Monday, September 16

Board to name non-compliant bishops
Two articles about the fate of the possibly closing St. Paul's Church here in Fort Wayne:

here and here.

Spanish Church pushing for beatification of journalist

Born at Linares, Garrido worked for religious newspapers, before joining a Spanish news agency. In 1942, he was confined to a wheelchair, after contracting a disease of the spinal cord. He continued working till the end of his life, despite also losing his sight at 40, writing nine books and founding a publication for the sick, Sinai. Speaking last week, Garrido's postulator, Fr Rafael Higueras, said the journalist had 'maintained his faith and spiritual calm' till death, adding that the beatification process was now 'well advanced' after being referred to the Vatican in 1994. Spanish Church officials said they also hope to finish a beatification process in 2003 for avant-garde architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), best known for Barcelona's still-unfinished Sagrada Familia church.

Dreher takes the Johansen/Rose spat to the readers of NRO

Instapundit weighs in.

Good Stuff Catholics Do:

A free pharmacy operated by the St. Vincent De Paul society in northern Kentucky:

Already, the free pharmacy in Northern Kentucky has filled 2,000 prescriptions worth $180,000 for 250 low-income people in the 14-county Diocese of Covington. Next, the St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy wants to expand its scope, adding a second day to its Monday-only operations and a second pharmacy, possibly at St. Elizabeth Hospital North in Covington. "We're at a volume where we need to be open another day and at another location," says Rosana Aydt, co-director of the pharmacy. Most of the prescriptions come from samples given to doctors and donations from commercial pharmacies. The pharmacy buys some prescription drugs, mostly generics, and insulin. "So far, we've collected about a half-million dollars worth of medicine," says Aydt, who is a pharmacist. The charity decides who is eligible for free prescriptions on a case-by-case basis, using the basic formula that "if expenses equal or exceed income, then we help them. "The average value of each prescription we fill is $70 and most people we help have between five and 10 prescriptions to be filled," she says. "If not for us, they probably would have to pick and choose which prescriptions they can afford to have filled." The need for the service is tremendous, Aydt said. "Every week, someone cries with happiness here because they're able to get the medicine they need."

They're going to build a new church at Fatima.
Was the Vinland Map, which has been used to prove that the Norse reached Nova Scotia years before Christopher Columbus came to the New World, a hoax created by an Austrian Jesuit with the intention of debunking Nazi claims to global domination?

Phew. It's a long article, but quite interesting:

Fr. Fischer, who died during the Second World War, had an obvious motive to fake the map around 1934, Seaver said. In 1938, Nazi officials forced the sale of the Stella Matutina, where Fischer was living in retirement. As a clergyman and scholar, he would have been appalled by the Nazi persecution of Jesuits.Seaver also believed Fischer would have hated seeing ancient Norse history being used as Nazi propaganda. German officials saw the Vikings as an Aryan people with territorial ambitions similar to their own. The Vinland Map is laden with Catholic imagery. Had the Nazis discovered such a document, they would have faced an impossible dilemma: either admit that the dominion of the Catholic Church, which the Norse represented on their travels, extended to North America, or abandon their cultural affinity with the Norse, and thus their own claims to dominion over the New World.

Amish and Mennonites are moving to Western NY because land out this away is too expensive

Inexpensive land is what led Yoder, his wife and six children, and 17 other Amish families to move from an established community in Holmes County, Ohio, to this part of Western New York - where farms that supported generations have been dormant for years.It's the same reason an Amish community along the Cattaraugus/Chautauqua county line has flourished, and it's also the reason Roy Zimmerman, a believer in the related Mennonite faith, moved to the Lyndonville area two years ago from Port Trevorton, Pa. "It's cheap land," he said. "Where we were, farms were bringing $4,000 to $5,000 an acre. Here, we bought 440 acres for $270 an acre."

This is a puzzling story.

-- Days after being dropped from the city's Sept. 11 memorial events, a reverend led the area Catholic community's first Mass Sunday for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people.

Local leaders and clergy were among more than 400 people at the Mass led by the Rev. Fred Daley, wearing a rainbow stole over white robes.

Daley was uninvited as main speaker of last week's memorials for the victims of the terrorist attacks when the assistant fire chief, Russel Brooks, supported by Mayor Timothy Julian, threatened to pull out if Daley didn't step aside.

Daley's participation would have brought unwanted controversy to the event, they said. ....

Inside, rainbow ribbons flanked the altar draped by a rainbow flag.

"We can walk out of this building and commit ourselves to speak the truth," Daley said. "If we do that there will be some day that our public officials will maybe even hang the rainbow flag."

Too controversial for a secular-sponsored event, yet not for a Church-sponsored one? What diocese is this? Just wondering.

Another article, with a photo, and more quotes:

The Catholic church and others should not be so obsessed with what people do in private, he said. "I didn't tell anyone at the 8 a.m. Mass or the 11 a.m. Mass (what to do in their bedrooms), so I'm certainly not going to tell anyone here at the 3 p.m. Mass," he said, receiving more cheers and applause. "Certainly no one is going to push me to stand at the pulpit and explain what is intimate."


