Chosen child fights for the unborn

Here's a link to my profile of Ruth Lobo, the leader of the Carleton Five, who were arrested Oct. 4 for trying to mount a photographic display comparing abortion to genocide on the Carleton University campus:

OTTAWA — The only time Ruth Lobo felt afraid during her arrest on the Carleton University campus last October, was when the Ottawa police slammed the doors of the paddy wagon and left her inside alone.

"I didn't know what was happening and I couldn't see my team," the 23-year-old student said. Until that moment she had felt "righteous anger" when she and five others were handcuffed after a confrontation with university authorities.

Lobo and five other students were arrested Oct. 4 for trying to mount a controversial pro-life display on the Carleton University campus. They expected confrontation, but they did not expect Ottawa Police to cart them away.

"When things like that happen it really forces you to grow up," she said.

It's not only the arrest that has forced her to count the cost. Since then she and her fellow demonstrators have "experienced a lot of rejection from close friends and people in the Catholic community."

People have told her they don't like the images they use from the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), which graphically compare the destruction of unborn children with recent genocides, including the Holocaust.

Lobo represents a new face of the pro-life movement in Canada. She is one of many young pro-life activists prepared to use tactics that make people uncomfortable. Lobo and her counterparts are influenced by the Calgary-based Canadian Centre for Bio-ethical Reform (CCBR), which created the GAP project.

"CCBR's tactics have proven to be effective in saving babies and helping women," Lobo said.

CCBR is training up a new movement of young pro-life leaders. "They set a new standard of what the pro-life movement looks like - it's full of young, articulate, confident and intelligent young people who are not afraid and who have the ability to endure suffering."

Her arrest took place almost 22 years to the day of her arrival in Canada as the newly-adopted baby daughter of Ottawa residents Ben and Maria Lobo, who already had three children of their own. They had felt led to adopt a child from their native India and prayed to receive this child into their devout family.

Lobo's birth mother had sought shelter in a Bangalore convent that provided help for single mothers.

Last summer, working for CCBR and telling her story on city sidewalks to people confronted by the GAP imagery, Lobo realized how the pro-life cause gives meaning to her life as an adopted child.

There's more. Click on the link above.

Christianity and free will--A lesson for our time

A most interesting entry over at Brussels Journal by Thomas F. Bertanneau. An excerpt:

Determinism or Fatalism is, however, hardly a modern innovation. The idea appears to ripen with a certain stage of civilization and to go in tandem with a lapse in family integrity and a general abeyance of customs and forms. Whatever we call it, the same sophistic teaching also shows itself to be in a relation with the scale of the civic environment, belonging not to the eras of the city-state or of the feudal market town but rather to the ages of empire, cosmopolitanism, and the universal bureaucratization of life. As we moderns invoke biological and sociological mechanisms to absolve people of their infractions, either of omission or commission, so the ancients invoked Heimarmene or Fortuna or Sors, implacable, superhuman agencies that play with human beings, as gamblers play with dice. Fate, sometimes also Chance, explains wealth or poverty, success or failure, as an accident, which might have fallen out otherwise; it simultaneously dulls pity for the afflicted and suggests that industriousness never really deserves the fruits of its labor. What real virtue, then, attaches to the putatively virtuous? Why imitate frugality, chastity, or prudence? Fatalism would persuade the subject that to moralize about behaviors or conditions is to protest uselessly against forces beyond his conscious control.

Like all hypocrisy, Fatalism pays stealthy tribute to that which it aims to avoid or denounce or suspend. It utters a perpetual cry of “I can’t help myself,” thereby confessing to secret cognizance of its own self-forfeiting wretchedness. In acknowledging and denying morality, the doctrine of individual will-less-ness blurs moral clarity. It likewise disorients those in its gray aura who would seek the independent way and who would best be served in their quest for moral self-control by a pellucid, rather than by an occluded, description of good and evil. The doctrine of individual will-less-ness abets libido by dissimulating rhetorically the actual presence of any effective, morally responsible volition. As Gilbert Murray narrates in The Five Stages of Greek Religion (1925), the idea of implacable Fate as the supreme cosmic power arose as belief in the old Olympian deities shrank away and as rival imperial powers fought for dominance in the world of Mediterranean Antiquity.

Referring to Alexander’s conquests, the wars between his successors, and the civil wars that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire, Murray writes: “In a country suffering from earthquakes or pestilences, in a court governed by the whim of a despot, in a district which is habitually the seat of war between alien armies, the ordinary virtues of diligence, honesty, and kindliness seem to be of little avail. The only way to escape destruction is to win the favor of the prevailing powers, take the side of the strongest invader, flatter the despot, placate the Fate or Fortune or angry god that is sending the earthquake or pestilence.” Murray quotes Juvenal on the ubiquity of destiny-worship: “Throughout the whole world, at every place and hour, by every voice Fortune alone is invoked and her name spoken… we are so much at the mercy of chance that Chance is our god.” Murray writes, “So much for the result in superstitious minds of the denial, or rather the removal, of the Olympian gods,” which “landed men in the worship of Fortune or Fate.” Finally, there is a dangerous “denial of the value of human endeavor” that has the “quality of poison when believed.”

In this light consider three stories from the period Late Antiquity. Petronius Arbiter composed Satyricon around 60 AD while acting as Emperor Nero’s master of ceremonies. Lucius Apuleius, a Platonist, wrote The Golden Ass around 160, during the long reign of Marcus Aurelius. Augustine of Hippo, latterly St. Augustine, wrote his autobiographical Confessions in the last decade of the Fourth Century. We will discover, among other things, that the explicitly Christian civilization, against which modernity characteristically defines itself, emerged in part as a response to ancient fatalism, and that every one of the self-made moral snares that trap modern people – from Mammon-worship and ego-inflation to satyriasis and nymphomania – has its counterpart in the teeming, avaricious, flesh-obsessed Mediterranean world of the Imperial centuries. Those remote centuries begin to look a good deal like our own contemporary moment.

Read it all, it is very interesting.

NYT profile of Obama

"Barry was so naughty that my father even scolded him one time," said Sonni Gondokusumo, 49, a former neighbor and classmate.

Mr. Obama's family rented the guest house inside a compound belonging to a prominent physician. There, according to the neighborhood's longtime residents, the young Obama, who had already experienced differences in class and religion in his short stay in Indonesia, was exposed to another aspect of Jakarta's diversity.

His nanny was an openly gay man who, in keeping with Indonesia's relaxed attitudes toward homosexuality, carried on an affair with a local butcher, longtime residents said. The nanny later joined a group of transvestites called Fantastic Dolls, who, like the many transvestites who remain fixtures of Jakarta's streetscape, entertained people by dancing and playing volleyball.

In the compound, Mr. Obama often played with the two sons of the physician's driver.

One time, recalled the elder son, Slamet Januadi, now 52, Mr. Obama asked a group of boys whether they wanted to grow up to be president, a soldier or a businessman. A president would own nothing while a soldier would possess weapons and a businessmen would have money, the young Obama explained.

