Just a quick shot of the feeder… which I have neglected to show for a while.
Mr. Ruby Throated Hummingbird is coming in for a rest on the top of the feeder pole.
Finding a new view…
Mr. Oriole is waiting to get at the grape jelly and orange slices.
Meanwhile, the Missus is tucking in.
From CNA with my emphases and comments.
Sotomayor says she has ‘never thought about’ rights of unborn, senator reports
Washington D.C., Jun 13, 2009 / 07:22 am (CNA).- Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s views on abortion law and the unborn were topics in several of her meetings with U.S. Senators. One pro-life senator reports that Sotomayor told him she had never thought about the rights of the unborn, while a pro-abortion senator says that she clearly acknowledged to him “the importance of precedent.” [Ummm… if it is an important precedent, then she has thought about it. Or am I missing something? We all acknowledge that people "think" about things in passing. But that is different from "thinking" about something from your position as a, say, jurist, judge,… specialist. Are we to believe that this specialist has never thought about the rights of the unborn? About the rights of what may under the law be a whole class of people? Perhaps, and I have never thought about the what happens by transsubstantiation.]
On Tuesday Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) discussed his meeting with Sotomayor.
“We had a good meeting that covered a wide array of issues and Judge Sotomayor was very personable and engaging. However, I didn’t hear anything today that eased my concerns,” he said.“When I asked if an unborn child has any rights whatsoever, I was surprised that she said she had never thought about it,” Sen. DeMint reported. “This is not just a question about abortion, but about the respect due to human life at all stages, and I hope this is cleared up in her hearings.” [I suspect there will be a question or two.]
“Those who serve on the highest court in America must have an unwavering commitment to the Constitution and equal justice for all Americans,” he said. [If the unborn are Americans, they must have the protection of law, right? I wonder: Is there a jurist alive today in the USA who hasn’t thought about whether the unborn have the protection of law? If so… who would want that sort of out-of-touch person to sally forth from the dark, sound-proofed windowless basement he has been living in for the past 30 years and take a seat on the SCOTUS?]
Sen. DeMint also expressed concern about her views on the Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms.
On June 2, Sotomayor had a meeting with Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), who supports legalized abortion. After the meeting, Sen. Feinstein said she felt comfortable that Sotomayor supports the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade as a precedent. [But Sotomayor has not thought about abortion. How could she have an opinion on Roe v Wade as a precedent. Are we to believe that in thinking about Roe v Wade, her powers of disciplined cogitation extended strictly and only to, say, matters of privacy?]
The nominee also met with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on June 3. A supporter of abortion, Wyden told reporters he was “very pleased” that Judge Sotomayor has indicated in the past that she possesses “a great respect for precedent,” Politico says.
He reportedly said he asked specifically about abortion and Roe v. Wade, after which “she acknowledged the importance of precedent… She made that very clear.”
Amazing.
If Judge Sotomayor has never thought about the rights of the unborn, I would like to know from which penumbra she emanated.
From CNA:
Venezuelan minister attacks bishops for their report to the Pope
Caracas, Venezuela, Jun 11, 2009 / 02:50 pm (CNA).- Responding to the address by Archbishop Ubaldo Santana to Pope Benedict XVI during the Venezuelan bishops’’ recent ad limina visit, Venezuela’s Interior Minister, Tareck El Aissami, accused the bishops of becoming a “political party” that incites hatred.
During the bishops’ visit to Rome, Archbishop Santana delivered an evaluation of the current situation in Venezuela and told the Holy Father that the political agenda of Hugo Chavez has caused “a growing political polarization has increased violence, insecurity and hatred, seriously jeopardizing peaceful democratic coexistence.”
“If anyone has spread hatred in Venezuela,” El Assami stated, “it has been the bishops’ conference.’
“The only thing to say in response to the bishops’ sad depiction is, may God forgive them, they don’t know what they are saying,” he accused.
I surrender!
I feel like a university campus telephone pole.
I am being flooded with e-mail about Masses and processions for Corpus Christi, both today and the transferred observance on Sunday.
While this is great, I just can’t post everything, today especially.
Use this entry for CORPUS CHRISTI announcements ONLY.
Keep ’em concise… that means short.
Open rabbit holes at your peril.
From CNA this alarming story:
Vietnamese government secretly destroys Catholic monastery
Hanoi, Vietnam, Jun 11, 2009 / 05:07 am (CNA).- The Vietnamese government has renewed its seizures of Catholic Church properties in the country, demolishing several monasteries to build hotels and tourist resorts. The move has generated fears that the government has adopted a new and “harsh” approach to Catholics.
Last week the government ordered the destruction of the monastery of the Congregation of the Brothers of the Holy Family in Long Xuyen, Vietnam. A spokesman for the diocese said the former two-story home of the priests and religious of the Holy Family Order was destroyed on June 4. The Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres’ monastery in Vinh Long was also recently destroyed.
The Brothers of the Holy Family monastery, built in 1971, was still in good condition and its destruction surprised Catholic officials, Fr. J.B. An Dang reports. The local government did not inform the diocese about its intention to tear down the building and has not announced its intention for the future use of the land.
