New Non-Fiction Novel Exposes Conspiracy  --a very special parody

WASHINGTON, D.C. --A new book called Theocon! raises the spectre of Catholics taking over America in a silent coup.

Theocon! imagines a grim world in which babies are safer in the womb, stem cell research doesn't involve the destruction of embryos, the death penalty is abolished, torture is verboten and marriage is between a man and a woman.

One of the sources for the book, a Richard Newhauser of New York, was surprised.

"Pesonally, I'd be satisfied if Catholicism just took over the American Catholic church."

I'm Trying to Figure Out...

...why I'm disturbed by the fact of Dreher's conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy. Appears it was not for reasons of doctrine or truth but for reasons of less scandal & more liturgical beauty. (Of the last I sing, and please do sing along at home: "A single day in your courts singing Haugen-Haas songs is better than a thousand elsewhere.") My distaste might also be indicative of my Irish tendency to resent those who seem to be "acting above their station", i.e. above the grime of the Church Militant.

So it seems he gave up on the Catholic Church in the wake of the pedophilia scandal. And if you give up on the Catholic Church - whether in 300AD or 1500AD or 2006AD - you're defacto saying that God has given up on the Catholic Church. And if God's given up on the Catholic Church then He can give up on you or me and that's the worst lie the devil tells.

Personally disturbing is my lack of sympathy for him. That's always a red flag. That's a sure sign that I'm now the one saying that God is not faithful, since I want God and his saints to have sympathy for me whether I deserve it or not. So the penance is to say a rosary for Rod.

Update: Another blogger pointed out, correctly, that Rod left not just for scandal and liturgy but also for doctrinal reasons after reading about how papal infallibility was cobbled together at Vatican I. How extensive his study remains to be seen, but it was predictable this would help lead him out of Rome since it is scandalous, to those easily scandalized, that God would use the very human, and sometimes ugly, instrument of politics in the development of doctrine.

Exceeding Expectations

The reading from Luke in yesterday's gospel is one of my particular favorites:

What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread? Or hand him a snake instead of a fish? Or hand him a scorpion if he asked for an egg? If you then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’

One of the most suprising things I've learned about God over the past decade is that He is surprising. The set-up that even earthly fathers give their children fish or eggs suggests the next line will be "how much more will the Heavenly Father provide good things to those who ask." And that would be satisfactory. But instead he anticipates what we really want and offers what we barely dare ask. Without this verse the asking would seem presumptuous. He holds out the prize of all prizes, the Holy Spirit, that precious Intimacy between the Father and the Son, an Intimacy such that we should feel like a third wheel. But Jesus cuts to the chase and takes away the necessity of slowly building up to asking for the gift of gifts.

Where Books Fail

A loved one is particularly concerned about suffering and its role in the Christian life. She's read a few books on it, but ultimately the books have failed her. A wise man, John Paul II, predicted it. He writes, in Salvifici Doloris, of how there is basically no way to access the meaning of suffering from "the outside":

To the suffering brother or sister Christ discloses and gradually reveals the horizons of the Kingdom of God: the horizons of a world converted to the Creator, of a world free from sin, a world being built on the saving power of love. And slowly but effectively, Christ leads into this world, into this Kingdom of the Father, suffering man, in a certain sense through the very heart of his suffering. For suffering cannot be transformed and changed by a grace from outside, but from within. And Christ through his own salvific suffering is very much present in every human suffering, and can act from within that suffering by the powers of his Spirit of truth, his consoling Spirit.
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However, this interior process does not always follow the same pattern. It often begins and is set in motion with great difficulty. Even the very point of departure differs: people react to suffering in different ways. But in general it can be said that almost always the individual enters suffering with a typically human protest and with the question "why". He asks the meaning of his suffering and seeks an answer to this question on the human level. Certainly he often puts this question to God, and to Christ. Furthermore, he cannot help noticing that the one to whom he puts the question is himself suffering and wishes to answer him from the Cross, from the heart of his own suffering. Nevertheless, it often takes time, even a long time, for this answer to begin to be interiorly perceived. For Christ does not answer directly and he does not answer in the abstract this human questioning about the meaning of suffering. Man hears Christ's saving answer as he himself gradually becomes a sharer in the sufferings of Christ.

