Irishman Sentenced to Pilgrimage

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Only in Ireland.

A judge sentences a man convicted of drunken behavior and abusing a police officer to go on a pilgrimage. He is ordered to climb Croagh Patrick and to do the four stations on the holy mountain.

Mr McElwee reported to the court this week and showed the judge photographs of himself and 13 friends on top of the roughly 2,500ft mountain where St Patrick fasted for 40 days in the fifth century.

At the time of his conviction, the judge said: “I want you to come back with evidence that you did the four stations of Croagh Patrick and say a few prayers. You then might have a different impression of County Mayo and its people.”

The police officer whom Mr McElwee insulted grew up near the mountain.

Mr McElwee told the judge he regretted what he had done and had managed to raise money for charity during the climb. The judge asked if he had found climbing the mountain therapeutic and Mr McElwee said he had. Read more.

I remember listening to the radio shortly after we moved to Ireland. The host of a talk radio show was interviewing a Irish ex-patriot who came home to climb Croagh Patrick. He was a lawyer living in Denver. I suddenly realized that I knew the man. He was the father of one of the children in the Irish Dancing troupe my kids belonged to.

But he was on a different sort of “pilgrimage.” One of his good friends had died. He had promised, along with three other friends, to climb to the top of the mountain after the funeral. The friends were instructed to drink a bottle of whiskey when they reached the summit in honor of their dead friend.

I don’t think that is the kind of pilgrimage the judge in the news story had in mind.

Oh well the word whiskey does come from a Gallic word which means “water of life”.

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Amazon Publishes A Handbook for Pedophiles

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

The Fruits of Relativism

I wish that I was more surprised by this. Amazon published a handbook for pedophiles as an eBook.  It caused an uproar on the social networks; there is a call for a boycott. Amazon’s response was to defend publishing the book on the grounds of freedom of speech.

FYI it does seem that they have, at least for now, pulled the book from their site.

Anyway here is the story from MSNBC:

“NEW YORK — Amazon is selling a self-published book defending pedophiles, sparking discussions about the retailer’s obligation to vet items before they are sold in its online stores, and threats of boycott from Amazon customers if the book is not removed.

The book, ” The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover’s Code of Conduct” by Philip R. Greaves II, offers advice to pedophiles afraid of becoming the center of retaliation. It is an electronic book available for Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle e-reader.

The author’s description (misspellings included) reads:

“This is my attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them, by establishing certian rules for these adults to follow. I hope to achieve this by appealing to the better nature of pedosexuals, with hope that their doing so will result in less hatred and perhaps liter sentences should they ever be caught.” Read the rest here.

Sigh. But what do we expect when Planned Parenthood actively promotes sex to young children through our public education system.

Now I am not, generally speaking, for censorship. But there has to be limits to what is acceptable free speech. The problem is that we no longer agree on a minimum standard of what is acceptable.  Protecting child predators must come before the right to publish.

This is a direct result of a culture that denies objective truth. When there is no truth, when there is no right and wrong, everything becomes acceptable. Common sense goes out the window. Common sense is not very common any more.

The good news is that the majority of people can still see that there is something wrong with promoting pedophilia.

But I have been convinced, for a very long time, that the only reason why sex with children hasn’t begun to become acceptable is because of the sex scandals in the Catholic Church.  How would it be possible to condemn the Church?

God does indeed bring good out of great evil.

Posted in Child sexual abuse | 6 Comments

Children of God. Children of Men

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Tony Rossi over at Patheos has an excellent commentary on the book (not the movie) Children of Men by P.D James.

The story begins in the United Kingdom in the year 2021 during an era called “Omega.” Humanity is on the road to extinction because the world has not recorded one single childbirth since 1995. Though scientists worked tirelessly to discover the cause behind this sudden lack of fertility, they remain clueless twenty-six years later. Hopelessness and madness have spread throughout England resulting in a jump in violence and lawlessness. Under the guise of security, the British government has become so tyrannical and all-intrusive in people’s lives that law enforcement has achieved what one character calls “a refinement of cruelty.” And since the government would want to control any woman who might miraculously give birth, they subject all healthy females to time-consuming forced examinations of their fertility every six months.

