Photo of Amy and Joseph taken outside of St. Procopius Abbey in suburban Chicago last month.
Tuesday, January 6, 2004
Madonna and Child
Photo of Amy and Joseph taken outside of St. Procopius Abbey in suburban Chicago last month.
Rose's Confession Doesn't Change a Thing
From where they love him most, Pete Rose's confession wins no sympathy. If anything I think Cincinnati feels betrayed.
From Rose's confession doesn't change a thing:
However muddled Pete Rose's case has become, eligibility for the Hall of Fame is a different issue from eligibility to manage a team. Two years after his banishment, baseball adopted a special rule to make sure Rose, who holds 32 records from his playing career, could not be inducted into the Hall of Fame. That's dubious, retroactive punishment. Rose was a great player on the field. His last chance to appear on the writers' ballot is December 2005. He belongs on that ballot. The traditional ticket to the Hall of Fame all along has been the vote by the baseball writers. The decision on whether Rose belongs in the Hall ought to be left up to the baseball writers.
His gambling will never erase what he did on the field. And putting him in the Hall will never erase the shame he brought on himself and the game he loved.
From Rose's confession doesn't change a thing:
However muddled Pete Rose's case has become, eligibility for the Hall of Fame is a different issue from eligibility to manage a team. Two years after his banishment, baseball adopted a special rule to make sure Rose, who holds 32 records from his playing career, could not be inducted into the Hall of Fame. That's dubious, retroactive punishment. Rose was a great player on the field. His last chance to appear on the writers' ballot is December 2005. He belongs on that ballot. The traditional ticket to the Hall of Fame all along has been the vote by the baseball writers. The decision on whether Rose belongs in the Hall ought to be left up to the baseball writers.
His gambling will never erase what he did on the field. And putting him in the Hall will never erase the shame he brought on himself and the game he loved.
Memorial of Blessed Andre
Here is a link to the Shrine of St. Joseph that he founded which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year!
L'Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal
L'Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal
Monday, January 5, 2004
Where to Find Christ if You've Lost Him
From John Donne and our friends at the Bruderhof Communities - They Took My Lord Away by John Donne:
"To lose Christ may befall the most righteous person that is; but then he knows where he left him; he knows at what time he lost his way, and where to seek it again. Even Christ's imagined father and his true mother, Joseph and Mary, lost him, and lost him in the holy city at Jerusalem. They lost him and knew it not. They lost him and went a day's journey without him and thought him to be in the company. But as soon as they comprehended their error, they sought and they found him, when as his mother told him, his father and she had sought with a heavy heart.
Alas we may lose him at Jerusalem, even in his own house, even at this moment while we pretend to do him service. We may lose him by suffering our thoughts to look back with pleasure upon the sins which we have committed, or to look forward with greediness upon some sin that is now in our purpose and prosecution. We may lose him at Jerusalem, how much more, if our dwelling be a Babylon in confusion and mingling God and the world together, or if it be a Sodom, a wanton and intemperate misuse of God's benefits to us. We may think him in the company when he is not; we may mistake his house; we may take a conventicle for a Church; we may mistake his apparel, that is, the outward form of his worship; we may mistake the person, that is, associate ourselves to such as are no members of his body.
But if we do not return to our diligence to seek him, and seek him, and seek him with a heavy heart, though we began with a taking away - other men, other temptations took him away - yet we end in a casting away, we ourselves cast him away since we have been told where to find him and have not sought him. And let no one be afraid to seek or find him for fear of the loss of good company; faith is no sullen thing, it is not a melancholy, there is not so sociable a thing as the love of Christ Jesus.
"
"To lose Christ may befall the most righteous person that is; but then he knows where he left him; he knows at what time he lost his way, and where to seek it again. Even Christ's imagined father and his true mother, Joseph and Mary, lost him, and lost him in the holy city at Jerusalem. They lost him and knew it not. They lost him and went a day's journey without him and thought him to be in the company. But as soon as they comprehended their error, they sought and they found him, when as his mother told him, his father and she had sought with a heavy heart.
Alas we may lose him at Jerusalem, even in his own house, even at this moment while we pretend to do him service. We may lose him by suffering our thoughts to look back with pleasure upon the sins which we have committed, or to look forward with greediness upon some sin that is now in our purpose and prosecution. We may lose him at Jerusalem, how much more, if our dwelling be a Babylon in confusion and mingling God and the world together, or if it be a Sodom, a wanton and intemperate misuse of God's benefits to us. We may think him in the company when he is not; we may mistake his house; we may take a conventicle for a Church; we may mistake his apparel, that is, the outward form of his worship; we may mistake the person, that is, associate ourselves to such as are no members of his body.
But if we do not return to our diligence to seek him, and seek him, and seek him with a heavy heart, though we began with a taking away - other men, other temptations took him away - yet we end in a casting away, we ourselves cast him away since we have been told where to find him and have not sought him. And let no one be afraid to seek or find him for fear of the loss of good company; faith is no sullen thing, it is not a melancholy, there is not so sociable a thing as the love of Christ Jesus.
"
'Passion' Follows the Scripture and Ancient Jewish Writings
Interesting defense of Mel Gibson's "The Passion" from the LA Times.
