Archive for July, 2023

Ending Celibacy in the Catholic Church A Solution that Causes Problems and Solves None

Posted: July 13, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine
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Today I noticed this tweet from Church Militant:

The fact is while the motives for those pushing this might not be all that pure I find this issue interesting because unlike Gay Marriage or communion for the divorced this isn’t an issue that involves making mortal sin licit.

Many people forget that the imposition of celibacy on the priesthood was itself a reform to stop inherited parishes being passed down to sons as a family business rather than being about the worship of God, so if this reform was rolled back while it would be a big change from what we’re used to it would not be an assault on the doctrine of the church.

But there is a difference between this change being “licit” and it being wise. Let me give you a few reasons why this would be a rather foolish idea.

  1. Time: If there is one thing that you will notice about your parish priest is that his time is at a premium. Between masses, hospital and nursing home visits, and various duties attending parishioners in need, a priest is very busy particularly give these duties are a 24/7 situation. Add to that the administrative duties and you leave very little time to take care of a wife and family.
  2. Cost: Right now the cost of medical care for retired priests is a significant expense. Consider what costs you would be adding to the church in general and to parishes in particular if you added the cost of insuring a priest, his wife and children.
  3. Housing: Once you are housing a priest his wife and his family you suddenly need bigger accommodations. While this might not be a disaster when you have a rectory that has a single priest when it was built to house several, if you have a parish with multiple priests suddenly housing one or more families becomes a real problem.
  4. Scandal: What do you think will be the situation when a priest and his wife quarrel? Or a priest and his son? What happens when a priest’s son or daughter gets in trouble or if you run into a situation where a wife wants to leave? All of these things not only consume time to try to repair but have the potential for scandal within the church.
  5. Jealousy: Anyone who has been in a parish for any amount of years will notice that there are a group of women who tend to pursue priests some more subtle than others. What do you think will happen when it is suddenly licit for a priest to get married? The pursuit of eligible priests in a parish will be a lot more brazen with results that will generate a lot of difficultly in for a man trying to fulfill his pastoral duties. And can you picture the type of trouble a woman whose advances are rejected by a priest can cause? Does the church really need that?

And of course none of this will solve the problem of predatory priests when you consider that four out of five cases involve homosexual behavior, in fact you might end up with the horrible situation where a priest uses a wife as a “beard” to cover such behavior. And these are just the problems that I’ve come up with today.

Jim Caviezel as August Landmesser Delivers The Quote of the Year

Posted: July 12, 2023 by datechguy in culture, entertainment
Tags: , , ,

Two days ago in one of my “Under the Fedora” posts I wrote this about the movie The Sound of Freedom

The Outsized reaction of the professional left to the performance of the movie the “Sound of Freedom” last week and Disney’s decision to sit on it for a week seems rather odd, particularly when you note how consistent and united this reaction is.

Why you would think the left and their allies had a big hand in that pie. And if they didn’t before they might now.

Of course that’s nonsense, just because the elite left knew about Jeffrey Epstein and tolerated him for decades and knew about Harvey Weinstein and tolerated him for decades and knew about Matt Lauer and tolerated him for decades and woke Disney sat on this film for half a decade doesn’t mean that they have a hand in child sex slavery. Besides if that was the case people would have been afraid to work on the film and it’s star Jim Caviezel would have folks running away from him in Hollywood over it:

Oh wait:

I want this to be so huge that they’re forced to look at this. I lost my agents over this. Yep, 17 years, 15 years. I lost my lawyer over this, and now I understand why all these actors didn’t want to do the movie because of this. Listen, you do Schindler’s List fifty years later, you’re a hero. Try doing Schindler’s List when the real Nazis are right there. Understand how that becomes more dangerous? I don’t understand why people are willing to let children be hurt, but in this time, Hollywood says, ‘No, no, let’s kick that down fifty years from now and then [see where we’re at]. That’s crap.

Jim Caviezel in an interview with Angel Studio’s head Neil Harmon

Hollywood in Toto notes a slight difference in the penalty for making this movie for Caviezel and other Hollywood starts in ….interesting situations:

Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a crew member on a movie set and his career never missed a beat. Production on the film in question, “Rust,” resumed earlier this year.

Ezra Miller’s rap sheet is a mile long, but the nonbinary actor anchors one of the summer’s biggest adventures, “The Flash.” And, had the movie performed well at the box office, Miller would have played the speedster in the sequel.

