Vatican forbids U.S. Jesuit, Roger Haight, to teach as Catholic theologian.

Ut Unum Sint, observing that "Arius wasn't invited as an equal party at the Council of Nicea", highlights how preposterous it is for the National Catholic Reporter to equate the maintenance of orthodoxy with bullying. It is said Fr. Haight has downplayed the divinity of Christ, treating it as primarily symbolic and forcing the Vatican to forbid him from teaching as Catholic theologian [CNS].

As CNS reports it:
The notification said Father Haight's assertion that Catholic theology must be "in dialogue" with the modern world leads him to downplay or deny central teachings of the church, including that:

-- The Word of God existed from all eternity.
-- The Word was made flesh in Jesus Christ.
-- Jesus was divine.
-- Salvation is offered to all humanity through Jesus.
-- The Son and the Spirit are separate persons within the Trinity, not simply "metaphors" for actions of the one God. [CNS].

Ut Unum Sint criticizes the National Catholic Reporter for the ridiculous suggestion that Haight should be invited as an equal to a Christology summit to address the matter. Amy Welborn weighs in on the subject in her blog, Open Book. The Curt Jester weighs in here, Haight Crime, offering well founded criticisms of the Catholic Theological Society of America and the Jesuit order for tendency toward undue tolerance of outright heresy.

Ad Limina Apostolorum says: In any case, whether or not Haight is guilty of taking tradition lightly, it is certainly the case, ... that this is true of many theologians today, who see their fundamental vocation as exploring outside the bounds of tradition than probing more deeply within it. If so, then my hope is that all doubt is erased that this profound misunderstanding of the theologian's role is a properly modern misunderstanding. It has no place in the tradition. That is a sentiment with which I could not agree more. Ad Limina Apostolorum also notes the problem may be less doctrinal accuracy than a matter of public scandal, and that that to the extent Haight has not sufficiently taken care to avoid heterodox misinterpretation of his teaching, this is his opportunity to set things straight.

Barry Bonds Says He Doesn't Know What Cheating Is.

Barry Bonds says, "I don't know what cheating is." Obviously. He explains that he doesn't believe steroids can improve hand eye coordination or help you hit the ball. And apparently if you use a drug that doesn't help you hit the ball but it helps you hit it twice as far, then it ain't cheating. I guess it depends upon what the definition of "is" is.

I don't know that we can say that he is in good company, but he certainly is in prominent company. His half denials and strained attacks on the media for reporting his foibles strike one as highly Clintonesqe. He didn't know what cheating was either.

Archeologists discover St Paul's tomb

Archeologists discover St. Paul's tomb. (CN) According to Vatican archeologists, a sarcophagus in St. Paul Outside the Walls basilica in Rome could contain the remains of St. Paul.

Giorgio Filippi an archeologist from the Vatican Museums doesn't doubt that the site is the burial place of Paul, as it was a place of pilgrimage for many, including emperors, who believed Paul was buried there. WorldNetDaily reports "Filippi said church officials must now decide whether to order further excavation to make the sarcophagus more visible." The sarcophagus was found under the church's main altar. Beneath that altar a 4th century marble plaque reading "Apostle Paul, martyr" could be seen.

Bush Reading Tom Wolfe's "I am Charlotte Simmons".

Speaking of presidential reading material (see my post below re Bush reading Sharansky's "The Case for Democracy), a voice from eden notes here that Dubya is also reading Tom Wolfe's "I Am Charlotte Simmons", about a conservative small-town girl surrounded by the debauched life found at today's universities.

Also via a voice from eden is an article from the International Herald Tribune about Why is Bush reading Tom Wolfe which also lists his other reading choices. The author of a voice from eden notes that he picked up the book out of curiosity but that it is worth reading. Wolfe, who has documented the acid culture, the radical chic and written novels putting Wall Street and high flying developers under the microscope (while serving up a dose of Stoicism), is becoming increasingly irritating to the left. I am a bit of fan, having read four of his books.

If you're going to buy Wolfe's latest (a little blegging here), please use my link - to Amazon - in the sidebar to the right, as I will get a small chunk of the purchase. I believe the link in this post will also work.

John Negroponte, Silver Spoon and Career Diplomat, Nominated as First Director of National Intelligence.

