I was sent a photo from a confirmation ceremony with the older, traditional form of the sacrament, which took place in England last week, in the Archdiocese of Westminster.
His Excellency Most Rev. George Stack, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster confirmed 32 people at St James’ Church, Spanish Place, in London.
In this photo, Bp. Stack is accompanied by His Hermeneuticalness, the great pastor of Black Fen, Fr. Tim Finigan!
UPDATE:
A reader sent this:
Suggestion on polls…. Ask readers to copy and paste the poll links into a new browser window. Even better – disable the link so they have to. This will keep the poll admin from seeing 1000+ hits from wdtprs.com like that one lady in Cincy did. Instead, they will simply see hits from all over the world. I’m sure the WaPo poll has 10,000 hits from some gay activist site who rallied the troops. But of course, we cannot see it – but they can. They won’t point that out to their readers but if the poll was swinging the other way and they could blame you and say the results were skewed, they would.
___________
On the site of a TV news outlet in Providence, RI, there is a poll right now about the criticism leveled by Bp. Tobin about Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI).
The question:
Do you agree with Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin that Rep. Patrick Kennedy is "less Catholic" because of his political beliefs?
I voted "Yes". I agree with Bp. Tobin.
This has to do with our Catholic identity.
http://www2.turnto10.com/jar/news/local/article/question_bishop_tobin_vs._sen._patrick_kennedy/26553/
Results so far
UPDATE 17 Nov 1850 GMT
From Lifesite:
Obama Will Remove Abortion Funding Ban From Health Care Bill, Advisor Says
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 15, 2009Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Top Obama advisor David Axelrod on Sunday confirmed what pro-life advocates already suspected would happen. He said President Barack Obama will work with congressional Democrats to remove the abortion funding ban the House approved in its version of the government-run health care bill. [Does anyone believe that the most aggressively pro-abortion President in the history of the USA will allow this bill to avoid funding abortion? Really?]
Axelrod says that, because the Stupak amendment allegedly goes beyond the status quo under the Hyde amendment (which bans abortion funding under Medicaid), Obama will make sure the amendment is yanked during the conference committee. [Isn’t it true that Hyde must be reaffirmed each year:?]
That’s the part of the legislative process that will occur if and when the Senate approves its own health care bill, which will likely start debate with abortion funding.
"The president has said repeatedly, and he said in his speech to Congress, that he doesn’t believe that this bill should change the status quo as it relates to the issue of abortion," Axelrod said today on CNN’s State of the Union program. [I think that is disingenuous. I suspect the President wants an increase in abortion, despite his rhetoric. That is the only explanation for his actions.]
"This shouldn’t be a debate about abortion. [?] And he’s going to work with Senate and the House to try and ensure that at the end of the day, the status quo is not changed," he added. "I believe that there are discussions ongoing to how to adjust it accordingly." [Okay… he is repeating "status quo". That must be the administration’s strong talking point now.]
Axelrod said that an agreement with ruling Democrats in Congress to remove the ban on taxpayer funding of abortions "can and will be worked through before it reaches his desk."
Axelrod’s comments come after Obama’s own remarks which made it appear he would favor removing or weakening the Stupak amendment.
"I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill," Obama told ABC News last week. "And we’re not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions."
Obama appeared to side with abortion advocates who claim the Stupak amendment in the health care bill somehow changes the current status quo on government abortion funding.
“There needs to be some more work before we get to the point where we’re not changing the status quo” on abortion, Obama added. “And that’s the goal.”
Obama also sided with pro-abortion groups in saying he wanted to make sure “we’re not restricting women’s insurance choices,” because he had promised that “if you’re happy and satisfied with the insurance that you have, it’s not going to change.”
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, chided Obama for his comments.
"The only thing that will prevent the health care bill from being ‘an abortion bill’ is precisely the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, as the House of Representatives recognized by a 46-vote margin," he said.
"The phoniness of Obama’s claim that he has been trying to preserve the ‘status quo’ on abortion policy should be evident to any observer by now. In reality, the White House and top Democratic congressional leaders have been working hard to create a national federal government health plan that would fund abortion on demand, just as Obama promised Planned Parenthood," Johnson added.
Don’t forget this issue.
Bishops, when you meet in plenary session, don’t forget this issue.
It was a quiet Sunday afternoon, filled with anxiety.
I took apart a long used, hard traveled, aging but still useful mini-laptop and replaced its cooling fan.
For quite a while I have been unable to use this little box without a cooling pad, which is inconvenient and not as helpful as it could be.
There was nothing else to be done.
So, I found the part on e-bay, had it sent and.. today.. went to work!
And without a net, for the most part.
It was like Chinese puzzle box. I went very deliberately, checking myself along the way, so that I could reassemble properly.
I found had to lift up the mother-board to get at the anchor screws for the fan, which was a pain.
This little bugger slowed me down.
I spent a long time trying to get the little brown fastening clip back on.
In the end, success!
I turned on. It booted up. The screen worked.
The OS loaded. All the ports worked.
