Coffee Bowl Browsing

I don't believe in unicorns or elves, therefore, I don't spend a dime of my money or a second of my time talking, writing, protesting, and whining about them.

AP rewriting history to erase Dem support for Occupy Whiners?  

Girl Scouts embrace the Culture of Death, causing some problems for Catholics. 

Hee-lar-ree-us:  ". . .a postmortem on utopia, which died in infancy but lived long enough to evolve a familiar proto-hierarchy."  Pigs.  Equal.  More.  Others.  And all that.

Purgatory in scripture. . .yup, it's there.

I love this guy.  So few in the E.U. have his guts.

Crystal Cathedral goes to the Diocese of Orange. . .let's hope the Vatican puts a stop to this $58 million lame duck grasp for a legacy.

Yet another excellent reason to get out of Italy. . .drug-resistant bacteria spreading.

Oops!  Documents appear to show John Kerry doing a little illegal inside trading.

Feminist "war on rape" conflates actual rape with boorish behavior.  Of course, if students would remain chaste and celibate 'til marriage none of this would matter.

European civilization is on the brink of collapse and the E.U. Nannies issue this vitally important regulation:  bottled water makers cannot claim that water hydrates. 

Hear, hear! 

If you're gonna get sprayed with a hose. . .

We all need a little now and then. . .WalMart is here to help.

Some days you just have to wear a shark on your head.

Ah, a pic of me at Thanksgiving circa 1965.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

MSM media types are becoming a little unhinged at the thought of Newt G. being the GOP nominee. 

Woman in psychedelic moo-moo is consecrated "bishop" of Washington, D.C.

The Hunger Games:  just finished reading this novel.  The movie looks excellent!

I don't care if you're a Traddie, a Spirit of Vatican Two Peace Bonger, a recent convert, a Christmas/Easter pew warmer, or a rubber-necking agnostic/atheist:  you need to get in on this fight!  Why?  First, they came for the Jews. . .

MSM abandons OWS to its own folly:  "Funny how the left’s assertion that this was a grand political awakening has now gone down the memory hole."  Sorry.  But this is surprising how?

The natural escalation of a tantrum:  "non-violent" OWS Whiner threatens Macy's with a Molotov cocktail. 

Hope and Change become Despair and More-of-the-Same:  students abandoning B.O.  Smart kids.

What happens when a loved-one disappears from a cruise ship?  A whole lotta nothing.

Obviously, the problem here is that she didn't minor in Lower-East Asian Disability Studies.

Redneck Earthquake Early Warning System. . .not always accurate.

No, no, no. . .Jabba would never be seen in public with his curlers.

The birth of a Philosopher!

Well, this just means that no one wants to leave the Magnolia State. 

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Pray for religious liberty

On Sept. 29, 2011, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, current president of the USCCB, sent his fellow bishops a letter announcing the establishment of a committee to address B.O.'s attack on religious liberty in the U.S.

His letter reads in part:

As we returned to our dioceses from the June plenary session of our Episcopal Conference, we left with a palpable sense of unity and commitment among us regarding the urgent need we face to safeguard religious liberty inherent in the dignity of the human person. We recognized our need to protect this foundational principle of our country, one that has been enshrined in the United States Constitution, further enumerated in the First Amendment, and explicitly extended to all U.S. citizens. The Framers of the Constitution themselves understood this ―First Freedom‖ to be based on the norms inherent in Natural Law – namely, ―that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

This basic right, in its many and varied applications for Christians and people of faith, is now increasingly and in unprecedented ways under assault in America. This is most particularly so in an increasing number of federal government programs or policies that would infringe upon the right of conscience of people of faith or otherwise harm the foundational principle of religious liberty. As shepherds of over 70 million U.S. citizens we share a common and compelling responsibility to proclaim the truth of religious freedom for all, and so to protect our people from this assault which now appears to grow at an ever accelerating pace in ways most of us could never have imagined.

[. . .]

Please pray for the members of this committee as they begin the arduous task of defending our liberties as Americans and Catholics.

Episcopal members:

Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, Chair
Bishop John O. Barres of Allentown, Pennsylvania
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap. of Philadelphia
Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas
Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta
Archbishop John C. Nienstedt of St. Paul-Minneapolis
Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix
Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield in Illinois
Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi of Mobile, Alabama
Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle
Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington.

Lay Consultants include:

Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight, Knights of Columbus
Kevin Baine, attorney, Williams & Connolly
Father Raymond J. de Souza, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario (Canada)
Richard Garnett, assoc. dean/prof of law and poli-science, University of Notre Dame Law School John Garvey, President, The Catholic University of America
Mary Ann Glendon, professor, Harvard Law School
Philip Lacovara, attorney
Judge Michael McConnell, professor, Stanford University Law School
L. Martin Nussbaum, attorney, Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons
Mary Ellen Russell, executive director, Maryland Catholic Conference.

Bishop Lori's testimony before Congress on the assault on religious liberty can be found here.

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Hunting for a Good Spiritual Director

A repost from 2009:

When looking for a good spiritual director, it is standard practice to interview the potential S.D. first. The idea is not to weed out those who are going to challenge you or disagree with you. The idea is find one who holds and practice the Catholic faith as taught by the Church and is able to actually help you grow in holiness.

Ask the following questions politely. There is no need to be offensive or defensive. You are not an Inquisitor. You are not hunting heresy. If it turns out that the potential S.D. is some kind of New Age kook, you are obligated to keep that assessment to yourself. The obligation to confidentiality binds both the director and the directee.

