"... she is also just so darn happy!"

The Anchoress took me totally by surprise with some very kind and generous comments. When they come from someone who I admire as much as I do her, well, that just makes me doubly happy! (Couldn't resist that one, ya know.)

Being so darned happy has come up before and led me to reflection of just why that is ... which I am linking to here for anyone who is interested, as well as to my conversion story. Because, as in all things, it is through the grace of God who I can never thank enough for His goodness to me and mine.

Cheers Anchoress and thanks again!

Making Money With Anti-Catholicism

While other forms of bigotry are confined to the world of cranks and conspiracy theorists, anti-Church historical polemic makes money for major American publishing houses. Within the last decade, blue-ribbon publishers have produced such works as John Cornwell's Hitler's Pope, Garry Wills' Papal Sin and Why I Am a Catholic, James Carroll's Constantine's Sword, and Daniel J. Goldhagen's A Moral Reckoning. By 2002, readers had access to "a virtual book of the month club on institutional Catholicism, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust." That is in addition to the widespread use of the anti-Catholic pseudo-history in many works on Catholic attitudes to sexuality and gender, on early Christianity, and on medieval history. Obviously this run of anti-Church blockbusters does not mean that America's leading publishers are conspiring to destroy or calumniate Catholicism. The publishers act as they do because they believe that people will buy the books, and the success of authors such as Carroll and Cornwell indicates they are exactly right. Against the charge that the books are purely hostile attacks, the publishers can state, quite accurately, that in most case the authors themselves claim to be loyal Catholics. Wills, Cornwell, and Carroll would all make such an assertion, and their insider status certainly helps to deflect criticism.

But whatever the publishers' motives, the total effect of such an outpouring of deeply hostile books is powerful. Imagine browsing the religion section of a major bookstore and finding Catholicism represented chiefly by these titles. The obvious lesson for the average reader is that the Catholic Church carries a huge burden of guilt for its historical atrocities, that it is a prime motivator of anti-Semitism and a collaborator with Nazism.

The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice
by Philip Jenkins

I discovered this when I was first converting and innocently looking over the books at Borders. It didn't take much perusing of book jackets, even to such a newbie as myself, to find that some people who claimed love for the Church were pouring out bitter invective in these same books. As was a matter of dicussion here last week, it took Cardinal Ratzinger being elected Pope to get any of his books into the mainstream stores near me.

Marching Into My Heart

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS
This movie is a fascinating look at what the Emperor penguins endure every year as they go mate and raise their chicks. Frankly, as I watched this I couldn't believe any penguins existed under these circumstances for very long. The fact that they are still here after thousands of years testifies to the innate toughness of these birds. I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in nature films see this movie.

As I watched the penguins enduring things like a winter storm which brought conditions of 80 degrees below zero and 100 mile per hour winds, I kept wondering how the film makers got the footage. We are treated to just a few glimpses of them in the closing credits so do not leave before you see them. They hint at the movie I'd really like to see, that perhaps we will get when the DVD is released ... The Making of March of the Penguins.

My approval of this movie is not unconditional, however, as there is a fly in the ointment. The movie makers seem determined to elicit emotion from the viewer and use the twin bludgeons of unbelievably sentimental music (which at times is incredibly loud) and relentless anthropomorphization. The movie would have been much stronger with a lighter touch on both which accounts for my rating of ...

***
"Liked it despite the absence of flubber..." - Mel Gibson reading Prof. Frink's review

Finding "Church" Everywhere Else

More and more Christians say the usual ways of "doing church" no longer resonate in a contemporary, postmodern culture. Seeking to fill the gap, a growing movement called "the emerging church" is developing new forms of worship and asking new theological questions.

Adherents to the movement don't align themselves with any established denomination. Their rites and worship settings are unconventional – often more coffeehouse or college-dorm ambience than church.

Many emerging churches weave together elements from different religious traditions, especially Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Some are renewing medieval mystical practices such as walking the labyrinth. Some emphasize video images, electronic music and audience participation.

