“Run over by Metro”

Houston Press reports on the city’s transportation company and its shoddy safety record. Gruesome stories.

Tradition

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the Episcopal Church is seriously concerned about bishops who break tradition, Diogenes tells us.

RIP Robert Webber

Evangelical scholar Robert Webber died Friday evening from pancreatic cancer.

Implications …

What were the practical consequences of the doctrine of limbo?
Ann Druge grew up in a Catholic family with eight children and the haunting knowledge that a ninth was stillborn. Because the baby, named Mary Ellen, had not been baptized, she was denied a Catholic burial.
“When we would go to the cemetery . . . we’d [...]

An Afternoon Chat

Robert Duncan (of SperoNews, Santificarnos, and the IESE Business School of the University of Navarre) was in Houston for the weekend, and we got together for an afternoon chat in the lobby of his hotel, followed by a brief tour of downtown Houston. He was in Dallas yesterday, and visited with Julie of Happy Catholic, [...]

“Into Great Silence”

Georgia Bulletin review.

Stephen Hawking Flies

Stephen Hawking got to experience zero-G in the “vomit comet.” (Video at BBC). Old Faithful Wolf comments.

More on Limbo

Tom Droleskey provides a Traditionalist look at recent discussions on Limbo. Regardless of what one thinks about some of the sources he cites (e.g., Donald Sanborn), I think he makes a strong case that Catholic teaching on Limbo was more than a mere “theological hypothesis,” but was logically and inseparably interconnected with teachings about baptism, [...]

On Church and State

The dominant Catholic social theory prior to the Second Vatican Council was referred to under the heading of “The Social Reign of Christ the King.” This remains an important shibboleth for Traditionalist Catholic groups such as the SSPX.
Thomas Droleskey of Christ or Chaos states the matter thus:
” … a nation’s recognition of the Social Reign [...]

Snakes

Snakes will eat anything they can get their mouth around. And they have an articulated jaw that allows them to eat things far bigger than their heads. They aren’t picky.  Other reptiles, like alligators, are the same way. If it is moving, it is food. A mouse, a rat, a fish, a frog, a cat [...]

The UnSuggester

I heard about the UnSuggester in the latest Chronicle of Higher Education.
Unsuggester takes “people who like this also like that” and turns it on its head. It analyzes the thirteen million books LibraryThing members have recorded as owned or read, and comes back with books least likely to share a library with the [...]

Rutler Redux

Over at Dom’s, George Rutler responds to my remarks on vegetarianism (a response to his response to a letter in First Things responding to someone else).
It is clear we are both capable of playing with words and providing a little bit of levity in the all-too-dreary-debates of the blogosphere.
But as I consider his initial quips [...]

Gaudium de Veritate

St. Augustine found joy in the truth, for its own sake. Truth is not conditioned by time or place, by who speaks it or how it is spoken. Our greatest joy should be in seeking that truth and in its discovery, letting it be its own validation and its own reward. I don’t care whether [...]

V. Gene Robinson

Homosexual Episcopal Bishop to “marry” his partner.
“How long, O Lord?!”

Tis a Puzzlement

Gay prayer service at Most Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco’s Castro district (”a Christian Community in the Roman Catholic tradition” will be broadcast on BBC.
According to the MHR webpage,

On Sunday, October 22, at 5 pm, there was a special prayer service at MHR. Fr. Donal Godfrey, SJ, of the University of San Francisco presided and Fr. [...]

Due Process a Sham?

Clergy witch hunt? – Due process for accused priests is a sham, critics say.
Is it surprising? A system for which authority is a critical value, and authoritarianism the modus operandi, is going to behave in predictable ways.
In previous decades, lay people who complained about abusive priests were slapped down and the priests were coddled and [...]

On the Christian Call to Discipleship

On October 31, 1517, a young Augustinian monk and university professor named Martin Luther tacked to the community bulletin board 95 propositions he wanted to debate with his colleagues. This simple act, done without fanfare and without press releases, became, in the hands of the “spin doctors,” an event which changed [...]

On Benedict and Islam

Liberty Magazine considers the Regensburg address.

How well did you sleep last night?

Compare your experience with this.

The Democratic Candidates

Reports say they debated, and that they took separate private planes from DC to SC for the event.
I didn’t watch it. I won’t watch it. I see no reason to watch it. I will never vote for a member of the Democratic party. Each Democratic candidate, and the party as a whole, believes the following [...]

The Sabbath That Remains

So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest . . . . Hebrews 4:9-11
One of my favorite movie musicals is Fiddler [...]

An e-mail I sent out

Here’s what I sent to my young adult ministry e-mail list:
For nine years I’ve been director of the Office of Young Adult and Campus Ministry.
We’ve accomplished some wonderful things together in these years. I’ll always be grateful for your friendship, support, prayers and the hard work you all provided to make [...]

*Sniff*

I’ve been getting lots of calls, visits, and e-mails after my announcement. This one really touched me.
I’m saddened to hear that you will be leaving the office soon. In my young adult experience, where people come and go due to jobs and school and such, there has always been the constant for [...]

Vegetarianism

Dom (via Irish Elk, via a very old Saintly Salmagundi post) gives space to a rant by George Rutler against vegetarianism (responding to a letter in Crisis by Daniel Paden of the Catholic Vegetarian Society).
Vegetarianism, says Rutler, “contradict(s) the order of grace”; it is “Manichaean,” he says.
“Man was made to eat flesh (Genesis 1: 26-31; [...]

And a new chapter begins …

I’ve spent many years wandering in the wilderness of liberal Protestantism and bureaucratic Catholicism. In both, I’ve seen that programs and policies and intellectual rationalizations too often obscure plain Biblical teaching and Christian faith.
God didn’t part the Red Sea, so many folks say, he just helped a handful of fugitives muddle through a marsh. God [...]

Ebert: “You can have fun while you’re sick”

Roger Ebert, recovering from cancer surgeries, won’t let his appearance keep him from his film festival. He doesn’t care what he looks like, and he doesn’t care what the gossip rags say. Via Amy.

God’s Timing … and Man’s

Bishop Edward Braxton has told a 20-year-old woman she could not be confirmed. She must go to 10 hours of classes and complete some more requirements. He informed her of this immediately before the confirmation liturgy.
Catholics point to Acts 8 as Scriptural proof for this sacrament. But did the apostles demand classes and preparation and [...]

Reflections on Nine Years in a Chancery

And so it ends, after nine years of heading a chancery department in a major archdiocese.
I’ve said little about my job in five years of blogging, to keep this a personal page and to not give the impression that it was part of my ministry.
I became Catholic in 1992, and after more than a year [...]

The Catholic Bishop of Rochester

Bishop Clark celebrates liturgy with college students.

“To Live Is to Change”

“To live is to change,” said John Henry Newman. And after nine years in my present job as Director of Young Adult and Campus Ministry for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, I’m making a change. A new ministry opportunity has presented itself, which will be more ministry and evangelization and less admin.