Curt Jester's View of the Forthcoming Instruction on the Motu Proprio

The Curt Jester is always imaginative and funny. He thinks the Pope's new document for the Bishops who are ignoring his Motu Proprio might be issued in a familiar format.

More than One Child...$$$$$$

AsiaNews reports that the heftiest fine ever levied in China for a banned second child is $100,000 US. See the complete story.

Latest about Msgr. Heliodore Mejak

A recent post discussed the world-wide interest in Msgr. Mejak, who died late on Christmas Eve. Since then, I've been watching Google to see that the web is full of information on Msgr. Mejak's life and death, including these news sites:

• Fresno Bee
• Chicago Tribune
• Monterey Herald
• Transunion (Albany, NY)
  
• ABC News
• Lawrence Journal World
• News Tribune (Tacoma)
• Wichita Eagle
  
• Kansas City Star
• Kansas City Kansan and here
  
• CBN News
  
• KXNet
• TownHall.com
• Trawlr.com
• Topix.com
• Religion News in Brief
  
• Myspace.com
• Various Kansas newspapers (e.g., Downs, Elk City, McAllster, Hutchinson, and Thomas County)
• An Associated Press article picked up by newspapers around the world
  

Local blogs keep track of their traffic using SiteMeter that shows 'hits' because of Google searches that identify the websites and blogs with information on Msgr. Mejak. My fellow blogger at Kansas City Catholic reports that his site had a significant amount of traffic from visitors who were searching for "Mejak" using Google. "I sent my post to Spiritdaily.com which linked to it and brought almost 3,000 visitors yesterday. He was well-loved, as you already know."

Here are other blogs that have featured stories on Msgr. Mejak.

• The World...IMHO
• Byzantine Forum
• The Cafeteria is Closed
• Whispers in the Loggia
• Curmudgeon's Cave
• Blogging Religiously
• More on Vocations
• FishEaters
• Hermeneutic of Continuity
• Sancte Pater
• Free Republic
  
• Loved Sinner
• Forums.Catholic.com
• Angelqueen.org
  
• Syriacus at Il Blog di Andrea Tornielli
• Katoliko Forum

KC Cyclone on the Angelqueen Forum added his own interesting comment:

Fr. Mejak baptized me. I went to the parish school. We always received communion at the communion rail on our tongues, had benediction after Sunday Mass and on First Fridays. I remember in 7th grade we learned the Latin Kyrie, Gloria, etc for the Midnight Christmas Mass. I also remember serving his Mass, and seeing the XXXX marked through the Sign of Peace in the Altar Missal.

One emailed comment to my previous posts said this blog failed to note all the information available on the life of Msgr. Mejak. Please read the entire 2003 Leaven article by Bethanne Scholl entitled:

Faith of our Fathers: He's ancient of days. He can't see very well. And he has been known to be slow to change. But at age 93 Msgr. Heliodore Mejak has no intention of calling it quits.

Wrapping Presents is Fun!

One of my Dad's temporary jobs in the Great Depression of the 1930s was to wrap Christmas presents for Montgomery Ward. Dad was never especially artistic or neat, so I've often wondered how his job performance was rated.

I was reminded of my Dad at Christmas time when one of our daughters brought out the Christmas presents to open at our family gathering. She has figured out how to efficiently wrap a lot of presents for Christmas, have a lot of fun doing it, and teach her children a skill.

Each child took turns wrapping presents for some of the other children. Even the littlest kids helped put paper around the gifts and tape them up. No one got tired, no one got exasperated, and every child excitedly asked for more and more presents to wrap. Our daughter said her children actually had more fun wrapping presents than unwrapping them!

Take a look at the "character" and the "personal touch" associated with the special style of a small child who has been asked to wrap a sibling's present. Do you think they'll eventually get good enough to wrap presents for Macy's, Kohl's, J.C. Penney's, or Target?