Via Open Book:
Former Boston seminary rector criticizes Archdiocese
On his way out the door, the departing rector of St. John's Seminary sent a pair of blistering letters to church officials, alleging that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is endangering the future training of priests by letting theological liberals move in next door.
The Rev. John A. Farren, a conservative and occasionally controversial Dominican friar, warned in the letters last month that the "doctrinal integrity" of St. John's is at risk because of increased proximity to two Jesuit-run Catholic institutions, Boston College and Weston Jesuit School of Theology, which are expected to move into buildings currently held by the seminary.
Farren did not cite specific issues, saying only that Weston Jesuit employs "self-professed gays or lesbians" as faculty members and that several faculty members there have been questioned by the Vatican.
Weston Jesuit and Boston College are generally considered liberal institutions open to a wider range of theological views than St. John's. Under Farren's leadership, several members of the seminary faculty perceived as liberal were ousted.
(click on the link to read the rest)
Fr. Farren's info (from the SJS faculty page)
(alt)
Tomorrow's the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is on Saturday). Info over at EWTN. It is a traditional devotion of the Jesuits. (After all, one of the spiritual directors of St. Margaret Mary Alocoque was a Jesuit, St. Claude de la Colombière.)
The Western Confucian links to the following:
Yet another dietary mantra is gaining traction across Vermont -- "eat local" -- as more and more people are expanding their vegetable gardens, buying directly from farmers, and trying to relearn food preservation techniques that most Vermonters have long since forgotten.
All of which raises obvious questions:
-- Could Vermont really feed itself?
-- In a state where the ground is frozen four months a year, how realistic is it to try to "eat local" once the summer growing season is over?
-- What about all those staples -- wheat and other grains, for example -- that are barely grown in Vermont at all?
The answers are nuanced and speculative, depending on who's talking, but no less surprising for that.
The anthologies of the catecheses that have been delivered to the members of the Neocatechumenal communities have for many years been under examination by the Vatican authorities, but their definitive approval still seems a long way off.
These texts, contained in multiple volumes under the title “Cammino Neocatecumenale. Orientamenti alle équipes dei catechisti [The Neocatechumenal Way: Guidelines for the Teams of Catechists],” collect the oral tradition of the movement’s initiators, and in particular of Kiko and Carmen Hernández. They are not public, and the Vatican congregation for the doctrine of the faith has made their approval dependant upon a lengthy series of corrections.
There are other reservations about the ways in which the liturgy is celebrated in the Way.
In the wake of September 11th, Paul supported the authority and the funding to go after Osama bin Laden. "What I did not support," he said, "was going into nation-building and the occupation of two Muslim countries, and then allowing bin Laden to go into Pakistan -- a country that is our ally and we send money to." At the time, what Paul actually wanted instead of war was for Congress to grant Letters of Marquee and Reprisal, a Constitutional decree that would have allowed private sources or bounty hunters to pursue bin Laden.Or Dog the Bounty Hunter? haha
Lower down on the socio-economic ladder, "them that hasn't, gitteth not." People on the lower rungs of society don't own shares in financial companies, they don't go to Harvard Business School, and they don't have million-dollar stamp collections. What they do have is debt - and they have a lot of it.
As long as house prices were rising and interest rates were going down, debt was no problem. The lumpen could refinance at lower rates and end up with more money to spend. But now, house prices are going down and interest rates are moving up.
The latest study, reported in the San Diego paper, tells us that the housing slump will last well into 2008. Even these guys are overly optimistic, in our opinion. "The force of a correction is equal and opposite to the delusion the preceded it," we recall saying. The biggest housing boom in a hundred years is likely to be followed by more than a couple years of bust and more than a 2% or 3% decline, we think.
And the papers seem to agree. The latest news from Bloomberg tells us, "Mortgage default rates rose 90% in May." Of course, June, July, August, September and all the rest are still ahead…
And yesterday, bonds fell again, pushing up the yield on a 10-year Treasury note to 5.24% - bad news for debtors, homeowners, and the housing industry.
The real danger, and the real problem, is this. Democracy - in a world where terrorism is frequent and crime and disorder are serious - can easily become the deadly enemy of freedom and justice. Politicians such as Charles Clarke (who actually ought to know better, since he is an intelligent and knowledgeable person) and John Reid (who is what he looks like) do not hesitate to use the fear of crime, and of terror, to scare the population into accepting the end of Habeas Corpus and the creation of an arbitrary state not seen in this country since the 17th century. It is frightening to see how successful they are.
