Without reservation we must proclaim the Risen Lord!

2nd Week of Easter (T): Readings

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

If there were ever a day in our lifetimes to believe the apostle's witness to the resurrection of the Lord, it is today. And not just today but tomorrow as well. And then again tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. If we failed to believe yesterday, or fail to believe even now, today is the day to set aside doubt and worry and choose to believe the ancient and living testimony of Christ's friends. The Lord is risen from the tomb! His grave is empty. Resurexit sicut dixit, Alleluia! This is the solemn witness of generations, of centuries of men and women who have lived their lives and died their deaths, walking the passionate path of Christ's Way. They followed him to Jerusalem and to the Cross. To Corinth, Thessalonia, Alexandria, Rome, and on to Lagos, Las Angeles, Tokoyo, Mumbai, Melbourne, and Moscow. And when and if the time comes, we will follow him out into the stars and plant the church on truly alien soil. Our solemn witness is a proclamation for all of creation to hear: the Lord is risen indeed! Therefore, we must speak of what we know so that all may come to believe.

Jesus himself confirms the necessity bearing witness when he answers Nicodemus, teaching him that all men must be born again in order to enter heaven. When Nicodemus expresses doubt about how such a rebirth is possible, Jesus answers, “. . .we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony.” We speak. We know. We testify. And yet our testimony is not believed. Jesus doesn't argue with Nicodemus, or perform a miracle, or offer a naturalistic explanation for what he knows to be true. Instead, he says, “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. . .so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” How does anyone come to believe if there is no one to give witness? A word cannot be heard unless it is spoken. The Word made flesh and risen from the tomb must be spoken by those who believe, by those who know because they believe.

Among the first witnesses to the empty tomb were apostles, men and women who went out and gave their voices to the truth of Christ's resurrection. Luke tells us in his Acts of the Apostles that these faithful souls founded communities of believers who were of one heart and mind, holding everything in common, they claimed no possessions of their own. Bearing witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, God's grace flowed freely among them and they received His gifts with thanksgiving. From these small, local communities God's Word spread like a forest fire, burning away anguish, despair, and the futile longing for worldly prizes. Thousands were set free in the Spirit and then sent to free thousands more. They bore under the burden of witness, they spoke of what they knew so that all may come to believe. 

Thomas the Twin doubted and Christ showed him the truth. Nicodemus doubted and Christ taught him the truth. Today, perhaps more than any other day in our lifetimes, we too are confronted by doubters, sometimes hostile and violent doubters. Today, the integrity of the Church's witness is attacked from within and without, by doubters among us and doubters separated from us. To the degree that we have failed to bear faithful witness to the Risen Lord, their doubt is our burden to bear. For those who doubt despite our faithful witness, we can nothing better for them them than to remain steadfast in the preaching and teaching of the gospel the apostles have given us. If we remain one body with one heart and one mind, speaking the One Word of God, proclaiming without reservation or fear of rebuke, the integrity of our witness will be invincible. To do anything less is retreat and surrender.

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Yup, that's about right. . .

Michael Ramirez

Pulitzer Winner in Poerty

Not many HancAquam readers are into contemporary the way I am, but for those few out there, here's this year's winner and finalists for the Pulitzer Prize:

Winner: Versed, by Rae Armantrout (Wesleyan University Press), a book striking for its wit and linguistic inventiveness, offering poems that are often little thought-bombs detonating in the mind long after the first reading. 

Finalists: Tryst, by Angie Estes (Oberlin College Press), a collection of poems remarkable for its variety of subjects, array of genres and nimble use of language.

Inseminating the Elephant, by Lucia Perillo (Copper Canyon Press), a collection of poems, often laced with humor, that examine popular culture, the limits of the human body and the tragicomic aspects of everyday experience. 

I've not read any of these poets. . .been out of the poetry loop for too long. . .sigh.

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Scuba Becky update

Good News:  Scuba Becky is out of the hospital and already back at work.  She seems to think that the bank where she works will self-destruct if she's not there.

My thanks for all the prayers and kind comments/emails.  She's promised to stay out of the hospital for at least a year.

