In a two-hour procedure, Dr. Robert Flanigan, assisted by Dr. Fred Luchette, Chief of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Loyola, found a small blood vessel in the pelvis that was bleeding. The source was successfully closed, the bleeding was stopped and the Cardinal stabilized. He tolerated the operation well and is resting comfortably this morning.
Although the episode of postoperative bleeding represents a complication of the radical cystectomy, it is not an unusual occurrence and is not expected to have a significant impact on Cardinal George’s recovery. During the next few days he will continue to be closely monitored.
One of my favorite news agencies is Fides News, a service associated with the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Fides carries news from all over the world, giving an "on the ground" Catholic perspective on world events. From natural disasters, wars and famines to new seminaries, schools and hospitals and addresses from bishops in third world countries, Fides gives an account of what's going in the world and how the Church is ministering to those those affected by these events.
Here's a sample of some recent news items, follow the links for the whole stories:
- From the Democratic Republic of Congo
Repeated violence in east Congo is causing tens of thousands to abandon homes and fields. Warned that food supplies will soon run out the United Nations World Food Programme has launched an urgent call to international donors to give more funds assist these suffering people. The situation is most serious in Gety, in Ituri province, where 38,000 displaced persons are sheltering. On July 14 WFP took two week food rations from its stores at Bunia to distribute to 30,000 people in Gety, but now its supplies are almost finished and more funds are urgently needed. - From Israel
St John of God Catholic Hospital in Nazareth was the first to give emergency treatment to victims of an attack on the town a week ago in the present conflict. At about 5pm on Wednesday 19 July, re-named Nazareth’s black Wednesday, without any warning three Katyusha rockets suddenly landed in the Bilal district of the Arab part of the town hitting a mosque in front of which several children were playing. - From East Timor
If more young men ask to serve the Lord and consecrate their lives to service of the Church and the people in East Timor, there is still hope for the youngest democracy in Asia, despite conditions of political and social instability. The occasion of the solemn profession of new Salesians di Camilo Boavida and Venancio Fatima Freitas was in fact a festive event for the whole community in Baucau. People put aside their daily worries and anxieties to share in the joy of the two young men called by God to follow in the footsteps of Saint John Bosco.
From the Chicago SunTimes:
"I'm happy to report good news," Dr. Myles Sheehan, George's personal physician of three years who is also a Jesuit priest, told reporters at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood about an hour after the cardinal's surgery was completed. "We are very hopeful for the best possible result, and we are confident that the cardinal will be able to return to his active work as the archbishop of Chicago."
George, 69, announced Wednesday that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer and would undergo radical surgery. Thursday, his physicians at Loyola revealed that George also suffers from cancer of the ureter, which is generally considered more dangerous than bladder cancer.
See the article for the rest and please continue to keep the Cardinal in your prayers.
The Catholic Post fills in the details on the Champaign miracle being submitted for Fulton Sheen's beatification.
Mrs. Kearney, then in her early 70s, would survive as surgical staples held despite her infected arterial wall having the consistency of "wet toilet paper," according to the surgeon.
Mrs. Kearney died this Tuesday in Champaign, The Catholic Post learned Wednesday as it was going to press. Her husband, who first shared Therese’s story with persons promoting Archbishop Sheen’s cause in 2001 and actively cooperated with the fact-gathering, had died earlier this year in February.
The archbishop of my hometown has cancer and is undergoing surgery this morning. Please pray for Cardinal Francis George.
I ask my fellow priests, the religious, all Catholics in the Archdiocese and other friends and colleagues to pray for me. I trust that the Lord will give me the strength and grace I need during these next days and weeks.�
I imagine an update will be posted at the same website as the Cardinal's statement as soon as word is received of how the surgery went.
Here is a translation from Zenit of the address Pope Benedict gave at a prayer vigil for peace in the Holy Land.
Here is an excerpt, but please read the whole thing:
Therefore, what we do to those who suffer, we do to the Last Judge of our life. This is important: At this moment we can take his victory to the world, taking part actively in his charity. Today, in a multicultural and multireligious world, many are tempted to say: "For peace in the world, among religions, among cultures, it is better not to speak too much of what is specific to Christianity, that is, of Jesus, of the Church, of the sacraments. Let us be content with what can be more or less common."
But it is not true. Precisely at this time, a time of great abuse of the name of God, we have need of the God who overcomes on the cross, who does not conquer with violence, but with his love. Precisely at this time we have need of the Face of Christ to know the true Face of God and so be able to take reconciliation and light to this world. For this reason, together with love, with the message of love, we must also take the testimony of this God, of God's victory, precisely through the nonviolence of his cross.
About 10 minutes after finishing the last post, I came across another writing by Elizabeth Schlitz. This one is an op-ed piece in Business Week defending her decision not to abort her Down's Syndrome baby.
It's a longish piece, but well worth the read.
