Outside The Asylum

In a post trying to explain the pastoral nature of Pope Francis, we find : Imagine a businessman who owns a chain of department stores that specialises in affordable clothing. He is a practicing Catholic, and he wants to grow in his faith, but he is in clear breach of the Church’s moral law in one respect. All of his garment manufacture is done in a sweatshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he is the only client, and the conditions there are egregiously bad. The workers put in six and a half days a week and are paid a pittance; they effectively live in the factory, eating, washing and even sleeping there, hardly ever getting back to their families and villages; the building is structurally unsound and poorly wired, making it a health hazard of the very worst kind; and there are lots of ten- and eleven-year-old children working there – the same long hours as the adult folk and without any education, playtime, healthcare or family life. It is a hell. It offends against every notion of huma...

Monsignor Charles Pope comes down squarely between Group 2 and Group 3. Too bad, in the words of Crux Magazine, he's too late. Catholic Teaching on Marriage and Communion is Unambiguous | ncregister.com : 'via Blog this'

This was originally a response on Public Catholic to the question, what changed to make you feel unworthy of the Mercy of God? This is long. Because it is very complex and over a year of thinking that has led me to this point. It started, really, when I noticed that in his fight against Clericalism, Pope Francis was throwing out the baby with the bathwater- that many fine clerics were being censored, while clerics accused of clerical abuse were being promoted. That, in and of itself, was not enough,but it is what started me thinking this way. At first, I even looked on it as a big positive- Pope Francis's concentration on mercy for the marginalized, has been an awesome thing to watch, pulling people into that church. And certainly, promoting the accused clerics and demoting the faithful clerics, fit within that narrative. But then came Cardinal Kasper and his ilk. Promoting divorce and remarriage as something holier, something more deserving of mercy, than any other sin. ...

Next week I get to go to the Holy Name Society Men's Conference in Salem.  In preparation for my confession, and in an attempt to bring some organization to my despair, here is my problem with the Year of Mercy- that never got resolved, but may have a very simple solution indeed. The problem, as I see it, is I'm educated enough to know that there are four competing definitions of mercy in this world, that they are mutually exclusive, and that they can be described as four mutually incompatible religions. Unitarian Secular Humanism- Mercy is reduction of human suffering.  By any means.  In the atheist extreme, this leads to euthanasia and abortion- killing the suffering person to reduce human suffering overall. Hindu Karma- Human suffering is caused by needing to learn a lesson, so the most merciful action is to allow the lesson to continue and do nothing.  Eventually, the soul will start to learn (in this life or 10,000 lives down the road) how to avoid sufferin...

Way back last April, on my 2nd reading of Amoris Laetitia, I had the idea to try to find out what the simple message of the document was, by using  word frequency tables  and generating a Word Cloud: Church Family Can Love Life. That simple phrase, I believe, sums up what Pope Francis was really trying to say with Amoris Laetitia. But as in any family, the devil lies in trying to communicate, communicate a Truth much larger than just our human love- the Truth of Christ. The Truth of Christ doesn't always feel good. It is not the easy way out. Mercy can't be allowed to destroy justice. And yet, today on Crisis Magazine, we have a  Bishop from Kazakstan claiming that four Cardinals, four Prophets, are being ignored. Four Prophets who claim that due to errornous interpretations of Amoris Laetitia, confusion has been created. Four Prophets who say that with Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia, in certain diocese and certain countries in the world, Mercy has been allowed ...

This is going to be a rather long post, inspired by a comment somebody made in a discussion on Voting and politicians on Disqus. It's too long for a comment, and will get rather deep into what I'm beginning to see as a very scary 8th generation American post-Christian religion that is emerging among Libertarian minded people in the United States of America. As this is a religious post, on this subject, I find it important to start with a prayer- The Novena for the Election from Priests for Life : O God, we acknowledge you today as Lord, Not only of individuals, but of nations and governments. We thank you for the privilege Of being able to organize ourselves politically And of knowing that political loyalty Does not have to mean disloyalty to you. We thank you for your law, Which our Founding Fathers acknowledged And recognized as higher than any human law. We thank you for the opportunity that this election year puts before us, To exercise our solemn duty not only ...