Mr. Januadi and his younger brother, both of whom later joined the Indonesian military, said they wanted to become soldiers. Another boy, a future banker, said he would become a businessman.

"Then Barry said he would become president and order the soldier to guard him and the businessman to use his money to build him something," Mr. Januadi said. "We told him, 'You cheated. You didn't give us those details.' "

"But we all became what we said we would," he said.

Hillbuzz comments:

Not only did Obama’s mother think it was great to leave her son in the care of pedophile Frank Marshall in Hawaii, but in Indonesia she hired a drag queen for his nanny.

Most interesting essay on the Chosen People

By David B. Goldman aka "Spengler" over at the First Things blogsite. This is just an excerpt:

The State of Israel was founded with at least some theocratic elements—at exactly a point in history when the Catholic Church was renouncing theocracy and withdrawing from secular governance. Catholics, along with many Protestant and Orthodox Christians, view with disquiet the revival of a religiously defined political state just when religiously defined states were disappearing as a factor in Christian life. Although the theocratic elements in Israeli law are ad hoc rather than systemic, they are nonetheless integral to Israel’s character (the Right of Return for Jews, for example).

So why should Christians renounce a Christian theocracy while embracing a Jewish theocracy? The answer flows from the distinction between the People of God of the flesh and the People of God in the Spirit. The Jewish theologian Michael Wyschogrod has observed that, uniquely among the peoples of the world, the Jews are the People of God as a nationality, whereas Christians must be dual citizens of the People of God and their nationality of birth. For that reason alone, a Jewish state must have at least some theocratic elements, although in other respects it is subject to the same international law that applies to all states. Wyschogrod explains:

As understood by Christianity, a model of dual loyalty develops. The individual belongs both to a nation and to a religion. He is a Frenchman and a Christian or a German and a Christian. As Frenchman or German, he is a member of a national community with territorial and linguistic boundaries. But he is also a member of the supra-national church which has no national boundaries. . . . The church is a spiritual fellowship into which men bring their national identities because they possess these identities but not because such identities play a role in the church. The church thus understands itself as having universalized the national election of Israel by opening it to all men who, in entering the church, enter a spiritualized, universalized new Israel.

In one sense, Israel is beyond the “laws” of history. It is not subject to the rise and fall of all other peoples and empires, a fact which causes angry philosophers of history whose schemes Israel undermines to refer to it as a fossil not subject to historic destruction.

But at the same time, Israel does not abandon the domain of history. It refuses to exchange its historical and national messianism for a doctrine of individual salvation. Israel refuses to invent the idea of a church which forces men to live in two jurisdictions and to assume two identities: a member of a nation and a member of a church. When such a bifurcated existence is decreed for human life, European wars in which Christian fights Christian, not as Christian but as German, Frenchman or Pole, become possible. That such a church-sanctioned conflict was the rule rather than the exception in the history of Europe was not simply the result of a failure of Christianity. Once religion and nationality are separated, the historical order in which national destinies are realized is almost inevitably de-Christianized.

Through Jesus Christ, as Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger once wrote, “the pagan nations accede to the election of Israel and share in its grace.” But the election of Israel and the election of the Gentiles who answer the call to the Church of Jesus Christ take radically different forms: Jews are called as a nation, while Gentiles are called away from their nations, as individuals. By affirming that the Jews are still called as a nation, the Church affirms that no other nation is elected in the flesh.

This is a distinction of inestimable importance, for the residual paganism of Christianized nations has invariably expressed itself in the idolatrous desire to be a chosen people—to be a nation like Israel. That is the secret of so-called Christian anti-Semitism: It is not Christian at all but rather expresses pagan resentment against Israel and jealousy of its unique form of election.

If I were young again

I would do this.

I love hip hop when it's done well.

Hip hop in the service of the Gospel

In case you never heard Sarah Vaughan

These Foolish Things




Fly me to the moon

The Lover's Concerto

I love this old song from my youth and the way the Toys did it:



I had never heard this version by Sarah Vaughan. Gosh, I love Sarah Vaughan. I heard her live two nights in a row in a Chicago nightclub in the 1970s. She had everyone in the club feeling like they were in love.

Flood by Jars of Clay

I ran a bunch of errands late this afternoon---Costco, Bulk Barn, the banking machine, Farm Boy, Staples not necessarily in that order. As I headed home, my trunk full of myriad items, I heard this song on the radio. It's by one of the more original Christian bands Jars of Clay.

Beautiful reflections on Chanukah and Advent

Archbishop Prendergast posted an address he gave this week at a testimonial dinner in Toronto in honor of Rabbi Erwin and Mrs. Laura Schild. Here's a portion of this beautiful talk. He has many pictures and much more over at his blog.

Our gifts to the world at Chanukah and Advent

Allow me to conclude with a thought on the feasts we are about to celebrate as Jews and Christians. It is good to reflect on the symbols of light and hope that mark the Jewish feast of Chanukah and the Christian season of Advent that prepares us for the birth of Christ. This is a time when Jews and Christians use the symbols of candles and lights to shatter the winter darkness.

Chanukah [beginning this year at sundown on Thursday, December 2] means “dedication,” and commemorates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration by foreign forces and the Jews' victory over the Hellenist Syrians in the year 165 B.C. For the rededication celebration, the Maccabees desired to light the menorah and looked everywhere for oil, finally finding a small flask that contained only enough oil to light the menorah for one day. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight days. The message of Chanukah may be found in the name of the holiday itself: dedication—not only of the temple building but of individual lives to the pursuit of high religious and human ideals.

The biblical selections read during Chanukah and Advent can become a new summons to the Synagogue and to the Church to reach out to one another, to recommit ourselves to the truth of God’s saving Word, to human solidarity, fidelity, and to bearing God’s light to the nations, together as partners in building up the kingdom of God.

Both Jews and Christians are invited to go beyond the outward symbols and ask the deeper questions: how do we continue to long for the truth and salvation that the Messiah will bring? Advent teaches Christians about the relationship between the Scriptures and the Covenants that God has made with the human family.

During the upcoming seasons of Chanukah and Advent, Jews continue to long for the Messiah’s coming and Christians celebrate his birth in human history. Christians believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah who has come (Luke 4:22), but we also know that his Messianic kingdom of justice, love and peace is not yet fully realized.

It is the sacred vocation and mission of the Church to prepare the world for the full flowering of God's kingdom that is “not yet”. The Jewish Kaddish and the Our Father exemplify this message. Both Christianity and Judaism seal their worship with a common hope: “Thy Kingdom come!” There is much unfinished business. The world looks to us—Jews and Christians—for a message, an example and a reason to hope and believe.

We cannot forget the deeply Judeo-Christian ethics and values that lie at the heart of our nation. We start by working together to protect the most important human values that are threatened by a world in continual transformation and upheaval. In the first place comes the right to life, to be protected from conception right up to natural death. Life is a most precious gift from God, the precondition for all other divine gifts. Next comes the dignity of the human person and the rights which flow from it.

