My Little Sister Lisa on the Radio Now

Check it out, if you can. She's being interviewed by Al Kresta on Ave Maria Radio:

http://www.avemariaradio.net/catholic-online-radio.php.

Lisa runs the apostolate www.divorcedcatholic.com. I'm very proud of her!

Mark Steyn: Jews get killed, but Muslims feel “vulnerable”

Read this incisive article about the gross double-standard in the American mainstream press in how they covered the recent terror attacks in Bombay. Here's a snippet:

Shortly after the London Tube bombings in 2005, a reader of Tim Blair, The Sydney Daily Telegraph's columnist wag, sent him a note-perfect parody of a typical newspaper headline:

"British Muslims Fear Repercussions Over Tomorrow's Train Bombing."

Indeed. And so it goes. This time round – Mumbai – it was the Associated Press that filed a story about how Muslims "found themselves on the defensive once again about bloodshed linked to their religion".

Oh, I don't know about that. In fact, you'd be hard pressed from most news reports to figure out the bloodshed was "linked" to any religion, least of all one beginning with "I-" and ending in "-slam." In the three years since those British bombings, the media have more or less entirely abandoned the offending formulations – "Islamic terrorists," "Muslim extremists" – and by the time of the assault on Mumbai found it easier just to call the alleged perpetrators "militants" or "gunmen" or "teenage gunmen," as in the opening line of this report in The Australian: "An Adelaide woman in India for her wedding is lucky to be alive after teenage gunmen ran amok."

Kids today, eh? Always running amok in an aimless fashion.

The veteran British TV anchor Jon Snow, on the other hand, opted for the more cryptic locution "practitioners." "Practitioners" of what, exactly?

Hard to say. And getting harder. For the Wall Street Journal, Tom Gross produced a jaw-dropping round-up of Mumbai media coverage: The discovery that, for the first time in an Indian terrorist atrocity, Jews had been attacked, tortured and killed produced from the New York Times a serene befuddlement: "It is not known if the Jewish center was strategically chosen, or if it was an accidental hostage scene."

Hmm. Greater Mumbai forms one of the world's five biggest cities. It has a population of nearly 20 million. But only one Jewish center, located in a building that gives no external clue as to the bounty waiting therein. An "accidental hostage scene" that one of the "practitioners" just happened to stumble upon? "I must be the luckiest jihadist in town. What are the odds?"

Meanwhile, the New Age guru Deepak Chopra laid all the blame on American foreign policy for "going after the wrong people" and inflaming moderates, and "that inflammation then gets organized and appears as this disaster" in Mumbai.

Really? The inflammation just "appears"? Like a bad pimple? The "fairer" we get to the, ah, inflamed militant practitioners, the unfairer we get to everyone else. At the Chabad House, the murdered Jews were described in almost all the Western media as "ultra-Orthodox," "ultra-" in this instance being less a term of theological precision than a generalized code for "strange, weird people, nothing against them personally, but they probably shouldn't have been over there in the first place. . . . ” (continue reading)

Veil Wars

I just read an interesting discussion at a blog called “St. Louis Catholic” about whether or not theCatholic Church still requires women to cover their heads with a veil or hat at Mass.

The unnamed canon lawyer whose opinion that, yes, women are still obliged to wear them (even if virtually none do anymore), critiques the contrary opinion, advanced by Father John Zuhlsdorf, canonist Ed Peters, and Jimmy Akin. Even though I have long been of the opinion that the Church no longer requires this custom, at least not at Novus Ordo Masses, I must admit that this article has gone a long way toward convincing me that I have been wrong about this. The fact that “nobody does this anymore” is not a good reason not to observe this venerable Catholic custom. 

I do, however, have a respectful complaint for the proprietor of the St. Louis Catholic blog (who goes by “Tinman” rather than his real name), and that is: It is a mistake for you not to name the canon lawyer whom you quote and whom you refer to only as “an out-of-state canonist.” There's no reason that I can see why he should not be named, especially since he publically critiques others by name. That seems unjust to me. The unnamed canonist's argument has great merit, but its effects are blunted by his remaining anonymous. 

What All the Cool Catholic Kids Will Be Wearing on Christmas Morning

Seriously. Check these out. They're called “Sacrifice Beads.”

I happen to have come into possession of six of these beauties, and my wife and I are giving them as Christmas stocking giftlets for our six youngest kids. But adults of all ages can (and should) use them to stay recollected in a spirit of mortification. 

Check them out here, along with all the other great Catholic stuff for your kids (or grandkids), available from the good people over at www. HolyHeroes.com. 