This Dallas Morning News story goes into great detail over the "emergent church" and pastors' alarm as Gen X abandons traditional worship. In this same vein, A Real Big Fish talks about finding church at work with fellow believers.

My reaction to all this is essentially Catholic. Any church that doesn't have the Eucharist is just a building where believers gather. Some may be pretty and some may be plain and some may have coffee and DJs that mix cds for the worshippers ... in fact, some may be like my Catholic women's book club. Jesus is there with any worshippers where two or more are gathered in His name but it isn't the same as having his actual presence in the Eucharist right there with you. Without the Eucharist then one place is just as good as another ... and no place is as good as being in front of the tabernacle.

The Importance of the Body in Christianity

Christ's Resurrection bestows new dignity on our bodies by revealing to us a new, unexpected, and glorious eternal destiny for them ... "In expectation of that day, the believer's body and soul already participate in the dignity of belonging to Christ" (CCC 1004).

In most religions (such as Hinduism), only spirit is immortal. In some (such as Gnosticism), only spirit is good. In some (such as Buddhism), only spirit is real. But for Christians, the body is real, good, and immortal. No religion exalts matter and the body as Christianity does:

1. God created it and declared it "good" (Gen 1).
2. God united man's body with his immortal soul to make one substance, one being.
3. And therefore he made the body immortal like the soul, through resurrection.
4. In sexual intercourse, he uses a material act to make new immortal souls.
5. And he kept his human body forever. Every since Christ took his human nature, body and soul, to heaven in the Ascension, God has a body forever. Christ did not "un-incarnate" when he ascended.
6. He now uses matter to save souls in Baptism and the Eucharist.

... The practical moral consequences of this doctrine of the resurrection as the body's destiny are radical, especially to contemporary culture. "This dignity entails the demand that he should treat with respect his own body, but also the body of every other person" (CCC 1004). "Do you know that your bodies are the members of Christ? ... Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit ...You are not your own' you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body" (1 Cor 6:15, 19-20).

The origin of modern hedonism and materialism (especially the "sexual revolution") is not the discovery of the goodness or greatness of the body, but the denial of it, by the Gnostic separation of body from spirit, by the confinement of religion and morality to subjective intention (the idea that if it is motivated by love, anything is moral). The "materialism" of the playboy really stems from the denial of the sacredness of matter and the body, which is then used as a mere tool, a means to the end of pleasure and excitement. His end is subjectively good feelings in the soul, not the objective good of the body.

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

The Church Loves All Her Children

No matter what sins they commit, sinners continue to belong to the Church since spiritual goods still subsist in them -- goods such as the indelible character received in Baptism and Confirmation, the theological virtues of faith and hope ...

The Church continues to live in her children who are not in the state of grace. The Church seeks to work against the evil that corrupts their souls. She struggles to keep them in her fold, to bring them back to life with her love. She conserves them as one conserves a treasure not easily parted from. And it is not because she wants to carry around dead weight. She only hopes that through the power of patience, gentleness, and pardon the sinner will make his return to her. It is like the withered branch which for lack of sap is allowed time to regain health and flower once more. (J.C. Journet, Theology of the Church).

The Church does not forget for one single day that she is a Mother. She continually prays for her children who are ill. She waits with infinite patience. She seeks to help them with abundant charity. We ought to bring to the Lord our prayers, works, joys and sufferings for the sake of those who belong to the church but who do not participate fully in the life of grace We should especially keep in mind those we happen to know personally who may need to return to the fullness of spiritual life.

In Conversation with God: Daily Meditations

This is something I tend to forget. Though my parents may turn their backs on the Church (to say nothing of God), this makes them no less her children. I also love that phrase "fullness of spiritual life" which fits so very many situations.

Walk the Line

Joaquin Phoenix is Johnny Cash and I am so there! (Maybe I'd better rent Ray first and catch up on my singer movies though.)

Pumping Gas and Watching Stars

Want to know what the stars are really like? Work at a gas station near where they live. Tom's nephew, Little John, grew up in Malibu and has a million stories ... as I pry them out of him (though so far not much prying has been required) I will share them.

