July 31, 2002
Tried Google in Latin? Cool. Other languages, too.
Posted 7/31/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
July 24, 2002
In the world of Catholic blogging, mostly in the comments sections, there have been scattered criticisms of the zero tolerance policy (concerning sexual abuse by priests) adopted by the US Bishops in their Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. What really gets me is when someone argues that a priest who has molested a child in the past but "cleaned up his act" should be allowed to continue in his ministry by using St. Paul as an example; saying that even with Paul's persecution of the Christians, he converted and was forgiven.
It seems like I should be stating the obvious but maybe I'm not so here goes: Paul's persecution of the Christians took place (this is important now, so pay attention) before his conversion. He didn't go around killing Christians after he was converted. So, let's pose the question... say Paul or another of the apostles persecuted and killed a Christian (or maybe sexually molested a young person) after being made an apostle and given the responsibility of pastoring the Church do you think he would have been given "another chance"? Remember, in the fifth chapter of Acts, Ananias and his wife Sapphira were struck dead just for lying about their offering. I doubt Paul or anyone else in the Church would have been sent for counseling and told, "Awww, it's all right, now. We know you've repented."
Also, as Scott Hahn said in one of his talks, God may have forgiven King David of his sins... but he still punished him. Sure, we can forgive a pederast priest who has repented of his ways but he cannot remain in the priestly ministry. Period. This is clearly taught by Pope John XXIII in the instruction on the Careful Selection And Training Of Candidates For The States Of Perfection And Sacred Orders.
Posted 7/24/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
July 8, 2002
I'm not sure who I like better,
Ann Coulter:
Liberals become indignant when you question their patriotism, but simultaneously work overtime to give terrorists a cushion for the next attack and laugh at dumb Americans who love their country and hate the enemy.
...or Peggy Noonan:
While the towers of the institution tottered, the men and women who worked within them took the stairs two at a time, hauling 80 pounds of gear to save the structure.
Posted 7/08/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
June 23, 2002
Been building a deck and arbor on the back of the house and putting up siding on the addition. Not much computer time lately...
Rod Dreher has a good report on the "Showdown in Dallas". I wonder how our bishop voted on Bishop Bruskewitz's proposal.
Looks like some bishops aren't even waiting for Rome's approval before acting on their charter. Archbishop Kelly in Louisville has dropped one from
St. Williams. No great loss there. Our own Bishop McRaith has announced that he will dismiss two priests "by the end of next week" but wouldn't reveal who they are. Probably be hard to keep that one a secret for long...
Posted 6/23/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
June 3, 2002
So, Janet went to Mass here in Paducah and guess what happened...
Not that she would choose to do so, mind you, but Alison has a ballet recital tonight and the dress rehearsal was Sunday afternoon. Maybe time to get back from our own parish, maybe not. So, she decided to go to the Vigil Mass at St. Francis de Sales. She asked me if I wanted to go and I pretty much said not on your life. I wasn't going to the dress rehearsal and really really didn't want to have to endure one of those liturgical nightmares. In the past when I've gone to Mass there I swear I've been upset for days afterwards.
About forty five minutes after Janet and Alison leave I hear a car pulling back into the driveway and some pretty hard door slamming. Hmmm..., I'm thinking, looking at my watch.
As she came in the door with a look of wonder on her face, "You're not gonna believe this! Mike, we left! I can't believe I actually walked out of a Mass. I couldn't stand it." Here is what she told me:
When she walked in she actually thought they were praying the Rosary. Turned out, it was just the cacophany of several hundred people in casual conversation before Mass. Heard above the din was the recorded sounds of birds chirping over the PA system, presumably to complement the gurgling sound of the baptismal font/fountain. Then, while the emcee and his entourage cruised down the center aisle with their Risen Christ processional cross, the choir sang some Contemporary Christian pop tune with great gusto. Now, this choir is quite a bunch of Caruso's. Everybody has his own microphone and quite possibly his own music stand. It is quite the forest of Manhasset music and microphone stands up front there at stage right. There were two pianos being played harder than Jerry Lee Lewis on a good night - and based on what I've heard in the past, probably the same talent level, too. The PA system is also turned up to concert level. The priest chanted the Greek Kyrie with the choir/pianos firing up with their own Kyrie complete with the additional verse after verse after verse. Then, without breaking stride, they launched into some long Gloria that was impossible to sing along with. Looking around, she noticed that nobody was singing - in fact, everyone was kind of just standing there with blank looks on their faces. Everyone. (Well, of course. All the enthusiastic people throw down at the LifeTeen Mass and the singers get their own mic.)
"There was no reason to sing along. We were being 'sung to'."
