The Crucifixion of Bishop Robert Finn

I heard Bishop Robert Finn give his memorable address to the recent Kansas City Gospel of Life Conference and was much edified by this stalwart leader of the Catholic Church. He spoke candidly of militant Catholics who must fight a necessary spiritual war against Satan.

The battle we face for the salvation of our souls is the most important one we face – bar none. Where I spend all eternity; where you spend eternity – in bliss or in damnation – is important beyond any individual choice I make. But the individual human choices I make – even one grave choice in which we remain unrepentant – can determine the direction of my salvation.

To deliberately destroy a human person, and without any justification of self-defense, is to preempt without an equal and sufficient cause, the right to life bestowed by God alone. Life is a gift which we have from God, not from man. This right cannot be taken away by means of a human law. It ought to be protected and assured by human law. The constant magnitude of this crime against humanity is staggering. We must never get used to it.

Occasionally we still hear an elected official speak of his or her personal opposition to abortion, while they support the legal right to an abortion. We should be very clear: Such a person places him or herself completely OUTSIDE the moral framework, the moral imperative of Evangelium Vitae and other Church teaching on these issues. They are NEITHER defending human life against the forces of death, NOR or they taking steps to build a culture of life. They have abandoned their place in the citizenship of the Church. Quite simply they have become warriors for death rather than life.

Such a person who makes a public stand – and acts directly – in defense of the right to kill endangers their eternal salvation. If you and I support such a person who has so flatly told us of their intentions to protect a fraudulent Right to Death, a Right to an Abortion, we make ourselves participants in their attack on life. We risk our salvation, and we better change.

So it is not surprising that Bishop Finn's address has incensed liberal Catholics who feel they must defend the so-called "right" to kill an unborn child. First read Bishop Finn's great talk to pro-lifers published on the new Catholic Key Blog [should be bookmarked first on your list of Kansas City Catholic websites].

Then observe the crucifixion of Bishop Finn in multiple comments on the website of the infamous National Catholic Reporter, which is published in Bishop Finn's diocese. The anger of dissident, unfaithful Catholics and their friends in response to Bishop Finn's remarks clearly shows the influence of Satan.

Please Come to Our House, and.....

...make sure everyone remembers that we have a farm and what goes along with that.......poop. We have chicken poop, duck poop, cow poop, horse poop, dog poop and cat poop (maybe even some Canadian geese poop) in our yard.

You and your children will step in poop if you are in the yard. You may want to bring boots. We also have a hamster, a snake, a gecko, a dog, 6 baby chickens, x children and 2 adults that live in our house. Hopefully there will not be any poop to step in when in the house. :) We also have 3 hives of bees that will sting if gotten too close to. Please watch your kids.

This message comes from one of our children who decided everyone needed to be warned before coming to Easter Dinner!

TOTUS talks from the Teleprompter!

Do you remember that Toto, Dorothy's dog in the Wizard of Oz, can speak? Toto is able to talk, just like other animals in the land of Oz, and simply chooses not to.

Well, TOTUS (Teleprompter of the United States) is now talking and has come up with the speech that Barack Obama would have given in 1860 if he were to promote slavery reduction in the same way he is trying to promote abortion reduction today. Here is what he came up with:

"Let me be perfectly clear...uh...I am absolutely opposed...uh...to slavery. We as Americans must...uh...come together, pro-slavery and abolitionist alike...to find common ground...uh...to reduce slavery...I plan to reduce the size of farms...uh...so that one family can farm their land...uh...without the need of additional workers.

I also plan to tax cotton production, to...uh...discourage Big Cotton. They can grow cotton, but...uh...they'll go bankrupt doing it."

"Now, I'm not deaf to those who face an unfair disadvantage...uh...on Wall Street and on Main Street, because they...uh...don't own slaves. For that reason, until we can reduce the need for slavery...uh...I'm now signing an executive order that makes slavery legal in...uh...all 40 of our states [editor's note: yes, I know there were only 33 states at the time, but if Barry is to be consistent with regard to the 57 states he seems to recognize now, then we need to slide the scale a bit.]

I am also going to mandate...uh...that Congress pass a budget that will include federal funding...uh...for anyone who needs a slave, but can't currently afford one. We need to level the playing field."

