A Blog Version Of The Inside Of My Head. The place where politics, film, the media, music, pop culture, and random topics collide in an orgy of neo-philisophical randomness that would make your mother scream.
Five years ago he sent out an updated version of the notorious 1962 Vatican document Crimen Sollicitationis - Latin for The Crime of Solicitation - which laid down the Vatican's strict instructions on covering up sexual scandal. It was regarded as so secret that it came with instructions that bishops had to keep it locked in a safe at all times. Cardinal Ratzinger reinforced the strict cover-up policy by introducing a new principle: that the Vatican must have what it calls Exclusive Competence. In other words, he commanded that all child abuse allegations should be dealt with direct by Rome.
I'm having a harder and harder time reconciling how anyone can be Catholic. Not just in light of this revelation about The Pope, but about how they are so divided when it comes to healthcare reform.
I know that priests touching the alter boy in the cloak room and The League of Bishops opposing healthcare legislation aren't intrinsically linked, but think about this - Catholics are more concerned with preventing healthcare reform than they are stopping the abuse of children. It's very odd way to present yourself, especially if you're a highly regarded religious institution like The Holy Catholic Church.
Yes, I know. I'm dishing out the "of the year" items and it's not even June yet. But there's a WHOLE LOT of great rhetoric floating around that is just begging to be head and shoulders above everything else.
My favorite grandpa, Clem James Sheeran, was Catholic. Irish to the core, his favorite place (other than church) was Notre Dame. I can’t imagine what he would think as the university recognizes someone who contradicts the core values of the Catholic faith by promoting an anti-life agenda. As we learned today, our nation is more pro-life than ever before; it is a very important time to strengthen the message that every baby is created for good purpose and has the potential to make this world a better place.
Yeah, Sarah, like Notre Dame meant anything to you before they invited Obama. Are you sure that Grampy wasn't just jazzed-up over Notre Dame's football program and not their Catholic dogma?
Even though I, and many others, can see through Palin's paper-thin disguise of "caring, motherly, figure" into her uber-political soul, I'm not going to say that she isn't being honest that her "favorite Grandfather" was Catholic. I am, however, going to say that I don't buy that his second-favorite place was Notre Dame. I mean, how gulible does Palin think we are?
Well, there are somepeople who will believe anything.
Yesterday, Barack Obama gave the commencement address to the graduation class of Natre Dame University and the conservative Right were wetting themselves with faux outrage ever since they found out he was invited.
In terms of a media-generated controversy, this is a prime example. Not content with provided adequate and accurate context to the debate, conservatives that allegedly align themselves with Catholic doctrine and Fox"News" have attempted to create a cloud of confusing rhetoric around Obama's visit while ignoring the Catholics church view on "life" issues in relation to George W. Bush.
While they are more apt to shout "double-standard" when addressing the equally ridiculous media-storm involving "Miss California" Carrie Prejean, they refuse to see through their own rant hypocrisy when speaking about Notre Dame and Barack Obama.
The Catholic Church has long stood against not only "abortion", but the death penalty as well. The fundamental flaw in the Right's thinking is that they can frame the debate around Obama when George W. Bush gave a commencement speech to Notre Dame and his record on "death" issues has a much more illustrative nature than Obama.
The Fox"Nation" website used a video of Obama's address to the Notre Dame graduating class and asked if he truly was "open-minded" and used "fair-minded" words.
Some of their readers are quoted as saying:
Theresa Nothing is sacred anymore. not Honesty / morals/ or respect. I don't have a problem with Obama as the President of The USA, speaking, What I have a problem with is his arrogance and lack of respect for those who don't agree with his values. I would respect him more if he would have declined the honorary degree. And said I realize the divide and because of this I am declining the degree, Possibly there wouldn't have been so much controversy. The University knew it would cause problems. knowing that people attend there because of the reputation.
Monday, May 18, 2009 at 09:56 AM
2fortea I wonder what propagandist wrote this speech for the teleprompter. Open minded? When did ripping apart and murdering infants become as easy as trimming an annoying and inconvenient hangnail. It is out and out torture and murder! I remember a nurse stating how a baby had survived an abortion and they put the baby in a closet to slowly die - all alone. She held that poor baby - giving that baby the ONLY comfort and LOVE it would have from another human being as it slowly died. That nurse became a pro life advocate. How can ANY human being condone ripping a baby apart and attempt to "intellectually" justify it by calling for "open mindedness". DISGUSTING!
Monday, May 18, 2009 at 09:10 AM
Under Bush's tenure as Governor of Texas, he signed-off on 152 executions. Barack Obama has not signed-off on one abortion.
