So Long, and Thanks for all the Spam

Today is the first day in the next glorious phase of the Roman Catholic Church.

Last night, I attended Mass in the extraordinary rite in a parish I had previously criticized for its hopelessly Novus Ordo (albeit conservative NO) style of architecture. I made the comment here, some time ago, that upon studying the seemingly beautiful high altar in this particular church I had found that “it wasn’t an altar at all. If anything, it was a marble backdrop in the guise of a high altar. I say this because there was no actual altar itself. No surface upon which to celebrate Mass. It was apparently considered a waste of space since the free-standing marble altar in table form was all the architects ever thought the Church would need.”

At the time, I was thinking, “Well they’ve gone and built this new Church and they’ve made an effort to make it look sort of nice, sort of classic, but it’s hopelessly oriented toward the new Mass, facing the people.

And yet I watched, last night, as a diocesan priest turned the free standing altar, positioned as it was in front of the high marble faux-altar backdrop, into a thing of beauty. His vestments were a brilliant crimson, his movements precise, his Latin impeccable. He knew when to speak audibly and when to pronounce the words of the liturgy in secreto better than the pastor at my weekly indult Mass in D.C.  The large church was nearly half full, on a rainy Friday night at 7:30. The te deum was sung after Mass, and I felt tears in my eyes. This was the first new extraordinary rite to be celebrated in the diocese of Arlington. Another is taking place this morning. I’ve now heard of a third area parish that will be having one.

It’s like the first buds in spring. This – this – is what a “new springtime” looks like.  Things are changing. Slowly, yes, but surely. There is a Catholic renaissance at hand, in whatever shape and scope it will take. I feel like I might just be able to lay down my sword for a while.

To be blunt, I’ve grown tired of the Catholic blog space. The nitpicking, the petty debates of style over substance (or worse, style confused with substance) and the general feeling I get when running with other online trads, even those I love, that I will never measure up. There are so many strong opinions, so many sharp criticisms, so much imposition of judgment on the way we are meant to live our lives.  And my wife and I have found that while we have learned much from these discussions, in our attempts to fit in that mold we have lost much of what we enjoy about life.  I have enough scruples and guilt without worrying excessively about accidentals rather than essentials.

We are, as my wife has determined, “trendy trads” – an oxymoron if there ever was one.  We enjoy much about the current culture and much about tradition. As our home is a fusion of cultures our life is a fusion of the old and the new. We take what is good from tradition and build upon it with what is good about now.

The search for the right answers to all of life’s questions will never end, but neither will it be settled here. I have learned and grown so much in my faith by writing about it, but I’ve also grown at times excessively weary of my faith by scrutinizing it too much in forums such as this. A professor of mine, in a line I’ve often quoted, once said that “analysis is a sort of ontological rape.” I may hold a degree in theology, but I’m no theologian. I can scrutinize the faith too much in an age where it struggles to bear much scrutiny. I need to build it up, not deconstruct it. I still haven’t figured out how.

After four years of blogging and by rough estimate nearly 1500 posts, I can think of no better time to retire from the world of Catholic blogging. There’s too much life to live, and the battle has moved beyond this place. I’ve spent the past few days battling with another Catholic in a com-box somewhere over the legalities of our foreign policy and the current war, as well as the one we’re trying to get ourselves into with Iran. And I’ve realized what a phenomenal waste of time it is.  It’s not my job to convince people what’s Catholic and what isn’t. That’s for the Magisterium. It’s my job to lead my family in wisdom and in faith.

Speaking of that, I hear the sounds of cleaning going on upstairs (and I’m supposed to be participating) and at least one screaming baby, so I’d better go. I’ll still chime in from time to time on CR, and my writing career is far from over. I’ll be moving the entire archives of this blog to uncoveringorthodoxy.wordpress.com so this space can be free for whatever else I might want to use it for.

You can still reach me at skojec at gmail dot com. Until we meet again…

Yours in Christ,

Steve

Sabbatical

The time has come again for me to take a breather from blogging for a while. Maybe a long while. I’ve been blogging on and off since August of 2003 and I’m burned out. Life has been working hard to keep me on my toes, I’ve got some personal goals that I need to work on that won’t wait any longer, and let’s face it – the pope has gone and stolen a lot of my thunder.

And I’m as pleased as punch about it. We’re getting some real, actual leadership from Rome, and that means I feel at ease with the idea that I should just shut up and be a regular Catholic guy for a while instead of the town crier.  Live life. Be a better husband, a better dad. Stop wasting time coming up with pithy posts and try accomplishing something in the non-blog world.

That kind of thing.

If something strikes my fancy in the mean time (however long that is) I’m likely to post it at Catholic Restorationists, unless it’s too stupid, in which case I’ll put it here.

There are decent odds that this space, at least as a Catholic blog, may fold. I could turn it into a personal journal of some sort, or I could do nothing at all. I will keep the URL, however, because if I get rid of it, WordPress won’t let me have it back.