Theo Faron, the story’s protagonist, is a man detached from loving relationships of any kind. He describes himself as having ensured “that there are no unexpected visitors in my self-sufficient life.” When Theo is called on to protect the first woman in the world to become pregnant in twenty-six years, he undergoes a moral awakening that leads him down some dangerous paths.

The film version of The Children of Men emphasized what happens to societies when civil rights are suspended. The book, however, focuses just as much if not more on the “life” issues involved.

Recalling the evolution of the infertility problem, Theo says, “We thought that we knew the reasons — that the fall was deliberate, a result of more liberal attitudes to birth control and abortion, the postponement of pregnancy by professional women, the wish of families for a higher standard of living . . . Most of us thought the fall was desirable, even necessary. We were polluting the planet with our numbers . . . When Omega came it came with dramatic suddenness and was received with incredulity.”

He concludes by suggesting that reading Children of Men, might help us to understand the Church’s teaching on sex.

“In a culture like ours where sex is often viewed as purely recreational, this fictional world gives us points to ponder. Maybe there’s more truth to the church teaching on sex as “mutual self giving” than people realize. Perhaps a greater openness to children would be a good and beneficial idea for our society.

I’ve always thought that the church’s moral rules were ultimately designed to keep individuals or societies from engaging in behaviors that would ultimately harm them. The problem is that the church doesn’t always explain those rules in an understandable, relatable way. With that in mind, The Children of Men should be required reading for anyone interested in how “culture of life” issues can affect our world.” Read the post here.

I think that I am going to re read The Children of Men.

Posted in Catholic Moral Teaching, Culture Wars | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Turning To The Lord Together

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Fr. Richard Simon, AKA Rev. Know it all, has a thought provoking reflection on the Mass after facing away from the congregation during specific parts of one Mass. Now he wishes that he had not, but not for the reason you might think. And it wasn’t because some people were angry with him.

“I, however, wish I had not said Mass facing away from the congregation, and not because of the anger directed at me. I am a Catholic priest. I am used to people being angry with me. I wish I had not said Mass in what I believe to be the posture assumed by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, because it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my priestly life. You cannot imagine what it was like to say words like “we” and “our Father” and “us” while standing at the head of a congregation that was turned together in a physical expression of unity. No matter how one might argue to the contrary, it is impossible to say “we” while looking at 500 people and not be speaking to them.

The Mass is a prayer addressed to the Father, and despite our best intentions, we clergy address it to the congregation at whom we are looking. You cannot help it. The human face is a powerful thing. Last Saturday night I realized for the first time that I was part of a family of faith directed toward the same heavenly Father. I felt as if I was part of a church at prayer. It was not my job. It was my church. I never realized how very lonely it is to say Mass facing the people. I am up there looking at you. I am not part of you. For 13 or 14 minutes. You weren’t looking at me. We were looking at God.”

I really do believe that, as the good Father points out, that the celebrant cannot pray with the people while facing them and talking at them. And certainly, at specific times during the liturgy, it is preferable for the celebrant and the congregation to turn to the Lord. In the same direction.

Oh and I had to laugh at his quip that he “is a Catholic priest. I am used to people being angry with me.” Sadly this is all too true. pastors are confronted, constantly, by people who “get their knickers in a twist far too easily.

Father’s post is well worth reading and pondering. H/T Deacon Greg Kandra.

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Spinning the Pope

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

The Pope gives a homily in a Church in Spain, named for the Holy Family. Daring to be, oh horrors of horrors Catholic, he says:

“This church began as an initiative of the Association of the Friends of Saint Joseph, who wanted to dedicate it to the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home formed by Jesus, Mary and Joseph has always been regarded as a school of love, prayer and work. The promoters of this church wanted to set before the world love, work and service lived in the presence of God, as the Holy Family lived them. Life has changed greatly and with it enormous progress has been made in the technical, social and cultural spheres. We cannot simply remain content with these advances. Alongside them, there also need to be moral advances, such as in care, protection and assistance to families, inasmuch as the generous and indissoluble love of a man and a woman is the effective context and foundation of human life in its gestation, birth, growth and natural end. Only where love and faithfulness are present can true freedom come to birth and endure. For this reason the Church advocates adequate economic and social means so that women may find in the home and at work their full development, that men and women who contract marriage and form a family receive decisive support from the state, that life of children may be defended as sacred and inviolable from the moment of their conception, that the reality of birth be given due respect and receive juridical, social and legislative support. For this reason the Church resists every form of denial of human life and gives its support to everything that would promote the natural order in the sphere of the institution of the family.”

