The Ark and The Dove

Good News

Archbishop Edwin Frederick O'Brien will become the fifteenth archbishop of Baltimore.
Good news for Baltimore, Archbishop O'Brien, and Cardinal Keeler.

I've met Archbishop O'Brien several times at the CSC, he would help out at the leadership conference as well as say mass on several occasions.

You can read more here.

"Something More Manageable"

Only read if you want to get upset.

Does Anyone Think This Was a Fair Question?

Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes asks Mitt Romney a Mormon, whether or not they engaged in premarital sex.  I think Romney is getting picked on because he's a Mormon, EVERY announced candidate professes to be a member of some religious tradition and all of their religious traditions oppose premarital sex.  But I don't think Obama, Edwards or Clinton would be asked that question.  So should the personal questions be asked?  I can't say the Romney's answer, "No," affected my judgment of him as a presidential candidate.  I must say I'm viscerally opposed to creating a checklist of all the grave sins and ask a candidate to check them off.

Forgetting history doomed to repeat etc.

Remember the days when that foolish "foreign-government" slam against Catholics regarding the Pope was actually something people took seriously?  When people sang songs, and meant it, like "Oh, I'd rather be a Klansman in my robes of snowy white/Than be a Catholic priest and wear a robe as black as night/For a Klansman is American and America is his home/But a Catholic priest is loyal to a foreign prince in Rome"?

Hopefully this business that MCJ raises the alarm about in his own communion is an isolated case and not the "latest thing" - protesting Christian orthodoxy as subjection to foreign domination and un-American.

Thank you, Get Religion

For your coverage of the coverage of the Apostolic Exhortation.  Too bad everyone who reads the papers won't read this.

Apparently, if I was "normal,"

(I am presuming that Reuters thinks of its readership as composed chiefly of "normal" people), I would be searching the Pope's proclamation for what it said about the gay and/or sexual revolution agenda.

I was a bit surprised that the article did mention liturgy at the end:

In another section, Benedict lamented that many Catholic priests did not know Latin, the official language of the Church. 

He said Latin should be used in parts of large open-air masses held at international gatherings "to express more clearly the unity and universality of the Church".

He said he wanted to see more Latin and more Gregorian chant used in Church services.

"Certainly, as far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that one song is as good as another," he said."

If you were wondering, I did not edit that chunk of text myself.  

Rumor Mill

An Australian newspaper claims that Pope Benedict plans to release the rumored indult as a motu proprio soon.

Things that you should know that reporters probably do not know to tell you:

1.) Rumors.  The exact same rumors were bandied about at this exact same time last year.  Only I didn't hear the thing about the printers.  But even if it's a true rumor, it could be true for the more remote future rather than the near future.  You know how the Vatican works.

2.) The "Latin Mass."  Vatican II did not "get rid" of Latin, although a casual observer might be forgiven for thinking so.  So far as I know, every Sacramentary has the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin.  If you look in the front of an English Sacramentary, you will see a decree from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments dated March 26, 1970 stating that the Latin edition of the new (1970) Roman Missal may be used immediately as soon as it is printed, but other languages must wait for special permission.

3.) What changes I expect you will (or won't) see in the near future.  Don't suppose that there will be this huge tide of 1962 Missal (aka the Tridentine Mass) sweeping in.  If you don't understand how this works -  How many priests do you know who are prepared to celebrate Mass according to the current (1970) Roman Missal mostly or all in Latin (which is right now always allowed and requires no special permission)?  Divide that number by (by my  guess) ten or perhaps more and you will have an estimate of how many might be interested in celebrating 1962 Missal Mass.

Robotic Ethics Charter

Since Peter has been interested in tackling robot-human ethical issues lately, I thought I'd post this news link.

Maybe they can have a barking meter

NJ residents with noisy dogs could face fines.

Attention potential combox witnesses

The Washington Post is holding an online discussion series entitled "On Faith," which has as the topic for this week the relationship between religion and sexuality.  Judging from the comments, they are sorely in need of your perspective should you have the generosity and patience to leave a comment.  I know the internet is perhaps not as congenial as face-to-face, but it is the modern agora.  I know that of course you will be very polite, but in terms of advice, I would suggest trying to avoid using too many technical terms of Catholic theology without explanation because most readers will probably have a different theological vocabulary than you are used to.

The format is that the paper selects a question from a reader and has a number of panelists write a short essay in answer, upon which readers can post comments, much like on a blog.  Here's the link.

I notice that Anglican Bible scholar Marcus Borg's essay has the fewest number of comments on it but a very interesting slant - he has brought the idea of sacramentality into it.