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Showing posts from July, 2012

He had wings on his feet: An Olympic accomplishment of faith, prowess, and heart

He had wings on his feet | Column | Opinion | Pembroke Daily Observer This is a marvelous column written and published in the Pembroke Daily Observer about Eric Liddell. Always a pleasure to be reminded of this Olympic sized example of faith and belief.
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Vatican purchases web domain name, '.catholic'

July 18, 2012. (Romereports.com) The Vatican is looking to organize some of the Church’s activities on the internet by buying the web domain “.catholic”. It will serve as a place for different parishes, dioceses and religious orders to be easily recognized as Catholic institutions on the web. Click on the link below to read complete article.   dot catholic — The Curt Jester
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Mission Territories: Philadelphia?

"As you are probably aware, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is going through a very rough time.  Those good people, our family members in the “Household of the Faith,” and their brave archbishop, Charles Chaput, deserve our love and prayers. In his courageous and inspired efforts to bring hope and renewal to that Church in crisis, Archbishop Chaput recently made a statement that stopped me cold:  “The Archdiocese of Philadelphia . . . is now really a mission territory.’’ Yes, I had to read it twice, too. Uganda a mission territory?  Sure . . . Peru a mission territory?  Yes . . . Alaska a mission territory?  Okay . . . But Philadelphia?  Come on now!  That archdiocese in a way was the model of a robust, intact, cohesive Catholic infrastructure!  Parishes, schools, apostolates, ministries galore!  A huge Catholic population, with cardinals as past archbishops, vocations abounding, close to a million–and–a–half Catholics proud of and fervent in their fai
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'Dark Knight' rises to perfection | Movies | Entertainment | Pembroke Daily Observer

I can hardly wait to see this movie. I get to go for a week's holiday next week so I'll get to see it soon. I am in the unusual situation where the town I live in has a single screen that's open only a few days each weekend while at my cottage, I am only 20 minutes away from a multi-screen Cineplex which shows movies as soon as they are released. Just one more reason to look forward to vacation time! 'Dark Knight' rises to perfection | Movies | Entertainment | Pembroke Daily Observer
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The Catholic Church is Now Pissing Off the People Who Actually Like Them

This has got to be one of the dumbest ideas a bishop ever came up with. It's the very antithesis of what it means to be 'Catholic' to be building walls to determine whose 'in' from whose 'out'. I would not ever implement such a silly practice in a parish I served.  I really hope that this does not turn into a trend that spreads beyond the USA. Thankfully, most of these American initiatives don't tend to spread over on to this side of the border. The Catholic Church is Now Pissing Off the People Who Actually Like Them
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Yesterday’s Appeal Court ruling strikes me as a serious blow to religious freedom | CatholicHerald.co.uk

I found this interesting article on a Catholic UK site in response to an appeals court ruling that a Diocese is financially liable for the malfeasance of a priest as he is an 'employee' of the Bishop. What makes it interesting is the fact that, as he points out, legal precedents in Western courts have established that priests do not possess the same legal rights as an employee. We cannot sue our Bishops outside of the forums provided by Church canon law. So the courts say that a priest is not an employee when it comes to using civil courts to seek redress from a Bishop, how can we suddenly be seen as such when it comes to opening a diocese to being liable for civil actions by others?  Court ruling strikes me as a serious blow to religious freedom | CatholicHerald.co.uk
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Enough With the Reaction to the Reaction to the Reaction Already!

I’ve been meditating upon the nearly complete break-down of trust between generations of Catholics, between left and right. I’ve only been Catholic for 24 years and yet I feel like Catherine Doherty speaking of the 60’s. Overnight, she and friends like Dorothy Day went from being so far out on the left hand side of the Catholics spectrum (albeit orthodox) that you could hardly see them to being regarded as conservatives – and they hadn’t moved an inch. The whole Church had revolved around them. Reading Cardinal Stafford’s passionate depiction of the times by those who lived it does help me understand. It helps me understand what the tsunami of cultural change in the 60’s felt like. I can’t tell you how wearying living with the reaction to the reaction to the reaction to the reaction is getting. Now that I’m seeing (as I knew was inevitable) the first signs of reaction by the very youngest seminarians to their trad “elders”. The cycle of reaction and rejection keeps spee
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California - Prosecutors Forgo New Trial for Man Accused of Assaulting Priest - NYTimes.com

In California, it is evidently acceptable to beat the tar out of an old priest in a nursing home because you claim that he abused you as a child. This is after receiving $1.2 million dollars (split between two brothers who were victimized) and admitting to beating the priest up in open court. He drove 50 miles, offered a false name to gain entry and bringing leather gloves to put on his hands to maximize the damage done to his victim. Yet, the jury acquitted him. I wonder if this man had admitted assaulting a lay person in a similar situation whether or not he would be getting this free pass for his crime? Probably not. California - Prosecutors Forgo New Trial for Man Accused of Assaulting Priest - NYTimes.com
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On the Culture : Gerard Ludwig Müller: Another Faulty Traditionialist Condemnation - Catholic Culture

