Happy Birthday Part II

An even better article from the National Catholic Reporter that reprints an article by an Italian sociologist:

“There are cases of sexual abuse that come to light every day against a large number of members of the Catholic clergy. Unfortunately it’s not a matter of individual cases, but a collective moral crisis that perhaps the cultural history of humanity has never before known with such a frightening and disconcerting dimension. Numerous priests and religious have confessed. There’s no doubt that the thousands of cases which have come to the attention of the justice system represent only a small fraction of the true total, given that many molesters have been covered and hidden by the hierarchy.”
An editorial from a great secular newspaper in 2010? No: It’s a speech of May 28, 1937, by Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), Minister of Propaganda for the Third Reich. This speech, which had a large international echo, was the apex of a campaign launched by the Nazi regime to discredit the Catholic Church by involving it in a scandal of pedophile priests....
The expression “moral panic” was only coined by sociologists in the 1970s to identify a social alarm created as a kind of art, accomplished by amplifying real facts and exaggerating their numbers through statistical folklore, as well as “discovering” and presenting as “new” events which in reality are already known and which date to the past. There are real events at the base of the panic, but their number is systematically distorted. Even without the benefit of modern sociology, Goebbels responded to the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge in 1937 with a textbook case of the creation of a moral panic.

Happy Birthday PBXVI

The news about Pope Benedict has been relentless and filled with misleading statements. I came across an interesting article written by an "atheist libertarian" that included:

It's worth asking why otherwise fairly intelligent thinkers get so dementedly exercised over the Pope and the Catholic Church. What exactly is their beef? What are they objecting to?

Very few (if any) of the Pope-hunters were raised Catholic, so this isn't about personal vengeance for some perceived slight by a priest or nun. And despite their current lowdown, historically illiterate attempt to equate a priest fondling a child with a state's attempt to obliterate an entire people under the collective tag "crime against humanity", the truth is that some of these Pope-hunters don't really think child abuse is the worst crime in the world. In 2006, Dawkins criticised "hysteria about pedophilia" and said that, even though he was the victim of sexual abuse at boarding school, he would defend his abusive former teachers if "50 years on they had been hounded by vigilantes or lawyers as no better than child murderers". Yet now he wants to put abusive priests on a par with genocidaires.

And another article by PJPII's biographer, George Weigel, where he points out that we as Catholics can now speak our confidently and forcefully after having cleaned house of it's "filth", as PBXVI called it:

Reasonable people whose perceptions are not warped by the toxin of anti-Catholicism or who are not pursuing other (often financially-driven) agendas now recognize that the Church in the U.S. and Canada has bent enormous efforts towards cleaning up what Cardinal Ratzinger called in 2005 its “filth,” to the point where the Catholic Church today can be empirically shown to be the safest environment for young people and children in North America. The paralyzing drumbeat of one ghastly new story after another that went on all during 2002 has not been repeated. What we now have is, largely, the recycling of old material, usually provided to the press by contingent-fee attorneys whose strategic goal is to build a public “narrative” of conspiracy that will shape American courts’ decisions as to whether the Vatican and its resources can be brought within range of U.S. liability law.

The realization among serious Catholics that this is not 2002 and that things have changed dramatically since 2002, has led to a far more confident effort to fight back against misrepresentations such as those the Times perpetrated on March 25. There is a danger here: to recognize that this is not 2002 cannot blind us to the fact that there are wounds that remain to be healed, reforms of priestly formation that remain to be completed, bishops whose failures remain to be recognized and dealt with, new norms for the selection of bishops to be implemented, and accounts rendered as to why the Vatican, prior to Ratzinger’s taking control of the issue of clerical sexual abuse in the late 1990s, was sometimes sluggish in its response to scandalous behavior by priests and deficient leadership by bishops.