And that is how...uh...we're going to reduce slavery...uh...during my term of office.

Thanks to the great Kansas pro-life activist, Bill Sutton, of Proud Catholic Voters Association of Kansas. Please check out Sutton's extremely well-written website, and mark it as a favorite prolife bookmark!

Distribution of Communion to the Sick

Recently on two occasions, I've been invited to receive Holy Communion from lay distributors--once while in the hospital (I'm fine now) and then while visiting in the home of an elderly woman. Both experiences caused me much heartache. First, the preparation for reception of Our Lord's body and blood was very short and perfunctory. Second, only a minute of thanksgiving passed before the lay distributor began talking about something else. The second distributor also was dressed very casually. Both were basically good women who seemed unaware of the awesome nature of what they were doing.

If lay distributors of Holy Communion provide service in priest-deficient Novus Ordo parishes, they must clearly and reverently acknowledge they are touching the Body and Blood of the second person of the Trinity--God Almighty. Currently I have little hope that this will occur.

The basic problem is that laymen are not clerically trained and ordained for this function. It's almost as if a Superintendent, short of skilled architects and engineers, asked for volunteers to service a great institution, and several people of good will offered their services. What grade of performance would result?

Does anyone remember when Pope John Paul II warned Brazilian bishops on the "serious abuses" stemming from the erroneous trend to "clericalize the laity"? One of his listed abuses was distribution of Communion by the laity. But since the Vatican now permits the clericalization of the laity, why was it surprised by the results?

The Mass is Serious Business is a very fine article in the April 2009 issue of Homiletic and Pastoral Review, the oldest magazine for Catholic priests in the U.S. Here are a few quotes from author Rev. Bryce A. Sibley of the Diocese of Lafayette, LA who discusses his sadness at seeing large numbers of Catholics who do not take Sunday Mass [and Holy Communion} seriously:

...a significant portion of the blame [is] on the priests and pastors and their irreverent and apathetic celebration of Mass. By his words and deeds, such a priest states that the Mass is trivial. Consequently, the faithful, seeing this poor example, adopt the same lackadaisical attitude....

This is the heart of the issue--the Mass is above and beyond all else a sacrifice, a renewal of the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ....It is serious business.

If the Mass is to be taken seriously, then Holy Communion distributed by lay men and women also needs to be taken seriously. Pope Benedict (in God is Near Us) is quoted by Fr. Sibley on the gravitas of the Eucharist:

The Eucharist is far more than just a meal; it has cost a death to provide it, and the majesty of death is present in it. Whenever we hold it, we should be filled with reverence and awe in the face of this mystery, with awe in the face of this mysterious death that becomes a present reality in our midst....

I was particularly interested in several other statements by Fr. Sibley in his article for HPR:

One can have no doubt that the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite [old Latin Mass] is very serious [my emphasis]. There exists little room for entertainment or innovation within its celebration. Its structured unfolding instills a sense of respect and awe in the priest and the congregation. Its sacral dimension is self-evident....

The chief problem is the casualness of dress seen at many parish Masses. People often look like they are heading to the beach or the health club instead of Holy Mass. In many parishes, the presence of sacred silence before and after Mass has been lost. People talk and mingle freely as if they were meeting in any public place. And of course, there is often a great lack of respect shown in the reception of Holy Communion.... Priests will regularly need to take appropriate measures to cure the lay faithful of these bad habits. It must be done in charity, but something must be done and the faithful must be held to a certain standard.

Until the Church revises its rules on lay distribution of the Eucharist, pastors must not leave lay distributors unmindful of their great responsibilities and must provide detailed and demanding training. However because lay distribution often is so neglectfully performed, I look forward to the day when sufficient priests take Holy Communion to all the sick on a regular basis, as was the case when I was young. Let us pray for many more good vocations to the religious life.

The Devil in the Next Office

A friendly blogger writes to me:

I am sending you this email because I need prayer support and I know that you will do so. I am in a situation where a woman I know and work with may be possessed. I am working with a priest to help this poor woman but since I am working with this person and have worked with her, I need prayer support too. Please pray for this entire situation.