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Destroying the smoking gun case of abuse out of Oakland

John Norton of the OSV does an excellent job of summarizing, in plain English, all the errors of the alleged "smoking gun" case of sexual abuse in Oakland, CA.

This is the case where the headline blared something like "Pope delayed punishing priest child molester."

With journalists like the ones working for the NYT and CNN, we don't need the National Inquirer or Jerry Springer.

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Question for Geeks

A techy question for my Geek Readers:

Why is it that when I watch videos and enlarge them to full screen size, my mouse scrolling function is disabled? 

I have to empty the cache every time I finish a video in order to restore the scrolling function.

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No problem with the media when they do their job

Because there seems to be some doubt on this issue, let me say this as plainly and as clearly as I possibly can:

I have no problem whatsoever with the media reporting on the facts of the Church's sexual abuse scandal.  None.  Zero.  Zilch.  In fact, I credit the media with breaking the story and pushing the Church toward dealing with the problem. 

I have no problem with the media reporting on the Holy Father's involvement in the scandals if he was in fact involved.  None.  Zero.  Zilch.  Truth is truth and the truth sets us free.

What I object to is shoddy reporting based exclusively on material leaked to the media from the lawyers of alleged victims.  Any reporter worth her journalism degree should know that lawyers are advocates for a paying client.  There is only one side to any story when you're paid to tell your employer's side. 

What I object to is media habit of relying almost exclusively on Church dissidents, disgruntled former Catholics, and anti-Catholic "experts" to comment on the scandals.  Are Joan Chittister, Richard McBrien, and Thomas Reese the only Catholics in the media Rolodex?

What I object to is the media's obvious obsession with using the scandals to advocate for changes within the Church that cannot/will not happen.  Reporters report facts; they do not advocate for reforms that suit their political and ideological goals.

What I object to is the woeful ignorance of the media when it comes to the Church's history and her canonical processes and their apparent invincible unwillingness to learn.  What's so difficult about reporting that Crdl Ratzinger didn't take over the investigations of sexual abuse cases until 2001?  What's so difficult about reporting that canon law underwent a substantial reform in 1985?

So, let me say it again just in case: I have no problem whatsoever with the media reporting on the facts of the Church's sexual abuse scandal. None. Zero. Zilch. 

What I object to is the media spreading misinformation, distorting the facts, and outright lying. 

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Hitting the Holy Father where he is strongest

Let me draw your attention to an excellent article by Sandro Magister of Chiesa Espresso.

Magister outlines six charges that have been made against the Holy Father since he took the Chair of Peter five years ago.  Magister points out that all six charges leveled against BXVI have struck at areas where this pope has tried to bring Christian clarity and charity.

These are exactly the areas where one would expect the Devil to focus his attention in an effort to derail true progress.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

More happy consequences from those who bring us gov't run health care. 

Hmmmmm:  "The eurozone area and wider European Union is now “on the brink” of disintegration unless Germany steps up and provides loans at below-market rates to Greece, George Soros, the hedge fund manager, has warned."  I have no love for the E.U. as a political entity, but the collapse of the euro would devastate the economies of the zone.  Another reason to scrap the whole bloated, over-priced edifice and allow nation states to be. . .ya know. . .sovereign.  Of course, Soros, a leftist billionaire, wants the collapse so he can make the case for the U.N. (or some other unelected body of elites) to grab control of the global economy.

The "Tea Parties Are Really Just Racist Confederates in Disguise" meme is gaining steam in the Old Media.  Only the woefully historically ignorant would buy such nonsense.

Completely flushing what little credibility he has left, whiny atheist biologist, Dick Dawkins, threatens to arrest the Pope when the Holy Father visits the U.K. in September.  Note to the Holy Father:  "Your Holiness, if you need a 300 lbs. Dominican to watch your back--one with years of experience dealing with the mentally unhinged--, I live fewer than two miles down the road from place.  Just let me know."

A run-down of the likely 2012 GOP presidential candidates.  Looks like a very fallow field.