Assuming, however, that Benedict XVI has set in motion processes that will lead to all those lingering issues being forcefully addressed, a serious question can now be credibly posed: Are those most vigorously agitating these abuse/misgovernance issues today genuinely interested in the safety of young people and children, or are they using the failures of the past to cripple the moral credibility of the Catholic Church in the present and future? That question would have rightly struck many people as a dodge in 2002. It cannot be credibly regarded as a dodge today, because of what the Church has done since 2002 (and, indeed, since the 1990s, when the plague of abuse within the Church began to recede).

The Empty Tomb

The most fantastic claim. Either the tomb was empty. Or it was not. Either I believe the 500 witnesses, the 11 apostles who died martyrs' deaths rather than deny it was true, and 2000 years of enduring good works... or I do not. I choose to believe. Hallelujah!

Christmas Beauty

We had such a great Christmas! Four are still here! Theresa left for a week to go to Boston, but returned yesterday til Sunday. I took today off, took the tree down, we all went out to the Brook for lunch, then we came home and did our own home-made Dancercize in the living room for about an hour (well, OK, I didn't go the whole hour - but I think Sarah went for 1 1/2 hours!). Sarah spent some time creating a list of songs crescendoing from warming up easy listening to crazy African drum beats. Now we're going to play games followed by a trip to the dollar theater to watch Paranormal Activity (if we can talk T into it - she hates scary movies!).

Kissing the Face of God

"God's sign is simplicity. God's sign is the baby. God's sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendour. He comes as a baby - defenseless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will - we learn to live with him and to practise with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him, and love him." Pope Benedict XVI

A Last Minute Gift...With Meaning

An opportunity for a last minute Christmas Gift! Liz has set up a fund to help cover the cost of books and supplies for students in Agua Fria, the mountain town where she did her Peace Corps service. Click below to send a payment via PayPal!! She has a nice certificate that she can send you to use as a gift (co-workers, family members, neighbors, etc.) if you'd like. But since she's traveling back to the states this week, you'd better email me (janen7@cox.net). THANKS! (PS - if you use the link below, the shipping address may be confusing - just enter your own address - since you're not purchasing anything, shipping isn't needed, but something needs to be entered.)

Gifts

Option 1 $10.00 Option 2 $25.00 Option 3 $50.00 Option 4 $100.00

O Come O Come Emmanuel

Oh Holy Advent

I wanted to share a beautiful Advent reflection on this Advent eve - from my favorite blog.

I shed tears of gratitude and joy that you have come round again, O Advent, to shake us from our torpor as early night comes, and the match is struck, and the message is brought home once more; that we are forever in the absence of light; it is beyond us and exterior until we make it welcome and bring it, like a lover, within. Welcome into our deepest void, welcome into the parts of us touched by human frost and stunted. Welcome, O Light, beaming glorious, into remotest apertures of our souls, rays aglow, warmth permeating where we have left old fires unattended and embers to wane, and our abysses to grow chill, and uninhabitable. Welcome light; dispelling illusion, and chasing old ghosts to rest.

With the sunset tonight, the promise is renewed; the story begins again. The beginning; quiescence, empty and void. Then movement; an annunciation; a Word -one boundless, vibrant “yes” that shakes creation; “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior!” Soon there will be dreams, and silent wondering, and a gathering, and a starry night rent with song. The Word Present penetrates lonely, lost humanity, and enters into the pain and fear, the tumult and whirlwind; and He sets His tent with us not merely dwelling among, but literally with us; with hunger, with the capacity for injury and doubt -with enough vulnerability to be broken- and within this espousal, everything is illuminated!

Technology Overload

You know you're technologically overloaded when you finally get invited to create a Google telephone number, spend WAY TOO MUCH time trying different numerical combinations that spell memorable words, finally find the telephone number to rival the one you grew up with - PLeasant OH SHOOT I forgot!! - submit it, and then several weeks later when you realize you haven't used it once, you wonder why you ever got one in the first place because you don't see any purpose!!!

BUT I did just find out that when you forget your Google Voice number you can go find it on the website! 918-200-WIDE (I know, I know - all the interesting words were taken!).

Uh-oh...