Over at Mirror of Justice, ("A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory") new blogger Elizabeth Schiltz's first post is "Benedict XVI on Women and St. Augustine". In it she quotes a passage of Ratzinger's on the Marian dimension of the Church and asks:
My second question is about St. Augustine. At the UST Summer Seminar, much was made of the fact that Benedict is very “Augustinian�, in contrast to JPII, who was apparently much more Thomistic. Indeed, Benedict certainly does seem to quote Augustine a lot in the things I’ve read so far. As someone whose familiarity with Augustine consists of having read The City of God in college, and more recently reading Gary Will’s biography of Augustine, I was too timid to ask what that meant in the roomful of philosophers and theologians at the seminar. Do any of you have any thoughts about this distinction between JPII and Benedict? More importantly, though, is this distinction likely to make any practical difference with respect to any of the issues of interest to MOJ?
Unfortunately, nobody has taken up the first question over at MOJ (Mama-Lu has: her answer is "No, it doesn't), but in response to the second question, Thomas Berg chimes in with several points, two of which I wish to highlight:
Does this contrast with John Paul II? I'm no expert on this. But wasn't there frequently a sense in his writings that he was calling the world back to its highest and deepest principles -- protection of life, true freedom, and so forth -- rather than claiming that the orientation of the world was more fundamentally and deeply flawed (the Augustinian emphasis)? Again, no polar opposites here, but possibly differences in emphasis.
In his writings on economic life, John Paul II is relatively positive about the market system and the opportunities it affords for human growth and creativity. Not unqualifiedly so, of course, but reasonably positive: a kind of "two cheers for capitalism," as Joseph Bottum put it last year. Augustinians, according to the article I cited above, tend to "take a more critical approach, arguing that there are economic practices characteristic of [global capitalism] that cannot be squared with the social teaching of the Church." This may fit with Bottum's assessment that Benedict has given and will give only "one cheer for capitalism": that, although certainly no socialist, he "stands to the left of his predecessor on economic issues."
The other point:
Pope Benedict is one of the many members of his
generation who, while not disagreeing with the content of Thomist thought, believed that the scholastic presentation of the faith doesn't exactly set souls on fire unless they happen to be a particular type of soul with a passion for intellectual disputation. He has said that "scholasticism has its greatness, but everything is impersonal."In contrast, with Augustine "the passionate, suffering, questioning man is always right there, and you can identify with him."
This last point really rings true over here. I know Aquinas was a great saint; I know how important the Summa and the rest of his works are, but engaging them leaves me cold. The very words sed contra give me frostbite (apologies to David Morrison. I have no problem with Aquinas: I don't disagree with him, and I really do believe that the scholastic approach is good and necessary to elucidate truths of faith and of natural reason, and God bless those who take up that particular yoke in order to get to the bottom of things, but yaaaaaaawn... Yet another reason to love Benedict (without dissing JP2, of course). And yet another reason to love the Catholic Church, with its diversity of spirituality that allows me to respect and admire the indespensible and world-changing contributions of Thomas Aquinas while opting to reach for my beloved Augustine's Confessions.
Here's a tip to anybdy who wants something of me: just compliment my kids and you're in.
In that spirit, I direct you to Benedictxvithemagnificent.com, the site of a French artist who has portraits of the Holy Father for sale.
Speaking of my kids, expect to see an update of new pictures soon. Our digital camera was mislocated for a while, and we just found it last night.
A miracle involving a Champaign woman has been submitted in support of the cause for beatification of the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen. The miracle involves a Champaign woman whose husband invoked Sheen's aid to heal a tear in her main pulmonary artery.
Catholic News Agency reports:
"Sheen was a pioneer in the use of social means of communication and predated (the Second Vatican Council document) Inter Mirifica and was in some ways a forerunner for the work that Karol Wojtyla [later Pope John Paul II] was able to do in the vast social communications of his pontificate."
Msgr. Swetland said the way Archbishop Sheen delivered the truths of the faith have an impact to this day. "I am constantly amazed that, even with the great increases in the sophistication of media technologies, so many still enjoy listening to or watching his recordings from the 1950s and 60s."
"The luminous light of harmonious relations will celebrate worldwide human wisdom."
"The mysterious liturgy of peace will enlighten, in some sense, our dialogue of hope."
"The unfathomable light of the Church's other lung will illumine today's great hope for peace."
"The unprecedented depth of our elder brothers in the Faith will further the cause of acceptance of the Church's dialogue of hope."
"The renewing mystery of modern life will deepen , in some sense, our solidarity."
Inspiring words from the late Holy Father Pope John Paul II?
Not quite.
Those are phrases produced by the Pope John Paul II Random Speech Generator.
Boy, I could click that button all day. Good stuff, fellas.
Zenit has a brief interview with French Cardinal Albert Vanhoye on the Sacred Heart and Humility. Cardinal Vanhoye is a Jesuit who was created a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in this year's conclave.