Living in Malibu was an interesting experience. My first year of community college I worked at the only full service gas station in the area. Of course nobody who is anybody pumps their own gas, so I got to serve a lot of the big stars.

My friend Eden Unger's parents had built a spectacular home, even by Malibu standards, and a year or so after completion of the home I saw Eden at a party, which was rare since she was a sophmore at UC Berkley. Eden's parents were friends of Leo Penn (Sean's dad) and everyone in the world knew that Madonna and Sean were to be married in a super secret wedding. I asked Eden if the wedding would be at her house and she smiled and said, "maybe". We knew that was a yes. So, the next night I am working at the gas station and we hear that the big wedding is taking place at Eden's house. It was a madhouse, the first big paparazzi wedding with helicopters and the whole nine yards. At about midnight I am shutting the gas station when a short guy walks up and asks me for change for a dollar since he needs to use the pay phone (1984, before mobile phones). It's Tom Cruise. I think, "Wow is this guy short!" Anyway he says thanks and heads over to the pay phone. I shut the station and get in my car to go home and I notice he is still talking on the phone. I have always wondered why he needed to use our payphone at such a strange hour.

I have a million celebrity stories from Malibu and the Unocal 76 station!

Feed My Sheep...

The Catholic Diocese of Dallas is asking its parishes to take a little extra out of their collection plates to help pay diocesan legal costs.

In a letter sent to pastors this week, Bishop Charles Grahmann said two legal fights were likely to cost the cash-strapped diocese more than the $1 million budgeted for litigation in 2006.

Those two cases are the battle against the Dallas school system's attempt to condemn land next to a Catholic cemetery and the lawsuit over two child molesters who worked at St. Pius X Catholic Church's child-care center in Far East Dallas in the 1990s.

"Those costs have exhausted our reserves," the bishop wrote of those two lawsuits.

Dallas Morning News
(free registration required)

I have often said that if our bishop can't be a good shepherd the least we could expect is a good businessman. Evidently not.

Seeing this in the newspaper this morning evoked the usual eyerolls from Tom and me. We haven't forgotten, as apparently Bishop Grahmann has, the first time our reserves "were exhausted" by paying for the Rudy Kos lawsuit settlement due to the bishop's intransigence (he only officially apoligized to the victims and their families last year). The St. Pius X is too much more of the same for us.

Our parish has had its own problems with the bishop, as have many others. Like most Dallas Catholics we are waiting until next year when Bishop Grahmann turns 75 and has to send his letter of resignation to the Vatican ... and crossing our fingers that they accept it. Until then I guess we'll just have to keep on paying and waiting for our bishop to remember to "feed my sheep."

Fetal Tissues Are Used in Vaccines?

I had no idea at all. It took a Vatican statement condemning the practice and the CWN news report to clue me in.

The Vatican has condemned the use of vaccines derived from fetal tissue, and exhorted Catholics to lobby for the development of alternative vaccines.

The new instructions from the Vatican provide strong support for parents and doctors who resist the use of vaccines that are based on fetal remains. Such vaccines are commonly used today in the US to inoculate patients-- usually children-- against diseases such as measles, mumps, chicken pox, rubella, smallpox, rabies, polio, and hepatitis A. In some cases the vaccines developed from fetal tissues are the only products available to patients seeking protection from the disease. ...

Although parents and doctors may be morally justified in using such vaccines, when no alternative is available, the Vatican document says that they "have a duty to take recourse to alternatives, putting pressure on political authorities and health systems" to produce morally acceptable alternative treatments.

In its analysis, the Pontifical Academy for Life listed the vaccines developed from fetal tissues:

A) Live vaccines against rubella:

• the monovalent vaccines against rubella Meruvax®!! (Merck) (U.S.), Rudivax® (Sanofi Pasteur, Fr.), and Ervevax® (RA 27/3) (GlaxoSmithKline, Belgium);
• the combined vaccine MR against rubella and measles, commercialized with the name of M-R-VAX® (Merck, US) and Rudi-Rouvax® (AVP, France);
• the combined vaccine against rubella and mumps marketed under the name of Biavax®!! (Merck, U.S.);
• the combined vaccine MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) against rubella, mumps and measles, marketed under the name of M-M-R® II (Merck, US), R.O.R.®, Trimovax® (Sanofi Pasteur, Fr.), and Priorix® (GlaxoSmithKline UK).