A few cautions up front:

1). Do not be impressed with S.D.'s who have credentials in spiritual direction. Most spiritual direction programs in the U.S. teach their students amateur forms of guru-ism and occult gibberish.

2). Do not be impressed by titles like "Father," "Sister," "Brother," or "Doctor." Anyone holding any of these titles can be dodgy.

3). Do not be impressed by celebrity or ecclesial status. Abbot Father Dr. Alred Boniface Schultz of the St. Labyrinth Benedominican Monastery, author of 46 books on meditation and a national speaker, can be as big a moonbat as anyone.

4). Do not be impressed by the potential S.D.'s personal piety, orthodox theology, solid publishing record with the best Catholic houses, or his/her reputation for brilliant spiritual direction. Every director/directee relationship is different. What works for you, might not work for me. And being a good S.D. takes more than unwavering allegiance to the magisterium.

5). Do not be impressed by a potential S.D.'s willingness, even eagerness, to take you on as a directee. In fact, I would interpret any sort of "salemanship" on the part of the S.D. as creepy and immediately disqualify him/her.

Questions (with the qualification that he/she may say, "'Nunya."):

--Tell me about your spiritual life, your daily spiritual routine, your prayer life.

--What are your strengths as a S.D.? Weaknesses?

--Tell me about your experience as a S.D. How many years? What sorts of directees?

--How would you describe your relationship to the Church? The local bishop? The Holy Father?

--What do you think of commonly used spiritual direction tools like the Ennegram, labrynith?

--What do you think of personal devotions like the rosary, novenas, etc.?

--What authors/books do you regularly read and recommend?

--Have you had any spiritual direction training? Where and what kind?

--What's your understanding of the sacraments, esp. Mass, confession, marriage?

--How do you understand the relationship btw God and creation?

--How do you understand holiness, goodness, morality, sin, etc.?

--Do you use fasting or other sorts of penance in your direction?

--My biggest spititual difficulty is X. How would begin to approach this problem?

--My greatest spiritual gift is X. How would you direct me to use this gift?

--Generally speaking, from what sources do you pull from for inspiration as a S.D.?

Keep in mind that you are being interviewed as well. I have turned down potential directees b/c I didn't have the particular gifts to deal with their challenges. I have also been "fired" as a S.D. for being too theologically orthodox and for being "too hard."

Do you want someone who will "kick butt and take names"?

Or someone who will be more of a gentle listener, a guide?

Or someone who will function as a teacher, a model?

Or someone who will sympathize but challenge nonetheless?

Or someone who maintains an emotional distance and directs you?

Or someone who will "get in there with you" and fight?

Or someone versatile enough to shift among these as needed?

You really have to know yourself before choosing a S.D. But you also have to be open to change and growth. I find it very difficult to get a good S.D. because I need a "kick butt and take names" kinda director. I need someone who can look me in the eye and tell me how full of crap I am. Not many of those around these days. . .sigh. . .

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Is spiritual reading enough?

Question from a faithful HancAquam reader:  "Do you really need a spiritual director or does reading the writings of the saints suffice for most of us?

There are at least three ways to think about spiritual direction (SD):

1). A visit to the E.R.

2). A checkup with your dentist

3). A trip to the gym

Depending on what shape you're in spiritually, you will need emergency treatment, routine maintenance, or some body-building.  (How's that for mixed metaphors?!)

The idea here is that whether or not your need spiritual direction (and how often if you do) depends almost entirely how where you are in your relationship with God.  If things are going well, then keeping up with your spiritual reading is probably just about right, though it never hurts to get a check up or hit the gym on occasion.  If things are starting to look dodgy, it's a good idea to check in with some SD and see if there's anything seriously wrong that can be prevented or treated.  If, however, there's an obvious and overwhelming collapse in your pursuit of holiness, then a trip to the emergency room is required.  Follow up is mandatory. 

More often than not, a collapse in your spiritual life is due to some serious sin and making a good confession will start the ball to recovery rolling.  Of course, confession is not SD, but making a good confession is an excellent way to instill some sincerity into your repentance.  

Being a Dominican, I'm a champion of reading the saints and doctors of the Church.  One caution:  be sure that you aren't reading above or below your spiritual level.  I mean, if you're a recent convert, you might want to hold off on reading the Latin homilies of Meister Eckhart and think more along the lines of studying the Catechism.  If you're a Catholic Pro, then limiting yourself to the Catechism isn't going to challenge you.  A spiritual director can help you find your level.

Also, don't limit yourself to just one genre of spiritual reading.  I find contemporary poetry to be insightful and challenging.  A lot of Catholics read well-written sci-fi/fantasy novels as spiritual reading.  God reveals Himself using all sorts of imperfect methods!

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

What do typewriters, rotary phones, record changers, and coffee percolators have in common?

GOP Rep. caught doing a little insider-trading?  

How did Hitler lose WWII?  Remember the children's rhyme:  bean, beans the magical fruit. . .?

Obedience cures stupidity.  ("Obedience" properly understood, of course.)

Biblical proof that Zombies are real!

Portland Occupiers abandon their righteous cause in order to save their $400 tents.  Ah, dedication.

Anti-American propaganda posters from N. Korea.  Hmmm. . .maybe the OWS Whiners could use some of these.

Notice how "The REV. Dr. Martin Luther King" has lost the "Rev."?

A morphing map of the London Underground.  And yes, the modern map does distort one's
understanding of London's geography.

What's inside Fort Knox and how is it protected?

How do rednecks protect their Nascar commemorative beer can collections?

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Occupy Movement:  this is what happens when you have a society made up entirely of "liberals"?  No, not so sure about that.  Most of the E.U. is quite liberal and it manages to remain more or less civilized.  The OWS movement is what happens when you have a society made up entirely of Wards of that State and Nanny can no longer afford to take care of them.