People go on about how our forebears 'fought' for democracy, and I have to say I see little evidence of that. Politicians have been pretty willing to hand over the vote once they realised how easy it was to manipulate people. But our ancestors certainly fought for liberty under the law. Not far from where I live is the memorial to John Hampden, whose stand against King Charles I was genuinely heroic, and helped secure liberty in this country. Not long afterwards, he died in battle for his beliefs. Yet most people nowadays haven't even heard of him.
Children born to parents who had adopted the so-called civilized diet had crowded and crooked teeth, narrowed faces, deformities of bone structure and reduced immunity to disease.So round faces (and I don't meet chubby faces) are an indicator of health and good nutrition? If in a given population nutrition were healthy, would we see more round faces? And how narrow is narrow? Is it possible to inherit a narrow face? Or is it a product of development? Are there cultures were narrow faces are prized, and if so, are they overvaluing an unhealthy condition? (Much like in our culture, where extreme thinness is put forward by those who have control over fashion and the mass media as the ideal.)
Children of Privilege
October 29, 2006
Some people believe that children who are raised with too much pressure and material advantage are America's new at-risk youth. Rona and guests, Madeline Levine, PhD, author of The Price of Privilege: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Deeply Unhappy Kids, and Elaine Heffner, EdD, Senior Lecturer in the Early Childhood Development Department at Cornell University Weill Medical College, will discuss how a generation of affluent children are experiencing epidemic rates of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.
LISTEN Streaming Audio (64Kbps M3U) DOWNLOAD Entire Program (64Kbps MP3 ZIP 26.9M)
Upcoming Republican presidential debates:
August 5, 2007 - Des Moines, Iowa
ABC News will be conducting a debate to be aired on This Week; moderated by George Stephanopoulos.September 27, 2007 - Baltimore, Maryland
PBS will host a Republican debate in Baltimore, Maryland, on the campus of Morgan State UniversityOctober 14, 2007 - Manchester, New Hampshire
WMUR-TV, ABC News, and the New Hampshire Union Leader will host a Republican debate in Manchester, New HampshireOctober 21, 2007 - Orlando, Florida
The Florida Republican Party and Fox News Channel will host a Republican debate in Orlando, Florida.November 6, 2007 - Ames, Iowa
MSNBC will host a debate on the campus of Iowa State University.January 5, 2008 - Johnson County, Iowa
The Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television will host a Republican debate in Johnson County, IowaJanuary 30, 2008 - Los Angeles, California
The Los Angeles Times and CNN will host a Republican debate in California
Papal Address to Caritas Internationalis
"You Are Called to Spread the Love of God"
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 8, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is Benedict XVI's Saturday address to representatives of Caritas Internationalis, who were having their general assembly in the Vatican.
* * *
Dear Friends,
It is a special joy for me to welcome the participants in the Eighteenth General Assembly of Caritas Internationalis. I extend particular greetings to Doctor Denis Viénot and to the President of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum", Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, thanking them for their kind words a few moments ago. I also offer prayerful best wishes to the newly elected President of the Confederation, Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga. You have all come together in Rome during these days for a significant moment in the life of the Confederation, so that your member organizations can reflect, in an atmosphere of fraternal communion, on the challenges facing you at the present time. Moreover, you have taken important steps shaping your immediate future by electing the major officers of Caritas Internationalis. I am confident that your deliberations during these days have been of great benefit for you personally, for the work of your member organizations worldwide, and for all those you serve.
First of all, let me take this opportunity to thank you for the outstanding witness that your Confederation has given to the world, ever since the founding of the first national Caritas in Germany over a century ago. Since that time, there has been a great proliferation of organizations bearing the name -- on parish, diocesan and national levels -- and these have been gathered, through the initiative of the Holy See, into the Confederation Caritas Internationalis, which today numbers more than 150 national organizations. It was because of the public character of your charitable activity, rooted in the love of God, that my predecessor the Servant of God John Paul II conferred public and canonical legal personality upon Caritas Internationalis through the Pontifical Letter During the Last Supper of 16 September 2004. This status seals your organization’s ecclesial membership, giving it a specific mission within the Church. It means that your Confederation does not simply work on behalf of the Church, but is truly a part of the Church, intimately engaged in the exchange of gifts that takes place on so many levels of ecclesial life. As a sign of the Holy See’s support for your work, Caritas Internationalis has been granted its wish to be accompanied and guided by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.
