In the Texas House Committee on State Affairs rest House Bill 28, a measure that would deny American citizens equal treatment due to their parent's immigration status at the time of their birth.
This is a horrible bill.
HB 28 would restrict from American citizens the ability to be employed by the State or any political subdivision of the State, any loan, grant or license granted by the State (anything from plumber to barber to peace officer), retirement from the State, welfare, food stamps, health care benefits, disability assistance, public housing, public education or unemployment benefits.
The public education aspect includes ALL public education. Pre-K through Higher Education. An American citizen, born and raised in the United States, could not attend a public university or junior college under this law. I don't believe this is what UT wanted when asking for restrictions on the Top 10% law.
Furthermore, there is no end to the penalty. There is no provision allowing benefits after any amount of time. If you're 80 years old, even though you're an American citizen, so be it- the State wouldn't grant you any of what I mentioned above.
Again, this is not referring to undocumented immigrants (or "illegal aliens", whatever you prefer). This bill only applies to the children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States, in other words, American citizens. It is beyond me why anyone would write such a bill that obviously would be found unconstitutional.
I'll be keeping an eye on this and if it goes anywhere, I'll post it on here. Pray that our leaders remember the inherent human dignity of each and every person from all corners of the world and that whatever laws they pass concerning them reflect their understanding of their dignity.
The University of Texas Board of Regents are suing a College Station retailer for trademark violations. The store sells various T-shirts with the UT Longhorn logo with horns that are cut off and hanging next to the head. UT is claiming trademark dilution while the Aggie defense is claiming freedom of expression. Some of the reaction I've heard from the Aggie side of the fence is that UT is bitter about the recent Thanksgiving weekend loss in football or some other school pride issue.
I've exchanged a couple of messages with an Aggie whom I found through a Facebook post. He asked me my thoughts on the lawsuit and mentioned how he feels it is related to the football loss. Earlier in the day, I briefly read through the complaint filed by UT and the response filed by the retailer. I think the Aggies aren't fully aware of our desire for brand purity. My response to his question is below:
Hey,
With the lawsuit, in all honesty, the suits downtown at the System office couldn't care less about the football victory or loss. From a student's perspective, I haven't heard much of anything about it since the Monday sports recap after the game.
The UT System/Board of Regents' office is removed enough from UT-Austin to where a lot of the school pride is removed from the governance from my experience. (One of the volunteers at the church I work for has been a vice chancellor for some time and just stepped down to a "director" of one of the offices at the System complex.) [Don't get me wrong, the UT alumni who work there are proud of UT, but not the same type of pride that A&M alumni seem to posses.]
UT, on the other hand, cares a great deal about branding issues and trademark dilution. We've successfully forced dining establishments to change their name (their old name was "Bevo's") and have made a large effort to pursue merchants who sell unlicensed versions of clothing or other items bearing our trademarks, including the Longhorn logo in question in the lawsuit.
During the 2005-2006 academic year, our income from royalties derived from licensed sales increased to $8 million dollars- the highest of any university in the country. Our strong brand and the public's ability to recognize that brand is a crucial aspect of that income. In other words, UT lawyers are not worried about UT students not able to tell the difference, but the many fans we have who, despite no actual connection to the University, wish to show their support by buying t-shirts.
Licensed products help support the university and act as a way we improve our academic footprint without having to raise tuition higher than we already had to. The UT System's administration will do what it can to preserve this income source.
Unlicensed products, or unlicensed alterations of our trademark- like the "Saw 'Em Off" design, chip away at our brand integrity and if our brand weakens, we potentially lose some of our royalty incomes from especially unaffiliated purchasers.
Regarding the UT/A&M rivalry, UT itself suggested a different design for "Saw 'Em Off". The suggested design was of a more realistic looking longhorn with broken horns. If A&M, or Aggieland Outfitters, want to preserve this aspect of the rivalry, UT encourages it, as long as it doesn't dilute our trademark.
I am curious of what the outcome will be. If you hear of anything new and have a chance, let me know. It appears that this is getting more press coverage in College Station than Austin.
I think there is something to be said of a moral leader standing up and acknowledging that morality flows through all different aspects of life, "sacred" or "secular". The way many people in our society treat undocumented immigrants would lead outside observers to question their human dignity.
The United States, for better or worse and with no moral judgment, requires the services of many many many more immigrants than our officials will document. In other words, many sectors of our economy require undocumented individuals to successfully provide the rest of our society with the benefits of being part of this society- everything from migrant farming to construction. How many individuals should the United States grant legal immigration status every year? That's not up to the Church. The Church, however, is obligated to help the other sectors of society realize that as it stands now, we depend on undocumented workers and to shun them with the lack of respect and dignity that many people give, is a moral issue that cries out for a solution.