Case in point (see above).  Bonus:  an updated Occupy rap sheet.  200 incidents and counting.

Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois splits with the Diocese of Belleville over same-sex "marriage."  Another anti-Catholic notch in B.O.'s belt.

Speaking of B.O.'s anti-Catholic tendencies:  "The America emerging in the next several decades is likely to be much less friendly to Christian faith than anything in our country’s past. And that poses a challenge for all of us as Catholics. It’s not a question of when or if it might happen. It’s happening today."

You can't wear a U.S. flag tee-shirt if someone might be offended.  The sounds like my CPE in St Louis.  My habit offended the chaplains, yet the rainbow flag buttons and pink triangles of the Franciscan priest and UCC chaplain were just fine. 

"Working Man" Michael Moore's million dollar vacation home. . .but remember:  he's not in the 1%.

Probably the best commentary on the Penn State sex-scandal.  Must one child be raped so a football team can be successful?  Ouch.

Of course they were going to riot!  On the Penn State student-rioters:  "Imbued with a sense of victimhood, entitlement, and cultivated grievance that can only be taught, their preferred response to inconvenience is a temper tantrum."

A MUST read:  What's So Great About Catholicism?  "With Pascal I would affirm that one actually learns the Catholic faith by doing — which is why deracinated, prissy, critical philosophes standing outside will never 'get it.' The faith of the Catholic is a great drama unfolding before God, and we are the players in it." 

Vicious bear attack. . .the poor guy barely survives.

The Zombie Apocalypse comes to Sesame Street! 

How to get the police to respond to a burglary. . .call 911 and tell them you have exercised your 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms. 

First World Problems. . .someone send this list to OWS. 

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No, that "justice/peace" note hasn't been disowned. . .

OY!  I'm getting dizzy.

Apparently, the behind closed doors of the Back and Forth of producing the Church's teaching is being made public.  

Now we're told that the Holy Father's Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone has not all but repudiated the recently published note from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

From CNS:  "Cardinal Bertone’s order, they said, simply stipulated that any documents bearing the pope’s signature must be released through his office. The Justice and Peace document did not fall into that category, even though its content was reviewed by the Secretariat."

This leaves the impression that there's something of an ideological struggle going on in the Vatican.  None of this Back and Forth, however, changes the magisterial status of the note.  It's a proposal from a pontifical council issued without the Holy Father's signature.  In other words, it's not binding on Catholics as a matter of faith.  

Read it, discuss it, criticize it, adopt it or reject it. 

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U.D. prof responds to justice/peace "note" (Updated)

Update:  Prof. Medaille writes to correct my misrepresentation of his LifeSiteNews article.  I misunderstood a link he posted on my Facebook page as his response to the PCJP note.  He clarifies the issues in the comments.  My apologies to him for getting this wrong.

+

University of Dallas theology prof,  John Medaille has an excellent article on LifeSiteNews about the recently published and controversial note from the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace, "Life and family issues underlie all economic issues in global debt crisis."

"According to Medaille, the crisis of the Euro is in fact a good example of the problem of replacing concrete human realities with ideologies as the foundation of modern economies."  

Prof. Medaille is an advocate of distributism.   I admit to not knowing much about this economic philosophy, but it has a number of heavy-hitting brains behind it.

Give it a read and let me know what you think.

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But some pigs are more equal than others. . .

In its academic heyday in the late 80's and early 90's, postmodernist theories about The Real and how we come to know it (or not) provided an intoxicating elixir for humanities professors who had been sobered by the real world successes of their colleagues in the natural sciences.  Perhaps a bit envious of the research grants thrown at chemists, physicists, and engineers, liberal arts profs tried to squeeze their inherently squishy disciplines into the hard mold of science.  They failed. 

Having failed to transform the study of literature, history, religion, etc. into rigorous disciplines a la physics, humanities professionals succumbed to the temptations of Not Knowing and proclaimed the advent of Universal Ignorance.  And when this proclamation proved to be too bourgeois for the faculty lounge and the conference circuit, they moved as a herd toward the cliffs of Nihilism and Despair, otherwise known as deconstructionism.

That we cannot know everything there is to know about everything approaches the axiomatic.  But to conclude from this premise that absolutely nothing is knowable is absurd.  For example, we know the distance of the sun from earth, approx. 150 million km or about 93 million miles.  We do not know the exact chemical composition of the sun; that is, we do not know precisely how many chemical compounds make up the sun and in what proportion.  That we don't know the exact chemical composition of the sun doesn't mean that we cannot know the sun's distance from the earth.  However, this is exactly what postmodernist theorist would have us believe:  any particular admission of ignorance regarding X is a universal admission that X is unknowable.  In other words, my ignorance of one thing is the same as my inability to know anything at all.

To make matters worse, pomo theorists push the absurd to the nihilistic by asserting that universal ignorance necessarily entails the denial of reality per se.  Not only am I ignorant about X and not only can I know nothing about X b/c of this ignorance, I must conclude that X doesn't exist.  Now, if these theorists really believed this and lived with some degree of integrity, we'd never hear from them again.  You'd have to insane to spend your time rattling on about a non-existent reality.  But they have the same bills to pay that the rest of us do.  Enter:  interpretative narratives.

