Other

Faithful Rebel points to what he calls perhaps the Ugliest Catholic Church in History- “Peter and Paul” Catholic Church in Maassluis, Holland.

For me it doesn’t strike me enough to elicit ugly, but it certainly doesn’t raise my mind up to God other than the phrase god-awful. It looks more like a discarded should be joint from some gigantic robot. Maybe it is a transformer church.

Transformers churches
More than meets the eye
Transformers churches
Churches in Disguise

Though looking at the Transformers theme I didn’t realize how filled with the Gospel it was.

To stand divided we will surely fall
Until our darkest hour
When the light will save us all

This page shows the construction and the interior. Some of the statues inside are quite nice. Others leave something to be desired.

Something about the proportions of this crucifix seem off to me. Maybe it is the people standing next to me, but I associate alien with it and that one of Jesus’s last words was "Phone home."

Though nothing prepared me for what is probably the most unfortunate statue in history to reside in a Catholic Church. In addition the eyes really creep me out.

Quite as unfortunate as this stained glass window.

Brian Michael Page tagged me with the movie meme.

– Go to IMDB.com and look up 10 of your favourite movies.
– Post five (5) official IMDB "Plot Keywords" for these 10 picks.
– Have your friends guess the movie titles.
– Then tag three people

1. Whistle / Wench / Fox / Disguise / Poison
2. Peril / Ancient Sword / Hardship / Stylized / Hungry
3. Warp Speed / Famous Opening Theme / Galactic War / Wilhelm Scream / Death Ray
4. Farce / Marx Brothers / Opera / Anvil / Stowaway
5. Mask / Bandit / Banquet / Bathtub Scene / Cheating At Cards
6. Vomit / Robot As Menace / Future / Hibernation / Tentacle
7. Car Accident / U Boat / Zombie / Good Versus Evil / Mummy
8. Young Boy / Young Girl / Dead Boy / 1700s / Missionary
9. No Opening Credits / Whipping / Christ Figure / Judas / Melodrama
10. Eccentric / Severed Arm / Anachronistic / Severed Leg / No Ending

Well in no particular order these are some of my favorite movies and just guessing from the keywords is not too difficult for most, really easy for one, and fairly easy for another.

I’ll tag Happy Catholic, Catholic Fire, and A Wing and a Prayer

As a long time user of RSS and Aggregators I have gone through several different feed clients. For the uninitiated RSS is a way to track blogs/news sources and via an aggregator keep informed of when sites are updated. Last year I switched from a software based aggregator to using Bloglines which is both free and internet based. I wanted to be able to easily access feeds on my main computer or laptop without having to worry about synchronization between two computers and a web based aggregator is perfect for that. I had looked at Bloglines sometime after it first came out, but at that point it wasn’t up to what I needed. Currently though it is very solid and lets you easily look at all the new posts for each folder that you setup. Unfortunately from time to time due to crashes or other circumstances when I would loose feeds when after I rebooted they had been marked as read and not easily available.

From time to time I would also look at Google Reader which is another web based aggregator, but earlier versions were not quite ready for prime time. That changed last week when after evaluating it again I imported all of my feeds into it to start using it on a daily basis and I must admit that I really like it.

One improvement it has over Bloglines is that you can see feeds as a "List view" where each line shows just the post title and information about the source and an "Expanded view"that will display the whole post (or an excerpt as defined by that sites blogging system). The problem I had sometimes with Bloglines is not a problem in Google Reader. When you select to see all updated feeds for a folder they are not marked automatically as read. Only as you click on the posts, or scroll past them are they marked, or you can click to set all as marked. You can also set to view the posts by oldest or newest. I do wish they could sort by post titles, since when you are looking at some feeds of multiple news sources it would be nice to be able to quickly discern when multiple news agencies are repeating the same story from a source such as AP.

I also really like the Next item button which has a keyboard shortcut to rapidly go through feeds brining each post up in display regardless of the current view you have selected. Currently I track 480 feeds where the large majority are Catholic blogs, news sources, and then tech and programming related feeds. Even with this massive amount of feeds I find I can go through them very rapidly and have found that via Google Reader I have become much more efficient in the amount of time.

Like Gmail, Google Reader has an option to set a particular post as starred. This is cool since you can do your blog/news reading and mark it as starred so that you can easily go back to it later. I believe Google Reader is still in Beta since they still call it Google Reader LABS, and the logo for the product seems to be temporary. Though Google is infamous for having something in Beta forever.