Our common longing for the fruits of the Messianic kingdom invite us—Jews and Christians—into a knowledge of our communion with one another and, a recognition of the terrible brokenness of the world. As Pope John Paul II taught us so powerfully through word, gesture and deed during his historic Pontificate, and as Benedict continues to remind us day after day—nothing and no one can ever wrench us away any longer from that deep communion.

The “tikkun ha’olam”, the healing of the world, its repair, restoration and redemption depends upon us, working together. It is precisely that healing and collaboration that have so marked Rabbi Schild’s life and ministry. For those great gifts, we give thanks to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the God and Father of Jesus Christ.

L’chayim, dear Rabbi and Mrs. Schild!

Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus

This is the song that was on my heart this morning as I did my prayers.

And the Lord also called Philippians 4:8 to mind:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.

The best and funniest condom post --John Zmirak

I gotta say, this guy can write! This is hilarious and perceptive.

I can`t seem to be able to paste an excerpt. Go over and read the whole thing. You will laugh. You will cry. You will like it. Trust me.

Join me in praying for Mark Steyn

Just went over to Mark Steyn's website and saw this:

I know the on-again off-again nature of SteynOnline in recent months has sorely tried readers’ patience. Rather boringly, I have some health issues that demand somewhat more attention than I’ve been able to give them. So rather than keep driving you nuts by showing signs of life on the home page for a day or two and then lapsing back into sleep mode for a week, we’re going to close up shop for a while.

I very much regret having to do this. SteynOnline opened up just before Thanksgiving 2002 and, usually at this time of year, we’d be doing a big old anniversary bonanza. In recent seasons, late November and December have found me out on the airwaves plugging Jessica’s and my annual Christmas offering. But our instant disco classic will have to make it without my help this year. I would be remiss in not adding that it and many other delights remain available at our bookstore.

We will return before the end of the year. You can take that to the bank (and stick it in the vault next to your credit default swap).

Mark

Won't you join me in lifting up a prayer for Mark, that his health problems will be resolved, that he will feel the peace that passes understanding from the Prince of Peace? I pray above all that he feels and knows in the deepest reaches of his being that nothing can separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

I pray that our Happy Warrior will be restored to us in fine fettle to he can again join the vanguard of the culture war against totalitarianism, from the left and from radical Islam.

And I also want to say thank you to Mark for his kindness, his generosity, his concern for all of us small bloggers out in the trenches fighting in the same war but perhaps on different fronts.

Ben and Mae: the most beautiful grandchildren in the world

The new face of the pro-life movement

From the Western Catholic Reporter:

OTTAWA — When Lia Mills gave a speech on abortion to her seventh grade Toronto class two years ago, she never expected it to go viral on YouTube.

Rebecca Richmond intended to bake cookies to support her university pro-life group. She never thought she would become the group's leader and eventually the executive director of the National Campus Life Network, mentoring leaders across the country.

When Mills, 14, chose to talk about abortion, her teacher told her the subject was too big and too controversial and suggested she find another. When Mills said she must talk about abortion, her teacher told her she would be eliminated from an upcoming speech contest if she spoke about abortion in front of the class.

Mills went ahead and her teacher decided to allow her into the speech contest as long as she took out one sentence that made reference to God.

Since God originally told me to do the topic on abortion, how could I take him out? she told the International Pro-Life Conference here recently. The teacher relented.

During the contest, "one of the judges stepped down and refused to listen," Mills said.

But that reaction paled in comparison to what followed. A videotape of her speech on YouTube drew "so much backlash and opposition," that online comments included death threats, and negative remarks about her faith and her family. The video has received one million views.

SPIRITUAL BATTLE

"I was stepping into a spiritual battle I was not aware of," she said.

More here.

The picture shows Rebecca Richmond (left) and Lia Mills at the International Pro-Life Conference here in Ottawa Oct. 29.

Why bother to send your kid to a fancy university for this?

Unbelievable.

In being inculcated into the speech-code ethos, American students are increasingly having their thoughts controlled rather than their minds expanded. Far from being laboratories of learning, many campuses have become laboratories for new forms of censorship and conformism. Governing everything from political hotheadedness to sexist speech (one American university outlawed any speech which judged someone on the basis of their sex alone, until FIRE pointed out that this meant the university was effectively banning men’s and women’s toilets), colleges now communicate to students the message that they are not entering an institution of open-mindedness and free, sometimes robust debate, but rather one made up of fragile individuals who must be addressed in a polite, PC manner at all times.

Lukianoff tells me about one of the more extreme examples of the speech-code ethos, ‘probably the best and most nightmarish example of what we call “thought reform”’. The University of Delaware had a mandatory programme for all 7,000 of its students who lived in dorms, which it actually explicitly referred to as a ‘treatment’. The students were expected to attend floor meetings so that they could be told what was acceptable speech on campus and what was not, where the idea, says Lukianoff, ‘was effectively to cure them of any obvious racist, sexist or homophobic beliefs’.

In an exercise at one of these institutionalised meetings, students were told to stand by a certain wall depending on where they stood on matters such as gay marriage, affirmative action, welfare and other hot-button issues in the US. And if they had the ‘wrong’ views on these issues, then they were seen as potentially intolerant and in need of being reminded about the university’s speech and ethics codes. ‘It was flatly political’, says Lukianoff. ‘It was actually a public shaming, really going back to our Puritan roots. This kind of thing treats young people as socially unenlightened and in need of a kind of indoctrination.’

John Smeaton praises Archbishop Hepworth's pro-life stance

John Smeaton, the national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the oldest pro-life organization in the world, praises Traditional Anglican Communion primate Archbishop John Hepworth for his unwavering pr0-life stance in this blog entry:

The Ordinariate will help Catholic pro-lifers challenge the status quo

I am delighted by the news that five Anglican bishops and 50 Anglican clergy are in the first wave of people who wish to join the Ordinariate for former Anglicans established by Pope Benedict within the Catholic Church. As I said last December, I have no doubt that part of the impact of the Ordinariate will be greatly to strengthen Catholic witness on pro-life matters. Keith Newton, the Anglican bishop of Richborough, has been reported as saying that among his motivations for leaving the Church of England is that in the Church of England:

"There has been a more lax attitude towards moral issues. The whole question of blessing gay marriage – there is a lot of pressure for that to happen in the Church of England – abortion, and life and death issues."

I am particularly grateful for the pro-life witness of Archbishop John Hepworth (pictured), the primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), which has sought to join the Ordinariate. In July last year Dr Hepworth wrote:

"To procure the death of an unborn child is a heinous crime against the most defenceless person".

And in December last year, Dr Hepworth wrote, at the start of the Octave of the Holy Innocents:

"[L]et us take clear sight of the martyrs who are our Octave companions. Their echoes are all around us, in the destruction of innocent life, in the failure of episcopal teaching..."

I am unsurprised to learn that there is resistance within the Catholic establishment in England to the prospect of pro-life former Anglicans being given a special place within the Catholic Church. Tom Wright, the retired Anglican bishop of Durham, said in an interview earlier this month:

"Many of the Roman Catholic bishops that I know in England were not terribly happy at the thought that they might have to administer this kind of whole extra wrinkle on top of the complicated structure they've already got, and I did hear one Roman Catholic priest - how representative I don't know - saying we've got quite enough traditionalists in our own Church without having all yours as well."