Here's the move:  humanistic disciplines like literature and history cannot be stuffed into scientific molds, so the hard sciences must be liquified and poured into humanistic molds.  Science like literary criticism or historical accounting is really just a form of narrative, a story we tell one another to help us live more or less fruitful lives.  Replete with metaphors, similes, and other rhetorical devices, science does not and cannot describe a mind-independent world at all.  All it does is impose an attractive story on our ignorant observations of phenomena.  We are left with knowing nothing more than the stories we tell and all stories are equally true.  Einstein's theory of general relativity has the same truth-value as Homer's Iliad. 

In the pomo world, narratives function as meaning-giving structures, that is, they impose order, significance, and purpose.  This sounds like a good thing.  It's not.  Always on guard against any narrative that even hints at being oppressive, pomo theorists rail against certain kinds of narrative that appear to privilege classes of people over and against other classes of people.  Enter:  cultural Marxism.  Although these theorists insist on the non-existence of a mind-independent reality, they almost always fall back on the necessity of opposing the Grand Narratives of Oppression (racism, sexism, heterosexism, etc.) with the reality of radical human equality.  All human beings are exactly the same in every way and our cultural-social institutions must be shaped in such a way that no differences are recognized or celebrated.  In order to do this, ironically, all differences among humans must be celebrated and valued, except, of course, those differences that give rise to the notion that all humans are different and to be valued as individuals.  

Nonsense, you say?  Absolutely.  But nonsense always shows its chaotic face when we detach our ways of knowing from what can be known. 

You might be wondering:  why should I care what a bunch of comparative lit profs think about reality?  When we detach our ways of knowing (science, language) from what we can know (reality) we are left with nothing more than assertions about power.  With no objective measure for the true, the good, and the beautiful, subjective measures reign supreme.  In such a world, who rules?  Ultimately, if history is any predictor, those with the most money and guns.  Without a real, knowable connection between the Good and the True, those with power define the what is good and true.  To sum up with a literary allusion:  all pigs are equal, but some pigs are more equal than others.

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Happy 6th Birthday!

Almost let this day slip by w/o noting. . .Happy 6th Anniversary to HancAquam!

Six years ago today I started this blog in order to post copies of my homilies.  

When asked for a copy of a homily I would either email it or burn it to a CD.  My intrepid intern at the time, Ms Loreena Garcia, said to me, "Fr. Philip, join the 21st century and get a blog."  

So, I did. 

You might be interested in a few H.A. stats:

Unique visitors:  618, 751 

Visitors per day:  400

Page views:  917,759

Views per day:  675

No. of posts:  2, 168

My thanks to all of H.A.'s faithful readers.  I pray for you daily!

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"Vatican" disowns controversial "justice/peace" document

The Holy Father's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, all but disowns the recent note issued by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, ordering that all documents issued by Vatican offices be cleared through his office before publication.

From Chiesa:

ROME, November 10, 2011 – Precisely when the G20 summit in Cannes was coming to its weak and uncertain conclusion, on that same Friday, November 4 at the Vatican, a smaller summit convened in the secretariat of state was doing damage control on the latest of many moments of confusion in the Roman curia.

In the hot seat was the document on the global financial crisis released ten days earlier by the pontifical council for justice and peace. A document that had disturbed many, inside and outside of the Vatican.

The secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, complained that he had not known about it until the last moment. And precisely for this reason he had called that meeting in the secretariat of state.

The conclusion of the summit was that this binding order would be transmitted to all of the offices of the curia: from that point on, nothing in writing would be released unless it had been inspected and authorized by the secretariat of state.

[. . .] 

But more than these terrible grades, what has been even more irritating for many authoritative readers of the document of the pontifical council for justice and peace is the fact that it is in glaring contradiction with Benedict XVI's encyclical "Caritas in Veritate."

In the encyclical, pope Joseph Ratzinger does not in any way call for a "public authority with universal competency" over politics and the economy, that sort of great Leviathan (no telling who gets the throne, or how) so dear to the document of October 24.

In "Caritas in Veritate" the pope speaks more properly of the "governance" (meaning regulation, "moderamen" in Latin) of globalization, through subsidiary and polyarchic institutions. Nothing at all like a monocratic world government.

[. . .]

Read the whole repudiation here.  This pretty much settles the question of whether or not this note represents the "mind of the Church." 

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11.11.11 or 11/11/11 or 11-11-11?

Eleven-eleven-eleven hub. . .for all your Elevendy-eleventh Conspiracy needs!

11:11 on your clock?  Here's why.  I tend to glance at the clock at 12:34 and 5:26 (my b-day). 

Oogiddy-boogiddy Vatican/Illuminati/Masonic/Boy Scout conspiracy revealed!  They forgot to multiply the number of rays of light coming out of the pope's head by 1,111.  Suckers.

All the other (non alien/demon/zombie related) stuff happening in November 2011.

Info on the newly released movie, 11-11-11. 

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

O, if only women and married men could be college football coaches!  This would've never happened!

Mind control?  A cancer ray?  Wake-up call for the Zombie Apocalypse?  FEMA coup?

Looks like I am getting out of Italy just in time:  Italian economy is finished.  Oh, and so is Berlusconi.

Cops wearing cameras?  Watching the heavily edited vids posted on Youtube by the OWS whiners makes me think that the cops have to start wearing cameras. 

Our P.C. Masters stand around dithering while the loons in Iran build a nuclear bomb.  Somehow, this will all turn out to be Bush's fault.

[Item deleted]

More OWS hypocrisy:  after smashing up a Wells-Fargo bank in Oakland, the Whiners deposit $20,000 in donations.  Sounds like the OWS needs an OWS protest movement.  

Hilarious. . .OWS theme song, "Who Pooped and Peed on the Banks?"  

A test to check the degree to which you have been infected by Modernism!  Being a Dominican, I got about two questions in and started quibbling with definitions, distinctions, etc.  Had to stop.

