From the Peanut Gallery

I post this for your amusement more than anything else.  Jimmy Carter, since his passing from the White House, has been the nutty uncle in the garage (save some building projects he had).

From

It’s not news when irrelevant people spout irrational opinions, because it happens nearly all the time, but hey – it’s been a slow day.

From Swampland:

Let’s get right to it. This week the Carter Center’s Mobilizing Faith for Women conference will ask the question, “Can religion be a force for women’s rights instead of a source of women’s oppression?” What’s your answer?

Well, religion can be, and I think there’s a slow, very slow, move around the world to give women equal rights in the eyes of God. What has been the case for many centuries is that the great religions, the major religions, have discriminated against women in a very abusive fashion and set an example for the rest of society to treat women as secondary citizens. In a marriage or in the workplace or wherever, they are discriminated against. And I think the great religions have set the example for that, by ordaining, in effect, that women are not equal to men in the eyes of God.

This has been done and still is done by the Catholic Church ever since the third century, when the Catholic Church ordained that a woman cannot be a priest for instance but a man can. A woman can be a nurse or a teacher but she can’t be a priest. This is wrong, I think. As you may or may not know, the Southern Baptist Convention back now about 13 years ago in Orlando, voted that women were inferior and had to be subservient to their husbands, and ordained that a woman could not be a deacon or a pastor or a chaplain or even a teacher in a classroom in some seminaries where men are in the classroom, boys are in the classroom. So my wife and I withdrew from the Southern Baptist Convention primarily because of that…

In the Islamic world that varies widely depending on what the regime is in the capital. Sometimes they try to impose very strict law, misquoting I think the major points of the Qur’an, and they ordain that a woman is inferior inherently. Ten year old girls can be forced to marry against their wishes, and that women can be treated as slaves in a marriage, and that a woman can’t drive an automobile, some countries don’t let women vote, like Saudi Arabia.

Yeah, the Catholic Church is just like the Islam religion in how women are treated. Practically indistinguishable. And in case he was unclear, later in the interview, Jimmy mentions the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

[…]

There’s lots more!

Posted in Liberals, Lighter fare | Tagged , ,
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Of Carbonara and an Onomastico

I am, thanks to some of you readers, now ensconced in my apartment in Rome. I met friends tonight for supper.

Some of you said that you live vicariously through travel entries, so I will obliged as time permits.

The trip across the pond was uneventful and the trip into the City was equally smooth.  After taking possession of the flat, I picked up some groceries and ran errands, and then met a friend for lunch.

Back to the flat and a nap.

Carbonara at a well-known place in the Borgo Pio along with the usual insider Vatican baseball box scores for the past few days.

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Mixed greens salad to follow.  Honestly, I should have just had the salad, but today is my Name Day, which is a bigger deal here than in the USA.

A stroll across St. Peter’s Square on the way home.

 

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I have seen (both of) these things more times than I can count but they are always welcome, like old friends.  It is nice to be here and not to have the urgent desire to go “see things”.  I can just be.

Posted in Fr. Z's Kitchen, On the road | Tagged
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Girl Scouts who openly to worship themselves

From Breitbart:

GIRL SCOUTS OF BRITAIN REPLACE ‘GOD’ WITH ‘MYSELF’ IN OATH

On Wednesday, Great Britain’s Girl Guides (their equivalent of U.S. Girl Scouts) and Brownies removed God from their 103-year-old oath.
Instead of the passage where they used to promise to “love God,” they will now vow to be true to “myself” and develop “my beliefs.” The organization said the move is intended to attract girls from secular families.
Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, condemned the move, saying, “These values have their roots in a Christian outlook. Taking ‘God’ out of the promise denies the history and foundations of the movement without offering anything in its place, with the result that the organization will lose its distinctive ethos and end up meaning nothing.”
Chief Guide Gill Slocombe protested that the organization consulted 40,000 before it made the change. She said that using God in the pledge “discouraged some girls and volunteers from joining,” and now the Guides could “reach out to girls and women who might not have considered guiding before, so that even more girls can benefit from everything guiding can offer.”
Julie Bentley, the new CEO of the Guides, has called the Girl Guides the “ultimate feminist organization.”
The Girl Guides in Australia also deleted God from the vow last year. The Boy Scouts in Great Britain are considering a similar move next month.
Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts in the United States still vow to “to serve God and my country.”