A Holiday Message From the Religion of Peace

Ignorance and Arrogance Make for an Unflattering Combination

Terre Haute Tribune-Star columnist Stephanie Salter personafies this combo with her inane article “A Catholic priest is about to be excommunicated; guess why”.

This is my letter to the editor about this article:

“Stephanie Salter's article, ‘A Catholic priest is about to be excommunicated . . .’ was truly a bold, fresh, piece of foolishness, even by her standards.

 

It seems clear that she has no idea why the Catholic Church teaches what it does about the sacrament of holy orders (reading Pope John Paul II's document ‘Ordinatio Sacerdotalis,’ which is available in English at the www.vatican.va website, would be a good start). Nor does she seem to understand what ‘Liberation Theology¹ actually is and why it has been rejected as a distorted and destructive ideology by the overwhelming majority of Catholics in this country who have even heard of it and who know what it really is.

 

The next time Ms. Salter gets the urge to lash out publically against the Catholic Church, I suggest that she do some actual research on the subject before spouting nonsense, as she did in this article. It was effective in exposing her ignorance, but not in much else.”

Something to Read on The Feast of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception

MARY: ARK OF THE NEW COVENANT

By Patrick Madrid

This Rock Magazine, December, 1991

HIS FACE STIFFENED, and his eyes narrowed to slits. Until now the Calvary Chapel pastor had been calm as he "shared the gospel" with me, but when I mentioned my belief in Mary’s Immaculate Conception, his attitude changed. 

"The problem with you Roman Catholics," he said, thin forefinger stabbing the air a few inches from my face, "is that you’ve added extra baggage to the gospel. How can you call yourselves Christians when you cling to unbiblical traditions like the Immaculate Conception? It’s not in the Bible--it was invented by the Roman Catholic system in 1854. Besides, Mary couldn’t have been sinless, only God is sinless. If she were without sin she would be God!" 

At least the minister got the date right, 1854 being the year Pope Pius IX infallibly defined the doctrine of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, but that’s as far as his accuracy went. His reaction was typical of Evangelicals. He was adamant that the Catholic emphasis on Mary’s sinlessness was an unbearable affront to the unique holiness of God, especially as manifested in Jesus Christ. 

After we’d examined the biblical evidence for the doctrine, the anti-Marianism he’d shown became muted, but it was clear that, at least emotionally if not biblically, Mary was a stumbling block for him. Like most Christians (Catholic and Protestant) the minister was unaware of the biblical support for the Church’s teaching on the Immaculate Conception. But sometimes even knowledge of these passages isn’t enough. Many former Evangelicals who have converted to the Catholic Church relate how hard it was for them to put aside prejudices and embrace Marian doctrines even after they’d thoroughly satisfied themselves through prayer and Scripture study that such teachings were indeed biblical. 

For Evangelicals who have investigated the issue and discovered, to their astonishment, the biblical support for Marian doctrines, there often lingers the suspicion that somehow, in a way they can’t quite identify, the Catholic emphasis on Mary’s sinlessness undermines the unique sinlessness of Christ. 

To alleviate such suspicions, one must understand what the Catholic Church means (and doesn’t mean) by the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Pope Pius IX, in his constitution Ineffabilis Deus (issued December 8, 1854), taught that Mary, "from the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin." The doctrine includes the assertion that Mary was perpetually free from all actual sin (willful disobedience of God, either venial or mortal). 

Several objections are raised by Protestants. . . . (continue reading)

A Tribute to Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and His Wife Rivka

As you know, this young Chabad Jewish couple were heinously murdered last week by Muslim terrorists in Bombay, India. Rivka, 28, was six months pregnant with the couple's fourth child.

The Holtzbergs were aware of the dangers that surrounded them as they fostered Jewish life in Mumbai, said Rabbi Goldberg. “Next to the night stand, on the bed, there were several religious books, and next to the books was another [book]: How to Protect Yourself When Terrorists Come to Your House. “There was criticism from people who said it was irresponsible to have them in a place such as [Mumbai]. But we had security. Gavriel was conscious of the risks; he was reading the book because he was a target.”

The couple’s murder is the latest chapter in a story of personal tragedy afflicting the family. They had tried for years to conceive, but their two eldest children were born with Tay-Sachs, a terminal genetic disease. The oldest died. The second is hospitalised in Israel. At the time of her death, Rivka was six months pregnant.

This tragedy — remembering all who were murdered in Bombay during this attack — saddens me very much. I find myself thinking and praying about this often.

