Catholicae Testudines

If Only All Scientists Were So Ethically-Minded...

Via Drudge, WFTV.com

"Although we are thankful that the fisherman gave this unique specimen to Mote, and we are learning a lot about this species from this large female shark, we were saddened to see so many unborn pups inside her so close to birth," said Dr. Robert Hueter, director of Mote's Center for Shark Research.

The death of unborn shark pups, saddening. The death of unborn babies, the expression of a woman's freedom and/or exciting medical research.

Hey, God, the world has been turned upside-down, again. Think you could flip us over, please?

I Agree

From Tom over at Disputations:

The following propositions are false:
1. It is good, important, or laudable to have an opinion about every matter that comes to your attention.
2. A reflexive, visceral response to a matter that comes to your attention constitutes an opinion on that matter.
3. If you do not have an opinion about a matter, then you do not think the matter is important.
4. The more important a matter is, the more important your opinion about the matter is.
5. Subjective certainty implies objective certainty.

This Should Make Thomas Very Happy!

Pope wants guitars silenced during mass.

I'm going to disagree with his Eminence Furno, who at the end of the article says, "better to have guitars on the altar and rock and roll masses than empty churches."

If everyone at a mass is there because of the rock and roll, then that church is already empty.

Not to mention that's a false choice we're given anyhow.

Speaking of Prophets...

Via Drudge, via Reuters:

"I fear that faced with current legislation, speaking in defense of life, of the rights of the family, is becoming in some societies a crime against the state, a form of disobedience of the government, a discrimination against women.

"The Church risks being brought in front of some international court, if the debate gets any more tense, if the most radical opinions are heeded," Lopez Trujillo told Famiglia Cristiana, a Catholic Italian weekly.

Five hundred years from now, they will be making movies about the way the Techno-Democratic Inquisition viciously attacked and imprisoned priests and bishops for heresy.

Medieval Idol

I thought this passage from Cervantes' Don Quixote was rather amusing given the comment box regarding the Gonzaga prayer:

...replied Vivaldo, 'but one thing, among many others, which I can by no means approve in your profession, is, that when you are going to engage in some very hazardous adventure, where your lives are evidently to be much endangered, you never once remember to commend yourselves to God, as every good Christian ought to do on such occasions, but only recommend yourselves to your mistresses, and that with as great zeal and devtion as if you worshipped no other deity, a thing which, in my opinion, strongly relishes of Paganism.' 'Sir,' replied Don Quixote, 'there is no altering that method; for, should a knight-errant do otherwise, he would too much deviate from the anicent and established customs of knight-errantry, which inviolably oblige him, just in the moment when he is rushing on, and giving birth to some dubious achievement, to have his mistress still before his eyes, still present in his mind, by a strong and lively imagination, and with soft, amorous, and energetic looks, imploring her favour and protection in that perilous circumstance. Nay, if nobody can overhear him, he is obliged to whisper, or speak between his teeth, some short ejaculations, to recommend himself with all the fervency imaginable to the lady of his wishes, and of this we have innumerable examples in history. Nor are you for all this to imagine, that knights-errant omit recommending themselves to Heaven, for they have leisure enough to do it even in the midst of the combat.'

Biblical Proportions

So, as we endure wave after tidal wave of flooding, I think to myself..."You know, Peter, there's an awful lot of standing water...and standing water means mosquitoes...and mosquitoes means West Nile Virus."

Remember West Nile Virus?

That thing was supposed to wipe out the East Coast, from the way the news was reporting it. I haven't seen much mention of it lately, though. It's sort of like the way SARS was supposed to be the death knell of human life as we knew it. Remember when we were supposed to all start buying breathing masks? I'm sure some entrepreuring fashion designer had a whole line of J. Crew aspirators ready to go.

But here we still are. Face-mask free.

Makes you wonder about global warming...which leads me to the bigger fish that I want to fry in the post: namely, irresponsible media.