John Negroponte, son of a Greek shipping magnate, alumnus of Phillips Exeter Academy and another Yalie, has been nominated as the first United States Director of National Intelligence. Negroponte is a career diplomat. Some might think that someone with more intelligence experience would be a better choice. There has also been concern expressed over his connections to Iran-Contra and his allegedly turning a blind eye to death squads while Ambassador to Honduras.

It sometime seems that Bush chooses so many, like him, born to privilege. Granted, you do find the likes of Alberto Gonzales, Rice and others in this administration. This USA TODAY article tells that many of his people are from humble backgrounds and are "up-by-their-bootstraps stories". That, of course, is not Negroponte.

It was pointed out here that his recent nominees are overwhelminly inside the beltway types.

Still, Dubya, and his nominees, are infinitely preferable to that other Yalie from Massachusetts, and who knows what sort of folks he'd have in his administration.

Hearings begin in California Assembly on assisted suicide proposal

SACRAMENTO, Calif. Catholic News Service reports that California could become the second state , after Oregon, to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Opponents, many of them disabled, have stronly opposed the bill, arguing that it is a slippery slope. At the bottom, they said, are people who doctors help to die but who were never asked if they wanted to die.

A slippery slope argument is not needed to oppose this. Euthansia of even competent and willing patients is wrong. And the slope goes farther down than the opponents suggest.

Is "Buy Blue" Unamerican or Just Stupid?

Buy Blue is a wacky concept that essentially encourages leftists to boycott companies which made major contributions to the GOP and to buy from companies that contribute to the Dems. It strikes me as almost anti-American. I mean, I could see if it was the American Communist Party or the Nazi Party, but do these lefties see us Republicans as so offensive that they shouldn't even buy a burger from a company which supports the GOP (I know, a lot of libs wouldn't eat a burger anyway - "meat is murder" and all that insane PETA drivel).

OSCAR HOST CHRIS ROCK SHOCK: ABORTION IN AMERICA IS 'BEAUTIFUL'.

The DRUDGE REPORT gives us insight into Chris Rock, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts' choice for host of the Oscars who said in his club routine: "Abortion, it's beautiful, it's beautiful abortion is legal. I love going to an abortion rally to pick up women, cause you know they are ****ing,."

Well, isn't that nice, Hollywood has found a host who really reflects its values.

Spanish Architect Gaudi on Fasttrack to Beatification.

Austen Ivereigh's article Architect Gaudi, the Blessed on Godspy tells how Gaudi is fasttracked to become the first professional artist to be declared a saint.

The architect had achieved high fame and wealth by his youth, but when he was struck by a tram in 1926 he was mistaken for a beggar and taken to Barcelona's pauper's hospital. His friends tried to take him elsewhere but he refused, insisting upon dying in poverty.

When he took over the plans for what would become his masterpiece, the as yet uncompleted basilica Sagrada Familia (Holy Family, see also here) he began a daily habit of Mass, Bible reading, Rosary and confession. From then on he lived the life of an impoverished mystic who melded his faith and his work.

(An interesting contrast to the Sagrada Familia is the recently completed monolithic, angular, and somewhat California mission inspired Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles by fellow Spaniard and contemporary architect, Rafael Moneo).

DEATH OF A COLLABORATOR

BrothersJudd refer to Arthur Miller's demise as the DEATH OF A COLLABORATOR:: "Mr. Miller's deeply despicable art was anti-American and sought to hasten that fragmentation in service to his Communist ideals."

The BrothersJudd Review of Death of a Salesman could be called harsh: "This play is really a relic of the short, unhappy period in the 30's and 40's when American intellectuals had been seduced by Marxism. It is too doctrinaire in it's assumptions about democracy and capitalism to actually say anything of lasting value. You know how there are periodic attempts to ban the teaching of certain books in public schools? Well, I had teachers who taught both this play and The Crucible, that equally morally flaccid piece of tripe and let me just say this : as a parent, I just don't want some nitwit teacher trying to explain this Stalinist propaganda to my kids and telling them that it offers some kind of profound analysis of our society. If folks think it's important to expose kids to authors who critique capitalism and the American Dream, at least let them read The Great Gatsby, which, though wrong also, is at least great literature."

