This entry originally appeared in The Black Republican.
Speedstream 2602 icmpRegardless of your personal faith, you really should read this funny post and its comments.
According to the film, over half a million priests and nuns have left the church since the early '60s, a loss known among Catholics as "the bleeding."If you're Catholic, you'll laugh. If you're not, you'll learn the one place you shouldn't get your information about Catholics: the mainstream press.
UPDATE: It just gets better. And in the comments:
What is next? The Bleeding 2: The Bloodening!
This entry originally appeared in The Black Republican.
A Los Angeles canon lawyer has filed suit against John Kerry for heresy in ecclesiastical court.
Mr. Balestrieri said he filed the heresy charge - plus an additional complaint charging "harm" to himself as a result of Mr. Kerry's pronouncements on abortion and related issues - because canon law entitles Catholics to "possession of the faith unharmed."You can view the complaint and join the suit at De Fide.
"By spreading heresy, he is endangering not just mine by every Catholic's possession of the faith," he said."I am inviting all baptized Catholics who feel injured by Kerry to join the suit as third parties" by reading the document on the Web site and then sending a certified letter of agreement to the Boston Archdiocese.
"People are saying you can be pro-choice and be a good Christian, that it is not contrary to the faith to support aborted murder," Mr. Balestrieri said. "This is a life-threatening heresy."
"Bishops have had 31 years [since the Supreme Court made abortion an individual right] to do something on this matter, but they've done nothing," he said.
(hat tip Mark Shea, good analysis by Fr. Rob Johansen)
This entry originally appeared in The Black Republican.
The Catholic television network EWTN has a voter guide explaining the "Moral Duties Concerning Voting". It's an impressive statement of principle for pro-life voters, especially in this age when cardinals and candidates alike are telling Catholics they may have "proportionate reasons" to vote for a Democrat. (hat tip: Bettnet.com)
I can't help but wonder if the course of the nation could have changed in the 19th century, if twenty years before Lincoln the churches in America had been told they should vote against slavery with the same principles.
UPDATE: I just found several posts in our archives that I'd forgotten touch on the capital punishment angle. Note how much more hawkish EWTN seems to be on this issue, compared with Lopez and Dulles.
ANOTHER UPDATE: "Pro-choice agnostic" John Rosenberg makes a similar argument as I do regarding preantebellum morality. When people who would otherwise support you start showing the yellow caution flag over your political contortionism, you're in trouble. (Hat tip: Catholic[?] Kerry Watch)
This entry originally appeared in The Black Republican.
The Curt Jester got hold of the cover letter the Church's chief theologian attached to his instructions to the American bishops regarding Catholic politicians and communion.
What? Okay, so maybe you only find it mildly amusing, but to us this is ROTFL.
Meanwhile, what's not funny is being taught how to be a good Catholic by... the Anglicans?
The Catholic bishops had an opportunity to take an important and courageous political position, but instead they adopted a position of pragmatic cowardice. If the Catholic understanding of abortion truly expresses the divine will, then any Catholic who actively supports a public policy that supports abortion must be counted as a traitor to the faith of Christ. The Catholic bishops should have come clean on this years ago. The chickens of catechesis-failure are coming home to roost, and now the Catholic bishops are confronted with the sad spectacle of Catholic politicians who publicly advocate public policies that the Catholic Church deems as intrinsically evil. And the bishops are unsure how to respond. One thing for sure. The problem ain't going to go away. What are they going to do a year from now when President Kerry shows up for Mass!That's pretty sad.
(hat tips to Catholic[?] Kerry Watch, here and here)
A few short weeks ago, our country put to rest the greatest president of my lifetime, and a contender for the greatest of the 20th century. His autobiography, entitled Where's The Rest Of Me?, harkened back to a pivotal line he recited when Ronald Reagan was the name of a B-movie actor. I've been realizing just how much President Reagan affected my political development by watching his funeral and reading the many retrospectives dedicated to his memory. But I also appreciate how much the title of his book captures my emotions right now, unrelated to politics.
When my other blog, The Black Republican, was still a yearling, I was expecting the approaching election would consume most of my attention and focus. While that has been true to a certain extent, "most" appears to have been an overstatement. I did not foresee the shape and character of the debate that would evolve inside the Catholic Church after the news of the sexual abuse scandal died down, and as a Catholic presidential nominee appeared for the Democratic Party. And even more, I could not imagine how all this would begin to affect me.
I could turn this entry into a lengthy autobiography of my own, but suffice to say after over twenty years of being a confirmed Catholic, I'm only now beginning to feel in my soul what I long ago thought I'd been able to intellectualize. It's a daunting realization to stumble upon at the age of thirty-five, but I still believe I have a vocation to find, and I have yet to decipher from the many yearnings in my heart exactly what that vocation should be.
Come, Holy Spirit, come.
I should take a moment to note the title of this new blog, and how it came to be.
At first, I thought to call it, ex cathedra. But good sense told me someone would think I was hallucinating that I was Polish, and I decided against that. From deep in the recesses of my addled brain, I recalled the crucial Supreme Court case after the Civil War, ex parte Milligan. I looked it up at FindLaw and found that ex parte means "on behalf (of)". This, it turns out, was the kind of phrasing I was initially intending with ex cathedra, something that sounds as if it's a blog based on apologetics. A defense of my faith. A defense of The Faith. I wanted to speak on behalf of my own faith, the Faith of Our Fathers. So something that crosses ex parte with De Fide. I'm not sure if this is conjugated properly, but I decided on Ex Parte Fide ("on behalf of the Faith").
I should point out that I am neither a theologian or a lawyer nor a priest, so on a whole lot of levels, I'm shooting from the hip here. But that's sort of my point. I'm going to do my very best to learn about that which I don't know, expound upon it, then wait for my esteemed brethren to come to my rescue and tell me how it is not so. Error tends to be the basis of all my learning, so why should it not be true here? In the end, I hope to figure out who I am and where I'm going.
Let's start with the title of the blog, shall we? If it doesn't mean what I think it means, please correct me as soon as possible so I can change it before I say it too many times and can't change it.
Sorry for the screwed up template, but I'm working on it.
A commenter at Open Book made the mistake of mentioning in passing a pet peeve of mine.
A married priest is an occasion for scandal when the ordained has left his vows to become married. But in the Eastern Rites of the Catholic Church, it is valid for a married man to recieve the sacrament of Holy Orders. The requirement of celibacy is mandated by the rules of the Latin Rite only, and is not dogma. It is a practice of the Latin Rite, and as far as I know, it could be changed by a simple order from the pope at any time. Catholics who advocate the ordination of married men are not in the same category as pro-abortion advocates or those calling for the ordination of women.
The celibacy requirement was enacted to provide a filter for candidates to the priesthood at a time when there were too many potential priests. It is a crime to allow a shortage of priests to hurt the church when a perfectly valid solution - currently in practice in other Rites - goes ignored simply because of the obstinancy of the Roman bishops. I honestly believe many bishops do not want to provide this alternative out of sheer jealousy toward the happily married men who would become ordained as a result.
Many years ago I was given a nifty little booklet that was an excellent tool for an examination of conscience. I kept it in my wallet and referred to it whenever I went to the Sacrament. Through overuse, it eventually fell apart, and somewhere along the line what was left was missplaced. I've searched church alcoves and confessional booths ever since for a replacement, but never found anything quite as good. Until now.
I feel like such a dope that it's probably been here on the Internet for years and I never thought to look for it.