The key board and touchpad worked.
I could hear the fan.
So, I have revived for greater use a very small travel laptop, which could serve as a backup or auxiliary.
Meanwhile, to aid me in my resection, I finally lit two beeswax candles I was give a long time ago.
On some trip or other… not sure where… I was given two homemade beeswax candles.
The are curious affairs. They seem to be sheets of wax that were rolled around a wick.
They are odd, to be sure, but they smell grand.
They got a little crunched in my travels, but I straightened them out.
They lend that wonderful and unmistakable beeswax smell to the whole place.
I have some beeswax candles for the chapel, for Requiem Masses, but none for the house.
Whoever you are who gave these to me… thanks!
And now to extract a couple electronic components from the incredibly complicated stack of stuff, and do some rearranging.
This is always a harrowing adventure, since many of these things are daisy-chained together and hooked in to the Sabine network.
I have to pull a couple things out and then reorganize the whole mass of scary boxes.
You can’t believe the whole web of wires.
And then I write 1000 words for The Catholic Herald.
And then a workout and alien slaying with the XBOX.
And then some time in the chapel.
And then to bed.
The liberals have found the poll and are asserting their control.
__________________
Under another entry I wrote about something in the WaPo going on in Washington, DC.
QUESTION: Should the city required the Church to follow a law it considers immoral?
I voted "NO" in this poll.
UPDATE 1631 GMT:
UPDATE 15 Nov 1632 GMT:
UPDATE 2311 GMT:
A reader alerted me to this from the Edmond (Oklahoma) Sun:
New church to revive ancient rite
The Edmond SunEDMOND — It has been more than 40 years since the Tridentine rite has been regularly celebrated in a proper parish of the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Old St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, built in 1891 and destroyed by fire in 1960, is the historic site near which the new Tridentine parish will be built. [This really is brick by brick!]
Groundbreaking for the unnamed parish was Nov. 2 just east of the foundation of Old St. Patrick’s Catholic Church and Cemetery along Sorghum Mill road between Council and County Line roads.
“The Latin worship of the Church is over 1,500 years old,” said Rev. Howard Remski, pastor of the new parish.
The parish will be a convenient location for the expanding northwest area of Oklahoma City, and the parish welcomes any Catholics who desire to worship in this manner, Remski said.
[]
Olsen-Coffey Architects has designed a beautiful Spanish Mission-style building, Remski said. Thanks to the parish’s motivated builder, Dan Hilgenberg of Clear Creek Creations, [Clear Creek?] Remski expects to be in the new building in time for solemn Easter ceremonies.The Tridentine Rite
The Tridentine Rite, or the Traditional Mass, is the way in which worship was conducted for hundreds of years before it was updated in the 1960s during the second Vatican Council, Remski said. The Catholic Mass of the Roman Rite was in Latin throughout the world, and any Catholic would be familiar with how the services were conducted.
The music is predominantly Gregorian Chant and also will contain a rich heritage of Sacred Polyphony such as composed by Palestrina and other classical artists.
Remski said the church will attempt to connect the divine with man, and bring the mysteries of the Catholic faith into prayer life and practice. That will be accomplished in part through the use of a sacred language, sacred symbols and rituals to convey divine truths of humanity’s redemption in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, he said.
Remski said he believes the new church will offer people a strong sense of sacredness. Many Americans are used to the mundane and common life, he said.
I hope when it is done, I might be able to visit there!
A not so common visitor to the Sabine Feeder, is Red-breasted Nuthatch.
Unimpressed by this Nuthatch, Goldfinch is having a little nap.
Posting a new tweet.
I picked this up from the young Papist with my emphases and comments:
Memo to the Los Angeles Times: fire Kim Geiger, and fire her editor while you are at it.
The Catholic News Agency has identified this article published five days ago by the Los Angeles Times which falsely attributes two quotes authored by the fake "catholic" group Catholics United to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.As of this writing, the error is still uncorrected on their website. Did the entire staff decide to take a vacation? [I also checked the Corrections page of the same LATimes… nothing so far.]This mistake is either laziness or manipulation on the part of the author, and to such a serious degree as to warrant a correction and an apology, and soon.The error is also disturbing because it plays into the propensity of some news outlets to create/allow confusion over what is the true position of the US bishops on this sensitive and critical issue of health care reform. [D’ya think?]On the day of the health care debate last weekend I pointed out that the website Politico, which is very popular among DC political operatives and hill staffers, had misleading blog posts and a misleading cover story/headline for the majority of the day, claiming that the US bishops had "signed off" on PelosiCare. [The bishops have NOT "signed off" of anything! How can they sign off on a bill that doesn’t exist? The US bishops tried to get people to express themselves to members of Congress about tax-payer funding of abortion and conscience clauses.]The danger here was that hill staffers would relay the misleading information they read on Politico to their bosses who would then go to vote on the floor thinking that the US bishops had signed off on health care reform in the format it was being voted on at that time, when in actual fact the bishops still opposed it.In any case, an error of this magnitude should simply be corrected, and immediately.The LATimes author can be contacted at kgeiger@latimes.com. {update – her email address has apparently been disabled or her inbox is full.} [Indeed.]Oh, and for the record, Chris Korzen and all his buddies at Catholics United, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and Catholics for Choice are a bunch of self-serving, duplicitous parasites [duplicitous parasites!] and I’ll be happy to debate their campaign of distortions and misinformation any time someone wants to sponsor it. I say this with all charity because it’s the truth. They are paid to confuse and deceive Catholics and they should be ashamed for it.
