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Screwtape’s
Assessment of World Youth Day Dr. John Zmirak’s I enjoyed the
following:
We have already succeeded marvelously–thanks
to our ever-industrious Liturgical Division–in draining the Enemy’s rituals as
typically performed of mystery, awe, reverence, and all those things which come
to it “naturally.” Deprived of gravitas, the Enemy’s minions, after a few
decades of bumbling, have made the best of a bad job, and tried to infuse the
banal rites with which we left them with levity, energy, and enthusiasm.

Florida
judge strikes down vouchers
Interesting quote in the article from a
school teacher.

“It is
absolutely wrong to divert tax money to private schools. Now we can focus on
public schools again.”

I am not quite sure what moral
principle was broken by people getting some of their money back and sending a
child to a school of their choice.

“…[A]s long as a man is thinking of God as an
Examiner who has set him a sort of paper to do, or as the opposite party in a
sort of bargain — as long as he is thinking of claims and counterclaims between
himself and God–he is not yet in the right relation to Him. He is
misunderstanding what he is and what God is. And he cannot get into the right
relation until he has discovered the fact of our bankruptcy.” –C.S. Lewis

“At Rutgers University, researchers with the National Marriage Project have
published a report called ‘Why Men Won�t Commit: Exploring Young Men�s Attitudes
about Sex, Dating, and Marriage.’ The study offers the top ten reasons men are
reluctant to say, ‘I do.’ Among them: They can get all the sex they want without
marriage. They want to enjoy the single life as long as possible. They want
avoid the financial pitfalls of divorce. And they�re afraid marriage will demand
too many changes and compromises. … Modern women have far more freedom of
movement than their sisters in the ancient world. But human nature is still
fallen. This means that men are as predatory as ever — and women today are
paying the price for it in a culture that doesn’t demand marriage.” –Chuck
Colson

Michael
Medved has a new column on university enrollment based on like divorce or
desertion, poverty, abuse, poor health or life in certifiably “dysfunctional
environments”. Hey mom, if you guys get a divorce I can enroll at UCLA.

greggtheobscure commented
on my thought that canonization was protected by infallibility.

. . .or maybe not. Also canonization is not an “ex
cathedra” pronouncement regarding faith and morals, which are the only instances
in which the pope’s statements are infallible.

And I concur with him after rereading the definition for ex cathedra
statements. I ponder then can the pope declare someone to the universal church
as someone to be emulated who might not have existed or is in hell?

I am back to blogging after blogger had tried my limited patience. When
informed that I had misspelled Atheist and Theist in my original title, I
updated them with blogger and then after that I was never able to update my blog
information anymore. It would show up on the recently published list but the
information would remain the same. I ended up having to delete my blog and start
over. I am a programmer and constantly tempted to tweak the look of my blog,
only to introduce more errors that blogger doesn’t like. So I have decided just
to keep it simple.

>Full Story

From an article
BR>in Wired Neal Horsley, the militant anti-abortionist who gained notoriety by publishing the names and
addresses of abortion clinic workers on the Internet, has launched
his own ISP and Web-hosting business. The Georgia activist set up
We Choose Life Net to
kill two birds with one stone: to create a virtual community of
like-minded abortion protesters, and to provide himself with a
steady income.

One thing that aggravate me is when I hear a caller on a talk
show say that they won’t vote for a pro-abort politician and then
the host will call them a “single-issue voter”. This seems to be
just more moral equivalence where one issue is just the same as
another. Abortion, education, economic development, social
justice, etc. are all lumped together as being equal. There is a
hierarchy (sacred order) of values and the sanctity of life is at
the top. If the respect for life makes me a single-issue voter,
so be it.

The following is a e-mail by Deal Hudson of Crisis
Magazine which describes the contents of the Bishop’s letter
requesting
a plenary council. To subscribe to his excellent
e-mail letter click
here.

Dear Friend,

When I started this e-letter in April, my
primary motivation was to have a way to get urgent information to
you immediately.
There are some things that just can’t wait to
be printed in the magazine.

This is one of those things.

As you may already know, the Catholic world
has been buzzing about a confidential letter composed by eight
American bishops
in which they called for a Plenary Council to
address problems in the Church.

Journalists and pundits have been
speculating and debating about the alleged contents of the letter
and the identities of the authors. But no one really knew for
sure.

Until now.

