Catholicae Testudines

MIA at MLA

Isabel and I have spent most of the last two days attending (and recovering from) the annual conference for the Modern Language Association, currently going on in downtown DC (which isn't nearly as convenient for me as you would think). Energy waning, we sat down in what we though was another panel of Renaissance papers. However, with seconds to spare, we realized we were in the wrong room...We were, in fact, sitting in a room full of modernists, and I can't imagine a less comfortable place to have been.

Grad Student One: I knew we were in the wrong room for a Renaissance panel.
Grad Student Two: How's that?
Grad Student One: There weren't enough tweed blazers.

Catholic Girl Talk

I received a very subtle hint in the comment threads that Catholic Girl Talk is live again...for the moment.

Girls are so indecisive.

Angels we have heard on high...

When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them. (Luke 2:18-20)

I had one of those moments where a detail I never noticed before jumped out story that I've heard over and over again. For some reason, I never quite realized that the shepherds ran to see Jesus, then immediately left to tell other people about it, and then ran back to Jesus. While the scene attests to the veracity of the nativity story (there were a lot of eye witnesses and even more people who go the story secondhand), to me it seems like a microcosm of the whole gospel mission. A select few are called to Jesus, then go out to spread the good news about Jesus, and return to Jesus when their job is done. Now, I guess the question I have to ask myself is when is the last time I joyfully evangelized the gospel. Usually, my “evangelization” consists of grumpy counter-arguments to abortion, gay rights, or the separation of Church and State...hardly appealing reminders of God’s mercy.

Merry Christmas!

Rats

Now I've gone and misplaced the notes I made on the subject and also run out of time before I have to leave so I can't really properly finish the series of posts I've been working on. 

What this was going to be was I was going to lay out the basics of what I learned about Marx' system of atheist humanism and Feuerbach's version of what Crhistianity really is and show how Gaudium et Spes serves as a rebuttal to each point of it.  But now you'll have to do that yourself if you don't want to take my word for it.

The other interesting thing G & S does is to basically run through a list of slogans and buzzwords of modernity such as "progress," "humanism," "separation of church and state," "human rights," and so forth and for each one say "If X is understood in this way [give description], then that is acceptable to the Church and even to be commended.  But if it understood in this other way which we can't approve of, then it is to be condemned."

If you go through this patiently, you'll see how the Church armed herself to deal with modernity without giving in to its errors.  You'll also see how for each erroneous ideal the Church proposes a truly Christian version that harmonizes with the Gospel and tradition.  So, on this model, for instance, instead of atheist communist "solidarity," Pope John Paul's Solidarity over which he broke communism.  Instead of atheist humanism which idolizes man, a "Christian humanism" can be proposed which puts man in his proper place (as in Genesis) - dominion over creation but subject to God.

So if I don't see you before then, have a Mary's Christmas.

Case in point

Today, I hear, Cardinal McCarrick was on tv because they were interviewing leaders from different religions.  The Cardinal said something absolutely true, along the lines of "the point of life on earth is to get to heaven."  The Jewish representative said something like "well, we serve God here and now," as if the two were opposed, or as if Catholics didn't.  You wouldn't be able to score points like that off of a statement like that if people weren't so influenced by the critiques of religion I talked about earlier.

New Catholic Literary Mag

Check out Dappled Things, you should recognize at least one of the authors.

Reform

For discussion, what tools are at the disposal of a secular state that wants to reform hardened criminals?  I've thought about this a fair amount and what besides, "It's against the law, and we'll take away your freedom if you do this," does a state like ours have to offer?  I'll have more posts on my thoughts on this over Christmas, but before I do that I'd like to hear what others have to say.

The Prophet Mark Shea

Mark Shea, has said many times, "The day will come when the Church is condemned, not for permitting pedophilia, but for condemning it."

This is a big step toward that prediction coming to fruition.

Around the holidays, the biggest challenge for many theater companies is convincing audiences to care about yet another staging of "A Christmas Carol." This season in Atlanta, however, Actor's Express wants to stir up buzz about a less familiar property -- namely, a pedophile musical.

R2 is Jewish? Who knew?

This has to be one of the weirdest Star Wars related things I have ever seen...and I've even seen the Holiday Special. Behold, instructions for making your own R2-D2 dreidel...

http://www.starwars.com/kids/activity/crafts/f20051216/index.html