According to Janet, this was all unbelievably loud with the piano players doing big glissandos and just-a-pounding away. No moment of silence was left unfilled. The pianists doodled and tinkled filling all "dead spots" with instrumental accompaniment. Do the actual psalm for the day? You gotta be kidding! It was during the interminable Alleluia Opus (I guess must've been the album cut) that Janet realized that this was Corpus Christi weekend and thought, "There is no way I'm spending the feast of Corpus Christi here," and evacuated the building.
"I didn't want to sit through five minutes of the Choir worshipping themselves."
I could've said, "Hey, I warned you." But I didn't. Maybe it's not quite up to some of the blatant displays of sacrilege that I've read about elsewhere but there's still no reason to go to Mass and be treated to a liturgy rife with innovations and deviations from liturgical law done with all the reverence and taste of the Jerry Springer Show.
According to someone who stayed, it got worse after she left. There was a baptism and afterward the choir just sang and sang while the parents stood at the altar looking lovingly at their baby. Big show tune Communion songs... the whole works.
So, the next day, after hearing "Ave Verum Corpus" and "Adoro te Devote" all in the same Mass and then "Tantum Ergo Sacramentum" and praying "O Salutaris Hostia" during Exposition with some other gorgeous Latin song done a capella during the recessional by our resident organist and tenor whom we affectionally call "Pacelli", Janet turned to me and sighed, "I love this church."
I do, too.
Posted 6/3/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
May 31, 2002
Regarding the previous post... although I should probably follow the advice given in Matt 7:6, I'm going to say a few more things about it. I went back and re-read that little piece a few times. I wanted to add that to the other ones I've saved because they aren't archived.
I think a pretty accurate name for God would be Father. That's the name the Second Person in the Trinity, Jesus Christ the Son, used repeatedly. He even told us to call God, "Our Father..." As for the rest of the trinity being called "Daughter and Sustaining Power of Love", Hello???? Jesus Christ was a male. He revealed Himself to us as the Son. If I had a son and you referred to him as my daughter, to you that might be "accurate" in the politically correct fantasy world in which you live, but to those of us who can tell the difference, it would be... well... inaccurate. You could refer to me as my daughter's mother but that would also be inaccurate. Although a Litany somewhere probably refers to the Holy Spirit as "Sustaining Power of Love", why not just call the Holy Spirit "The Holy Spirit"? I hope that when the priest that wrote this baptizes folks, he at least calls the Trinity what Scripture calls it (Matt 28:19).
"God does not love me with a father's or a mother's love. Mothers and fathers love their children with a fashion of God's love. God acts first. God loves first. I can act and love in response to God. What I do in some way reflects what God does, but I am fooling myself if I think it is a perfect imitation. I fool myself even more if I believe that my response to God is better than someone who responds differently. God does not reflect humanity and the world. Humanity and the world reflect God!"
Umm, see John 15:9. How about the prodigal son? Or here. The Catechism likens God's love to a Father's love (paragraphs 219, 305, 609, 1439).
The author's meticulous avoidance of pronouns and his repeated use of the word "Godself" as a substitution for "Himself" is almost comical. The sad part is that there's a congregation out there who takes it all in and is probably (at least in part) spiritually formed by it.
Posted 5/31/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
May 30, 2002
"It has been nearly thirty years since those classes..."
Well, that explains a lot.
When I want to read some of the most liberal pap ever posted on a church web site I usually go here. It is updated almost every week but today an excerpt reads:
"I call God Father, Son and Spirit. But those are my terms. I can call God Mother, Daughter and Sustaining Power of Love, and that would be as accurate. I can give God all kind of names and titles, and they help me to realize a little bit more about how God has revealed Godself to us, but none would ever come close to being accurate."
Padre, although you were careful throughout your article to avoid masculine pronouns referring to the same God Whom Christ repeatedly called His Father, you messed up and actually used a masculine reference to Him in one little place. You might want to fix that before one of our local Ursulines finds it and really gives you trouble...
Oh, and Father Ray, here's a dime's worth from Emily Stimpson:
"We don't have to call God 'Mother' because that title belongs to someone else.
The Church.
Remember?
It's about relationship, not gender."
Get it?
Posted 5/30/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
May 23, 2002
So, the only people complaining were Detroit Piston fans? A big old nun with a hockey stick needs to go over there and beat the crap out of the whole parish, including the priest.
Posted 5/23/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
This happened a number of years ago and, until recently, I had forgotten all about it. Since the pedophilia scandals in the Church that have been brought out into the open recently I have been thinking about it, though, and thought I'd throw it out there.
