This entry originally appeared in The Black Republican.
mpeg4 sonu ericsonI've always had a link to Andrew Sullivan because I've respected his work during the war, and I've actually enjoyed the occasional piece about gays and gay marriage, in that I could see what some who aren't strict conservatives are saying about such issues. But recently I haven't seen anything that makes me want to applaud him, and he's become very strident on gay issues again. (Not that he ever probably slowed down off the website, but a man only has so much time in the day to write and we've had more important things to talk about lately). And add to this, he's now gone to such an extreme as quoting the "slavery" section of the Catholic Encyclopedia to support his case. That just about sent me into fits, so I've decided to remove his link. It's not that I've suddenly gone anti-Sullivan. I just don't care to associate myself that closely with him at the moment and imply endorsement of his entire agenda.
[Ed.: I should note that Andrew Sullivan's heresy was one of the main reasons I began posting heavily Catholic content on The Black Republican. In that respect, I like to think of Andrew as the inspiration for Ex parte Fide in a similar way that Trent Lott was the inspiration for The Black Republican. The Lord works in mysterious ways.]
This entry originally appeared in The Black Republican.
Almost 1,000 years ago, the Christian Church (as it was a singular institution in those days) passed a requirement that all priests take a vow of celibacy prior to ordination. In the feudal structure of the society at the time, too many young men were left without anything to do, having been deprived of land and position by the strict inheritance laws. Many of them, seeing the potential for power, influence, and upward mobility, were becoming priests as their choice of career, with barely a thought to the spiritual component to the profession. The heirarchical clergy of the time decided the most efficient means to separate the devout from the social climbers was to deprive all priests of the pleasures of the flesh - at least officially. It was a brilliant political maneuver, conveniently supported by Scripture. ("Each one should lead the life the Lord has assigned him, continuing as he was when the Lord called him." 1 Cor 7, 17)
Some of the problems the Catholic Church has today are wholly man's problem, and this is one of them. The very passage that supports the celibacy of its priests makes no requirement beyond that of "continuing as he was". Paul goes on to say that it would be better if a man were unmarried, but admits all the other Apostles did not follow that path as he did, because "It is better to marry than to be on fire."
Oh, how prescient that statement is for us today - yet, the church leaders deny it. Why? They say it is just because we're not holy enough, that if more more Catholics were more devout, we just wouldn't have a problem.
'The problems in the church today are not caused by the teaching of Jesus and of his church, but by lack of fidelity to them,' Archbishop Dolan wrote. 'The recent sad scandal of clerical sexual abuse of minors, as the professionals have documented, has nothing to do with our celibate commitment.'So it would seem that the Church leaders believe we get what we deserve. If no one wants to live under the yoke they say Scripture imposes, we have no one to blame but ourselves for our lack of fidelity to the Word.
As the bishops reaffirmed a requirement that has been part of church practice for nearly 1,000 years, priests and laypeople added their voices to those in Milwaukee calling for change. According to the National Federation of Priests Councils, associations of priests in Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Charleston, and in the states of New York and Illinois, are all considering issuing manifestos like the one issued in Milwaukee.
Bishop Gregory and Archbishop Dolan both argued that the shortage of Catholic clergy has little to do with celibacy, and is a problem shared by many Christian denominations and even Jewish synagogues.
However, Dean R. Hoge, a sociologist at The Catholic University of America who has studied clergy in Catholic and Protestant churches for more than 30 years, said that the shortage of priests in the Catholic church is 'far more severe' than any other denomination in the United States. He said that for every 100 priests who die or leave ministry today, Catholic seminaries are now training only 30 or 40 to replace them.
This entry originally appeared in The Black Republican.
The title is one of the several reasons given by Planned Parenthood as the benefits of 30 years of legal abortion. If only Holly Patterson had been given the opportunity to choose between an "illegal back-alley abortion" that might leave her disfigured for life and talking to her father about her pregnancy, she might be alive today. Unfortunately, she trusted the "modern medicine" of the abortionists and the rest of the left-coast leftists in her hometown of San Francisco.
Holly Patterson, who lived in the San Francisco suburb of Livermore, visited a Planned Parenthood clinic Sept. 10 to take the pill. She followed the prescribed procedure for using RU-486, taking two more pills at home three days later.In the style of James Taranto, I have to ask, "What would Holly Patterson do without Planned Parenthood?"
After experiencing bleeding and cramps so severe that she was unable to walk, her boyfriend rushed her to the hospital the following evening, where she was given painkillers and sent home. Three nights later, she was back in the hospital. She died the following day.
An autopsy has been scheduled to determine the cause of Holly's death. But Monty Patterson said he learned from an attending physician at the hospital that she had died after a massive infection caused by fragments of the fetus left inside her uterus caused her to go into septic shock. Planned Parenthood also said it is investigating Patterson's death.