It used to be the case that false prophets were the ones who always told you that everything was going to be okay; that there was no reason to change the status quo. It seems to me, though, that the false prophets have learned a trick or two over the last few millenia. The real prophets always said live a moral life, or else bad things are going to happen (it's worth noting that cataclysmic things were not usually happening to the listeners while prophets were prophesying to them). So how do you tell the difference between true prophets and false prophets in this day and age? It seems to me that true prophets still say: repent, be saved, do good, and pray. Today's false prophets say: legislate against all those ignorant people who don't respect the authority of news media. True prophets want to instill the virtue, which requires a free choice. False...or should I say...misguided prophets believe that the ends justify the means. The latter will take away our right to virtue in order to save us from ourselves.

And that, my friends, is why we are actually more liberal than the liberals.

Wuerlly-Gig

I want to thank Fr. Bill for letting Isabel and I tag a long on to the installation Mass for Archbishop Weurl, now of Washinston D.C..

I have to say that it is pretty hard to be pessimistic about the future of the Church when sitting through an installation Mass. With the basilica at maximum capacity, a sanctuary filled to the brim with cardinals, bishops, and priests, more inter-faith and civil dignitaries than you can shake a shepherd's staff at, and absolutely everything being done by the book, you can't help but be proud of your Catholic faith, tradition, and heritage.

And with people of every nationality, culture, age, and language, all amassed for a single purpose, you really do get a sense of the universality of the Church, maybe even a sense of what it will be like in the New Jerusalem. Heck, halfway through the thing I realized I was sitting in between the statue of Blessed Kateri and St. Thomas More...an American Indian convert and a martyred British government official (both with personal significance). You can't really diversify a religion much more than that.

Anyway, I'll miss Cardinal McCarrick's leadership in many ways. He was very generous in his time with the Catholic Terps (even if he did once throw away my bacon before I was finished eating it), but Wuerl certainly has the energy and charisma to keep things moving, and I suspect we'll see him eventually making a visit to see what's making the CSC churn out such a high rate of vocations.

A Blessed Feast Day!

Since Peter posted links to two of my fellow Gonzaga alumni I thought I would wish you all a blessed feast of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, patron saint of young Christian men. While poking around, I found this prayer composed by Saint Aloysius.

"O holy Mary, my Mistress,
into thy blessed trust
And special keeping,
into the bosom of thy tender
Mercy, this day, every day of my life
and at the hour of my death,
I commend my soul and body; to thee
I entrust all my hopes and
consolations,
All my trials and miseries, my life and
the end of my life, that through thy most
Holy intercession and thy merits,
all my actions may be ordered and
disposed according
To thy will that of thy divine Son.
Amen."

Perhaps you can pray it for young Christian men, that they may be as devoted to Mary as St. Aloysius.

Two for Townhall

Townhall has a couple of noteworthy columns for Catholic readers:

Pat Buchanan on Gov. Ehrlich's apparent dismissal of an employee for defending Catholic views against homosexuality.

And...

William J. Bennet describing 16th Century Catholic clergymen writing against the abuse of Native Americans.

Warning

I know I haven't posted for two weeks or more (eons in blog time), but in the next day or so I'm going to post a whole bunch of little jottings I've been saving.  So read Peter's stuff now before it gets buried under a small avalanche.

Also, if I owe you an email, I apologize, I'll get to it.  Please do not interpret the lapse as an indication of how little I think of you; if anything think of it as an indication of how I regard the blog.  Although I enjoy it very much, it is really about the lowest-down on my list of priorities.  I don't get paid to do it, and there are other things that are more helpful to my spiritual, intellectual, and personal development, so when I'm really busy or don't have that much access to the internet, or both, the blog is one of the first things that gets crowded out.   I'm bad enough about checking my regular email; I really don't check the blog one very much at all (though perhaps this will change). 

Speaking of warnings, I was watching a tv program the other day that began with one of those warning screens that usually inform you that the following program is going to have an unusual amount of graphic violence or explicitly depicted sex, only this one said "The following program contains depictions of religious rituals, including animal sacrifice.  Viewer discretion is advised."  Oh, no, not religious rituals!  Cover the children's eyes! 

Going off on another tangent, I seem to remember being told once that EWTN was banned in Canada at one point on the grounds that a channel that presented a consistent religious message would be harmful to children.  Oh, no!  Talking head shows hosted by nuns!  The insidious influence of Raymond Arroyo!  The Playboy Channel, however, was apparently not judged to be a threat, as it was not banned.  One wonders.