In other places in the U.S., people are calling for limits on services to American citizens born to undocumented individuals. American citizens trying to limit services to other American citizens who only "crime" is being born to the wrong person? Where does this stop?
Why does this immigration exist? Does the US have a blame in it? Without writing my own white paper, we are members of a global economy and if the economic conditions in one's home country is dire enough where they risk a journey with a failure rate of 90%, we probably had some impact in creating the situation. A vocal amount of our fellow citizens are outraged at this idea, and if society fails to understand the proper responsibility of its economic policies, it again falls to a moral leader to attempt to make the situation known.
As we just finished our Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day celebrations (or at least for those of us who didn't have them postponed due to weather), we should remember that the civil rights struggle became a movement after a Christian minister stood up as a moral leader and said something needed to change.
In the past, I have celebrated MLK Day by, well, doing much of nothing. Since I've started college, classes have started on the Tuesday following so I had no homework to catch up. Nothing at the UCC really picked up yet, so nothing was the agenda of the day.
However, as I listen to Busted Halo Podcast Episode 10 from last year, they replayed a long section of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr's famous "I Have A Dream" speech. His words are still very powerful. His dream called for a day that we all, black and white, Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Gentile, can hold hands as brothers and sisters. This is a day that we have yet to see. Through my relationship with the Paulist Fathers, I feel a call to assist in interfaith dialogue and ecumenism (read: Christian unity), which is a part of Dr. King's dream.
For me, I intend on listening to his speech on this day to be reminded for the reason I could sleep in today, to recall how far we, as a society, have advanced and to be motivated to transform society to the true vision of his dream. The central aspect of his vision, which is a reflection on God's vision of humanity in his kingdom, is that we are all sons and daughters of God. We all have a certain and special dignity as human beings that cannot be removed from us. It does not matter our skin color, our sexual orientation, our faith tradition (or lack thereof), our intelligence level, our physical abilities, whether we are just a little zygote- the fused sperm and egg that results from conception- or aged beyond all "functionality". We all have gifts to share, but even if we didn't, we are still called to be in solidarity with one another.
Do you have to agree with every person? Or even like everyone? Do we have to best friends with everyone? No, no and no. We are not called to agree with everyone, but we are called to respect every person in spite of our disagreement. We may disagree but I do not look down upon you, or think less of you because of what makes us different.
From this holiday forward, I hope to see this day as a day of reflection on the mission and vision of which we all are vital partners in making a reality.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. *We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites Only."* We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
AsiaNews reported that Bishop Joseph Meng Ziwen of Nanning (Guangxi) died Sunday at 103. I couldn't find him on Catholic Hierarchy, possibly due to spelling differences, but the oldest living bishop, again according to Catholic Hierarchy, is now Bishop Antoine Nguyên Van Thien, Emeritus of Vinh Long, Viêt Nam who is 100 years old.
CNN carried a story today about a 21-year old German guy who wanted to visit his girlfriend in Sydney, Australia but typed "Sidney" into a travel website instead.
The guy found himself in Sidney, Montana.
""I did wonder but I didn't want to say anything," the gentleman told a newspaper. "I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States."
"When the sun rises in the morning sky, you will see the King of kings coming forth from the Father like a radiant bridegroom from the bridal chamber." Gospel Antiphon from EP 1 of Christmas
I just made my way back home after Midnight Mass and the customary IHOP breakfast. With the new pastor and music director at the helm of my parish in Wichita Falls, this was probably the liturgically most uninspiring Christmas I've had as a Catholic. I'll share more at some point probably.
The Roman Martyrology for Christmas has a formal annoucement of the birth of Christ. The annoucement, as follows, can be found in the Sacramentary Supplement:
Today, the twenty-fifth day of December,
unknown ages from the time when God created the heavens and the earth
and then formed man and woman in his own image.
Several thousand years after the flood,
when God made the rainbow shine forth
as a sign of the covenant.
Twenty-one centuries from the time of Abraham and Sarah;
thirteen centuries after Moses led the people of Israel out of Eqypt.
Eleven hundred years from the time of Ruth and the Judgesl
one thousand years from the anointing of David as king;
in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel.
In the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;
the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the City of Rome.
The forty-second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;
the whole world being at peace,
Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,
desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming,
being conceived by the Holy Spirit,
and nine months having passed since his conception,
was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary
Today is the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.