Options for surviving the apocalypse (Zombie or otherwise). . .

Fascinating artwork created from paper cut-outs.

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Right items, wrong List

A sharp-eyed HancAquam noticed something odd about the Wish List yesterday.

Perched atop the List were links to Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men and another for C.K.'s Obsession Night. 

Eagle-Eye Reader wanted to know if I really wanted TWO bottles of C.K. cologne!  It took me a while to figure out what this guy was getting at. . .then I went to the List and. . .duh. . .there they were.

Anyway, no. . .I do not want two bottles of C.K.'s cologne.  I have a separate Christmas wish list where I put items I'm thinking of getting for members of my family.  Apparently, while signed in to the regular List, added the right items to the wrong list!

A Good and Faithful Reader did point out though that Amazon sells The Pope's Cologne.  So, I added it to the Wish List. 

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We need a new Missal! (UPDATED)

UPDATE:  Mille Grazie to the kind and generous soul who purchased a Missal for us.  It will be delivered to Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP, English-language chaplain for the Angelicum.

UPDATE II:  "I want to thank the kind and generous soul who bought for us and is sending our way at the Angelicum a copy of the revised translation of the Roman Missal. You generosity will be rewarded, of course, by our heavenly Father who sees in secret, and he will know to direct my prayers of thanksgiving for you, and for your intentions, where they deserve. Dominic Holtz, O.P."

The English-language chaplaincy of the Angelicum needs a new Missal!

Many of the friars here at the Angelicum use the English Missal to celebrate Mass.  We use it every weekday to celebrate Mass for the various students who speak English:  Americans, Brits, Canadians, Indians, Kiwis, Aussies, etc.

Since the new English translation is for the whole English-speaking world (and not just the U.S.), the folks here need a new Missal!

If you can help, please do so.  A kind and generous soul purchased a new lectionary for us two years ago.  With the newly translated Missal, we will be set!

God bless, Fr. Philip

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Rec'd my mandamus Friday.  It's official.  So, I've changed the Wish List shipping address.  :-)

Hardly.  Iranian "scholar" thinks that those entitled narcissists camped out on a lawn everywhere presage the collapse of western civilization.  Take away their venti cafe mocha soy latte and biscotti and then we'll talk collapse. 

But, but, but. . .they're Enlightened!  "Let it sink in: Their protests now need rape shelters. This is actually happening. And New York City lets it go on."  (Hot Air)

Crdl. Pell on "Climate Change, Galileo, and the New Inquisition."  Excellent article. 

"[Heresy is] boring because it’s sterile and orthodoxy is interesting because it’s fruitful."

Looks like the episcopal portion of the German hierarchy needs to be replaced. . .en masse.

Tired of Google pushing their lefty politics on your search results?  Try an alternative search engine. . .DuckDuckGo.

Apparently, Nepal's yeti summers in Vale.

Now, this is my kinda celebrity recipe.  I would adjust the liquid portion of the recipe just a little.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing (HaHa Edition)

Creative design ideas for handling everyday tasks. . .not sure about the toilet training device.   I predict a visit from Child Protective Services.

I remember seeing this clip on AFV when it aired.  I laughed so long that I thought Scuba Becky was going to have to share a tank of O2 with me. 

Terrible way to wake up. . .and funny.  Another terrible wake up. . .if they had done that to me, well, the cops would never find the bodies.

Can't look at this pic w/o getting a little queasy.

Yup.  Duct tape fixes everything.

Hey!  Buddy!  This leash ain't gonna walk itself, ya know?

YIKES!!!  No passing zone.

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Rector to Bishop: Congrats Fr. Charles!

From swissinfo.ch:  The current rector of the Angelicum, Fr. Charles Morerod, OP has been named a bishop!

Charles Morerod has been named the new bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg. The 50 year old replaces Bernard Genoud, who died last year. 

The appointment was officially announced at a media conference in Fribourg on Thursday.

"To be honest, I had hoped it wouldn't be me," Morerod said of his appointment. But although the responsibility was heavy "there are grounds to be joyful", he said.

A member of the Dominican order, Morerod currently teaches at the philosophical faculty of the [pontifical] university in Rome [i.e. The Angelicum]. He previously taught at Fribourg University.

Morerod has risen rapidly through the ecclesiastical ranks, finding favour with Pope Benedict XVI.

The diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg comprises around 690,000 Catholics out of a population of 1.58 million, spread across the cantons of Vaud, Geneva, Fribourg and Neuchâtel.


_____


Of note:  Fr. Charles serves as the chair of the Holy Father's International Theological Commission and sits on the Vatican side of the talks with the SSPX.

On a personal note:  how fortuitous that I have been recalled to serve in the U.S.  Fr. Morerod was to be my dissertation director.

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Are you ready for the new Missal?

On the First Sunday of Advent, Nov. 27th, the Catholic Church in the U.S. will begin using the new English translation of the Roman Missal.

I'm hearing and reading that many Catholics--even, most Catholics!--know little or nothing about this change.  Given the time, energy, and money the bishops have put into introducing the new Missal, I find this hard to believe.  

So, here's my question:  what, if anything, has your pastor/parish done to prepare the faithful for this dramatic transition?

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

The Ten Commandments of Atheism. . .not one of these commandments contradicts or conflicts with Christian teaching.  In fact, most of them are rooted in the Christian moral tradition.

Law prof denied tenure b/c his students whined about his Socratic Method of teaching.   Those ninnies wouldn't last a week at U.D.