And I never know when the urge will strike.

So until then, thanks for reading. If you’ll be so kind as to keep me and my family in your prayers, it will be greatly appreciated.

Back in the U.S.S.R.

Just when you think our enemies-turned-snuggle-buddies are domesticated, Russia goes and revives long-range bomber patrols.

After joint military exercises with my in-laws.

Hmmm. Wonder what their plans are.

I Don’t Like This One Bit

Just found this on the Federal Government’s (formerly) secret training program for clergy. Training for what, you ask?

A shocking KSLA news report has confirmed the story we first broke last year, that Clergy Response Teams are being trained by the federal government to “quell dissent” and pacify citizens to obey the government in the event of a declaration of martial law.

In May 2006, we exposed the existence of a nationwide FEMA program which is training Pastors and other religious representatives to become secret police enforcers who teach their congregations to “obey the government” in preparation for the implementation of martial law, property and firearm seizures, mass vaccination programs and forced relocation.

A whistleblower who was secretly enrolled into the program told us that the feds were clandestinely recruiting religious leaders to help implement Homeland Security directives in anticipation of a potential bio-terrorist attack, any natural disaster or a nationally declared emergency.
The first directive was for Pastors to preach to their congregations Romans 13, the often taken out of context bible passage that was used by Hitler to hoodwink Christians into supporting him, in order to teach them to “obey the government” when martial law is declared.

It was related to the Pastors that quarantines, martial law and forced relocation were a problem for state authorities when enforcing federal mandates due to the “cowboy mentality” of citizens standing up for their property and second amendment rights as well as farmers defending their crops and livestock from seizure.

I have no idea if Catholic Priests are participating in this program, but I have no reason to doubt it.

Not cool. Very not cool.

A Charitable Confiscation (or why I loathe the USCCB)

So I’m in Church this morning and Ivan is screeching like a girl so I take him out to the narthex (A.K.A. the place where I spend most of my liturgical life these days.) While I’m standing there I notice a card on the bulletin board, entitled, “What is important to Catholic citizens?”

As I begin to read the text, thoughts begin coming, unbidden, into my mind. I will now recreate this experience for you here, with some afterthought embellishments added for your amusement:

The following planks are from Faithful Citizenship, a pamphlet issued in 2000 by the U.S. Catholic Bishops

1. Provide health care.
2. Provide affordable housing.
3. Increase the minimum wage.

Typical could be liberal, could be quasi-Catholic teaching stuff. No surprises really, even if I’m not sure why we care so much about these things as citizens.

4. End abortions.

These are obviously not in order of importance. I hope.

5. End the concentration of control of broadcasting cable and satellite media.

Huh? Moving on, deciding I can’t possibly unpack that one…

6. In agriculture, provide food security for all and decent wages and housing for workers.

Ok. Sort of.

7. Provide all immigrants with access to basic public health benefits – health care, food stamps.

This one starts my blood pressure – simmering, not boiling. “All immigrants?” I wonder. “Even the illegal ones?”

8. Provide all persons with quality education which is their right.

THEIR RIGHT? I’m not sure what the difference is between systolic and diastolic, but I’m almost positive their respective numbers are now off by double digits.

9. End discrimination based on sex, race, ethnicity, religion and age.

“They didn’t say sexual orientation,” I think,  so I begin an attempt at normal breathing again. By this point, Ivan is as quiet as he can make himself. They say babies sense emotions…

10. Abolish death penalty.

“This may be a mercy I require soon, if this list doesn’t get better fast.”

11. Provide environmental protection of land water and air, which is a moral obligation.

I thought for Catholics, the big “inconvenient truth” was found in John 6. I had completely forgotten about the Gospel According to Al Gore.

12. Ratify treaty to ban anti-personnel land mines & Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and end the global arms race.

Well, at least they covered one of the intentions we always pray for during the family rosary. We forget about things like the reform of the Church, the restoration of the Roman Liturgy, the social reign of Christ the King, etc. But anti-personnel land mines? Does ANYONE not worry about those? If so, I’d like to meet him…

13. Provide debt relief for poor nations.

Mmm-hmm. Boilerplate.

14. U.S. should provide diplomatic and financial support to the United Nations.

At this moment, I find myself dangerously close to F-bombing, loudly, during the offertory. No blaming that one on the kid.

 THE UNITED FREAKING NATIONS? COME ON! You mean this United Nations, right? The one that has these three bullet points as a summary of their reproductive health strategy?

• All women have access to contraception to avoid unintended pregnancies
• All pregnant women have access to skilled care at the time of birth
• All those with complications have timely access to quality emergency obstetric care

The contraception bit is obvious, but I’m pretty sure that “emergency obstetric care”, when translated from UN-ese, pretty regularly violates Concerned Catholic Citizen’s rule #4.  