Prayers for Honduras

The Wall Street Journal reports on Hondurans prayers for a miracle offered to "La Morenita". Let's join them!

I've copied most of it below (mostly for Liz's sake) since WSJ articles are hard to reach:

In the past three months, a slew of Latin American presidents, foreign ministers, ambassadors and even a Nobel Peace Prize winner, have failed to find a solution to the political standoff that has split Honduras. Now, many despairing Hondurans say, may be time for a little divine intervention...

So every day, more and more Hondurans are calling on the Virgin of Suyapa, a 3-inch statuette of the Virgin Mary, made of dark wood and nicknamed La Morenita, or the Little Dark One, for help. Over the centuries, La Morenita, which was found on a hillside in 1747 and now makes its home at a small whitewashed colonial church near the capital, has been credited with sundry miracles, from curing kidney stones to ending a brief war...

If anyone can put Honduras back on the right path, believers think, La Morenita is the one to do it. Over the centuries, she is said to have cured the blind and made cripples walk. It is said that she appeared in white robes to aid Honduran soldiers during a bloody conflict. The challenge now is to get Mr. Zelaya and his foe, Mr. Micheletti, to settle their political differences...

Legend has it that the statuette was discovered one February morning in 1747 by a laborer named Alejandro Colindres who was out clearing a corn field the day before. But darkness fell suddenly, and the farm worker went to sleep by the side of the road. When he rolled over, there was something poking at his side. Half asleep, he threw the object into the night -- only to find it poking at him yet again in the morning.

It was the tiny statue of La Morenita.

Her first supposed miracle took place in 1768, when Capt. José de Zelaya, perhaps an ancestor of the ousted president, was suddenly relieved of incurable kidney stones. Grateful, the captain had a church built to house the Virgin. Pilgrims -- some saying the Virgin had visited them in the night -- arrived from across the land. More miracles were reported.

By the 20th century, the Virgin of Suyapa was Honduras's most loved symbol. Songs were written to her, daughters named after her. In 1969, La Morenita was even given the battlefield commission "Captain of the Armed Forces" when Honduras went to war with neighboring El Salvador after violence broke out in the stands in a World Cup qualifying match. The brief, bloody war took four days and cost 2,000 lives. A draw, it went down in history as the "Soccer War." "We were outnumbered," said Ms. Díaz. "But the patroness appeared in a white gown to our soldiers, guiding them along, giving them food and water."

The pastor chimed in with an anecdote of his own. It was last February, and a family of three from near the Guatemalan border made the grueling journey across the mountains to visit the figurine. But the church had already closed that day. When he returned, "the church doors were open and they were all inside praying to her," said the priest who insists it was none other than the Virgin who let the pilgrims in. "I had locked the door myself."

Last Sunday, parishioners gathered for the first Sunday mass since Mr. Zelaya's surprise return to the country. Two policemen on motorcycles circled the basilica, their rifles pointing toward the heavens. Inside, the church was overflowing with worshipers. Many stood before the altar, waving framed portraits of the Virgin as an assistant sprinkled holy water. Father Ruiz led the services, dressed in long white robes and a green cloak. "With all of the uncertainty now in the country, we beg for your help," he said.

Honduras, Father Ruiz whispered, is like the baby held by King Solomon, in danger of being split in two by its current president and its ousted one. "Maybe the Virgin should be president. She is only 6 centimeters tall, but she has greatness," said the priest, gazing out the window of the church.

Best Listened to with Earphones

Here is an amazing rendition of Spem in Alium a 40-part "motet" that was written in the 1570. The song itself is amazing enough. But once you know it's one person singing all 40 parts, well... take a listen:


Here is the English translation of the Latin text:

I have never put my hope in any other but in you,
O God of Israel
who can show both anger
and graciousness,
and who absolves all the sins of suffering man
Lord God,
Creator of Heaven and Earth
be mindful of our lowliness

According to Wikipedia, the normal method of performing this work is to place the audience at the center of the church and surround them with the performers. The effect "is that of inundation, or of being completely overwhelmed." The work "is not often performed, as it requires at least forty singers capable of meeting its technical demands."