A former choir director in a parish I attended left the parish to finish studies in a local seminary to be ordained as a priest. We kept in touch and right before his ordination I took him and some of his fellow seminarians out in my cabin cruiser for an evening on Ky Lake. That evening, as we were anchored out in a bay having some adult beverages, I emerged from the cabin out onto the deck to discover one of these young future priests sitting sideways on a bench with his legs stretched out across the lap of another seminarian. It was summertime and everyone was wearing shorts so we're talking bare legs here. Now, do normal heterosexual men do this? At the time I remember thinking that it was a little odd. I also vaguely remember quickly looking around to see if any other boaters were nearby, particularly any I might know. Nobody else seemed to take notice. I'm not even sure exactly how I reacted at the time although I know I didn't outwardly let on like I noticed anything peculiar. Most of the men I know would have probably thrown these guys overboard, or worse.
Like I said, it happened years ago and I don't even remember how many were on the boat, much less who they were. It was also during my blissful naive years when I was unaware of the liberalism and dissent infecting the Church from within.
Although this anecdote in itself is nothing compared to the overall problem, in light of Michael Rose's latest book, it makes we wonder about St. Meinrad's Seminary, the one that produces the majority of our own priests; it's screening process, the general atmosphere among the seminarians, and what our young men are being exposed to there.
Posted 5/23/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
May 22, 2002
Here are some quotes from the 2001 Diocese of Owensboro Priests Convocation. All the following statements (in italics) were made by the Chancellor of the Diocese of Owensboro, Sister Joseph Angela Boone, OSU, and were taken directly from the Diocese of Owensboro web site.
"One advantage of the shortage of priests and religious has been the necessity for greater involvement of the laity in the total operation of schools and parishes."
Well! "Advantage" is not a word I would ever consider using in reference to our priest shortage.
"Our ministry will be a continuous learning of how we can learn and practice the 'attitude of Christ' as it is relevant to all of God's people."
Really? How is it not relevant to all people now? Who could she possibly be referring to, hmmm?
"The first millennium was considered to be that of the bishop. Ignatius of Antioch said, 'Where the bishop is, there is the Church.' The second millennium was of the papacy. 'In the 11th century… papal power became absolute and monarchical.'"
She goes on to predict that the next millennium will be that of the baptized, a reference, no doubt, to her vision of a "future church" which will be run by the laity. I don't suppose Boone has bothered to consider Peter's primacy among the other apostles, or does she actually think that Peter was simply a "peer" of the others? I sense an unmistakable undercurrent of dissent here. From St. Ignatius: "Avoid divisions as the beginning of evils. All of you follow the bishop as Jesus Christ followed the Father, and follow the presbytery [the priests] as the Apostles; and respect the deacons as the commandment of God. Let no man perform anything pertaining to the church without the bishop. Let that be considered a valid Eucharist over which the bishop presides, or one to whom he commits it. Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be, just as wheresoever Christ Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not permitted either to baptize or hold a love-feast apart from the bishop. But whatever he may approve, that is well-pleasing to God, that everything which you do may be sound and valid." (Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, c. 8) Would Sister Boone feel the same way about Bishop Bruskewicz? Does she feel the same way about John Paul II? How does she feel about John Paul's letter Ordination Sacerdotalis - Apostolic Letter On Reserving Priestly Ordination To Men Alone? Sister Boone forgot to say, "...as long as the bishop is on our side." I guess before the 11th century we never had to pay attention to the pope?
"Instead of having seven sacraments for 50 percent of the people, we may have seven sacraments for a 100 percent of the people."
Why doesn't she just go out and say it? Obviously, she's agitating for women's ordination.
"With the increase in membership in our parishes, and the shortage of ordained priests, the Church might accept the services of the ordained married clergy."
Then again, the Church might not. You know, she could just become an Episcopalian. She would probably be happier. I know I would.
"Paul's letter to the Romans speaks of Phoebe, a deaconess in the early Church. When did women stop being deaconesses? "
At least she's starting to let her true feelings come through. Unfortunately, she's depending on the ignorance of people to take her seriously. A footnote in the New Oxford Annoted Bible: Revised Standard Version tells the reader that deaconess may mean simply "helper". Other bibles don't even use the word deaconess. In a Dictionary of the Bible by John McKenzie, he notes that the title does not indicate a hierarchical office and can refer to services given by Phoebe. A lot has been written on this. The feminist use of this argument to justify their whining for ordination does not fly. Even if they could be ordained, they'd make pretty lousy priests since they obviously don't consider obedience a part of their job description.
"My hope is that... there will be a rethinking of the moral teachings of the Church."
Man, I hope not.
