Photo Caption Call - 9/30/08

Add your captions below in the comment box!

Winning Caption: "Yes, we really did catch a fish this big, but that blasted devil duck swooped in and ate it! Honest." - yyyyyy

[Source: Flickr user "Zippythesimshead"]

View the winning caption from the last Photo Caption Call here.

Told you....

.... that I wasn't kidding when I said today would be a clearing house day. And that wasn't even everything. As you can see, there is plenty to be done, but the first step is knowing what is happening.

Catholic Students v. Honoring Pro-Aborts

Cardinal Newman Society:

Less than two weeks after The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) broke the story that pro-abortion Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is the intended recipient of the Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize, Fordham University students are working feverishly to collect signatures petitioning President Rev. Joseph McShane, S.J. to rescind the honor. The Fordham Respect for Life club penned an open letter to Father McShane, and is now asking the general public to join them in their petition.

At the request of Respect for Life, an electronic petition has been added to The Cardinal Newman Society website. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to add their support. All names and emails submitted will be presented to Fordham President, Rev. Joseph McShane, S.J. by Respect for Life.

Good for them!

See also: "Sup. Court Justice behind partial-birth abortion to be honored by Fordham Law"

Priestlessness vs. Sunday Obligation

CanonLawBlog.com:

A news story out of the Diocese of Fairbanks in Alaska describes an upcoming "priestless Sunday" wherein priests will be away from their parishes to serve remote missions, leaving their parishioners without Sunday Mass that weekend. I can see arguments for and against this unusual action and I don't think that outsiders are in a position to conclusively support or reject the basic idea.

One point in the news article, however, needs to be corrected: After noting that Communion services will be celebrated in most parishes left without pastors, the article asserts that such services are "not Mass but will satisfy the Catholic obligation to attend Mass."

That's wrong. (See why.)

PP v. Our Money

LifeNews:

The head of a pro-life philanthropic firm is calling for a federal government probe of Planned Parenthood. The call for an investigation comes after Planned Parenthood affiliates in California were accused of overcharging the state by millions for birth control.

The accusation came in March, when P. Victor Gonzalez, a former Planned Parenthood official, filed a lawsuit against its affiliates in California saying they overcharged the state hundreds of millions of dollars on birth control.

Gonzalez says his own internal audit estimates that Planned Parenthood overcharged California taxpayers for purchasing birth control by at least $180 million.

Gonzalez says the abortion business fired him because he raised concerns about the illegal practices.

Not surprised.

YouTube v. Decency

HeadlineBistro:

YouTube Allows Videos of Eucharistic Desecration

People can find a video of almost anything on YouTube: babies’ first steps, Saturday Night Live skits, news clips, concerts and now – to the shock of Catholics everywhere – desecration of the Eucharist.

YouTube has long been a destination for Catholics seeking video clips of Masses, apologetics lectures or devotions, but now Catholic outrage is growing as the site has become home to a string of videos depicting acts of Eucharistic desecration, including flushing a host down the toilet, putting one in a blender, feeding one to animals, shooting one with a nail gun and more.

Evil.

Vatican v. Catholic Higher Education

Cardinal Newman Society:

Last week the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education reformed its guidelines governing certain Vatican-approved institutes of “religious sciences.” The document, titled “Reform of the Higher Institutes of Religious Sciences,” was approved by Pope Benedict XVI last June.

..."This latest promotion of ecclesiastical institutes, and especially their rigorous standards for both faculty and students, may appeal to U.S. bishops seeking alternatives to dissenting theology faculty at many Catholic colleges," said Patrick J. Reilly, President of the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS).

Google v. Marriage

Google has decided to take a stand on gay marriage - in favor:

However, while there are many objections to this proposition -- further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text -- it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 -- we should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love. (Google's Official Blog)

So much for not being evil.

Related: Google opposes anti-gay marriage measure

Ph/t: AmP reader Daveko.

Obama v. Catholics

Obama's Catholic Outreach is coming ... to Saint Joseph's Catholic University.