A snip:
Cardinal Vanhoye: The Pope wished to underline the anniversary forcefully precisely with a message because the Society of Jesus was always active in promoting this fundamental devotion, above all thanks to the Apostleship of Prayer and to its proposal of spirituality not at all sentimental but which involves the whole of human existence.
Now in the encyclical Deus Caritas Est, Benedict XVI speaks several times of the pierced side and of the Heart of Jesus, true source of love. It is clear also in the Pope's words that the devotion to the Sacred Heart cannot stay only with the humanity of Jesus, precisely because the latter is expression of the love of God for the world that can be experienced and therefore witnessed only by looking at that pierced side.
Journalist and long time St. Blogger Robert Duncan has a great article about the World Meeting of Families over at Spero news.
From the Vatican press office:
In particular, the Supreme Pontiff hopes that prayers will be raised to the Lord for an immediate cease-fire between the sides, for humanitarian corridors to be opened in order to bring help to the suffering peoples, and for reasonable and responsible negotiations to begin to put an end to objective situations of injustice that exist in that region, as already indicated by Pope Benedict XVI at the Angelus last Sunday, July 16.
In reality, the Lebanese have the right to see the integrity and sovereignty of their country respected, the Israelis, the right to live in peace in their state, and the Palestinians have the right to have their own free and sovereign homeland.
At this sorrowful moment, His Holiness also makes an appeal to charitable organizations to help all the people struck by this pitiless conflict.
I wish the Carmelites of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles (at least one of whom I know visits here on occasion) as well as all those consecrated and/or devoted to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, including all who wear the brown scapular, a joyous and blessed (though belated) feast day. The feast fell yesterday, Sunday July 16. For most of us the feast was trumped by the weekly celebration of the Lord's resurrection, but I'm sure there were good times in Alhambra.
Here are the words of the Holy Father before and after praying the Angelus on this feast of Our Lady:
The most famous of these men of God was the great prophet Elias, who in the 9th century before Christ, courageously defended the purity of the faith in the one true God from contamination by idolatrous cults. Inspired in the figure of Elias, the contemplative order of Carmelites arose, a religious family that counts among its members great saints such as Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of the Child Jesus and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (in the world, Edith Stein).
The Carmelites have spread in the Christian people devotion to the Most Holy Virgin of Mount Carmel, pointing to her as a model of prayer, contemplation and dedication to God. Mary, in fact, before and in an unsurpassable way, believed and felt that Jesus, the incarnate Word, is the culmination, the summit of man's encounter with God.
Fully accepting the Word, "she happily reached the holy mountain" (Prayer of the Collect of the Memorial), and lives forever, in soul and body, with the Lord. To the Queen of Mount Carmel I wish to commend today all the communities of contemplative life spread throughout the world, especially those of the Carmelite Order, among which I remember the convent of Quart, not far from here. May Mary help every Christian to meet God in the silence of prayer.
[After the Angelus, the Holy Father said the following words:]
In recent days the news from the Holy Land is a reason for new and grave concern for all, in particular because of the spread of warlike actions also in Lebanon, and because of the numerous victims among the civilian population. At the origin of these cruel oppositions there are, sadly, objective situations of violation of law and justice. But neither terrorist acts nor reprisals, especially when they entail tragic consequences for the civilian population, can be justified. By such paths, as bitter experiences shows, positive results are not achieved.
This day is dedicated to the Virgin of Carmel, Mount of the Holy Land that, a few kilometers from Lebanon, dominates the Israeli city of Haifa, the latter also recently hit. Let us pray to Mary, Queen of Peace, to implore from God the fundamental gift of concord, bringing political leaders back to the path of reason, and opening new possibilities of dialogue and agreement. In this perspective I invite the local Churches to raise special prayers for peace in the Holy Land and in the whole of the Middle East.
The editors of Adoremus get a little snarky:
Forty-three years after the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council approved the Constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, which permitted use of vernacular languages at Mass;
On a very slightly more productive note (if you're a liturgy nerd), Adoremus also has a transcript of the USCCB debate leading up to the vote that approved the new liturgy translations, as well as the text of the widely-praised address by Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds, England, Chairman of ICEL, that preceded the debate.
The book, expected to be completed by the end of the summer, focuses on Jesus, the human race and Christianity's relationship with other faiths.
The work, which Benedict started before becoming pope in April 2005, comes at a time when he seeks to restore a strong sense of faith among Catholics in the face of growing secularism and competition form other religions, including Islam.
John Bambenek has a post on the new HPV vaccine, recently approved and soon to be distrubuted to 12-year old girls in your local middle school. This reminds me of something else I heard on that On Point show I blogged about earlier this week.
The vaccine targets strains of HPV that are known to lead to cervical cancer. The vaccine is thus being touted by some as a "cancer vaccine." The problem is that it only prevents about 70% of cancer-causing HPV strains, and its effectiveness is in such doubt that Janet Gilsdorf, Chair of the HPV Working Group for the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices says an 11 or 12 year old girl receiving the vaccine will hace her chance of getting cervical cancer decreased by 20-66%.