Dr Wright's comment rings true. Catholic bishops in England and Wales sometimes leave the impression that are more like company managers concerned with admnistration than spiritual leaders concerned with saving lives and souls from the culture of death. As Cardinal-elect Raymond Burke said in his landmark speech in Rome last month, it is absolutely essential that the Catholic Church is led and run by bishops and priests who preach, teach and obey Magisterial teaching on pro-life and pro-family issues.

Wow! LifeSiteNews.com has a new website!

Check it out. It's spectacular.

Visiting the Anglican Use parish in the Boston area

Fr. Richard Bradford pastor of St. Athanasius and two altar servers

On Sunday, I had the privilege of visiting St. Athanasius, the Anglican Use parish in the Archdiocese of Boston.

Though the congregation is small, it is warm and friendly and certainly a place I would be happy to make my church home if I moved back to the Boston area where I grew up and my mother and brother and his family still live.

Interestingly, I would estimate the size of the congregation is about half of that of our Ottawa cathedral, but their church building is about five times the size! That might say more about Boston as being like the Quebec of the United States in terms of its secularism than about the quality of the preaching and teaching and fellowship and the beauty of the Anglican liturgy. This was my first Anglican Use liturgy, which I found a bit of a hybrid.

The size of this parish is quite a contrast to that of the Anglican Use parish in San Antonio, Texas, recent site for the Becoming One conference. Here's an excerpt of a report from on of the Traditional Anglican Communion priests from Canada who attended:

I have to begin by saying that if someone had told me what I was to encounter at Our Lady of the Atonement it could not have prepared me for what I actually experienced. Yes, it is the most robust parish of the US Pastoral Provision parishes, but. . .! This parish that began in 1983 with eighteen parishioners, one priest and no building is now a thriving institution with four Masses on a Sunday, daily Masses, an incredible campus, and a top-rated day school of 550 students in pre-K to grade 12. The school (Atonement Academy) deserves a write-up of its own.

This conference was billed as an opportunity for those in the US who are interested to learn more about what Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Constitution has to offer to those in the various Anglican bodies there. Everyone was welcomed, whether in the Traditional Anglican Communion, another of the Continuing Anglican bodies, The Episcopal Church, or the US Pastoral Provision Parishes. When Bishop Botterill and I (Canon Richard Harris) decided to attend we knew that, as Canadians, we’d be the odd ducks there. But we were welcomed with open arms even though we were not the specific target of the conference.

There were three basic aspects of the conference: worship, presentations by some of the Pastoral Provision clergy and Fr. Scott Hurd, the official representative of Cardinal Wuerl, who is in turn the CDF’s designated liaison in the US, and fellowship. On “the way forward” we heard how the C.D.F., with input from those raised in the Anglican tradition, are putting the final touches on the “crash courses” that will be offered to the Anglican laity and clergy who wish to join the Ordinariates when they are established. As announced by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales the English Ordinariate will be established in a few short months and we will benefit from their experience as they break new ground. The formation programme for laity will involve study at the parish level of some aspects of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that Anglicans may not have been exposed to, and the “intensive” study programme being prepared for the clergy will ensure that they are ready for ordination as Catholic priests in a matter of weeks rather than years. Follow up reading programmes for the Ordinariate clergy will complete their academic formation.

Worship at Our Lady of the Atonement was in every way as Anglican as you could ask for. While the building that houses OLA is of recent vintage, it is what any Anglo-Catholic parish would hope for. There are pictures and all sorts of information on their web site.

I got a nice shot of Fr. Richard Bradford, the pastor, and two of the altar servers, in the sacristy before Mass. I got the names of the other two, but since I did not write them down I am sorry I can't put them on the caption. Maybe someone can add their names in the comments section.

As I arrived at the beautiful St. Lawrence Church in Chestnut Hill where St. Athanasius now finds its home, some parishioners were loading up cars with gaily-wrapped boxes with all the fixings for a turkey Thanksgiving dinner to deliver to those who might otherwise not be able to afford one.

Delivering the makings of Thanksgiving dinner

St. Lawrence Church in Chestnut Hill, Mass, the home of St. Athanasius

Interior of St. Lawrence Church

A blast from the past

On Sunday afternoon, my brother Mike, my sister Barbara and I went to the Plough & Stars, a bar just outside Harvard Square in Cambridge, that used to be on my rounds when I used to bar hop back in the late 60s. And who was playing there but my friend Fred, who I met back in 1967, and his wife Gail. My brother Michael got up a few times to sing back up. The bar was packed and all of us rickety baby boomers were jammin'

It was a good time of day for us, too---5 to 7 p.m. so we could get into bed early.

Gluten-free fried clams!!!!!!

I just got back from a visit to Boston to see my mom and one of our traditions is to visit Legal Sea Foods.

So the gals in the family went shopping, then out to Legal for lunch. My brother's wife Sally, my sister Barbara, my mom Catherine and me.

And we had gluten free fried clams, fried shrimp, and fried scallops, fried in chick pea flour.

Almost as good as the wheat fried stuff, but better for us.

More news from the Becoming One conference

Anglican Use Catholic priest Fr. Christopher Phillips talks about why parishes already inside the Catholic Church want to join an ordinariate (my bolds):

*****

We have sizeable Anglican Use parishes already in full communion with the Holy See. No other country can claim that. There are several parishes that have made the decision to leave their Episcopalian or Continuing Anglican jurisdiction in order to join – again, we have more parishes in that situation than can be found in any other country. The Ordinariate in this country will be able to start on a firm financial footing because we have financially secure parishes such as this one — and there are others — ready not only to join the Ordinariate, but to provide considerable resources for the founding of new parishes, to support missionary priests, and to provide for the needs of the Ordinariate and its Ordinary. And this means that there'll be a constantly increasing financial stability, because our universal experience is that when a parish enters into full and visible Catholic communion, growth inevitably happens, income increases, and the local parish ministry expands dramatically. No other country will have the stable and financially secure beginning that we'll see right at the beginning of the United States Ordinariate. The truth is, we don't want a long wait.

In fact, when the text of Anglicanorum coetibus was made public, I had no hesitation at all in wanting to be part of an Ordinariate. I happened to be in Rome at the time of the announcement, and I excitedly called my archbishop and said to him that I wanted to send in a request right away. I really excited about it, and it never dawned on me that he wouldn't be just as excited. His response? "What's your hurry?"

