Friday, April 5

I was all set to blog like mad tonight but then I suddenly got...tired. Five days on the road telling the one-year old that he's so happy! to be...in the car....in the stroller...in a high chair...back in the car...anywhere but home, racing around in his little bare feet from room to room, stretching out those little legs...yes, engaging in that rather cruel deception can wear one out.

One of the things that's happened in the past week or so is the sudden proliferation of Catholic Blogs. Blogs came into the public eye into a vivid way after 9/11, and I think The Situation with our clergy and hierarcy may be playing the same function with us Catholics. Tomorrow, I hope to get all the Catholic blogs of which I'm aware linked up there on the right.

Thursday was Joseph's first birthday, although we were on the road and unable to celebrate in style. That will happen next week, when David and Katie return from Virginia. Joseph is looking forward to it. Here's something I wrote not long after he was born.
An Eastern Orthodox Blog!
New Catholic blog with some interesting points:

The Scandal is not merely a failure of celibacy as some would have you believe, but it is a failure of the whole culture of the Church and especially of the bishops as a whole. By refusing to stand firmly for the Church's teachings over the past 40 years they have opened the door to an attitude of "whatever you can get away with."


Here's a bit of my own experience with the bishops' conference. The Vatican is working on a new Roman Missal, the book that tells us how to celebrate the Liturgy. The most important part if the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), which contains the rules and regulations surrounding the celebration of the Mass. A couple of years ago, a study edition of the first English translation from the new Latin edition was made available. I received a copy through contacts at my job and as I was discussing it with some friends online, I uploaded it to my web page so they could download it. Some months later I received a nasty-gram from the bishops' conference telling me that I am not allowed to post it. Why?



Well, you see, all documents produced by the bishops' conference can only be purchased from them. That's right, you have to buy the documents that express the tenets of your faith as expressed by your pastors. In the case of the GIRM, you can download the Latin edition (the Vatican provides all its documents for free in any case), but you can only access a summary of the English-language GIRM for free (and a summary prepared by someone with his own liturgical agenda, by the way). This despite a note right on the USCCB web page that says: "The present study text ... is provided ... to inform the Church in the United States about the changes which are anticipated in the revised Roman Missal." Provided you shell out the bucks, I guess.



For too long, the bishops have let themselves be used by dissenting bureaucrats, pastors, and theologians who distort the Church's teachings, who have debased the Church's culture. The Scandal doesn't require a response. As the April cover of Catholic World Report puts it "the Scandal is the response." It is the response to decades of dissent and trampling of the teachings of Christ.

It's not just the GIRM and attendant documents. It's the Catechism and the New American translation of the Bible. There are limitations to how much of each one can quote in published work without paying.

Yahoo Pro-life mole?

I've been wondering about this. Those of you with Yahoo mail know that the screen constantly features advertisements. By comparing my husband's with mine, we've discerned that these ads are definitely gender-directed. The most frequent ad that pops up on my screen (besides the Ediet one - SHUT UP ABOUT THAT, ALREADY!) is one for a site - I think it's babycenter.com or something - that features a picture of an in utero child with the screaming headline, "See what your baby looks like right now!" obviously directed at pregnant women. Such an ad wouldn't make it past network television pro-aborts. Someone at Yahoo (or the baby center site) must be trying to cooperate in getting a good message across - yes, what's inside you is a baby. Yes, it's alive. Yes, it's a person.

We're back. I'm trying to answer mail and write a column. More blogging later.