The stadium at 4am. Yes, it was a very long day. I was there for 12 hours.
The Papal Mass in DC: A Pictoral Journey
April 17, 2008
8 Comments | 
Morning's Minion, Pope Benedict XVI | 
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Posted by Morning's Minion
Moving papal homily
April 17, 2008What a homily proclaimed today by our Holy Father! A message filled with hope, renewal, patriotism and acknowledgment of past failings. What I found particularly moving was the manner in which Pope Benedict XVI, confirming Catholics in America in their faith and calling them to “live different lives,” called us to “look to the future” while keeping awareness of the glory and the shame of our past. Undeniably so, the Pope’s words were meant to prompt us forward as witnesses of the Gospel.
What struck me in particular was Pope Benedict XVI’s attention to the past failings of what is otherwise a source of hope and opportunity in America. The sins and injustices committed by the first generations of Americans against the Native American and African people cannot be blithely dismissed and will forever be carried along side the good of this country’s founding. Patriotism, for Pope Benedict XVI, is celebration in one’s tradition but also sober criticism of particular moments in the historical unfolding of that tradition. Read the rest of this entry »
15 Comments | Abuse Scandal, Africa, Homiletics, Hope, Indigenous People, Policraticus, Pope Benedict XVI | Permalink
Posted by Policraticus
Papal Mass Hints at Liturgical Changes
April 17, 2008
At the Papal Mass in Washington DC, those who attended the service were told something unusual: stand up during the consecration.
That’s right, the people who claim the Pope is wanting to bring back the old traditions are right. The Pope is indeed trying to take the church back!
The Pope wants us to go back, back before the council of Trent, back before the schism, back to Nicea, where the command was to celebrate the liturgy in joy — standing up.
22 Comments | Henry Karlson, Liturgy, Pope Benedict XVI | Permalink
Posted by Henry Karlson
If It Saves One Life…
April 17, 2008One often hears it said, in justification or support of a given policy, that if it saves even one life, it will have been worth it. I don’t happen to subscribe to this view (at least in all cases), but it does have a kind of moral earnestness about it that I admire. I wonder sometimes, though, to what extent people really mean it, and to what extent it is just a slogan.
For example, in the last ten years more than 30,000 people in the U.S. alone have died from kidney failure while waiting for a transplant. While most kidney transplants currently come from deceased donors, live donor transplants are also possible, with fairly little risk to the donee (typically a person with one kidney is just as functional as with two, and since the causes of kidney failure usually strike all of a person’s kidneys, the main health risks associated with kidney donation are no different than for any other surgery). Most if not all of those 30,000 could have lived, if only someone could have been induced to donate a kidney. Yet under the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984, it is illegal to pay someone to donate, even if only to compensate them for the lost wages and medical costs associated with the surgery. Repealing the law has the potential of saving tens of thousands of lives, and if it saves even one life….
As it happens, there is a country where the sale of organs is legally permitted. Read the rest of this entry »
5 Comments | Blackadder, Culture of Life, Economics, Health, Health Care, Law | Permalink
Posted by Blackadder
The apocalypse has arrived
April 17, 2008I’m rarely ever one to link to scandalous news stories, but this one is truly shocking. At least let it remind us that there is a rival culture of death out there, full of persons desperately in need of our prayers and evangelization:
Art major Aliza Shvarts [Yale] ’08 wants to make a statement.
Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.
Please pray and fast for Aliza! Mary Immaculate, pray for us!
Comments Off | Abortion, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by matthewjfish
Five Things That Haven’t Happened
April 17, 20081. The Pope hasn’t gotten out of the bedrooms of good Catholics and claimed birth control is good.
2. The Pope hasn’t ended the discrimination against homosexuals that wish to marry.
3. The Pope hasn’t ended the discrimination against women who want to be priests.
4. The Pope hasn’t stopped repressing priests from freely engaging their natural desires, e.g. allowing them to marry.
5. The Pope hasn’t stepped on the authority of the various bishops around the U.S. for a one-time chance to deny communion to various people.
None of these things were unexpected. If you were disappointed and surprised that any of these items didn’t occur, you may wish to evaluate how you came to the conclusion that they were likely to occur. Before flaming on point 5, read it again and make sure you criticize the statement I made and not the one you wanted me to make.
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Posted by M.Z.
