Wednesday, June 29, 2011

And What About Catholic Weddings...?

So we hear about New York becoming the East Coast San Francisco with the passage of Gay Marriage, one has to wonder about the health of Catholic marriages and is there a drop in Catholic Weddings over all?

Here's a scathing report on the decline of Catholic Weddings


This program is from RealCatholicTV.com

Marriage in New York

If you have to read one article on this subject, please read this one.

Thanks Carl Olsen for mentioning this on your blog (Insight Scoop)

Marriage was already in bad shape when New York’s governor rewrote its meaning in the state on Friday night with his signature on the “Marriage Equality Act.” Princeton politics professor Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, who has written and lectured extensively on marriage and conscience rights, the natural law, and public policy (and served on the President’s Council on Bioethics and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights), discusses the fallout and future with National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez.
KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: What’s your reaction to what New York did to marriage on Friday night?
ROBERT P. GEORGE: Let’s examine the matter from a philosophical and historical perspective.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

U.S. Aids Gaga with Gay Pride Parade in Rome

(CNSNEWS-Photo)
Hillary Clinton bragged today about how the U.S. State Department, which she leads as Secretary of State, helped Lady Gaga to join gay pride celebrations in Rome.

Not only is it in Rome but in the Circus Maximus area where Christians were used as human torches and murdered.

And Ms. Clinton takes pride in her departments efforts to make this happen.



There's something that stabs the heart to see the government of the United States lower itself to aid a pop-star to participate in such a immoral event.

I've posted Hilary's picture but not Gaga's. One is after fame and fortune. I don't know what the other one wants.

Here's the article:

CNSNews.com) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that the State Department played an instrumental role in “sealing the deal” for pop-rock star Lady Gaga to perform at a gay pride rally in Rome, Italy.
Clinton specifically pointed to a letter that David Thorne, the U.S. ambassador to Italy, sent to Lady Gaga urging her to participate in the event.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Asteroid ! - Close Call

Interesting event today. Just read about it.

It came closer than some satellites. Woooow Baby!

Close Shave! Asteroid Buzzes Earth

 An asteroid the size of a tour bus zipped by Earth Monday -- a flyby so close that the space rock was nearer to the planet than some satellites.
The space rock, called asteroid 2011 MD, reached its closest point to Earth just after 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT), when it crept within 7,500 miles (12,000 km) of Earth before whipping away again like a slingshot. The asteroid was flying over the southern Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Antarctica, at the time of its closest approach.

Fr. Barron: Holy Spirit, The Ascension

A couple of great videos from Father Barron to begin the week. One on The Ascension and the other on the Holy Spirit.

What a Blessed Catholic Priest we have in Father Barron. Solid orthodox in his public preaching and committed to the sacraments and the Holy Eucharist.

Thanks Fr. Barron.



Wednesday, June 22, 2011

New Vatican Website: Hit or MIss?

Actually I was not a fan of the old Vatican website and frankly I don't see the improvement in the new one.
I've often gone away from the Vatican website not finding what I want and searching elsewhere.

That's a shame because I know that the information must  be there... somewhere. I do want the Vatican website to be a place of frequent visits from Catholics an non-Catholics alike.

Matthew Warner has a nice critique of the new Vatican website.

The New Vatican Website Redesign Is…

...frustrating. Not only because it is frustrating to use, but because I simply don’t understand the reasoning behind the design. I’m quite sure I’m missing something.
I know they have unique challenges that no other website in the world has - technically, culturally and theologically. I want to be charitable. I just don’t get it. You can view it here: Vatican.va
They are guilty of at least 2 of the 7 deadly sins of parish website design (which also apply to them) and a long list of venial ones.

Deepak Chopra

I've got to tell you, every time I've listen to this guy talk, I don't know what the heck he is saying.

Carl Olsen has a good post on the theology of Deepak Chopra.


I hereby nominate Deepak Chopra as "Most Irrational, Vicious Sham of a Shaman"

This little post about Deepak Chopra isn't going to be as impeccable and memorable as Dr. Ed Peters' post about Maureen Dowd (Note his restraint: "With a predictability that borders on banality". Borders?).

But I confess that I have certain and pointed dislike for the writing and "thought" of Chopra, who I consider to be only about a half-step up from a con artist, although it could be that he has simply taken con artistry to a New (Age) level. His book,
The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore, is quite possibly the most embarrassing, confused, illogical, and ignorant "serious" book ever written about Jesus, which is really saying something.

Maureen Dowd Who?

Why does anybody listen to her?

Why does she think she is the final say on Catholic things...especially Marriage?

I guess she must be answered and AmP has to do it.

Maureen Dowd on Archbishop Dolan & My Dad: “Vintage Deja Vu Dowd”

 Yesterday, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd went after Archbishop Dolan’s efforts to protect marriage in New York — and also snuck in a drive-by sniping of my father’s recent comments about (Catholic) New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s manifest concubinage, just for good measure.

Governor Cuomo is for gay marriage, so you can guess who Dowd is writing to protect and abet in her column (entitled “Gay Sera, Sera“). My father has responded to Ms. Dowd’s feeble attempts to warp his argument here.
Now why do I title my post “Vintage Deja Vu Dowd”? Because Maureen Dowd has only one argument against the Catholic Church, or any Catholic figure who speaks in the public square. And every time it’s the same. It goes like this: “Pedophile!”
MORE 

More from Carl Olson of Insight Scoop

Weigel on "the rise of the anti-Catholic Catholics" (specifically, Maureen Dowd)

Ecclesiastes notwithstanding, there is something new under the sun in the annals of American anti-Catholicism; and that something is the rise of the anti-Catholic Catholics, self-described Catholics who make a career (or at least part of a career) out of mounting endless attacks on the Church, its settled beliefs, its leadership, and its people. Like the Nast/rationalist anti-Catholicism of the past, today’s Catholic anti-Catholicism is a left-of-center phenomenon that, in secular guise, often reflects the critiques of the Church mounted by so-called “Catholic progressives”: The Church is hopelessly sexist; the Church is hopelessly sex-obsessed; the Church is cruel to women and gays; the Church is hypocritical. And, of course and most recently, the Church is a global criminal conspiracy of child rapists and their abettors, which “fact” validates the other charges in the standing indictment just cited. ...

MORE

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Yes, I Know: Fr. Corapi

Like the rest of you I've heard about Father Corapi leaving the priesthood.

Still confused at the news, but more I'm saddened to know that Fr. Corapi would give up the priesthood so readily. I've heard him preach on the Holy Eucharist with passion and conviction.

How could he give that up so easily? An instrument in God's hand in the consecration.

I'm actually ready to move on. The Church is whats important. He will always be know for his fiery preaching of the teachings of the church. He did some good work in the name of the Lord.

For those that still need to read more here are some resources.

Corapi 1

Corapi 2

Corapi 3