This is an excellent argument for why good pro-life Catholics in any contested state should fight their own conscience to vote for Trump in November: Restore-DC-Catholicism: Today's Political Developments Demand Rational Response, Not Knee-Jerk Rancor : 'via Blog this Here is why I can't, and is my response to this argument: In my case, quite literally, Cruz's exit from the race has stolen *all* meaning from my vote entirely, both now and in the general election. The reason why has nothing to do with emotion and everything to do with the demographics of Oregon, where liberal Democrats in four cities (Portland, Salem, Eugene, and Bend) run this state. They have a majority, nobody else has a voice at all. The ONE exception to that is our May 1-May 18 Republican Primary. Yes, we get three weeks to vote in Oregon. And what happens FOUR DAYS IN to those three weeks? The other two decide suddenly that Trump is unbeatable, and drop out. ...

The Exhortation Amoris Laetitia has been out for a few weeks now. I've done several hours of reading and analysis on it, including a word cloud: Which gives us a phrase that I'd call the central message of this Exhortation: Family Can Love Life. But what nags me isn't what is in this most excellent description of the state of marriage in the world. Even the "problematic" Chapter 8 is at least talking about the real experience some people have with irregular, less than ideal marriage. No, what bugs me is one word that was left out: Repentance It occurs to me though that there are two possible explanations for this word being missing, one of which is mildly irritating, and the second of which is downright frightening: 1. Mildly irritating to those of us in North America and Europe who are serious about our marriages and faith is that our small-t traditional language of sin and repentance is a foreign concept to Pope Francis. Not that he doesn't have the...

Wish I could afford to do this with Christopher this year. A Traditional Polish Easter Basket : 'via Blog this'

Joseph de Maistre argued for the return to monarchy and religion when faced with the Reign of Terror in France after the revolution.

Another Ambitious Crazy idea- but I'm letting other people decide if I will do it. My idea is to steal an idea from the Diocese of Lafeyette, hire an interior project manager I know who needs volunteer hours, and buy Fr. Theo Lange a new ride for the second half of the Jubilee Year of Mercy- one specifically designed for his role as a Papal Missionary of Mercy: Not sure we can find an ambulance that looks this nice- might only be able to find an old panel truck or a van or something, but we will find something.  I'm budgeting $7000 for a used vehicle, $1000 in conversion costs, and $500 worth of fuel and devotional items to fill the cabinets in the back.

Once again, I asked to have a pro-life item included in our bulletin, and once again, our Jesuit-trained pastoral assistant blocked it.  Over and over, whenever I meet a pro-choice Catholic, I'm told they are Jesuit trained.  What do Jesuits have against life? ---- Jesuit pro-choice strikes again. In the end result, 9daysforlife.com will not be promoted at St. Clare's.

Part 11: The Spiritual Works of Mercy | The Divine Mercy Message from the Marians of the Immaculate Conception : 'via Blog this' What I need to work on this year

It starts with a ghost town. Some of them go really cheap. Someplace in Oregon, there is a ghost town that would be useful for this purpose. It needs a creek or a river running near it. But that's about it; cache basins can supply the rest of the water if we can build them to keep it. It also needs a hill or a mountain. And on top of the mountain, a very special chapel will be built. The Venerable Fr. Michael J McGivney chapel. The basement will look something like this- 4 rooms, for 4 very special purposes, no windows. The stairs in the basement leads up to the next level, by the wall- where an altar on rails covers the steps when in proper position for the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, but is open for the Ordinary Form of the Mass. On this same level are 4 patios outside the walls of the Maltese Cross shaped church- two red and two white. Finally- far above- is a very special sculpture- made of solar panels and steel- making up the roof: Sitting nearby, is ano...

It is only 10 minutes. I dare you to watch to the bitter end.

How to Improve Your Mind - Archbishop Fulton Sheen - YouTube : 'via Blog this' ;

Suffering ~ Venerable Fulton J Sheen - YouTube : " " This is the answer to the nones.  This is the best response to the problem of evil I know.

Synod15 - Final Report of the Synod of Bishops to the Holy Father Francis (October 24, 2015) : Thanks Be to God- the English translation of the new synod report is out.  Not only that, but maybe in response to previous online rumors about biased English translators in the Vatican, this online document has a cool geeky new feature- hover over a sentence, you'll get the original Latin, or maybe Italian.  I'm a post Vatican II Catholic so I can't tell the difference. On my fears- Paragraph 76 completely and utterly refutes the denial of heteronormative marriage.  Paragraphs 83-86 completely deny that divorce is objectively good.  Unless Pope Francis pulls a Humanae Vitae style reversal of these points in the final exhortation, we conservatives have good reason to be hopeful. Chapter II, paragraphs 64-68, are a must read for all Catholic parents.  Paragraph 65 in particular touches on a subject I've been a bit contentious online on, the preference that childre...