I had promised some re-posts of things that I (at least) liked. I am supposed to be filling out a four page visa application right now. Or spending yet another night listening to critical news information on The World Over on EWTN while continuing the painful process of filling in the entire forest of Mirkwood in French knots for my SIL’s Christmas present. I think I’m going to go kill some brain cells on a mindless video game instead. But in the meantime…
The Saints Are Normal; What Are We?
(originally posted Aug 2008)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is in the news again, declaring that she has never been denied Communion because of her pro-abortion views and voting record. She assured readers, however, that she’s “in agreement with Catholics” on other issues, so I guess that makes the legal dismemberment of babies in the womb ok. Besides, it varies by region whether or not the bishop pushes the issue, she commented, again implying that, in California at least, abortion isn’t a moral problem. (article at http://lifenews.com/nat4098.html )
Indeed.
In discussing the issue of denying Communion to Catholic politicians who promoted legalized abortion, the USCCB (U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops) has issued a number of, well, waffling and unclear statements. In 2004, with John Kerry on everyone’s minds, the bishops condemned abortion in the strongest language, but then hid behind, “Well, maybe pro-abortion politicians don’t know it’s wrong. The bishop has to talk to the particular politician and have a dialogue on the subject. You can’t judge any given bishop’s response to the situation.”
Funny, since Cardinal Arinze, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship, laughed at Raymond Arroyo during an interview on EWTN when asked whether communion should be denied to pro-abortion politicians. I forget the exact wording, but the reply was along the lines of, “Yes, of course they should be denied. Is this even a question? You do not need a cardinal from the Vatican to tell you this!” Apparently, we do, but is anyone listening?
Totally OT, but did the earthquake affect you & the family? Hope everybody’s OK!
Thank you for asking, and, no, there wasn’t much effect on us: we were in the minivan and I fussed at the kids for shaking the car for the umpteenth time. It was only when I was staring them down in the rearview (and could see they weren’t moving) and they sounded particularly perplexed (because, for once, it really wasn’t them) that I started to think something was odd. And then I thought it was the breaks doing something funky that would likely be extremely expensive to repair!
I actually didn’t find out it was an earthquake until my husband called an hour later. (The people on the third floor really felt the swaying a lot more, and all the West Coast guys were laughing at everyone who’d only ever done Navy tours on the East Coast, because nobody from California considers a 5.8 a “real” earthquake. Sort of like native Wisconsinites’ opinion of Southerners who freak out at a half inch of snow.)
The kids (who are major fans of “How the Earth was Made” and any other documentary that promises plate tectonics, earthquakes, and lots of volcanoes) thought it was incredibly cool.
Then they immediately started asking how we could get an earthquake when we don’t live on a plate boundary… yes, I am raising hopeless geeks.
We are far enough down in the SE corner of Virginia that the earthquake was interesting, but nothing got damaged like in DC. Hurricane Irene, on the other hand, if she follows the predicted track, will be a dead-on hit.