B) Other vaccines, also prepared using human cell lines from aborted fetuses:

• two vaccines against hepatitis A, one produced by Merck (VAQTA), the other one produced by GlaxoSmithKline (HAVRIX), both of them being prepared using MRC-5;
• one vaccine against chicken pox, Varivax®, produced by Merck using WI-38 and MRC-5;
• one vaccine against poliomyelitis, the inactivated polio virus vaccine Poliovax® (Aventis-Pasteur, Fr.) using MRC-5;
• one vaccine against rabies, Imovax®, produced by Aventis Pasteur, harvested from infected human diploid cells, MRC-5 strain;
• one vaccine against smallpox, AC AM 1000, prepared by Acambis using MRC-5, still on trial.

Read the entire story at Catholic World News. The entire Vatican statement can be found here.

The Christian Attitude Toward Death

I like that Kreeft points out it is natural to have multiple attitudes toward death. So often we are expected to have only one ... if we miss someone there is sure to be a person who points out that we should be happy they'll be in heaven. Right. Got that. But that doesn't mean we can't miss them ... or not look forward to the process ourself.

Since death is both natural, unnatural, and supernatural, we should have three corresponding attitudes toward it:

Since it is natural, we honestly confront it and accept it as a fact of our being, instead of avoiding it by endless diversions of our attention or, by living in denial, pretending it is not there.

Since it is also unnatural, the inescapable punishment for sin, we hate it and fight it as our enemy, "the last enemy" (1 Cor 15:26).

Finally, since it is also supernatural, transformed by Christ's Resurrection, we welcome it. For if we are in Christ, death comes to us as God's golden chariot sent to fetch his Cinderella bride from the cinders of this dying world to his golden castle to live with him in eternal ecstasy.

The element that pervades all three of these attitudes is readiness. "The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death. In the ancient litany of the saints, for instance, she has us pray: 'From a sudden and unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord'; to ask the Mother of God to intercede for us 'at the hour of our death' in the Hail Mary; and to entrust ourselves to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death (CCC 1014).

"'Every action of yours, every thought, should be those of one who expects to die before the day is out. Death would have no great terrors for you if you had a quiet conscience ... Then why not keep clear of sin instead of running away from death? If you aren't fit to face death today, it's very unlikely you will be tomorrow'" (CCC 1014).

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Delivering Ultimatiums to God

You know the kind I mean. At some point we're lying there in bed suffering from the flu or a terrible sinus headache, not really convinced that we might not die, and we issue the directive, "Either heal me or take me now, Jesus." And we mean it ... because we have never felt so terrible ... ever.

Ok, somewhere deep in the recesses of our minds we know we're not gonna die. We know that another and better day will dawn; maybe even this very day will improve. But, personally, that is a time when I am not about thinking. I am all about feeling. That is when it is very, very good to be a Catholic. We're told that our suffering is never wasted if we offer it up for others, following Jesus' example. All we have to do is to be able to remember it at that point.

This morning, with a sinus headache that made my pillow feel hard, I had some first-class suffering to offer up. And I have a friend in dire need who I could offer it up for. So I lay there, struggling my way through the rosary, forgetting what I was doing because I moved my head and that might have been the very moment when Jesus was coming to take me because I felt as if I was dying ... and then getting back to it. And you know what? It helped me too because I had my mind, such as it was, on something besides how I felt. No matter how horrible I felt that allergy pill and aspirin were going to kick in eventually and my friend has no such options. Her problems are so much worse.