Vicar General v. Canon Law

CanonLawBlog.com:

Monsignor Robert Reardon, the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cardiff, is apparently slated to be the next bishop of Menevia in Wales. But there's a hitch; word is getting out that, in 1979, Reardon officially participated in the civil wedding of an AWOL priest (my term for a priest who abandons ministry without obtaining dispensation from the obligations of the clerical state, including celibacy).

Reardon apparently admits the deed, but adds "If someone can show me the church law I am supposed to have broken, I would be interested, but I'm not aware of it." Does the archdiocesan vicar general really not know what church laws would have been broken by such conduct? (More.)

Obama v. Babies

If you are looking for a simple, succinct, chilling overview of Obama and the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act controversy, see Hadley Arkes.

Meanwhile, Jill Stanek fact checks factcheck.org, which as I said in my last post on this topic, makes the best possible attempt at a counter-claim.

BornAliveTruth.org is also asking for support to spread its message.

As Hadley Arkes mentions above, the Obama camp is playing very aggressively on this issue (almost for broke), trying to make reverse political profit on it.

UK v. Catholic Schools

UK Times:

A Roman Catholic school is refusing to allow 12 and 13-year-old girls to be immunised against cervical cancer on its premises.

The move, by St Monica’s High School in Prestwich, was condemned as irresponsible by the Department for Health, which began its programme to immunise girls against the sexually-transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) this month.

In a letter to parents, the school says that the vaccine has been proved neither safe nor effective, that girls who took part in a pilot programme last year suffered side-effects and that the vaccine could “interfere with the body’s natural defences”. It concluded: “We do not believe that school is the right place for the three injections to be administered.”

Ph/t: William Newton.

Abp. Hughs v. Rep. LaBruzzo

Outrageous:

Archbishop of New Orleans Alfred C. Hughes has criticized a Louisiana lawmaker’s proposal to pay poor women to sterilize themselves, calling it “seriously wrong,” “blatantly anti-life,” and a “form of eugenics.”

Louisiana’s Rep. John LaBruzzo, a Republican from Metairie, last week said he is studying a plan to pay poor women $1,000 to have their Fallopian tubes tied.

His proposal would also cover other forms of birth control, such as vasectomies for men, and could also encourage tax incentives for college-educated, higher-income people to have more children, the Times-Picayune reports. (CNA)

India v. Christians

From the Jesuit Conference of the United States:

The Society of Jesus in the United States is increasingly alarmed by the continuing outbreaks of violence in the India state of Orissa against Christians and other minorities by Hindu extremists. With many of our American and Indian Jesuits in the region ministering to the people of Orissa, we are extremely concerned for our brothers’ safety and the safety of the people they serve. The violence has spread and is occurring in other states throughout India, only increasing the need for greater protection by the government.

“As soon as we received the urgent plea from our Jesuits in the area, we were called into action and joined them in solidarity against these attacks,” said Jesuit Father James Stormes, secretary for social and international ministries of the Jesuit Conference of the United States. “The Jesuits have consistently worked for peace and reconciliation in the area and are horrified by the sufferings of the ordinary people who always pay the price for these kinds of conflicts.”

Jesuits in the U.S. have been in touch with the Department of State and the Indian Embassy to raise awareness about the violence and to call for protection of Christians and minorities. More than 26 Christians and minorities have been killed in the preceding three weeks, more than 50 places of worship have been attacked, 15 churches and convents have been destroyed and more than 4,000 homes of Christians in villages in the Kandhamal district have been burned. The distinguished Jesuit-run Xavier Institute of Management was threatened when mobs passed through the city of Bhubaneswar in the Jamshedpur Province.

Previous AmP posts on this topic here.

Canada v. Catholicism

An anonymous reader writes:

I have an important and troubling story for you too perhaps write about and bring wider attention to. In Quebec, a french speaking province in Canada they have passed a law requiring all schools to teach a mandated course that will force Catholic schools to no longer be able to teach distinct Catholicism outside of social constructivism. It requires schools to observe and note other religious holidays regardless of the tradition of the school.

I have attached an article but the article is really quite tame in explaining it. In the curriculum it advances a very distinct culture of death. Here is a link to from lifesite news as well.

