Good article

The WWJD Stick

You may have to know a bit about American secular politics and American Catholic politics to follow the bases of the article, but Simcha Fisher lays things out pretty good.

Besides, how the heck would any of us know what Jesus would do in any specific situation? He spent his entire public ministry confounding people...

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You're not allowed

to talk about religion privately if someone else can hear you.

Irony: Bar boots Denver bishop giving private talk on threats to religious liberty

The general public reaction to religion today, outside of glass cathedrals and churches, or when it has something to do with an athlete, is disdain, mockery and jeering. People make fun of religion (though spending time in bars trying to make themselves happy??).

They should call these events 'mockery on tap' given the response of other patrons...

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In the eyes of the Church, that is

in the form of the local Bishop as the Church's local authority.

When a Shrine Isn’t

Anyone can build a shrine or grotto on their property. However, for it to be sanctioned by the Church and become an 'official' shrine, the Bishop has to investigate it and approve it. One thing that this article doesn't tell us though is if the person who built the shrine was claiming any supernatural events at the shrine. I suspect he must have been, or why would people from elsewhere be visiting it? THe person can have his statue - we have a statue of St. Francis in our back yard - but once the claims of supernatural events, visions, locutions, etc., start coming out the Bishop has to get involved. The person doesn't have to listen to the Bishop but if they don't they're threatening their relationship with the Church. The Church doesn't take it lightly when people start drawing others away from revelation that has been properly approved...

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And he's not that old

California bishop resigns, says he has 2 kids

You have to suspect that he somehow got found out. Is it likely that his conscience was bothering him after so many years? Well, I admit it is possible. No one is past reclamation, and God is all-powerful.

There's really some things happening of late to the Church in the area of priests and sexuality. I wonder if the whole issue of married priests might be coming up faster than the present Pope and hierarchy would like?

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This really raises some questions...

Psychiatrist says disgraced Bishop Lahey not a pedophile

I'm staying away from the whole pedophilia issue. I'm just wondering about the Bishop's stable 10-year gay marriage. One can speculate that if the images weren't found on his computer (and he may even have set himself up for that, in some twisted way) he would have continued his role in the Church and continue his stable, committed, gay relationship, people being none the wiser. I'm struggling with the issue here...

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I don't blame them

Many priests decline appointment as bishops, Vatican prefect discloses

I think it's a position for politicians, bureaucrats or saints.

It doesn't seem like one that most people would choose willingly, other than as a career move for those so motivated, or through obedience...

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I'm not sure about this

California diocese will buy Crystal Cathedral

I thought the conflict over our new cathedral here was a bit much, I can't imagine what people are saying in this California diocese. I really think it's out of keeping with the Catholic norm. I certainly can't see a glass building lasting centuries. Mind you, it is in California. Isn't it supposed to break off and fall into the ocean sometime?

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But

if Fr. Pavone has "deep respect for the Church, and especially the office of the bishop" why didn't he show up for the meeting scheduled in October with the Bishop he has such "deep respect" for?

'Priests for Life needs a massive infusion of contributions...'

Is this because the Church has cut the purse strings?

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Leaving more work

(and power) for the Vatican bureaurocrats?

'Ad limina' change means not all bishops meet privately with pope


Just wonderin'...

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Priests are people

Thoughts on Fr. Pavone

He's got a good head on his shoulders, this Mr. Shea...

(Though a bit judgmental on BSDawg perhaps, but I haven't kept up with that story at all.)

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I can sympathize with both sides

Celibacy debate rages, but change unlikely

"Bishop Edward Daly has now added his voice to a growing chorus of Catholic leaders and commentators across the world calling for an end to the church's requirement that priests should remain unmarried and celibate. "

What would married priests do? Would the expectation be that the Church support them with a wife and family as they support them now? Where would the money come from? Would every parish then have to have only one priest (at most) and would that priest have to find another job outside of the church as many of our brethren in Protestant denominations have to when there isn't enough in the parish to pay for the needs of the pastor?

What would happen to Religious orders? Would chastity be out the window? Would they be able to govern themselves and cling to chastity as a vow or would that change as well? And orders of female Religious? Nuns with families? I can see a never-ending nightmare beginning with the removal of the celibacy rules, and I'm not exaggerating. If you think I am, just think of human nature and where the laws in Canada have gone now with the 'personal rights and freedoms' charter. You could not only fear it, but expect it...

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Uh-huh...

Scottish archbishop tells Catholics not to kneel for communion

I love it when these news items quote someone like a renowned Catholic blogger as if it carries any serious weight. (And whom I've never heard of despite the fact that I read more 'Catholic' news and commentary in a week than most Catholics read in a year.)

Tempest, meet teapot...

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This was apparently written

by a post-Vatican II bishop, so don't think he's 'pining for the fjords', sorry, don't think he's wishing for the old Rite...

Why I Didn't Go to Confession Today.

Now, anyone can pretend to be anyone else on the intertubes, but I expect if someone was pretending to be a bishop they'd be found out pretty quickly. Just sayin'. I dunno, I guess I'm just cautious...

These are the sorts of abuses that cause people to cry out for the Tridentine Rite, even though all it would take is some direction, by the local Bishops, to the priests of the diocese. I think the vernacular can end up leading to a more familiar type of presentation, which can lead to this sort of thing. It's not a conspiracy, nor is it widespread, I don't believe.

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He may have started

a new industry in the Catholic Church.

Priest makes bobblehead doll of Ohio’s Bishop Trautman

It's a terrific joke, and a really nice looking bobblehead, in no way a criticism or attempt to make the bishop an object of derision. It's great that they have a bishop that can take it in good humour like this.

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Second youngest in the world!

Blogging priest will be Canada's youngest bishop

He'll only be 40 (for another day) when he's ordained Bishop. He has certainly impressed someone...

May God bless him with every gift necessary to do his work and shepherd his flock...

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A story continued

Vatican sends bishop to investigate Cleveland Diocese

It's not surprising, really. Closing that number of parishes is likely to arouse some interest by someone...

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It's most likely

that Cleveland is a huge diocese compared to what I'm familiar with...

Vatican planning to investigate Cleveland parish closings?

...but closing 50 parishes seems like a lot, really...

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It's just not government or business...

Hackers knock Mexican bishops' website offline

At least I hope they don't put up lists of baptism details for outside access (not public), for instance. How would you prove you're a Catholic if the records were lost to hacking? I often think that this kind of data, which doesn't need to be accessed online, should be kept on servers that have no ability to connect to the intertubes...

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Sometimes a bishop

will take a formal stand on a supposed 'apparition'...

Apparitions in Argentina are not authentic, declares archbishop

This is a supposed apparition site that I was unaware of (though there are likely hundreds that I knnow nothing of). It hasn't been in the news up here in Canada at least. If I tried an in-depth search on the 'net I may find more, but a light search just comes up with the Archbishop's statement. It doesn't matter. I don't need to read more about inauthentic apparitions of our Lady...

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This will upset more than a few people

The nuclear disaster is “a lesson for Japan and for the whole world,” notes Bishop

But for quite a while now no one, particularly a majority of Catholics, has cared what the Bishops say. It's a sad fact of the current times...

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