I don't know if the review is accurate - the Salesian high school I attended didn't assign the play to read and I never bothered to see it. Gatsby was assigned (and I have to agree with the BrothersJudd assesment of that) . I would have remained ignorant of the Crucible as well, which I have since learned would have been no real loss, if it were not for Daniel Day Lewis...and Winona Ryder.

Litigation Battle Over Alcohol Industry Marketing to Minors Just Beginning.

The American Bar Association Journal (BATTLE OVER LIQUOR JUST BEGINNING) reports there are now four class actions against the alcohol industry based on their marketing to minors. A fifth was recently dismissed from the L.A. Superior Court.

George A. Hacker, director of the Alcohol Policies Project at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, tells the ABA Journal that, "The alcoholic beverage industry does everything that the tobacco company used to do in terms of hooking young drinkers, wrapping marketing in youth-oriented culture and music and humor. They make very halfhearted efforts to reduce youth access to alcohol."

I think the Budweiser frogs are second-cousins to Joe Camel. Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of the neo-prohibitionism that the likes of MADD (notwithstanding the good they do) and similar groups sometimes engage in. Like the next guy I enjoy beer now and then, and I love a good Oregon Pinot with a plate of salmon. Responsible marketing, and consumption, is one thing, but this industry has been selling a social ill to our children. I suspect that we will see evidence that the industry intentionally marketed to minors in the same way the tobacco companies did.

A Lenten Thought on Sacrifice.

"No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown."
-William Penn

Natan Sharansky's “The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror”

I'm looking forward to reading Natan Sharansky's “The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror”, the book that George W is so infatuated with these days. The Economist did a recent story on Bush and his favorite book, and Slate ran a piece on how Bush's favorite book doesn't always endorse his policies with page citation to Sharansky's tome.

According to the Economist, Sharansky's message is this: "First, “realpolitik” is bankrupt. America cannot go on coddling tyrannical regimes like Saudi Arabia because those regimes invariably try to buy stability at home by exporting hatred abroad. Second, democracy is the best insurance against aggression. Third, the world really is divided between good and evil." A friend of mine already bought the book, so I'm saving a few bucks and waiting for him to finish it.

Online Lenten Retreat

Sacred Space, the prayer site run by the Irish Jesuits, has a Lenten Retreat Online. It has a suggested six hour timetable including proposed morning and midday breaks. I'm hoping to find the time to participate in the retreat, maybe this weekend.

The site also has an excellent daily interactive prayer with a scripture reading which takes about ten minutes. It is available in English, Spanish, Irish, Italian (temporarily unavailable), Japanese, Lithuanian, Portugese, Korean, Latvian, Polish, Catalan, French, Romanian, Czech, Maltese, German, Chinese and Slovenian. Being interactive, it is a great prayer aid, particularly when one is having trouble praying.

The Birth of Science in the Christian High Middle Ages and What It Means Today.

The scientific quest found fertile soil only when this faith in a personal, rational Creator had truly permeated a whole culture, beginning with the centuries of the High Middle Ages. It was that faith which provided, in sufficient measure, confidence in the rationality of the universe, trust in progress, and appreciation of the quantitative method, all indispensable ingredients of the scientific quest. . . .
The future of man rests with that judgment which holds the universe to be the handiwork of a Creator and Lawgiver. To this belief, science owes its very birth and life.

-Stanley L. Jaki, Science and Creation (Edinburgh and London: Scottish Academic Press, 1974)

Jaki, a scientist, philospher and priest has pointed out how science was stillborn in many other societies. For example, science failed in Mesopotamian cultures, a number of American cultures, India, China, Egypt, Greece and Arabia. All made significant advances but had science stillborn at various stages of gestation. The radical difference was Christian metaphysics, which rejected a cyclical view of history, astrological and other essentially pseudo-scientific explanations for natural phenomena, deification of nature, denial of the existence or orderliness of the universe, the view of nature as an organism, lack of balance between faith and reason, and mankind as a part of nature.

C.S. Lewis expressed a similar concept this way,"Men became scientific because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator." According to Alvin Plantinga, the Notre Dame philosopher, "Modern science was conceived, and born, and flourished in the matrix of Christian theism. Only liberal doses of self-deception and double-think, I believe, will permit it to flourish in the context of Darwinian naturalism." By Darwinian naturalism, I believe Plantinga is not referring to mere acceptance of the idea that evolution is valid, but the reductionist and materialist view that everything should be addressed and explained exclusively in terms of the natural world and that the Legislator of Whom Lewis speaks of does not exist.