OMG

This picture (from Liz's Facebook) is hilarious! Liz and Sarah in a nutshell!

And this one so sweet... Love you guys! Can't wait til December.

Because of Luis and Maria

I came across a wonderful blog the other day called Why I Am Catholic . Each post has a headline like "Because of Dorothy Day" or "Because of My Friend Ferde". Well, Chris and I just came home from our first Supper Club that we joined at church and I decided to enter a Why I Am Catholic blog.

Everyone who was interested signed up for Supper Club, then we were placed with 3 other couples (or a mix with singles). One of the couples in our group, Luis and Maria, is in their 70's (Luis will be 80 in Nov) and were born in Peru. What a delightful time we had with everyone! But we especially enjoyed Luis and Maria. At one point we asked Luis how he met Maria. He told a story about his "Maria Christina" and when he described the moment he met her, his eyes lit up and he looked upward and said, "It was as if an angel - truly an angel! - had come down from heaven!" And the whole time he told the story, Maria's cheeks were red and she had a beautiful, loving smile on her face. On the way home I said, "If I had a blog like Why I Am Catholic I would say Because of Luis and Maria."

So here it is - a tribute to a couple who has been married close to 60 years, energetic enough to join a Supper Club, proud of each of their five sons, and truly still in love after all these years.

The Fruit of the Culture of Life

A Beautiful Quote for Mothers

A mother is the most important person on earth. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any Cathedral -- a dwelling for an immortal soul...-- Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty

Labor Day Weekend

I've had a delightful weekend. First of all, I decided that it must only be Americans who take time off to celebrate Labor and then feel guilty if they don't do major house projects all weekend. So, I decided just to relax and not feel pressured, structured, or scheduled.

On Saturday Chris and I drove Mary to Joplin MO to meet a friend (who then drove her to Kansas City to see fellow students before she takes off for a Junior Year Abroad). Chris and I had talked about taking a drive this weekend anyway, so we decided to take the doogies with us, stay at a dog-friendly hotel, and then visit the Precious Moments Chapel.

Good News first - the chapel was really beautiful. We've driven past it now for 17 years as we traveled to Michigan, but never stopped. I pre-judged it and decided it would be expensive and tacky. Well, it was neither. As a matter of fact it was free, and a beautiful, tasteful monument to God, built by a very loving and generous man (Sam Butcher, the man who designed the Prec Mom children).
On the way home we stopped at Grand Lake, looked around a bit, ate lunch, and decided to buy a camper (not yet, but soon doggone it!).
Today we went to see Julie and Julia. I usually only smile ear-to-ear non-stop when I watch really good Disney movies or pretty much every Pixar movie. But this one had me smiling like a kid in a candy store. Meryl Streep was a joy to watch and the marriages depicted were precious.
And now I'm relaxing for yet another evening because I took tomorrow off too!! (Oh, btw, the bad news was the dogs - they were a pain! They couldn't figure out how much of the hotel they needed to protect and thus were antsy and whining until the lights were out and we went to sleep - for THAT I probably should be grateful!).

The Culture of Life

I haven't wanted to blog because I haven't wanted to distract from my previous entry. Is there a more beautiful depiction of love as the picture below, with the tear in the eye of the mother as she protects her tiny, dying child with her body's warmth and the look of tender, ever-committed love on the face of the father?

I wish I was a brilliant philosopher who could put just the right words together to express what is deep in my soul about the critical foundation to society that is being chipped away (and sometimes blasted with dynamite). Pope John Paul II called it the Culture of Life and expounded upon it with grace...

The first and most fundamental step towards...cultural transformation consists in forming consciences with regard to the incomparable and inviolable worth of every human life. It is of the greatest importance to re-establish the essential connection between life and freedom. ... There is no true freedom where life is not welcomed and loved; and there is no fullness of life except in freedom. ... Love, as a sincere gift of self, is what gives the life and freedom of the person their truest meaning.