Obama's stance on a woman's right to choose ( which the Right frames as "pro-abortion" ) is looked at through a rather canted, yet typical, prism. Typical in the means that these people are willing to look the other way when religious dogma does not fit their own political ideology while their party is in power.
There was no media fire-storm when Bush received his honorary degree from Notre Dame. The reason being is the hypocrisy from the conservative Right. They cling to religion on when they need it to prove a point. Not once was Notre Dame a focal point of conservative ire until Obama was invited.
Even the 2009 Valedictorian Brennan Bollman stated that she had no problem with Obama, and neither do most of the students and faculty:
"This issue has not divided the campus by any means," says the Catholic, pro-life biology major who will be attending Harvard Medical School after graduation.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Bollman stressed that her peers do not view the president's overall values as inconsistent with Catholicism. In fact, Bollman says Obama is practicing Catholic values in his administration. Like Jesus, Bollman says, Obama is trying to invite "everyone to the table."....Bollman called Cardinal George's statement out of tune with Catholicism. "We know exactly what it is to be Catholic because we are inviting President Obama to speak to us." She said the University's President, Father Jenkins, had even sent a letter earlier in the week to all graduates affirming he's proud that campus dialogue had not "led to divisions."
Now that the Notre Dame graduation is over, and Fox and conservatives didn't get the riots, arrests, protests, and the "red meat" of the day that they virtually begged for in open-mouth fury, they have the opportunity to reframe the debate. Now they can claim that Obama has taken the country in a direction that removes "moral values" and religion is favor of "acceptance" to issues like abortion and stem-cell research.
I am speaking, of course, of the Fox Nation website.
In a "discussion" relating to Barack Obama's scheduled appearance at Notre Dame's Commencement, complete with video and scary music, you get the sense that Fox Nation welcomes and encourages ignorance and language that steps right up to the line of blatant racism.
Anonymous Anyone truly offended should just stay home and let the University mail your paperwork to you. The biggest nationally visible impact any of you could possibly have would be for the cameras to look out onto thundreds or thousands of empty seats where the students normally sit. Let "Buckwheat" speak to empty chairs.
Thursday, May 07, 2009 at 06:16 AM
Anonymous For those of you saying Obama is a Christian, He was a Christian for election purposes only. He's the living embodiment of AntiChrist, using the concept of Christ to advance his personal ambitions no matter how non christian they may be.
Thursday, May 07, 2009 at 05:57 AM
Delores CH WV Odd, that ND invites someone who will not even attend the National Prayer Day sponsered by the Catholic Church! Wake Up....................................This man is not coming because he is your friend. He is just stickin' to you because he the ONE. Just watch his evil smile..................................gives me the creeps.......... I would definately not break bread with this man!
Wednesday, May 06, 2009 at 10:15 PM
Wolverine - Independent - Colorado Anything can happen in politics. Especially with monkey head, the guy from Indonesia, he illegal alien that claims to be a President, the guy that made all of these promises to get your vot and some haven't realized it because they are so infatuated with him being a black president that they cannot see that he just killed America. Purposely demeaning the catholic faith. Read Below: Terrorism is, most simply, policy intended to intimidate or cause terror. It is more commonly understood as an act which (1) is intended to create fear (terror), (2) is perpetrated for an ideological goal, and (3) deliberately targets non-combatants.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009 at 09:23 PM
Bernie Canceling National Prayer Day, Obama states he will pray on his own. Well ND now cancel Obama and let him pray on his own as he wishes!!
Wednesday, May 06, 2009 at 07:26 PM
And they just keep going.
Another piece about the Hawaii legislature creating an "Islam Day" is also drawing out the loonies in the Fox Nation. Linked from Michelle Malkin's blog, the piece leaves out one crucial bit on information.
It does not call for any spending or organized celebration of Islam Day.
Although Malkin does link to the CBS.com story, she decides to crop that last line off.
There a lots of silly "National Days", as well as days that most of them probably don't know about but seem to think don't exist. I'm sure that none of the commentors on FoxNation - as well as Malkin's Blog - even considered that. Here's quite a few:
January 13- Blame Someone Else Day
Febuary 1- National Freedom Day
March 4- Hug a GI Day
April 16- Patriot's Day
May 2- National Day of Prayer
November 24- What Do You Love About America? Day
And there's tons more.
The larger point of this is that it's Hawaii that is recognizing this day for reasons that the fringe right-wing isn't willing to understand. Their rationale is that since all terrorists are Islamic, then everyone of the Islamic faith are terrorists. If you are willing to follow that logic, then you'll fit right in at Fox Nation.