I remembered my friend's urgent request this morning at Mass and hope that other readers will add her intention to their prayers too. The situation reminds me of one that I encountered many years ago.

I also believed my co-worker might have been possessed by the devil, and another Catholic lady didn't disagree with me. The reasons were that evil always seemed good to her, and good was evil. Here are just a few of the things this 40-year old divorced professional woman did or told me she did:

1. Met an unhappy Catholic married man in a bar, and went home with him overnight. When he said he needed to go to Mass the next (Sunday) morning, she didn't want to let him go so she decided to go with him.
   
2. Then she decided to join the divorced/singles group at a Catholic parish to meet more men. [No, she wasn't Catholic but she liked men.]
   
3. Was very antagonistic to and hateful of her own mother. When her mother had a stroke she took the total $20,000+ savings and spent it all within six weeks. Otherwise, she would have been forced to use it to pay for her mother's nursing home expenses.
4. Provided no phone for her mother in the nursing home to call her friendds, until I complained that this was terribly wrong.
   
5. Believed her teenage son was unfair because he preferred living with his father, even though she plied her son with expensive gifts.
   
6. Bought a very expensive car even though she was fearful of bankruptcy [yes, eventually that happened even though as a professional she made a very good salary]. She said the monthly payments for the snazzy new car would be somewhat less than for her slightly older car, even though it would have been paid off much, much sooner.
7. Caused lots of problems at work, always insinuating that she would file a discrimination lawsuit if she were fired [yes, she was discharged as soon as an overall RIF was necessary].

What advice can be offered for a similar situation? Try to help, and see whether your good advice, prayers, and acts have any effect. If and when it becomes clear that the person always chooses evil over good, then leave the person. Select and work with another who will sincerely listen to God's words of truth and goodness.

If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. (Matthew 10:12-13)

Archbishop Chaput, Notre Dame, and Obama

The Catholic Key Blog notes that distemperous "Catholics United" supports Notre Dame's decision to honor anti-life President Obama by inviting him to speak at this year's commencement and grant him an honorary law degree. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver indirectly commented on the problem while discussing other important issues.

“We need to stop over-counting our numbers, our influence, our institutions and our resources, because they’re not real....We need to stop lying to each other, to ourselves and to God....how should we feel today, preaching the Gospel to an apostate world?”

Many, if not most, Catholics now have more wrong than right understandings about 1) God, 2) His Church, 3) ourselves, and 4) the difference between friends and enemies. Archbishop Chaput says to start with recognizing the reality of our situation as the only way forward.

Read a more complete summary of the good Archbishop's address here. And don't forget to sign the Cardinal Newman Society petition opposing an honorary law degree for President Obama. The petition now has almost 160,000 names.

China's "Rule of Law" and Huang Guangyu

Shortly after my post on "Chinese Catholic Billionaire", I sent emails to the two reporters who had done the most work to try to find the missing Huang Guangyu (Wong Kwong-yu) who disappeared in late November 2008. Neither reporter responded to my emails, so I concluded they weren't eager to ask for or to share information because it might put their Chinese news sources (and jobs) in jeopardy.

Until November 2008, Huang had the distinction of being the richest man in China, the founder and chairman of Gome Group, which is the largest consumer electronics retailer in China. Even more interesting he proclaimed he couldn't be a member of the Communist Party because he is a Catholic.

In lockstep with China's past, Huang was then arrested, and has yet to be formally charged or to make a public appearance in the almost four months since his disappearance into the hands of China's security police, charged in the Chinese media with economic crimes.

The LA Times profiled Huang and noted that "On the backs of Wang’s business cards and those of all Gome employees are Huang’s three cardinal rules:

Do not accept gifts from customers.
Do not take kickbacks.
Do not use your position for personal gain.

Printed at the very bottom is a hotline number for people to report employee misdeeds. Huang said the rules reflected his religious upbringing."

One Chinese news site now has more information on Huang and shows there is internal hassling in China over how to deal with him, especially in view of the new emphasis on China's "rule of law." The "rule of law" is a centerpiece of President Hu Jintao's administration--and he does 'rule the roost' in China. Another Chinese news article bemoans the fact that Huang would have spent the Chinese New Year celebrating at home with his family if the "rule of law" had been followed!

