New consistory to be announced tomorrow October 19, 2010
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, General Catholic.comments closed
A number of men will receive the Cardinal’s red hat tomorrow. I will pray especially fervently tonight that Archbishop Raymond Burke is one of those elevated to “prince of the Church.”
My man, seen recently in Rome, courtesy of Orbis Catholicus.
Media corruption regarding pro-life efforts October 19, 2010
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, awesomeness, Basics, Dallas Diocese, General Catholic, scandals, sickness, Society.comments closed
A very revealing video. The media does not just have a bias against the pro-life effort and in favor of the pro-aborts, they have gotten into the area of making up things out of whole cloth and trying to portray the pro-life and pro-abort factions in this country as similar in age, number, dedication, and ends. All are completley false. Pro-aborts, especially the most dedicated pro-aborts, are rapidly aging. Pro-lifer outnumber pro-aborts, and the pro-life side is growing in willingness to witness and fight for their cause. Both sides claim to have the good of women, their children, and society as a whole at heart, but the thin veneer surrounding abortion and its “benefits” long ago wore off.
Why I have an increasingly hard time taking Mark Shea seriously October 19, 2010
Posted by Tantumblogo in asshatery, blogfoolery, General Catholic, Society.comments closed
Mark Shea creates a straw man caricature of “conservative Catholics” based on comments in his combox. No, seriously. Pat Archbold takes him to task. Shea doubles down, sort of, with a bit of back track at the end.
Folks, I have a small blog. I don’t attract alot of attention. But even I have had to delete a number of comments from crazies that come by from time to time. Either the internet has bred a great deal of insanity, or it has provided a (not) anonymous outlet for the crazies that already were, but there’s all kinds of silliness on the internet. Shea has a huge blog. He’s going to attract a far greater number of crazies. Taking to task a huge swath of people striving to be faithful Catholics because some crazies claim to be associated with them, and then basically denouncing the whole group based on the most ridiculous straw man caricatures of that group because Shea has chosen to take the extremists as representative of the group, is just not serious thinking. In fact, it’s laughable. Shea is trying to make the point that there are conservative Catholics who are just as much “cafeteria Catholics” as the worst progressives…..but the arguments he uses in support of this logic are inherently flawed. I’m sure he’s correct, but there is little evidence in a serious sense (not combox chatter), to prove the rule.
It’s interesting to me that Shea has chosen to pick up this meme that originated on US Catholic about 12-15 months ago, during the height of the Obamacare debate – that faithful Catholics are somehow just as “choosy” when it comes to the Doctrine of the Faith as progressives. That meme got shot down rather quickly.
This is what is meant to pass for a serious argument in a major Catholic publication? There are definitely problems with the “conservative” side of Catholicism. You can find people who do put their love of country, or democracy, or capitalism, or a strong military, or whatever, ahead of their Faith. If so, then take those folks to task, but don’t claim that the large majority of a group of millions are deformed in their Faith because of stupid combox chatter, or extremist news stories of people claiming to be conservative. That’s just sad, and indicative of the kind of sloppy reasoning we’ve come to know and love from the progressives Shea claims to abhor.
One additional thought. All of us struggle to reconcile our preferred ideologies with the Faith. The Catholic Faith is the most all encompassing and detailed Faith I know of, and it is one that demands obedience in order to be faithful. I think most “conservative” Catholics make a far more serious attempt at this than many progressives, but, yes, there are exceptions. I can’t take Shea’s argument seriously based on the examples he has cited, which are frankly, stupid.
Shea claims that it is pride that largely causes these wayward conservatives to go so far off the rails. Quite.
Hijacking religious symbolism for politico-social ends October 19, 2010
Posted by Tantumblogo in Abortion, General Catholic, scandals, sickness, Society.comments closed
Thanks to Acts of the Apostasy, I am now aware that a group in California dedicated to destuctive embyronic stem cell research had the brillian idea to hold a contest to create a poem justifying/extoling/celebrating this barbaric, grossly utilitarian practice. The winning poem, I believe, you will find rather offensive:
“This is my body
which is given for you.
But I am not great.
I have neither wealth,
nor fame, nor grace.
I cannot comfort with words,
nor inspire to march.I am small and simple,
so leave me this.
Let me heal you.
This is my body
which is given for you.
Take this
in remembrance of me.”
Yes, quite. So nice of you to rip language from the Consecration of the Host for your dark sacrifice to Moloch. Many are trying to defend the poem writer’s intent, saying it was heartfelt and sincere, although the California group has now pulled this winning poem from their website. In fact, I think if this was an attempt to be sincere and somehow wierdly loving on the part of the author somehow makes this worse – the author is so deeply confused that he thinks the willing destruction of innocent human life in order to greedily, and only very theoretically, prolong the life of someone else is something like the Sacrifice that Christ willingly made on the cross for the salvation of all mankind. No, it’s not like that at all.
There have been increasing signs that those who pursue the “progressive” agenda have, wittingly or not, begun increasingly to apply a religious symbolism to their sacred dogmas. We had an episcopal professor of divinity stating that abortion was a wonderful blessing from God (during a Church service, including the authoring of prayers for MORE abortions), we’ve had reports of bizaare wiccan type ceremonies surrounding abortions, we’ve had Satanic mocking of the Catholic Mass and Exorcism Rites in extremely public places and with the approval of government officials, and we have language like this, turning upside down God’s creative miracle and turning this symbol of God’s eternal Light into something profoundly dark. I have seen increasing religious references to abortion and embryonic stem cell research as something to be celebrated as holy and wonderful, much like the sacrificing of children to Moloch that occurred during the time of the Davidic kingdom in Israel. From whence does this come? Can anyone truly believe that God would be in favor of the death and brutal dismemberment of his creation, of those who are completely innocent?
Paganism is not a pretty thing. There is a reason why the early Christians had such a profound aversion for the pagans and their sacrifices. And yet, many, especially progressives, tell us that it is Christianity that has somehow corroded and corrupted Western civilization. They claim to actively seek a world that is free from the horrible intolerance of religion. But in reality, man is a creature that must have rites and ceremonies, who craves the idea of something greater, and if the world continues to turn away from the great religions, what will replace them will not be pleasant.
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