This morning, CRISIS managed to obtain a
copy of the letter that was sent on July 18 to all the American
cardinals and
bishops. In it, a group of eight bishops asks
that a Plenary Council be called as soon as possible to discuss
the “root causes” of —
and possible solutions to — the
current crisis in the Church.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me
explain what a Plenary Council is and why this letter is so
dramatic. Basically, a
Plenary Council is a meeting of all the
bishops of a given area — in this case, the United States. This
isn’t an ordinary meeting though. It’s
the highest form of
council that can be called on a national level. It would be like a
Vatican Council for the States. In fact, the American
bishops
haven’t called a Plenary Council in more than 100
years.

And it’s much different from their
semiannual conferences, too: There, the administrative business is
done. A Plenary Council, on
the other hand, is much more
proactive, focusing on “teaching the truths of the faith” (as the
letter says). Priests and laypeople
would also be able to
participate.

The eight bishops who wrote this amazing
letter are taking a brave stand by urging discussion of those
issues that were
swept under the rug at the June bishops’
meeting. While I can’t send you the whole body of the letter, I
can share some of it with you.

First, the authors of the letter seem to
have a pretty clear understanding of the crisis. Here are a few of
the issues
they want to face head-on at the Plenary Council:
“What has happened to the life and ministry of bishops and priests
that makes us vulnerable
to the failings that have humiliated
us all? What things need to be going on so that in this cultural
milieu priests and bishops will preserve their
celibate
chastity along with all the other virtues that constitute the life
of holiness proper to pastors? How can the purification upon which

we shepherds have embarked help us, in turn, support our
people in achieving greater holiness?”

Notice the absence of wishy-washy bishop
speak. These men know there’s a problem, and they’re going to face
it squarely.

But it gets even better. The bishops get
very specific about what they hope to accomplish at the
meeting:

Goal 1: “Solemnly receiving the authentic
teaching of the Second Vatican Council…on the identity, life and
ministry
of bishops and priests; on matters of sexual morality
in general (cf. Gaudium et Spes, Humanae Vitae, Veritatis
Splendor, and Familiaris Consortio);
[and] on celibate
chastity as an authentic form of human sexuality renewed by grace
and a share in Christ’s own spousal love for His
Church.”

It’s heartening to hear these bishops raise
the issue of sexual morality as taught by Humanae Vitae, as well
as “the
very soul of holiness” for a priest! These topics have
been taboo for so long that it’s phenomenal to see bishops address
them head-on.

Goal 2: “Giving unequivocal endorsement and
force to the means outlined in the documents of the Council…to

foster the acts of virtue required of pastors and the means
needed to achieve those virtues, especially celibate chastity
(e.g., daily celebration
of the Mass, frequent Confession,
daily meditation, regular acts of asceticism, obedient submission
to Church teaching and discipline, simplicity of
life).”

You can’t argue with a return to the
fundamentals of the priesthood. This is EXACTLY what priests need
to hear: a public
endorsement of their vocation and the
support of the bishops in encouraging a real back-to-basics
approach to religious life.

Goal 3: “Confirming the bishops in the
authoritative exercise of our ministry for the health and well
being of the church,
and strengthening our coworkers in the
Presbyterate in their ministry of teaching the Gospel, especially
in regard to sexual morality, so that
we can give support to
the lay faithful in responding to their call to
holiness.”

Who hasn’t been demanding greater
accountability and action from the bishops? Clearly, these men
seem to understand what’s
really been bothering American
Catholics.

The bishops who drafted the letter also
listed the benefits of calling a Plenary Council: It “would
provide a galvanizing
focus that is authentically evangelical
and true to the Church’s identity and tradition…[witness]
unambiguously to the fact that the Church relies
on the grace
of the Holy Spirit…involve all strata of the People of God in
the experience…have maximal impact in shaping the ecclesial
culture…[and]
give a definite stamp to identifying what is
the authentic heritage of the Second Vatican
Council.”

“Galvanize”…”witness
unambiguously”…”maximal
impact”…”definite stamp”… the
“authentic”
heritage of Vatican II… These are strong words
for bishops — a group usually known more for its inaction than
its decisive action.

One last thing. Unfortunately, I can’t
reveal the names of the authors at this point. However, I can tell
you that the list
is surprising. These bishops represent the
entire theological and political spectrum. That in itself is
reassuring: The idea that we need a deep and
lasting change
isn’t limited to any political or theological ideology.

My hat is off to these eight courageous and
dedicated bishops — all that’s left now is to hope their
colleagues will follow
suit and sign on.

In 10 years or so, when this current crisis
has hopefully faded away, we may look back on this letter as the
event that
triggered the renewal of the American Catholic
Church. Let’s all say a prayer of thanks for the eight bishops who
took the first step.

Talk soon,

Deal