This move by the Quebec government is quite literally the most dangerous regression of religious rights in North America. Because it is occurring in a French province in Canada it has not gotten the press it deserves,l it should serve as a canary in a mine. In one of the secondary school text books it states that Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Henry Morgenthaler, a Canadian Abortion doctor who fought for abortion rights in Canada are some of the three greatest men of the 20th century.

Sacramento v. Dominicans

CanonLawBlog.com:

The Diocese of Sacramento is suing the Western Province of the Dominicans for payment of what the diocese asserts is the religious order's fair share of a civil judgment entered against the diocese in regard to a sexual misconduct case involving a Dominican priest then working in the diocese. (More)

Controversy Tuesday!

When it rains, it pours. For several days a whole slew of controversies have been pouring into my inbox, and I've decided to publish them spread out during the course of the day, this last day of September.

Seriously, it's "pick your cause" day, there's so much happening.

Don't experience burn-out as you read this, AmP readers are simply helping me broaden my coverage of current events.

With that said... here's what's going on right now.

Co-Creating with God conference a success!

I've heard a few on-the-ground reports - all of them favorable - about Sacred Heart Major Seminary's "Co-Creating with God: Humanae Vitae Today" conference (previous AmP posts about it here).

Evidently they had several hundred participants, which is a phenomenal turn-out. The local Free Press also noticed. At least one group of folks came from several states away, after seeing the event advertised here on AmP.

Be sure to check back here in case SHMS decides to post a follow-up press release about the even - I'll be sure to give that a mention. As the organizers said, "Although this is a one-time event, we hope it will bear lasting fruit in the lives of those who attend." Amen!

Related: "Canadian Bishops Issue Pastoral Letter Encouraging Faithfulness to Anti-Contraception Encyclical Humanae Vitae" (LifeSiteNews)

Video: The failed vote, and Pelosi's partisanship

Plenty of people (rightly, I would say) are pinning a large part of the blame for today's failed vote in the House on Nancy Pelosi's flagrantly-partisan, bald-faced-profiteering speech given just prior to the vote.

Her beginning:

“Madam Speaker, when was the last time someone asked you for $700 billion? “It is a number that is staggering, but tells us only the costs of the Bush Administration’s failed economic policies—policies built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything goes mentality, with no regulation, no supervision, and no discipline in the system.

Her ending:

“Today, we will act to avert this crisis, but informed by our experience of the past eight years with the failed economic leadership that has left us left capable of meeting the challenges of the future. “We choose a different path. In the new year, with a new Congress and a new president, we will break free with a failed past and take America in a New Direction to a better future.”

The full video:

Worst speaker of the house ever? I'm beginning to think so. Especially when you consider the history I've pointed out. She really should take that retreat in San Francisco which she's been offered, and accepted....

24 Days, 13 Hours, 38 Minutes....

AmP quoted first in NCR article on Catholic blogging

This article ("No blog is an island -- A guide to the Catholic blogosphere") was published on the 19th, but I didn't notice it until now. I don't really keep track of the National Catholic Reporter, except for John Allen.

Let me say at the outset that I bear no ill will towards its author, Patrick Gallagher, with whom I enjoyed a fruitful correspondence as he wrote the article. I do, however, have some substantial disagreements with his assessment of the Catholic blogosphere, and I have made no secret about my opinion of NCR's editorial bias in general.

One of my first disagreements: Catholic blogs certainly have more than a "modest" impact. Bishops read them. You read them. The service that Catholic blogs provide indirectly, if not directly, serves the life of the Church and our common service to the truth as internet witnesses and active participants in the battlefield of ideas.

One of my biggest disagreements with the article:

"A majority of Catholic blogs are “traditional” or “orthodox,” resisting changes in the church since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and seeking a restoration of pre-Vatican II liturgy, architecture and common devotions."

Especially considering the next lines refer to me and this blog, I can't help presume I'm being described above:

Frequently, these blogs are also politically conservative. Thomas Peters of “The American Papist,” a blog celebrating the pope and reporting on and analyzing Vatican happenings, speaks for many of these bloggers when he says, “I blog because I believe that the truth is fundamentally on our side.”

