Posts Tagged ‘catholic’

Here comes the media misrepresenting the Pope: Update Wow!

Posted: November 22, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, media
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A couple of days ago my son came to me saying its on the news that the Pope is now allowing condom use. As I was busy with show prep etc I didn’t have any time to check on it and I hadn’t seen it myself, so I told him to ignore the media and read the actual statement that the Benedict XVI made to see if that is what it actually says.

Later that day he came to me saying. “You’re right it not what the media is saying at all”

It hasn’t taken long for activists to try to spin what has been said:

British gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell did just that in his reaction to the book, saying: “If the pope can change his stance on condoms, why can’t he also modify the Vatican’s harsh intolerant opposition to women’s rights, gay equality, fertility treatment and embryonic stem cell research?”

Forgetting the hateful and false hyperbole Mr. Tatchell manages to miss that the Holy Father has not changed a thing at all, as the Anchoress points out first quoting deacon Greg who directly quotes the Pope:

“The Church does not consider at all illicit the use of those therapeutic means necessary to cure bodily diseases, even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result there from–provided such impediment is not directly intended for any motive whatsoever.”

Big change isn’t it? Not quite, the pope he is quoting is Paul VI in 1968.

She then quotes the best post I’ve seen on the subject:

To the son who is a male prostitute, she advises, again, the Catholic teaching on human sexuality. She tries to explain it, but he cannot understand it and completely rejects it. He simply cannot get his mind around it. He is adamant that he is going to continue in his lifestyle, no matter what. When she realizes that she is never going to get anywhere with him on this issue, she advises him that if he absolutely insists that it must be this way, then he should use a condom. He agrees that he should think enough of the other person’s value as a human person not to intentionally risk AIDS infection, and she rejoices that he, at least, understands this much about human dignity. It’s enough for her to hope that it is spark enough for him to, as the Pope said, “re-develop his understanding” and come eventually to the fullness of the Faith. Again, as assuredly as she was with her other son, she is being a good Catholic mother.

It is contraception not condoms that have and always have been forbidden. As the Anchoress put it herself this time:

I think it is a very good thing that Pope Benedict has spoken about this issue via the book – it takes the whole matter out of the world of encyclicals and exhortations (which are often either unread or mischaracterized) and brings it into the light of the public square and open discussion. If it gets a few people to pay attention, smack their foreheads and say, “wait…you mean the church was never as unreasonable and inhumane as we’d been told?” That will be something, won’t it?

The Holy Spirit uses what is at its disposal for its own purposes, and moves as it will. This pope has been all about giving the Holy Spirit room to move and work.

This is all true but it doesn’t matter we will still see more HuffPo headlines not withstanding the actual truth.
I think the problem is the media isn’t actually interested in what the Pope is saying, they have an agenda and we WILL talk about this on Saturday and on our Christmas show. That being said Willie Geist dealt with it fairly on Way Too Early. I’ll see what Morning Joe has to say.

Update: Wow! very wow!

The value of a reminder

Posted: November 7, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, personal
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For reasons I won’t go into I’ve been feeling low for quite a while.

Oh I’ve managed to have fun and enjoy people’s company but for quite a few weeks I’ve been kinda down and some issues that have come up lately haven’t helped.

I put up a post and wrote a review but was still angry.and I was determined to stay put Sunday or no Sunday. I could get away with it too, the wife was gone for the day, one son was at work and the other was so deep into his gaming he would never notice. I had missed confession anyways so I wasn’t able to receive so what was the difference; or so I rationalized to myself.

I had tweet deck up in the background and happened to look at my screen when suddenly a tweet came up from Father Z. I don’t remember what the tweet was but I could see his icon and the priest’s robes and it reminded me of my duty. I kept thinking to myself trying to stay angry but the image of Fr. Z in his robes holding the host wouldn’t go away. Finally 5 minutes before the start of mass, I pulled myself out of bed, dressed quickly and dashed to church sitting in the side room alone just in time to make the start of mass.

Ironically it was a commemorative mass for the Venerini Sisters. It was the mass that marked the end of their US centennial. As I sat in the el section of the church during communion (I abstained having missed confession) and watched the line of people going up to receive it occurred to me that if that tweet had been from any of the sisters in attendance I would have still been in bed. Other than my 7th grade teacher who I recognized I couldn’t tell the nuns from the little old ladies that prayed in the church as not a single one of them remained in the habit.

The sisters have done a lot of good work and do so in many countries but I couldn’t get the irony out of my head. It reminded me of a story from my youth at St. Anthony’s. My mom was coming to pick me up when one of the sisters was crossing the street. She was fairly young, not in a habit and wearing a very short skirt when a guy in a convertible came by noticed the sister and pulled over and said something to her. I couldn’t hear what he said but she got VERY angry.

