Outside The Asylum

In his closing Mass homily, and his remarks before leaving the United States, Pope Francis once again referred to the God of Surprises.  It's likely just my autism, but I really resent being told to worship a Trickster God like Loki rather than the faithful God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who kept his promises.

Text of Pope Francis' speech to Congress - News - NorthJersey.com : 'via Blog this' Funny how I couldn't find it at any of the national sites.  Here's my count, reading what I heard, of score between Republicans and Democrats: Republican Jibes: 7 Democrat Jibes: 5 Neutral First World Jibes: 7 Left leaning?  a bit, yes.  Critical?  Certainly- I counted at least 19 insults against first Americans and what they seem to hold dear by their actions, 7 for the right wing, 5 for the left wing, 7 for all Americans.  But by holding up his four individual examples (not one strong pro-lifer among them- Dorothy Day stayed quite silent on the subject of abortion due to having had one herself, Thomas Merton fathered a child in his Cambridge days and then rejected the vocation implied by that to become a monk), he showed that even sinners can bring about great good.  And there is hope in that.

A Family Resemblance | CatholicVote.org : I remember this great act by a Pope in 1987 (read the article link first, we'll still be here when you hit the Back button).  I remember just a few years after, in conservative Klamath Falls, OR in 1991, attending a "The Body of Christ has AIDS" vigil.  Holy Priests stepped up and started AIDS Hospice centers (I know of a few still operating).  An entire monastery of monks stepped up to be infected- just to increase knowledge of the disease. By 1997, they were paid back completely not in kind, when Holy Redeemer was vandalized by AIDS activists, but still many of us campaigned for civil union laws. By 2002, in Oregon, we had passed a civil union law.   In 2004, 3 out of 4 Multnomah County Commissioners defied the law and started us on the path to same sex marriage- since then it has gotten incredibly ugly.  I've seen churches vandalized, priests and nuns attacked.  I've been called a breeder for my only...

It's sometimes challenging to be a member of the Pastoral Council at my parish.  In the last 15 years, we've had 4 pastors (in the Archdiocese of Portland, one pastor usually stays 6 to 12 years, with the approval of the Archbishop, so this is a lot of changes quickly).  In addition, before 1996, the parish wasn't dioscean, it was Franciscan- and urban Franciscan at that, which means it had a tendency to attract people "Church shopping" for a comfortably liberal parish. And then God and Archbishop Vlazney sent us Fr. Steve Stobie. Excellent Administrator- even with the post 2007 slump, the parish is now back in the black financially.  Wonderful confessor priest- every priest has his own talents, and Fr. Stobie's is the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Wonderful person too, if you can break through his introversion and actually get to know the man. But also, a Canon Lawyer who is very conservative for this parish. Which leads me to the link I want to save...

Planned Parenthood Guts Babies And Sells Their Organs, But Who Really Cares? | TheBlaze.com : 'via Blog this' Exactly.  Post-abortion hatred of children + apathy from those in the supposed middle = nobody really cares at all.

The Shoebat is on fire today with an interesting tale for conspiracy theorists that matches public knowledge. It's very much conspiracy theory- but it does fit current events.

I'm praying this is more perception than reality, but the this seems downright schizophrenic to me. In Laudato Si , the importance of an authentic human ecology- the standard nuclear family unit combined with the extended family as a basis for economic and human activity- is held up as an example of what we should strive for.  Human beings living in heterosexual lifelong monogamous  families consume fewer material goods, which is better for the environment and the world. In  Mitis Iudex  Mitis Iudex (English Commentary, English translation not available yet) , we relax the rules on annulment to insure that annulments are easier to obtain- and like the secular divorce that causes the need to examine a marriage to see if it ever existed in the first place- annulments tear apart the family, often quite violently.   Mitis Iudex  seems to be a crime against an authentic human ecology. This Pope is not a deep thinker- so perhaps he doesn't even see the conn...

Mainly because I've been busy with work, Knights, and family issues. Leading up to the World Meeting of Families, I'm both more sure that canon law surrounding marriage will not change (at least for the Archdiocese of Portland) but also that we need to do better outreach to those who reject traditional family.  I met the new director of Marriage and Family life for the Archdiocese- a father of five, one of them special needs- and his daughter, who has some developmental delay.  I think he's the perfect man for the job.