Worshipping themselves in an enclosed circle.

Posted in Liberals, Pò sì jiù, The Drill, The Last Acceptable Prejudice | Tagged , ,
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My view for a while and Z’s Law

I am on my way to Rome today, thanks to all of you… quite a few of you!

Of course this is when Zuhlsdorf’s Law clicks in big time. Many of you will remember Zuhlsdorf’s Law. Many of you will remember how it affected me the last time I was in Rome.

As I was doing a check of the blog this morning it would not load. “Of course!”, quoth I, or … words to that effect.

I found out that there are larger Internet backbone problems today. I suspect a certain “administration”.

My view for a while.

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Exactly as I post this, it hits me that I forgot to wash the dishes. And there are 7 children under 2 on the plane.

UPDATE:

The next leg. Gasp… I loathe these flights.

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UPDATE

We have arrived.

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I have a short term apartment again.

Nice terrace!

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Posted in On the road, What Fr. Z is up to | Tagged
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Pope No Show – UPDATES

The other night there was a concert scheduled in Vatican City as part of the Year of Faith events sponsored by the Holy See in Rome.

Pope Francis was a no show. No compelling reason was given. It wasn’t for health reasons. There was no dire missile crisis involving re-phone conversations with nuclear powers. I suspect he just didn’t want to go, so he blew it off.

Perhaps this is part of his continuing deconstruction of the papal person: listening to concerts of classical music (this time, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony) is not what El Pueblo does, thus he doesn’t do it.

Or, maybe he doesn’t like the concert thing, which was clearly organized with Benedict in mind.

The other part of me, however, the Romanized part, is wondering if the Holy Father didn’t use an occasion when he knew where all of his “handlers” were going to be, and how long they would be there, to have a one-on-one meeting with someone who knows what is going on in the Vatican and where the reform is most necessary. After those years in Rome I have a conspiratorial streak.

Either way, the Pope is keeping everyone guessing, and – in the Curia – on edge.

The empty chair image is going to be remembered for a long time, though not in the way it is with Pres. Obama.

The Empty Chair

UPDATE:

My spies tell me that the Holy Father did not meet with any controversial or knowledgeable person while everyone else was at the concert.  Moreover, the Pope does like classical music.

I was reviewing what the Fishwrap was saying about this and found an interesting paragraph by John Allen:

As a footnote, the empty chair sensation also illustrates how Benedict XVI can’t catch a break. Back in 2005, he withdrew from a planned Vatican Christmas concert, which led to a spate of angry interviews with musicians and singers as well as speculation that Benedict didn’t care for the pop culture feel of the event. In other words, his no-show was seen as a haughty gesture of disdain; with Francis, the same act has been praised as an evangelical statement of simplicity.

PS: I suspect that His Holiness was irritated that they left the empty chair out there, making the Pope more conspicuous by his absence.

UPDATE:

You know… there is a “spare” Pope who likes concerts around… just a short golf cart ride away.

Posted in The Drill | Tagged ,
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The New Normal

Have you been following the goat rodeo in Brasil?

The government hiked transportation costs which will hit Los Pobres, who are also concerned about the costs of the World Cup next year.  Response? Demonstrations, riots… you know… the new normal.

This in advance of Pope Francis’ trip to Brasil for World Youth Day.

From AP:

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — More than a week of massive, violent protests across Brazil invited only stoic silence Friday from President Dilma Rousseff, even after she had called an emergency meeting with a top Cabinet member in response to the growing unrest.

Only on Friday night did the government confirm that Rousseff would address the nation a few hours later, but through a prerecorded message. She was expected to meet in the evening with top bishops from the Roman Catholic Church about the protests’ effects on a papal visit still scheduled for next month in Rio and Sao Paulo state.

Trying to decipher the president’s reaction to the unrest has become a national guessing game, especially after some 1 million anti-government demonstrators took to the streets the night before across the country to denounce everything from poor public services to the billions of dollars spent preparing for next year’s World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

The protests continued Friday, as about 1,000 people marched in western Rio de Janeiro city, with some looting stores and invading an enormous $250 million arts center that remains empty after several years of construction. Police tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas as they were pelted with rocks. Police said some in the crowd were armed and firing at officers.

