Why Reform the LCWR? Let Me Count The Ways

Key among them, of course, is the fact that Sister Laurie was spot on in her analysis of the ways the many different congregations of religious women have taken since Vatican II. Terry Mattingly sums it up. Excerpts (with my emphases):

During this era of crisis and decline, some Catholic religious orders have chosen to enter a time of “sojourning” that involves “moving beyond the church, even beyond Jesus,” Sinsinawa Dominican Sister Laurie Brink told a 2007 national gathering of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

A Spirituality For Diplomats, Middle Managers, and Bureaucrats

Go to the tabernacle in your parish, keeping in mind that you are going to sit with the King of kings.  Turn all your skill at relating to people in his direction, knowing that this King is particular--he hides his face behind the appearance of bread and wine.  Fortunately, there are a number of images of the King around on which to meditate, some crafted at the instruction of the people who are good friends of the King and are close to him, so you can bring to mind some image of the King while you sit and spend time with him.

Bring with you the message from the King to the world, the Bible composed at his inspiration, a work incarnating the divine Word in the words of many human authors across many times and places.  Read the message of the King while in his presence and receive what he wishes to give you--himself, his personality, his life, his love.  Think over the message of the King carefully.  Hold it in front of the eye of your mind, and work at seeing the world through his perspective, just as you must do with your interlocutors every day.

Who Are You Who Are So Wise In The Ways Of Science!?

An example of the sort of scientific reasoning which gives us the notion that a human embryo is not a human being.  On the issue of when a human life begins, I tend to side with the scientists.  Excerpts follow:

"Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm (spermatozoo developmentn) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual."

"A zygote is the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo)."

Keith L. Moore, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 7th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2003. pp. 16, 2.

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday!

What is the message of Divine Mercy Sunday? The Marians of the Immaculate Conception explain.  Excerpts:

...According to the Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, Jesus Christ made a special promise, which she was to communicate to the whole world:

My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy(Diary, 699).

Archbishop Tutu and Gonzaga's Commencement Exercises

The controversy over Archbishop Tutu at Gonzaga has come up several times recently in conversation with friends and family, so I figured I'd post this here.

First off, of course, he's a tremendous figure on the world stage, and I am a relatively innocuous blogger, so there's a certain temerity in commenting in the first place.  But I think there's a reason for this controversy.

The Supreme Court, Judicial Independence, And Mixed Messages

Okay, so this pretends to be a piece calling for measures to ensure the Court is not biased over the long term because some President has stacked the deck with ideological appointees.  And then the proposed solution would make it possible for Presidents to stack the deck with ideological appointees.  Excerpts:

...Every two years the president would appoint a new justice to the court, but only the nine most junior justices, by years of service, would sit and decide every case.

The rest would then act as a sort of “bench” team, sitting on cases as needed because of the disability or disqualification of one of the junior justices. These senior justices might also help decide which of the thousands of petitions the court receives each year should be fully considered, vote on procedural rulemaking, and perhaps sit on occasional cases presented to lower circuit courts.

In short, our proposal would revise the job of a justice to a more human scale and perhaps make the court less likely to impose erratic political preferences on the citizens it governs...

Yeah.  Because nothing could possibly go wrong with a President appointing a new justice every two years.  In no way would this enable any President to stack the Court in favor of their policies.  At.  All.

Exorcism: The Docudrama

This looks interesting:

Happy Easter!

Hear Peter testify! Excerpts:

...Dear brothers and sisters! If Jesus is risen, then – and only then – has something truly new happened, something that changes the state of humanity and the world. Then he, Jesus, is someone in whom we can put absolute trust; we can put our trust not only in his message but in Jesus himself, for the Risen One does not belong to the past, but is present today, alive. Christ is hope and comfort in a particular way for those Christian communities suffering most for their faith on account of discrimination and persecution. And he is present as a force of hope through his Church, which is close to all human situations of suffering and injustice...

Christ Descended Into Hell

on Holy Saturday.  Excerpts:

What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.

Good Friday

A bit from C. S. Lewis.  Excerpts:

God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. He creates the universe, already foreseeing - or should we say 'seeing'? there are no tenses in God - the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven through the mesial nerves, the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops, the repeated torture of back and arms as it is time after time, for breath's sake, hitched up. If I may dare the biological image, God is 'host' who deliberately creates His own parasites; causes us to be that we may exploit and 'take advantage of' Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves. - The Four Loves.

Constitutional Law Professor: Supreme Court Overturning Law "Unprecedented Extraordinary" Step

Really?

President Obama: "Ultimately, I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected congress."

Really?

WSJ: "The vote actually was close—it passed with 60 votes in the Senate, just achieving the supermajority needed to overcome a Republican filibuster, and by 219-212 in the House.

Desecration Days

Well.  This is both vile and, oddly, seems symbolic during Holy Week.  Excerpts:

...Every case seems to go according to the same script, with the underlying signature of followers of the occult: sacristies cracked open by the tools of thieves, the theft of containers of hosts, tabernacles split in two.