Last night, I made my national radio debut on Sirius' The Catholic Channel- Channel 159 on your Sirius Satellite Radio- during Paulist Father Dave Dwyer's Busted Halo nightly broadcast. This is the sister program to the BustedHalo podcast.
It was a brief segment about what was preached during the Sunday homily (to connect with Friday evening's segment about what readings are lined up for Sunday) and to make a quick plug for the UCC's homily podcast.
After tonight's little brawl, the NBA slowly start earning the nickname the "megasport". This game, they combined a ball, a court, with some freestyle boxing. I heard next week they're going to suit up in full pads and see who can kick the ball into the goal.
I'm just completely blown away. There are plenty of players out there just trying to play the game like men, but the few who act like this give me a taste in my mouth like that of the 1994 MLB strike.
It should be about the game. Sure, there's a lot of other stuff attached to professional sports, but the concept of sport should prevail. This foul-turned-10-player-ejection is just beyond all understanding. They're professionals! If I went into work and lost control like those players did tonight, I doubt I would have a job.
Speaking of, I need to head in early tomorrow so bed for now.
If Christ is to be for us a savior,
we must find him here, now, and where we are,
in this age of ours;
otherwise, he is no Christ,
no Savior,
no Immanuel, no "God with us."
- (soon to be Servant of God) Fr. Isaac Thomas Hecker, founder of the Paulist Fathers
A letter to the editor to The Observer, the student newspaper of Notre Dame, that I wrote was published in today's edition.
In short, the ticket office changed a policy concerning how many tickets parents can request for a couple pre-selected football games. The change produced, so far, a good amount of feedback, all against, by the student population. I wrote a short note that, in short, said keep fighting.
Maybe a "Save Parent Tickets!" movement might start up ..
There is not more for me to say, as the article and the videos say it all.
From Sports Illustrated, by Rick Reilly:
I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars — all in the same day.
Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much — except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution."
But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain."
"Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.
Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that."
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks."
That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"
And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?"
How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.
Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 — only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.
"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century."
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago."
So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
"The thing I'd most like," Rick types, "is that my dad would sit in the chair and I would push him once."
or if having problems with the video above you can click here.
This week's newsletter from the Diocese of Austin included the following note:
As a church we wholeheartedly support those who are suffering from breast cancer and other diseases. We wish we could support the "Race for a Cure," however, it is to be noted that the Susan G. Komen Foundation in the Central Texas area financially supports Planned Parenthood and abortion.
This produces an interesting problem for Catholics. Breast cancer is something that we, of course, want eliminated, but what do we do when a foundation focused on assisting with a cancer cure supports, financially, Planned Parenthood and the killing of innocent children?
The policy of priestly celibacy was not on the table during today's meeting of Pope Benedict XVI and some of his cardinals. Today's meeting focused on the impact of the estimated 100,000 priests worldwide who have left active ministry and married.
From the news I'm seeing at this point, there isn't much to report except the status quo.
There is a
rumor floating around that there is a document awaiting review by the
Pope that would erect an Anglican Use jurisdiction within the Roman
Rite. Such a jurisdiction would be either like Opus Dei, a personal
prelature, which have a worldwide jurisdiction over all those who
personally belong to them. In other words, there is no geographical
boundary and so any member of Opus Dei is subject to their local bishop
and the prelate of Opus Dei. If an Anglican Use Personal Prelature was
established, I would assume members of Anglican Use parishes would be
responsible to the local bishop and the prelate.
This could also take the form of a Personal Apostolic
Administration. The only current example of this form of administration
is São João Maria Vianney in Brazil, erected in 2002. This is a
geographical area that also has a normal diocese, but people, in this
case, who wish to practice the faith using the liturgical books of 1962
are subject to the Apostolic Administrator. Like a Personal Prelature,
those in São João Maria Vianney are also subject to the bishop of the
"regular" Latin-rite diocese.
The Pastoral Provision, as mentioned on this site before, is the
provision allowing Anglican priests to convert to Catholicism and be
ordained as Catholic priests. As I am aware, these priests are the only
priests of the Latin Rite who are currently both married and a priest
in good standing. The Provision also allow "Anglican Use" parishes to
be erected which are made up of Anglican converts who wish to still
maintain elements of their former liturgy. To this end, the Book of
Divine Worship, was created as a modification of the Book of Common
Prayer.
The provision is directed to the United States with all of the
parishes and virtually all of the priests within this country. Canada
have a handful of married priest-converts. As the provision requires
the approval of the local bishop for the erecting of a new parish or
the ordination of a convert-priest, there have been requests rejected
in other parts of the world.