Now, yeah sure 20% less cancer is good. But how many times have you heard this figure mentioned? Isn't it a little disingenuous to tout a "cancer vaccine" whose effectiveness could be as low as 20%? How many young girls receiving this vaccine will have an unjustified sense of being protected from this virus and from cervical cancer?
A real argument can be made that this vaccine will do more harm than goodUnfortunately, there's no way to quantify a "false sense of security," so we'll never know and proponents will continue to paint people with real concerns about this as puritanical fascists while they go on encouraging teenage kids to live in a fantasy land of consequence-free sex.
After writing last night's post, I guess I should write what I actually think about Crunchy Cons: I didn't like it all that much.
I know that may be hard to believe considering this post below, but bear with me. Rod Dreher put his finger on a real problem with modern American culture, especially among those with more traditional values: many of us preach certain virtues but we do not understand that the way we live our lives undermines those very virtues.
So far so good, the problem is that Dreher's book is terribly argued and too full of his own life story, holding it up as the ideal. He says repeatedly that he and his family are not perfect and that you don't have to be Rod Dreher to be virtuous, but his constant self-reference and didactic tone are grating. I found myself skimming paragraphs and keeping track of the authors he cites so I can read their work instead.
Politically, Dreher's mistake is in conflating conservatives with Republican party elites. That's a fight I don't care too much about, but it's worth pointing out that the two are not the same. Different parts of Rod's critique apply to each of those groups, and when he says "mainstream conservatives" do such and such, or don't do such and such (like, say, mainstream conservatives don't breasteed), you have to wonder if this comes from his experience in Republican-elite circles as part of his career as a big-city newspaper editor and is not exactly the way things look in, say, Alabama.
So, let's leave all of that aside, and get to what the reader should take away from the book. American culture is too mindless, and needs to be more reflective. Free market: good. Increased food production capabilities: good. Rapid development of technology and the ability to communicate globally, instantly: good. The unquestioned and usually use of these relatively recent (in the sense of the broad history of man) developments in a way that (usually unintentionally) destroys families, culture and lives: not so good.
The disheartening thing about reading Dreher's critics is the frequent denial that our every day decisions have a moral dimension and their corresponding assertions that the way we shop, eat and live are simply matters of taste. Unfortunately, the tone of Crunchy Cons opens up Dreher to the charge that the lifestyle he espouses is only accessible to rich urban elites, but the truth is that everybody is capable of making sacrifices for the sake of being a better person and to support and build a better culture and community.
But here, we have to qualify in a way that Dreher does not - at least not sufficiently: many people simply cannot, or perceive that they cannot, make different choices, and to criticize them for it is wrong as well as futile. Some people really can't afford free-range chicken and grass-fed beef. Some people think they need to live in a suburban subdivision to keep their families safe. These people are doing their best to make life work and do what's right by their families in their daily circumstances, and calling them greedy, hypocritical or unserious is not helpful. Unfortunately, Dreher comes off as hostile to normal people who are simply trying to make sense out of a crazy-a** world, when he should have concentrated more on the unintented consequences on the choices they - and all of us - make.
Crunchy Cons is a call to reflect seriously on the everyday choices we make in how we shop, what we eat, how we educate our children. It's an argument that seemingly small decisions have personal, cosmic and cultural ramifications. Not everybody needs to homeschool and not everybody needs to eat organic vegetables, but no parent should unquestioningly entrust their child's education to the state and no consumer should be ignorant of the nutritious and agricultural costs of modern farming and food industry. Not everybody will make the decision to go organic or vegetarian, but some will find a desire to support their local family farmers in some small way, or will decide to be more vigilant about putting transfats and chemicals into their bodies.
Even though Crunchy Cons fails as a manifesto, the underlying call to strive to make moral choices and to make a conscious effort to build and support the local community is a message America needs to hear. I just wish somebody else would make the case.
Not to be forgotten amidst the coverage of the Pope's visit last week to Valencia, Spain for the 5th World Meeting of Families was the theological congress that preceded it.
Here is Zenit's coverage of the opening proceedings.
"In my judgment, the most emblematic event of this obscuring is that on Jan. 18, 2006, with 468 votes in favor, 149 opposed and 41 abstentions, the European Parliament approved a resolution which calls for equating homosexual couples with those of man and woman and condemns as homophobic those states and countries that are opposed to the recognition of gay couples," lamented Cardinal Caffarra.