At the time, his question didn't make any sense to me. In fact, I pondered it all the way back from Rome. But eventually I figured it out, and at the same time I saw the immense wisdom of the Holy Father in giving us a separate jurisdiction. My archbishop – a wonderful and godly man, and now, sadly for us, moved to Los Angeles — couldn't really understand what we were about, as an Anglican Use parish. Certainly, he liked visiting here; he always showed great respect to me as one of his pastors, and to us as a parish, because we're part of his archdiocese, just like his other priests and parishes. Sure, we have a different liturgical use. But when you go around the archdiocese you'd swear that every parish has its own liturgical use! He appreciated the loyalty we gave to him as our archbishop. He was always very proud of our school as one of the finest in the archdiocese, and he was very pleased when it was recognized nationally as an excellent educational institution. Very importantly, we always pay our assessment on time. We've always been supportive of archdiocesan programs, such as pro-life efforts, the apostolate to the homeless and needy, the seminary, and a host of other things. But I don’t think he ever understood the particular charism of the parish, or the place of the Anglican Use in the Western Church. And that’s not rare among the bishops in this country. We’ve existed for nearly thirty years, but if you mention the Anglican Use to the average bishop, you’ll receive either a blank stare, or there’ll be an immediate attempt to hem it in, and squeeze it out of existence. And that’s not an uncharitable assessment – thirty years of experience tells us it’s so. I wish it weren’t so, but that’s simply the fact.

So what happens when my archbishop gets a call from me, all excited about the new Apostolic Constitution, and the possibility of becoming part of an Ordinariate? “What’s your hurry?” I didn't stop to think that he hadn't been particularly waiting for this development. In fact, it hadn't been on his radar screen at all – and that’s completely understandable. Bishops have lots of people and myriad issues to deal with; the demand upon them as Fathers-in-God and as shepherds of a huge flock means they can’t possible understand every nuance of every group of Catholics under their care.

The thing is, our immediate desire to be part of an Ordinariate isn't hurrying at all. We've been working for this and praying for this for some thirty years. When approaches were made to the Holy See back in the 1970's, we had no idea what the Church might do for us. When the Pastoral Provision was established by Pope John Paul II, it was a huge step forward, and we entered into the process as quickly as we could. Why would we have waited around? We asked; Rome responded; we fulfilled the requirements as soon as possible, and we came home. But even then, we knew that some sort of separate jurisdiction was going to be necessary if our parishes were going to grow and increase in numbers. And at the same time, other Anglican groups were traveling the same road, with the same realization, as approach after approach was made to the Holy See.

Report from the Becoming One conference

Fr. Luke Reese, his wife and six children at Our Lady of the Atonement

Father Luke Reese, a Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) priest from the United States, sends this report via his iPhone from San Antonio:

****

The day started with a history of "how we got here" first from Fr Moore, retired founding priest of Our Lady of Walsingham, fascinating story and one I knew nothing of - it's a story that deserves to be told. You might try contacting him to get the facts straight from the horses mouth. Next Bp Moyer TAC stressed the importance of the Portsmouth Petition, especially the passage that in it indicating "good conscience" required Anglican Catholics to humbly submit to the Holy See not only having exhausted excuses for not doing so but for the reason of moving toward the Lord's calling for Christian unity ; and the Pope is the only gravitational focus for such unity.

Fr Hurd spoke next; the important elements of which are already related on the site; but with only this addition that he believes the first Ordinariate will be in great Britton. Why, he could not say just that he had a strong suspicion. He also stressed the fact that the Pope does not want the process to drag slowly; expediency is a priority. He also mentioned several times that Archbishop Wuerl's mandate only involves that of collecting information to be sent to the CDF; Fr Hurd himself wrote the questionnaire being used in the USA. It is important, he said, to keep groups together and to have as little disruption as possible and that speaks to clergy training as well. They plan to take full advantage of modern technology to facilitate this.

Next a picture of the state of things in the AU today. They have four solid parishes in the US and all of them are distinctly filled with families with lots of children. Fr Bergman of Scranton emphasized this fact and related several difficulties we all can expect to face once we are within the Church. He described these as "fallacies". Fallacy Number one: that "unity requires uniformity." In answer to this he quoted card. Levada's 2009 address on the AC in which he spoke of the Anglican patrimony being a rich treasure to be shared - unity in faith not in form. Fallacy 2: "Diversity is disloyalty." To which he referenced the Chaldean Catholics who were murdered at Mass recently in Iraq. They proved their loyalty with their own blood which was the price they paid that day for the precious gift of Christ's Body and Blood. Fallacy 3: "Our differences in discipline are in competition with the majority rather than in conformity." he stressed that out sacramental lives are the same though the form in which they are delivered may be different. He pointed out that Anglicans have one book with a multiplicity of interpretations while Catholicism has a multiplicity of books all with the same interpretation. He quoted Pope B16 "the Church will be renewed by creative minorities"; the AU and the Ordinariates will be centers of life and creativity. Children are the necessary fruit of these communities. He pointed out that where people have hope they have children.

Following dinner Fr Phillips spoke with great enthusiasm that the ordinariate project in the US is already ahead of the rest of the world because of the AU. There is experience, resources and money to get launch the project here today. He believes it is being held back- that the AU was held back- simply because the RC bishops don't "get it" about Anglicans which makes it easy for them to disregard us. The Pope recognized this and made it possible for us to sidestep RC bishops. He stressed that the time for implementation is now the main reason being that each passing day without an Ordinariate is one more day outside of the communion of the Church - each reason for speed has a human face. It was very inspiring! The time for making haste slowly is past!

Prior to Fr Phillips address, Mr Ralph Johnston spoke about the school at Atonement and how essential it has been to the success of their parish. They are hoping to provide a template and resource for Ordinariate schools throughout the country.

Fr. Luke adds:

I just wanted to point out that Fr Phillips’ point about Roman bishops not getting it was by no means meant as an insult, but was merely to stress cultural divides. He likened it to Anglicans organizing Byzantine Catholic liturgy, a case in which we wouldnt get it either. Please, forgive the many typos and clumsy abbreviations, the iPhone keypads are made for much finer hands than mine.

It would be impossible to thank Fr Phillips and the most excellent people here at Out Lady of the Atonement; they have shown every courtesy, God bless them!

The papacy of Pope Benedict XVI is not defined by its "train wrecks"

Most interesting comment on Father Z's blog in response to his fisking of a USA Today article that quotes John L. Allen Jr and George Weigel.
Here's a relevant excerpt of a lengthy comment by Prof. Basto:

The article then returns to the mode of universal criticism of the papacy (without question, criticism directed specifically against the present papacy of Benedict XVI, although this is implicit) . Allen says that the papacy is “adrift and has been for a long time…(It is) a papacy defined by its train wrecks”. Surely he is referring to the facts of Benedict XVI’s pontificate that caused a media crisis.

And by saying that it is a papacy defined by its “train wrecks”, he says that the current pontificate is a failiure. Well, I beg leave to disagree. It is the Papacy that is fighting secularism more vigorously since the Second Vatican Council; it is the Papacy of Summorum Pontificum, that opened for every priest once again the possibility of praying the TLM and the other liturgical actions in the usus antiquor; it is the first papacy since the Council to have indicated a clear interpreative key that should be used to read the Council documents and that should be used to discern the correct attitude that should have presided, and must preside, the post-conciliar period: the hermeneutic of continuity; it is a Papacy that is attempting to restore liturgical decorum; it is a Papacy of courage, that is discussing with the SSPX the delicate subjects related to the reconciliation of the conciliar magisterium with preconciliar teaching, it is the Papacy of Christian Unity, that is transforming the generic “Ecumenism” drive into a true call to conversion to the one Church; it is the Papacy of Anglicanorum coetibus, etc. It is not a Papacy defined by train wrecks.