Posted 5/22/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
Several articles concerning the numerous problems with our seminaries and how various forms of liberalism have contributed to the priest shortage have suggested that, overall, there is a new breed of younger, more conservative, orthodox young men being ordained as priests.
Is is just me or... I just finished looking at the 2002 priest assignments for the Diocese of Owensboro. I see the same pattern that I've noticed over at least the last two reassignments. Our newest priests, without fail, are assigned as associate pastors with some of the most liberal, heterodox priests in the diocese. One could easily suspect that this is a deliberate action with the primary purpose of breaking whatever orthodox spirit they may have coming out of the seminary. One priest whom I know, was assigned right out of the seminary to a priest whose main contribution to his parish was to get the tabernacle out of sight and into a small chapel. The new associate pastor did express to me his frustration at being powerless to do anything about it. Another newly ordained associate pastor also mentioned his frustration with being unable to do anything about his pastor's habitual liturgical abuses. These liberal pastors have what appear to be permanent assignments at the largest parishes in the diocese while ones known for their faithfulness to Church teachings and proper liturgy are assigned to the smallest, most backwoods parishes, apparently to minimize their influence among Catholics in this diocese.
Posted 5/22/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
May 20, 2002
Our Lady of Medjugorje: "the invention of dissolute and rebellious Franciscans and their pseudo-seers".
I figured as much...
Posted 5/20/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
May 19, 2002
From the "I wish I had written that" department:
here is a very fine tirade on Islam by Mark Shea. Part of which reads as follows:
"Such a spoiled-brat-fallen-on-hard-times culture is probably going to get the snot beat out of it several times before it finally loses its fundamental haughtiness and bends the knee to God in a way that is more than mere ritual."
Posted 5/19/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
May 17, 2002
At Alison's ballet class one of the mom's, who is Catholic but who also takes her kids to her husband's Baptist Church, says that the Catholic Church doesn't even emphasize the Bible. She remarked that "at Mass they don't even use the Bible". She was referring to the fact that the Lectionary is used so I informed her that it is Scripture. She knew that but to her it wasn't the same as someone up there flipping pages in the Bible. Imagine individuals having to find each reading everyday at every Mass throughout the world. Not too many Catholics I know are well versed enough to be able to flip to any book of the Bible much less find the right verse. That'd go over real well now wouldn't it?
Now, her comment was clear indication of her total ignorance that the entire Mass is made up of Scripture readings. The prayers of the Mass itself are Scripture. The complete Bible is read over a three year cycle in the Catholic Church. Not just bits and pieces like in the protestant world. The pastor picks a passage, may not even read it, but spends forty minutes expounding on (his interpretation) of it. So what if all the kids at the Baptist Team Kids know every book in the Bible if they don't know that Jesus is the Bread of Life? What good is that? Facts are just facts. Sure I want my child to know the names of each apostle but I'd rather her recognize Jesus in the Breaking of the Bread.
Now growing up in the Catholic Church I did not receive a good education in the stories of the Bible or a good understanding of their meaning. My friend mentioned that she didn't learn all this at her Catholic school either. When I mentioned that she should've learned it at home that went right over her head. I should've learned it at home too. The reason is because our parents were negligent in that regard. I'm pretty self-righteous when it comes to parents failing to educate their children in this department. I don't believe this is the responsibility of others. Parents have an obligation to teach their children their faith. Of course, this would mean that parents themselves must know it. Therein lies the problem….
Posted 5/17/2002 by Janet Inman | Link |
May 16, 2002
I've been looking for a way to post short thoughts on passing things without writing an entire essay. Lately I've been reading some very excellent weblogs (blogs) that have just recently popped up on the internet (see the links page under "Catholic") and that has inspired me to add this little section to our site.
If you've been here before I guess you've noticed the recent web site redesign. It was way overdue. Most of the graphics are still original but I recently found, thanks to Amy Welborn, a Catholic clipart site called Hermanoleon Clipart. It's a very nice source and the first "clipart" site I've ever seen that had anything worth using. We also just got a digital camera (after years of lusting for one) so the Mugshots page will get updated more often. I've already made some much needed improvements on some of the photos in the St. Henry's Gallery.
Fortunately, our diocese has been spared (So Far...) from the scandal that has finally caught up with the liberal "spirit of Vatican II" crowd. Gerard Serafin has compiled a pretty good page covering our little problem. Most of the reasons I haven't written anything on this site is that anything I might have to write about it has already been written by writers much better than me. Here are some of the (I think) best articles concerning the scandal and what ought to be done about it:
That's just a sampling. The previously mentioned blogs also have some priceless commentary on The Scandal.
Posted 5/16/2002 by Michael Inman | Link |
