Blogworthies LXII

Because The Blog from the Core simply can't cover everything.

Noteworthy entries @ Jimmy Akin.Org, After Abortion, C-Log, The Curt Jester, NewDonkey.com, RedState.org, Flos Carmeli, Anchor Rising, cut on the bias, Gateway Pundit, Off the Record, Mere Comments, Sancta Sanctis, Austin Bay Blog, JunkYardBlog, The Buck Stops Here, Recta Ratio, No Left Turns, Catholic Light, Iraq the Model, Winds of Change.Net, Power Line, Midwest Conservative Journal, Dyspeptic Mutterings, and Turnabout.

"A Pillar And Foundation"? @ Jimmy Akin.Org:

.... The concept of definiteness can be tricky across languages — or even within a language. For purposes of comparison, Latin has no definite articles, meaning that you have to determine definiteness by context or simply guess whether it's there or not....

Patricia Beninato has started... @ After Abortion:

... an I'm Not Sorry blog. Sometimes people start a blog because they have one or two things they want to get off their chests....

Marriage and the Limits of Contract @ C-Log:

I tried to make a libertarian case for social conservative positions on marriage, but some libertarians aren't having any part of it. First, here are the parts of my argument. Marriage is a natural, pre-political institution that has arisen spontaneously in every known society. I define marriage as society's normative context for having sex and for rearing children. The modern position is that society does not need ANY normative institution for either sex or child-rearing. Anything people happen to come up with is just fine: no particular sexual or family relationships should be priveleged by the state, or by the wider culture....

Funeral Mass @ The Curt Jester:

Today my parish, Immaculate Conception in Jacksonville, had a special funeral Mass for Teresa Marie Schindler Schiavo. This Mass was coordinated by the Justice Coalition and was attended by Bob and Mary Schindler. The Justice Coalition is headquartered here in Jacksonville, Fl and my pastor Fr. Leon gave them permission to hold it at Immaculate Conception. I would guess that the reason it was held there is that this church is the most beautiful church in the diocese. Fr. Leon told me before that reporters often call him for statements on events because they assume that because of the beauty of this church that it must be the Cathedral for the diocese. Strange how the beauty of church architecture is suppose to be so subjective, yet secular sources don't seem to have any problem discerning beauty in church architecture....

Parents, Kids, Corporations and Democrats @ NewDonkey.com:

While I've been off relitigating the nature of the Confederacy and obsessing about Tom DeLay, James Dobson, and inheritance taxes, the center-left blogosphere has exploded in a dispute over a subject I've written about at some length: marketing of junk culture to kids; its role in the cultural concerns of middle-class parents; and its possible relevance to the weakness of the Democratic Party among this same category of voters....

On the Political Ineptitude of Hillary @ RedState.org:

Scott Rasmussen has begun publishing a regular “Hillary Meter.” The purpose of this is to track Clinton’s movement to the political center by determining how much of the American public considers her to be middle-of-the-road. I find this to be a fascinating story. Not because I think Rasmussen’s polls are valid, I most certainly do not. But because I think this says quite a bit about Hillary and her political skills....

Losing Trust — Things Modern Poetry Teaches Us — Part I @ Flos Carmeli:

.... I have selected the antipodes of the poem, because in them we see the drama of the last century which extends into this one....

Testimony in Opposition to H5660, Concerning Same-Sex Marriage @ Anchor Rising:

.... When I began considering testimony in opposition to [Rhode Island] bill H5660, concerning same-sex marriage, my first thought was of the people who would be making statements for the other side, whether verbally, in writing, or through participation in the corresponding rally. Their motivation is easy to understand; at issue are the terms by which they live and love.

In contrast, I was drawn to the topic during the summer of 2001 as an intellectual matter. More or less ambivalent about the issue, I merely thought some of the arguments put forward by same-sex marriage proponents were incorrect in interesting ways. As I've researched, thought, and written about the topic, however, it has become increasingly apparent to me that at issue are the terms by which we all live and love....

