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The Weblog at The View from the Core - Thursday, March 31, 2005
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Must Cut Back! I have spent the last couple of weeks pondering my priorities. I have decided that the demands of real life mostly the need to make more money require a considerable cutback in blogging by Your Humble, Faithful Blogster. So, don't expect regular, daily blogging here until further notice. I do plan, though, to continue the following, so there will be new content regularly:
I think it will be much better for me, for instance, if I spend more time thinking about what I can turn into an article for the Tribune-Review and less time thinking about what I can turn into a blog. I'm working on an article, and I already have the go-ahead for three more. But, the more time & energy I put into them, the less there is for blogging and vice-versa. Deo voluntas, the number of entries in E.L. Core @ Catholic Exchange and E.L. Core @ The Tribune-Review will grow a lot over the next few months. Please continue to check back often, Faithful Reader. I hope it will continue to be worth your while to visit The Blog from the Core frequently. P.S. Those of you who send comments, quotations, and poetry you know who you are :-) please, continue to do so whenever you like. And, if you haven't yet, feel free to start. Thanks! Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 03/31/05 08:06:09 PM |
From "The Agony of Our Lord" An undated sermon by Rev. Ronald Knox. .... The Church is sometimes criticized for her want of courage, because she does not seek a direct issue with the tyrannical rulers of the modern age; force a conflict with them by forbidding their Catholic subjects to take any part as citizens in states so misgoverned. Curiously, another charge is often launched against the Church, which is exactly the opposite; and it is often launched by the same people. That charge is, that the Church is always interfering in secular matters which are beyond her province. If that is not so, men ask us, how is it that she is continually getting into trouble with the secular power, all over Europe, all over the world? Surely it cannot be an accident that your Church is always reckoned as a political force, whereas other religious bodies are allowed to go their own way, unmolested by the civil authorities? To be sure, that charge has not been brought against us so confidently of late, since the Orthodox clergy were singled out for persecution in Russia, and the Lutherans in Germany. But it is still brought against us, even in our own country: "Why cannot you be content to be a purely spiritual body? Why is it that you always interfere?" Now, this accusation is in great measure unjustified; but it would be a long business to examine, in full, a favourite thesis of anti-clericalism. It is true in any case, and we are the first to admit it, that it is not always easy to delimit the exact provinces of the secular and the ecclesiastical power; nor are we prepared to trust the secular power with the demarcation of them. And it is true that the Church could live much more quietly, avoid an infinity of clashes and persecutions, if she would consent to abate her claim on one or two points, constant sources of friction with unsympathetic governments. If only we would be content, for example, to hand over the teaching of children to the State, so far as their general education is concerned, and instil religious knowledge into them somehow else, not in school buildings, not in school hours! If only the Church would be content to have her own laws about marriage and various moral questions, for her own loyal adherents, and not expect them to be adopted as the laws of the country! If only she would keep out of the way, live her own life and let other people live theirs! What a difference it would make to the peace of the world! On such points as these, it is well known, the Church is prepared to make the best of the situation, if an unfriendly state resists her influence; but always it is under protest. She believes that she has inherited from her divine Master a commission to act as the teacher and guardian of a moral order; she is a city set on a hill, and her light must not be hidden under a bushel. She could purchase for herself an inglorious peace by shutting herself up in the sacristy; but that is not how she interprets her commission. Nor is it only that she could purchase peace for herself; she could, humanly speaking, prevent many blasphemies and even formal apostasies, if she would sit quiet and let the politicians have their own way. Is she justified, we feel inclined to ask, in going out of her way to arouse prejudice by sticking so obstinately to her rights, when that involves peril to the immortal souls of her less docile subjects, who fall away from her membership and give up the practice of religion because they cannot live at peace with her? She knows that; it is part of the sacrifice she has to make; as it was part of our Lord's sacrifice, when he knelt there in the garden, to see Judas and Caiphas losing their souls because of him. But for her, too, truth is truth, and has a right to be told. She cannot alter the conditions of her witness.... [Pastoral Sermons and Occasional Sermons, ed. Philip Caraman, S.J., pp. 433ff.] Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 03/31/05 07:39:22 PM |