Amen!

That does not mean the Holy Father does not have significant opposition, people who pay lip service but do everything they can to undermine his agenda all the while with a smile on their face and their hands prayerfully clasped together.

Also, the more opposition in the mainstream media, the more they try to define you as a train wreck, the better you are probably doing in the economy of heaven. That is, of course, unless you are guilty of grievous sin, in which case you deserve the fact that what is done or said in secret is shouted from the rooftops.

What Benedict has said and written will last. The headlines will be gone. The newspapers will be lining my bird cage if they haven't gone bankrupt first.

How about live-streaming the CCCB plenary?

Great story on the Catholic Herald about the United States' bishops' conference:

The US bishops’ conference this week has been gripping. Its powerful speeches and shock, cliffhanger election have been televised, live streamed, live tweeted and heavily blogged to millions of Catholics around the world.

It’s not the only bishops’ conference meeting this week. The bishops of England and Wales are currently gathered together at Hinsley Hall in Leeds, discussing – well, no one exactly knows. We have some idea of the topics – the papal visit, academy schools, the new Mass translation – but no concrete news will emerge from their meeting until a press conference on Friday morning.

Of course, it is a much smaller conference: there are about 30 or so bishops, compared to more than 400 in the US. And it is naturally quite defensive with the media – perhaps because of its history as a persecuted Church. But it needn’t be so.

Oh those pesky Americans, making it so difficult for everyone else!

The latest anti-free speech outrage

At Carleton University. My story is up at the B.C. Catholic. An excerpt.

OTTAWA (CCN)—Carleton University’s pro-life club must become pro-choice if it wants to get funding and recognition on campus.

Carleton University’s Student Union Association (CUSA) has revoked the club status of the pro-life club Carleton LifeLine. In order to be recertified, Lifeline must change a clause in its constitution which violates CUSA anti-discrimination policy supporting “a woman’s right to choose.”

“I will never get over the shock that there is a discrimination policy that allows them to discriminate against us,” said Carleton Lifeline president Ruth Lobo. She said many campus clubs support only one point of view. She compared CUSA’s move to telling a Catholic club it had to teach atheism.

CUSA demands Lifeline change this section of its constitution: “Carleton Lifeline believes in the equal rights of the unborn and firmly believes that abortion is a moral and legal wrong, not a constitutional right. Therefore, Carleton Lifeline shall work to promote the legal protection of the unborn and their basic human rights to life.”

The Catholic Civil Rights League has condemned CUSA’s move as a violation of freedom of expression.

“We hope the students will come to recognize the irony of restricting a group because of its opinion, often based on religious belief, and then citing a non-discrimination policy as the reason,” said League Executive Director Joanne McGarry. “Unfortunately, some of the incidents involving pro-life clubs on campus in recent years suggest that not all university administrations support equal access to club facilities for pro-life groups.”

CUSA also opposes any “actions such as any campaign, distribution, solicitation, lobbying, effort, display, event etc. that seeks to limit or remove a woman’s right to choose her options in the case of pregnancy will not be supported.”

CUSA’s Khaldoon A. Bushnaq wrote Lobo in a Nov. 16 email: “As such, no CUSA resources, space, recognition or funding will be allocated for the purpose of promoting these actions.”

Lobo said she was not surprised to get the email as CUSA had warned her previously the club would be decertified.

Lobo was among five students who were arrested Oct. 4 after they tried to mount a display on Carleton’s campus of graphic photographs comparing abortion to genocide. Though other students have mounted displays in the well-trafficked Quad, Ottawa police handcuffed the pro-life demonstrators and carted them away in a police wagon. They face trespassing charges and fines amounting to $130 each.

I went out to Carleton University to interview Ruth for a feature profile. What a joy to spend some time with her. She and young people like her are the new face of the pro-life movement. They court controversy rather and duck it and their tactics can make people uncomfortable.

But abortion should make you uncomfortable. The picture shows Ruth pointing to the area on the Carleton University Quad where they tried to set up a Genocide Awareness Project display along the central sidewalk. That's where they got arrested on Oct. 4.

More on the group can be found at the Carleton Lifeline blog as well as information on how you can donate to support their legal costs.

News from the Coming Together conference

Taking place at Our Lady of Atonement Anglican Use parish in San Antonio, Texas. One of our bishops, a dean and a canon from the Anglican Catholic CHurch of Canada--my church--are attending. I wish I could be there.

Here's an excerpt of report from Mary Ann Mueller:

Perhaps in three hundred years, historians and journalists will look back on a mid-November 2010 meeting on the edge of a Texas desert and realize that it was the first time the various Anglican "cousins" of the emerging Anglican Ordinariate in America met and began forging the bonds that would weave them into a united ecclesial family under the patronage of Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman and in full unity with the Vicar of Christ, the successor to the Throne of Peter.

A year ago, these vastly flung Anglican "cousins" heard the words of Pope Benedict XVI when he announced the establishment of the Anglican Ordinariate in his publication of Anglicanorum Coetibus, thus throwing open wide the doors of the Catholic Church to fully embrace those various Anglicans who want to reunite with the See of Peter while retaining their own unique Anglican patrimony and thereby helping to enrich the Catholic Church in the process.

"This is historic," proclaimed the Rev. Christopher Phillips, founding pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement Anglican Use Catholic Church. "A great change was set into motion - a change so tremendous that Anglican/Catholic relations will be seen in terms of 'before Anglicanorum Coetibus' and 'after Anglicanorum Coetibus'."

Just as Rome threw its doors open wide, Fr. Phillips has thrown the doors on his church to welcome American bishops, archbishops, priests, deacons, abbots, religious, hermits and laity to his San Antonio church so that the various Anglican cousins could come together as one in united prayer, unified praise, and common Anglican fellowship.

More than 125, from all points on the map responded to Fr. Phillips open invitation to come together and begin forming a united family centered around their common desire to become one in the Catholic Church.

A wide spectrum of the Anglican alphabet soup was represented at the three-day "Becoming One" gathering in Texas. Anglicans from the Episcopal Church (TEC); the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC); and Catholic Church (RC); the Anglican Church in America (ACA); and the Federation of Anglican Churches in America (FACA) and a number of other Anglican jurisdictions.

"The Pope wants Anglicans not acronyms," Fr. Phillips explained. "TAC, FIF-NA, ACA, ACNA, AU ... Anglicanorum Coetibus envisions none of those things continuing within an Ordinariate.

"With the implementation of the Holy Father's Apostolic Constitution, they will have served their purpose," the Texas priest continued, "and as necessary as they were to get us here, they will be needed no more."

He noted that Forward in Faith and the Traditional Anglican Communion were instrumental in helping the See of Peter recognize and respond to the spiritual yearning of Anglo-Catholics committed to reunifying with the Great Latin Church of the West and to help fulfill the Lord's heartfelt pastoral prayer that "they all may be one ..." Now a new era is dawning and the next stage of development has begun.

