Too stupid for words: planting trees instead of going to confession

Posted on 23 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I am not making this up.  This is from Treehugger.

Really.

Priest in Brazil Replaces Prayer With Tree-Planting
by Stephen Messenger, Porto Alegre, Brazil on 06.22.11

Planting trees may be a great way to help save the environment, but thanks to one Catholic diocese in Brazil, it’s having a similar effect on parishioners’ immortal souls. In an effort to bring a bit of green back to the small city of Pires do Rio, a local priest has begun telling churchgoers that the only way to get square with the man upstairs and cleanse themselves of sin isn’t through prayer, but by getting their hands dirty planting trees. So, the city’s faithful are on a roll righting their sins — and they’ve a forest’s worth, in fact.

According to a report from Globo, confession-time in the central Brazilian city has taken a turn for the green. Typically, the Catholic sacrament involves churchgoers divulging their moral indiscretions to a priest who then instructs them to pray to God as a way of absolving themselves of sin [My God!  How wrong is that?] — but while that may offer peace to the faithful, it’s usually not much of a benefit to the environment. A local priest, unnamed in the report, is hoping to change all that; He’s telling his parishioners that the way to find forgiveness is by planting trees.  [We should create a new award.  The “Puir Slow-Witted Gowk” Award? The “Oaf For A Day!” Award?]

“Take a seed from a tree native to your region,” says the priest. “Because if you plant the seed and take care of the tree we will see a better tomorrow.”

And the padre’s eco-minded positivity is winning its fair share of supporters among the town’s religious community — a welcome departure from the doom and gloom so often associated with penance and reconciliation.  [Perhaps the writer of this article and the unnamed priest will be able to share the “Oaf For A Day!” Award.]

“I was surprised, because for a lot of priests the penitence is a bad thing, [?!?] but in this case you have your sins forgiven [?!?] and you are still making the environment better for the future,” churchgoer Aline Pedreira tells Globo.

So far, the sins have really added up, represented now as nearly a thousand young sprouts carefully tended to in seed trays and planters. Come October, when the saplings are matured, the faithful residence of Pires do Rio say they plan on holding a tree-planting celebration. They’ve even chosen a perfect spot to host the embodiments of their penitence: a part of town left devastated and denuded by sinners past — soon to be a fitting tribute to the power of redemption.

We are going to see a lot more of this.

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A face only the sculptor could love

Posted on 23 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Remember this?

Direct from an episode of Doctor Who, comes this new statue at the Stazione Termini in Rome.

Some people think it is monstrous.

I am one of them.

The sculptor is defending his work.

From CNA:

John Paul II sculptor defends his work
By David Kerr

Rome, Italy, Jun 21, 2011 / 04:52 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The sculptor of a much criticized statue of Blessed John Paul II has defended his work and suggested it could, one day, be regarded as “a classic.” [A classic… what?]

“Naturally, I understand that is it not conventional, and the proposal might create a different look to what was expected,” Italian artist Olivero Rainaldi told CNA in his first media interview since the row surrounding the statue’s unveiling in May.

“But there are so many beautiful photographs. Why do we need a photographic resemblance?”  [Soooo…. that… just off the top of my head… people know it is the late Pope?  Just a thought.]

At the time of its unveiling, the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano described the 12-foot bronze statue situated outside Rome’s Termini train station as having “little resemblance’’ to Pope John Paul.

“The result is not what was intended and his face on the top of the statue bears little resemblance and already there has been much criticism … it makes him look like a tent … it looks like a bomb has hit,” the paper said.

The President of Rome’s Cultural Commission, Federico Mollicone, went further, calling it “a permanent and sacrilegious mud stain on his memory.” [!]

Meanwhile, a poll in the Italian La Repubblica newspaper found that 87 percent of the general public also disliked the statue. But Rainaldi is unfazed by such negative reactions.  [Perhaps he will never be hired again?]

“When Michaelangelo’s David was first taken into the Piazza della Signoria in the middle of the night, everything, including the dimensions, were different from what they (people) expected.”  [Sorry.  I knew Michelangelo’s David.  This is no Michelangelo’s David.]