There's plenty to respond to here, so I'll take it point-by-point, in order:

• "traditional" and "orthodox" do not mean rejecting Vatican II, it means (at minimum) rejecting the false implementation of Vatican II which were contrary to its letter and spirit. It means embracing V2.
• "traditional" and "orthodox" Catholics may seek a "restoration of pre-Vatican II liturgy, architecture and common devotions" because in many cases they were falsely tossed aside in the first place and as a result the authentic continuity that was always intended to remain was severed. And you know who else seems to favor a restoration of these forgotten treasures? Pope Benedict XVI.
• While it is true that the majority of positions and candidates I find myself admiring, and which I believe represent in general a more prudent application of Catholic social teaching than the alternatives, could be descibed as "conservative," I dislike this straitjacket term and generally find that it ends up confusing more than enlightening my readers. But this isn't a major sticking point.
• My full response when asked "Why do you blog" was this: "I blog because I believe that truth is fundamentally on our side. Whether one is providing information or debating contrary views, blogging is a wonderful way of testifying to the truths of the faith. It also puts you in touch with a wider audience of Catholics, Christians and non-Christians. Online "communities" have been made possible by the Internet, and this new territory urgently needs missionaries. If I can serve it that capacity, so much the better." I think that sounds a bit more full and less "triumphalist." But oh well, I don't retreat from the claims made in my first statement in the least, because it's not "my" truth, it's the deposit of faith.

I'll leave-off commenting on the rest of the article. Overall I wasn't displeased with the treatment, but I'd hope that readers poke around themselves to create their own informed opinions about Catholic blogging.

And to all the new folks visiting - you're most welcome here.

Arcbishop Burke: Democrats becoming "party of death"

Archbishop "Pulls-No-Punches," well, doesn't:

The Democratic Party in the United States "risks transforming itself definitively into a 'party of death,'" said U.S. Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Vatican's highest court.

An interview with the former archbishop of St. Louis was published in the Sept. 27 edition of Avvenire, a daily Catholic newspaper sponsored by the Italian bishops' conference.

... "At this point the Democratic Party risks transforming itself definitely into a 'party of death' because of its choices on bioethical questions as Ramesh Ponnuru wrote in his book, 'The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts and the Disregard for Human Life.'"

Archbishop Burke said the Democratic Party once was "the party that helped our immigrant parents and grandparents better integrate and prosper in American society. But it is not the same anymore."

Pro-life Democrats are "rare, unfortunately," he said.

On denying communion to pro-abortion politicians:

Archbishop Burke also was asked about being one of a few U.S. bishops to publicly ban Catholic politicians who hold positions contrary to church teaching from receiving Communion.

"Mine was not an isolated position," the archbishop said. "It was shared by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver, by Bishop Peter J. Jugis of Charlotte (N.C.) and by others."

"But it is true that the bishops' conference has not taken this position, leaving each bishop free to act as he believes best. For my part, I always have maintained that there must be a united position in order to demonstrate the unity of the church in facing this serious question," he said.

"Recently, I have noticed that other bishops are coming to this position," he said, especially after Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., "while presenting themselves as good Catholics, have represented church teaching on abortion in a false and tendentious manner."

Ka-boom.

update: for those who are interested, the book Archbishop Burke mentions: "The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life"

For those interested in finding the bishops to whom Archbishop Burke is referring, see: "Joe Biden" in recent AmP posts.

Also, I have cross-posted this to CatholicVote.com, which is doing well.

Photo credit: "Geerlingguy"

Video: Chaput discusses Catholics & Politics at length

Archbishop Chaput sat down for a five-part interview with Peter Robinson for NRO's "Uncommon knowledge." Watch it here.

Here are summaries of the individual segments and links if one interests you particularly:

• Part 5: Archbishop Chaput says Catholic Democrats have an obligation to change their party’s platform on abortion, just as Catholic Republicans are responsible for keeping their party pro-life. Moreover, he says the Catholic position on abortion need not be just a Catholic position, but an American position.
• Part 4: Archbishop Chaput has written that “The logic behind abortion makes all human rights politically contingent.” For example, Chaput explains that if our leaders can decide when life begins, they also can make determinations about when life should end. Ov