Where the Rubber Hits the Road

Well folks, I appreciate that today is Halloween, and that there are many weird critters wandering out there tonight, but this is one of the spookiest and strange things I have seen all day. Check it out: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=109356 Thanks to Susan at Blue Wave Blog for posting about this story. You will find a link to her site within my "favorites" list.

Wesley J. Smith posts on the First Things blog a story that is taken from the Globe & Mail (a Canadian National Paper) about two women who, despite successfully being treated with a drug combination for an illness for the past year or two, have been informed that the Province of Ontario will no longer pay for their prescriptions. One of these women was given a one year reprieve, but the second was not so lucky and now lies near death. It is worth noting that these women are not among the aged (not that age should matter), but are young mothers and wives. It continues to be a mystery as to how such decisions as to the "value" of a human life are determined by the government. The fact that there actually exists a government agency that decides whether or not treatment is "worthwhile" for any life - and that this decision does not rest with the patient and doctor - should chill the soul of any Canadian. Check out the story from the First Things site: http...

Vatican Condemnation of Halloween is False from The American Catholic by Tito Edwards In what is a common occurrence that happens more than you think, the media again has done a poor job of reporting the news than comes from the Vatican. If it came from the Vatican at all. The new one today is that the Catholic Church condemns Halloween, or some variation there of. Various news outlets have reported that the Pope, the Catholic Church, or the Vatican have condemned, blasted, slammed, or as the Times of London said, “reserved their venom for the millions of parents who allowed their children to celebrate this “pagan” festival.” And people say anti-Catholicism doesn’t exist? Apparently some reporter of London’s Telegraph read on the L’Osservatore Romano newspaper based in Rome, Italy, that Halloween is anti-Christian. L’Osservatore Romano is sometimes referred as the “semi-official” or even “official” newspaper of the Vatican, ie, the Catholic Church. First of all, it has a...

I have actively been engaged in an excellent discussion with many folks within the threads of the (sadly all too numerous) sex abuse news stories. Some of the participants have commented that it is difficult to have a theological discussion within that venue. Hopefully some of them will accept the invitation to meet here. Just click on the comments link at the end of this post to begin the conversation. Fr. Tim

Check out this article by Timothy George on the First Things website. My recently departed friend and mentor, Richard John Neuhaus expressed many times that the reason he converted from the Lutheran Church and became a Roman Catholic was because the issues that Luther raised with his theses were successfully addressed by the Second Vatican Council, a proposition that George comes close to agreeing with in this article. http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2009/10/reformation-day

Mattawa is a small town located in North Eastern Ontario, nestled along side the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers. Of late, it has been a town plagued with the same issues of most small one industry towns which sprang up and nurtured throughout its' 100 years by the forestry industry: closed mills, high employment, families suffering through seperations of one parent or the other moving to different regions of the country to find work. Happily today I can post a bit of pleasant news from our town: the football team from our local High School, F.J. McElligott Secondary School has captured a local regional football championship, winning in an exciting victory over a team from the much larger schools from the City of North Bay, Ontario. What makes this story of even greater joy for the locals is that this is the first time in over 40 years that "FJ" even fielded a team! Congratulations to the victorious "Voyageurs"! You have Mattawa PROUD!!! http://www.nugget.ca/A...

The Western Catholic Reporter , which advertises itself as being Canada's largest Catholic weekly, has within its website an excellent series of articles written by western Canadian Bishops. Within this archive one can find many submissions from Bishop Fred Henry of the Diocese of Calgary. Not only is Bishop Henry among the most prolific of writers, but he addresses issues in a straight forward and articulate manner, usually foregoing many of the "ecclesiastical niceties" that so often marks the writings of modern Bishops. To use an expression from Fr. Jack O'Flaherty (RIP), my seminary spiritual director, he seems never afraid to "bell the cat" when needed. Fr. Fred Henry was the Rector at St. Peter's Seminary (London) for the majority of my years of study and formation for the priesthood as well as being a professor of Dogmatic Theology. That is, until he was elevated to become first the Auxiliary Bishop of London, then serving as Ordinary in the D...

