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The Ratzinger Letter

  /   Saturday, July 03, 2004   /   Comments(0)

After hearing rumors, someone posted what is presumably the full text of Cardinal Ratzinger’s memo to the USCCB. It appears that the good Cardinal has said what I had hoped he would say. He stated that the bishop should privately warn the politicians of the gravity of their action first and explain that they should not receive the Eucharist. After the private warning, the minister must refuse the Sacrament to such a politician. If this letter is indeed authentic, it doesn’t speak well for the bishops of our country.

On another note, I found this handy quote from the letter. It seems that Cardinal Ratzinger said what we thought all along:

Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion.

I have yet to understand why so many of our bishops cannot see the gravity of the situation. One bishop has gone so far to use that old “conscience” excuse. So many souls are at stake here. Pray for our bishops. They will be held accountable before Almighty God, and we want them to be able to render a good account. For this to happen, something has to change.

Category: Posts imported from Danger! Falling Brainwaves, Uncategorized


The Nerve of Some People

  /   Thursday, July 01, 2004   /   Comments(0)

Nick Bradbury writes about people who steal his software and then contact him for technical support. I can hardly believe the nerve of some people. One would think that, if one were stealing software, one would not want the author to know about it. It’s kind of like the people in my home town who stole some band instruments from the high school and then took them to the pawn shop downtown to sell them (in a small town). Do you think they got away with that?

Stealing is stealing, whether it be a physical item or an electronic item like software. If you don’t want to pay the asking price, don’t buy it. I can tell you that Nick Bradbury’s software is worth the price. I use FeedDemon to look at fellow Catholic blog feeds, and all of the style sheets on my sites (both my personal site and Frassati Society were created using TopStyle.

Category: Posts imported from Danger! Falling Brainwaves, Uncategorized


Enforce This . . . How?

  /   Thursday, July 01, 2004   /   Comments(0)

I just received word today from the Tennessee Pharmacists Association that a new law went into effect in Tennessee requiring prescribers to print or type their prescriptions. The law states further that prescribers must spell out the quantity in words on each prescription. The purpose of this is to prevent medication errors due to illegible prescriptions.

I do not question the intent of the law. As a pharmacist, I can tell you that illegible prescriptions are a major, major headache. The problem arises in that I have yet to hear how the state intends to enforce this law. I just can’t imagine a pharmacist calling a doctor saying “Sorry, I can’t fill this because you didn’t print.” Indeed, without the backing of the Board of Medicine or civil or criminal penalties involved, this law will be utterly unenforceable.

Even if they did have a means to enforce it, they would still have a lot of trouble doing so. I can just imagine now if pharmacists were to fax their illegibles to a regulatory agency to assess a fine. In many cases, they would never be able to figure out who wrote it. Many prescription pads are printed with the name of multiple doctors, and the most illegible part of a prescription is the doctor’s signature.

Category: Posts imported from Danger! Falling Brainwaves, Uncategorized


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