I made it all the way through the rosary and eventually that aspirin did kick in. Another lesson in gratitude was mine. Not only do I appreciate my good health but I also am glad for all those little annoyances of everyday life ... the ones that I try to let slide off my back and offer up for various causes. If not for that daily practice I am not sure I would have remembered to offer up the big one this morning. Which not only helped my friend, it helped me. No wonder I'm happy to be Catholic.

Symbolism of Beasts in Harry Potter

Which is your favorite Harry Potter beast? They all have a symbolic meaning says John Granger in Christianity Today. He spells it out for each in the article.

For most of us, the connection between an animal and its symbolic quality is pretty clear. A dog embodies and radiates the virtue of loyalty; a cat, feminine beauty and grace; a lion, power and majesty; an eagle, freedom; and a horse, nobility.

But the animals in Harry Potter are not your conventional domestic pets or zoo beasts. Rowling has a rich imagination and a special fascination for fantastic beasts; she has even written a Hogwarts "schoolbook," Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, cataloging her favorites, A to Z. Are these products of her imagination symbols in the way eagles and lions are symbols? ...

Many of the animals in Harry Potter are Rowling's own inventions (although the Acromantula reminds Tolkien fans of the giant spider Shelob and of the den of spiders in The Hobbit). However, let's focus on traditional symbols from European literature because of the wealth of references that support the interpretation of their supernatural qualities. If there is a single giveaway of the Christian meaning in Harry Potter, it is in the uniform meaning of the symbols. The magical creatures and figures we will look at more closely are the griffin, the unicorn, the phoenix, the stag, the centaur, the hippogriff, and the red lion. Each is a traditional symbol of arts and letters used to point to the qualities and person of Christ.

The Blogger and the Fatwa

The Anarchangel has had a fatwa and death threats issued for his blogging about Islam and the Koran. Granted, "in your face" seems to be the only style he knows, but this is the sort of extreme reaction that Robert Spencer wrote about in Islam Unveiled when talking about why Muslims in the United States didn't complain about extremists. He then went on to talk about documented cases of people disappeared if they gave information to the authorities and I think I am remembering that he mentioned Arizona which is where this blogger lives ... which makes me glad that the FBI is taking The Anarchangel seriously. Via On the Other Foot.

This is What Happens When You Don't Blog All Weekend ...

... and keep finding interesting stuff because everyone else did blog all weekend. You wind up with a zillion blog entries. And still you haven't blogged about the family's day trip to the Fort Worth Zoo.

It is justly among one of the top in the country with most of the zoo having lovely landscaping and habitats that are clearly designed for the animals' comfort. (The exception to that is the newest part of the zoo which feels more like a badly designed amusement park with few exhibits that make you feel as if the animals are comfortable. Unbelievably badly done considering the majority of the zoo.)

The weather was fairly comfortable thanks to the daily rainstorms we've been having and the animals were much more lively than we had expected. We wound up spending six hours walking around and having a blast.

Our favorite moment was when watching an orangutan family that had a playful and curious youngster. At one point a frog jumped out of the stream nearby and he scurried over to sniff it, very hesitantly poke it with a finger and then jump back when it jumped away. He followed it all over trying to figure it out until an older sibling came up to see what he was doing, picked up the frog until he lost interest, and then put it down again and left. It was almost like watching them with the family pet. Rose got a photo of the youngster getting ready to touch the frog. I circled the frog but it is well camouflaged that I don't know if you can see it.



Our other favorite moment was when the youngest of the elephants decided to go full body in the water and really play. I don't think I've ever seen an elephant do that and although this photo doesn't capture any of the actual hijinks, Rose did manage to get this little elephant's face expressing the delight of the moment.

About That "Weeds" Parable

This one really hit a chord as I have seen posts all over St. Blog's about it. I'm guilty too but my post was just a commentary excerpt that I really liked. Most have mentioned some variation of the Kinder, Gentler Parable mentioned by Karen Hall. That is what we got ourselves. Something about turning from "bad wheat" into "good wheat." Oh well. Maybe it was meant for someone else. I got my message earlier from "In Conversation with God."

No one had the guts of the priest who gave the history lesson on "The Weeds of Islam" as reported by Lofted Nest. Now there's a priest with conviction.

