The drive comes a week before New Jersey begins to allow gay couples to legally unite in civil unions.
Legislative leaders have refused to allow lawmakers to vote on a proposal to amend the state constitution to include the traditional definition of marriage. Unlike other states where citizens can gather petitions and get a measure on the ballot, New Jersey has no referendum provision.
John Tomicki, president of the New Jersey Coalition to Preserve and Protect Marriage, said his group will try to get at least 20,000 signatures, hoping to persuade legislative leaders to allow a vote on the proposal.
I was in Los Angeles yesterday for a conference at Loyola Marymount University on “Catholics and Politics.” The morning panel dealt with the politics of the Vatican, and featured myself, Jesuit Fr. Tom Reese, and Eric Hanson of Santa Clara University; the afternoon session, devoted to the Church and American secular politics, included Kristin E. Heyer of LMU, Matthew Streb of Northern Illinois University, and Mark Rozell of George Mason University.
Here's what Reese said:
Reese, for example, argued that modern political “best practices” should be applied to the reform of the Roman Curia. He suggested six points: • The Vatican should be a bureaucracy rather than a court, meaning that no Vatican official should be a bishop, archbishop or cardinal, to make it more clear that they serve the pope and bishops; • Legislative bodies in the church, including the Synod of Bishops, should be strengthened; • Congregations in the Curia should become synodal committees; • The church should have an independent judiciary; • Bishops should be elected at the local level; • Bishops’ conferences should become local councils, with real deliberative authority.
I know you're all falling over with surprise. Here's John Allen's response:
I told him I agreed, on the basis of three considerations: 1) a powerful Catholic Identity movement in the West means that we are in a period of reaffirming, not reforming, existing structures, doctrines, and practices; 2) the increasingly important churches of the South generally they do not see ad intra reform as a priority; 3) the distinction Reese implied between matters of “universal” and “local” concern flirts with being an anachronism in an age of 24/7, instantaneous global communication, in which anything that happens anywhere on the planet can immediately become “universal.”
His other interesting contribution:
I was asked to address the “Politics of Papal Elections,” and I took a descriptive tack, based on my experience of covering the conclave of April 2005 -- most notably, interviewing eight of the 115 electors after the fact for my book The Rise of Benedict XVI.
In a nutshell, I argued that journalists and armchair handicappers alike tended to misdiagnose the conclave by treating it as a referendum on issues in the church, such as papal primacy, Islam, women, the sexual abuse crisis, and so on. In fact, I suggested, cardinals generally understood themselves to be voting for a person, not a “candidate” in the secular political sense, and thus individual evaluations were far more important – how smart a person is this? How trustworthy is he? Will he listen? Is he holy?
I suggested that one useful parallel to a conclave may be the election of a department chair in a university. With a few exceptions, faculty members do not generally look to set the ideological direction of the department when they pick a chair. They’re looking for someone they know, someone they trust, who they feel will be a competent manager, and who will give them a fair shake in divvying up office space, making teaching assignments, approving sabbaticals, and so on. They may ferociously disagree with a colleague on philosophical matters, but still see him or her as a good administrator. They’re looking to elect a friend, in other words, or at least a non-enemy, more than to make a statement.
The company that produced The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is planning to adapt C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters into a major motion picture that will open in theaters nationwide in early 2008.
This is the second effort of Walden Media to bring C.S. Lewis to the big screen, following the very successful Narnia. The company also plans to release the sequel to Narnia, Prince Caspian, sometime next year.
First published in 1942, The Screwtape Letters features a series of letters between senior demon, Screwtape, and his wannabe diabolical nephew, Wormwood. As a mentor, Screwtape advises Wormwood on how to undermine the faith and promote sin to an earthly man known only as “the Patient.”
Like The Chronicles of Narnia, which grossed $744 million worldwide, The Screwtape Letters will be shot as a live-action movie.
Jimmy Akin has a post on the Our Father in Aramaic. He links to a media file so you can listen to it and he also has an image file so you can see the script and the transliteration. Interesting to say the least!
Via the Curt Jester. This is a letter from Fr. Greg Shaffer (Archdiocese of Washington) whom many of you know:
As you may or may not know, we started a basketball team of Washington priests and seminarians two years ago called “DC ‘Hood” (short for DC priesthood). We have played 11 games against 8 different parish teams of coaches, teachers, and teens. Thanks be to God, it has been growing and growing, averaging about 200 fans a game. The games have been great nights of fun for families while promoting vocations.
The Catholic Standard wrote an article about DC ‘Hood a few months ago. The sales manager of the Washington Wizards read the article and generously called the Archdiocese to see if DC ‘Hood ever wanted to play at the Verizon Center after a Wizards game. Umm, yeah! Thanks, Wizards!!
So DC ‘Hood will be playing at the Verizon Center (against CYO coaches after the Wizards 3:30 pm game versus the Chicago Bulls) on Sun., April 15. After our game, there will a game b/w CYO 11th and 12th grade co-ed all-stars; the winners of the two (16 minute) games will play in a “championship” game.
This event is intended to a) promote vocations, and b) raise funds for the CYO / OYM (Catholic Youth Organization/Office of Youth Ministry). We are helping CYO to sell tickets to the Wizards game; they receive a generous portion of the proceeds.
I personally will be purchasing a large amount of tickets the week of Feb. 11. Can you help me? The tickets are $ 25 (Upper Level B), $30 (Upper Level A), and $85 (Lower Level). Buying two $25 tickets, for example, would help greatly! Even if you’re not able or interested in going, can you make a donation to our cause? The more tickets we sell, the more we promote the priesthood and raise funds for our youth.
You can order tickets online at www.verizoncenter.com/cyo or, for donations only, mail a check to me directly at: Fr. Greg Shaffer, St. Andrew Apostle parish, 11600 Kemp Mill Rd., Silver Spring, MD 20902 (I will give your tickets to kids in the school or parish).
