Friday, June 28

Rather shocking news to many, I'm sure:

Fr. John Bertolucci, nationally known priest associated with the Catholic charismatic movement, is one of several priests removed from ministry in Albany.

More from the Albany paper and MSNBC

None of the articles detail the circumstances, although I'm sure more will be known in the next few days.

What's the truth about Fr. Mychal Judge?

Was he sort-of openly gay, (and, I hasten to add - apparently celibate) - as this article from New York magazine and this page from the website set up in his honor both attest?

Or was he not-gay (and, I hasten to add again - apparently celibate), as this article from Culture and Family forcefully claims? (last link thanks to Relapsed Catholic)

Crucial to the answer to the question, it seems, is a fellow named Brendan Fay whom the first two pieces both characterize as a "close friend" of Judge and the last excoriates as a single-issue (gay rights) opportunist.

So what's the truth? Is it this:

Father Mychal was a longtime member of Dignity, the gay Catholic group. When his close friend, gay activist Brendan Fay, started a St. Patrick's parade in Queens that included gay groups, Father Judge helped him fund it and showed up in his brown friar's robe to put the church on the side of the oppressed, even as Catholic officialdom was urging a boycott. In recent years, he "came out" to many of those he loved, including Fire Commissioner Tom Von Essen, who warmly accepted him.

Or this?

Prior to Father Mike's death, everyone who knew him for any length of time would never describe him as a homosexual. In fact, never has even one homosexual activist ever provided evidence that Father Mike was "gay." Yet, in newspapers immediately after the funeral mass, Brendan Fay was quoted saying that Father Mike was a homosexual. Fay arranged a media event where many people spoke of Father Mike's concern for the homosexual community and claimed Father Mike was "gay." This was news to me, and I knew Father Mike for nearly a decade.

What's your view? And more importantly, in light of the man's heroism, do you think it matters?



From Fark.com, a report of a time machine built by a Benedictine and used to film Christ's crucifixion. Yeah.

Well, here's a review of a book on the subject from a new age magazine and a collection of short reviews of the same book, called FATHER ERNETTI'S CHRONOVISOR
The Creation and Disappearance of the World's First Time Machine
. The priest was real, but who knows how much of this story is true or false - if he really did claim to build a time machine or not...a little corner of Church mythology that was totally new to me.

For all your voucher/pledge commentary links and needs, check out Christianity Today's Weblog
George Neumayr asks: Should the people who believe the least define the most about America's public life?

Americans like Newdow -- with the help of a judicial system that specializes in breeding its own destroyers -- are creating a nation of nihilism from which the American founders would have fled. Had they known the First Amendment would result in the suppression, not the spread, of religion in public, they wouldn't have written it. And the states wouldn't have signed it. The First Amendment was written, after all, to protect their state religions against any federal religion that could swoop down and crush them. The First Amendment is now used not to protect the religious, but to persecute them.

Peggy Noonan applies Michael Novak's insights on capitalism to the current rash of Big Corporation Scandals.
Mormons return to Nauvoo, Illinois, with a newly-dedicated temple in the town where Joseph Smith was murdered.
Andrew Greeley, who had a hissy fit a few months back about the media, recants, saying the media isn't to blame:

Are the national media permeated by anti-Catholicism? Of this there can be no doubt. Many of the people who work for them are pure secularists. Some of them believe in nothing at all. Some believe religion is silly. Some believe that Catholicism is particularly silly. Like half of all Americans, some believe that Catholics are superstitious and cannot think for themselves. Some know very little about Catholicism and are in fact tone-deaf about it. Some hate us. Some will take advantage of every possible situation that might make us look bad. Serves us right for giving them the opportunity. Serves us right for having clueless cardinals.
Yet, in truth many of the media folk are thoughtful, responsible professionals and as such deserve our respect. The media, for all their faults and imperfections, are essential in a free society and they have done American Catholicism a tremendous favor.


You remember the middle school in California that forced kids to pretend they were Muslims as part of a study unit?

Well, now the district is being sued by parents, appropriately enough. This is just absurd:

According to the lawsuit, students were encouraged to dress as Muslims and to use such phrases in their speech as 'Allah Akbar,' which is Arabic for 'God is great.' Students were required to memorize Muslim prayers, fulfill the Five Pillars of Faith and fast during lunch period to simulate fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. "Public schools would never tolerate teaching Christianity in this way," said Thompson. "Just imagine the ACLU's outcry if students were told that they had to pray the Lords Prayer, memorize the Ten Commandments, use such phrases as 'Jesus is the Messiah,' and fast during Lent."

Not just Catholics, cont'd...

Terry Mattingly on the Baptists' sex scandal:...and the consequences of the Baptist congregational structure on the ability of the church to deal with it.

Rough night. Around 5, Joseph awoke with an intense fever and a strange - well, croup-y sound in his breathing. So is the croup? I don't know yet. I'll be taking him to the doctor in a bit. He's better now - sleeping, fever BabyMotrined-away, not coughing, but it scared me for a bit. I woke Michael up, insisting that we needed to go to the hospital, but he demurred, and I guess he was right. Is it, indeed, the croup? The hay in the barn yesterday? The air at the Wizards' baseball game last night? Don't know yet.