“I’m just making an example, not to draw strange comparisons. But we need to make comparisons like this. Then, over time, they became classics,” said the 55-year-old artist whose modernist work has gained him success in both Italy and the U.S. [Which sadly doesn’t surprise me.  But when his work is actually shown to people with common sense, things don’t work out so well.]

Certainly the Vatican is in no rush to cut artistic links with Oliviero Rainaldi. In fact, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi—the head of the Pontifical Council for Culture—has asked the Italian sculptor to be one of 60 artists that will create a work to honor the 60th anniversary of Pope Benedict’s ordination to the priesthood this month. [Yet another reason why Card. Ravasi should never advance to a more influential position.]

Richard Rouse, also of the Pontifical Council for Culture, observed that Rinaldi is “somebody who’s been criticized but is continuing to work and that’s a wonderful thing.”  [If at first you don’t succeed….]

Although his sculpture has received a lot of criticism, Rinaldi said he put real thought into the Pope John Paul II statue.  [I love that.  It reminds me of what liberals say. “I really struggled with this decision to [COMMIT MORTAL SIN X].”]

“The man within was more interesting to me than the man outside” [Then he should have it, not the people of Rome.] describing a man who was “lacerated” inside “not only by his infirmity but also by his mission.”

“These are often things that even the people who are close to you, and love you, don’t want to see. [Including more of the Roman people.] Often we want to (see) that they are strong, beautiful – but it is not always the case. This man showed he was beautiful for others reasons beyond his appearance.”  [So… bottom line: it’s an ugly statue.]

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Too much time in the southern sun, methinks.

Posted on 22 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From Fides et Forma and …

… direct from Bari… it’s… the SUMMER SOLSTICE!

E’ accaduto ieri nella Cattedrale di Bari: il parroco, don Franco Lanzolla, ha ritenuto opportuno organizzare in occasione del solstizio (quando i raggi di sole filtrati dal rosone illuminano un mosaico circolare al centro della navata), uno spettacolo di danza, “liberamente ispirato al mito platonico della caverna”.
I wonder what Msgr. Nicola Bux thinks about this.
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A Catholic Priest Needs Your Help Right Now!

Posted on 22 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A Catholic Priest Needs Your Help Right Now!

This is the motto you will see on a website for an organization which defends priests.

Opus Bono Sacerdotii

Here is something from their front page.

We provide life-saving care for thousands of priests experiencing difficulties. Please join us as a partner in mission today.

Opus Bono Sacerdotii is a Catholic charity that in partnership with our benefactors, assist bishops, religious superiors, and Vatican officials in finding solutions for the proper care and treatment of priests who are experiencing difficulties. In the past nine years since our founding we have been contacted by thousands of priests and many bishops, including the Holy See.

I would like to ask you to consider helping us as a partner in mission with a donation, so that we can provide much needed support to Catholic priests for their healing and renewal.

A Catholic priest needs your help right now! Please consider making a donation today. For your convenience, I have posted the link below to make an on-line donation if you prefer.

I look forward to hearing from you soon and may Our Lady of Priests be your health and your protection!

Sincerely,

Joe Maher Opus Bono Sacerdotii

Joe Maher
President & Co-Founder

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When people say stupid things about the Church, can you respond? REVIEW: Michael Coren

Posted on 22 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This note from The Catholic League about the ignorant boor and failed-TV personality Keith Olbermann gives me a chance to talk about something else.

But first, the note from The Catholic League’s Bill Donohue:

OLBERMANN’S IGNORANCE IS APPALLING
On last night’s edition of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” the host claimed that Galileo was punished by the Catholic Church for “his belief that the earth orbited the sun and not the other way around.” He also said that “the Church acknowledged errors had been committed in assessing Galileo’s scientific beliefs. They did that in 1992.”

Commenting on this is Catholic League president Bill Donohue:

It is not for nothing that Olbermann’s new show is drawing such phenomenal advertisers like “Furniture Fix” and “Gyro Ball.” Indeed, whenever a show has to rely on junk products for revenue (the sure give-away is when they advertise that the buyer gets “two for the price of one”), it’s an ominous sign. More than ominous is the intellectual acuity of Olbermann.