One thing that Bloglines had that I wish Google Reader had was that Bloglines reporting how many people were subscribe to a particular feed. It was cool to see blogs have their number of subscribers grow over time, plus the vanity in me liked seeing how many people were subscribed to my blog via Bloglines.

Now if I can only find a way for Google to hand me over some of their massive amounts of cash for writing a positive review of Google Reader.

Julie at Happy Catholic passed on this latest meme to me which is surprisingly difficult to answer and limiting your choices to just three. Plus there is the fear of what a psychologist might make of the choices.

Name up to three characters . . .

1) . . . you wish were real so you could meet them.

1. Paul Atreides (Dune Series)
2. Rincewind (Discworld series)
3. Ender (Orson Scott Cards’s series)

2) . . . you would like to be.

1. Drizzt Do’Urden (Iceland Dale Trilogy and other novels)
2. Able of the High Heart (Gene Wolfe’s Wizard Knight series)
3. Fr. Elijah (Michael D. O’Brien’s Children of the Last Days novels)

3) . . . who scare you.

1. The Psychohistorians in Asimov’s Foundation series (what can be scarier then hidden bureaucrats who think they know what is best for you)
2. The Elder Things in H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness (or pretty much anything by Lovecraft).
3. The Fithp in Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle’s Footfall.

I inflict this meme on The Sci Fi Catholic, Claw of the Conciliator, and Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

The New York Times has a quite positive portrayal of Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel even though the article has a silly title "Straddling Liberalism and Conservatism."

The church’s views on issues like abortion and homosexuality put Father Groeschel on the opposite side of the political spectrum from many who support his work for social justice.

“I used to be a liberal, if liberal means concern for the other guy,” Father Groeschel said. “Now I consider myself a conservative-liberal-traditional-radical-confused person.”

Faithful Catholics don’t straddle liberalism and conservatism, they transcend them. We have a great love for the poor (both spiritually and materially poor) because we see Jesus in them. We have a great love for protecting the unborn because we see Jesus in them especially today on the feast of the Annunciation when God became Man and not a tissue mass (though sometimes with love for Jesus in the Eucharist we require a tissue at Mass).

I do love Father Groeschel and the first Catholic book I ever bought was his book "In the Presence of Our Lord: The History, Theology, and Psychology of Eucharistic Devotion." I have listened to hundreds of hours of his tapes from retreats broadcast on EWTN radio along with all his television shows including Sunday Night Love and I never fail to learn something from this man. He was in a parish in my town for a retreat during the first week of Lent and it was a wonderful experience seeing him and hearing him live. I also love his wry sense of humor and his identification of himself as a "optimistic-pessimist." This way you are never surprised by bad news and are delighted when things go well.

	Jester Hat Tip:	Gerald Augustinus

Archbishop Chaput in his latest column talks about what General Pace said about homosexuality and the sexual confusion within the U.S.

Forty years ago, when steel mills pumped hundreds of tons of toxic waste each week into the Great Lakes — literally “killing” Lake Erie and damaging the health of tens of thousands of families — citizens got organized. They forced the mills to clean up or shut down. We need to do the same today. Citizens need to stop the pornography industry now — not out of some kind of Victorian prudery, but because pornography poisons the human heart, imagination and soul just as those steel mills once poisoned our air and water, only worse.

Pornography is never “innocent entertainment,” no matter how private it might seem. It turns human beings into objects. It coarsens our appetites. It darkens our ability to see real human beauty. It creates impossible expectations about sexual intimacy. It kills enduring romance and friendship between the sexes. And ultimately it’s a lie and a cheat. Pornography is a cheap, quick, empty copy of the real thing — the real joy of sexual intimacy shared by a man and woman who have joined their lives in a loving marriage.

In recent months, two Catholic bishops have begun some extraordinary work against pornography in their Midwest dioceses: Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., and Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan.

Bishop Finn’s excellent pastoral letter, “Blessed Are the Pure in Heart: The Dignity of the Human Person and the Dangers of Pornography,” has a wealth of good information about the scope of pornography, the damage it does and many practical tips to fighting it in our homes. Archbishop Naumann’s anti-pornography initiative, “As for Me and My House, We Will Serve the Lord,” includes a DVD and workbook with valuable resources for fighting pornography, teaching chastity and wholesome sexuality, and helping others who have been hurt by pornography addiction.

We can’t do much to fix the sexual confusion at the top of our society, beyond writing to our elected officials and demanding candidates who will advance our convictions when the time comes to vote. But we can do a lot about the poison in our homes and local communities. Pornography is poison. It should be controlled like any other toxic waste. And don’t be fooled. This isn’t “censorship.” It’s a matter of public health and common sense.