With the Pope's upcoming meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury,
I'm hesitant to give a good amount of weight to this yet. The Pastoral
Provision is just that, a pastoral provision. It allows a method for
converts to slowly return to the fold. There are no Anglican Use
seminaries; no real way for them to maintain themselves past a
generation, short of more converts. Some questions: a worldwide
jurisdiction or local? How would this impact Anglican-Cathlic relations
in the rest of the world? Either of the jurisdictional options above
grant the right for the formation of seminaries and the incardination
of clerics, opening the door to a more permanent existence of this
Anglo-Catholic provision.
The report does say that nothing will come out of the pipeline until after January 31st.
DICASTERY HEADS TO EXAMINE QUESTION OF ARCHBISHOP MILINGO
VATICAN CITY, NOV 14, 2006 (VIS) - The Holy See Press office released the following communique late yesterday afternoon:
"The Holy Father has called a meeting of the heads of dicasteries
of the Roman Curia, for Thursday, November 16, in order to examine the
situation that has arisen following the disobedience of Archbishop
Emmanuel Milingo, and to reflect upon requests for dispensation from
the obligation of celibacy and requests for readmission to the priestly
ministry, presented by married priests over the course of recent years.
No other matters are scheduled on the order of the day."
I am not expecting anything groundbreaking or different to come out of the meeting. While the Pastoral Provision
(with a redesigned website) has allowed married Latin-rite priests for
about 25 years now, any broad changes to priestly celibacy, I would
imagine, would be discussed in much wider circles before any change.
Across the rumor mill, there were talks that this meeting would also
include discussion of a wider indult for the use of the Mass according
to the liturgical books of 1962, the official program says no.
I don't always remember to update the Xanga with the content from brandonkraft.com and have still been unable to find an automated solution that works well enough..
Without further ado, here is everything you might have missed:
November 6, 2006
to be fair to georgetown...
After my comments questioning the Catholicity of Georgetown, to be fair, I should also highlight that they do honor priests who aren't as controversial as Fr. Drinan.
Georgetown President John J. DeGioia presented the President’s Medal to Father Thomas F. Stransky, C.S.P. The Paulist Father has worked greatly over the years with interfaith relations and was one of the principle drafters of the Vatican II document, Nostra Aetate.
I met Fr. Stransky when I was in Washington, DC last month since he's been in DC for a short while now over the course of this lecture series. He'll be returning back to the Tantur Institute in Isreal shortly. The Institute, founded after Vatican II to continue the discussion between Catholic, Orthodox and Protestants, is owned by the Vatican, administered by the University of Notre Dame and is directed by Paulists.
Not that this is ground-breaking news or anything, but the Vatican reports that the resignation of Bishop Vincent Rizzotto, auxiliary of Galveston-Houston has been accepted by Pope Benedict XVI. Bp. Rizzotto offered his resignation, as all bishops do, on his 75th birthday in September.
The Archdiocese now has two active bishops, Archbishop Daniel DiNardo and Auxiliary Bishop José Vásquez.
I'm currently watching a live webcast of "The Holy Eucharist and The Investiture of The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori as Twenty-Sixth Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church".
It is such an interesting mix of traditions. Some aspects of this service could be mistaken as a Roman Catholic liturgy. The Eucharistic Preface:
It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, because in Jesus Christ our Lord you have received us as your sons and daughters, made us citizens of your kingdom, and given us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of heaven, who for ever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your Name:
.
At the same time, there was a young lady jumping around the front of the altar during the Gospel Acclamation is some form of liturgical dance. This is what this community practices and they're outside the realm of the Catholic Church, so more power to them for it. I struggle to see the deeper meaning they are attempting to convey through this dance. It did send a message of joy, but does it properly convey that about Gospel? I'm unsure.
One little things that picks at my liturgical senses: I have no idea what the liturgical color of this celebration is supposed to be. Some are in purple, some gold, some red. This is just the "primary" clergy on the altar- when the camera pans out to the large number of concelebrants in the pews, I'm even more confused. Just my personal pet peeve.
The new Presiding Bishop, this female bishop who has spoken favorably of practicing homosexual relationships, has earned a good share of protesting from her church with many Episcopal dioceses asking for "alternative oversight" from another bishop of the Anglican Communion.
Her homily is a call for all of us to return home, that is, our home in God. She refers to St. Augstine's famous "Our hearts are not at rest until they rest in you" and that we are not home until we're with God. She extends this to the entire community, asking for healing for the recent division. Whenever we are apart, the Body is in danger. She further extend this to all around us through a call for an end of poverty, AIDS in Africa, and the other "shadows that have darken what God has created."