Michael Paulson of the Globe with a piece on how the Archdiocese has responded to voices of dissent and inquiry

Law has appointed his top aide, Bishop Walter J. Edyvean, to mediate his relationship with Voice of the Faithful and the Boston Priests Forum. But over the last eight months Edyvean has met with Voice of the Faithful twice, and the priests' forum once, and the conversations have left both groups dissatisfied - the lay group because it can't get a clear answer about where it stands, and the priests' group because it can't get the cardinal to meet with priests to discuss their concerns about due process.

Today is the feast of St. Cyprian:

Let us remember one another in concord and unanimity. Let us on both sides of death always pray for one another. Let us relieve burdens and afflictions by mutual love, that if one of us, by the swiftness of divine condescension, shall go hence the first, our love may continue in the presence of the Lord, and our prayers for our brethren and sisters not cease in the presence of the Father's mercy.

and

… And whereas the Lord left the ninety and nine that were whole, and sought after the one wandering and weary, and Himself carried it, when found, upon His shoulders, we not only do not seek the lapsed, but even drive them away when they come to us; and while false prophets are not ceasing to lay waste and tear Christ's flock, we give an opportunity to dogs and wolves, so that those whom a hateful persecution has not destroyed, we ruin by our hardness and inhumanity….

Considering His love and mercy, we ought not to be so bitter, nor cruel, nor inhuman in cherishing the brethren, but to mourn with those that mourn, and to weep with them that weep, and to raise them up as much as we can by the help and comfort of our love; neither being too ungentle and pertinacious in repelling their repentance; nor, again, being too lax and easy in rashly yielding communion. Lo! a wounded brother lies stricken by the enemy in the field of battle. There the devil is striving to slay him whom he has wounded; here Christ is exhorting that he whom He has redeemed may not wholly perish. Whether of the two do we assist? On whose side do we stand? Whether do we favour the devil, that he may destroy, and pass by our prostrate lifeless brother, as in the Gospel did the priest and Levite; or rather, as priests of God and Christ, do we imitate what Christ both taught and did, and snatch the wounded man from the jaws of the enemy, that we may preserve him cured for God the judge?


From Nashua:

The parish that's fighting its closing

and

The last Mass at one of the parishes that closed.

Oh, what a lovely way to begin a Monday morning. Grand news for Flannery O'Connor fans:

The family has finally leased part of Andalusia for development as a landmark and memorial

The last time I was in Milledgeville, three years ago, the director of the O'Connor room at the college library described to me the family's resistance to doing anything with Andalusia, despite the promises of all interested that anything done would be respectful and tasteful. Looks like they finally relented:

Amason says the foundation is raising money to restore the main house and the outbuildings. Twenty-one acres of the original farm have been leased to the foundation by the family; members of the foundation hope the heirs eventually will turn over all 547 acres to the foundation.

Tourists of the property must stay on a trolley operated by the Milledgeville/Baldwin County Convention and Visitors Bureau and are not allowed inside any of the structures, some of which are unsafe. "If they walk on that porch, they'll go right through," Amason says..


Amason hopes to develop Andalusia as a destination similar to the Carl Sandburg Home, a farm complex in Flat Rock, N.C., devoted to the poet and folk singer. But the Sandburg home, which sees 100,000 visitors a year, operates with an annual budget of $923,000. The Andalusia foundation has only one employee -- Amason -- and is currently funded by a gift from the Mary Flannery O'Connor Charitable Trust. Amason says it will take years and a good deal more money to catch up.

And more good news from the same article:

The development of Andalusia is likely to accelerate, however, as worldwide attention to O'Connor and her work gains momentum. The author seems ubiquitous this season. A manuscript of Fitzgerald's long-awaited authorized biography -- still incomplete at the time of her death in 2000 -- is reportedly in the hands of editors. An unauthorized biography, "Flannery O'Connor: A Life" (University of Tennessee) by Jean W. Cash, a professor at James Madison University, was published this month. And this fall also will bring a 1,086-page annotated reference guide to O'Connor criticism, edited by R. Neil Scott, an associate director of library operations at GC&SU.

Atlanta-based independent filmmakers Kristen and Amy McGary have raised about $1 million toward the $3 million cost of shooting their script for "Flannery," a biographical film about O'Connor's life, with actress Sissy Spacek signed on to play Regina O'Connor. Work on the project may begin in the spring.

The author of the "long-awaited authorized biography" is, of course, Sally Fitzgerald. I think the proudest moment of my writing life came when I received a letter from the late Mrs. Fitzgerald praising this article on Flannery I wrote for OSV. Someone had sent her a copy of it, and she wrote to me from Cambridge, telling me how pleased she was that I "got" Flannery. Well, not quite, but I'm proud as punch that she thought so.



Profile of a predominantly black parish in Dayton.
Boston Bloggers get ready!

Boston College is presenting a forum on the situation featuring addresses fromGarry Wills and George Weigel

We expect a full report!

Oh - well, actually the W-W show will be later. This Wednesday is Kenneth Woodward of Newsweek, whose views on this are decidedly worth hearing as well - he, along with Peter Steinfels, is a critic of the press coverage of the Situation and the distorted picture of the Church he says it has produced.