The fact is that the belief that the earth revolves around the sun was first broached by Copernicus, in 1543, and that was many moons before Galileo was even born. Copernicus not only did not get into trouble with the Catholic Church—he was a priest. Moreover, when Galileo first floated Copernicus’ idea, he was bestowed with medals and gifts by Pope Urban VIII. What got him censured was his arrogance: Galileo argued that his hypothesis was a scientific fact, something which even the scientific community of his day scoffed at. It is instructive that Father Roger Boscovich didn’t get into hot water with the Church at the time, and yet he also explored Copernican ideas.

It is false to say that in 1992 the Catholic Church acknowledged errors in dealing with Galileo. That happened in 1741 when Pope Benedict XIV granted an imprimatur to the first edition of the completed works of Galileo. What happened in 1992 was the release of a Pontifical Academy report on the controversy.

If Olbermann were simply wrong, that would be one thing. But it was his snide delivery that was really offensive. Glad we taped his new show—we knew it wouldn’t be long before he threw a low-blow at the Catholic Church.

Contact the executive producer, David Sarosi: countdown@current.com

Contact our director of communications about Donohue’s remarks:
Jeff Field
Phone: 212-371-3191
E-mail: cl@catholicleague.org

That said, I received a book a little while ago by Michael Coren called Why Catholics Are Right.

This book intends to provide the reader with answers and responses to some questions and controversies which we hear in the news and conversations.  It is a work of “catechism” and apologetics.   Catholics have to know the Faith and have to be able to explain the Faith.  Catholics have to be able to respond to questions from others and even attacks from others.  Some of those questions and attacks are really classsics, old chestnuts, saws, canards, clichés.

One of them, of course, concerns Galileo.

If you were in a conservation with someone challenging you about how backward the Church is about science, flinging Galileo in your face, what would you say?  How would you explain Galileo?

Coren, a Canadian journalist, has provided a well-written, well-reasoned source for your preparation for these conversations… not to mention your own questions.

He doesn’t just talk about Galileo, of course, but that section is particularly useful.  He actually explains – and this isn’t always done – that Galileo had the charm of a radial-arm saw, and therefore alienated all his patrons.  But I digress.

Coren’s book a a good read for continuous reading.  Alas, it suffers from a flaw: it doesn’t have an index.  And the table of contents is too thin to provide a substitute.  If you are looking, for example, for a response on contraception, you’ve got to page around.

Therefore, if you get it, from the first page use a pen.  Write notes in the margins and make your own index in the back.  That’s what I do with books that are supposed to be useful but suffer from this flaw (e.g., far too many books from Ignatius Press).

Posted in New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, REVIEWS, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice, Throwing a Nutty | Tagged , , , ,
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Hats on to the Holy Father

Posted on 22 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A couple fun views of the Holy Father from today’s Wednesday Audience.

The first one calls for some caption.

This one speaks for itself.

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When gladiator “umps” made bad calls

Posted on 22 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This interesting article is in The Daily Mail.  Very cool stuff about gladiators and tombstones.

Roman gladiator’s gravestone blames poor refereeing for losing a key battle (and his life)

Scientist finally decodes epitaph on tombstone

By Daily Mail Reporter

His tomb was unearthed about 100 years ago, but the meaning of the inscription on his gravestone has remained a mystery – until now.

Scientist Michael Carter, of Brock University in Canada, has studied hundreds of inscriptions on gladiator gravestones.

He has now decoded that of Diodorus and claims it is unique in that it actually tells the story of his death.

Written from the gladiator’s own perspective, it reads: ‘After breaking my opponent Demetrius, I did not kill him immediately. Fate and the cunning treachery of the summa rudis killed me.’

The ‘summa rudis’ refers to a veteran gladiator who would have refereed the fight during which Diodorus lost his life.

Therefore, when the slain warrior’s friends and family composed the inscription for his gravestone, they were clearly in no doubt as to where the blame lay.