It goes beyond defending life from conception to natural death to include respecting the dignity of others with a love that is grounded in truth. Remove the truth, as Pope Benedict recently stated, and we have "charity that degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word 'love' is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite."

What I can do is use my simple mind to communicate the little glimpses of truth that I find in the philosophy of the Culture of Life that make my heart sing. Glimpses that I hope are not shallow and trite, but instead are simplicity on the other side of complexity, as Einstein calls it. Like this picture...

Or this quote...

We must know that we have been created for greater things...-we have been created in order to love and be loved. Mother Teresa

Or this family...

Sarah, You'll Love This Story

When Carolyn Isbister put her 20oz baby on her chest for a cuddle, she thought that it would be the only chance she would ever have to hold her.

Doctors had told the parents that baby Rachel only had only minutes to live because her heart was beating once every ten seconds and she was not breathing.

Isbister remembers:

I didn’t want her to die being cold. So I lifted her out of her blanket and put her against my skin to warm her up. Her feet were so cold.

It was the only cuddle I was going to have with her, so I wanted to remember the moment.” Then something remarkable happened. The warmth of her mother’s skin kick started Rachael’s heart into beating properly, which allowed her to take little breaths of her own.

We couldn’t believe it – and neither could the doctors. She let out a tiny cry.

The doctors came in and said there was still no hope – but I wasn’t letting go of her. We had her blessed by the hospital chaplain, and waited for her to slip away. But she still hung on.

And then amazingly the pink color began to return to her cheeks. She literally was turning from gray to pink before our eyes, and she began to warm up too.

The sad part is that when the baby was born, doctors took one look at her and said ‘no’.

They didn’t even try to help her with her breathing as they said it would just prolong her dying. Everyone just gave up on her,” her mom remembered.

At 24 weeks a womb infection had led to her premature labor and birth and Isbister (who also has two children Samuel, 10, and Kirsten, 8 ) said, “We were terrified we were going to lose her. I had suffered three miscarriages before, so we didn’t think there was much hope.” When Rachael was born she was grey and lifeless.

Ian Laing, a consultant neonatologist at the hospital, said: “All the signs were that the little one was not going to make it and we took the decision to let mum have a cuddle as it was all we could do.

Two hours later the wee thing was crying. This is indeed a miracle baby and I have seen nothing like it in my 27 years of practice. I have not the slightest doubt that mother’s love saved her daughter.”

Rachael was moved onto a ventilator where she continued to make steady progress and was tube and syringe fed her mother’s pumped breastmilk.

Isbister said, “The doctors said that she had proved she was a fighter and that she now deserved some intensive care as there was some hope. She had done it all on her own – without any medical intervention or drugs. She had clung on to life – and it was all because of that cuddle. It had warmed up her body and regulated her heart and breathing enough for her to start fighting.

At 5 weeks she was taken off the ventilator and began breastfeeding on her own. At four months Rachel went home with her parents, weighing 8lbs – the same as any other healthy newborn. Because Rachel had suffered from a lack of oxygen doctors said there was a high risk of damage to her brain. But a scan showed no evidence of any problems and today Rachel is on par with her peers.

Rachel’s mom tells us, “She is doing so well. When we brought her home, the doctors told us that she was a remarkable little girl. And most of all, she just loves her cuddles. She will sleep for hours, just curled into my chest. It was that first cuddle which saved her life – and I’m just so glad I trusted my instinct and picked her up when I did. Otherwise she wouldn’t be here today.”

Sheas and Brandis!

OK - this is fun. I googled Bernice (my aunt) because today is her birthday - got nothing. So I tried Dorothy and found this...

Hello,
I hope that you reply to this, I currently reside in Saginaw, MI and I own the house that Michael and Mary Brandi raised their daughters in, I eleive they were Bernice and Dorothy Brandi. I have paper work on the history of my hoem if you would like copies.

I'll try to respond and let you know.