News

Via the Catholic League

The New Jersey Hall of Fame (NJHF) includes luminaries as diverse as Albert Einstein and Shaquille O’Neal. It should not be dishonored by including bigots: Catholics will be outraged to learn that of the 50 nominees for the class of 2012, Thomas Nast made the cut. Nast is not only the most bigoted cartoonist in American history, the 19th-century artist consistently inflamed hatred against the Irish and Catholics alike.

Amazingly, the NJHF’s website omits any mention of Nast’s anti-Catholic legacy. No one is denying his many talents as a creative cartoonist, but to discuss his work without mentioning his virulent anti-Catholicism is on a par with discussing filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s contributions without citing her role in generating anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany. Nast and Riefenstahl belong in a Bigots Hall of Shame, not in any honorary club.

Nast’s cartoons show a long and pernicious pattern of bigotry born of nativism [click here for a sampling]. He encouraged the mixing of racism and anti-Catholic bigotry in his depictions of the Irish as a race of inferior gorillas; he demonized the Church as a nefarious institution threatening America’s public schools; he depicted an attack on Fort Sumter by priests and bishops; he demonized bishops by portraying them as crocodiles with miters for jaws; and he also depicted them as emerging from slime while prowling towards children.

More evidence that something is wrong with my mind. When I read the following story this is what I thought of.

A nun who dedicated her life to caring for exiled leprosy patients is a step closer to sainthood after the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints recommended her canonization on Tuesday.

The recommendation to the pope confirmed previous rulings that a second miracle was due to Blessed Marianne Cope’s intercession.

In 1888, Cope succeeded Father Damien in caring for leprosy patients banished to the Kalaupapa settlement on Molokai. Mother Marianne died of natural causes in 1918 and was buried there. She could become the second saint with Hawaii ties; Damien gained sainthood in 2009.

The recommendation “is like the green light,” said Sister Patricia Burkard.

[Source]

Creative Minority Report – reports that Danielle Bean of DanielleBean.com and Faith & Family Live fame is taking over leadership of the Catholic Digest.

Considering that I have found Catholic Digest indigestible in the past this is very good news.

I suspect Danielle’s influence will be felt immediately at the Catholic Digest. This is great news for Catholic media. Now, if Pat and I could just take over the National Catholic Reporter we’d all be set.

Hmm, that is a nice Catholic blogosphere style fantasy of taking over the National Catholic Reporter. It would be great to hold a staff meeting after the take over. “John Allen, Jr. you can stay, as for the rest of you maybe America magazine or U.S. Catholic is hiring.” The first order of business would be to get a priest and lots of Holy Water.

Though now that I think about it I dreamed of this possibility back when EWTN took over the National Catholic Register.

If I was wealthy enough to buy it, I would certainly have fun with it. Though I would slowly work with the subscriber base. Like a nicotine patch I would slowly introduce orthodox doctrine and opinion. A small drip of radical ideas like obedience to the teaching magisterium of the Church. Small changes like showing the Pope in a positive light.

I wouldn’t have to fire John Allen, Jr – but the rest of the staff would be pretty hard to keep on. I would have to write all new columns, but until they were comfortable I would have for example a “Joan Chiittiister” – nobody would hardly notice the last name was spelled different. Over time this columnist could introduce ideas like the habit is a good thing and that there was a reason Jesus only choose men for the priesthood and we can’t change it. Again it would have to be a real slow change or the dissidents would go into convulsions at the idea. Maybe a Michael Sean Joe Bob Winters whose angry tone would mellow over time and actually exposes the idea that being pro-life and supporting pro-aborts is non-sensical. Maybe a Bishop Gumblehalfaton could bit by bit introduce such concepts that social justice includes saving the unborn. One writer could drip-by-drip introduce concepts like maybe Bishop Olmsted was absolutely right in his decision regarding St. Joseph’s hospital.

This would really be a tough job since my goal is always to bring more people to the truth, not just cast them out because of their dissident ideas. Brining that group to orthodoxy would need the help of a platoon of contemplative nuns.

One a side note I was thinking about the Bearded Spock universe and wondering if there is a universe where the National Catholic Reporter is called Ultra-Montanists by their distractors. A universe where Hans Kung supports papal infallibility and Joseph Ratzinger supports woman’s ordination. In this universe you could go to a Jesuit University and actually be taught the faith. But I guess I would be a dissident in that universe so I don’t want to dwell on this idea other than to apologize for any of my dissident-selves in the multiverse.

Apparently this is not a parody story.

Johannes Christian Sundermann, a lawyer from Unna in North Rhine Westphalia, filed a legal complaint against the German-born pope formerly known as Joseph Ratzinger for not wearing his seat belt on several occasions “for more than one hour at a time,” according to a report in the Westfälischen Rundschau newspaper.

The pope allegedly broke the law during his visit to Freiburg at the end of September as part of his tour of Germany.

