How Can Such an Arrogant Institution Survive?

Not surprising news. And, yet, will Cardinal Brady leave? He certainly hasn't been required to by his superiors in Rome:

Three out of four Irish adults say the country's top churchman, Cardinal Sean Brady, should resign for his role in hiding abuse of children by one of the country's most notoriously abusive priests decades ago, according to a poll published by the Irish Times Monday.

Harmless Fun

As pointed out to me by my friend over at Cathólica Coreana, all sorts of what I would call "fundamentalist Catholics" are in an uproar over this "blasphemous" Hyundai commercial shown during the World Cup. Get a life people!!!!

God, I just hate these humorless neocons and trads. I for one don't want to become a whining Abraham Foxman or Bill Donahue, and it makes me so frustrated to see identity-politics Catholicism going down that road.

It is, in fact, based on a real "church" in Argentina, and it's harmless parody making a tongue-in-cheek point about the zeal of soccer fans using familiar religious imagery. I think it's great (and, as Cathólica Coreana points out, more liturgical than most Catholics see in their own parishes!)

You might consider sending an email to Hyundai (consumeraffairs@hmausa.com) telling them that not all Catholics are humorless fogeys and that you don't find the commercial offensive in the slightest:

Divinum Officium

Many of you probably already know about this, but I just want to recommend the Divinum Officium website, which seems to offer numerous options for the text of the Breviary.

I would point out specifically the Kalendar page as an example, which generates a liturgical calendar that allows you to select any of the following options:

pre-Tridentine Monastic
Tridentine 1570
Tridentine by 1910
According to the reforms of Divino Afflatu (1911)
According to the reductions of 1955
Acording to the reformed rubrics of 1960
According to the 1960 rubrics but with a "new calendar" (which seems like the Novus Ordo sanctoral cycle)

The calendar is not quite an Ordo, still this must have been a monumental project. And they also allow you to get the whole text of the office according to any of those above rubrical combinations.

It's Still Happening

So, in the wake of the abuse scandal comes this article out of India, where a bishop seems to be advocating the very sorts of actions that caused all the problems in the West:

Father Thomas Macwan, the Catholic Bishop of Ahmedabad diocese, feels that Gujarat has hardly been impacted by the scandal. "Things have been very smooth here. No cases of sexual abuse have been detected here, and hence the question of losing faith in the church does not arise," he asserts.

Fr Macwan advocates that a sexual offender be moved to an entirely different, unrelated field, so that his chances of committing the same offence again are minimised.

"For example, someone with accusations of child molestation could be made to work with senior citizens for some time. If made to live and work in a different and conducive environment, with the grace of God, such problems can surely be cured," he says.

Fr Macwan feels mandatory celibacy has little to do with sexual crimes, as the rates are not any different from those in other sections of society. "Celibacy is a very high virtue, essential for someone who wants to work for the betterment of society, as there would be far less personal disturbances," he says.

So, surprise surprise, the guy who supports simply moving offenders and the ridiculously naive belief that working with senior citizens can somehow cure pedophiles...is also a big booster for mandatory celibacy (unlike some of the other Indian priests quoted in the article, who believe it's time to re-examine; but, of course, they weren't made bishops, while he was!)

Over 10,000!!!

I've always found the Catholic Encyclopedia over at New Advent a helpful resource, if somewhat dated and scholastic. I'm sure most of you are also familiar with it. It has over 10,000 articles. If one were to read 10 a day, he could finish in 3 years. Hmm...

A Codicil

I want to add a brief addendum to my post on misunderstandings regarding the Real Presence.

Sometimes one will hear zealous Catholics who are trying to be orthodox declare that Christ is "physically" present in the Eucharist. But this is, at best, misleading, depending on what you mean by "physical." Merriam-Webster defines "physical" as: "having material existence: perceptible especially through the senses and subject to the laws of nature."

As you can see, there are two very clear problems with calling Christ's presence in the Blessed Sacrament "physical." The first is that this Presence is not perceptible through the senses. And He is not merely imperceptible through an accident of circumstances (too small, blocked by something else, etc), but by the very manner of the Presence, which is by definition meta-physical. The other caveat is "subject to the laws of nature," which of course the Presence is not. It is miraculous, really, a suspension of the normal metaphysical order by God.

Christ's Presence under the accidents of the bread and wine is "substantial." One should avoid saying that it is "physical," as this is misleading. If anything, the accidents themselves might be said to be "physically present." But Christ is present under them in the manner of a substance.

The Work of the Devil?

In a statement that is as bad as Bertone calling the accusations of child-molestation "petty gossip," Pope Benedict has now blamed the revelation of child abuse by priests on the devil. Not the fact that it happened in the first place, mind you, but the fact that it came to light this year. Ugh:

It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the "enemy"; he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world. And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light – particularly the abuse of the little ones

Now, maybe this was just poor phrasing. The sins of the priests are certainly part of the devil's work...but the fact that they "came to light" is a good thing! At the very least, the statement seems self-serving. As if these revelations really were just petty gossip designed by enemies to spoil their self-congratulatory year of patting themselves on the back.