The Chinese "rule of law" advertised by President Hu Jintao and other senior communist party leaders seemed initially to have an air of authenticity. Now it appears to be all propaganda. The real situation is described in an Asia Times news article of July 8, 2008:

Hu, also party general secretary, has given new orders that zhengfa (political and legal) departments - which handle law enforcement and judicial matters - must observe the so-called "three top priorities", meaning the latter must give "utmost priority to the party's enterprise, the people's interests, and the constitution and the law". That the party's goals and concerns override everything else was made clear in a national meeting of judicial and security officials called late last month...

The TimesOnline says it best: "Last November, Huang, his wife, and their chief financial officer disappeared into the grey zone that awaits those who lose their high-level protection – a world without lawyers, court hearings or constitutional rights." Huang Guangyu, for all anyone knows, may have already died in the dungeon of a Beijing prison. The Chinese "rule of law" is only a fiction.

A Thank You for the Yellow Crocus

It's such a small flower and always the first to appear in my yard. I'm not sure how it got there, but Thank You, God for this first sign of Spring!

Vatican Conference on Evolution

The Vatican is sponsoring a scientific conference on Evolution on March 3-7 to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of the Species. The liberal Cardinal Paul Poupard and his former office, the Pontifical Council for Culture, as well as the University of Notre Dame and six pontifical universities are co-sponsors. I and others are not optimistic about this conference because organizers say intelligent design "represents poor theology and science."

The Church [needs] to look at Evolution again, "from a broader perspective", explained Professor Gennaro Auletta, the head of the Science and Philosophy faculty at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and the main conference organiser.

I found that Georges Chantraine will give one of the closing conference talks on the "Theological Vision of Evolution by Teilhard de Chardin.'" Chardin claimed to synthesize evolution with theology and imagined a dazzling array of creative projections of man's evolutionary ascendancy to 'supreme consciousness', a God-like state. I read two of Chardin's books with awe when I was young and impressionable (and stupid).

Then I read "The Trojan Horse in the City of God" by Dietrich von Hildebrand [called (informally) by Pope Pius XII "the 20th Century Doctor of the Church."], who showed that Chardin was a dishonest paleontologist and rogue priest whose disbelief in original sin (and other Church doctrines) meant Christ's sacrifice on the cross had no salvation meaning.

"It was only after reading several of his works, however, that I fully realised the catastrophic implications of his philosophical ideas, and saw the absolute incompatibility of his theology fiction with Christian revelation and with the doctrine of the Church."

Others also believed Chardin's teachings were a perversion of the Christian faith, including Jacques Maritain and Étienne Gilson and many others. Here are some links that show why Teilhard de Chardin remains a dangerous enemy:

• Catholic church monitum (warning) in 1962, on the writings of Teilhard de Chardin
• Moral Philosophy and Current Events "Heretic Extraordinaire" by Dr. J.P. Hubert
• AD2000, Comments on Chardin and his views by other Catholic theologians
  
• Review of The Phenomenon of Man by biologist Peter Medawar, from Mind, N.S., 70 (1961):99-106.
• 1989 review of Wolfgang Smith's Teilhardism and the New Religion, an analysis and refutation of the teachings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
• Teilhard, Darwin, and the Cosmic Christ –autumn 1999 newsletter, Southern Papist Perspective
• Sean Hyland, Teilhard de Chardin: Rogue Theologian (establishing that the condemnations still stand)

Professor Gennaro Auletta, who is head of the Science and Philosophy faculty at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and the main conference organiser told Edward Pentin of Newsweek (Newsweek Blog): “We hope this will really be an example of how to hold an open discussion without overtones. We simply wish to dialogue between people whose mission is to understand a little more.”

So will creationists ( aren't we supposed to believe God created us?) who believe in intelligent design be invited to the Vatican Conference? Here is what the UK Register says:

The Vatican gave the Creationist lobby a left right sign of the cross today, announcing it would stage a conference on Darwinism next month and declaring that it was one of the Fathers of the Church that thought up the idea in the first place.