More coverage:
- From Zenit: Cardinal Dziwisz: Cardinal Dziwisz on "John Paul II, Pope of the Family and of Life"
- From Zenit: The work of movements in supporting families
- From Zenit: Panel on "Ecumenism and the Family"
- From Zenit: Conclusion: "The family is subjected to an unprecedented crisis"
- From Fides - news service of the Church's missionary congregation: "The family that hands on the faith is a guarantee of hope for the future of the Church and humanity"
- From Fides: Summary of first day's proceedings
- From Catholic News Agency: Cardinal Re: Faith is greatest inheritance parents can leave their children
- From Catholic News Agency: More Dziwisz on JP2
- From Catholic News Agency: Request to recognize traditional marriage
- From Catholic News Agency: Summary of address by Christian Life movement founder
- Jennifer Roback Morse was a guest speaker at the Congress. She did some blogging (1, 2, 3, 4) from Valencia at the Acton Institute's Power Blog and wrote this column. She will eventually be posting her full speech on her website.
In light of certain people boasting this week about the decreased budget deficit, I have to give it to them: only this President and this Congress could spend us into a record deficit and then brag about cutting it with a straight face. Thanks, boys!
...you hear is the simultaneous explosion of the heads of NEA officials.
Apparently, this man is not interested in his plan going anywhere. Education reform is rarely achieved by jabbing at teachers' eyes with a sharp stick.
He does make some good points, but I don't know if more institutional schooling is exactly what American children need.
Or just d***n good luck?
Live Science: Moms Prefer Smell of Their Own Baby's Poop
In a new study, 13 mothers were asked to sniff soiled diapers belonging to both their own child and others from an unrelated baby. The women consistently ranked the smell of their own child's feces as less revolting than that of other babies.
This effect persisted even when the diapers were purposely mislabeled.
One possible explanation is that the mothers were simply more accustomed to their their baby's stink and therefore found it less repulsive. A more intriguing possibility, the researchers say, is that the mothers' reactions are an evolutionary adaptation allowing them to overcome their natural disgust so that they can properly care for their babies.
Hat-tip to the Family Scholars Blog.
"I was raised by a wonderful conservative Catholic family and we did not promote sexual promiscuity... I had a handful of partners, and I'm stunned that I have this virus. I don't know how I got it or by who because I had so few partners."
Sigh. I mean no harm to this woman. She is in a very difficult situation, and I hope her mistake doesn't prove to be fatal, but this kind of statement reveals the naivete that's been hammered into our young people's heads by the "safe-sex" crowd.
Later in the show, we get to hear Katha Pollitt opine about how "disturbing" it is that some parents have an "obsession with keeping young people away from sex."
Anthony Sacramone embarrasses First Things by blogging a nonsensical diatribe against Rod Dreher's book, Crunchy Cons, that could only have been penned by an urban intellectual snob.
He starts by granting the entire premise of Crunchy Cons:
Gee, is that another way of saying that total immersion in modern consumerist culture has side effects we don't realize? I believe that's the major theme of Crunchy Cons. Apparently Mr. Sacramone must only be angry that Rod Dreher drew conclusions from those premises.
He then goes on to rant about how great the city is because there, "cultural barbarities do us all the favor of advertising the Fall without our having to read about all those 'begats' once again," and how the virtues of the rural life are overrated because "Farmer Jones" practices the same vices as city dwellers, just "on smaller luxuries, more primitive needs, and stockier women."
Fair enough, but Dreher himself lives in Dallas, Texas, which if I recall from the seven-hour layover I had there last month, ain't exactly Smallville. Again, the actual argument in the book is not that you have to go back to the farm to live a moral life, but that modern culture's disdain for the rural life says something not nice about the culture (something on partial display in Scaparone's post, btw). Yes, Rod offers praise to those who strike out to the country seeking a way to make a calmer, more peaceful life for themselves. He does not prescribe this for everybody.
Then comes the obligatory hypocrisy slam that all Crunchy Cons critics throw out:
Once, again, let's remember the actual point of the book. All modern technology is not bad; unquestioning acceptance of it and the unchecked desire to accumulate more of it is. There is nothing inherently wrong with the Internet, but humanity is not served by a complete mechanization and digitalization of culture and the resulting disintegration of community. Has anybody seriously engaged that argument? Scarpone doesn't.
The most remarkable part of this rant, however, is the concluding two paragraphs. First, more backhanded slaps at stupid country bumpkins:
So what is the great virtue of the city? What is it about New York that you just can't find in Watseka?
Brace yourselves:
Yes, humility is the great urban virtue. Humility spurred by the virtues of greed and envy. Scarpone has just spent 800 words ridiculing stupid, racist, backwards yokels of "Hicksville" with their "stockier women," "bib overalls," and "gross habits masquerading as traditions" so he can preach the virtue of humility.
All this, yet not one word about the book that Rod Dreher wrote.
Hidden camera catches mice on airplane.
OK, ick factor aside. here's the scary part:
"If they shorted themselves and caused a fire, it would go through that cabin so fast, we could have lost some lives," said the whistleblower...
On May 5, 2006, a caller reported a mouse infestation. The complaint went on to say that mice chewed through two wires. The caller alleged American Airlines was doing nothing about eradicating the mice.