Given that both liberals and traditionalists are attacking this appointment, it's probably the perfect appointment for these times: a moderate! So much for the "B16 is dragging the church to the 'right'", eh? On the Culture : Gerard Ludwig Müller: Another Faulty Traditionialist Condemnation - Catholic Culture
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NASA’s ‘new form of life’ found in arsenic-rich lake disproven, scientists insist | News | National Post

Wolfe-Simon said in a statement sent to AFP that the data in the new papers “are consistent with our original paper” and that she and colleagues expect to publish new information in the next few months. “A great thing about science is that the ability to do rigorous tests with controls provides an increasingly accurate knowledge of life and the universe that is extremely useful,” she said. This is the reason that it is impossible to deny the discoveries of science because they don't fit into one's religious convictions. There is a self-correcting mechanism that acts like a gyroscope, keeping science true to its roll of objectively reveal the truth about creation. It's because of this it can be trusted, so long as one does not close themselves off to the possibility that any one discovery or theory may be incomplete or wrong - as this story seems to demonstrate happened with this re-definition of what is required for life. To balance out the scales a little bit an
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Eurozone fragmenting faster than EU can act | Investing | Financial Post

"An invisible financial wall, potentially as dangerous as the Iron Curtain that once divided eastern and western Europe, is slowly going up inside the euro area. The interest rate gap between north European creditor countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, whose borrowing costs are at an all-time low, and southern debtor countries like Spain and Italy, where bond yields have risen to near pre-euro levels, threatens to entrench a lasting divergence." Anything that portents to predict the rise of a new European 'curtain' is something that should be noted. The demographic and cultural collapse of the most secular of states in Europe is well underway. Evidently they might have presaged an economic collapse as well. As a Christian, I cannot help but note that the solution being proposed would bring the world closer to that mega-state which a fundamentalist reading of the Book of Revelation depicts as signaling the emergence of the predicted anti-Christ. I
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California - Acquittal in Beating of Retired Priest - NYTimes.com

WOW! I guess 'two wrongs' DO make 'a right' in California. William Lynch admits to beating an old priest living in a nursing home to within an inch of his life because he claims that he molested him as a child - and the jury acquits him!  Somehow, this is supposed to be seen as 'justice'? California - Acquittal in Beating of Retired Priest - NYTimes.com
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Parent group urges Ontario Catholic school trustees to defy law supporting gay clubs

Connor Ferguson Does this story reporting on a transgendered person who was voted class Prom Queen by her fellow students not speak to the argument  that GSA's are a legislative solution in search of a problem that doesn't currently exist?  Read the story . It makes clear that bullying at school was never an issue for this year's reigning Queen of the ball - even when she publicly lived changed of gender at the start of high school, living in the open as a girl after years of being a boy. She states that more abuse befell her on the street from the adults in the community than ever happened in to her in school. If this story makes one thing perfectly clear, it's that bullying (at least for reasons of sexual orientation) is NOT an issue in the largest urban schools of the province in the GTA.  The generation of school kids today are far less concerned about such issues Much as the generations that followed mine struggle now to see the humor in the ethn
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Is RELIGION anti-intellectual? ( Bill Maher vs Ross Douthat )

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God particle hunt almost over as Large Hadron Collider closes in on Higgs boson | News | National Post

'The Thinker': by Auguste Rodin The buzz  gripping the scientific world today is palatable for anyone who has an interest in the impending announcement that is expected  from the Large Hadron Collider that they have finally discovered the Higgs boson, the last key to proving the Standard Model of Physics. The Higgs boson, inaccurately labeled the ‘God Particle’ is the answer to how it is that matter popped into existence following the Big Bang. It answers one of the questions which inspired the scientific effort throughout the ages: How can something come from nothing? It’s also being flogged by atheist bloggers as becoming the day that science triumphs in its contest with religion, stripping from the hands of God the heretofore divine monopoly on knowing why is there something rather than nothing. Alas, I suspect that they will be disappointed, not with the announcement itself, but with their expectation that they have finished off religion. This will be a stirring and mag
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Catholicism in the South: Once a Strange Religion, Now Forging Ahead With Evangelical Fervor | Daily News | NCRegister.com

Fr. Jay Scott Newman, who is quoted in this article, is a man I was honored to meet at Fr. RJN's funeral in New York through the agency of a mutual friend, George Weigel. This article does an excellent job in conveying his understanding of what it means to be an 'evangelical Catholic priest'. I share in his understanding of such a self-identification as I state here on my blog. While I sometimes think that Scott confuses his political beliefs with his religious ones and holds, perhaps subconsciously, to the doctrine of American Exceptionalism which he wields as a lens through which he views the world, I fully agree with him for the need to present the Catholic proposition to the world today. The article is worth a read! Catholicism in the South: Once a Strange Religion, Now Forging Ahead With Evangelical Fervor | Daily News | NCRegister.com
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Happy Canada Day: 15 things you should know about Canadian identity | News | National Post

Canada Day poll: 15 things you should know about Canadian identity | News | National Post
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