The Black Madonna

No Zoo Review

Fellow Garden State native Michelle Malkin needs to get a breath of Morning Air. Yes, it's overtly Catholic, but what of it? I won't listen to anything else before Laura.

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Desecration

Michelle Malkin makes a great observation as she links to news that a vandal desecrated some crosses at the makeshift camp inhabited by Cindy Sheehan, the Gold Star Mother protesting the war outside President Bush's Texas home: what's more profane, the vandalism or the feigned indignation by the people who thought this was art?

Pope is Catholic... American heterodox majority hardest hit

Mark Finkelstein, posting at Newsbusters.org, saves us a trip to the confessional by watching the Today show for us. Finkelstein does such a good job lampooning the MSM, I don't really have anything left to say, but: "Read it".

Interviewed by Katie Couric, Dickey first claimed that Europeans view Benedict "with some skepticism right now. People are looking at this Pope and saying what does he want to do by re-Christianizing Europe?"

Gee, and here I thought that was a Pope's job.

Dickey then added, with breathtaking condescension, "on the other hand he isn't creating the kinds of problems people thought he would. There was a lot of suspicion that he would be so emphasizing Christianity that it would alienate Muslims, that it would alienate Jews in Europe."

What a relief. We certainly can't have a Pope creating problems with that Christianity stuff.

Aren't all those guys in the white beanies pretty much the same?

Ken Shepherd, posting at NewsBusters.org, links to a "writers notebook" at CBS News that covers the goings-on at World Youth Day in Köln. Shepherd likens it to political convention coverage, but I think it reads more like a concert review.

(Pope Benedict's) homily was a contrast to those of his predecessor. John Paul II’s were generally dense in prose style, littered with Biblical quotations. Today’s had only four direct references that required annotation in the official text. The tone, too, was less finger-waving than JPII’s, even if it did take several minutes to get to the part of the speech that might strike a chord. Journalists call that "burying the lead."

How well it went down is still not clear. It is widely held that one-third of the people at such gatherings are deeply religious, one third are as curious as they are faithful, and the rest came because their friends did.

This is how a secular reporter describes attendance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - a "speech" where the curious show up. The vapidity required to describe in this way the daily event where Our Lord appears in Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity is utterly breathtaking.

That aside, what seems to come across in the piece is how clueless the reporter is to the circumstances surrounding the event he's covering.

Benedict XVI's arrival for the open-air mass that culminated World Youth Day was the most subdued any of the reporters who cover the Vatican could remember....

Benedict gets the adoration and professed love and respect one would expect for a man in his position, with a sense that there is also a "but..." hanging in the air.

Allen Pizzey never completes the thought, leaving Catholics aghast and non-Catholics confused, I'm sure. I'll complete it for you: "...but he's no John Paul II." That's right he's not, but thank you for doing the Holy Father the disservice of comparing him to someone who may soon be declared a saint, then insinuating that he doesn't measure up.

Has it ever occurred to you, Mr. Pizzey, that World Youth Day was a bit "subdued" because John Paul II himself accepted the invitation to attend, and Pope Benedict has arrived on his behalf as the reigning pontiff? That the crowd, who until recently thought they were going to one of JPII's "rock concert" hyped events, are essentially in mourning? That this is BXVI's very first introduction to the millions who gathered for these events under JPII's shepherding, and they're basically still getting to know one another?

When you come from a culture dominated by cheap sex and vulgarity, I guess it's hard to understand why following one old guy in a little white beanie isn't just as good a ride as the last one.

"And you thought I was the 'Grand Inquistor' before..."

Editorial cartoonists Cox & Forkum have been drawing caricatures of the famous and influential of late to add to their blog. When I saw the latest entry in that series, I imagined that my title for this post was the unspoken caption of the cartoon.

I suspect some Catholics may be offended that the artist is making an insinuation in the way he drew that grin, especially since I was disturbed by my initial reaction to it myself. But that's the beauty in this art form - when done well, it doesn't really say anything itself, and causes you to reflect on what preconceptions you yourself bring to bear when looking at it. For all we know, Pope Benedict is wearing that mischievous grin because he snuck his cat into the papal apartments for the afternoon. Or the grin might not indicate mischievousness at all.

In an odd sort of way, I like the image. It reminds us that our Holy Father is human, and that he - and we - must occasionally laugh at ourselves as the silly people we are. So much of our faith can lead us to sin and guilt, we sometimes forget not to take some things too seriously - like the caricature of a new pope we're all still trying to figure out.

UPDATE: Well, it just goes to show what perspective does to an image. Apparently, John Cox merely exaggerated an existing photograph when he drew his caricature.

And where did Cox find that photo? At the Vatican website, of course.

A prayer for America

At the end of Mass today, the organist seemed like she didn't want to stop playing after the second verse of the recessional, even though the celebrant and the rest of the altar servers had gotten to the back of the church already. As I sang another stanza of the popular hymn, I choked up, guessing why she was so insistant we finish with the third verse.

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife.
Who more than self the country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

Even if the war in Iraq didn't qualify as Just War (something I don't think can be determined with certitude), the continued presence of American troops in the country, defending her people from insurgent Ba'athists and foreign terrorists, is clearly an act of compassion and mercy at least as important as drawing out and eliminating the Islamofascist enemy we face and demoralizing his supporters.

Every death of one of our troops truly proves him a hero in liberating strife. The nobleness of this sacrifice will be proven in time, but it will all be for naught if we don't repel the naysayers and doombringers attempting to invalidate the successes and reverse the gains by encouraging the enemy to continue the conflict.

We must remind the Christians among those who waver in the face of the mounting losses that every death now is a martyrdom. For even those in Iraq who don't believe in helping the Iraqis (we should), even those who don't believe they are protecting America (they are), are staying and fighting to defend their brothers in arms.

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. - John 15:13

We must stay in the fight, stand true to our principles, and stand up for our friends. We must not lose heart now - as Jan Freeman tells us, when the late Ray Charles sang these words, America was already blessed.

God done shed his grace on thee
He crowned thy good, yes he did, with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

Sing it, Brother Ray.

Missed Church? Download It to Your IPod

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/technology/29godcast.html

Tania Ralli