The answer which comes through this sharing, by way of the interior encounter with the Master, is in itself something more than the mere abstract answer to the question about the meaning of suffering. For it is above all a call. It is a vocation. Christ does not explain in the abstract the reasons for suffering, but before all else he says: "Follow me!". Come! Take part through your suffering in this work of saving the world, a salvation achieved through my suffering! Through my Cross. Gradually, as the individual takes up his cross, spiritually uniting himself to the Cross of Christ, the salvific meaning of suffering is revealed before him. He does not discover this meaning at his own human level, but at the level of the suffering of Christ. At the same time, however, from this level of Christ the salvific meaning of suffering descends to man's level and becomes, in a sense, the individual's personal response. It is then that man finds in his suffering interior peace and even spiritual joy.

Saint Paul speaks of such joy in the Letter to the Colossians: "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake"(88). A source of joy is found in the overcoming of the sense of the uselessness of suffering, a feeling that is sometimes very strongly rooted in human suffering. This feeling not only consumes the person interiorly, but seems to make him a burden to others. The person feels condemned to receive help and assistance from others, and at the same time seems useless to himself. The discovery of the salvific meaning of suffering in union with Christ transforms this depressing feeling. Faith in sharing in the suffering of Christ brings with it the interior certainty that the suffering person "completes what is lacking in Christ's afflictions"; the certainty that in the spiritual dimension of the work of Redemption he is serving, like Christ, the salvation of his brothers and sisters. Therefore he is carrying out an irreplaceable service. In the Body of Christ, which is ceaselessly born of the Cross of the Redeemer, it is precisely suffering permeated by the spirit of Christ's sacrifice that is the irreplaceable mediator and author of the good things which are indispensable for the world's salvation. It is suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls.

Where were the prophets?

Mark Steyn is a gifted writer who since 9/11 has been putting his talent to use in the fight against jihadism. Before 9/11 he was a theater critic for the Wall Street Journal and wrote a book about Broadway in which he says:

Is Broadway musical theater in terminal decline, fed intravenously from London, in headlong retreat to operetta certainties, emotional platitudes and vapidly luxuriant tunes?

There are those pessimistic types for whom terminal decline is galvanizing. I'm not saying Steyn is one of them and it's probably unfair to speculate, but perhaps he moved on to "greener" pastures, finding Broadway's decline less interesting than Western civilization's? For many writers, it's passion that moves the pen and if the pen ain't moving then they must go in search of passion. Of course when everything is in decline, including Broadway, it's hard to discern motivation.

Robert Kaplan, another author I respect, wrote The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War, which seems a shattering enough title. One would think his just-before-9/11 timing was good in the sense that people were in an apocalyptic mood. Certainly here was a prophet. But I searched the book in order to see if he meant Islamic fundamentalism, and near as I can tell he did not. The most frequent words used in the book are "Kissinger", "war", "democracy" and "Africa". Very few mentions of Islam, no mentions of Al Qaeda or bin Laden, only four mentions of terrorism, very few of 'terrorist' and nothing about Europe's declining demographic.

For some reason I have yet to read the highly regarded Samuel Huntington & his Clash of Civilizations.

I use too many commas

I use too many commas,
they stick out much like lamas,
plentiful as pajamas,
down south in the Bahamas.

I know not all the causes,
of too much use of clauses,
I know these eighth-note pauses
are not at all like Roz's.

Ahh, to write more fluidly,
(My, what will rhyme with 'fluidly'?
I haven't got a clue-idly,
except for maybe 'Druidly').

I would I wrote unstoppingly,
albeit over-the-toppingly,
to write like Janis Joppingly,
and not so start and stoppingly.

Quick Hits

Handy Latin phrases -- Clip 'n save! (Example: "Re vera, potas bene", meaning "Say, you sure are drinking a lot".) Update: Terrence Berres suggests Re vera, potas bene as a caption for my right sidebar photo. Good idea. Don't forget: the more you drink, the better this blog reads. Please note that I just updated as a result of his update as a result of my link. That'll seem deep if you're drinkin'. Update 2: Mr. Berres just updated his update, so I want to get the last update of an update of an update of a link in. Shhh! Don't tell him.