Local radio was also reporting that protesters were heading to the apartment of Rio state Gov. Sergio Cabral in the posh Rio neighborhood of Ipanema.

Other protests broke out in the country’s biggest city, Sao Paulo, and in Fortaleza in the country’s northeast. Demonstrators were calling for more mobilizations in 10 cities on Saturday.

The National Conference of Brazilian Bishops came out in favor of the protests, saying that it maintains “solidarity and support for the demonstrations, as long as they remain peaceful.”

“This is a phenomenon involving the Brazilian people and the awakening of a new consciousness,” church leaders said in the statement. “The protests show all of us that we cannot live in a country with so much inequality.”

[…]

Perhaps João Card. Braz de Aviz should drop everything, leave Rome, and rush to Brasil to help settle things down before Francis gets there.

During Acton University last week, we heard a talk from an Iranian women, convert to Catholicism while still a teen, who had been hauled to a pretty nasty prison and tortured in various ways you can guess at during the Islamic revolution.  She offered, among other things, a warning: revolutions are like explosions – they are sudden and the results are unpredictable.

Posted in Goat Rodeos, The Drill | Tagged
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Z-SWAG IN THE WILD – Down Under Edition

His Hermeneuticalness is Down Under at the moment and he caught sight of some Z-Swag!

Check it out.

Posted in In The Wild | Tagged , ,
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Fr. Pavone to Nancy “abortion-is-sacred ground” Pelosi (D-CA)

Fr. Frank Pavone is the head of Priest For Life.

He posted an Open Letter to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) which I reproduce here for maximum circulation. My emphases:

Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Dear Mrs. Pelosi,

Last Thursday, June 13, you were asked a question in a press briefing that you declined to answer. The question was, “What is the moral difference between what Dr. Gosnell did to a baby born alive at 23 weeks and aborting her moments before birth?”

Given the fact that the Gosnell case has been national news for months now, and that Congress, where you serve as House Democratic Leader, was about to have a vote on banning abortion after 20 weeks fetal age, this was a legitimate question.

Instead of even attempting to answer the question, you resorted to judgmental ad hominem attacks on the reporter who asked it, saying, “You obviously have an agenda. You’re not interested in having an answer.”

Mrs. Pelosi, the problem is that you’re not interested in giving an answer.

Your refusal to answer this question is consistent with your failure to provide an answer to a similar question from me and the members of my Priests for Life staff. Several years ago, we visited your office with the diagrams of dismemberment abortion at 23 weeks, and asked the simple question, “When you say the word ‘abortion,’ is this what you mean?” In response, nothing but silence has emanated from your office.

In what way is this refusal to address an issue of such national importance consistent with the leadership role you are supposed to be exercising? Public servants are supposed to be able to tell the difference between serving the public and killing the public. Apparently, you can’t. Otherwise, you would have been able to explain the difference between a legal medical procedure that kills a baby inside the womb and an act of murder — for which Dr. Gosnell is now serving life sentences — for killing the same baby outside the womb.

Moreover, you stated at the press briefing on June 13, “As a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about this. I don’t think it should have anything to do with politics.”

With this statement, you make a mockery of the Catholic faith and of the tens of millions of Americans who consider themselves “practicing and respectful Catholics” and who find the killing of children — whether inside or outside the womb — reprehensible.

You speak here of Catholic faith as if it is supposed to hide us from reality instead of lead us to face reality, as if it is supposed to confuse basic moral truths instead of clarify them, and as if it is supposed to help us escape the hard moral questions of life rather than help us confront them.

Whatever Catholic faith you claim to respect and practice, it is not the faith that the Catholic Church teaches. And I speak for countless Catholics when I say that it’s time for you to stop speaking as if it were.

Abortion is not sacred ground; it is sacrilegious ground. To imagine God giving the slightest approval to an act that dismembers a child he created is offensive to both faith and reason.

And to say that a question about the difference between a legal medical procedure and murder should not “have anything to do with politics” reveals a profound failure to understand your own political responsibilities, which start with the duty to secure the God-given right to life of every citizen.

Mrs. Pelosi, for decades you have gotten away with betraying and misrepresenting the Catholic faith as well as the responsibilities of public office. We have had enough of it. Either exercise your duties as a public servant and a Catholic, or have the honesty to formally renounce them.