The National Catholic Reporter has published an article by John Allen on the next generation of leaders in the Catholic Church. It is worthy of a careful reading. http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/next-generation-catholic-leaders

Archbishop Tom Collins (Toronto) addressed this issue at his annual fundraising dinner on Thursday evening. His analogy between a plane crash and the revelations of sexual abuse is inspired! http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/holy-post/archive/2009/10/30/abuse-an-evil-to-be-dealt-with-archbishop.aspx

In my profile, I self describe myself as being an "evangelical" Catholic priest. "Evangelical" is not a word normally ascribed to Catholic clergy as it has been, for better or worse, appropriated by those of the Pentecostal sects of the Christian family. I would like to claim ownership of this term, but the credit belongs to Fr. Jay Scott Newman, the pastor of St. Mary's Church in Greenville, South Carolina (Diocese of Charleston). I have included at the end of this post a link to Fr. Scott's excellent webpage, but I include here the eight principles of what he describes as Evangelical Catholicism - with great appreciation to him for encapsulating in them the essence of what I have always held to be my model of Catholicism and priesthood. "During the nearly twenty-seven years of his pontificate, Pope John Paul the Great called the Church to the urgent mission of fulfilling the Great Commission in our time, a project he called the New Evangelization....

October 29, 2009 The following article was submitted in a slightly shorter form to the New York Times as an op-ed article. The Times declined to publish it. I thought you might be interested in reading it. FOUL BALL! By Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan Archbishop of New York October is the month we relish the highpoint of our national pastime, especially when one of our own New York teams is in the World Series! Sadly, America has another national pastime, this one not pleasant at all: anti-catholicism. It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime. Scholars such as Arthur Schlesinger Sr. referred to it as “the deepest bias in the history of the American people,” while John Higham described it as “the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history.” “The anti-semitism of the left,” is how Paul Viereck reads it, and Professor Philip Jenkins sub-titles his book on the topic “the last acceptable pr...

While the important cost of the litany of sexual abuse cases should be measured in souls, it is noteworthy that there is a major financial cost to be paid by the church for the malfeasance of its' unfaithful clergy. Below is a link to a story announcing settlements with victims in the Savannah Diocese (Georgia, USA). Just as the church is desirous of compensating these victims, let us commit to a crusade of prayer for the souls lost to the Church through the infidelity of its clergy. http://www.nbcaugusta.com/news/local/67091462.html

This article (see link at bottom of post) offers another facet of the horrors of abortion as Neocutis, a bio-pharmaceutical company in the United States is now using tissue taken from aborted babies to make a anti-aging cream. This practice is offensive in the extreme and deserves condemnation by all people of faith. If you are willing to express your disgust with this company's practice, you can make use of the second link to visit their website. http://the-american-catholic.com/2009/10/29/not-so-secret-ingredient/ http://www.neocutis.com/ email: info@neocutis.com

THEME FOR 2010 WORLD DAY OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS VATICAN CITY, 29 SEP 2009 (VIS) - "The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word" is the theme of the Pope's Message for the next World Day of Social Communications which is celebrated every year on 24 January, Feast of St. Francis of Sales, patron saint of journalists. A communique made public today explains that the aim of the Message is "to invite priests in particular, during this Year for Priests and in the wake of the Twelfth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to consider the new communications media as a possible resource for their ministry at the service of the Word. Likewise, it aims to encourage them to face the challenges arising from the new digital culture". The text continues: "The new communications media, if adequately understood and exploited, can offer priests and all pastoral care workers a wealth of data which was difficult...