So what is the particular mission of your Confederation? What aspect of the Church's task falls to you and to your member organizations? You are called, by means of the charitable activity that you undertake, to assist in the Church’s mission to spread throughout the world the love of God that has been "poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit" (Rom 5:5). The very concept of caritas draws us into the heart of Christianity, into the heart of Christ, from which "rivers of living water" flow (cf. Jn 7:38). In the work of charitable organizations like yours, we see the fruits of Christ’s love. I developed this theme in my Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, which I commend to you once more as a reflection on the theological significance of your action in the world. Charity has to be understood in the light of God who is caritas: God who loved the world so much that he gave his only Son (cf. Jn 3:16). In this way we come to see that love finds its greatest fulfilment in the gift of self. This is what Caritas Internationalis seeks to accomplish in the world. The heart of Caritas is the sacrificial love of Christ, and every form of individual and organized charity in the Church must always find its point of reference in him, the source of charity.
This theological vision has practical implications for the work of charitable organizations, and today I should like to single out two of them.
The first is that every act of charity should be inspired by a personal experience of faith, leading to the discovery that God is Love. The Caritas worker is called to bear witness to that love before the world. Christian charity exceeds our natural capacity for love: it is a theological virtue, as Saint Paul teaches us in his famous hymn to charity (cf. 1 Cor 13). It therefore challenges the giver to situate humanitarian assistance in the context of a personal witness of faith, which then becomes a part of the gift offered to the poor. Only when charitable activity takes the form of Christ-like self-giving does it become a gesture truly worthy of the human person created in God’s image and likeness. Lived charity fosters growth in holiness, after the example of the many servants of the poor whom the Church has raised to the dignity of the altars.
The second implication follows closely from the first. God’s love is offered to everyone, hence the Church's charity is also universal in scope, and so it has to include a commitment to social justice. Yet changing unjust structures is not of itself sufficient to guarantee the happiness of the human person. Moreover, as I affirmed recently to the Bishops gathered in Aparecida, Brazil, the task of politics "is not the immediate competence of the Church" (Address to the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, 13 May 2007). Rather, her mission is to promote the integral development of the human person. For this reason, the great challenges facing the world at the present time, such as globalization, human rights abuses, unjust social structures, cannot be confronted and overcome unless attention is focused on the deepest needs of the human person: the promotion of human dignity, well-being and, in the final analysis, eternal salvation.
I am confident that the work of Caritas Internationalis is inspired by the principles that I have just outlined. Throughout the world there are countless men and women whose hearts are filled with joy and gratitude for the service you render them. I wish to encourage each one of you to persevere in your special mission to spread the love of Christ, who came so that all may have life in abundance. Commending all of you to the intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, I am pleased to impart my Apostolic Blessing.
[Original text: English]
© Copyright 2007 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
How is it that questions such as whether abortion is allowed and when, whether homosexuals may marry each other and where, what penalties may be imposed on convicted criminals and when, and who received Florida’s electoral votes in the election of 2000 have been and continue to be decided by federal judges? The short answer is that "constitutional law" – the body of judicial decisions implementing the Constitution – has been off the rails virtually from the beginning. Nationalists in control of the federal judiciary have consistently used their offices to further their personal political ends, all in the name of "interpreting" the Constitution.
The changes they have wrought since 1801, the year Jefferson was inaugurated, have gone far toward eliminating three basic features – republicanism, federalism, and limited government – from the federal system. Sure, there are elections at federal and state (including local) levels, and kids and immigrants still are taught, while soldiers and politicians still must swear, to uphold the Constitution.
My marriage collapsed January 30. It was sudden and complete. I fought hard to save it and did all the things one expects of rejected men. I begged, pleaded and cajoled. I sulked, raged and sought refuge in drink. I became an object of pity by asking my friends the same question my partner refused to answer: Why am I the only one trying to save this relationship?
My marriage collapsed January 30 when I installed Vista, Microsoft’s new operating system. I divorced and remarried February 24 when I bought a new computer. Oh, a computer, you say. Haven’t you over-egged the pudding? What a pathetic fallacy.
Computers are merely metal boxes filled with chips and boards and wires. Computers are cold and rational, not at all like women. Computers are our servants.
No, they are not. They have become our mechanical brides. Having lived half a century, I remember a world before computers. As a writer, I remember when people looked things up in books and scribbled their compositions on paper or bashed them out on typewriters. But that was in another country and besides, the wench is dead.
Under existing circumstances, pursuit of reform through the Presidential election is not very promising, though I do not disparage any effort to increase the clout of anti-imperial forces within the Republican Party. For some years I have, in my amateurish impudence, toyed with the notion of a different strategy. Identify districts for U.S. Representative in which the two parties are closely divided or in which a maverick has a chance. Field articulate, attractive, independent candidates in each of these districts. Some of them might win in a close three-way race.