At one point the conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University wasn't going to give Creationism or Intelligent Design a hearing at all. But apparently the organisers have relented, and will consider Intelligent Design as a "cultural phenomenon" rather than as a valid scientific theory, giving US-based IDers the chance to be smirked at by a room full of Monseigneurs, Cardinals and Bishops.

Previewing the conference yesterday, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Church's Pontifical Council for Culture, conceded the Church had been hostile to Darwin on occasion. But, he said, the Church had never formally condemned Darwin, and he noted that in the last 50 years a number of Popes had accepted evolution as a valid scientific approach to human development.

In view of the Vatican 4-day presentation highlighting the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" (and lots more Darwinian publicity elsewhere), be sure and take a look at this video with three scientists who contend there are major problems with Darwin's theory.

Merrily We Gently Row....

"Row, row, row your boat..." was always a lot of fun to sing in grade school, and was the song used by the nuns to teach rounds. First one group would begin the first line, then a line later the second group would join in by singing the first line, and the third group would begin singing when the first group had reached "Merrily." [I like the word 'merrily' because it so akin to the lovely word 'gay' which has been ruined in these past thirty years.]

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

I've canoed downstream on a number of Ozarks rivers, and family canoeing is excellent recreation. We've sung and enjoyed the song many times because it has a good tune and is easy to sin. It's definitely the song to sing while paddling down a beautiful stream in the Irish Wilderness of Missouri. This was where that Catholic priest, Father John Hogan of St Louis, dreamt would be the place where Irish immigrants could escape the oppression of urban life in St. Louis.

However, the song, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" into its current form teaches children the wrong thing because of the last nihilistic line, "LIFE is but a dream." Moreover, if you gently row downstream in your LIFE, the natural current will leads you to wherever it is going, rather than where you should be directed. The third line emphasizes that you will be quite "merry" at going the easy way. But it is the last line that clearly states that LIFE isn't reality, implying that it doesn't make any difference what you do in your life.

Here is my suggestion for a change to the last line. [There's also a funny multi-stanza version published on Wikipedia without the offending line.] No copyright is in force, because the song was published in The Franklin Square Song Collection in 1881.

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

To wish is but a dream.

The original tune is credited to the Pennsylvania Masonic educator, Dr. Eliphalet Oram Lyte, who was lauded in his lifetime as:

...president of the Pennsylvania Teachers' Association. He is a life member of the National Educational Association, of which he has served as director for a number of years. He was president of the N. E. A. in 1899, and he has also been vice-president of the council of education of that body. He is likewise a member of the American Academy of Political Science. Fraternally Dr. Lyte is a thirty-third degree Mason, receiving his last degree in 1885....

Directions from Sister Saba

She was about 12 years old in the 'old country' when her father was drafted to fight in World War I. She and her mother never knew when or where his death occurred, or where his body lay, just that he was one of many who died anonymously in that terrible war. In her 70's when I began to know her, she looked confidently forward to meeting both her parents someday in heaven.

Her vocation to the religious life led her to a Franciscan convent first in the 'old country,' then to a new convent in the U.S. sometime in the 1920's. Her religious order was devoted to instructing young children in Catholic education.

This very small (petite) nun wore a long black habit, a headpiece that covered all her hair, and functional black leather shoes. Glasses framed her slender face that clearly was once beautiful. Always busy, but never too busy, she seemed to be totally directed to pleasing God.

My children and I remember Sr. Saba vividly and fondly as a teacher in the early 1970's. When she was told she was too old to teach, she begged to stay as the sacristan and as the librarian for the parish school. Thus, at the age of about 75 she took a class in library science at a secular college.

Sr. Saba studied very hard for a test, yet was told she had missed a key question--"What kind of books should you recommend to your students?" She was very distressed that her answer had been judged wrong and asked me whether I thought her answer was incorrect. The answer she had given was to recommend books that would teach Christian values and encourage moral actions. In contrast, the secular instructor judged the 'correct' answer to be those books that explored new ideas.

I laughed and told Sr. Saba that her answer was right. I think it might have been her first real experience with secular humanism in schools and its materialistic kinks and prejudices.