The monastery’s altar and religious statues were all discarded in a garbage dump. Neither the diocese nor the religious order has been officially informed to go and retrieve the items. [Sounds like my days in seminary… when the dumpster was being filled with vestments, vessels and altar stones. Save the liturgy, save the world.]
The Congregation of the Brothers of The Holy Family of Banam was founded by Bishop Valentin Herrgott, the then-Apostolic Vicar of Phnom-Penh, Cambodia in 1931. The order moved to Long Xuyen in Vietnam after a 1970 coup against Cambodian monarch Norodom Sihanouk created security concerns.
In 1984 all brothers of the congregation were arrested and charged with “anti-revolutionary activities.” Their monastery was seized and they have been jailed for years without a trial. [Since… 1984?]
The congregation has repeatedly asked for the return of its monastery and has protested the unjust detention of its members.
Especially over the past two years, Vietnamese Catholics have sought the return of church properties confiscated by the government. They have met with defeat and frustration, Fr. An Dang says.
On May 21, Nguyen Thanh Xuan, the government’s deputy chief of religious affairs, announced that the state "has no intention of returning any property or goods to the Catholic Church or any other religious organization."
According to Fr. An Dang, the destruction of the Long Xuyen monastery and Xuan’s statement have increased concerns that the government has applied a “new, harsh policy on Church’s properties in which there would be no more dialogue.”
The government’s new policy approach might act “as if the State is the true owner with full authority on Church’ assets.”
Let us, who live in happier places, keep always in mind both the suffering of our brothers and sisters elsewhere and also that our liberties can be lost. If otherwise good people simply stand by and do nothing, even as the signs of the times reveal their trend, evil triumphs.
I had a beautiful note from an SSPX priest (edited):
Father, thanks for the reports on the SSPX – Rome developments. It’s great to be able to watch your blog and Rorate Coeli to get the latest.
As this progresses, I become more and more convinced that we need time for a "warming" of the collective mentality in SSPX circles. We can’t move fast because we are asking people to change their mental habits.
I mean that for so many years Rome was perceived as the source of problem, and now there is a gut feeling against an agreement with Rome. That gut feeling unfortunately has a tendency to express itself in rhetoric that can tend to sound schismatic. It is going to take time for that mentality to come around.
If we move too quickly we will see the falling off of greater numbers of simple faithful whose faith has become fragile because of the abuses. [Amen] One can argue with intellectual reasons all day long, but at the end of the day it was a somewhat vague "sensus fidei" and gut feeling which led people to the SSPX in the first place, and that phenomenon will need time to correct itself. [Intellective and affective must come together and he healed.]
In the meantime are those like myself who recognize the need (and even urgency) of canonical legitimacy wrong to stay where we are? We work for reunion from the inside in our own small way.
A poignant question.
I think this is the same question faced in many respects even my Anglican clergy who, with their flocks, would swin the Tiber.
But that is a scary prospect, tied to identity and traditions and very important practical issues.
Every case will be different. I would like to see priests of the SSPX come over now!
But can anyone deny that if they come over as a whole group the witness for unity in the Church would be immense in this troubled times?
Can anyone deny that were they to have a structure in the Church their collective experience could be of even greater aid?
I am both patient and barely able to contain my hope that reunion will be healthy, complete and swift.
Perhaps a middle ground is possible. Perhaps members of the SSPX might do their very best to start reaching out in friendly and fraternal ways to local clergy, seeking points of common activity and contact… and vice versa. Off the top of my head, inviting them to parish events even though some of those things might not be entirely by the traditional books. Perhaps gatherings of priests at rectories and for other occasions.
Ice must be melted block by block.
His Excellency Most Reverend Robert J. Carlson is now the Archbishop of St. Louis.
In your charity will you pray for him?
Here is his first sermon as Archbishop in case you missed it.
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Coat of Arms by D Burkart
Venerator Sti Lot on ASK FATHER: Is it a sin to take a 15 minute leave during a terrible homily?: “My church- and liturgy-history readings are unsystematic and the opposite of rigorous to put it mildly, but how is the…”
on ASK FATHER: If a bishop and also priests confirm at the same time, who is the minister of confirmation?: “A wonderful and dearly departed Priest was given the faculties to Confirm when he was a Military Chaplain. Those Faculties…”
on ASK FATHER: Is it a sin to take a 15 minute leave during a terrible homily?: “If a homily is bad or terrible (in terms of content, up to and even including outright heresy) isn’t there…”
on ROME 26/5– Day 56: All that Jasmine… no, not the…: “St. Bernardin of Siena’s observation on the effects of that sin has unfortunately been what I’ve seen in those I…”
on ASK FATHER: Question about the impacts of Excommunication: “@prayfatima So if one takes one’s kids to a parish where, right before Mass, Fr. Jimmy Martin gives a very…”
on ROME 26/5– Day 56: All that Jasmine… no, not the…: “White to move and mate in 4 1) RxNc6+ bxRc6 (or Kb8) 2) Qxc6+ Kb8 (or Kd8) 3) Rb1+ Bb7…”
on Thoughts about the collision of the Holy See and the SSPX. Wherein Fr. Z rants.: “@Sportsfan “What line does the ordination of bishops cross that priestly ordinations not cross?” Right. The theological answer is something…”
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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