When the independents get to Washington, their strategy will be to hold the balance of power between the two factions of the Imperial Party. If neither Democrats nor Republicans have a majority, the independents can block the organization of the House and bring the imperial machine to a pause. Then the Powers will have to offer concessions to us anti-imperialists. The independents can disagree on everything else—they can be Greens, Southern nationalists, education decentralists, right-to-lifers, antiwar warriors, as long as they unite against Empire.
The energy independence story appeals to a deeply held belief in American life: Good old American ingenuity can solve any problem.
For those concerned about world peak oil production (and peak natural gas and coal, for that matter), none of the above responses seem adequate or, in some cases, entirely ethical, especially with regard to environmental effects such as global warming. The problems with such responses have been detailed again and again on the web, in specialized publications, and in many places in the mainstream media.
If this is the case, how come the peak oil story and the many warnings about such responses to our energy challenges aren't center stage in the American consciousness? There are plenty of reasons, but I propose to discuss what I think is a critical one: The peak oil movement has been focused mainly on selling a new narrative to the public without first dislodging the existing one. As long as people have faith in the existing official story about achieving American "energy independence" within the framework of a cornucopian future, it will be almost impossible to sell them on another story no matter how carefully constructed and supported.
'Green wall of China' aims to hold back desert
by Charles Whelan
Tue Jun 5, 1:58 AM ET
TAIPUSI, China (AFP) - Officials in Inner Mongolia say they have established a living barrier of trees, grass and shrubs wide enough to hold back the Gobi desert and to curb the sandstorms blowing over northeast Asia and hitting the United States.
Taipusi, one of Inner Mongolia's banners or counties, is at the centre of a project to plant a so-called Green Wall of China, designed to act as a buffer between the expanding desert and Beijing, just 200 kilometres (120 miles) to the south.
Like the original Great Wall, the green wall straddles a patchwork of counties in several northern provinces including arid Hebei and Shanxi.
But unlike the crumbling stone structure, which failed to keep out invading nomads from the north, officials say they believe the new wall will work.
"We are pretty confident it will be effective," Hu Cun, Inner MongoliaÂ’s vice director of forestry, told some 30 journalists invited from Beijing to inspect the work ahead of World Environment Day on Tuesday.
"Already the number of sandstorms has been reduced," he said, saying that from 18 in 2001 the number fell to none this year, a figure disputed by experts who say four sandstorms were recorded in Beijing in March alone.
The barrier is partly designed to help Beijing keep its pledge to stage a green and environmentally friendly Olympics next year, officials said.
A study by US scientists in 2001 found that sand from the Gobi is pushed into the jet stream during storms and whisked across the Pacific to the US, with some found as far inland as Colorado.
"This project will contribute significantly to an improved environment for the Beijing Olympic Games," said Inner Mongolia's information office director Meng Shude.
The journalists were taken to a small hill on the southern edge of the "green wall" from where they could look north towards the desert five kilometres away over a ridge.
Between the hill and the desert were hardy young poplar trees, newly planted Mongolian pine that had yet to grow beyond a metre in height, as well as apricot bushes and grassland.
"This area was in an atrocious state a few years ago," said Zhang Boawen, the deputy mayor of Taipusi, home to 230,000 people, mostly farmers or herdsmen.
One third of the entire land of Inner Mongolia is desert and the sand wilderness has been spreading for decades.
Taipusi county is in Xilongol league, a province of central Inner Mongolia which was once more than 90 percent grassland but is now overrun by the Hunsandake desert, an eastward extension of the Gobi that now claims more than 30 percent of its land.
Most of the rest of the Xilingol grassland is severely distressed by population pressure and over-grazing.
As a result of this and other factors including an extended drought, the desert has been marching southeast at a rate of three kilometres a year heading directly for Beijing. But the expansion has stopped, at least for now, officials say.
"So far we have had some success," said Hu. "The desert is being held back. However, the ecology of this arid land is very delicate and the desert has been expanding for decades. We have just begun our job so we will need more time."
Millions of trees have been planted and grass seeds dropped from airplanes, while herdsmen have been banned from fragile grassland and thousands of families have been relocated from distressed areas.
But sceptics say the root of the problem, overpopulation and unsustainable development, has not been addressed by a narrow corridor of grass and trees.
Jiang Gaoming, of the Institute of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Science, said that 60 billion yuan (7.6 billion dollars) spent on projects to control sandstorms hitting Beijing had been largely wasted.
"Do not get too excited by those recovered grasslands and forests you see alongside the highways. They only cover 10 percent of the total affected area. The other 90 percent causes the continuing sandstorms," said Jiang.
US government experts said progress had been made since the 2001 study. They described Xilingol as a "disaster area."
