David Ancell / Monday, March 24, 2003 / Comments(0)
I just have to love the Jeff Miller depiction of this interview. The interviewers assume that because the President won’t watch the selective journalism of the “telemajority,” he must not care what is going on. Anybody with any understanding of our media knows that the media pundits who oppose the war are not going to present it in a favorable light and may not even be unbiased. Why would our president go to these sources?
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David Ancell / Sunday, March 23, 2003 / Comments(0)
“We know that abortion is always wrong. We know that contraception and sterilization are always wrong. We know that euthanasia is always wrong.”
These words were spoken in no less a place than the Sunday pulpit of my parish (St. Louis) at the 9 AM Mass by one of our associate pastors. He went on to explain the need for praying a daily Rosary for our troops. He gave a good deal of his time to the war as well. This priest is known very well in our parish as a holy man and a great confessor. Not only does he preach the Gospel, but he goes out of his way to avoid becoming angry or giving any hint of anger.
That’s not to say that I necessarily agree with his entire perspective on the war, but I do believe that he has challenged us to think about it along the line of Catholic teaching. This is the kind of preaching we need in our Church today. We need men who as priests will stand up for the moral teachings of the Church and challenge us to think about the issues of our times from the perspective of the Church’s teachings.
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David Ancell / Saturday, March 22, 2003 / Comments(0)
Take a look at my post on sin and forgiveness on Spiritual Pyromania.
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David Ancell / Friday, March 21, 2003 / Comments(0)
You probably remember the save haven laws that had been enacted in many states that allow a mother to leave a baby that she can’t care for in a designated location without fear of prosecution. Well, this article suggests that abandoned babies are still being found in dumpsters meanwhile babies are being left in the safe havens.
However, I’m not convinced that we aren’t saving babies. I wonder how many of those children would have been aborted had it not been for the safe haven laws. In those cases, lives are definitely being saved. Perhaps these safe havens are being used as an easy way to put a child up for adoption.
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David Ancell / Wednesday, March 19, 2003 / Comments(0)
A news subscription service site has pointed me towards this statement by Romanian Bishop John Michael Botean. To sum it up, read the following:
Direct participation in this war is the moral equivalent of direct participation in an abortion. For the Catholics of the Eparchy of St. George, I hereby authoritatively state that such direct participation is intrinsically and gravely evil and therefore absolutely forbidden.
If this doesn’t open a huge can of worms, I do not know what does. Especially since, as of this writing, the bombing has begun.
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David Ancell / Wednesday, March 19, 2003 / Comments(0)
My regular readers probably have figured out by now that I go to weekday Mass in another parish where I have heard a number of flaky statements in the homily. Now, they are trying something else.
Weekday Mass is held in a chapel that is directly behind the main church (unless the students of the local school are there). The chapel has long had an empty tabernacle that I’ve been told the pastor didn’t want there. The Blessed Sacrament has normally been in a tabernacle in the main church. However, this church has now begun the practice of putting the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel tabernacle when Mass is held in the chapel and then moving him to the main church when Mass is held there. The other tabernacle is left empty in the meantime.
Apparently the reason for this is because “you can’t have Jesus in two places at once.” I asked a deacon why this was, and he didn’t have a reason. He said that it didn’t make sense to him. I also asked an associate pastor who is very orthodox about it, and he said that the Church gives us many wonderful things to ponder such as the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, etc, but some things are just not ponderable, and this is one of them.
My question to my reader is: Is it really true that you cannot have two tabernacles with the Blessed Sacrament in them? I don’t buy it, and I’d love to know if there is a document. In any event, I think this musical Jesus game is really sickening.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, March 18, 2003 / Comments(0)
Thinking that I was getting too materialistic and self-indulgent, I gave up buying electronics, books, and software for Lent. If anyone ever visited my apartment, that person would know that this is a major sacrifice for an electrophile like me.
Suddenly, in the middle of Lent, I discovered that a company has released an MP3 player for my Palm Tungsten T. Darn it! Now I have to wait until Lent is over.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, March 18, 2003 / Comments(0)
Recently, I had someone bring up to a friend of mine the old, tired argument that, since the Church changed the law on eating meat on Fridays, those who are in Hell because they ate meat on Fridays in violation of Church law should be let out of Hell. This argument, of course, doesn’t take into account the fact that the real sin here was disobedience.
Well, here is another counter. Let’s suppose the U.S. Bishops decide that meatless Fridays will now be the norm throughout the year. Should all those in Heaven who ate meat on Fridays outside of Lent then be thrown down to Hell?
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David Ancell / Monday, March 17, 2003 / Comments(0)
There is a lot in the news and at St. Blog’s about war with Iraq. You may have noticed that I have remained silent about this on my blog. The reason for this is that I really can’t claim any knowledge of the matter. I don’t read or watch much news.
The Holy Father is opposed to war. However, I have my doubts that the Holy Father would support any war. He claims not to be a pacifist, but I have trouble seeing him in any other light. Still, I must respect what he says. I have no doubt that he has wisdom and insight from the Holy Spirit that I cannot even dream of.
Then again, our president may well know something that he isn’t telling. The Holy Father doesn’t likely know about it, either. I wouldn’t be blabbing our intelligence all over national television if I were he.
However, no matter how we feel about the war, ultimately we should all pray for peace. We should continue to pray for a peaceful resolution as long as there is any possibility. War can never be the preferable thing to do; it can only be necessary. War may be necessary because of someone who will not allow us to be at peace, but peace should be our goal.
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David Ancell / Monday, March 17, 2003 / Comments(0)
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