A list of organizations and individuals who have publicly supported the OWS movement:  Communists, Nazis, Black Panthers, B.O., Nancy Pelosi, Hugo Chavez, Louis Farrakhan, ad. nau.

Nothing and No One is safe in the Occupiers Squatter Camps:  deaf man raped.

Aight. . .two OWS links. . .now for a palette cleanser:  Cute Pug Puppy!

Dissecting a WaPo story on the new English translation of the Missal.  Lots to dissect.

Could a single Marine unit take down the Roman Empire?  Can't wait for the movie!  (Exit question:  will there be any aliens?)

B.O. cuts funding to Catholic groups fighting human trafficking.  No, B.O. doesn't support human trafficking.  This is about moving the Church further out of the public square.

Catholic Zombies!  Now they have gone too far. . .too far indeed.

Southerners are losing their manners.  Say it ain't so!  (NB.  Southern manners can often mask contempt, but polite contempt is better than open hostility, right?)

Wow.  Someone recruit this guy to run for U.S. President.  I'd almost be willing to amend the Constitution if he'd run.

This reminds me of that movie where all the good-looking 20-something's cheat death in a plane crash and then get killed off one by one via bizarre accidents. 

On booze and the distinction btw the correlation of facts and the cause of events.

These thieves must be Mississippi rednecks. . .

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New Assignment

As regular H.A. readers know, I am leaving Rome and heading back to the U.S. for reassignment.

I will be serving the Good Folks of St. Dominic's Church in New Orleans, LA as parochial vicar.

This assignment will be very good for my preaching. . .and very bad for my waistline.  Oy.

Leaving Rome on Dec. 7th.

Pray for us all, please!

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Bishops Cut $$$ for CCHD condoms

Credit where credit is due:  "The U.S. bishops' social justice arm has cut funding to a New York-based AIDS charity after the group was discovered to have lied about its adherence to Catholic teaching."

If I had to guess, I'd say that the bishops are honestly trying to purge CCHD of its dissident habits.  This whole scandal is probably a case of The Church Lagging Behind the Curve when it comes to staying current on rapidly evolving controversies.  

In other words, I doubt very seriously that the episcopal portion of the Catholic hierarchy in the U.S.  is conscious of the errors of the CCHD and supports these errors despite Church teaching.  It is more than likely that the bishops in charge are playing "catch-up," that is, they are scrambling to keep current with the problems, sifting through the various and sundry perspectives to get at the Truth of the Matter.   They must be bombarded with "facts" on a daily basis. 

The stability of the Church--though not her ultimate fate--rests on the shoulders of the bishops.  If you aren't praying/fasting/sacrificing for them, you should be! 

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

No "global warming" in the last 11 years.  Prepare for a flurry of excommunications from Pope Gore.

Explosion on Uranus!  (Skip the scat puns, please. . .) 

Childhood obesity is becoming a weapon in custody battles.  Poor kids.  Parents' divorcing, fighting, lawyers, and now the prospect of having to eat tofu hot dogs and sprouts.

Occupiers now targeting Catholic worship services. . .

"Erasing Hate". . .former Neo-Nazi endures 16mos. of intense pain to remove hateful tattoos from his face, neck, and hands. 

The "urban myth" of razors in your kids' Halloween candy. . .of course, if lefty icon, Bill Maher, had his way, your kids would get illegal drugs in their treats.


Vestigial human parts. . .sounds gross, probably is.

5 Things You Didn't Know About Edgar Allan Poe. . .coincidentally, EAP's critical nemesis was also one of Walt Whitman's earliest haters, describing Leaves of Grass as "a mass of stupid filth." 

A "mock" Halloween Zombie invasion in OH. . .yea, sure, it's all "fake."

31 weird facts. . .I can testify to the truth of no. 20. 

This is what happens when a woman doesn't listen to her husband. 

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Dogs of the Lord in Madrid!

Dominicans at World Youth Day 2011!  Fantastic video. . .



H/T:  Connor McDonough via Facebook

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All the Saints Mass Intention

Tomorrow is All Saints Day. . .I will be concelebrating Mass with the other friars of the priory. 

As always, I will keep H.A. readers in my prayers. . .tomorrow--most especially--I will offer my intentions for all my Book Benefactors.  Without your help I would've never made it this far in my studies!

God bless you all. . .Fr. Philip, OP

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Breaking 400!

WooHoo!  402!

My suffering is ended.  Thank you, folks. 

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Proof that the Tea Party movement is racist, violent, etc.  A must read.  Really, read it.  

Don't be too quick to blame Muslim students at CUA for that ridiculous lawsuit.   Looks like the work of yet another media driven anti-Catholic bigot with a law degree and tenure.

USCCB doubles down on Sr. Johnson's book.   The Good Sister claims that the bishops never met with her.  Crdl. Wuerl says he offered to meet with her three times and she never responded.

The so-called "Arab Spring" is a real horror story for young women.  Remember. . .B.O.'s Smart Diplomacy got them there.  Caution:  the subject matter is a bit gruesome.

Home foreslocure law firm throws a homeless-themed Halloween party. . .stir the tar, fluff the feathers, boys!

How the concept of "experience" is used by modernist Catholics to undermine the Church.  We were fed bucketsful of "experience theology" when I was n seminary.

Deo gratis!  Catholic diocese loses its bid to purchase the Crystal Cathedral.  Maybe the next bishop of Orange will build a Catholic church for his cathedral.

Evangelical convert to the Church explains how the deformed Protestant concept of sola scriptura led him back to Rome.

My fav soup. . .can you throw in a side order of The Wailing of Their Women, please?

Surprisingly, these are not road signs here in Rome.  Though it does help explain Italian bureaucracy.