Here is the LA Times/ Associated Press take on the homily:

BARCELONA, Spain —

“Pope Benedict XVI strongly defended traditional families and the rights of the unborn Sunday, directly attacking Spanish laws that allow gay marriage, fast-track divorce and easier abortions as he dedicated Barcelona’s iconic church, the Sagrada Familia.”

Wow!  How in the word can they justify such an interpretation of a very Catholic, very Christian homily.  There is no way to justify that the Pope, in this homily, made a direct attack on Spanish laws.

Objective journalism is all but dead.

Over at Get/Religion they have given the “news report” the frisking that it so richly deserves. Continue reading →

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Christian Death

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

David Mills, over at First Things, has a great post up on dying.

Excerpt:

It is a great blessing to be with your father as he dies, though mercifully a blessing you will only enjoy once. I was sitting in his room at the hospice, my wife and children having run round the corner to get lunch, my mother having lunch with an old friend round another corner. He had, as far as we knew, weeks to live.

Listening to his labored breathing, suddenly I knew, I don’t know how, that he was breathing his last. I knelt by his head and said “Goodbye, dad.” He drew in a shorter, shallower breath than the others, and then stopped. The nurse came in, listened for a heartbeat, and I stood hoping I was wrong, that I’d missed something, till she shook her head.

At least, it is a great blessing to be with your father if he died the way mine did. He didn’t die with dignity, as those who promote “death with dignity” define it, which means, in essence, to die as if you weren’t dying.

It is not dignified to be dressed by cheerful young women the age of your granddaughter. It is not dignified to waste away, to lose the ability to speak, to eat, to drink. It is not dignified for your children and grandchildren to see you that way. It is not dignified to die when death takes you and not when you choose.

I see the appeal of “death with dignity” and programs like those offered in Oregon and the Netherlands, where doctors will help you leave this world at the moment of your choosing, without fuss or bother or pain. I do not want to die and I really do not want to die the way my father did. I would find the indignities as excruciating as he did, and I have no confidence I would deal with the pain as bravely as he. I would not want my children to see me so pathetic.

“Death with dignity” offers not only an escape from pain and humiliation, but a rational and apparently noble way to leave this life. All it requires is that you declare yourself God. Make yourself the lord of life and death, and you can do what you want. All you have to do, as a last, definitive act, is to do what you’ve been doing all your life, every time you sin: declare yourself, on the matter at hand, the final authority, the last judge, the one vote that counts.

But you are not God, and, the Christian believes, the decision of when to leave this life is not one he has delegated to you. To put it bluntly, he expects you to suffer if you are given suffering and to put up with indignities if you are given indignities. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord. And that, as far as dying goes, is that.

This is not, from a worldly point of view, a comforting or comfortable teaching. It is one much easier for Christians to observe in theory than in practice. In practice, we will want to die “with dignity.”

This is what my father taught me: to die with dignity means to accept what God has given you and deal with it till the end. It means to play the hand God has dealt you, no matter how bad a hand it is, without folding. It means actually to live as if the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, and in either case blessed be the name of the Lord. Read More here.

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Belgium Bishop Pied

Posted on November 6, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Wow. Such a disrespectful and childish response.

The series of misfortunes has now reached new heights — or lows — with the news that he got a pie in the face during an All Saints Day service last Monday in the cathedral in Brussels. A young person dressed in black ran up and “pied” him as he stood at a lectern while the choir sang a hymn. The embattled archbishop calmly cleaned off his glasses and licked his fingers clean. One newspaper reported that he later joked it was quite a tasty pie.