It's odd to see non-Christians with an obsession with a particular saint. One wonders why they didn't convert. I'm thinking of Mark Twain's long study of Joan of Arc and Franz Werfel's of St. Bernadette of Lourdes. Faith is indeed a gift.

I recall I was maybe thirteen or fourteen years old, visiting at a friend's house when his mother asked me: "Do you believe Jesus had no human father?" It seemed something she was struggling with. Similarly, I've heard rationalizations that the multiplication of the loaves and fishes was about sharing, not a miraculous intervention. And I think the reason these two miracles in particular are difficult for many to believe is they involve the creation of matter from nothing. The part of Christ's DNA that would come from a father had to come from somewhere and was therefore created ex nihilo. Similarly the loaves and fishes. This is an affront to the imagination; we can imagine healings of various sorts, matter suddenly changing form (ice to water) or time being compressed (the microwave helps us there) but to create matter is something beyond our ken. With the possible exception of Christ's willingness to forgive, nothing so marked him as divine as his creation of matter from nothing. And perhaps for that reason, many disbelieve.

I suppose its part of the perversity of man, but when I hear tornado warning sirens I run outside to try to spot the tornado. I think you're supposed to go to the cellar.

By saying "I don't want to be pigeon-holed" you are pigeon-holing yourself.

I don't watch the network evening news but there seems a sort of rough justice that Brian Williams leads the pack. Is there a harder working anchor in show biz? Is he not the James Brown of the prompter readers? The guy has the work ethic of ten, and was in New Orleans post-Katrina more than their mayor. He also seems the least nakedly liberally biased (read of Gibson here, Couric here).

Just Sit Right Down and You'll Hear a Tale

Gosh I love it when I can work the lyrics to Gilligan's Island into a blog title. In this case it refers to the mainstream media.

When I was a kid I recall my father saying many times that I shouldn't believe everything I read, indeed much of what I read. I was sola scriptura when it came to secular truth: never believe anything that wasn't written down and vice-versa. I thought he was just being cynical and I didn't believe it for a minute. Amazing how much smarter your dad gets as you yourself age.

I'm embarrassed to say that I judged the trustworthiness of a publication based on things like how slickly produced it was and how wide its circulation. Anything that didn't have great production values and circulation must be written by cranks.

I'm still astonished at the liberties taken by a name-brand journalist/novelist like Bob Woodward and Ruth Gledhill of the UK Times. In the end, there can be more truth in badly mimeographed copies of a homegrown newsletter than in, say, the majestically produced New York Times.

Oct 11 - St. Canice

An anecdote from St. Canice's life, relayed below, contradicts the view many New Agers have concerning "idyllic" pre-Christian Ireland.

  

From here:

St. Canice or Kenny, founder of the Abbey, and patron of the parish, of Aghaboe, was born in the year 515 or 516, in Glengiven, in the region of Cianachta, in the present County of Londonderry. He was descended from the CorcoDalann or Ui Dalainn, a tribe whose ancestor, Dalann, is traced back to Fergus (King of Ulster a little before the Christian era), son of Ross, son of Rudhraighe. The Corco-Dalann were of little consequence, and their exact location is unknown, except that they dwelt in an island called in the Saint's Life "Insula Nuligi," and which is usually identified with Inis-Doimhle or Inis-Uladh, now the Little Island, in the Suir, south-east of Waterford. Lughadh Leithdhearg, our Saint's father, was a distinguished bard, and from the wandering disposition of men of his class, it is not difficult to conceive how he left the home of his youth, in the sunny south, and settled down in the far north, under the favour and protection of the chief of Cianachta.
__

St. Canice exerted himself strenuously in withdrawing his countrymen from the barbarous customs handed down by their forefathers. On one occasion, whilst travelling through West Leinster, he found the people assembled, with their King, Cormac Mac Diarmaid, to enjoy the gruesome spectacle of a little boy, named Dolne, being subjected to the torture called Gialcherd. The Gialcherd consisted in casting young children high up in the air and receiving them in their fall on the points of lances held upright. On the Saint's arrival at the place of meeting, the spears were already fixed upright in the ground in preparation for the ghastly exhibition. He earnestly remonstrated with the King, and besought him to spare the little boy, but in vain; and savage custom would have had another victim had not Almighty God, at the prayer of the Saint, miraculously saved the child who, when flung on the spears, was neither killed nor injured. However, the terror of the horrible death from which he had been thus preserved, had the effect of distorting his eyes, so that he was called thenceforward Dome Lebdearc, i.e. Dolne of the crooked eyes. In after life he became famed for his sanctity, and founded a church, (round which grew up a town), called from him Kill-Dome.