Hmmmm. . .maybe we should consider this sign for Sunday morning's "family Mass."  (ducks, runs)

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End my suffering

Aight. . .I've let this go now for a couple of weeks b/c I'm not one of those bloggers obsessed with traffic numbers and popularity (*coughcoughwheezecough*).  But I gotta bring this up. . .

Traffic for H.A. is pretty stable, hanging in there with about 420 views a day and 918 page views.  Not bad.  It's not Fr. Z. or Mark Shea level traffic, but I'm happy with that, considering we've been going at this for almost six years. 

So, what's bugging me?  That Follow Me number over there -----> 398.  It's been bouncing up and down for weeks now but never quite reaching 400. 

End my suffering, please. . .

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Picturing the Coffee Bowl

A faithful H.A. reader asks, "What is a coffee bowl?"

 The Coffee Bowl with which I Browse!

 

We have a large espresso machine in the refectory.  Though this might look like a large cappuccino, it is actually what the Italians sneeringly refer to as a "cafe Americano"--one part espresso and three parts steamed milk. 

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OCCUPY Coffee Bowl Browsing!

The OSW rap sheet. . .child prostitution, heroin dealing, rape, death threats, anti-Semitism, Nazis (no, real Neo-Nazis) marching in camo with guns, rioting, public masturbation, and on and on.

Some pigs are more equal than others:  OccupyLA's "Peoples' Assembly" (or whatever) suffers a coup over the central committee's fascist ways.  Heh.

No.  Jesus would NOT be among the OWS crowd. . .except maybe to convert them from their hypocrisy and licentiousness.  

OWS protesters meet the Real World:  "[OWS cooks are] angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for 'professional homeless' people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters."  Apparently, freeloading from people who work for a living is a Bad Thing.  Who knew?

A little philosophical history of the OWS movement:  Academic anarchist promotes chaos.

KKK Poo-Bah marches with OWS in Phoenix. . .Crickets solemnly chirp in the MSM.

OWS finance committee member "redistributes" $20,000 into her own account.

"Instead of hope and change, the Obama presidency has delivered decline and despair on a scale not seen in America since the dying days of the Carter administration."  And W. had his hand in this decline as well. 

The left's Official Propagandist is caught lying. . .again.   Seriously, he claimed he wasn't among the 1%.  He's worth $50m and he's "one of the 99%."  HA!

Well, the Great Unwashed of the OWS get one thing right. . .

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A question about Coffee Bowl Browsing

They say that curiosity kills the cat, but can it wound a blogging priest?  Let's see. . .

I'm curious:  Coffee Bowl Browsing is a mainstay of HancAquam.  Basically, it's nothing more than me "flipping through" the internet and grouching about the news.  Why "grouching"?  Well, the caffeine from the morning's coffee hasn't circulated yet!  That's my excuse anyway.  I always end CBB with a few humorous links. . .by then my Bowl O'Stimulants has done its job. 

So, here's the question:  thinking about the typical content of CBB, what do you find to be the most and least appealing topics covered?  Site Meter allows me to track "out clicks," so I have a pretty good idea about what folks find worthy of their time.

Also, include any other observations about CBB.  Format?  Length of entries?  Sources of news?  Special editions?

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A house becomes a temple

Hey, look!  A homily!  Remember those?

Ss. Simon and Jude

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

Ss. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

We are no longer strangers and sojourners. We are fellow citizens with the holy ones. Members of the household of God. A family built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets. And Christ Jesus himself is the capstone. If this is all we were, if this were the sum total of what it means to be a follower of Christ, we could call it a blessing and spend our days giving thanks to God for adopting us as His children, for taking us in hand and giving us a holy place in His creation. But if who and what we are in Christ were to stop here. . .if we were to say, “It is enough that we are a family—thank you, Lord; it is enough that we are a happy community—praise Jesus”. . .if we were settle for this great blessing, we would be settling for something much less than all that the Father has to give us. Yes, we are citizens with the holy ones. Yes, we are brothers and sisters in the family of the Lord. Yes, we are a community of praise and thanksgiving. BUT we are also growing as a temple sacred in the Lord; we are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. 

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul describes who and what the church in Ephesus is AND he tells them who and what they can become. They are a household of the Lord built on the teachings of the apostles and the prophets; however, they are also becoming a temple, a dwelling-place for the Spirit of God. Our household is becoming a temple; our family is becoming a church. How does this happen? How do we move from being a household to being a temple, from being a family to being a church? Paul uses two key verbs: to grow and to build. To grow a plant, you first sow its seed; then, you nurture it; prune it; and harvest its fruit. If you plant wheat seed, you get wheat. If you plant rice, you get rice. A seed can only grow into what it was made to be. Wheat seed cannot become rice. If the Lord's household generously plants itself as the seed of His Word, we grow and grow and we become that which we were made to be: His Word made flesh. To build, we start with a well dug foundation—solid, concrete; then, we frame our structure—sturdy, durable; then, we protect it with a waterproof roof and make the inside welcoming, warm. If our building is to become a dwelling-place for the Lord, our foundation must be the apostles' teaching; our frame must be the Church's Tradition; and our roof will be the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, our protection against the hostile elements of the world. If we invite the Lord in; if we bring Him in with us to dwell among us and give Him the place of honor as Father and Lord, then our house will become a temple.

It is an enormous blessing to be a loving community of believers; to be an international family vowed to justice and peace. How much more of a blessing is it to be a living, breathing temple for the Lord? How much more is it to be one in whom the Spirit of God dwells? And to be one among many and more who can lay claim to having been built up from an apostolic foundation and grown from the seed of His Word?