Maureen Dowd, the NYT's resident self-loathing Catholic, sees the Taliban when she surveys her Church.  So, the obvious question is:  Maureen, why are you still a member of this horrible woman-hating institution? Diogenes has an intriguing proposal for Dowd. . .one I doubt very much that she will entertain.

The Anchoress spanks the "Women are Oppressed in the Catholic Church" meme and, in the process, exposes the self-loathing sexism of our Cultural Betters.  

Speaking of privileged feminists. . .one of my fav TV actors has died:  Dixie Carter.  When I was Big Liberal back in the 80's, her character on Designing Women, Julia Sugarbaker, was probably one of my top ten lefty heroes.

A new low in anti-average American politics:  an organized effort to crash Tea Party protests with racist signs.  Watch the MSM lap this up. 

Wow. . .and Catholics complain that our bishops can be wimpy when faced with difficult decisions.

Doing what the MSM can't be bothered to do:  Fr. Z. does a little fair and balanced reporting on clerical sexual abuse. . .among non-Catholic clergy.

John Allen throws a small cup of cold water on the smoldering hopes of those who see Archbishop Jose Gomez's appt. to replace Crdl. Mahony as a conservative revolution in the making. Generally speaking, BXVI is not appointing conservatives to the American episcopate.  Rather, he is appointing pastorally astute, sensibly orthodox men to serve the Church in the U.S. . .which is exactly what we need.

Of course men are happier than women.  Here are about 30 reasons why.  My fav: "Your underwear is only $8.95 for a three-pack."  Heck, if you shop at WalMart you can get a 10-pack for $9.00. 

Ooooooooooo. . .I need one of these to get around Rome's sidewalks when it rains!

Also, check out the updated WISH LIST.  A few new books added for the dissertation.  Grazie!

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"What can I do about the scandals?"

I've received many emails and comments asking for advice on how individual Catholics can deal with the current spate of media reports on the Holy Father's alleged involvement in obstructing investigations into clerical sexual abuse.

The requests for advice all more or less ask:  what are those of us in the pews supposed to do?

I suggest three things:

1).  Fast and pray

2).  Seek the truth and never fear it

3).  Live in hope

Fast and Pray

Fasting and praying in times of spiritual distress is the natural Catholic reaction.  We seek out the voice of God for comfort, guidance, and to accept His blessings to endure with strength.  Fasting with the intention to repair the damage done by clerical sexual abuse is not only worthy but necessary.  If there were ever a time for the laity to exercise their baptismal priesthood, it is now.  By offering the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, lay Catholics fulfill their priestly vows made at baptism and renew the spiritual heath of the whole Church.  So, pray for the victims and their families; the predators; the lawyers and therapists who aided in the cover ups; the bishops who failed to be teachers and pastors of the faith; the Holy Father, and for the Church as a whole.  I believe the intercession of the Blessed Mother is particularly called for in this current crisis.  Nothing works quite like prayers to focus the soul on what's essential to one's spiritual health.  When one part of the body is sick, the whole body is sick.  When one part of the body is healed, the overall health of the body improves. 

Seek the truth and never fear it

We know that the truth will set us free.  There is nothing for the Church to gain in hiding from the truth of these scandals.  Priests, bishops, religious sexually molested children and teens.  Some bishops and diocesan curial officials worked overtime to hide the abuse and spent millions from the collection plate to keep it all a secret.  The result?  An even bigger, deadlier scandal.  Whatever the motives for trying to hide the abuse, hiding these sins only made them more poisonous to the Body.  Like an infected wound on the body, the scandals must be thoroughly cleansed, competently medically treated, bandaged and left to heal.

If seeking the truth means exposing the scandals to the disinfectant of sunlight, then we  must look to the media for support.  However, the media have proven themselves again and again to be a voice for anti-Catholic bigotry in the cultural war against the gospel.  Because professional journalistic standards have given way to ideological advocacy and propagandizing, we are saddled with the difficult task of reading their reports with a healthy dose of suspicion.  No one denies the fact that children and teens have been abused by clergy.  No one denies that bishops have tried to hide this abuse.  In so far as the media have brought these terrible crimes to light, we should thank them.  We are not, however, obligated to thank them when they print and broadcast outright lies, distortions, or misleading omissions.  Nor are we to thank them for failing to take the time to learn something about the canonical procedures of the Church or her history.  Nor are we to thank them for using the scandals as an excuse to advocate for suicidal reforms to the Church's internal structure.  