Sincerely,

Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Liberals, Mail from priests, Our Catholic Identity | Tagged , , , , ,
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QUAERITUR: Are priests allowed to carry handguns?

From a reader:

Are priests allowed to carry handguns? I have heard stories of priests owning guns, going hunting, etc, but could a priest have a handgun, conceal and carry, etc? What do you think about a priest having a handgun underneath his vestments while saying Mass?

In short, yes. Priests and bishops can carry hand guns, according to the laws of the place where they live. Priests are not second class citizens. They are – right now at least – not prohibited by laws of the state or laws of the Church.

Should bishops carry hand guns?  That is another question.

I have been over this territory elsewhere.  There are arguments on both sides.

About carrying a handgun while saying Mass… I am neutral on that point.   It is wrong for a priest or bishop to say Mass with his wallet in his back pocket?  Money can be misused, after all.  Can he have his smart phone in his pocket?  A pocket knife on his key ring?  You can do bad things with smart phones or knives or keys.

On the other hand, it is a little hard to get at your handgun when you are wearing vestments.  So, what difference does it make?

At this point I know the readers are going to remind us of the liturgical beretta, which is a different can of beans.

Maybe I could create a private, member-only, cleric-only discussion about which weapons are best.

Also, anyone who considers carrying a concealed weapon has to give serious thought to whether or not it is a good option for him.  Perhaps an electronic gadget is a better option, perhaps pepper-spray.  A handgun is a serious choice.

I can hear some of you know shouting, “But Father! But Father!”… perhaps accompanied by some hand-wringing and spittle flecks starting to shoot from your mouths… “A bishop or priest should never ever carry a handgun! Hand guns SHOOT people!  No… wait… people shoot people… okay.  Still… a bishop or priest should never under any circumstance or imaginable scenario shoot anyone or anything for any reason.  You should all let yourselves and any innocent members of the flock entrusted to you be victimized or killed.  After all, shepherds let their sheep be stolen, wounded or eaten by predators all the time and so should you!”

I don’t know that bishops or priests shouldn’t defend themselves or the innocent.  As a matter of fact, perhaps we can argue that priests and bishops have an even greater obligation to defend themselves because of the shortage of priests and bishops… well… maybe not so much bishops.  No priests, no sacraments.  This may be a huge issue in the case of a catastrophic collapse of the world as we know it.

Seriously, there are arguments on both sides.

Finally, maybe it would be a good idea for all priest and bishops to obtain concealed carry weapon licenses.  The screwballs who have it in mind to threaten or attack a priests – and who perhaps send priests ugly mail including photos of their houses – can then wonder whether Father is armed today or not.

 

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Lighter fare, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Priests and Priesthood | Tagged , , , ,
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Ignorance of Christian doctrine is main cause of the decline of Faith

Over at Eponymous Flower I saw a post that Cardinal Burke has praised the old Catechism of Pius X.

I must agree. Back in the day, Catechisms were designed to help you understand and also memorize things. Somewhere along the line, educators started to claim that kids shouldn’t memorize. What’s with that? For dumb!

Not knowing the Faith well has social implications.

Cardinal Burke: Catechism of Pius X is Also Today a Sure and Indispensible Reference Point

“St. Pius X saw with clarity how religious ignorance not only leads individual lives, but also to the decay of society and a lack of balanced thinking in the most serious problems,” said Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura at event surrounding the Catechism of St. Pius X 100 years after its publication, by the Kulturkreis of John Henry Newman on the 24th of May. It was organized in Seregno.
In his “extraordinary and brilliant lectio” says Catholic writer Cristina Siccardi, Cardinal Burke maintains of Saint Pius X (1835-1914) that “ignorance of Christian doctrine is recognized as the main cause of the decline of faith and therefore sound catechesis is of paramount importance for the restoration of faith. It is not difficult to see how current the observations and conclusions of St. Pius X are. They are really recognizable in the motives that has led Pope Benedict XVI. to proclaim the year of the faith. ”

[…]

Yes, we have now the Catechism of the Catholic Church. That doesn’t mean that older catechisms are no longer useful.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices, Year of Faith | Tagged , ,
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