Showing his true colors @ cut on the bias:

Keith Woods, Poynter Institute's Dean of Diversity (and doesn't that tell you a lot already?), has won the Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Award. If Woods' title didn't give you all you needed to know, the "Helen Thomas" surely did. Woods writes a long navel-gazing column about how he stepped up in the diversity wars, which has two particularly interesting points. Here's the first: ....

The Princess Files @ Gateway Pundit:

Last month, a Saudi Princess was arrested in Massachusetts for enslaving two Indonesian women....

Letter to a Lebensunwertes Leben @ Off the Record:

Dear Miss Irishwoman,

I peeled your photo last week from a news source I've now forgotten; it was one of a series of images showing worldwide mourning for the Pope, and the caption indicated you were part of a memorial Mass in Dublin. Your picture stuck with me — perhaps because of its contrast with the perfect hair and brilliant false smiles of the network media stars reporting on the funeral. It's obvious that you're afflicted by Down Syndrome. In a curiously final way, most of what I consider noblest about the just-ended pontificate finds expression in your pleasingly unpleasing face....

Of Stem Cells and Beavers @ Mere Comments:

An interesting story I caught on the web today: Breakthrough isolating embryo-quality stem cells from blood.... Despite such breakthroughs, and despite that fact that all successful uses of stem cells for medical treatments have come from adult stem cells, not from those "harvested" from human embryos, we will still continue to see a push to use embryonic stem cells.....

Watching The Terminator Again @ Sancta Sanctis:

The Holy Father and Terri Schiavo were not the only ones to pass away recently. Little Joseph Patrick is also now in the loving arms of our Lord, interceding for his mother and for the rest of us still here....

John Bolton Nomination @ Austin Bay Blog:

.... I got in an tough argument two weeks ago with a couple of close friends about Bolton. Both men have absolutely first-class experience in developmental aid, in working with NGOs, and in working with the UN. They are both suspicious of Bolton and believe he lacks the diplomatic finesse to do two things (1) cooperate with the UN agencies that do work (eg, UNHCR) and (2) genuinely address the reform issues (eg., corruption). Confrontation, they argue, can only go so far. The results they see from Bolton are either (1) further polarization (producing more dysfuntion, animosity, and diplomatic difficulties for the US) or – not likely, but possible – organizational collapse....

Popularity Of "Kill Me Now" Plummets @ JunkYardBlog:

The Terri Schiavo case has claimed an unexpected victim: a popular catch phrase used on the internet and in daily conversation, mostly by young people....

Empiricism @ The Buck Stops Here:

Jonah Goldberg and Jonathan Chait have been debating over whether liberals are more "empirical" than conservatives....

A Legacy Finally Appreciated @ Recta Ratio:

Fifty-nine years ago today, my mother and father were married. I lost my father in 1989, and my mother in 1998....

First ride @ No Left Turns:

I only ride naked bikes. My first ride of the season today [Sun. Apr. 10] reminded me why. The temperature, I’m guessing, is in the mid-seventies. But that doesn’t describe the soft air and the warm wind in your face, the smell of recently overturned fields ready to be planted. On my return I did have to clean my leather of a couple of dozen splattered yellow bugs, and wash my face and brush my teeth, but this just proves that I was moving through something coming to life. Just a hundred miles, but great fun....

Doesn't anyone remember Henry VIII in England anymore? @ Catholic Light:

Andrew Stuttaford, National Review Online's resident skeptic, is often priggish about other people being priggish. To him, any call to rein in one's personal behavior brings us closer to the Fourth Reich, and any expression of religious belief is dangerous to his ideal world of fuzzy gray agnosticism....

The Eid of Liberty @ Iraq the Model:

I don't think I need to tell you how close is the 9th of April to my heart. And now, after two years happiness is still the same for me; one person among millions who were freed on that great day....

Hatewatch Briefing 2005-04-08 @ Winds of Change.Net:

Welcome! This briefing will be looking hard at the dark places the mainstream media sometimes seem determined to look away from, to better understand our declared enemies on their own terms and without illusions. Our goal is to bring you some of the top jihadi rants, idiotarian seething, and old-school Jew-hatred from around the world, leaving you more informed, more aware, and pretty disgusted every month....