On May 10, 2006, a caller reported that mice were building nests near the oxygen generators.
The whistleblower said, "Anywhere from 900 to 1,000 (mice) could be on this aircraft."
How many ways can we make air travel terrifying?
Regina Marie, do not read this post.
Well, it's been a while since I've had something about the boys up here, so here's a little anecdote for you.
As with many toddlers, Matthew seems to grasp "b" words fastest. Words like, to grab three at random, baby, bump and the name of a friend of ours, who for privacy's sake I'll call "Betty."
Well, Betty is pregnant, and since Matthew loves babies, we told him she was having a baby. Oh how happy he was that day! "Betty, Betty, Betty, baby, baby, baby!" he repeated all day.
And then we made a mistake. We told him that BeTTY (thanks Lisa) was going to have a "baby bump" because her and her husband, who I'll call Jim, were having a baby.
You see a bump, to my son, is when you run into something, or fall and hit your head. A small mound is not a bump to him yet.
So how did this information process in his mind?
Well, first he was knocking himself on the head saying "Betty, bump baby."
No, we explained, Jim and Betty are having a baby... baby bump, etc.
Well, after some more mental wheel-turning, Matthew's final conclusion was that Jim had somehow "bumped" Betty and now she's pregnant.
And that, my friends, is how a euphemism is born.
All right, it's war dangit.
I hereby call upon the north side to take up arms and storm the south side with violent fury.
Carlos Zambrano whacked on pitching arm with bat by White Sox coach.
What? We don't have enough problems?
Or as one of the Cub Reporters put it: "Next up on the Cubs injury front, Aramis Ramirez gets nailed by an anvil after rounding second base."
Prompted by NPR's intrepid reporting, I performed my own investigation.
The answer? Here they are!
Oh, no wait, here they are!
Ooh look, I found some more!
Catholic author Regina Doman, who wrote our favorite gift for expecting parents, lost her four year old son yesterday. Please say a prayer for her family and for the repose of Joshua Michael's soul.
Here's a quick roundup of coverage of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Valencia, Spain to close the 5th World Meeting of Families.
- The Vatican website has the texts of the Holy Father's addresses. Some snips from the major addresses appear at the end of this post.
- Estimates on attendance at the Sunday Mass range from several hundred thousand to 1.5 million. Spanish president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was conspicuously though not exactly surprisingly absent from the Mass. The whole world knows where his sympathies rest, and he felt no need to make a show otherwise.
- In addition to the major addresses, the Pope made a stop to lay a wreath at the site of last week's train cash that killed 41 people earlier. The Pope later met with families of victims of the crash and prayed an Our Father with them. Here's a particularly moving picture of that encounter.
- The best pictures of the trip I've found are here. Most of the pics are screen captures posted by devoted Benedict fans.
- John Allen was in Valencia for the Holy Father's visit, and as always provides detailed coverage. His reports can be found here and here.
- Click on the link below for excerpts of the Holy Father's major addresses. Better yet, click here and read 'em all.
From his address upon arrival on Saturday, July 8th:
From a letter to the Spanish Bishops, delivered at the Cathedral Basilica of the "Virgen de los Desamparados" - Virgin of the Forlorn:
From his address at the Saturday night prayer vigil to close the Meeting:
This Fifth World Meeting invites us to reflect on a theme of particular importance, one fraught with great responsibility: the transmission of faith in the family. This theme is nicely expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "As a mother who teacher her children to speak and so to understand and communicate, the Church our Mother teaches us the language of faith in order to introduce us to the understanding and the life of faith" (No. 171).
This is symbolically in the liturgy of Baptism: with the handing over of the lighted candle, the parents are made part of the mystery of new life as children of God given to their sons and daughters in the waters of baptism.
To hand down the faith to children, with the help of individuals and institutions like the parish, the school or Catholic associations, is a responsibility which parents cannot overlook, neglect or completely delegate to others. "The Christian family is called the domestic church because the family manifests and lives out the communal and familiar nature of the Church as the family of God. Each family member, in accord with his or her own role, exercises the baptismal priesthood and contributes towards making the family a community of grace and of prayer, a school of human and Christian virtues, and the place where the faith is first proclaimed to children" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Compendium, 350). And what is more: "Parents, in virtue of their participation in the fatherhood of God, have the first responsibility for the education of their children and they are the first heralds of the faith for them. They have the duty to love and respect their children as persons and as children of God... in particular, they have the mission of educating their children in the Christian faith" (ibid, 460)....
Children need to be brought up in the faith, to be loved and protected. Along with their basic right to be born and to be raised in the faith, children also have the right to a home which takes as its model the home of Nazareth, and to be shielded from all dangers and threats.
From Sunday morning's homily:
To help us advance along the path of human maturity, the Church teaches us to respect and foster the marvellous reality of the indissoluble marriage between man and woman which is also the origin of the family. To recognize and assist this institution is one of the greatest services which can be rendered nowadays to the common good and to the authentic development of individuals and societies, as well as the best means of ensuring the dignity, equality and true freedom of the human person.