If a beer can be dyed green it is not a real beer.

Speaking for myself, I was not an anti-abortionist until after I read the decision of Roe v. Wade. It was in fact the very first legal decision we read: it was passed out during orientation in Law School. It was also the poorest bit of legal reasoning of all the cases I read in all three years of Law School: it quotes no authority, no precedent, gives no guidelines to distinguish the case under considerations from parallel cases.

It was not until I saw a picture of my firstborn in the womb that I became committed emotionally to antiabortion. The doctor advised us to abort Orville. Seeing that these people were trying to get me to kill my son, whom I am honor bound to love and protect, washed the scales from my eyes.

I was also raised to believe in the axioms of the sexual revolution. It was merely part of the atmosphere of the age: everyone from Robert Heinlein to Ayn Rand told me that sex was recreation, not reproduction. Seeing that these people were trying to get me to fornicate, to cheat on my wife before I even had a wife, when honor demands self-control, began to offend my cold Vulcan heart. Why were all of them cheering for the lack of self-command? Why, suddenly, was self-discipline, trustworthiness, purity, honor, and goodness to be mocked? Why was virginity shameful and harlotry admirable? Would Epictetus or Seneca or Cicero or Marcus Aurelius have said, "Well, if your emotion is stronger than your reason, indulge! Wallow like a swine in heat with a sow! You need no live like an honest man. Surrender your brain to your loins, and act without regard to consequences."

It also began to offend my ferocious poet’s heart. Where was the romance, the glamour, the allure? The Sexual Revolution made sex boring, robbed it of meaning, robbed life of its adventure. Why are so many romance novels set in the years long before this revolution? Because the mystique was still alive.

As far as the sexual revolt goes, count me as loyal to the ancient regime.

I do so enjoy John C. Wright’s blog whether he is writing on SF, morality, or for that matter any subject. When he does write on morality it is always excellent and interesting since he came to much of his understanding while still an atheist.

I would also highly recommend his Golden Age Trilogy, War on Dreaming series, and The Chaos Chronicles series which are all great reads. He also has a new book in the Chaos Chronicles coming out next month.

Dawn Eden sent me a link to this cool article.

YONKERS – Polls generally show that 50 percent to 60 percent of Roman Catholics in the United States believe that women should be eligible for the priesthood.

Sister Sara Butler understands this impulse – because she once felt the same way. In 1978, she headed a task force of the Catholic Theological Society of America that came out in support of female priests.

But as she continued her work as an increasingly prominent theologian, her thinking began to change. Now, in a new book – "The Catholic Priesthood and Women: A Guide to the Teaching of the Church" – she attempts to explain the underpinnings of the all-male priesthood to doubters and skeptics who think the way she used to.

"The tradition is traced to the will of Christ, not to decisions made by the church," Butler said last night at St. Joseph’s Seminary, where she has taught for four years.

The church’s teachings must be better explained, she said, because many Catholics see the all-male priesthood as a symbol of patriarchal power and sexism, and many more who stay silent are probably befuddled.

"Their confidence in the church’s teaching authority has been badly eroded," she said.

Several hundred priests, nuns, seminarians and lay visitors greeted Butler with sustained applause, a measure of their respect for her and their approval of the church’s position.

Critics of the all-male priesthood were in short supply.

Butler made Catholic history two years ago when she became one of the first two women appointed to the Vatican’s International Theological Commission, an influential group that advises the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

"This appointment places Sister Sara among the highest-ranking women in our church today," Monsignor Peter Finn, rector of the seminary, said when introducing her.

Butler made the case last night that the all-male priesthood is grounded in Jesus’ choice of 12 male apostles and the Catholic Church’s sustained understanding of what this meant for the priesthood.

"The answer is discovered in a tradition of practice that is traced back to the Lord’s choice of the 12," she said.

To change the church’s traditional understanding of the priesthood, she said, would be to change the priesthood itself and disconnect the church from the apostles, ending what Catholics believe to be their church’s God-given power to teach.

…Polls continue to show that Catholics are divided. But Cardinal Francis George of Chicago hopes that Butler’s book will alter the conversation. "If this book is well used," he writes in a blurb, "it will change the presently sterile discussion of who can be ordained to the Catholic priesthood."

We hear so much in the press about dissenters on the issue of women’s ordination that it is truly nice to see one from a person now inline with Church teaching. Another nice thing about the article is that the usual critics are not trotted out for a refutation, though there is too much emphasis on polls. Christianity and polls have a bad track record – just ask Jesus when he asked "Who do men say that I am?" Only one got it right and he had help from an outside source – the Holy Spirit.