This pure naturalist view in science has a tendency to degrade into barbarism. This is apparent from the increasing bioethical quandries we are seeing. Such barbarisms as infanticide are advocated by the likes of Princeton philosopher Peter Singer. In Holland, eight percent of babies who die are killed by a physician. The California and Hawaii legislatures are considering euthansia bills like the one in Oregon (NRLC: Euthansia). Hand in hand with this view and abetting it is the attack in the political and legal realm on the natural law concept, notably found in the American Declaration of Independence, that rights are endowed by our Creator.

Could it not be more apparent that Jaki was dead on in saying our future "rests with that judgment which holds the universe to be the handiwork of a Creator and Lawgiver."

Salvation Aptitude Test

From the New Oxford Review, What's Your Score On The S.A.T. (Salvation Aptitude Test)?, a little bit of knowlege every Catholic should have.

Society of St. Pius X: More Catholic Than Catholic, or Schismatic?

Katolic Shinja is an excellent blog authored by an American who is a Catholic convert living in Korea (its author has also been kind enough to include this humble blog his blogroll). Twice recently Katolic Shinja had posts referencing the Society of St. Pius X, one where the Society is mentioned in a post about what some consider deficiencies in the Novus Ordo Mass, Thoughts on the Novus Ordo Missae, and another about the SSPX chapel in Seoul, Korea, SSPX Korea. Coincidentally, last Sunday a family friend, the son of my God-father, invited me to a Latin Mass. As it turns out, the Mass he invited me to was at an SSPX chapel.

For those who are unfamiliar, the SSPX was originally licit, founded by the late Archbishop Lefebvre of France. The Archbishop, protesting the Novus Ordo Mass and Vatican II, eventually defied the Magesterium of the Church ordaining four bishops without permission and going into schism. Lefebvre and his adherents originally made an argument that their actions were permissible under Canon law pursuant to the doctrine of necessity. Without getting into the nuances of Canon law, their arguments that they acted out of necessity were not well founded when originally made and today's Lefebvrites have even less ground to stand on. The Latin Tridentine Masses celebrated by the Lefebvrite priests are true Masses, but are performed in defiance of Church authority. Catholics are directed not to attend Mass at SSPX chapels.

I respect my friend's faith and his concern about the sometimes corrosive effects of modernity on Catholics, but he is in error.

Adherents of this schismatic movement, while claiming to be faithful Catholics, disparage the Pontiff, the successor to the seat of Peter and the Vicar of Christ on earth. They vacillate between recognition of him and an outright sedevacantist view. They claim to be in communion with the Mystical Body of Christ which is the Church but they also speak of "leaving" the Church.

To its merit, the Society encourages the understanding of the real presence in the Eucharist and other orthodoxies which are sometimes given insufficient attention, but it deviates seriously from orthodoxy in matters of no small detail. It also has a tendency towards paranoia with regard to things Masonic and has anti-Semitic leanings. I have read that the Society veers into a number of classical heresies, although I was not able to detect these myself.

I would urge my friend and any adherents of or sympathizers with this schism to consider Matthew 16:18: "thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

According to the L.A. Times, Culture War is Declared in Europe

The L.A. Times, which is itself a combatant in the culture wars, reports that the culture war is declared in Europe. L.A.'s thick, left of center daily cites as support for its assertion Rocco Buttiglione having been Borked from the EU's justice commissioner position because he took a traditional view of Christian morality, the religiousity of Tony Blair and British politician Ruth Kelly's connections to Opus Dei. In typical LAT fashion the article ends by raising the preposterous spectre of sectarian bloodshed. What the Times writers fail to appreciate is that it is the waning and suppression of faith which led to Europe's greatest bloodbath under the anti-religious regimes of the Nazis and Communists.

In a similar vein, Slate, which usually has an anti-religious bent, carries the article Is France Getting Religion? - In the immigrant suburbs of Paris, secularism is on the wane. By Elisabeth Eaves. This piece was not laden with the usual anti-religous bias found at Slate.