As my mom pulled up, Sister still angry commented to my mother how shocked she was at what that guy had said. This was a mistake. My mother isn’t one to volunteer an opinion but if you ask her she will tell you exactly what she thinks without holding back. She had seen what happened and didn’t miss a beat.

What are you angry about? How can you expect to get the respect of a nun if you are unwilling to dress like one?

I think my mother shocked sister more than the guy in the convertible did.

When a nun in a habit enters a room everyone notices it speaks a universal message of service to Christ.

When an old lady, no matter how devout enters the room, it does not.

If Charlie Baker fails to win today it will be for this reason…

Posted: November 2, 2010 by datechguy in elections, opinion/news, politics
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I talked to people at Mass and at the K of C yesterday and I was very surprised to hear so much support for Tim Cahill…until I read this:

“As you know, the MCFL State PAC endorsed Tim Cahill for Governor last spring. Tim answered our questionnaire 100% pro-life. He pledged to opt out of the abortion funding in Obamacare. We were pleased for our people to have someone for whom to vote because the other candidates hold aggressively pro-abortion positions.

“Unfortunately, Charlie Baker is still (in his own words) ‘to the left of Barack Obama on social issues’ and Deval Patrick has never been for life.

Occasionally there is a race with candidates whose positions are so stridently pro-abortion that no one in conscience can vote for them. That is the case with Baker and Patrick.

Let me follow up with a pronouncement by the Pope:

… Pastors should remind the faithful of their duty to use their votes to advance the common good. He said when political platforms consider decriminalizing abortion, democracy itself is undermined and “betrayed at its very roots.”

Do I think that Tim Cahill’s abortion platform is for expedience, yup. Could his abortion support in the first place been expedience? Yup, I’ve seen many Catholic Pols shift on abortion and gay marriage in order to move up in the democratic party which is perceived as the only game in town. Now lets again go over the rules for Mortal Sin:

1. Grave Matter (Abortion? Yup)

2. Full Knowledge (Do I know the candidate supports abortion and there is no pro-life alternative?)

3. Done Deliberately (Knowing the two above do I still make that vote advancing abortion?)

I’ve talked to many voters who are planning on the full republican ticket except at the top. It confused me until yesterday when for the first time one of them mentioned abortion. I must confess until yesterday I was totally unaware of this issue (which doesn’t reflect well on me).

I am a Catholic Blogger, a VERY Catholic blogger. Like all members of the Knights of Columbus when I say the pledge at the very end I add the words “Born and Unborn”. I was considering the situation (if the pro life candidate is non-viable is choosing between two pro-abortion candidates allowed?) when I looked at the comments on that Red State post hitting MCFL and at Universal Hub cheering abortion.

One of the reasons why I became a republican is because As a Catholic who you know actually BELIEVES in Catholicism The democratic party brands me a racist, bigot, sexist, homophobic etc etc etc. Reading the comments at those two sites brought back memories of those halcyon days.

For this I give as a gift to those sites the Wheel of Fish award:

Tim Cahill ran as an independent because he believed that “Republican” would always be a dirty word in Massachusetts, that was true until it wasn’t. The same holds true with abortion. It will be a pro-abortion state until it is not.

And I repeat and if Charlie Baker loses this race today, this is the reason.

Three Masses Three Days

Posted: October 31, 2010 by datechguy in catholic
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Whenever Halloween falls on a Sunday you get three days when Catholics attend Mass in a row.

First you get the normal Sunday mass, the holy day of obligation that all Catholics should be attending. (If you call yourself Catholic and don’t attend Mass, consider calling yourself something else or get thee to confession.)

Second you have the feast of All saints, November 1st. The day where we remember those who have come before us who have fought the good fight. The canonized saint and frankly the much more numerous uncanonized saints whose presence in heaven we do not directly know of. The Anchoress nails it (no surprise)

That is a holy day of obligation that I particularly love, because there is an intimacy to it. In blustery weather, usually damp and chill, the Catholics troop to mass and remember those who came before us. It’s like spiritually visiting the graves of our beloved. We remember the stories and remember where we have come from, and that helps us to remember who we are. It helps remind us that we want to keep walking the straight, narrow path that will unite us all before the throne!

And finally All souls day Nov 2nd election day, when we remember those souls in purgatory. It is a very important day and our attention to it is both charitable (helping souls progress) and smart (the holy souls in purgatory can in fact pray for us) and pragmatic (the day may come where we may find ourselves there).

Many lazy Catholics use purgatory as their emergency backup plan (I was once one) figuring it was easier to shoot for purgatory than heaven. This is a losing proposition as you start to make excuses for your behavior, it’s nearly as bad as the “once saved” crowd (I actually knew a man who was planning on beating someone up who said it was ok because he was already saved) All souls day is a constant reminder that we need to do better, try harder and as St. Paul said, finish the race.

These are three days where Catholics should take advantage of the season to contemplate eternity and to enlist help from the Saints who have followed that path.

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