RTL television quoted diocesan spokeswoman Claire Jonard as saying: “The archbishop continued the service and did not want to file charges against the aggressor. We have no idea who it was or what his intentions were.”

Please pray for the pie throwing young man and the Bishop.

Here is a video of the sad incident.

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God’s Megaphone

Posted on November 6, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Please pass the tissues. ( H/T: The Anchoress)

“There are Christians who seem to believe that God only speaks through words. This is a rather puzzling and limiting idea for a creator who gave us five senses plus an imagination and intellect. God spoke through Mozart and Bach, through Caravaggio and Monet, through Shakespeare and John Donne, through St. Thomas Aquinas and Pope John Paul II. He speaks in many languages: mathematics, chemistry, biology, astronomy; paint, paper, film; stone, wood, and metal; the bloom of a rose and the fall of a leaf.

But has ever spoken to me?

Ah yes, but he had to use a language he only reserves for his hardest cases: the language of pain and suffering. Pain, as C.S. Lewis says, is God’s megaphone. Make no mistake, Our Lord does not cause our suffering, but he uses it to reach us.”Read more here.

Yup. Pain and suffering gets our attention.

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Social Justice

Posted on November 6, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

Back in June, I posted on the division between progressive Catholics and orthodox Catholics on the social justice teaching of the Church. I related an experience that I had while working for a parish. The pastor had asked me to talk to the Peace and Justice committee about combining their group with the Pro life committee.

Well…let’s just say that all peace and tolerance evaporated from the room.

Excerpt:

“The reason: it was a very divided Parish. In one corner were the Pro-life Orthodox parishioners, and in the other were the Peace and Justice Progressive Catholics. Both camps were very misguided. And they were at war.

For Catholics, however, it should never be one or the other. To be pro life includes all of the Social Teachings of the Church. We are called to take care of the least amongst us.

At the same time we do have to remember that the life issues are foundational to all of the other human issues. We cannot have peace and justice unless the sanctity of human life is defended.

It is not a liberal versus conservative issue. It is not an orthodox versus progressive issue. It is about Jesus Christ and what is true, and good and beautiful.”

My favorite deacon called me a little while ago from a meeting were the guest speaker is a single issue Peace and Justice guy on steroids.  No mention of the life issues or the dignity of the human person. No mention of Planned Parent Hood. But Walmart is evil. Yada. Yada. Yada.

Perhaps the after lunch session will improve. Good thing that my deacon has low blood pressure. Usually. It is probably on the rise. Anyway I suspect that he is no greener, but he is seeing red.  He asked me to pray for him.

Maybe this will cheer him up.  The Pope has said that there is an “Urgent Need To Educate Laity In Church Social Doctrine.”

Excerpt:

The Holy Father stresses the urgent need “for commitment to educating Catholic laity in Church social doctrine”.

“Lay Catholics “must undertake to promote the correct ordering of social life, while respecting the legitimate autonomy of worldly institutions”.

“A profound understanding of the social doctrine of the Church is of fundamental importance, in harmony with all her theological heritage and strongly rooted in affirming the transcendent dignity of man, in defending human life from conception to natural death and in religious freedom. … It is necessary to prepare lay people capable of dedicating themselves to the common good, especially in complex environments such as the world of politics”.

We are so blessed to have such a holy and intelligent pope.

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Bodily Upgrades

Posted on November 6, 2010 by Susan Kehoe

When I talk about the resurrection of our bodies at the end of time, I usually quip, “sure hope that I get a new and improved one”. Msgr. Pope speculates that scripture tells us that we will:

“So, rejoice! The Lord is going to take these lowly bodies of our and change them to conform with his own body. We’re going to upgrade to an improved model to be sure. And in your glorified body you won’t have to take all this time to read this post, you’ll just know it.”

Hallelujah!

The post is long but well worth reading.

Since I am in a Hallelujah mood,  here is a cool video. Gee nobody breaks out into song when I go to the mall. Sniff.  Enjoy! H/T Deacon Greg Kandra



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