In the 1930's some of Sr. Saba's relatives had moved to St. Louis, MO from the 'old country' and had quit going to Mass. Sr. Saba said they did not resume the practice of their faith until after two Legion of Mary members knocked on their door. Sr. Saba was eternally grateful and so in her late 70's she also volunteered to be the spiritual director of the Legion of Mary.

The pastor was very comfortable with Sr. Saba's always humble, yet firm and insightful spiritual direction. Here's some of what I remember about and learned from Sr. Saba.

• When you pray the Hail Mary in the Rosary, don't you dare mumble the words, 'pray for us now and at the hour of our death.' Your earthly life may end sooner than you expect.
  

• 
• Braid and weave palms distributed at Palm Sunday Mass. Make crosses, grape bunches, cords, and other beautiful religious objects and give blessed handmade gifts to others. [See photo of Sr. Saba's handiwork from over 25 years ago.]

• When you don't know which direction to take (and neither one seems preferable), toss a miraculous medal in the air and select the way to go based on which side lands up!

• Don't give up on anyone, especially people who are bitter at God and everyone else. Once a disabled young man was very nasty to her, yet she was unaffected by his bad remarks and remained only concerned about him.

Dear Sr. Saba, may God reward you with His choicest blessings in heaven. [The youthful Sr. Saba had celebrated only 20 birthdays when she died in 1985. Can you guess why?]

Uneasy Observation from Davos

The Financial Times sent a number of its editors and columnists to report on the pessimistic views of the 2,600 attendees at the 2009 World Economic Forum at Davos in the Swiss Alps. A special 16-page section of the newspaper reported on the Forum activities. Here's the item that made me the most uneasy.

Last year's nebulous topic of "the power of collaborative innovation" seemed a world away as a darker theme took hold. The concern about social unrest voiced by Christine Lagarde, French finance minister, was shared by several delegates.

"I think people are overly focused on the economic implications and not adequately focused on the social implications," warned Rich Gelfond, chief executive of the big screen cinema operator Imas. "People seem somewhat myopic. You wonder whether next year at Davos people are going to say, 'Why didn't we see the social unrest coming and the increase in global conflict?'"

Send the Pope a Sign of Your Support

European traditional Catholics have started a multi-language website to show support and daily prayers for Pope Benedict XVI because of his brave gesture to remove the excommunications from the SSPX. For this, the Pope has suffered many external and internal assaults for his decision to try to restore unity to the church.

Doesn't it seem to you that the devil does not want Christians unified against his wicked works? I've signed the Internet petition, as have many others that you know. Will you do the same? If so, go here.

Special Church Collections and Envelopes

It took Mother over 80 years to determine that she couldn't keep putting $1 (or more) bills in every solicitation letter she received from Catholic 0rganizations. She had contributed regularly to close to a dozen different organizations over many years. and as you might expect, her small but very consistent generosities were now recognized by many, many others.

Finally, she complained to me that she couldn't keep responding to two or three 'mooching' letters that arrived almost daily. I finally persuaded her to select those charities that she felt were the best and to give all her money (outside of what she gives to support her parish) to the selected few. Now she was able to throw the other envelopes in the trash without feeling like she was committing a sin.

The number of potential donation recipients in the Catholic church seems to have increased, even as the Catholic church attendance and practice has decreased. Diocesan collections (for Catholic Charities and other endeavors) in the Kansas City area include:

1. Archbishop's Call to Share (Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas)
2. Special Collection to Benefit Seminary (Diocese of Kansas City/St. Joseph)
3. Retired Religious Collection (Diocese of Kansas City/St. Joseph)

See the comprehensive list at St. Charles parish website for examples of special second collections at a local parish level.

In addition to necessary collections for selected good Catholic organizations, the parish, and the diocese, additional church collections mandated in 2009 by the USCCB include:

1. Church in Latin America
2. Church in Central and Eastern Europe
3. Black and Indian Missions
4. The Catholic Relief Services Collection
5. Holy Land
6. Catholic Home Missions Appeal
7. Catholic Communication Campaign
8. Peter’s Pence
9. Catholic University of America
10. World Mission Sunday
11. Catholic Campaign for Human Development
12. Retirement Fund for Religious

My fellow Kansas City Catholic blogger, Curmudgeon, has posted two articles on the almost two dozen 'special' envelopes that traditional Catholics receive each year requesting donations to the above list.

