I remember Father Dick Teal telling the story of a University of Florida student doing the same thing (over twenty years ago)...
Amy, there is good Flannerish story to be told here.
WorldNetDaily: Man plucks out own eye, quotes Bible:
"A murder suspect in Grayson County, Texas, quoted a Bible verse after using his hand to pluck out his own right eye.
According to the Sherman Herald Democrat, confessed killer Andre Thomas was in a county jail cell directly across from the book-in station Friday when he turned his back on the jail staff. After hearing a scream, personnel saw Thomas turn around with his eyeball in his hand.
Thomas is no stranger to mutilation. Police say he killed his wife, son and wife's daughter in the woman's apartment, mutilating each victim. According to the report, Thomas turned himself into police the day the bodies were discovered, having cut himself with a knife. After undergoing surgery, Thomas was transferred to the Grayson County Jail and placed on 'suicide watch.' "
Wednesday, April 7, 2004
O'Malley--U.S. Like Babylon
And of course since we now occupy the historical Babylon as well, i.e. Iraq.
From TheBostonChannel.com - News - O'Malley: America Hostile To Catholics:
"Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley said American culture is inhospitable to Roman Catholic teaching, and likened preaching to Americans to a form of martyrdom.
'Today, our challenge is simple: to resist the temptation to conform to the culture of death, to consumerism, hedonism, individualism,' O'Malley told about 500 priests and 600 parishioners on Tuesday during Chrism Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. The Mass, which included the blessing of sacred oils, was part of Holy Week, which culminates with Easter Sunday.
O'Malley compared the Catholic Church in the United States to 'exiles in the midst of Babylon.' He said Catholics 'find themselves in a hostile, alien environment where the overriding temptation is to assimilate, the cultural pull is to conform to a dominant cultural influence that is incongruous with our faith and our destiny.'
A Franciscan Capuchin friar, O'Malley spoke at length about the importance of preaching, which was a major preoccupation of St. Francis."
From TheBostonChannel.com - News - O'Malley: America Hostile To Catholics:
"Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley said American culture is inhospitable to Roman Catholic teaching, and likened preaching to Americans to a form of martyrdom.
'Today, our challenge is simple: to resist the temptation to conform to the culture of death, to consumerism, hedonism, individualism,' O'Malley told about 500 priests and 600 parishioners on Tuesday during Chrism Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. The Mass, which included the blessing of sacred oils, was part of Holy Week, which culminates with Easter Sunday.
O'Malley compared the Catholic Church in the United States to 'exiles in the midst of Babylon.' He said Catholics 'find themselves in a hostile, alien environment where the overriding temptation is to assimilate, the cultural pull is to conform to a dominant cultural influence that is incongruous with our faith and our destiny.'
A Franciscan Capuchin friar, O'Malley spoke at length about the importance of preaching, which was a major preoccupation of St. Francis."
Tuesday, April 6, 2004
'Jesus and Paul'
I watched about ten minutes of this an it made my head spin. Christian hard rock music and constant flashing between art images and scenes from the modern middle east made it unwatchable in my estimation.
From Charlotte Allen on the ABC special, 'Jesus and Paul' -- Beliefnet.com:
"In 2000, ABC's Peter Jennings gave us 'The Search for Jesus,' a television special in which for the most part channeled the Jesus Seminar—that coven of iconoclastic New Testament scholars who contend that Jesus of Nazareth didn't say or do many of the things reported in the Gospels. Jenning's new 'Jesus and Paul: The Word and the Witness,' shows Jesus and Paul, but also a Jennings chastened perhaps by the criticism he got four years ago for leaning so heavily on skeptics: 'Jesus and Paul' is far more balanced, and more respectful of traditional beliefs, about the man whom Christians call savior."