The virtual world has been joined by a powerful new voice in the cause of faith, life and joyful hope with the arrival of Archbishop Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York. His personal blog can be found at: http://www.archny.org/news-events/columns-and-blogs/blog---the-gospel-in-the-digital-age/ Archbishop Dolan is the defacto voice of the Church in America, noted for his joyful embracing of his role in his various assignments as is evidenced by his posting his support for the Yankee's in this years World Series in a wager made with his Philadelphia counterpart (Cardinal Justin Rigali). His blog also offers his take on some of the major questions of the day. Anyone who wants to understand the Catholic position in this world would be well advised to bookmark his blog. It promises to be a valuable contribution to the Catholic presence in the virtual world of the internet.

Here is the response of Archbishop Currie (St. John's NFLD) to the charges faced by Bishop (emeritus) Lahey. http://www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca/Lahey%20ltr%20parishes.pdf

Want to have the information to face folks who are casting about accusations that the Catholic church is little more than a collection of pedophiles? Here is a paper published by the Catholic Defense League in the USA which offers the truth about this situation. We must acknowledge that even one abuser is too many, but we need not suffer the slings and arrows of insult without responding to these accusations with the facts. http://www.catholicleague.org/research/abuse_in_social_context.htm#_edn31

During the debate over same-sex marriage, opponents who raised the issue of the splintering of the understanding of marriage, with the concomitant arrival of societal acceptance of such issues as polygamy were called alarmists and accused of injecting red herring fallacies into the debate. To those who were so accused, I offer the following link to a CNN story which argues that monogamy is not a "realistic" lifestyle to maintain. http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/10/28/monogamy.realistic.today/index.html Next up, bestiality?

The Priests for Life Canada website posts a series of six video's where Michael Coren of CTS TV interviews Fr. Tom Lynch, National Director, Priests for Life Canada, Archbishop Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Denver, Fr. Thomas Rosica, Salt and Light TV, Bishop Frenderick Henry, Bishop of Calgary on the following issues: 1. Lifting of Excommunication of Pius X Bishops 2. Latin Mass 3. The Media and the Church 4. Vatican II 5. Catholics and Politics 6. Our Secular Society 7. Catholic Politicians 8. Catholic Social Values 9. Catholic Politicians and Excommunication 10. Catholic Politicians and Holy Communion 11. The Authority of Bishops 12. Do Catholics Understand Their Faith? 13. Is There Hope? http://www.priestsforlifecanada.com/English/News_Events/2009/2009_02_24_state_church.php

This story was posted on the Catholic Culture website (link below). Another example of a Bishop coming to understand the necessity of using the media as an instrument to preach, teach and shepherd the faithful. Thank you Archbishop Donlan! Now, lets pray that more join the fray! http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=4435

Check out this link for an interesting column of the obligations (and problems) involved in media coverage of the media. While certainly not written in a fashion that is complementary to the Catholic Church, as well as his holding of liberal/left wing positions, he does raise some interesting points. http://ethicist.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/can-we-talk-about-religion-please/

I have stumbled upon a tremendous blog dealing with witnessing to the faith and in the cause of the protection of life. Give it a vist at: http://bluewavecanada.blogspot.com/

In the editorial section of Cornwall’s Standard Freeholder the following Letter to the editor was written by Bishop Paul-André Durocher on October 2, 2009. In the letter he expresses his shock and shame, bewilderment, and sorrow. “My heart goes out to all those who have been deeply shaken by this revelation. My prayers are offered for all of us.” Here is his full letter: Shocked By Charges Against Fellow Bishop: I imagine most readers of this newspaper have been shocked and scandalized at the news that a Canadian bishop has been charged with possession of child pornography. I share their shock, I also feel a great sense of shame that a fellow bishop could have been involved in such a horrible activity. The seriousness of the charge and the immediate resignation of the accused shakes our confidence in his presumed innocence. It also undermines our trust in all persons in positions of authority, including those who, like Bishop Lahey, have used their authority positively to heal breach...