The epitaph also includes an engraving that Dr Carter believes explains the circumstances leading up to his death.

Diodorus can be seen standing over his fallen opponent, called Demetrius, while holding two swords.

Dr Carter suggests this means Diodorus had managed to get hold of Demetrius’s sword while he was on the ground.

But the summa rudis ruled that Demetrius had fallen over by accident, meaning he would have been allowed to get up and resume fighting.

‘Demetrius signals surrender, but Diodorus doesn’t kill him,’ Dr Carter said. ‘He backs off expecting that he’s going to win the fight.

‘What the summa rudis has obviously done is stepped in, stopped the fight, allowed Demetrius to get back up again, take back his shield, take back his sword, and then resume the fight.’

It was then that the fatal blow was struck and Diodorus was killed, a turn of events that clearly appalled the gladiator’s loved ones.

The epitaph was donated to the Musée du Cinquanternaire in Brussels shortly before the First World War.

Dr Carter’s study is published in the Journal for Papyrology and Ancient Epigraphics.

Console yourself concerning your fallen comrades with some…

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Handmissal for the NEW, CORRECTED translation available!

Posted on 21 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

There is a new edition of the Daily Roman Missal available for pre-order.  This new, third edition has the new, corrected ICEL translation which will go into effect at the beginning of Advent 2011.  Only 5 months away!

I have also recommended that people have their very own hand-missal.  It is useful for review and for preparation for Holy Mass.  Hand-missals also have lots of useful fundamental catechetical material.

These are the two I have reviewed for the Extraordinary Form, both very beautiful and useful.

  • Angelus Press here.  Buy it by clicking here.
  • Baronius Press here.  But it by clicking here.
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The worldwide killing of girls.

Posted on 21 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On the site of the WSJ there is a disturbing article about the destruction of girl children in favor of boys in some countries.

The War Against Girls
Since the late 1970s, 163 million female babies have been aborted by parents seeking sons

By JONATHAN V. LAST

Mara Hvistendahl is worried about girls. Not in any political, moral or cultural sense but as an existential matter. She is right to be. In China, India and numerous other countries (both developing and developed), there are many more men than women, the result of systematic campaigns against baby girls. In “Unnatural Selection,” Ms. Hvistendahl reports on this gender imbalance: what it is, how it came to be and what it means for the future.

In nature, 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. This ratio is biologically ironclad. Between 104 and 106 is the normal range, and that’s as far as the natural window goes. Any other number is the result of unnatural events.

Yet today in India there are 112 boys born for every 100 girls. In China, the number is 121—though plenty of Chinese towns are over the 150 mark. China’s and India’s populations are mammoth enough that their outlying sex ratios have skewed the global average to a biologically impossible 107. But the imbalance is not only in Asia. Azerbaijan stands at 115, Georgia at 118 and Armenia at 120.

What is causing the skewed ratio: abortion. If the male number in the sex ratio is above 106, it means that couples are having abortions when they find out the mother is carrying a girl. By Ms. Hvistendahl’s counting, there have been so many sex-selective abortions in the past three decades that 163 million girls, who by biological averages should have been born, are missing from the world. Moral horror aside, this is likely to be of very large consequence.

In the mid-1970s, amniocentesis, which reveals the sex of a baby in utero, became available in developing countries. Originally meant to test for fetal abnormalities, by the 1980s it was known as the “sex test” in India and other places where parents put a premium on sons. When amnio was replaced by the cheaper and less invasive ultrasound, it meant that most couples who wanted a baby boy could know ahead of time if they were going to have one and, if they were not, do something about it. “Better 500 rupees now than 5,000 later,” reads one ad put out by an Indian clinic, a reference to the price of a sex test versus the cost of a dowry.

But oddly enough, Ms. Hvistendahl notes, it is usually a country’s rich, not its poor, who lead the way in choosing against girls. “Sex selection typically starts with the urban, well-educated stratum of society,” she writes. “Elites are the first to gain access to a new technology, whether MRI scanners, smart phones—or ultrasound machines.” The behavior of elites then filters down until it becomes part of the broader culture. Even more unexpectedly, the decision to abort baby girls is usually made by women—either by the mother or, sometimes, the mother-in-law.