Real Memo, Fake Story @ Power Line:

With the revelation that an aide to Senator Mel Martinez was the source of the widely-trumpeted "GOP talking points memo," we have written this article for the Daily Standard to summarize the story as it has developed to date....

Dead On Arrival @ Midwest Conservative Journal:

To put it mildly, Peter Akinola is unimpressed by ECUSA's response to the Newry Anglican primates meeting. For Akinola, the bottom line is that ECUSA still doesn't get it: ....

The Afterimage. @ Dyspeptic Mutterings:

I can hardly say what Pope John Paul II meant in the larger scheme of things. I suspect determining that will take the better part of a century of careful, dispassionate thought, far removed from the idiot canned analysis of right now. Hence the term "afterimage" — we are all going to be blinking and trying to focus on what he meant for a long, long time to come....

A theological note @ Turnabout:

I went to a lecture yesterday on the ins and outs of the Arian heresy. Obscure though the Arians may sound today, when John Henry Newman studied them and their sympathizers around 1830 the situation reminded him of nothing so much as the Anglican church, lots of politicos and time-servers with no bottom line making a virtue of things by calling a mess the "via media." To me the whole thing seems more like the Church in recent decades: ....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 04/16/05 08:09:06 AM
Categorized as Blogworthies.

Pro Eligendo Papa

Prayers for the election of a pope.

From the Current Roman Missal

Lord God, you are our eternal shepherd and guide. In your mercy grant your Church a shepherd who will walk in your ways and whose watchful care will bring us your blessing. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

From the 1962 Missale Romanum

Supplici, Domine, humilitate deposcimus: ut sacrosanctae Romane Ecclesiae concedat Pontificem illum tua immensa pietas; qui et pio in nos studio semper tibi placitus, et tuo populo pro salubri regimine sit assidue ad gloriam tui nominis reverendus. Per Dominum.

We entreat Thee most humbly, O Lord, that Thy boundless mercy may give the holy Roman Church a Pontiff whose loving care in our regard will always be pleasing to Thee, and by his beneficent rule will always give glory to Thy name and be deeply honoured by Thy people. Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 04/16/05 07:58:14 AM
Categorized as Religious.

Rogito of Pope John Paul the Great

The official nine days (novemdiales) of mourning for the pope conclude today.

Semper in Christo vivas, Pater Sancte!

Here is an English translation of the official record of the pope's life and works, read by Archbishop Piero Marini, master of pontifical liturgical celebrations, and deposited in the pope's coffin.

In the light of the Risen Christ, the 2nd of April in the year of the Lord 2005, at 21:37 in the evening, while it turned toward the end of Saturday, and having already entered into the Lord's Day, the Octave of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday, the beloved Pastor of the Church John Paul II passed from this world to the Father. The entire Church, especially the youth, has accompanied his passage in prayer.

John Paul II was the 264^th Pope. His memory remains in the heart of the Church and the entirety of mankind.

Karol Wojtyła, elected Pope 16 October 1978, was born at Wadowice, a city 50 kilometers from Kraków, on 18 May 1920 and baptized two days later in the parish church by Fr. Francis Zak.

At age nine he received his first Holy Communion, at eighteen years, the Sacrament of Confirmation. Interrupted in his studies, because the Nazi army of occupation had closed the University, he worked in a quarry, and subsequently, in the Solvay chemical factory. At the end of 1942, sensing that he was called to the priesthood, he attended the course of formation of the clandestine seminary of Krakow. On 1 November 1946 he received priestly ordination by the hand of Cardinal Adam Sapieha. Then he was sent to Rome where he pursued the licentiate and doctorate in theology with the thesis entitled Doctrina de fide apud Sanctum Ioannem a Cruce.

He returned next to Poland, where there would be some pastoral ministry and the teaching of sacred discipline. On 4 July 1958 Pope Pius XII named him auxiliary bishop of Kraków, and by Paul VI, in 1964, he was destined to the same see as Archbishop. As such he intervened in the Second Vatican Council. Paul VI created him Cardinal 26 June 1967.