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Coffee Bowl Browsing (Catholic Edition)

Jesus would be an atheist:  latest idiotic blather from anti-Christian celeb Dawkins.   Make no mistake. . .Dawkins is an anti-Christian bigot not simply an atheist. 

Archbishop Gomez on the erosion of religious liberty in the U.S.  One of the lessons here:  Catholic charities shouldn't take state money.

Sacked Aussie bishop throws a tantrum 'cause his episcopal colleagues support the Holy Father.  Note the usual screeching about "not being heard," "not being consulted," ad. nau. 

Save us from "justice and peace" documents, O Lord!  Good analysis.

Yet another failure of the "Spirit of Vatican Two."  How can you be "comfortable in the faith" but uncomfortable with Church teaching?  This works only if you are a Protestant.  Thus, the failure.

Fr. Z. has more on the recently published "peace and justice" paper.  Apparently, the lay Italian economist responsible for the "world authority" nonsense is a socialist.  Big surprise.

Yup:  "The Church has magisterially stated, again and again throughout history, that she does not and cannot offer particular, concrete solutions to political, social or economic problems."

WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!  One of my fav scary prank videos.

You'll be glad to have one of these when you run out of ammo during the Zombie Apocalypse. 

Speaking of the Zombie Apocalypse. . .It's Begun!!!

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TV tech exposes Occupy London charade

And yet more fraud from the Occupy _____ Movement.  This time it's Occupy London.

A Telegraph TV crew used thermal imaging tech to demonstrate that only about one in ten of the tents pitched outside St. Paul's Cathedral were occupied overnight. 

From the article:

On Monday the revelation was described as a "charade" and pressure was growing on the church and other authorities to evict the camp.

"It is like a phantom camp – a big charade," said Matthew Richardson, a Corporation of London councillor, who is calling for action to be taken. 

NB.  the TV folks are quickly surrounded by Occupy goons and escorted away from the empty tens.

Best comment on the Telegraph blog:  "Tents have rights too!"  HA! 

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

The true poverty of the OWS protesters isn't financial. . .

OWS isn't even close to being the "99%". . ."[OWS] doesn't represent unemployed America and is not ideologically diverse. Rather, it comprises an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence."

80 Tory Members of Parliament rebel against Cameron's love affair with the E.U.  Good on them! 

Right Diagnosis, Deadly Cure.  . .a critique of the recently published document on money and morals by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.  My thoughts exactly. 

Another critique of the feckless document. . .

Another WIN for B.O.'s "smart diplomacy":  terrorist pensions to be paid from U.S. aid money.

Finally!  Local gov't takes the Coming Zombie Apocalypse seriously.

"Liberal suicide":  on the long, slow decline of the once-great Episcopal Church.  NB.  the E.C. is now what the Catholic Left wants the RCC to become. 

Most Transparent Administration Evah!  B.O. proposes rule changes to the Freedom of Info Act that will allow bureaucrats to lie about the existence of public records.

The Spirit of Vatican Two Peace Bong Catholic Community gets a new pastor.  When will he have time to reload???

Happy with Puppy Yoda the Force is not.

Ummm, yea. . .I don't think we'll be needing your babysitting services any longer.

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Vatican Wants One World Government!!!

OMG!!!  The Pope says that ALL Catholics must support a One World Government!!!

@#$%!!!  The Vatican wants just One Bank for the Whole World!!!!

WHAT!?!?  Benedict XVI supports the Occupy Wall St protesters!!!

Deep breath.  One more time.  Now, OK. . .so, if any of your friends, family, co-religionists have expressed any of the above or some version of one of the above, sit them down, give them a beer, let them catch their breath, and ask them a simple question:  have you actually read the recently published document on economics and finance that has upset you so?

Betcha they will say, "Um, no."  Good.  Get them a copy and give them about 30 mins. to read all 18 pgs.  Once they are finished, roll up a newspaper and swatch them briskly across the nose three times while saying in a firm voice, "Bad, bad Catholic!  Bad Catholic!  You never believe a word that the media say about the Church! Never!"

If they are sufficiently contrite and promise to never do it again, make the following points about the document:

1).  The document was NOT written by "The Vatican" or "The Pope."  It's a product of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.  Not the Secretary of State.  Not the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  Not the Congregation for Bishops.  A pontifical council.  In terms of magisterial authority, that's somewhere near a Christmas postcard from your pastor.  'Nuff said.

2).  The document says nothing new about economics or economic theory nor does it promote one model of economics over any other.  The focus is placed squarely on the current difficulties in the monetary market, arguing that some sort of international control needs to be established over these transactions so that we might avoid another global bank collapse.  There is a pointed critique of what the document labels "economic liberalism and utilitarian thinking," that is, unregulated free market capitalism.  This is nothing new either.  The Church has been suspicious of unfettered capitalism since at least the mid-nineteenth century.  

3). The "world authority" proposed in the document is placed within the context of all the usual Catholic caveats about human dignity, morality, respect for cultural and national traditions, the authority of the nation-state, subsidiarity, etc., etc.  In other words, Global Governance advocates will dismiss this proposal out of hand.  It's too religious/ethical and not nearly powerful enough. Oh, and there won't be enough opportunities for politicians to steal us all blind. 

4).  Yes, Church-haters and Prog Catholics will cover themselves with this document and proclaim a divine victory for the Occupy Wall St. type non-sense.   Nothing we can do about that.  Just don't be pulled into the whole Benedict Is Calling For A One World Bank framing of the issue.   

Bottomline:  a little note from a minor curial department expressing the opinions of some Italian economist. 

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