No, this year was marred irrevocably. And it deserved to be as the clericalist system is broken, and it structurally enabled the abuse of tens of thousands of children. As a reader said I was discussing this with, "it's not successful just because we say it was, just because the theology demands it."

The whole year was a bad idea in the first place; no government on earth would dare declare a Year of the Politician, and we've seen what happened recently to companies which exalt their executives or employees over the customers whom they exist to serve in the first place.

The Pope also seems to still be viewing this crisis through the lens of sin and spirituality rather than crime and pathology. This statement shows a naive understanding of pedophilia, for instance:

We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again; and that in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey, so that the Lord will protect them and watch over them in troubled situations and amid life’s dangers.

I don't think "accompanying priests along their journey" is going to stop child molestation, as if abuse is just a temptation priests succumb to when they don't have enough social support. It's not the priests who need to be "protected"...it's the victims! Amid life's dangers?! What "dangers"? The enticing presence of young flesh? This is absurd! It seems to cast the victimizers as victims. And, by the way, I don't think people really care whether these men's "vocations" are "authentic" as much we care that predators and other warped psyches aren't getting in (which implies a very different emphasis of criteria: more concrete and practical, if less spiritual).

At Least I Will Die Free...

More music. My distaste for musical instruments also inclines me to recommend this version. But I must admit I find the video earthy and evocative, raw and nostalgic. Sometimes I think I'm too civilized.

A Sign

Relevant to me today:

To awaken my zeal God showed me my desires were pleasing to Him. I heard talk of a great criminal just condemned to death for some horrible crimes; everything pointed to the fact that he would die impenitent. I wanted at all costs to prevent him from falling into hell, and to attain my purpose I employed every means imaginable. Feeling that of myself I could do nothing, I offered to God all the infinite merits of Our Lord, the treasures of the Church, and finally I begged Celine to have a Mass offered for my intentions. I didn't dare ask this myself for fear of being obliged to say it was for Pranzini, the great criminal. I didn't even want to tell Celine, but she asked me such tender and pressing questions, I confided my secret to her. Far from laughing at me, she asked if she could help convert my sinner. I accepted gratefully, for I would have wished all creatures would unite with me to beg grace for the guilty man.

I felt in the depths of my heart certain that our desires would be granted, but to obtain courage to pray for sinners I told God I was sure He would pardon the poor, unfortunate Pranzini; that I'd believe this even if he went to his death without any signs of repentence or without having gone to confession. I was absolutely confident in the mercy of Jesus. But I was begging Him for a "sign" of repentance only for my own simple consolation.

My prayer was answered to the letter! In spite of Papa's prohibition that we read no papers, I didn't think I was disobeying when reading the passages pertaining to Pranzini. The day after his execution I found the newspaper "La Croix." I opened it quickly and what did I see? Ah! my tears betrayed my emotion and I was obliged to hide. Pranzini had not gone to confession. He had mounted the scaffold and was preparing to place his head in the formidable opening, when suddenly, seized by an inspiration, he turned, took hold of the crucifix the priest was holding out to him and kissed the sacred wounds three times! Then his soul went to receive the merciful sentence of Him who declares that in heaven there will be more joy over one sinner who does penance than over ninety-nine just who have no need of repentence!

I had obtained the "sign" I requested, and this sign was a perfect replica of the grace Jesus had given me when He attracted me to pray for sinners. Wasn't it before the wounds of Jesus, when seeing His diving blood flowing, that the thirst for souls had entered my heart? I wished to give them this immaculate blood to drink, this blood which was to purify them from their stains, and the lips of my "first child" were pressed to the sacred wounds!

From St. Thérèse of Lisieux's The Story of a Soul

Merry Christmas!

Christ Climbed Down
Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no rootless Christmas trees
hung with candycanes and breakable stars

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no gilded Christmas trees
and no tinsel Christmas trees
and no tinfoil Christmas trees
and no pink plastic Christmas trees
and no gold Christmas trees
and no black Christmas trees
and no powderblue Christmas trees
hung with electric candles
and encircled by tin electric trains
and clever cornball relatives

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no intrepid Bible salesmen
covered the territory
in two-tone cadillacs
and where no Sears Roebuck creches
complete with plastic babe in manger
arrived by parcel post
the babe by special delivery
and where no televised Wise Men
praised the Lord Calvert Whiskey

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no fat handshaking stranger
in a red flannel suit
and a fake white beard
went around passing himself off
as some sort of North Pole saint
crossing the desert to Bethlehem
Pennsylvania
in a Volkswagen sled
drawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer
and German names
and bearing sacks of Humble Gifts
from Saks Fifth Avenue
for everybody's imagined Christ child

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no Bing Crosby carollers
groaned of a tight Christmas
and where no Radio City angels
iceskated wingless
thru a winter wonderland
into a jinglebell heaven
daily at 8:30
with Midnight Mass matinees

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and softly stole away into
some anonymous Mary's womb again
where in the darkest night
of everybody's anonymous soul
He awaits again
an unimaginable
and impossibly
Immaculate Reconception
the very craziest of
Second Comings