"The Schiavo Verdict" Catholic Exchange kindly invited me to rework my blog of Monday morning. The revision, published today, had been finished before the news of Terri's death this morning. + + + + + The denouement of the Terri Schindler Schiavo case has yet to play out, but the results are already in. The winners are lawyers, experts, and men. But we are all losers, really. In the legal department, judicial supremacy has been confirmed. Rather than the alleged checks-and-balances of separate-but-equal branches designed for our democratic republic, we can now see that one branch has successfully arrogated to itself the last word on any issue. Nobody in power anywhere in the legislative or executive branches found any way or should I say any will? to break through the circled wagons of the black-robed lawyers. The founders of our nation would be appalled at what we have allowed to happen to our government(s). Appalled? Sure. But maybe not surprised. The usual raft of “experts” chimed in last weekend, as if on cue, to let us know that starvation and thirst lead to an easy, peaceful death. One wonders why, then, in several jurisdictions around the country, farmers and ranchers are in various stages of prosecution for having starved cattle to death yes, cattle, not people. The Donner party, we may surmise, didn't know how lucky they had gotten. And actors and actresses have wasted a lot of years begging for funds to save the children overseas from starving to a blissful end. These experts, one must assume, actually thought that we would believe such claptrap. And, as far as I've been able to tell, mainstream media has been more than willing to allow the proponents of Easy Death By Starvation And Dehydration a nationwide venue without providing the same venue to contrary voices. Dare we think that Starve Yourself Into Bliss is so obviously claptrap that even reporters and editors knew it didn't need to be rebutted? The truth is coming out already, though: it's being reported that Terri Schindler Schiavo is being administered morphine. Why? To ease her bliss? One must wonder, then, wonder very much, how and why the Total Deprivation Is A Great Way To Go story was ever presented to the public. And why the experts aren't going to be questioned about the need for morphine as loudly as they were allowed to speak up earlier. Three or four decades of social deconstruction have finally stifled the feminine voice. I don't mean just that Michael Schiavo is being allowed to kill his wife while his partner in adultery and the mother of his children waits to take Terri's place. (Hey, Jodie Centonze, here's my advice to you: Don't ever get really sick.) I mean that the medical professionals doctors who actually spent some time with Terri Schindler Schiavo and pronounced her to be in a "permanent vegetative state" are men. But the medical professionals nurses who actually spent even more time with her and pronounced her a living, aware, responsive human being are women, whose word apparently doesn't count for much, if anything at all. True, other factors may be at play: the "priestcraft" of being a doctor may, rightly or wrongly, carry more weight than the more nurturing role of the nurse, for instance. Still, it strikes one forcefully that the medical-professional divide was a male-female divide that left the women's opinions out of order. Betty Friedan, call your office. Finally, let us say loudly and repeatedly that whatever person(s) concocted the detestable phrase "persistent vegetative state" must have done so out of hatred for the human race. It conjures the image of a life no human being could ever really want to live, while insinuating that a human being is no longer really at issue only vegetation or a vegetable. The desired mindset? Simultaneously Yuck! and So what? The diabolical psychology at work should cause the mind to reel and revolt. We should very well pray that God have mercy on Terri Schindler Schiavo. We should pray just as well that God have mercy on the rest of us, too. Our need, as a society and as individuals, may be or become no less than hers. And our defenses are being obliterated as we watch. + + + + + Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 03/31/05 06:32:25 PM |
"At the Core of Reality is Joy" By Mark Shea at Catholic and Enjoying It (first ellipsis in original): I'm still on hiatus, but since it's Easter, I wanted to scribble some of my thinking about the momentous events of this past week. George Weigel once remarked that it seemed to him Pope John Paul was the most fearless person he'd ever met. And it seemed to him that John Paul was fearless, not because he'd been through this or that experience, but because he had somehow managed to internalize the reality that the worst thing that could ever possibly happen... had already happened and God had brought life for the cosmos out of it.... Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 03/31/05 06:17:11 PM |
Theresa Marie Schindler Schiavo, RIP December 3, 1963 March 31, 2005. Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.
Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 03/31/05 05:53:59 PM |
Bigotry, Judicial Murder, and Lying Jesuits Joe Ford, who has "severe cerebral palsy, the result of being deprived of oxygen at birth", writes at The Harvard Crimson, Mar. 25: The case of Terri Schiavo has been framed by the media as the battle between the “right to die” and pro-life groups, with the latter often referred to as “right-wing Christians.” Little attention has been paid to the more than twenty major disability rights organizations firmly supporting Schiavo’s right to nutrition and hydration. Terri Schindler-Schiavo, a severely disabled woman, is being starved and dehydrated to death in the name of supposed “dignity.” Polls show that most Americans believe that her death is a private matter and that her removal from a feeding tube — a low-tech, simple and inexpensive device used to feed many sick and disabled people — is a reasonable solution to the conflict between her husband and her parents over her right to life. The reason for this public support of removal from ordinary sustenance, I believe, is not that most people understand or care about Terri Schiavo. Like many others with disabilities, I believe that the American public, to one degree or another, holds that disabled people are better off dead. To put it in a simpler way, many Americans are bigots. A close examination of the facts of the Schiavo case reveals not a case of difficult decisions but a basic test of this country’s decency.... Nat Hentoff writes at (yes) The Village Voice, Mar. 29: For all the world to see, a 41-year-old woman, who has committed no crime, will die of dehydration and starvation in the longest public execution in American history.... And, George Neumayr writes at The American Spectator, Mar. 29: Former Massachusetts congressman Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest who supported legalizing abortion when he served in Congress, still uses the authority of his collar to cheerlead for evil causes. On Easter Sunday, he turned up at various television studios to praise the starvation to death of Terri Schiavo. Drinan was apparently Tim Russert's idea of a sturdy Catholic authority on this matter. Even as Drinan praised the killing of a disabled woman he mused nostalgically about passage of the "Americans with Disabilities Act," a glorious piece of legislation, he said. A host not willing to play the stooge to a snow-job artist might have asked Drinan: So why doesn't the ADA prevent murdering a disabled woman like Terri Schiavo? Why does the ADA give the disabled ramps at restaurants but permit trapdoors at hospitals?... Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 03/31/05 05:38:41 PM |
Moved Mike Mover Mike has moved. Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 03/31/05 07:55:53 AM |
"Never Again: Again and Again" Coalition for Darfur III & IV + + + + + In her 2001 article "Bystanders to Genocide," Pulitzer Prize winning author Samantha Power recounts how President Clinton was shocked and outraged by an article written by Philip Gourevitch recounting the horrors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, prompting him to send the article to his national security advisor Sandy Berger with a note scrawled in the margin reading "Is what he's saying true? How did this happen?" After taking office, President Bush reportedly read Power's article on the Clinton administration's failure to intervene during the genocide. He too scrawled a message in the margin "NOT ON MY WATCH." Yet we are now faced with another African genocide, this time in Darfur, and the United States and the rest of the world are responding exactly as they did during Rwanda with paralyzed inaction. Though there are many key differences between what is taking place in Darfur and what occurred in Rwanda a decade ago, there are also many similarities. In 1993, the world watched "Schindler's List" and wondered how such horrors could unfold and why they were not stopped. In 2004, it watched "Hotel Rwanda" and asked the same questions. In each case, those questions went unanswered. Just as in Rwanda, the international military force on the ground in Darfur is far too small, poorly equipped and operating under an extremely limited mandate that does not allow them to protect civilians at risk. Just as in Rwanda, the genocide is taking place against a backdrop of "civil war," leading the international community to focus more on establishing a cease-fire than protecting those being killed. Just as in Rwanda, the death toll is nearly impossible to determine. Just as in Rwanda, the United Nations is more or less paralyzed as individual nations seek to protect their own national interests rather than helpless men, women and children. Just as in Rwanda, media coverage is almost nonexistent, Congress is all but silent, and the human rights community is having difficulty get the nation to pay attention to a genocide in progress. Just as in Rwanda, a genocide is unfolding but this time it is happening on our watch. We ask you to join the Coalition for Darfur as we attempt to raise awareness of the genocide in Darfur and raise money for the live saving work Save the Children is doing there. + + + + + Because of Holy Week, I did not blog the Coalition entry last week. Here it is. Humanitarian Workers at Risk. + + + + + Last week, the United Nations was forced to withdraw its staff from parts of western Sudan after the Janjaweed militia declared that it would begin targeting foreigners and U.N. humanitarian convoys. Yesterday, a 26 year-old USAID worker was shot in the face when the clearly-marked humanitarian convoy she was traveling in was ambushed in broad daylight. It is still unknown just who carried out this ambush, but Sudan expert Eric Reeves reported yesterday that he had "received from multiple, highly authoritative sources intelligence indicating that Khartoum has ambitious plans for accelerating the obstruction of humanitarian access by means of orchestrated violence and insecurity, including the use of targeted violence against humanitarian aid workers." If such a plan is truly in the works, it will have dire consequences for the people of Darfur. Last year, Jan Egeland, the UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, warned that as many as 100,000 people could die in Darfur every month if those providing humanitarian assistance were forced to withdraw due to insecurity. Save the Children has already lost 4 of its aid workers in the last year, yet they continue to provide medical care, food, water, shelter, and protection to more than 200,000 children and families in Darfur each month. The members of the Coalition for Darfur are working together to raise money for Save the Children and if each coalition partner can raise a mere $10 dollars a week, together we can generate $2,000 a month to support Save the Children's life saving work. We hope that you might consider making a small donation. + + + + + The Blog from the Core does not necessarily endorse every detail of the weekly Coalition for Darfur message. Lane Core Jr. CIW P Thu. 03/31/05 07:47:50 AM |
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