Sundermann represents a Dortmund man. As evidence the two are offering YouTube videos and are also calling the Archbishop of Freiburg, the chairman of Germany’s Bishops Conference and Winfried Kretschmann, the Green Party politician who heads the state government in Baden-Württemberg.

The lawyer, a member of the socialist Left party, took on the case after several other attorneys rejected it. Both Sundermann and his client are no longer members of the Catholic Church.

In a worst-case scenario the pope would have to pay a fine of between €30 and €2,500. However, if the pope enjoys diplomatic immunity, even a miracle won’t help this case.

[Source]

Next they will tell me the Popemobile isn’t equipped with airbags.

For those wondering what happened to the excellent Ten Reasons site by Rich Leonardi, Dale Price puts it as only he can.

With Dale, I also hope Rich reconsiders.  Though I can understand his decision.

Beirut Arab news agency al Nashra reported on Saturday November 22, that [White House Muslim envoy] Dalia Mogahed has succeeded in canceling a meeting between the Maronite Patriarch of Lebanon and President Barack Obama. Writing in al Nashra, the reporter said “an unnamed US source told the news agency, that those who sought canceling a visit of (the spiritual head of the Maronite Church) Patriarch Beshara Rahi to the White House are Dalia Mujahid (Mogahed), the highest adviser on Arab and Islamic Affairs in the State Department, who is from Egyptian origins. And that,” according to al Nashra, “heeding a request by the higher leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, who consider that US Administration must support the Islamist Sunni current facing the Iranian current in the region.”

The al Nashra report, circulating now widely in the Middle East, but also in the United States and across the Lebanese Christian Diaspora confirms what was already known about the impact the so-called “advisors on Arab and Islamic Affairs” in the White House on Middle East issues in general and on US policies regarding the Christians in the Middle East.

[Full Article]

Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rahi

I had seen this in regards to the recent Ad Limina visits for the Australian Bishops, but didn’t realize this is now the norm.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In a quiet modification of a traditional format, the Vatican has dropped most of the individual private meetings between Pope Benedict XVI and bishops making their “ad limina” visits to Rome.

The unannounced change was instituted earlier this year, apparently in an effort to reduce the scheduling burden on the 84-year-old pope and to help cut through the backlog of “ad limina” visits, which are supposed to be made every five years by heads of dioceses.

In place of one-on-one meetings, the pope now usually holds more freewheeling sessions with groups of 7-10 bishops at a time, lasting about an hour. That is expected to be the format for U.S. bishops when they begin their “ad limina” visits in early November.

Several bishops who have recently come through Rome on “ad limina” visits had good things to say about the new practice.

“The Holy Father welcomed us, he sat down and made us comfortable, at home and he chatted with us. He said, ‘Now tell me,’ and he listened very attentively and made a comment here or there. At the end, he summed up beautifully what was said,” said Archbishop Felix Machado of Vasai, India, who met the pope with a group of eight others in early September.

“It was very spontaneous, a heart-to-heart talk. And that’s what it should be. It was a real sharing between him and us,” the archbishop said.

[Full Article]

On Wednesday, Curtis Condell, 41, of Magnolia, was arrested during a meeting with authorities, Evesham Township Police Lt. Walt Miller said.

Condell, a drywall worker, has been charged with nine counts of criminal mischief and nine counts of bias intimidation, police said.

He was held on at least $100,000 bail at the Burlington County Jail. That may be increased with the addition of Cherry Hill’s charges, police officials said.

On his Facebook page, Condell described himself as “a born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ since my childhood (thank you Dad and Mom!)” and said he was “now working my way toward serving Christ as an evangelist.” [Source]

If the charges are true shouldn’t that be evandalist?

Though Protestant iconoclasts are nothing new, but I bet they would really like this newly remodeled Seminary Chapel of the Diocese of Hildesheim, Germany [Source][Via the Pertinacious Papist]:

I’ve posted before about long time blogger Father Dowd and of course today he will be ordained a bishop.

So my prayers are with him today as I sit from afar as he blogs and tweets about preparation and ordination to the episcopate.

It is rather cool in this new media age to follow something like this and to see one of my occasionally blog commenters ordained a bishop.

From the reports I have read it looks like the first CatholicCon is a great success. So congratulations to the crew of Catholic Underground and all those involved in pulling it off. I already really wanted to attend and reports from Father Z only made this more so.

Last night they announced the winners of the 2011 Catholic Media Awards and you can find the well-deserved winners here. While I was already fans of the winners, some of the nominees provide me with blogs to add to my RSS Reader and follow. It has been great watching the Catholic blogosphere grow over the years. Plus of course other new media efforts like Catholic podcasting.

Though in other Catholic awards news the 2011 CANNONBALL CATHOLIC BLOG AWARDS™© are still accepting votes and this year I am quite happy to be nominated in the category of Best Potpourri of Popery. Being that part of the criteria is that the blog must not be as good as the Crescat’s own blog this is still quite the honor. My plan to get shut out of the Catholic New Media Awards and somebody taking pity on me worked!