The media's current campaign to fabricate a direct connection between the Holy Father and the abuse scandals is nothing more than a smear campaign designed to destroy his moral authority at a time when globalist secularism is fighting to move the Church out of the public square.  The ministerial hierarchy of the Church must be called to seek out the truth and proclaim it.  No matter how difficult, embarrassing, or expensive.  Likewise, the anti-Catholic media must be called upon to return to their professional journalist standards and restrict themselves to reporting verifiable facts.  The media's malpractice only serves to further erode what little trust they have with their readers and viewers.  At some point, we simply stop listening.

Live in hope

Even as the Church is pounded on all sides by those who would see us silenced, we must always keep in mind that our faith, our trust firmly rests in Christ Jesus.  No scandal--financial, sexual, political--can dislodge Christ as the head of his Body.  Our strength as the redeemed children of a loving God comes from an eternal source, the unshakable rock of ages.    Popes come and go from Rome.  Bishops rise and fall in a diocese.  Priests ebb and flow out of parishes everyday.  We lose buildings, vestments, books, vessels, ancient treasures nearly everyday.  None of these can be the source and summit of our faith.  Even the Church herself is an impermanent sacrament, a means of seeing, hearing, tasting God's boundless grace while continue our pilgrimage here on earth.  Given the hard realities of human sin, it is inevitable that filth will leak in and poison the body.  And it is just as inevitable that the body will heal and continue on.  Do we need to review the bloody persecutions of the first two centuries of Church history?  Or the Church's expulsion from France, England, China, Russia, Mexico, the Middle East?  The martyrs of Africa, Vietnam, Japan, even North America?  How about the near genocidal persecutions of Christians by Muslims in Nigeria and the Sudan?  The faithful have died, yes. . .but the faith never has and never will. 

As followers of Christ we are promised trials and persecutions.  Being a faithful Christian isn't for the easily spooked, or for the squeamish.  The core spiritual strength of Christ's faithful is the rock solid conviction that God has already won His battle against evil.  Our hope isn't a gamble against the odds of losing, but rather the assurance  of God's loving-care and that the final victory is ours.

Whatever you do don't allow those who are using these scandals as an excuse to leave the Church discourage you.  If the poor will be with us always, so will those who stand on the sidelines and whine about every inconvenience, every perceived slight, every imagined insult.  Pray for them as you would a faithful brother or sister, but pay no attention to their discouragement.  They are as free as any of us to choose hope over despair!

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Good Friday 2010 at the Vatican

Another video of the Good Friday Service at the Vatican.  You can see yours truly between 3:30-3:37.  The priests who will distribute communion are processing to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

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Questions the media wouldn't ask

Phil Lawyer of Catholiculture.org asks the questions the Pope-hating media couldn't be bothered to ask:

• Was Cardinal Ratzinger responding to the complaints of priestly pedophilia? No. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which the future Pontiff headed, did not have jurisdiction for pedophile priests until 2001. The cardinal was weighing a request for laicization of Kiesle.

• Had Oakland's Bishop John Cummins sought to laicize Kiesle as punishment for his misconduct? No. Kiesle himself asked to be released from the priesthood. The bishop supported the wayward priest's application.

• Was the request for laicization denied? No. Eventually, in 1987, the Vatican approved Kiesle's dismissal from the priesthood.

• Did Kiesle abuse children again before he was laicized? To the best of our knowledge, No. The next complaints against him arose in 2002: 15 years after he was dismissed from the priesthood.

• Did Cardinal Ratzinger's reluctance to make a quick decision mean that Kiesle remained in active ministry? No. Bishop Cummins had the authority to suspend the predator-priest, and in fact he had placed him on an extended leave of absence long before the application for laicization was entered.

