The sun rose today.

The President came & spoke, & the world didn't end.
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Still, we can't say that nothing has changed, can we? There is much fall-out yet to come. It will be interesting to see what the bishops do from here. They have certainly made their voices heard with a clarity & unity that is rarely ever seen. Yet, both the media & many voices within the Church (are they within the Church?) have dismissed them as hopelessly irrelevant & painted them as cranks. Which brings me to...
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There is a theory circulating that Obama has played a masterful hand in this matter by using the occasion of his speaking at Notre Dame to capitalize on the ongoing strife within American Catholicism itself by driving a wedge between the smaller group of so-called orthodox Catholics & the masses of liberal-leaning Catholics. Of course those sorts of categories are ultimately not very accurate or helpful to clarifying the issues involved. Still, there are definitely 2 sorts of minds in the Church, & this occassion has polarized them even further.
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Consider these images: one priest was being dragged off by police with hands tied behind his back singing Immaculate Mary, Thy Praises We Sing (as we sang at our May Crowning), & another priest on stage in scholarly regalia, chumming it up with the President amidst waves of applause.
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I remember reading this somewhere: Beware when the world applauds you!
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In other matters...
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If anyone has lost their 20' tall, metal chicken-peacock-bird windmill thingy, it's in Rockford, Tennessee. Just so you know.

City of God

The Church stands at a crossroads, the intersection of the way to the city of man & the way to the City of God. Perhaps it is always so, but some events focus it more clearly. The Gospel of today’s Mass could not be there by accident:

“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belong to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. John 15:18-19

I discovered all sorts of resonance in the Rosary today:

Credo - What I believe influences my thoughts, changes my view, drives my actions. What I believe determines what I live for. Belief is ultimately not a subjective reponse, but a Truth, an overriding fact that cannot & will not be denied. There is really only one belief. There is only one Creed. This is because there is only one God. And he has spoken to us.

Pater noster… sanctificetur nomen tuum – God’s name revealed in Jesus; Jesus name covered up at Georgetown by Obama. God’s name prayed outside abortuaries all across the world. Adveniat regnum tuum – the kingdom comes with violence; a priest’s consecrated hands tied behind his back as he is forcibly carried off. Fiat voluntas tua – bishops speaking the Truth with conviction, doing God’s will - surely not without a massive backlash. Dimitte nobis debita nostra – for when we choose to not seek, not to know, not do your will: when acts of violence are committed against those made & those being made in your image; when we sin by compromise our beliefs for the glory of the city of man over that of the City of God. Sed libera nos a Malo -Today, he prowls….

Ave Maria… benedicta tu in mulieribus – women are God’s chosen bearers of life into the world; blessed are they who choose to accept this glorious burden. Benedictus fructus ventris tui Iesus – the Lord resting in the waters of creation in the womb of the Blessed Mother, a silent sanctuary, waiting to draw the first “pneuma,” the first breath of life. Ora pro nobis – Queen Mother, we beg you to present our petition to the King, for he will not refuse you. Nunc – the battle is engaged. Et in hora mortis nostrae – Everyone dies. And everyone lives - forever. We are immortal. Only those who the Lord knows will be welcome in the Kingdom. He said he would know us by our works. May the moment of death for many be a moment of repentance, conversion, & acceptance; a moment of knowing.

O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy.

When Fr. Corapi gets into the ring...

...you know things are getting serious! Please watch his message & pass it on.

Naturally, I also encourage you to go to www.notredamescandal.com to sign the petition.

Scandal!

Everyone loves a good one. The real "scandal" here is that over 354,000 Catholics can agree on anything, esp. when Faith & politics clash (click on either picture to add your name to the petition). As I mentioned in my last post, when the "spiritual" & the "practical" collide, that's when we really find out what's what in our priorities.

Catholics are something like 20% of the American population. Even even half of Catholics would allow themselves to be formed by Christ speaking through the Church, instead of by CNN or Fox News, how different the moral landscape of this country & the world would be!

Why all the fuss? He is the president, after all, right? Well here is the all-to-clear statement of the U.S. bishops, who rarely speak with clarity on anything:

“The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” - “Catholics in Political Life”, U.S. Bishops, 2004.

Even the president does not have the right to use a Catholic institution to advance an agenda that patently against Church teaching & universal natural law. Given the gravity of the offense against human life he has personally perpetrated, it must be denied. American Papist counts 66 bishops of the U.S.'s 195 diocese have publicly spoken out against the president giving the commencement address & receiving an honorary law degree. Fr. Jenkins, however, persists in disobedience.


If you think this is all just partison bickering of no real point or consequence, click here for a personal story of a Notre Dame alumnus & her encounter with "choice." Notre Dame, ora pro nobis!

Our Lady of Victory

If you haven't already, please go to http://notredamescandal.com/ & join the 300,000+ faithful Catholics who insist that Catholic Institutions hold & defend Catholic principles, which are, ultimately, the practical implementations of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Photo: Notre Dame de Fourvier, Lyon, France

Just for Jill...

Whilst exiting the local Tractor Supply - making a bird seed run - I was taken hostage by a gorgeous sunset with layer on layer of multi-hued clouds. The crimson tinge on their undersides of the nebulae closer to the sunset itself reminded me a little of the photo at the top of the blog. I thought it worth making a dash to car to get the camera. It's important to notice these things - it's God reminding us that he's still with us.
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In order to correct the commonly-held misconception that I enjoy catching fish & then painting them red, I thought it erstwhile to show you all the unique steel latice frame of my Ducati bearing a coat of fresh red paint.
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Or maybe it's a lobster trap...

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Lots going on in the Catholic news world recently: the Pope's trip to Africa (beautiful speeches & homilies to be found at the EWTN news page. Also, of course, the Notre Dame scandal. If you haven't yet heard of or signed the petition sponsored by the N-D Cardinal Newman Society, click here. Catholics have a confimational obligation to make their voices heard, especially in the face of grave injustice & scandal! I can't think of too many things that qualify more.