Here is a response from Charles Lewis of the National Post to Maureen Dowd's malicious article (see previous post 25/10/10). http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/holy-post/archive/2009/10/25/charles-lewis-nuns-pope-benedict-and-maureen-dowd-s-nasty-insinuation.aspx

Bill C-384, a private members bill introduced into the Canadian Parliament is coming up for a vote on November 18th. Advocates of the pro-euthanasia camp are starting to ramp up the publicity in advance of this vote. Here are some examples. The Australian assisted suicide activist Philip Nitschke will be speaking at a Unitarian Church in Vancouver. Nitschke was denied use of a public library in Vancouver a few weeks ago. Nitschke is known for his role in developing the "Peaceful Pill" and his promotion of going to Mexico to purchase a veterinary euthanasia pill. Link: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Vancouver+church+hosts+right+doctor/2142389/story.html An article in the Ottawa Citizen indicates that the police do not intend to prosecute William Melchert-Dinkel, the man who has confessed to abeting and counseling Nadia Kajouji (18) and at least 4 others to commit suicide. Link: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Police+charge+encouraging+suicide/2142330/story.html ...

It is pretty much held as conventional wisdom that pedophiles cannot be "cured". Much of the trouble that grew out of the first wave of abuse cases was made far worse because Bishops who sent their offending priests for treatment at various centres unfortunately accepted the wisdom of expert psychiatrists and psychotherapists that these priests could be reintroduced to ministry: a decision that resulted in many more children becoming victims of these predatory priests. Regis Scanlon of Homiletic and Pastoral Review has published an excellent article on whether or not these abusers can be helped. I found this article through a link found on Ignatiusinsight.com , an offshoot of Ignatius Press. The article can be found at the following link: http://hprweb.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=213:can-clergy-sex-offenders-be-helped&catid=34:current-issue

You will find here a link to an inspirational article by Archbishop Chaput of Denver on the First Things website. First Things is the preeminent magazine on the role of faith in the Public Square. It's founding Editor, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus,(RIP) was a priest of the Archdiocese of Manhattan and a summer parishioner of St. Alphonsus Parish in Chapeau, Qc. where I had the privilege of being pastor. Time spent reading this magazine is always time well spent. Archbishop Chaput's article is a perfect example of the quality of this journal. You can find a link to their website in my favorite links box on the left hand side of this web page. Archbishop Chaput article: http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2009/10/conscience44-courage44-and-children-with-down-syndrome

Here is a link to an excellent Canadian Catholic blog by "Friar Rick". I will post his blog address in my links box for those who would appreciate reading his postings. Lahey article: http://riccioli.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/nuncio-on-bishop-lahey/

The following letter was sent to each of the Bishops of Canada. Your comments are welcome. ----------------------------------------- Most Holy Excellency, I write to you today as a faithful priest in good standing of the Diocese of Pembroke to ask of you two things. First I wish to bring to your attention a blog that I have begun which I have entitled, "Where the Rubber Hits the Road" which is dedicated to confronting directly many of the major issues of the day that have beset our Church in the wake of the recent sex abuse scandals which have erupted and whose effects are even now being counted in untold numbers of souls lost to the Church. I have posted there three essays of my own ("Virtual Scandal", "Je me souviens", and "The Dickwad Theory") as well as any other articles or postings that I can find where a Bishop has addressed this myriad of crisises. The address for the blog is: http://frtimmoyle.blogspot.com/ Secondly, and more import...

Today's issue of the New York Times (Sunday 25 October 2009) includes an editorial column from Maureen Dowd in which she comments on the role of women religious in the Catholic Church. She smoothly starts with a personal account from her childhood in which nuns are portrayed as overbearing and mean spirited. Once, in the first grade, I was late for class. I started crying in the schoolyard, terrified to go in and face the formidable Sister Hiltruda. Father Montgomery, who looked like a handsome young priest out of a 1930s movie, found me cowering and took my hand, leading me into the classroom. Sister Hiltruda looked ready to pop, but she couldn’t say a word to me, then or ever. There was no more unassailable patriarchy than the Catholic Church. Then she smoothly transitions into a full out slander job on the Church as a patriarchal institution , with particular bile offered for our current Pope. In 2004, the cardinal who would become Pope Benedict XVI wrote a Vatican doc...