But here's a quandry. We really can't just not give anything outside our parish...ever. We do have an obligation to support the wider Church...not just our own community. Many of us do just that...by supporting faithful religious orders, for instance. But is that enough? Canon 1262 provides that "The faithful are to give support to the Church by responding to appeals and according to the norms issued by the conference of bishops."

Now let's acknowledge that checkbooks can be wielded as effective weapons. Wealthy leftist individuals and wealthy leftist foundations often use the checkbook as their weapon of choice. While we can't perhaps write such big checks and wield such big weapons as these guys (they've got .45s; we've got .22s), we can make ourselves heard using our checkbooks.

Curmudgeon identifies a good procedure and alternate donation scenarios that respond to USCCB-mandated Church collections where your money may not be directed to the best places and activities. For more information, see Curmudgeon's two posts, here and here. Highly recommended!

Darwin Celebration -- NOT YET!

In view of the 2-hr PBS presentation highlighting the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" (and lots more Darwinian publicity elsewhere), be sure and take a look at this video with three scientists who contend there are major problems with Darwin's theory.

Entanglement with Christ through Transubstantiation

Persons who receive the Eucharist consecrated by a Catholic priest eat and drink the substance of the body and blood of Jesus Christ that was shed on the cross of 2000 years ago. John Young in The Wanderer newspaper (Feb 12, 2009) observes that this mystery and defined Catholic doctrine is being referred to as "only a theological opinion" in a "widespread reluctance to accept the clear teaching of the Church on the nature of the Real Presence."

Young continues, "Transubstantiation has become an embarrassment" to certain philosophers who "can't logically admit substance because they restrict knowledge to the observable, and substances are not observable." He argues "the substance is the underlying reality beneath the appearances we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell....the substance is the essence, the basic nature, of the thing."

Some years ago, the wife of a friend expressed doubts about the transubstantiation of bread and wine into Christ's body and blood in the Eucharist. She seemed not to understand the accidents of bread and wine continue to exist after the priest's consecration, but that the underlying substance has been changed. Her doubts about transubstantiation seem unreasonable because of what we know about the nature of matter from the study of quantum physics. Homiletic and Pastoral Review (oldest magazine for priests in the U.S.) published an article several years ago on why knowledge of quantum mechanics, including quarks, made transubstantiation easier for the mind to grasp. [I think the author was Abraham Vorghese.]

When you interact with Jesus during Holy Communion, quantum physics teaches an 'entanglement' occurs, while theology teaches that you share in the life of God. The introduction to Louisa Gilder's new book, The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics was Reborn, gives an unusual insight into what happens when two entities interact. Apply this next scientific paragraph written by Gilder to Holy Communion when we interact with God, the Son, made man.

ANY TIME TWO ENTITIES INTERACT, they entangle. It doesn't matter if they are photons (bits of light), atoms (bits of matter), or bigger things made of atoms like dust motels, microscopes, cats, or people [my emphasis]. The entanglement persists no matter how far these entities separate, as long as they don't subsequently interact with anything else--an almost impossible tall order for a cat or a person, which is why we don't notice the effect.

But the motions of subatomic particles are dominated by entanglement. It starts when they interact; in doing so, they lose their separate existence. No matter how far they move apart, if one is tweaked, measured, observed, the other seems to instantly respond, even if the whole world lies between them. And no one knows how.

Louisa Gilder describes entanglement as "the seemingly telepathic communication between separated particles--one of the fundamental concepts of quantum physics. Einstein in 1935 [in "the most cited [paper] of all Einstein's roster of glittering, earthshaking work"] called entanglement "spooky action at a distance."

Quantum physics and entanglement seem much better than Newtonian physics at understanding substances, even transubstantiation and reception of Holy Communion (though more insightful physics can never describe elements such as the love exchanged between the two parties in this God-man relationship). Yet from quantum mechanics, we now know that appearances observed in our everyday life are simply shadows of the hidden realities of substances. We also know from Schrödinger, that an entangled state can be used to steer a distant particle into one of a set of states. [That makes me think of God's spiritual direction of souls to a state of sanctity--"Be ye perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect."]