Yes, I'm a native English speaker whose second best language is French, but Spanish is in my blood and I can't help but wonder if the Knights of Columbus would be a greater draw (not that they're suffering now) if they were known by their organizations's Spanish name of Los Caballeros de Colón. And surely, wouldn't Carl Anderson rather be known as El Caballero Supremo rather than the somewhat KKK-ish sounding Supreme Knight.
The UK Tablet and Robert Duncan at Spero News (originally published in the National Catholic Register) both take a look at this weekend's papal trip to the World Meeting of Families in light of the Spain's socialist government's progressive social agenda.
Some snips from Duncan's piece:
...
[T}he socialist government — which came to power in March 2004 — [has promoted] a litany of legislation that clashes with Church teaching. Such measures include the passing of same-sex “marriage� legislation, fast-track divorces, reform of religious education, embryonic stem-cell research funding and suggestions that abortion laws could be eased.
...
Less than two weeks prior to the kickoff of the World Meeting of Families, Spain’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs promoted another “family� congress being held in Valencia. The gathering, intended to highlight “diverse� forms of families, is sponsored by the State Federation of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transsexuals and by the Union of Family Associations, chaired by Maria del Carmen Toledano Rico, a Socialist Party politician from the town of Galapagar.
...
The Catholic citizen activist website Hazteoir (Make Yourself Heard) claims the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs contributed more than 300,000 euros last year to similar alternative lifestyle meetings.
While Duncan focuses on the struggle between Spanish Catholics and the Spanish government, the Tablet portrays the situation as a "showdown" between the Pope and the Spanish governement. The unsigned Tablet piece (perhaps written by Robert Mickens) speculates that recent statements by the Pope and by the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, may have shifted attention away from the theme of the meeting, "Transmission of the Faith in the Family" and towards a more general "culture war" (my term, not the Tablet's) against the Spanish government.
Despite this claim, we can expect that Pope Benedict's major addresses in Spain will stick to the the passing on of the faith while saving the politics for his meeting with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero. It would be greatly underestimating the Pope to think he's going to let politics overshadow this event. That said, it would not be suprising for him to connect the importance of handing down the truths of faith to the handing down of the truth about the human person from one generation to the next and to point to that as the vehicle for social renewal.
The Tablet also notes that two Spanish Catholic theologians have "signed a petition protesting against the Spanish Government’s sanctioning and partial funding of the religious event. They have opposed it on the ground that the Vatican 'imposes a model of the family based on exclusion'."
A commenter asks:
Why & when did they change it?
Short answer:
WHY: To encourage fuller participation in the Mass by Catholics.
WHEN: After the Second vatican Council.
I sorta knew the answer off the top of my head, but thinking about it made me realize it's been a long time since I read any of the Church's liturgy documents, so just for fun, I decided to reseach a slightly more thorough answer.
Long answer:
From the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sancrosanctum Concilium, (herafter SC).
The dogmatic principles which were laid down by the Council of Trent remaining intact (40), communion under both kinds may be granted when the bishops think fit, not only to clerics and religious, but also to the laity, in cases to be determined by the Apostolic See, as, for instance, to the newly ordained in the Mass of their sacred ordination, to the newly professed in the Mass of their religious profession, and to the newly baptized in the Mass which follows their baptism.
The paragraph above doesn't state a reason for allowing Communions under both species, but it appears as one of several revisions that aimed to foster a fuller, more active inward and outward participation in the mass by the people. As SC puts it:
Under this reasoning, it is desirable to receive both the consecrated bread and wine as a fuller participation in the Eucharist, symbolically speaking, even if only permitted in limited circumstances.
We also see in SC 55 that the Council encouraged the reception under both species with a reference to the Council Trent's dogmatic principles. What are those principles?
From The Council of Trent's Doctrine on Communion under Both Species:
CANON II.—If any one saith, that the holy Catholic Church was not induced, by just causes and reasons, to communicate, under the species of bread only, laymen, and also clerics when not consecrating; let him be be anathema.
CANON III.—If any one denieth, that Christ whole and entire—the fountain and author of all graces—is received under the one species of bread; because that—as some falsely assert—He is not received, according to the institution of Christ himself, under both species; let him be anathema.
So Trent was concerned with the truths of faith that Christ is wholly present - body, blood, soul and divinity as the saying goes - in each species, and that one need not receive both species to receive Christ fully.
So a strict application of SC would only allow communion under both forms in very limited circumstances. However, the key here is that the circumstances are up to the bishop to determine based on guidelines from the Vatican. So what are the Vatican's guidelines?