Desiring to be alone with God as far as possible, St. Canice frequently retired from the society of men, and even from the companionship of his own brethren, and betook himself to some remote solitude for prayer and meditation.

On Liberal Paranoia

One of the more "interesting" things to happen over the past six years is the mainstreaming of kookiness and paranoia. You might argue that we experienced the same thing during the Clinton years, but I think it was much more limited. The only place I heard it was the G. Gordon Liddy show, hardly the equivalent of say a Helen Thomas, dean of the White House press corps. This feels like a new thing. Whether it is I have no idea. There was lots of misinformation and ignorance in the generation that followed the founding fathers, for example.

Jonah Goldberg puts it well, as usual:

The waves of paranoia currently sweeping through America could be seen as the democratization of intellectual dementia. Criticisms of President Bush, Christians, the right wing, the Patriot Act, whatever: These are all fine. But presumably, such large claims against America should come with ample evidence to back them up. Instead, we get the opposite.The smaller the example, the greater its significance. And that trick is the intellectual class's gift to America.

Mark Steyn writes in National Review:

The phantom terrors of allegedly rational “progressives” are amazing in their resilience. Go into the local Barnes & Noble in the Twin Cities. Even as their airport is now operating to Sharia Lite, the display tables are groaning under a weight of new books about the Christian-theocrat takeover of America. There’s something very bizarre about a world that rouses itself from its Nelsonian stupor only to obsess about any crisis — non-existent gay-bashers, mythical Christian tormentors, ludicrously hypothetical climate meltdowns — other than the ones that are here and happening right now.

Mostly AWOL during the fight against Communism, it seems likely the Left will sit out the fight against jihadism. It's surely condescending to say this, but perhaps the only thing that will help the Democrat party is to give them a taste of power in order that they might become engaged. God does that with us, I think. Gives us little tasks that we might become more enthusiastic about His kingdom. It's a risky strategy, as I'm sure God can attest, and will just as likely make things worse as make things better.

Found Book Review...

If readers of the twentieth century feel overwhelmed by the proliferation of writing and information, they can find in Samuel Johnson a sympathetic companion. Johnson's career coincided with the rapid expansion of publishing in England--not only in English, but in Latin and Greek; not only in books, but in reviews, journals, broadsides,pamphlets, and books about books. In 1753 Johnson imagined a time when "writers will, perhaps, be multiplied, till no readers will be found." Three years later, he wrote that England had become "a nation of authors" in which "every man must be content to read his book to himself."

In Samuel Johnson and the Life of Reading, Robert DeMaria considers the surprising influence of one of the greatest readers in English literature. Johnson's relationship to books not only reveals much about his life and times, DeMaria contends, but also provides a dramatic counterpoint to modern reading habits. As a superior practitioner of the craft, Johnson provides a compelling model for how to read--indeed, he provides different models for different kinds of reading. DeMaria shows how Johnson recognized early that not all reading was alike--some requiring intense concentration, some suited for cursory glances, some requiring silence, some best appreciated amid the chatter of a coffeehouse. Considering the remarkable range of Johnson's reading, DeMaria discovers in one extraordinary career a synoptic view of the subject of reading.

A Life at the Movies

I can't recall the quote, but it used to appear on those amazon.com thermos and bookmarks the company gave away when they were young and needed the money, or at least the publicity. It went something like, "Real life? Reading is the thing." But for a high school friend of mine movies were "the thing". It would be fair to say that his life was far more intensely interwoven with movies than mine was with books. At the time I thought it an unhealthy obsession, something he would surely grow out of after the crisis of adolescence had passed.

He was not the athletic type but had a shy smile and a certain imperturbableness of manner. I attributed the mellowness to all of those movies. How could he get too exasperated by life when life was "but a dream" and just as changeable? As Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet would attest:

Even now the frozen bosom of the north,
And, being anger’d, puffs away from thence,
Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.

Relief from any problem was but a movie ticket away.

I hadn't thought of him in years but for some reason googled his name yesterday. Twenty-five years after graduation and he's still in love with his first love, the movies, directing small local productions, helping produce shows at an amusement park, and listing his favorite movies on amazon.com. He reviewed only two books - both read as a result of movies. His literacy is entirely filmic, one of the many for whom the book never lives up to the movie. His favorites are edgy but not too edgy, respectable in that everyone has heard of them and yet no one would laugh at their inclusion on the list. There's perhaps an undercurrent of predictability, but if movies are the entree to his connecting with others wouldn't there have to be?

One could call it a calling and surely only a puritan would not be happy for him. If it were the spell of books he had fell under, would I not? (Pot: "You, kettle, are black!") And yet there's a nagging feeling that movies seemed to provide him something that nobody else, not even God or other people, could supply. Or perhaps the source of my unease is simply that the movies he adores are relentlessly modern, full of the tolerance and moral relativism of the age. Perhaps I'd feel differently if his favorite films were not little gems of emptiness and nihilism.

Another flame, the lighter and his intention I could not guess, provided the spark for a dry-eyed candle at Blessed Margaret of Castello's shrine. As I watched the new wick catch fire, it seemed to me a visual assurance that Little Margaret would pray for him and for me as long as it flickered.

I Have Always Wanted...

...to write a book, and one of the joys of modern life is you no longer have to choose between those harrowingly narrow categories of fiction and non-fiction. You can write both, as Bob Woodward just did in State of Denial. Maybe call it a non-fiction novel. Oh brave new world where we don't have to worry about facts! I think I'll get started on one right here...

From an NR review:

"The essence of all morality," historian R.H. Tawney said, is "to believe that every human being is of infinite importance, and therefore that no consideration of expediency can justify the oppression of one by another. But to believe this it is necessary to believe in God."

Intimate prayer requires monotasking. Anything else is like making love while watching Jay Leno--hardly flattering to either one's partner or to Jay. Prayer is the intimate intrusion that we must allow to grow in God's love and to become like Christ. - Steven of "Flos Carmeli"

In all my years as an L&D nurse, I NEVER saw a normal labor and birth in an IVF mom. Never. Don't know why, but I have theories. Saw tons of preterm birth, pre-eclampsia, severe gestational diabetes, placental problems, you name it. I worked at that time in several hospitals in Southern California, ranging from the elite private hospitals to the Kaiser HMO hospitals to the LA County hospitals and I saw better outcomes in the poor and underprivileged moms than in the well-to-do IVF moms. Maybe infertility is one way to protect women from pregnancies that are risky to them, maybe there is something inherently pathological in the ART process. I don't have a clue, but I do remember the old saying, "It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature" (or in this case, the natural law). - Alicia of Fructus Ventris

'Those great figures often gave us superb theology and were classical models of the engagement of faith with the greater culture of their age, but they didn't always provide solid examples for the study of Scripture!' On the other hand, some might think our Barth is worse than their bite. - Terrence Berres comments with a pun after quoting a Bishop Sklba line about the early Church fathers

I tried repeating between gritted teeth Job's line of "blessed be the Name of the Lord" and I got zip comfort, no consolation from it. But that's faith for you: we seek the "Lord of consolations, not the consolations of the Lord." - Therese Z of "Exutet"

Rashness generally ends in disaster, for since it relies on its own powers, it does not deserve help from heavens. But if victory is to be hoped for from on high, battles must be entrusted to the Spirit of God. - Thomas of Celano, via Open Book

Most political books inspire me the way Chilton's manuals do. - Steven of "Flos Carmeli"

Gradually I picked up on the fact that SJ does not stand for Social Justice as one might think from many Jesuits' writing but is for Society of Jesus. - Julie of Happy Catholic

What keeps me from bankruptcy is the simple fact that I have not enabled "One-Click Purchase," which I consider the most enabling enabler in all of enabledom. I fear the one-click purchase. It calls to me, like a siren. But the pummelling I would receive from the budget-minded wife when the Amex bill came in would be both fearsome and richly deserved. One has to know one's limits. That would be mine. And anyway, I'm already wrecking the Amazon Prime business model as it is. Hopefully some other schmoes are out there taking up the slack for me and not buying things with their Amazon Prime accounts, thus supporting my "ship those babies to me now" ways. I can only assume there are. Suckers. - John at "Whatever" on the perils of amazon.com

Recently I had opportunity to hear a homily in which some evangelical Christians were roundly ridiculed and mocked for their “only trust Jesus and His Word” simplistic faith. I have experienced modern ‘educated’ Catholics snicker (and worse) when I dare to mention I appreciate studying the Douay Rheims version of the Bible. A group of very faithful, well educated Catholic students were unsure if the Church had always venerated the Scriptures as is the Eucharistic Presence of Christ...Many priests and religious education teachers are well schooled in teaching what they think should be questioned about Scripture (ah the thrill of critical method) and do all they can to encourage.....doubt. (For myself, if I am going to err I want to err in faith, not doubt. When Jesus returns will He be looking for faith or doubt?) - Deacon Harry of Douloscross

Imagine a world without Mary. That is, imagine a world in which God had chosen another woman to be His mother. It would be a different world, of course, and we, having a different mother, would be a different Church. Would we be a better Church in a better world because of the change? Would the other woman be a better mother than Mary? Oh, it's really too awful to contemplate; I felt like I had just stabbed Mary by writing that last question. We don't care that someone else could have been better. We love Mary; we don't want anybody else. If she was flawed in some way (though of course she wasn't), then we'd rather have the flaws. She is a person, you see, and that makes her utterly indispensable. Everyone is utterly indispensable. - "Sancta Sanctis"

Father O'Malley answers the phone.

"Hello, is this Father O'Malley?"

"It is."

"This is the IRS. Can you help us?"

"I can."

"Do you know a Ted Houlihan?"

"I do."

"Is he a member of your congregation?"

"He is."

"Did he donate $10,000 to the church?"

"He will." - Korrektiv joke

I have to applaud The Cardinal [Seán] on having a blog...However, I have a couple of questions and comments: Why the accent mark? The Irish love accent marks. Why? Aren't they a pre-to-il-literate people? Do they just like making little marks above random letters because they think they are pretty?... Using lol is silly when it is done by teenagers, irritating when done by college students, and out and out embarassing when done by a Prince of the Church. What if the Pope put one of those asinine IMHO's in an encyclical? I know, a blog is not an encyclical and a cardinal is not the Pope, but still. Dignity, man, and I'm not talking about the poofter group. - Erik of "Erik's Rants and Recipes"

When I was younger, pre-teen and teen, I used to long for chivalry: knights in armor doing noble deeds for fair ladies, castles, heraldry, noble deeds, dragons vanquished, lofty love songs. I searched everywhere for tastes, hints, of the magic that I was sure existed in fairyland, long ago and far away. And now reflecting on the Holy Father and his last hours, I recall his motto: totus tuus: All yours. I realize now that he is the "parfait gentil knight" of my childish dreams, remade more glorious. What could be more chivalric than his most noble devotion to the Queen of Queens, Our Lady, Mary Queen of Angles and of all the hosts of heaven? He lives in a palace and prays in the most glorious church in the world. If you've ever been to high mass at St Peter's, you've seen the height of heraldry, colors, incence, the ritual of the highest most royal court in all the world. Because during that mass, as during any mass, is present all the court of heaven to worship at the throne of the King of Kings, Lord of Lords: Christ, Ruler of the Universe. And you want noble deeds? How about the fall of communism? How about vanquishing evil? And the loftiest love songs I've ever heard: the Psalms chanted in the Divine Office. The magic I had always dreamed of was right under my nose, but I couldn't see it for what it is. The Eucharist is the true magic, the most magical thing in all the universe: God humbles himself to become man and die an ignoble death on the cross. God humbles himself to be contained, body, blood, soul and divinity in this little sliver of bread that I hold in my hand, that I place on my tongue, that I eat and swallow. As I consume Him, He consumes me. - Melanie of "Wine-Dark Sea"