Entanglement with God (who self-limits himself to time and space and who pours out his life to communicants) seems to relate to mutual envelopment that has always been taught to occur during reception of the Eucharist. I see a correspondence between "communication between separated particles" and my own experience at Mass. Union with Christ during Holy Communion persists until broken (only partially?) by succeeding interactions with the world.

"God Exists" on London Buses

If you remember, I recently wrote a post on London buses with signs saying God doesn't exist. Fortunately, the bus company has been taking lots of orders for counter-ads . The Times Religion Correspondent, Ruth Gledhill, comments on her blog:

Who apart from Transport for London is benefiting from this influx of cash into advertising for or against the existence of God? The churches might not be able to compete individually with Richard Dawkins' £150,00 atheist bus campaign running across several cities in the UK but between them they are putting up a pretty good show. I wouldn't cite any of it as proof or otherwise for the existence of God, even given the laws of probability. But if there is a God, He or She must be having quite a laugh.

The latest to hit the streets with pro-God buses are The Christian Party, the Trinitarian Bible Society and the Russian Orthodox Church. The Christian Party is paying for buses to carry the slogan: 'There definitely is a God. So join the Christian Party and enjoy your life.' The Trinitarian Bible Society has chosen a line from Psalm 53: 'The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.'

Pro-life Red Letter: Feb 28--Mar 1

Get a red envelope. You can buy them at an office supply store. Better yet, order 500 red envelopes from a paper supply company such as XPedX.com and distribute them to your family and friends, and at your church. [XPedX in Kansas City charges only $36.79 for 500 red envelopes.] If you have a white envelope, color the front with a red crayon, and leave only the address area as white!

On the front, address it to:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington , D.C.

On the back, write the following message.

"This red envelope represents the blood of one child who died in abortion.
It is empty because that life was unable to offer anything to the world.
No to FOCA!"

Put it in the mail, and send it. Try to mail the empty red envelopes on the weekend of Feb 28-March 1st. Of course, you can send a red envelope anytime you want, but for the White House to get millions at once would be a powerful message against FOCA. Fifty million red envelopes would represent the over 50 million children who have died from abortion in the U.S. since 1973.

This good idea was received in my email box today. For more information see SendARedEnvelope.org.

The Devil Plays his Cards Well

Perhaps this has happened to other Catholic bloggers. You get these great, imaginative, and wonderful ideas for future blog posts during Mass. For some time, I've mistakenly thought they were inspirations from God. Now I am convinced they come from the devil. Here's why.

The devil is aware that distractions during Mass will be rejected and converted into discussions with Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament. So the devil makes a trade-off. he wickedly provides really good ideas for posts, even spiritually valuable ones, to trade for your time with Christ. Guess who gets the better deal?

The devil knows quite well that most of his good ideas for posts will never be implemented because of my forgetfulness and lack of time. But he wins because I am distracted from what I should be doing--adoring God and communicating with His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The devil plays his cards well. Just got to remember the purpose of his game.

Three Epic Milestones....

I'm stealing these comments on Church events in January 2009, as posted by Fidei Defensor at American Catholic.

After the election of the most pro-choice pres. in US history things seemed dark. Then in January, the month he is sworn in and the month of the 50th aniv. of the Vatican Council three things happen (always in threes)…

1-Potential for total healing between the Vatican and SSPX

2-Potential for a personal prelature for Anglicans is in the works (this could be huge even beyond the 400,000 in the TAC, indeed I think this could catch on like wild-fire perhaps even in Africa.)

3-New Russian Orthodox Patriarch is the most favorable to Catholics possible in the present Russian context and is in the mold of the Patriarch of Constantinople in terms of viewing the Church East and West as “two-lungs,” and I think it is at last a possibility that the Pope can visit Russia.

....if I [Fidei Defensor] was still a blogger I’d post on this, these three things, taken by themselves are meaningless footnotes to the msm but I think in the context Church history these are all epic milestones.

God bless and protect his Holiness. The Pope who so many liberals said would be so divisive is turning out to be the great unifier and the unity has come not due to pandering and pleasantries but rather a robust embrace of Truth.