Jim Caviezel agreed to star in a fact-based story about child sex trafficking, exposing an ongoing crime many people don’t know about.

Perhaps the day will come when the Hollywood left will be suddenly decide that like Lauer, Weinstein and Epstein those involved in this kind of thing (the child trafficking not the movie) are to be shunned while stars and elites proclaim their public shock that it was ever going on, but until that critical mass is reached Caviezel will remain Hollywood’s August Landmesser standing separate from the crowd.

#UnexpectedlyTM of course. (hat tip insty)

Closing thought:

Caviezel’s quote instantly reminded me of the Three Stooges who were my favorite as a kid. It’s worth noting that their hilarious short “You Nazty Spy” came out in 1940 when the Reich was poised to swallow up most of Europe and it would have been very easy for Nazi agents to target three comics staring in shorts for revenge by Nazi agents.

Ring Doorbells, Paper Ballots and Palestinians

Posted: July 11, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Quite a while back I wrote about the Palestinians insisting that they were not bringing arms into a sacred area in one of their mosques but then objecting even more strongly to Israel putting in cameras which would have demonstrated the truth (or falseness) of said contention.

The problem was obvious, you could not allow objective truth to be seen because objective truth was contrary to the assertion that was being made.

A similar thing happened with the election of 2020 in six key counties in swing states, at the same time that the media/left insisted that everything was on the up and up they did everything they could in court to fight these assertions in court on the grounds of standing (rather successfully I might add) rather than simply demonstrate via audits and objective examination of the evidence that the elections were clean to the electorate.

The logical conclusion here being that the objective evidence was not friendly to their assertions.

Which brings me to this story concerning a ring the ring doorbell.

https://twitter.com/ZaidJilani/status/1678502661291638787

You see the ring camera doesn’t care what your race or religion or the desired narrative of the day is, what it does is show the image of what is actually happening, objective reality.

And while it might be considered a good thing for a homeowner protecting their property or a neighborhood wanting to keep criminals from using it as a stomping ground or even for the mother of boys discourage them from getting into the type of trouble that boys do when they’re young and stupid if you’re trying to sell a narrative based on unreality, well it can be a killer.

So expect a lot of pushback against the ring camera as a sign of white supremacy, not because it’s yet another feed that can be hacked and observed but because it provides a does of truth in an age where the lie is king.

Unexpectedly of coursetm

Pa gov tries to compromise on school vouchers, but fellow Dems block his moves

Posted: July 11, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper 

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro wanted to cut a deal with the Republicans, but his fellow Democrats wouldn’t let him do it. 

The issue was important: school vouchers for kids in failing public schools throughout the state.  

Surprisingly, Shapiro supported a $100 million program to pay tuition at private and religious schools throughout the state.  

The Republicans, who control the State Senate, wanted the deal. The Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, blocked it, bowing to complaints from teachers’ unions and other leftists.  

Shapiro had to back down because the Democrats had kept the state without a budget for five days over the issue. “One party can’t get anything done on their own. Democrats and Republicans need to work together if we are to accomplish anything here in our state capital,” said Shapiro, who added he was disappointed but did not want to plunge the state into a “painful, protracted budget impasse.” 

Some Republicans expressed shock at the turn of events. 

“If this was the plan in the end, (Shapiro) certainly will have ruined his credibility with us, which to this point had been pretty strong,” said Sen. Chris Gebhard, R-Lebanon. 

Senate Republicans have not necessarily lost all their leverage. Other items that Democrats had wanted in the budget bill — and that Senate Republicans agreed to in exchange for the private schools program — might need separate legislation to spend that money. 

And Republicans haven’t scheduled the Senate to return to session until September 18, allowing them to hold up the budget bill until then without the constitutionally required signature of the presiding officer. 

Rep. Tarik Khan, D-Philadelphia, argued that boosting money for public schools — not private schools — must be a priority for lawmakers to try to wipe out disparities. 

But public schools, particularly in large cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, have been a mess for years. After the COVID shutdown, tests demonstrate that the students have fallen way behind in math and reading at all levels.  

The budget impasse also means higher education support remains in limbo, particularly for Penn State, Temple University, and the University of Pittsburgh. All the schools are reeling from declines in admissions and scholarships.  

I must credit the governor for trying to reach across the aisle, but here it’s the Democrats, not the Republicans, who favor unions over student success.  

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