Interesting article about the Vatican

An excerpt of a post at USA Today's Faith and Reason column:

The Vatican's internal system of information is so antiquated that Pope Benedict XVI was blindsided by the failure of his staff to discover the common knowledge on the Internet that the renegade prelate he wanted to reel back into the church, Bishop Richard Williamson, was "a world class lunatic," said Weigel."

Weigel's answers: "The Vatican communications debacle has to end" and the Church must find away to dump bad bishops, which he called

...the single biggest management problem in the church today... and the single biggest fix that can affect the life of the Church.

Allen echoed Weigel's' points and added the obvious problem of the culture gap between the Americans and the Italian-dominated Vatican. Americans expect leaders to pounce on problems, "act and act now" but the Vatican culture is one of ruminating, often for years, simmering and studying and, in some corners of the curia (the church government in Rome) fretting about conspiracies.

Allen walked through the most controversial cases Benedict had a hand in when he was Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and confronting the abuse crisis. The argument by supporters of Benedict is that he was the reformer who read every vile case of clerical abuse of a minor and kick started the church's response, finally, between 2001 and 2003.

But, says Allen,

If you want to say Benedict is the reformer, you have to explain the opposition he faced in the Vatican, what he did to overcome other officials and what those others did wrong. They have no way in their culture, no vocabulary, for saying anything critical about each other.

Pro-abortion women don't speak for me

Patricia Maloney writes on her blog Run with Life:

What concerns me as a Canadian woman, is when female pro-abortion MPs assume they speak for all women. They do not. MP Nicole Demers (who is against the bill) stated: "Men are trying to decide what is good for us". Well I can tell you, Ms. Demers, you will not decide what is good for me.

Yes!

The Carleton Five

I support them. If you care about freedom of expression you should too. Here's a good article that expresses why we should all be behind these young people even if we have some qualms--many in the pro-life movement do--about the Genocide Awareness Project as a tactic. (I personally have had reservations but after having seen a presentation where the pictures were put into context, I have fewer objections.)

Here's an excerpt from a piece by Troy media legal columnist John Carpay:

Carleton asserts that “the students were in no way denied the opportunity to express their views or to mount their exhibit.” But Carleton expressly refused to allow the pro-lifers to use the same well-travelled location on campus (Tory Quad) which other Carleton students are allowed to use to express their views. This past August, Carleton official David Sterritt told pro-life students that they could not set up their display outdoors because “the Genocide Awareness Project uses promotional materials which are disturbing and offensive to some.” Carleton offered the pro-lifers an inconspicuous indoor space (Porter Hall) which has no walk-through traffic.

Equal rights for all

Would Carleton deny a prominent place on campus to gay or Muslim students, just because some people might find their speech offensive? If other groups wanted to use disturbing photos to expose the injustice of spousal assault, genocide in Darfur, cruelty to animals, or impaired driving, would Carleton limit those groups to an out-of-the-way place?

The Carleton pro-life students could have accepted the university’s discriminatory offer to allow them to set up their display where few would see it. But like Rosa Parks rejecting a second-class bus ride, these students defied the university’s attempt to appoint itself the arbiter of which views are acceptable enough to be proclaimed openly, and which views can only be expressed in a back room. As one of the arrested students, Nicholas McLeod, explained it: “The point of a protest is for people to see it. Limiting an exhibit to an inside room is like telling Martin Luther King that he couldn’t march through white neighbourhoods.”

I asked God to speak to me this morning

And, I turned to Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest. Today's message did not speak to me. So, before putting the book down, I turned the page and found this:

By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing . . . I will bless you . . . —Genesis 22:16-17

Abraham, at this point, has reached where he is in touch with the very nature of God. He now understands the reality of God.

My goal is God Himself . . .
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.

“At any cost . . . by any road” means submitting to God’s way of bringing us to the goal.

There is no possibility of questioning God when He speaks, if He speaks to His own nature in me. Prompt obedience is the only result. When Jesus says, “Come,” I simply come; when He says, “Let go,” I let go; when He says, “Trust God in this matter,” I trust. This work of obedience is the evidence that the nature of God is in me.

God’s revelation of Himself to me is influenced by my character, not by God’s character.

’Tis because I am ordinary,
Thy ways so often look ordinary to me.

It is through the discipline of obedience that I get to the place where Abraham was and I see who God is. God will never be real to me until I come face to face with Him in Jesus Christ. Then I will know and can boldly proclaim, “In all the world, my God, there is none but Thee, there is none but Thee.”

The promises of God are of no value to us until, through obedience, we come to understand the nature of God. We may read some things in the Bible every day for a year and they may mean nothing to us. Then, because we have been obedient to God in some small detail, we suddenly see what God means and His nature is instantly opened up to us. “All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen . . .” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Our “Yes” must be born of obedience; when by obedience we ratify a promise of God by saying, “Amen,” or, “So be it.” That promise becomes ours.

"Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell, it doesn't work.

Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell, it doesn't work.

So writes Miss Marprelate in her recap of the Free Thinking Film Festival.

Great stuff!

See Spot explode!

Unbelievable. H/t Gay and Right:

See Spot explode!

Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq tried to unleash deadly terror in the skies by deploying a pair of kamikaze canines on a US-bound plane, a French newspaper reports.

The diabolical plot failed because the bombs were so badly stitched inside the poor pooches that they died, said the respected Paris daily Le Figaro.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/man_worst_fiends_in_dog_plot_1h93g9Om3R6t0AGAR7XOtI#ixzz15Iuac4JZ

What a way to spend the afternoon

Dear Fred Litwin,

Thank you, thank you, thank you! What a wonderful afternoon I had at the Free Thinking Film Festival. Thank you for creating an opportunity for us to see films that will never get play in mainstream distribution or even be seen at the local Art houses because they are geared towards the ideological left.

And thank you for staging a real debate---what a concept!--between Ezra Levant, one of my faves and author of the new book Ethical Oil---and Green Party leader Elizabeth May, who was absolutely terrific and thought-provoking as well. I give her points for showing up and gave her many rounds of applause for her entertaining, engaging and thoughtful arguments. Ezra, well, my friend Mary said, "He could be a stand up comedian." In a good way. We laughed, our interest was peaked, the auditorium was packed with people on both sides of the issue and civility prevailed even though the discussion was passionate.

First I saw the film Mine Your Own Business by Irish filmmaker Phelim McTeer, who also happened to be in the audience. My goodness, he makes Ezra Levant look passionless in comparison. The documentary took a look at the efforts of big environmental movements to stop big mining companies from going into countries like Romania, Chile and Madagascar. Really good story and character-development and all around great production values in this documentary---important for making it engrossing as well as informative.

The festival continues tomorrow afternoon. It's going to be another great day. Please check it out and support it so Fred will be encouraged to organize another one next year.

People who believe God

My latest post at The Anglo-Catholic is about that. Here's an excerpt:

Life Issues Institute co-founder Bradley Mattes and Rev. Johnny Hunter

I am still basking in the afterglow of the International Pro-Life Conference I attended here in Ottawa Oct. 28-30. One of the speakers whose message keeps ringing in my ears is that of Rev. Johnny Hunter, a Baptist pastor who is president of LEARN Inc. (Life Education and Resource Network) the largest African-American pro-life network in the United States.

Hunter spoke about three kinds of people: those who don't believe in God; those who do believe in God; and those who believe God.

He pointed out that even the devils believe in God; but those who believe God are prepared to obey Him, to act on what He says.

Overall, Hunter's message was a powerful exhortation to repentance, conversion and action on God's Word. I also loved his Kente robes. Kente is a woven silk cloth made in Ghana, where my husband comes from.

It's my prayer that we will be people who believe God, that our shepherds will be men who believe God, not just believe in Him.

Has anyone taken a look at Verbum Domini? It is so beautiful the way Pope Benedict XVI integrates faith and reason. It can be easy to get caught up in scholarship and scientific methods taking a critical look at the linguistic and historical aspects of Scripture and miss the living Word of God who speaks to us today through the holy texts. The document does a wonderful job of talking about how faith, in a community of faith, is necessary to interpret the texts. Yet, faith does not throw out the scientific aspect because the Incarnation is rooted in history.

More at the Angl0o-Catholic.

CeCe Winans sings "It wasn't easy"

Free Thinking Film Festival

Joined some of my friends tonight at the opening of the Free Thinking Film Festival at the Archives Building on Wellington Street. Lots of my fellow free speech/pro-Israel bloggers were out in force. Here are some pictures from the reception after the film and some information about Kalifornistan, the debut feature and some info on what's up for tomorrow and Sunday.

Please check Schedule of Films for any last minute changes.

Panel Discussion after Mr. Conservative
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Library and Archives Canada
2:00 PM

Right after the showing of Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater, please join us for a panel discussion on what it means to be a conservative with John Robson, Joseph Ben-Ami, Terry Glavin and Karen Selick.

Elizabeth May to debate Ezra Levant!
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Library and Archives Canada
4:00 PM

Yes, The Showdown in O-Town! Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada, will be debating Ezra Levant, author of "Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada's Oil Sands," on Saturday, November 13th at 4:00 PM. Seating precedence will be given to Festival Pass Holders.

OUR THREE MAIN GALA EVENTS

Opening Night Gala
"Kalifornistan"
Friday, November 12, 2010
Library and Archives Canada
Main Auditorium
7:00 PM

The opening night gala is also a fundraiser for the
Military Family Resource Centre which helps
military families in the capital region.


In the shadowy Port of Los Angeles, an insane terrorist stalks a beautiful dancer ... while plotting the nuclear apocalypse he hopes will make him a celebrity. KALIFORNISTAN is a darkly comic satire on terrorism made by Canadian actress and filmmaker Govindini Murty and American filmmaker Jason Apuzzo. KALIFORNISTAN follows the deranged leader of a terror cell called 'Glorious Jihad of Kalifornistan' as he plots to destroy Los Angeles with a nuclear bomb - while being distracted by a sultry exotic dancer. KALIFORNISTAN fuses film, video, documentary and surveillance footage into a cutting-edge narrative on the violence, narcissism and delusional fantasies that fuel contemporary Islamic terrorism. KALIFORNISTAN takes viewers on a twisted journey of the post-9/11 world from Gitmo to Iran, from the dark corners of LA harbour into the mind of a terrorist too deranged even for Al Qaeda.

Human Events says of KALIFORNISTAN: “The film clicks as strong, effective satire ... Kalifornistan ... dares to see the average terrorist for what he truly is -- a laughably warped soul with a world view shaped by Islamic radicalism -- and too many extremist blogs ... and once you meet the terrorist at the heart of the film you’ll wonder why more filmmakers haven’t taken this approach before.” LA's Daily Breeze says that "Kalifornistan may be the South Bay's 21st century cinematic equivalent of Gone in 60 Seconds, the 1974 cult classic." Online journal Rational Review says that KALIFORNISTAN "is beautifully shot" and "it's Fellini meets Kubrick."

Govindini Murty is an Ottawa native who co-founded the Liberty Film Festival in Los Angeles with her husband Jason Apuzzo in order to provide a greater diversity of viewpoints in Hollywood. Murty and Apuzzo have been frequently featured in the media, are independent filmmakers, and are also the Co-Editors of Libertas Film Magazine.

The pictures show Jason Apuzzo and Govindini Murty on stage; one of the bloggers at VladTepesblog.com and someone I don't know; me and Jason Apuzzo; Libertarian lawyer and columnist Karen Selick and Fred Litwin, festival organizer and blogger at Gay and Right; my friends Norm, Carole and Mary; the lovely and bright Govindini Murty; blogger Miss Marprelate; Jason Apuzzo; and Right Chick.

I'll be there tomorrow afternoon and Sunday. See you there?

Kreeft vs. Spencer on Islam

I'm listening to this now via LifeSiteNews.com:

Kreeft and Spencer debate: "Is the Only Good Muslim a Bad Muslim?"
Mr. Spencer came to argue that Islam as codified in the Q'uran and explicated by all authoritative sources aspires to subjugate and oppress "unbelievers" and impose sharia law throughout the world; because sharia law is inimical to religious freedom and to human dignity, we as Catholics should hope that Muslims are not devout enough to advocate it, (as their own faith says they must) by either warlike or peaceful means.

Dr. Kreeft came to offer his own perspective on the religion of Islam. In his latest book, Between Allah and Jesus, Prof. Kreeft uses the figure of 'Isa, a devout Muslim studying at Boston College, to highlight the commonalities Kreeft sees between Islamic and Catholic piety, and point up all that we can learn from truly devout adherents of Islam-set in stark contrast to the post-modern, dissenting Catholicism widely accepted at secularized Catholic colleges.
http://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2010/11/kreeft-and-spencer-debate-is-the-only-good-muslim-a-bad-muslim.html

Archbishop Prendergast's book launch

Congratulations, Archbishop Prendergast on the launch of your book Living God's Word: Reflections on the Sunday Readings for Year A!

It's published by Novalis just in time for the Advent and Christmas shopping. Late this afternoon, there was a reception in the Atrium of Saint Paul University and a nice turn out of friends and well-wishers to show support.

The pictures show his sister Marion and her husband John buying a stack of books (They came up from Barrie for the event); Archbishop Prendergast seated with Novalis publisher Joe Sinasac, my former boss when he was co-chair of Canadian Catholic News and publisher of the Catholic Register; a crowd shot taken before the numbers peaked; and the archbishop telling my friend Barbara Powell about the book.

The archbishop said he hoped the reflections would help people to live out God's Word and see Sunday's homily and mass as a beginning for the rest of the week. He also suggested that some might want to reflect on the passages in advance of Sunday.

The book is a reworking of a popular column the Archbishop wrote for the Catholic Register back in the late 90s and early part of this century, with some additions. He promises that books for Years B and C are in the works.

Again, congratulations, Archbishop Prendergast. It's a lot of work to get a book out there into the world. Wishing you every success and that the book will inspire and touch many people to go deeper into Holy Scripture and find God speaking to them.