From Charlotte Allen on the ABC special, 'Jesus and Paul' -- Beliefnet.com:
"In 2000, ABC's Peter Jennings gave us 'The Search for Jesus,' a television special in which for the most part channeled the Jesus Seminar—that coven of iconoclastic New Testament scholars who contend that Jesus of Nazareth didn't say or do many of the things reported in the Gospels. Jenning's new 'Jesus and Paul: The Word and the Witness,' shows Jesus and Paul, but also a Jennings chastened perhaps by the criticism he got four years ago for leaning so heavily on skeptics: 'Jesus and Paul' is far more balanced, and more respectful of traditional beliefs, about the man whom Christians call savior."
Monday, April 5, 2004
Kerry Presents Himself for Communion
At an AME church...
They should have refused him, because he isn't in "communion" with them--but I think it shows what he thinks of anyone's religious tradition.
From Politics News Article | Reuters.com:
"After surgery to repair a torn tendon in his right shoulder, Democrat John Kerry eased back onto the campaign trail Sunday, shaking hands at first with his left arm but forgoing the political traditions of back-slapping and baby-hoisting.
Despite his doctor's estimate that it would be 'a week or two' until he could shake hands in the normal fashion, Kerry appeared to be in no pain as he used his right arm later to greet churchgoers in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood.
A Catholic, Kerry marked Palm Sunday and the start of Easter week at the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church where he was given a hero's welcome.
'We're thankful that there's going to be a revolution in this country ... a new movement,' declared pastor Gregory Groover. '
And we say, God, bring him on, the next president of the United States.'
Kerry, who has worshiped at the predominantly black church at least twice before, and his wife Teresa both took communion. "
For more on this issue, see my previous post on plans by the Kerry campaign to find a priest who'll refuse him--read the comments if you are with the Kerry campaign, Father Brian has posted his contact info (including confession times)!
They should have refused him, because he isn't in "communion" with them--but I think it shows what he thinks of anyone's religious tradition.
From Politics News Article | Reuters.com:
"After surgery to repair a torn tendon in his right shoulder, Democrat John Kerry eased back onto the campaign trail Sunday, shaking hands at first with his left arm but forgoing the political traditions of back-slapping and baby-hoisting.
Despite his doctor's estimate that it would be 'a week or two' until he could shake hands in the normal fashion, Kerry appeared to be in no pain as he used his right arm later to greet churchgoers in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood.
A Catholic, Kerry marked Palm Sunday and the start of Easter week at the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church where he was given a hero's welcome.
'We're thankful that there's going to be a revolution in this country ... a new movement,' declared pastor Gregory Groover. '
And we say, God, bring him on, the next president of the United States.'
Kerry, who has worshiped at the predominantly black church at least twice before, and his wife Teresa both took communion. "
For more on this issue, see my previous post on plans by the Kerry campaign to find a priest who'll refuse him--read the comments if you are with the Kerry campaign, Father Brian has posted his contact info (including confession times)!
Sunday, April 4, 2004
deja vue
Shortly after our arrival at the hotel in Cincinnati the power went out. A couple of hours this time and in not in the middle of the summer. In fact the forecast for last night and today is for snow.
Saturday, April 3, 2004
Friday, April 2, 2004
"Moment of Difficulty is a Time of Hope"
Pope's Address to the American Bishops
From the Vatican Information Service:
"Our meetings," the Pope said, "are taking place at a difficult time in the history of the Church in the United States. Many of you have already spoken to me of the pain caused by the sexual abuse scandal of the past two years and the urgent need for rebuilding confidence and promoting healing between Bishops, priests and the laity in your country. I am confident that the willingness which you have shown in acknowledging and addressing past mistakes and failures, while at the same time seeking to learn from them, will contribute greatly to this work of reconciliation and renewal."
He added that "the history of the Church demonstrates that there can be no effective reform without interior renewal" for individuals, groups and institutions. For a bishop, "the challenge of interior renewal must involve an integral understanding of his service as 'pastor gregis'." To be effective, the Bishop's "apostolic authority must be seen first and foremost as a religious witness to the Risen Lord, to the truth of the Gospel and to the mystery of salvation present and at work in the Church. ... The renewal of the Church is thus closely linked to the renewal of the episcopal office. The Bishop ... must be the first to conform his life to Christ in holiness and constant conversion."
"Dear Brothers," continued John Paul, "I wish to reaffirm my confidence in the Church in America, my appreciation of the deep faith of America's Catholics and my gratitude for their many contributions to American society and to the life of the Church throughout the world. Viewed with the eyes of faith, the present moment of difficulty is also a moment of hope, that hope which 'does not disappoint' (Rom 5:5), because it is rooted in the Holy Spirit, who constantly raises up new energies, callings and missions within the Body of Christ."
"The Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, celebrated in the wake of the epochal events of September 11, 2001, rightly noted that the Bishop is called to be a prophet, witness and servant of hope to the world ... because he makes that hope present through his pastoral ministry, centered as it is on the three 'munera' of sanctifying, teaching and governing. The exercise of this prophetic witness in contemporary American society has, as many of you have pointed out, been made increasingly difficult by the aftermath of the recent scandal and the outspoken hostility to the Gospel in certain sectors of public opinion, yet it cannot be evaded or delegated to others. Precisely because American society is confronted by a disturbing loss of the sense of the transcendent and the affirmation of a culture of the material and the ephemeral, it desperately needs such a witness of hope."
"For this reason," the Holy Father concluded, "I pray that our meetings will not only strengthen the hierarchical communion which unites the Successor of Peter with his Brother Bishops in the United States, but will bear abundant fruit for the growth of your own local Churches in unity and in missionary zeal for the spread of the Gospel."
From the Vatican Information Service:
"Our meetings," the Pope said, "are taking place at a difficult time in the history of the Church in the United States. Many of you have already spoken to me of the pain caused by the sexual abuse scandal of the past two years and the urgent need for rebuilding confidence and promoting healing between Bishops, priests and the laity in your country. I am confident that the willingness which you have shown in acknowledging and addressing past mistakes and failures, while at the same time seeking to learn from them, will contribute greatly to this work of reconciliation and renewal."
He added that "the history of the Church demonstrates that there can be no effective reform without interior renewal" for individuals, groups and institutions. For a bishop, "the challenge of interior renewal must involve an integral understanding of his service as 'pastor gregis'." To be effective, the Bishop's "apostolic authority must be seen first and foremost as a religious witness to the Risen Lord, to the truth of the Gospel and to the mystery of salvation present and at work in the Church. ... The renewal of the Church is thus closely linked to the renewal of the episcopal office. The Bishop ... must be the first to conform his life to Christ in holiness and constant conversion."
"Dear Brothers," continued John Paul, "I wish to reaffirm my confidence in the Church in America, my appreciation of the deep faith of America's Catholics and my gratitude for their many contributions to American society and to the life of the Church throughout the world. Viewed with the eyes of faith, the present moment of difficulty is also a moment of hope, that hope which 'does not disappoint' (Rom 5:5), because it is rooted in the Holy Spirit, who constantly raises up new energies, callings and missions within the Body of Christ."
"The Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, celebrated in the wake of the epochal events of September 11, 2001, rightly noted that the Bishop is called to be a prophet, witness and servant of hope to the world ... because he makes that hope present through his pastoral ministry, centered as it is on the three 'munera' of sanctifying, teaching and governing. The exercise of this prophetic witness in contemporary American society has, as many of you have pointed out, been made increasingly difficult by the aftermath of the recent scandal and the outspoken hostility to the Gospel in certain sectors of public opinion, yet it cannot be evaded or delegated to others. Precisely because American society is confronted by a disturbing loss of the sense of the transcendent and the affirmation of a culture of the material and the ephemeral, it desperately needs such a witness of hope."
"For this reason," the Holy Father concluded, "I pray that our meetings will not only strengthen the hierarchical communion which unites the Successor of Peter with his Brother Bishops in the United States, but will bear abundant fruit for the growth of your own local Churches in unity and in missionary zeal for the spread of the Gospel."
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)