From Los Angeles Times: 'Passion' Follows the Scripture:
"It's unfair of Jewish critics to defame Gibson for saying what the Talmud and Maimonides say, and what many historians say. Oddly, one of the scholars who has most vigorously denounced Gibson — Paula Fredriksen, a professor of religious studies at Boston University — is the author of a meticulously researched book, 'Jesus of Nazareth,' that suggests it was the high priests who informed on Jesus to the Roman authorities.
Would it have been better if Gibson never undertook to make this movie in exactly the way he did? Maybe, but trying to intimidate him into fundamentally reworking it was never a realistic or worthy goal. The best option now is to acknowledge that other sources besides the Gospels confirm the involvement of Jewish leaders in Jesus' death and clear the anger from the air. Considering that Gibson's portrayal coincides closely with traditional Jewish belief, it seems that leaving him alone is the decent as well as the Jewish thing to do."
From Los Angeles Times: 'Passion' Follows the Scripture:
"It's unfair of Jewish critics to defame Gibson for saying what the Talmud and Maimonides say, and what many historians say. Oddly, one of the scholars who has most vigorously denounced Gibson — Paula Fredriksen, a professor of religious studies at Boston University — is the author of a meticulously researched book, 'Jesus of Nazareth,' that suggests it was the high priests who informed on Jesus to the Roman authorities.
Would it have been better if Gibson never undertook to make this movie in exactly the way he did? Maybe, but trying to intimidate him into fundamentally reworking it was never a realistic or worthy goal. The best option now is to acknowledge that other sources besides the Gospels confirm the involvement of Jewish leaders in Jesus' death and clear the anger from the air. Considering that Gibson's portrayal coincides closely with traditional Jewish belief, it seems that leaving him alone is the decent as well as the Jewish thing to do."
Sunday, January 4, 2004
A Catholic Political Action Committee (PAC)
Led up by, who else, Tom Monaghan.
From Naples Daily News: News:
The Ave Maria PAC bills itself as "a Catholic response" to the pro-choice EMILY's List PAC. The nascent interest group models itself on the "heavy presence and many successes" of both The Christian Coalition and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, said Cella, 35, a former Senate staffer and Michigan campaign organizer.
The group's donors include political heavyweights such as Monaghan and his wife, Marjorie, who in each of the past three years donated $5,000 apiece, the maximum allowed individual contribution. Wellington Mara, owner of pro football's New York Giants, also donated the maximum amount in 2002 and 2003.
Chris Brennan, a 35-year-old New Jersey attorney, estimates he's donated several thousand dollars to Ave Maria List in recent years. The Seton Hall University Law School graduate said he became politically active primarily because of his strong anti-abortion views.
Yet he chose to contribute to Monaghan's group because while other PACs espouse similar views, Ave Maria List is both savvy and selective in how it spends, Brennan said.
From Naples Daily News: News:
The Ave Maria PAC bills itself as "a Catholic response" to the pro-choice EMILY's List PAC. The nascent interest group models itself on the "heavy presence and many successes" of both The Christian Coalition and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, said Cella, 35, a former Senate staffer and Michigan campaign organizer.
The group's donors include political heavyweights such as Monaghan and his wife, Marjorie, who in each of the past three years donated $5,000 apiece, the maximum allowed individual contribution. Wellington Mara, owner of pro football's New York Giants, also donated the maximum amount in 2002 and 2003.
Chris Brennan, a 35-year-old New Jersey attorney, estimates he's donated several thousand dollars to Ave Maria List in recent years. The Seton Hall University Law School graduate said he became politically active primarily because of his strong anti-abortion views.
Yet he chose to contribute to Monaghan's group because while other PACs espouse similar views, Ave Maria List is both savvy and selective in how it spends, Brennan said.
Dean Under Fire for Vermont Yankee Security
I post this story because I used to fish very close to this power plant as a child. It is located about twelve miles from where I grew up in NH. The plant is built on the Conneticut River that divides NH and Vermont.
From My Way News:
"Security was so lax at Vermont Yankee that in August 2001, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staged a drill in which three mock terrorists gained access to the plant. The agency gave Vermont Yankee the worst security rating among the nation's 103 reactors.
The NRC has primary responsibility for safety at Vermont Yankee. But Vermont laws required an active state role by creating a panel to review security and performance and requiring plant operators to set aside money for the state to use in the event of a nuclear disaster.
Dean's campaign said Saturday it ultimately was the NRC's responsibility to ensure security at the plant, but that he badgered Vermont Yankee's operators and the NRC to make improvements during the 1990s. It noted the NRC's safety budget was cut in the 1990s.
'After September 11, Governor Dean decided the buck stops here in terms of security and personally ran this effort, creating a Cabinet-level agency,' spokesman Jay Carson said."
From My Way News:
"Security was so lax at Vermont Yankee that in August 2001, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staged a drill in which three mock terrorists gained access to the plant. The agency gave Vermont Yankee the worst security rating among the nation's 103 reactors.
The NRC has primary responsibility for safety at Vermont Yankee. But Vermont laws required an active state role by creating a panel to review security and performance and requiring plant operators to set aside money for the state to use in the event of a nuclear disaster.
Dean's campaign said Saturday it ultimately was the NRC's responsibility to ensure security at the plant, but that he badgered Vermont Yankee's operators and the NRC to make improvements during the 1990s. It noted the NRC's safety budget was cut in the 1990s.
'After September 11, Governor Dean decided the buck stops here in terms of security and personally ran this effort, creating a Cabinet-level agency,' spokesman Jay Carson said."
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