A Story of Federal Ineptness

Houston Press has story of horrific conditions at a federal prison in Texas during Hurricane Rita (contrasting with the excellent response of the TDCJ)–and the brutality inflicted afterwards on prisoners who dared complain.

Liberty Threatened in California

California court decrees: “Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children.”  LA Times, Ed Stetzer, Mere Comments, Rod Dreher.

Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan in 1888

New photo found of a young Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan. Press release.

Let’s Play Pretend

A man at MicroSoft dresses as a woman. He’s had surgeries to his face and chest (none below the waist). Why won’t someone call this for what it is–he’s playing pretend. He’s not a woman, regardless of what the law may say, regardless of what changes he’s done to his body. He’s a man pretending to be a woman. I feel sad for him, but even more so for his wife and kids–but only incomprehension at the willingness of society to go along with the charade.

I would suggest that legislation stipulate that only those who can show a change in chromosomes can change their legal sex.

“Pope Benedict to Rehabilitate Martin Luther”

An Irish friend in the comments below links to an Irish blog, Clerical Whispers, which links to a Times article that says Pope Benedict XVI will be issuing a new evaluation of Martin Luther this September [Update: the story is bogus].

Pope Benedict XVI is to rehabilitate Martin Luther, arguing that he did not intend to split Christianity but only to purge the Church of corrupt practices.

Pope Benedict will issue his findings on Luther (1483-1546) in September after discussing him at his annual seminar of 40 fellow theologians — known as the Ratzinger Schülerkreis — at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence. According to Vatican insiders the Pope will argue that Luther, who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy, was not a heretic.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said the move would help to promote ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Protestants. It is also designed to counteract the impact of July’s papal statement describing the Protestant and Orthodox faiths as defective and “not proper Churches”.

The move to re-evaluate Luther is part of a drive to soften Pope Benedict’s image as an arch conservative hardliner as he approaches the third anniversary of his election next month. This week it emerged that the Vatican is planning to erect a statue of Galileo, who also faced a heresy trial, to mark the 400th anniversary next year of his discovery of the telescope.

Update: As noted below, it is hardly news that Benedict appreciates much of Luther’s thought.

See also Amy Welborn’s comments:

If the news story is from the British press and involves the Pope….

DON’T BELIEVE IT. …

But what’s the story? The only real story?

That the Pope’s annual gathering with former students – the Schülerkreis – is a seminar in which papers are read and discussed. Past topics have included Islam and Creation and Evolution – the papers discussed at the 2006 gathering on that topic will soon be released in book form by Ignatius.

This year’s topic will be Luther. Period.

Update: Carl Olson also has some sober reflections and some good links.

Update: See also James Swan.

My take: As I post here, I think this is only possible if they muzzle Martin Luther, or try to present a phony Luther. Read what Martin had to say for himself.

The SSPX and Antisemitism

Thanks to one of my UK Catholic readers for sending me this link to Britain’s Catholic Herald: Lefebvrists face crisis as bishop is exposed as ‘dangerous’ anti-Semite.

A senior bishop of the Lefebvrist Society of St Pius X (SSPX) has endorsed the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious anti-Semitic forgery that enjoys widespread currency in neo-Nazi circles.

Richard Williamson, one of four bishops ordained by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, told The Catholic Herald that the document – which supposedly reveals a Jewish plot to dominate the world – was authentic.

He is also on record as saying that the Jews are fighting for world domination “to prepare the Anti-Christ’s throne in Jerusalem”. The SSPX has refused to condemn English-born Bishop Williamson and says it has “no policy” on the authenticity of the Protocols, a Russian Czarist forgery that has been described as “a manual in Hitler’s war to exterminate the Jews”.

The Society’s support for Williamson – who also believes that the Americans planned 9/11 – is likely to end any chance of full reconciliation between the SSPX and Rome.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Jewish human rights organisation, said this week that it is planning to take action against Williamson.

The facts are right–Williamson is an antisemite–but the article is wrong on its interpretation. The SSPX is not facing a crisis over this, and this is not some new discovery that will now suddenly cause problems for reconciliation for Rome.

Why isn’t this a crisis for the SSPX? Simply because Williamson is not exceptional. This is the sentiment of SSPX members. I’ve noted this on this blog many times over the past years. I have noted that the SSPX bookstore south of Houston has sold many classic antisemitic texts. I have drawn attention to Williamson’s views, as in this post from 2003 (another blogger’s comments):

While reading through the “Father Feeney Archive,” I came across a link to a letter by SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson, May 1, 2000, which says, “God puts in men’s hands the ‘Protocols of the Sages of Sion’ and the ‘Rakovsky Interview’, if men want to know the truth, but few do.” Williamson is also quoted as saying, “There was not one Jew killed in the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies. The Jews created the Holocaust so we would prostrate ourselves on our knees before them and approve of their new State of Israel.”

Now, will the antisemitism of the SSPX cause a problem in the attempts of Benedict to reconcile? That is indeed the million dollar question, because no Vatican spokesperson has ever mentioned these problems. These are not incidental to the SSPX–Lefebvre’s argument with Vatican 2 was not about Latin vs. modern languages in the liturgy; rather, he rejected that council’s teachings about the Jews, religious liberty, and the drastic revisions that took place not just in the liturgy for mass but the liturgy for the ordination of bishops and priests. And the Vatican has never come out and called the SSPX on their teachings on the Jews.

I congratulate the Simon Wiesenthal Center for shining a light on this subject and trying to get a response.

Here are some links I had posted at the end of an article about Antisemitism and the Catholic Right.

SSPX articles on the Jews

• Are the Jews Guilty of Deicide?
• Beaumont, Michael. Jewish-Catholic Dialogue against the Catholic Faith. The Angelus, June 2003.
• Beaumont, Michael. Syllabus of Errors Taken from the Jewish-Catholic Dialogue. The Angelus, June 2003.
• Cipriani, Albert. American Bishops and Judaism. The Angelus, November 2002.
• Crowdy, Michael and Kenneth Novak. The Mystery of the Jewish People in History.
• Fahey, Denis. A Brief Sketch of My Life Work. The Angelus, January 2001.
• Fahey, Denis. What Really Is Anti-Semitism?
• Fr. Denis Fahey on Anti-Semitism. The Angelus, January 2001.
• Laurigan, Michel. The Law of Noah: One World Religion? The Angelus, February/March 2004.
• Sharpe, John. Judaism and the Vatican. The Angelus, June 2003.

Books I’ve seen for sale at an SSPX bookstore

• Ford, Henry. The International Jew [these links go to places where you can read the book on-line, not necessarily to SSPX sites]. Summary at the webpage of Jewish Virtual Library of Ford’s multivolume work, which is on-line in various places.
• Fry, Leslie. Waters Flowing Eastward: The War against the Kingship of Christ. Edited and revised by Fr. Denis Fahey. “Authentication of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.” (“Leslie Fry” is a pseudonym for Paquita de Shishmareff, who worked with Ford on The International Jew).
• Pinay, Maurice (pseudonym). The Plot against the Church. Depicts Vatican 2 as the result of a conspiracy involving Communists, Freemasons, Protestants and Jews.