Ok, Good Charlotte Fans, Here You Go

The most looked for thing on my blog in the last few weeks? These two photos. Go figure. Maybe it was the shock of seeing those photos connected with a blog called Happy Catholic. Anyway, that's why I'm reposting this blog entry. Gotta keep the people happy, doncha know?

This Good Catholic Boy ...

Benji Madden, Good Charlotte

... wrote this song ...

"Wondering"

If you want me to wait
I would wait for you
If you tell me to stay
I would stay right through
If you don't wanna say
Anything at all
I'm happy wondering

Since I was a young man
I never was a fun man
I never had a plan and no security
Then ever since I met you
I never could forget you
I only wanna get you right here next to me

[chorus]
Cause everybody (a-whoa-oh-oh)
Needs someone that they can trust and
You're somebody (a-whoa-oh-oh)
That I found just in time
If you want me to wait
I would wait for you
If you tell me to stay
I would stay right through
If you don't wanna say
Anything at all
I'm happy wondering


Now my life is changing
It's always rearranging
It's always getting stranger than I thought it ever could
Ever since I found you
I wanna be around you
I want to get down to the point that I need you

[chorus]

Don't tell me
The bad news
Don't tell me anything at all
Just tell me
That you need me
And stay right here with me

[chorus]

... about his dog. Awwww. Read the chorus again ... I think those are his dog's words there. Double awwwwwww.

Why do I say he's a "good Catholic boy?" Well, I'm not positive but here's his twin brother with his tatoos of the Virgin Mary on one arm and the sacred heart of Jesus on the other. So, just guessing here...

Joel Madden, Good Charlotte

Thanks to my "beat reporter", Rose, for this one, presented as supporting evidence when revising her "Mom mix" playlist ... just keeping me current, ya know! (And if you like these pictures you ought to get an eyeful of the posters on her wall!)

Are Protestants to blame for church divisions?

Yes. And so are Catholics.

"'However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers ... All who have been justified in faith by Baptism are incorporated into Christ'" (CCC 818); they are our "separated brethren."

"Christ's Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church" (CCC 819). The Protestant limbs that broke off from the Catholic tree can still have enough life-giving sap (God's truth and grace) from the root (Christ) through the trunk (the Catholic Church) to be the means of salvation for their members. The Church of Christ "subsists in" (CCC 816) the Roman Catholic Church most completely but not exclusively.

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

The Church as the ultimate reason for creation

"Christians of the first centuries said, 'The world was created for the sake of the Church.' God created the world for the sake of" [our] "communion with his divine life, a communion brought about by ... the Church ...

"'Just as God's will is creation and is called "the world," so his intention is the salvation of men, and it is called "the Church"'" (CCC 760).

The Church is the reason for creation, the reason for the Big Bang. The universe is a Church-making machine, and the Church is a saint-making machine.

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

The Church is necessary for salvation

Since we have no salvation without Christ,
And we do not know Christ without the Church,
It follows that there is no salvation without the Church.

This traditional formula of the Church Fathers (see CCC 846), "Outside the Church there is no salvation", does not mean that Protestants and others are not saved, because this formula is not an answer to the mind's curiosity about the populations of heaven and hell, but an answer to the sincerely seeking heart's question "Where is salvation? Where is the road? What has God done to show me how to be saved?" Similarly, Christ's words to his disciples about "many" choosing the "wide" road to destruction and only "few" finding the "narrow" road to life (Mt 7:14) are not the words of a statistician spoken to a census taker, but the words of a loving heavenly Father to his beloved children, warning them of danger. To the Good Shepherd even one out of a hundred sheep is too many to lose and ninety-nine too few to save (Mt 18:12).

In fact the Church explicitly teaches that many who call themselves non-Catholics are saved. Vatican Council II said that "they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it, or to remain in it" (LG 14), but also that "[t]hose who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience -- those too may achieve eternal salvation" (LG 16) -- not because conscience is an adequate substitute for the Church, but because conscience, too is contact with God.

Catholic Christianity: A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft