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Putting Words in His Mouth
NO NEED TO TALK WHEN MSM WILL DO IT FOR
YOU
Re: Peter Hannaford's
When Silence was Golden for Obama:
Silence in Obama's case is indeed golden! After dithering and
watching his numbers show renewed signs of declining, Obama
finally allowed the right thing to happen. However, the media
will undoubtedly rise to the opportunity occasioned by this good
thing and present it as an argument for more socialism. After
all, Obama has now "proved" himself and so we can now go full
steam to the socialist utopia, right? Of course we
can!
-- Douglas Skinner
Alexandria, Virginia
Obama's silence about pirates holding the captain was not a strategy in my view. Obama actually had no remedy to offer. His silence was due to his fear of failure. He didn't want to be the new Jimmy Carter.
When we analyze what was done we learn that the "pirates" were
teenage and that no one had yet been killed in any attack,
however the media have become silent: no profiles, no second
guessing, no real inquiry. Obama owns the Media.
-- George Hall
Marietta, Georgia
CARD CHECK
Re: Matthew Vadum's Thoughtcrime
Redux:
It could have been worse than what this memo states. Homeland
Security could have been unionized.
-- Mike Geer
Irvine, California
AND PUT A STRAIN ON LIPTON
Re: Peter Ferrara's
The Tea Party Revolution:
It would be great if the TEA party became a viable political party with the Founding Documents (Declaration, Constitution, Bill) as the basis of their party by laws.
The new party would draw from both Dumbocrats and Redumblicans
and would recreate the Founders' Vision.
-- Eddie
AN INQUISITION
Re: Lisa Fabrizio's
A Blessing for Catholics:
I need not belabor here, as I have done in these pages previously, that the American Catholic Church's hierarchy bears the weighty responsiblity for most of the self-generated problems that have, within four decades, brought the U.S. Catholic Church to a state where the number of its religious vocations has plummeted, knowledge of what constitutes the dogma and teachings of the Catholic Church is woefully inadequate among its believers, as well as resulting in bankrupting several diocese because of the actions of homosexual priests (emphasis mine). Enter front stage the invitation by the head of the "premiere" Catholic university to President Obama to give the commencement address, as well as receive an honorary law degree.
Lisa Fabrizio's explanation of these phenomena touches on the multiple sources of the problems, but the real question that must be raised is this: would the appalling situation regarding the woefully inadequate state of most Catholics about church doctrine, the numbers of (self-described) Catholics who share Obama's views on abortion and homosexual marriage have been any different if Obama had not been invited? Would the solons in charge of the formerly Catholic universities run by the Society of Jesus -- aka the Jesuits -- changed a whit had no invitation been afforded President Obama? In short, what Obama's invitation does is shine the spotlight on the real issue here: why is all of this 0- from the decline of the Church's standing, to the invitation of the most pro-abortion president, by a priest, no less, taking place? I suspect that Signorina Fabrizio really knows the answer, for she gives it away in her opening remarks:
"Proceeding from, though not limited to, the willful misinterpretation of the Second Vatican Council by some in the clergy, thousands upon thousands left the Church; older members who could not withstand the confusion, and the younger ones who could not perceive an enduring faith amid the calamitous changes."
Comments
Leave a Comment
Sheryl| 4.16.09 @ 10:41AM
Mr. Chiarello,
You were surprised that virtually no "Catholics" knew what a Tenebrae service was? Try your experiment with virtually any element of what was once the Catholic Church. Some sample questions: Do you pray the Angelus? How about the Regina Coeli? What is the Magisterium of the Church, and why should you care? What is Septuagesima? Passion Sunday? I think you get the point. What many many Novus Ordo Catholics know or understand about the Chruch they allege to belong to could fit on the head of a pin. To many people, the teachings of the Church are that everybody should be nice to each other, and maybe you should schelepp yourself to church once in a while if you feel like it.
The ignorance of post Vatican II "Catholics" is sadly on display everywhere these days, nowhere more pathetically than in the last presidential election, or the choice of commencement speaker at the once Catholic Notre Dame.
Our Lady weeps for her children.
Appleby| 4.16.09 @ 11:18AM
My Methodist mother knows what Tennebrae is; we attended it annually in the Methodist church when I was growing up.
In 1992 I went to music camp to sing the Haydn [i]Harmoniemesse[/i] and almost everyone under 40 who was there had never sung a Latin Mass and therefore missed the entire point of the [i] Harmoniemesse[/i] which is scandalously funny to those who have. Since the session was so popular that attendees were chosen by lottery, I can't imagine how ignorant the masses were that were NOT chosen.
David Govett| 4.16.09 @ 1:54PM
** Seal of Disapproval **
Four pirates threaten on the sea.
A Seal's bullet; now there are three.
Three pirates yet; a motley crew.
Hot lead leaves Seal; now there are two.
Perhaps the end is evident.
Pirates to hell will be Seal-sent.
Rocco| 4.16.09 @ 6:14PM
I echo Mr. Chiarello's and Sheryl's sentiments. Sad indeed. But, it appears that the church of Vatican II is dying a long, slow death.
Signor Chiarello, given your location, you must attend Mass at St. Athanasius. A wonderful little parish. I have attended there off and on over the past 12 years, whenever duty brought me back to the DC area. Fr. Ringrose is a no-nonsense priest of the old school.
Pax vobiscum!
Alan Brooks| 4.16.09 @ 10:09PM
the plummeting isn't the Church's fault, the flaw lies with a society that does what it wants on Saturday night, then goes to Church on Sunday. Not all churchgoers have been and are like that but many are and it has dissolved not only the piousness of the Church but also the society the Church floats precariously on.
Have you gone out of your offices recently to look at 'society'?
Alan Brooks| 4.16.09 @ 10:14PM
and BTW, don't blame just homosexual pedophiles in the Church but also the hetero-philes as well.
More than one heterosexual child molester exists in the Church to this day. The laws of statistics make such a certainty.
John| 4.16.09 @ 10:21PM
The teachers, Priests, Bishops, Archbishops, and Cardinals were exactly the same five minutes before Vatican II and five minutes after the event.
The Laity was the SAME... from that one Sunday where the priest mumbled into the alter, in a foreign dead language that he spoke poorly if at all, with his back turned to a disinterested, indifferent but brow beaten congregation... morphed into a Prayer led by a Priest, engaged in his congregation in a language that they could understand, identify with, and participate in.
Hum... radical yes, but negatively transformative... not hardly. Vatican II was the revelation and life's work of John XXIII. His desire was to bring the beauty of the Mass to the people and bring them into the celebration.
Gee I remember when the Priest was actually called the Celebrant.
I was born into a Latin Church. It was stilted impersonal, disconnected, and the people in the pews focused on the Rosary, the occassional time to genuflect, make a hand motion... beat their breasts... make the sign of the cross... whatever... it was an OBLIGATION.
You went, whether or not you wanted to, whether or not you had your heart in it. You went because it was expected. However in our desire to find blame, we forget that many middle aged men who didn't attend Mass. I remember a childhood in Masses attended by old people, and mothers with children.
Vatican II didn't bring this. Look at what has the Anglican/Episcopal Church, the Methodists... the Lutherans... you name it. The drop off in attendence had and has nothing to do with the Mass in English with God at the center of the celebration, instead of in some artifically determined direction.
We lose ourselves in minutae. We get deflected by symptoms that we mistake for causes. Vatican II constituted critical liturgical reform.
It is we, as a society, who have left the pews. We have abandoned religious worship, belief, and foundations, and Vatican II is not responsible for that.
My surmise is that without Vatican II the church would have lost more people. As it is, Vatican II defines the Roman Catholic Church. If you don't believe that... then congratulations, you are a Protestant.
Blessings to those who keep the faith, despite the challenges. Peace.
John
Joe Murray| 4.17.09 @ 8:39AM
The fact of the matter is that the Office of Tenebrae was abandoned in 1977. But the special rubrics of Tenebrae that once accompanied the celebration of Matins and Lauds, including the ceremony of extinguishing the candles, are now sometimes applied to other celebrations, even if these do not consist of a nine-psalm Matins and a five-psalm Lauds.
This may one reason Vincent Chiarello survey of Catholic individuals were unaware of what he was speaking of. The Church in this case has moved on.
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