In the Conclave he was elected Pope by the Cardinals on the 16 October 1978, and took the name John Paul II. On 22 October, the Lord's Day, he solemnly began his Petrine ministry.

The Pontificate of John Paul II has been one of the longest in Church history. In this period, under various aspects, many changes have been seen. Numbered among them the fall of some regimes to which he himself contributed. For the purpose of announcing the Gospel, he completed many journeys in various nations.

John Paul II has exercised the Petrine ministry with a tireless missionary spirit, dedicating all his energy, urged on by solicitude for the entire Church and by a charity opened to the entirety of humanity. More than each predecessor, he has encounter the People of God and the responsible leaders of nations, in celebrations, in general and in special audiences and in pastoral visits.

In his love for youth he pushed to begin World Youth Days, calling together millions of young people in various parts of the world.

He successfully promoted dialogue with the Jewish people and with representatives of other religions, calling them together sometimes in an encounter of prayer for peace, especially in Assisi.

He has notably enlarged the College of Cardinals creating 231 (1 more in pectore). He has convoked 15 Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops, 7 general and 8 special. He has erected numerous dioceses and administrations, in particular in Eastern Europe.

He reformed the Western and Eastern Codes of Canon Law, created new institutions and reorganized the Roman Curia.

As "high priest" he exercised the liturgical ministry in the Diocese of Rome and throughout the globe, in full fidelity to the Second Vatican Council. He promoted, in an exemplary manner, life and liturgical spirituality and contemplative prayer, especially Eucharistic adoration and the prayer of the Holy Rosary (cfr. Ap. Let. Rosarium Virginis Mariae).

Under his guidance the Church has approached the Third Millennium and has celebrated the Great Jubilee of 2000, following the lines indicated with the apostolic letter Tertio millennio adveniente. She then entered into the new era, receiving indications in the apostolic letter Novo millennio ineunte, in which was shown to the faithful the way to the future.

With the Year of the Redemption, the Marian Year and the Year of the Eucharist, he promoted the spiritual renewal of the Church. He gave an extraordinary impulse to canonizations and beatifications, in order to show innumerable examples of sanctity today, that it would be an inducement to men of our time. He proclaimed St. Therese of the Child Jesus a Doctor of the Church.

The doctrinal Magisterium of John Paul II is very rich. Custodian of the Deposit of the Faith, he did his best with wisdom and courage to promote Catholic doctrine, theological, moral and spiritual, and to oppose during all of his pontificate tendencies contrary to the genuine tradition of the Church.

Among the principle documents are numbered 14 Encyclicals, 15 Apostolic Exhortations, 11 Apostolic Constitutions, 45 Apostolic Letters, in addition to Catecheses proposed in the general audiences and the allocutions delivered in every part of the world. With his teaching John Paul II has confirmed and illuminated the People of God on the theological doctrine (above all in the first three great Encyclicals – Redemptor hominis, Dives in misericordia, Dominum et vivificantem), anthropological and social (Encyclicals Laborem exercens, Sollicitudo re socialis, Centesimus annus), moral (Encyclicals Veritatis splendor, Evangelium vitae), ecumenical (Encyclical Ut unum sint), missiological (Encyclical Redemptoris missio), mariological (Encyclical Redemptoris mater).

He has promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in the light of Tradition, authoritatively interpreted by the Second Vatican Council. He also published some volumes as a private Doctor.

His Magisterium culminated in the Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia and in the Apostolic Letter Mane nobiscum Domine.

John Paul II has left to all an admirable testimony of piety, of a holy life and of universal fatherhood.

Unofficial translation.

Here is the original Latin.

OBITUS, DEPOSITIO ET TUMULATIO
IOANNIS PAULI II SANCTAE MEMORIAE

In lumine Christi a mortuis Resurgentis, die II mensis Aprilis anno Domini MMV, hora vicesima prima, triginta septem momentis elapsis, vesperi, cum dies sabbati ad finem vergeret atque ingressi essemus diem Domini, Octavam scilicet Paschalem necnon Dominicam Divinae Misericordiae, Ecclesiae dilectus Pastor, Ioannes Paulus II de hoc mundo ad Patrem demigravit. Eius transitum tota orans Ecclesia est comitata, Iuvenes potissimum.