The couple's 2-year old orphaned son, Moshe, cries for his mother at their funeral:

“Mission of Love”

Watch this poignant video tribute (in two parts) to Rabbi Gavriel Holtsberg and his young wife Rivka, who, along with three other Hasidic Jews were tortured and then murdered by Muslim terrorists in Bombay, India.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Also, here's a good article from the Chabad website about this young couple: http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/782173/jewish/At-The-Shabbos-Table-With-Gabi-and-Rivkah.htm

May the Lord have mercy on their souls and grant them peace and salvation. 

Yesterday's “Open Line” Radio Show Now Available

It was an interesting show, as all of them tend to be. In the latter part of the 2nd half, I encouraged a discouraged Catholic mom to consider sending her college-age daughter to Belmont Abbey College, instead of the “Catholic” college she's at now, where she's in big-time danger of losing her Faith.

For me, at least, my show is the fastest hour in Catholic radio. You can listen to yesterday's installment here.

Let's Pray That India and Pakistan Don't Spin Out of Control

Memri is running this ominous story:

“Pakistani Nuclear Scientist: 'None Of India's Cities Can Remain Safe From Our Missiles'; 'Our Missile System . . . Can Be Fired in Only 10 Minutes — They Are On the Launchers.'

“Amid growing tensions between India and Pakistan following the 11/26 Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr. Samar Mubarakmand spoke of the readiness of Pakistani missiles and of their capability to target Indian cities . . .” (read more).

This information has been widely known all along, of course. But what makes this situation particularly eye-catching is the recent terrorist attack in Bombay, India, perpetrated (yet again) by trained Muslim killers.

India blames Pakistan for at least harboring the attackers within its borders, if not actually masterminding their attack, and the Indian government is under extreme pressure from many of its people to strike back militarily. Pakistan, on the other hand, denies involvement. So, if India does strike, and they very well may, I fear that the chaotic, jihad-ridden, anti-Indian elements in the Pakistani government (which is probably a significant percentage of it) may just say, “to hell with it,” and launch their own attack using nukes.

Yes, the two contries have been at each other's throats for decades, but the thing that's different this time is the Bombay terror attacks. That could be the match that lights a very big fire this time around. I hope and pray that that doesn't happen.      

Some Lunchtime Levity

As I break for a quickie repast, I cast my eyes across the blogosphere and they fell upon these comedic gems over at Ironic Catholic, under the heading of “Theological Trash Talk.” (I just know that some of my priest friends — you know who you are — will appreciate a few of these in particular.)

• You lovable gravely disordered noodlehead
• Yeah, you. This is your conscience. This is your conscience on drugs. Any questions?
  
• You've really got your transcendental Thomist freak goin' on
  
• You're such a cross between a Jansenist and a Cathar. Yeah, pun intended, pharisaic punk
  
• Your similitudo dei needed an elephantine spit shine when you were born
• Yo momma's like St. Monica without her faith
• When you got baptized, that chrism oil curdled on your forehead like rancid salad dressing
  
• Dude, you have free will. That Freebird song don't have nothin' to do with it. And Lynyrd Skynyrd ain't no theologians
  
• When you received the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you asked for a receipt
  
• You so messed up, you thought "intrinsically disordered" was a self-canceling pizza delivery

Feel free to add some theological zingers of your own in the comments box. I'll start with these:

1) It's time for you to go a little heavier on the exitus and a lot lighter on the reditus. 

2) Hush your mouth. Your sitz im leben is starting to show. 

Abortion = Black Genocide

(Thanks, Thérèse.)

And Then There Were Pimps

“Bishop Don Magic Juan, the self-proclaimed king of the pimps, poses in one of his professional outfits in Los Angeles. Real pimps and former pimps, like Don Magic Juan, have become celebrities in the hip-hop culture.”

Say what? I thought this was a crime (and I'm not just talking about the costume). This pimp trend, which has been around awhile now, is another example of the depraved downward spiral so much of the music culture is locked into.

Let's Go Visit the Temple

These images from the UCLA website are fascinating. See how the Temple in Jerusalem might have looked based on research fed into a computer-generated graphics program. Nice! (Scroll down on the web page to see more.) These are a good teaching tool for your kids, if you'd like to give them a visual idea of what the Temple was all about. They read about it (or at least hear about it) in Scripture, but may not have any clear idea of what it was. And they really should. After all, aside from its central importance in the Old Testament, this is where so much of Christ's public ministry took place.

Here's another resource with plenty more fascinating information on the Temple, which was located somewhere atop what today is known as the Temple Mount.