• Would quicker laicization have protected children in California? No. Cardinal Ratzinger did not have the power to put Kiesle behind bars. If Kiesle had been defrocked in 1985 instead of 1987, he would have remained at large, thanks to a light sentence from the California courts. As things stood, he remained at large. He was not engaged in parish ministry and had no special access to children.

• Did the Vatican cover up evidence of Kiesle's predatory behavior? No. The civil courts of California destroyed that evidence after the priest completed a sentence of probation-- before the case ever reached Rome.

Read the whole article and lament the decline in professional journalistic standards.

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Apple Cider Vinegar cure-all?

Anyone out there ever tried drinking diluted Apple Cider Vinegar as a tonic?

I tried it years ago and was generally unimpressed by the results.  I recently ran across a "folk remedy" site that has a huge amount of material on ACV and its alleged benefits.  

Always willing to give most anything a go (legal and moral, of course!), I bought a bottle of organic, unfiltered, unpasteurized ACV.

I add about a tablespoon of ACV to my two liter water bottle and drink it all before lunch.  The results?  The most noticeable result for me has been a rather dramatic increase in energy.  I find myself chaffing at sitting inside to read. . .I'm going out of the priory most everyday. . .I'm actually sleeping through most of the night now.  ACV is also supposed to help with excessive sweating by correcting the magnesium imbalance that often causes this problem.  No results on this front just yet.

ACV is also touted as a natural way to prevent infections.  Since I rarely get sick, this benefit might not be all that apparent for me.  We'll see. . .

Anyone else ever tried this?

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Steven's resignation will move Kennedy in the Right direction

The Legal Fanboy in me couldn't resist posting this insightful analysis on the effect Justice Steven's resignation from the SCOTUS would have on future court-rulings.

The bottomline: it's pretty much good news for the Court's "conservatives."

from SCOTUSblog:

[. . .]

First, take the issue of Kennedy’s soon-to-emerge role as an “assigning” Justice. When the Court is divided on any case being decided on the merits, the senior Justice in the majority gets to select a colleague (or take on personally) the task of writing the opinion for the majority. Depending upon who gets the assignment, that can shape the actual outcome of the case, and also influence its breadth or narrowness. Also, a colleague whose support may be somewhat shaky can be handed an assignment in order to nail down that colleague’s vote and preserve a narrow majority.

If the Chief Justice is in the majority when the Court divides, the Chief always has the assigning function, because, however long in the job of Chief Justice, that member of the Court always has top seniority. Only if the Chief Justice is not in the majority does the assigning task then fall to the Justice next highest in seniority. That has been Justice Stevens, for 16 years of his 34 years on the Court.

But Kennedy is moving up only a single notch in seniority. He is still outranked in seniority by Justice Antonin Scalia. So, if the Court’s eight other Justices were to split along conservative and liberal lines, and the four most likely conservative Justices attracted Kennedy’s vote, the assigning task would fall to the Chief Justice. In any divided Court with Kennedy and Scalia on the same side, Scalia would always be the assigning Justice should the Chief Justice not be on that side.

But, if Kennedy were to line up, in a divided case, with the Court’s four moderate-to-liberal Justices (assuming Stevens’ replacement sides with that bloc), Kennedy would always have the assigning task, inheriting it from Stevens. He would outrank, in seniority, all of the Justices in that bloc. He thus will be able to shape even the Court’s more liberally inclined outcomes, by the way he chooses the opinion authors. And, if he thought any of the other four might use an assignment to write an opinion more sweeping than he would want, he could assign the task to himself, and keep it within whatever bounds he chose so long as it did not drive off one of the four other votes he would need to keep a majority.

[. . .]

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Too much? Maybe. . .

I'm no fan of B.O., but I think DRUDGE may be piling it on a little thick, don't you?

GINGRICH: Obama 'most radical president ever'...

LIMBAUGH: Obama 'inflicting untold damage on this great country'...

MARK LEVIN: Obama 'Closest Thing to Dictator We've Ever Had'...

PALIN: Obama's 'vast nuclear experience he acquired 'community organizer'...

LIZ CHENEY: Obama Putting America on 'Path to Decline'...

HANNITY: Obama 'Is a Socialist'...

SAVAGE: 'Obama The Destroyer'...

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