From the current General Instruction on the Roman Missal (GIRM) (The GIRM is a sort of an instruction book on an instruction book, providing further explanations and instructions on the prayers and actions in the Roman Missal, which is a more bare-bones text that pretty much says what to say or do and when to say or do it.) Emphasis mine:
281. Holy Communion has a fuller form as a sign when it is distributed under both kinds. For in this form the sign of the eucharistic banquet is more clearly evident and clear expression is given to the divine will by which the new and eternal Covenant is ratified in the Blood of the Lord, as also the relationship between the Eucharistic banquet and the eschatological banquet in the Father's Kingdom.105
282. Sacred pastors should take care to ensure that the faithful who participate in the rite or are present at it are as fully aware as possible of the Catholic teaching on the form of Holy Communion as set forth by the Ecumenical Council of Trent. Above all, they should instruct the Christian faithful that the Catholic faith teaches that Christ, whole and entire, and the true Sacrament, is received even under only one species, and consequently that as far as the effects are concerned, those who receive under only one species are not deprived of any of the grace that is necessary for salvation.106
They are to teach, furthermore, that the Church, in her stewardship of the Sacraments, has the power to set forth or alter whatever provisions, apart from the substance of the Sacraments, that she judges to be most conducive to the veneration of the Sacraments and the well-being of the recipients, in view of changing conditions, times, and places.107 At the same time, the faithful should be encouraged to seek to participate more eagerly in this sacred rite, by which the sign of the Eucharistic banquet is made more fully evident.
283. In addition to those cases given in the ritual books, Communion under both kinds is permitted for
The deacon and others who perform some duty at the Mass;
Members of communities at the conventual Mass or "community" Mass, along with seminarians, and all who are engaged in a retreat or are taking part in a spiritual or pastoral gathering.
The Diocesan Bishop may establish norms for Communion under both kinds for his own diocese, which are also to be observed in churches of religious and at celebrations with small groups. The Diocesan Bishop is also given the faculty to permit Communion under both kinds whenever it may seem appropriate to the priest to whom, as its own shepherd, a community has been entrusted, provided that the faithful have been well instructed and there is no danger of profanation of the Sacrament or of the rite's becoming difficult because of the large number of participants or some other reason.
In all that pertains to Communion under both kinds, the Norms for the Distribution and Reception of Holy Communion under Both Kinds in the Dioceses of the United States of America are to be followed (see nos. 27-54).
So the norms from the Holy See can be seen as encouraging a more robust interpretation of SC, which is why we now see so many Catholic parishes regularly distributing the Eucharist under both forms. But again, we see a warning not to let the doctrine of Christ's real and complete presence in each single species be confused or forgotten. We also see here a reference to the logistical problems of Communion under both kinds.
There is, as with so many other things, a divide among Catholics over this issue. Many Catholics appreciate the fuller symbolism of receiving the Eucharist as the Apostles and early Church did: in both species.
On the other hand, many tradition-minded Catholics see the normalization of reception of both species as a blurring of the theological doctrine of Trent which is still the doctrine of the Catholic Church: that Jesus is present entirely when you receive simply the bread.
There are also the logistical considerations referenced in the GIRM. For example: estimating how much wine is needed, managing the length of time it takes to distribute, and taking care to treat the consecrated wine with the reverence due to God.
Personally, although I enjoy receiving under both forms and appreciate the opportunity when it arises, I have a deep sympathy for the doctrine argument. it's hard to imagine that most Catholics understand that they are not "missing out" on something other than symbolism when they only receive under one species.
Whatever my or anybody else's opinions may be, it seems clear that the instruction in GIRM 282 about the need for catechesis on the truths of the Eucharist is one that sorely needs attention.
The post two down from here, about the "new" Communion vessel rules, is drawing tons of hits from Bird Flu News site.
Apparently, that post makes this one of "The-Best-Bird-Flu-Blogs: The most Informative, interesting & controversial, Avian Flu, H5N1 Blogs."
Either there are not very many H5N1 blogs out there or perhaps BirdFluBreakingNews.com isn't the best source for all your bird-flu needs.
Not that I don't appreciate the traffic, I guess...
Andrew Sullivan once again runs into the brick wall that is Ramesh Ponnuru.
Ramesh comes out on top, again, though Sullivan does make in an interesting point here.
via CWN's Off theRecord.
This is a stale piece from May, but I haven't seen it around much:
Zenit has a report of a Mass celebrating 70 years of priesthood for Father Marie-Dominique Philippe, founder of the Community of St. John. For Peoria folks, that's the same Brothers of St. John who have a priory in Princeville. The Community's website can be found here and the US Website is here.
I was poking around the webpages, and it seems Fr. Antoine of the Illinois group has several books published - primarily aimed at cultivating devotion to the Eucharist amoung children - that may be worth checking out.
The Spanish bishops are getting with the times.
The Spanish bishops conference has set up a blog (Spanish only, sorry) where the bishops will be live-blogging the World Meeting of Families.
As a reminder, the homepage of the meeting - whose theme is "Transmission of the Faith in the Family" - can be found here.