I
have had the chance to hear the new music CD by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, who have their house in Missouri near Kansas City.
I enjoyed it and warmly recommend it.
You might consider getting this CD as a Christmas gift and to help the sisters who are trying to build.
They sing Christmas carols in their own arrangements. They also have some Gregorian chant selections, which are very good. I have always liked Gregorian chant sung by women, which has an entirely different quality than when it is sung by men. I was very pleased that they don’t overly "Americanize" their pronunciation of Latin.
There are some little clips as samples on their website.
Here is a brief sampling from three cuts.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
This disk gets a thumbs up.
This is a traditional community of Benedictines who are presently under the wing of the great Bishop Robert Finn (another reason to support them!) of Kansas City, MO. They have an apostolate to pray for priests (yet another reason!).
I have encountered their community twice in Kansas City and was very impressed.
Tell them Fr. Z sent you!
The little Mars rover that could, can’t right now.
Spirit is stuck in a martian sand trap and NASA is trying to get it out. This valiant little surface crawler was designed for a 3 month mission. Spirit has been going for some 70 months.
NASA to Begin Attempts to Free Sand-Trapped Mars Rover
PASADENA, Calif. — NASA will begin transmitting commands to its Mars exploration rover Spirit on Monday as part of an escape plan to free the venerable robot from its Martian sand trap.
Spirit has been lodged at a site scientists call "Troy" since April 23. Researchers expect the extraction process to be long and the outcome uncertain based on tests here on Earth this spring that simulated conditions at the Martian site.
"This is going to be a lengthy process, and there’s a high probability attempts to free Spirit will not be successful" said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "After the first few weeks of attempts, we’re not likely to know whether Spirit will be able to free itself."
Spirit has six wheels for roving the Red Planet. The first commands will tell the rover to rotate its five working wheels forward approximately six turns. Engineers anticipate severe wheel slippage, with barely perceptible forward progress in this initial attempt. Since 2006, Spirit’s right-front wheel has been inoperable, possibly because of wear and tear on a motor as a result of the rover’s longevity.
Spirit will return data the next day from its first drive attempt. The results will be assessed before engineers develop and send commands for a second attempt. Using results from previous commands, engineers plan to continue escape efforts until early 2010.
[…]
In the spring, Spirit was driving backward and dragging the inoperable right front wheel. While driving in April, the rover’s other wheels broke through a crust on the surface that was covering a bright-toned, slippery sand underneath. After a few drive attempts to get Spirit out in the subsequent days, it began sinking deeper in the sand trap. Driving was suspended to allow time for tests and reviews of possible escape strategies.
[…]
Data show Spirit is straddling the edge of a 26-foot-wide crater that had been filled long ago with sulfate-bearing sands produced in a hot water or steam environment. The deposits in the crater formed distinct layers with different compositions and tints, and they are capped by a crusty soil. It is that soil that Spirit’s wheels broke through. The buried crater lies mainly to Spirit’s left. Engineers have plotted an escape route from Troy that heads up a mild slope away from the crater.
[…]
Read the rest there!
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
R2D on Pagliarani and Leo at Tanagra: “My hope would be after such prayer that he would be open to cooperation with divine grace so that “the…”
on Pagliarani and Leo at Tanagra: “@Lurker 59 To support your position, I don’t have any hope that my bishop will allow the confirmation of my…”
on Pagliarani and Leo at Tanagra: “Doing such requires hope, even a fool’s hope. The reason you don’t see a common place of individuals taking the…”
on ROME 26/5– Day 52: lace imitates God’s beauty enlaced in flowers: “The soup looks delicious! Where can I find your Daily Mass stream?”
on Pagliarani and Leo at Tanagra: “haydn seeker, the Church’s job is to prescribe a “minimal” set of beliefs we can sign up to and agree…”
on Pagliarani and Leo at Tanagra: “The pope should grant him an audience while wearing the full regalia (including tiara). That’d solve it, I reckon.” on Pagliarani and Leo at Tanagra: “@haydn seeker “either submit to the Roman Pontiff or decide you are out of communion” Isn’t this position itself merely…”
on Pagliarani and Leo at Tanagra: “Fr Pagliarani needs to drop the quest for a “minimal” set of beliefs he can sign up to. By all…”
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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since Sat., 25 Nov. 2006:
PASADENA, Calif. — NASA will begin transmitting commands to its Mars exploration rover Spirit on Monday as part of an escape plan to free the venerable robot from its Martian sand trap. 