[…]

Read the rest there.

Brrrrrr.

It strikes me that throughout history, when there are a lot of disaffected and unemployed young men, terrible things take place which reestablishes the balance.

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Global Killer Asteroid Questions, New Evangelization, One Man & One Woman, Our Catholic Identity, The Drill, The future and our choices | Tagged , ,
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Planned Parenthood must close some shops. Griping ensues.

Posted on 21 June 2011 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Let there be sung Te Deum and Non Nobis… wellllll…. Partly Nobis.

This is from the Minneapolis Star Tribune. My emphases and comments.

Budget cuts close 6 Planned Parenthood clinics in Minnesota
Article by: JEREMY OLSON
Planned Parenthood cites drop in Title X funding, a target of abortion foes in Congress.

Planned Parenthood is closing six clinics in outstate Minnesota on Aug. 1 because of federal budget cuts made this spring in a highly politicized abortion battle.

The state’s largest provider of family planning and abortions [Notice how the writer slips in that “family planning” bit first?  As if PP’s bread and butter wasn’t really abortion.] announced the closures Monday, citing an 11 percent reduction in its budget because of cuts to the federal Title X program.

Closing are clinics in Thief River Falls, Brainerd, Red Wing, Owatonna, Albert Lea and Fairmont. They did not perform abortions, but provided services ranging from contraception to cervical cancer screenings to testing for sexually-transmitted diseases. Clients will be encouraged to use any of the 18 remaining Planned Parenthood facilities in the state and the organization’s website.  [There it is again.  PP makes its money from abortions.]

The clinics being closed are among the smallest and are relatively close to clinics in larger cities such as Rochester and Mankato. Unaffected is Planned Parenthood’s clinic in St. Paul, which performed nearly one-third of the 12,388 abortions in Minnesota in 2009.  [PP will do anything to protect that big business.  Thus, they close the smaller places.]

[Watch this!] The loss of family planning services for women in the affected communities could drive up state health care costs — and the number of abortions, said Sarah Stoesz, executive director of Planned Parenthood’s chapter for Minnesota and the Dakotas.  [Cut off funding to big business abortion and you will cause more abortions.  Right?  Obvious!  Right?]

“Those who attack family planning programs under the guise of being opposed to abortion are creating the exact opposite effect and driving abortion rates up,” she said.  [It’s obvious!  Right?]

The Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group based in New York, estimated this spring that without any Title X funding for low-income women and families, Minnesota would see a 17 percent increase in unintended pregnancies, a 24 percent increase in abortions and a 33 percent increase in teen births. Those figures were based on the complete elimination of Title X, as some Republican lawmakers had proposed, and not the last-minute cuts negotiated in April to avoid a federal shutdown.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is among the lawmakers who called for de-funding Title X. While the program cannot fund abortions, lawmakers still opposed the secondary financial support it offered to organizations that provide them. [Because its fungible.  Fund one part, and you fund the whole thing.] “Taxpayer funds should not be directed to this heinous organization, [Do I hear an “Amen!”?] especially at a time when our nation’s debt exceeds $14 trillion,” Bachmann’s press secretary, Becky Rogness, said Monday.

Minnesota has received roughly $3.5 million per year in Title X funds, with $3 million going to Planned Parenthood and the rest going to a Ramsey County family planning program. [Remember…. it’s all just family planning.] The state has an estimated 250,000 women in need of subsidized reproductive health care. One-fifth get services at Planned Parenthood.  [Let us not forget that PP was intended by its foundress to kill off black people.]

Until now, Planned Parenthood has grown in Minnesota, with the addition of three suburban retail storefronts and a new central facility in St. Paul’s University Avenue corridor that is halfway complete. Stoesz said the popular storefronts are covering their costs and that the new headquarters was funded by donors, not public money.

She said Planned Parenthood might lose other income from the 20 to 25 percent of clients at the six clinics who pay for services out of pocket or with private insurance.

Delenda est.

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