You would think that Rev. Joseph Illo, pastor of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto, would be advising his congregation on something of merit. But, he's following suit with a previous Catholic priest who insisted that any that voted for Obama aer ricking their very souls and could be denied communion:
If you are one of the 54 percent of Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion candidate, you were clear on his position and you knew the gravity of the question, I urge you to go to confession before receiving communion. Don't risk losing your state of grace by receiving sacrilegiously,"
It's interesting, to me at least, that some members of the Catholic faith actually think that Obama - or anyone that agrees with a woman's right to choose - is actively "pro" abortion.
This is where Rev. Illo's arguement falls apart.
Obama is not "pro" abortion. This, by strict definition, means that Obama advocates Abortion at any and all times.
One would think that Rev. Illo knows this. If he does, is this more of a statement regarding his own political affiliations in order to sway the congregation to vote in simular fashion during the next election? Nothing gets a devout religious person's blood-pressure up when they are told that their actions are sending them to Hell.
But what of the alternate consequences that the Catholic Church might face? Could their be a mass exodus from the Catholic church?
Leave it to hardline, conservative, Republicans - you know, that party of "context" - to completely misrepresent the South Carloina Catholic Diocese.
The story begins when Father Jay Scott Newman tells his congregation that if they had voted for Barack Obama then they should seriously consider if they are able to receive Holy Communion.
A South Carolina priest who sent a letter warning parishioners who voted for Barack Obama that they may have placed themselves outside of the communion of the Catholic Church has received the backing of his diocese. The Diocese of Charleston agrees with Fr. Jay Scott Newman’s letter despite the controversy it generated, which brings the debate over “formal participation” into a new context...
Yeah, there's that word "context". Morrissey still hasn't figured that one out.
The main problem with Ed's piece - titled "South Carolina diocese stands firm on priest’s warning letter" - is that the Monsignor Martin T. Laughlin ( current representative of the South Carolina Diocese, as they have no Bishop ) had this to say:
This past week, the Catholic Church’s clear, moral teaching on the evil of abortion has been pulled into the partisan political arena. The recent comments of Father Jay Scott Newman, pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville, S.C., have diverted the focus from the Church’s clear position against abortion. As Administrator of the Diocese of Charleston, let me state with clarity that Father Newman’s statements do not adequately reflect the Catholic Church’s teachings. Any comments or statements to the contrary are repudiated.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, ‘Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions.’ The Catechism goes on to state: ‘In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path; we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord’s Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church.’
Christ gives us freedom to explore our own conscience and to make our own decisions while adhering to the law of God and the teachings of the faith. Therefore, if a person has formed his or her conscience well, he or she should not be denied Communion, nor be told to go to confession before receiving Communion.
You can read an excellent blog here from a former member of the church in question.
Even when Morrissey was called out on his lack of using the correct facts, he tries to draw an equivalency between the press agent from the diocese, the Monsignor, and what the hierarchy of the church would say by doing his own interpretation of catechism.
Being an outsider to the Catholic church, I wouldn't feel comfortable trying to interpret church doctrine that is vague to beging with. However, this is a very clear window with which we can view the lunatic-fringe conservative movement through. Ever eager to malign anyone with whom they disagree, they will just as easily mold church doctrine to make anyone out to be a "sinner".
Any chance that Morrissey - or those like him - can use religion as a weapon they will do it, even if they have to rearrange the facts to do it
Leave it to the uber-religious in America to find a way to not only disagree with the newly elected President, but essentially try and push people out of their own church.
The following in a portion of the "Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome" by Father Newman of Saint Mary's Catholic Church in South Carolina:
...Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation.
While one of tennants of organized religion is to use fear as a motivator, it should be pointed out that no one is "pro" abortion - and that certainly goes for Barack Obama.
Father Newman has to instruct his congregation within these terms of "pro" and "anti" in order for his message to have even the semblance of validity, it should be pointed out that it is a "choice" issue. Does Father Newman believe that he knows the true nature of God to such an extent that he feels comfortable in informing his congregation that God sees America as Blue state and Red states as well?
When a reglious group, such as the Catholic Church, is willing to turn it's back on people who vote for Obama, to deny them the comfort of communion, you're not so much a "religion" as you are a "cult".
While I have always been fascinated by the workings of the Catholic Church, I'm wondering if this isn't just an isolated instance. I'm sure somewhere Bill Donahue is flailing around in an arm-chair getting ready to defend this ass-hat of a priest to whomever will listen to him.