Check out this article published in the National Post by Fr. Raymond de Souza (Kingston). He provides a balanced and nuanced perspective on the Bishop Lahey scandal. A link to his column archive at the National Post is included in my "favorite links" section of this blog. The article that this link will bring you to was published on 8/10/09. http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=41d8fc0f-6db1-4fb0-ba8b-d425d6d650d4

Comments re the Arrest of Bishop Lahey My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, On September 30th, at the Eucharist, we read from the Book of Nehemiah and I preached about the expression “sadness of the heart,” a deep profound pain that cannot be adequately expressed in simple language but only by way of an image. Little did I realize how apt that image would be for so many of us when it was announced that Bishop Lahey was charged with the possession and importation of child pornography. Our sadness, pain and anger seem boundless. I had hoped that we had finally rounded the corner on all the abuse situations within the church and on the part of its shepherds. In August, the Diocese of Antigonish reached a multi-million dollar settlement with known and alleged child victims of sexual abuse by priests. Bishop Lahey apologized and noted that they were entitled to protection. He said: “Sexual abuse, indeed, any abuse, is wrong. It is a crime and it is a serious sin in the eyes of God. ...

Archbishop Anthony Mancini distributed a letter to the Catholic communities in Nova Scotia in the wake of the Bishop Raymond Lahey child pornography scandal. It is an excellent example of a Bishop directly, powerfully, and personally confronting the most important issue facing the Canadian Catholic Church today: the erosion of faith and moral suasion in the Church due to the malfeasance (sexual and other) of its' clergy. I offer to you a link which will bring you to this letter for your consideration. http://www.catholichalifax.org/images/stories/BishopOffice/2009%2010%2002%20All%20RC%20of%20NS.pdf

One of my neighboring brother priests recently forwarded to me a link to an article published in AMERICA Magazine, written by Archbishop John R. Quinn, (San Fransisco - emeritus) in the wake of the Notre Dame commencement address by President Obama. I share it with you. Here is the URL: http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=11841

“Je me souviens” Working as I do within the beauty of the Ottawa Valley, I see many cars pass by from “la belle province” emblazoned with the motto “je me souviens” imprinted on each licence plate. These words are a declaration of the desire of the majority francophone population to always “remember” the struggles of “la révolution tranquille” (the Quiet Revolution) which transformed the Quebec society into the modern secular state under which the francophone population, seemingly all at once, turned a deaf ear to the voice of the Catholic Church within their culture, and chose instead to heed only the siren cry of the modern secularist project. In the wake this rapid shift the Catholic Church has been rendered both impotent and irrelevant in the minds of the overwhelming majority of the Quebec population, such that within the few years that have followed the Quiet Revolution, almost 400 years of Catholic practice was wiped away. The most graphic illustration of this shift can be s...

Written by: Rev. Tim Moyle, p.p. 2009-10-21 NET WORTH: Contribution of the Internet to public discourse and debate. John Gabriel, an internet games theorist/programmer, in 2005 developed and published what has come to known as the “Dickwad Theory of the Internet. Understanding this phenomena is as simple as 1 + 2 = 3. Although it has become popularly expressed graphically as a tee shirt design it can be expressed as follows: One person + anonymity + audience = one “dickwad” opinion The popularization of this theory is often used to discount comments that are posted in the of comments sections that accompany most online news websites. The virulence and brutish tone of such postings has resulted in most authors, analysts and commentators on current events closing their minds, or at least developing a “tin ear” regarding these virtual expressions of opinion. Fr. Raymond de Souza , a columnist who writes in the “National Post” expressed this well when he recently wrote about commen...