Ioannes Paulus II ducentesimus sexagesimus quartus fuit Pontifex. Eius memoria in totius Ecclesiae omniumque hominum cordibus manet.

Carolus Wojtyła, qui die XVI Octobris anno MCMLXXVIII Summus Pontifex electus est, Wadowice, in urbe scilicet quae quinquaginta kiliometra abest a Cracovia, die XVIII mensis Maii anno MCMXX natus est atque duobus post diebus in paroeciali Templo a presbytero Francisco Zak baptizatus est.

Novem annos natus Primam Communionem recepit atque duodevicesimum agens annum confirmatus est.

Quibus incumbebat, studiis intermissis, quia nationalis socialismi obsidentes potestates studiorum universitatem clauserant, in lapidicinis ab anno MCMXL ad annum MCMXLIV, et postea in fabrica chemica Solvay opus fecit.

Ab anno MCMXLII, cum se ad sacerdotium vocari sentiret, seminarium clandestinum adiit Cracoviense. Die I mensis Novembris anno MCMXLVI per Cardinalis Adami Sapieha manuum impositionem sacerdotalem ordinationem Cracoviae recepit. Romam posthac missus est, ubi primum licentiam, exinde doctoratum in sacra theologia est consecutus, thesim scribens, cuius titulus Doctrina de fide apud Sanctum Ioannem a Cruce.

Poloniam postea repetiit, ubi quaedam sustinuit officia pastoralia et quasdam disciplinas sacras docuit. Die IV mensis Iulii anno MCMLVIII a Pio XII Episcopus Auxiliaris Cracoviensis constitutus est atque eidem Sedi a Paulo VI Archiepiscopus anno MCMLXIV est destinatus. Ut Archiepiscopus Cracoviensis Concilio Oecumenico Vaticano II interfuit. Paulus VI die XXVI mensis Iunii anno MCMLXVII in Patrum Cardinalium Collegium eum rettulit.

In Conclavi die XVI mensis Octobris anno MCMLXXVIII Summus Pontifex a Patribus Cardinalibus electus est atque ipse sibi nomen imposuit Ioannem Paulum II. Subsequenti die XXII, Dominico die, sollemniter suum Petrinum ministerium incohavit.

Pontificatus Ioannis Pauli II unus ex longissimis in Ecclesiae historia exstitit. Hoc temporis spatio multa sunt commutata variis in provinciis. In his communistarum quarundam nationum regiminum dissolutiones annumerantur, ad quam rem multum contulit ipse Summus Pontifex. Evangelii nuntiandi causa innumera quoque itinera varias in nationes suscepit.

Ministerium Petrinum strenuo suo missionali animo gessit, omnes impendens suas vires, cum sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum itemque in cunctos homines caritas eum tenerent. Magis quam antea unquam Dei Populum ac Nationum Potestates, in Celebrationibus, in generalibus peculiaribusque Audientiis atque pastoralibus Visitationibus ipse convenit.

In iuvenes dilectio eum compulit ut Dies Mundiales Iuventutis ediceret, innumeris undique gentium convocatis iuvenibus.

Dialogum cum Hebraeis multisque ceterarum religionum sectatoribus promovit atque earum asseclas nonnumquam convocavit causa pro pace precandi, Asisii potissimum.

Cardinalium Collegium valde auxit, cum eligerentur ab eo ducenti triginta et unus cardinales (et unus in pectore). Quindecim Congressiones Synodorum Episcoporum, scilicet septem generales ordinarias et octo speciales convocavit. Complures Dioeceses ecclesiasticasque Circumscriptiones, praesertim in Europa orientali, constituit. Codicem Iuris Canonici et Codicem Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium reformavit Romanamque Curiam denuo composuit.