We may disagree with liturgical dance or women clergy or the morality of homosexual acts, but there are issues that we can work together. For the end of poverty and disease, to the end of violence and hate, we do agree. We, the men and women of good will, Christian or not, Catholic or not, not only can work together, but we must. For our Christian brothers and sisters, our common baptism is a binding call to join together to bring knowledge of God to all through the common good.
While we do not always agree on how to promote this common good, more binds us than divides us. Interfaith activities, such as the campus area Micah 6 food pantry, is a real, concrete way we can promote the Kingdom of God and live our belief in the dignity of every human person in a situation that actually helps people and still is respectful of our differences.
A request to work together is not a request to ignore that we are different, but a request for us to respect of differences while working together to promote what we all agree is needed.
While I may find some of the liturgical practices of the Episcopal Church odd and simply disagree with some of their moral positions, it is nevertheless imperative that we not let those things keep us from working together to help all of our society realize the Kingdom of God in the world and in their hearts.
Yesterday, the first toll roads in the Austin area opened to traffic. Loop 1 now extends north to the new State Highway 45 which currently stretches between RM 620 and the new State 130. 130 is open from US 79 in Round Rock down to US 290.
I was already scheduled to be in Round Rock last night so I was able to drive the stretch from Loop 1 to IH-35. I'm a bit of a dork so I enjoyed myself. Once tolls are collected, cars using the TxTag transponders can stay in the main lanes and pay without slowing down. Cash customers will take an exit of sorts to a row of toll booths. The few toll roads I have driven on (mostly in Oklahoma), transponder customers still had to slow down to 40 MPH and still drove through the plaza. Since traffic does not have to slow down, traffic can flow very smoothly through the toll plazas.
I'm interested to see how IH-35 is impacted once the full length of 130 opens. 130, once current construction is complete, will run from IH-35 north of Georgetown to 183 in Austin. Future construction is planned to extend 130 to IH-10 east of San Antonio. IH-35 can use all the help it can get!
My last post dealt with the Jesuit Georgetown University naming an endowed chair after a priest who has been a supporter of abortion. Mike left me a comment saying that I've been biased by anti-Drinan sources. I attempted to e-mail him on the address he left in the comment, but my e-mail was returned as undeliverable. Since I would like to be as accurate as possible, I'm reposting the e-mail here in hopes that Mike will see this and respond.
Hi Mike,
Can you refer me to some more materials from Fr. Drinan, SJ? From what I've been able to find, he seems a pretty clear supporter of abortion during both his political career and his time off of the Hill.
What I've found so far, from sources other than the Catholic News Agency, is that he supported President Clinton's veto of the partial-birth abortion ban and pushed for an allowance of abortions anytime the doctor feel that the mother was at-risk.
If I misrepresented The Honorable Father, I'd like to be the first to issue a correction or clarification or whatever would be warranted.
As I am aware, he ran for office despite the Black Pope's informing him that he could not and without the clear approval from the local bishop and while in office, he supported abortion, which unlike many actions, the Catholic Church has a firm and unchangeable opinion against. He did not seek re-election after a statement by Pope John Paul II that priests should not be elected officials.
Thank you for your comment and your assistance in finding more information about Fr. Drinan, SJ.
I do not believe that every Catholic university needs to follow the Ave Maria approach (that is, removing anything opposed or not fully inline with Catholic thought from anywhere near campus), but there is a duty to a Catholic university to be Catholic. At least, they should not celebrate confirmed evils.
Georgetown University, in Washington DC, named a human rights chair after Fr. Robert F. Drinan, SJ. Fr. Drinan, who also served in Congress after his ordination to the priesthood, is a fierce supporter of abortion.
Abortion is the taking of an innocent human life for the advancement of another person. Georgetown names an endowed chair after a person, much less a priest, who is completely in favor of abortion in the field of human rights? Does that make sense to anyone?
I wouldn't be in favor of this still, but a chair of personal liberty or something to that effect would make more sense. Not only are they rejecting their Catholic basis, but are not following sound logic!
The bill authorizing the "celebrated" 700-mile fence along the 2,000-mile Mexico border has been signed into Federal law.
I'm glad that we feel a fence is a best way to take care of this problem and I'm glad that we feel like blocking 35% of the border is the right way to bulid a fence.
We have many problems in this country, but this isn't the largest problem. This is a complex problem requiring complex solutions. Buliding a huge fence is nothing but a public relations stunt.
We'll probably use "illegals" to build the fence.
Undocumented immigrants get a bad rap. Sure, perhaps they shouldn't be in "our" country, but if we think that they are the cause of all that is evil in this country or that building a fence will make America stronger, we have some more thinking to do.
kraftbj at 
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