Sicut "sacerdos magnus" in Romana Dioecesi totoque terrarum orbe sacrae liturgiae ministerium exercuit, erga Concilium Vaticanum II plena servata fidelitate. Peculiarem in modum vitam spiritalitatemque liturgicam necnon comtemplativam orationem, eucharisticam potissimum adorationem sanctique Rosarii precationem promovit (cfr Ep. ap. Rosarium Virginis Mariae).

Summi Pontificis ductu Ecclesia tertio millennio se appropinquavit ac Magnum Iubilaeum anni bismillesimi celebravit, secundum normas ab ipso latas Litterarum apostolicarum Tertio millennio adveniente. Exinde novum aevum eadem est ingressa consilia propositaque recipiens in Litteris apostolicis Novo millennio ineunte significata, quibus futuri temporis iter fidelibus ille demonstrabat.

Per Redemptionis Annum, Marialem Annum et Eucharistiae Annum effecit ut Ecclesia spiritaliter renovaretur. Multum dedit operae beatificationibus et canonizationibus, ut innumera sanctitatis exempla hodiernae aetatis ostenderet, quae incitamento essent qui nunc sunt hominibus. Teresiam a Iesu Infante Ecclesiae Doctorem declaravit.

Doctrinae magisterium luculenter Ioannes Paulus II exercuit. Fidei depositi custos, prudenter animoseque ad catholicam doctrinam, theologicam, moralem spiritalemque provehendam operam navavit et ad arcenda quae verae Ecclesiae traditioni sunt adversa toto Pontificatus tempore sollicite incubuit.

Inter praecipua documenta quattuordecim Litterae encyclicae, quindecim Adhortationes apostolicae, undecim Constitutiones apostolicae, quadraginta quinque Litterae apostolicae, praeter catecheses in generalibus Audientiis ac adlocutiones ubique terrarum habitas, annumerantur. Suam per docendi operam Ioannes Paulus II Dei Populum confirmavit eique theologicam doctrinam (tribus potissimum praecipuis Litteris encyclicis, scilicet Redemptor hominis, Dives in misericordia, Dominum et vivificantem), anthropologicam socialemque (Litteris encyclicis Laborem exercens, Sollicitudo rei socialis, Centesimus annus), moralem (Litteris encyclicis Veritatis splendor, Evangelium vitae), oecumenicam (Litteris encyclicis Ut unum sint), missiologicam (Litteris encyclicis Redemptoris missio), mariologicam (Litteris encyclicis Redemptoris Mater) tradidit.

Catechismus Ecclesiae Catholicae, sub Revelationis lumine, quam Concilium Vaticanum II insigniter collustravit, ab eo est promulgatus. Quaedam etiam volumina uti privatus Doctor edidit.

Eius magisterium in Litteris encyclicis Ecclesia de Eucharistia et Litteris apostolicis Mane nobiscum Domine, Eucharistiae Anno, attigit fastigium.

Mirabiles pietatis, sanctitatis vitae universalisque paternitatis cunctis hominibus testificationes reliquit Ioannes Paulus II.

…….

Celebrationum tumulationisque testes.

CORPUS IOANNIS PAULI II P.M.
VIXIT ANNOS LXXXIV MENSES X DIES XV

ECCLESIAE UNIVERSAE PRAEFUIT
ANNOS XXVI MENSES V DIES XVII

Semper in Christo vivas, Pater Sancte!

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 04/16/05 07:44:22 AM
Categorized as Pope John Paul the Great & Religious.

"For Samuel and Josiah"

By Amanda Witt at Wittingshire:

Joe Carter has asked for posts reflecting on "Judeo-Christian morality in an ethically pluralistic society." You know better than to come to me for a discussion of public policy or politics; nevertheless, I have something to say about Joe's topic.

Twice we have had friends who faced devastating news. One couple came to church in tears, reporting that their unborn child had no brain. Another couple called to tell us their unborn child had no hands, and a hernia in his diaphragm that was allowing his stomach to move into his chest, inhibiting lung development....

(Thanks, Patrick.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 04/16/05 07:20:38 AM
Categorized as More Than Blogworthy.