The U.N. will never get my money without it being forcibly taken from me. And since taxes are forcibly taken from me, I don’t intend to empower the U.S. Government to give anything to them either.

15. U.S. foreign and trade policies should be informed by efforts to protect workers, religious liberties & basic human rights.

Now, I realy couldn’t read 15, because 14 had burned a hole so deep in my retinas I was virtually blind. It was like staring at a halogen bulb for thirty seconds and then trying to find your way through a darkened room. Filled with LEGOs.
My conclusion to all of this was reasonable enough.

“Hell no, that’s not staying up there, this is a CATHOLIC church.” I don’t recall if this one was said aloud or not. I was too busy removing the execrable card, folding it, and putting it in my pocket for later fisking.

At work, I found the USCCB document this card was supposedly based on. It’s called, Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility. I thought I’d read it for you, pass along some salient excerpts, render some sort of equitable judgment on the thing…until I saw how long it was. I just don’t have it in me to read that much USCCB language. It’s like being sentenced to watch QVC for four hours. No thanks.

I did find this Family Guide to Catholic Citizenship on the USCCB site, though. Skimming briefly, I came upon this gem, under the “Do’s and Don’ts” section. I will provide emphasis:

Use the TV as a resource. Look for shows that in some way address one of the issues mentioned in the statement. An example may be a news show or a documentary; it might also be a sitcom that is treating some current political or social topic. The key is to check out the show ahead of time and then to watch the show together. It’s often effective if you just “wander in” and sit down while your children are viewing it. Or it may be necessary to decide ahead of time that you will watch a specific show together. However you do it, the most important thing is to talk about the show’s topic. As mentioned above, share your thoughts and listen to their thoughts without being judgmental. Sometimes the only talking you can do is at the TV, but that’s okay. They’ll hear it.

So this is what, stealth parenting? I’m a big fan of just accidentally ”wandering in” and exercising my parental duties. I wouldn’t want my kids to know I’m exercising my authority over them. It’s more important that I trick them into doing what I want, and then not judge (read: morally educate) them.

And if they won’t pay me the courtesy of looking at me while I’m talking to them, I’m supposed to just talk “at the TV.” Ummmm, no.

My kids ever did that to me, “They’ll hear it” is only the beginning. Then again, this shouldn’t surprse me. After all, this is the USCCB’s approach to shepherding the Church.

Supreme Court Coloring Book

It’s real, and it teaches about the highest court in the land.

I don’t know about you, but considering that it teaches how the SCOTUS is supposed to work, I can think of a few people who should really get their hands on it.

There are some others who might also need a copy for reference, just in case.

Blessed Feast of the Assumption

And happy birthday to my mom!

American Jurisprudence: Abortion? Legal. Raw Milk…?

An interesting story came up today as one of the New York Times “most e-mailed” articles. It’s a piece about raw milk, and the lengths that people are going to to get it, despite government intervention to limit access to it or stop its consumption altogether.

In Virginia, the only way to get your hands on raw milk is through a “cowshare”, where you help pay for the care of a dairy cow and receive a gallon-a-week of milk in return. Oddly, California appears to be the only state where raw milk is legal and widely available.

We want to get our hands on raw milk so that we can make homemade cheese. All the best stuff from France is made with raw milk, and we are addicted to the buttery goodness of these cheeses.  Some argue that there are health benefits from raw milk, ranging from reducing problems with lactose intolerance to boosting the immune system through the consumption of something that is not always as bacteria free as we think we would like it to be. This ties into the notion of the “hygiene hypothesis“, a theory that says that excessive cleanliness oversensitizes our immune system and makes it harder for it to cope with irritants and real illnesses.

I’ve subscribed to this theory, more or less, my entire life. Not always consciously, mind you – I just don’t care enough not to eat the meat that was left out all night. (Sometimes it tastes better in the morning, at room temperature. )  Case in point for me is that I don’t get stomach bugs, and when I do, it’s less severe than other people suffer. I’ve had two cases of some form of food poisoning in the past two years (one last Saturday) and both times my symptoms, while extremely uncomfortable, were far less egregious than anyone else I’ve encountered who has suffered the same misfortune. And they last less than 24 hours.

I’m sure that both sides of this debate have valid points. But to read about this overbearing concern about the sort of milk people drink when other, far more risky (or life-ending) behaviors are condoned, promoted, and forced down our throats as mandates of tolerance, comes across as nothing less than absurd:

Last year the Hawthorne Valley Farm in Ghent, N.Y., offered a buyers’ club program to its raw milk customers in the hopes of giving a bigger boost to a steadily growing market. It was designed to encourage those customers in New York and beyond to order in bulk but send only one representative a week to pick up the order.

When the New York State Department Public Interestand Markets caught wind of it, however, it asked Hawthorne to end the program and the farm complied. Still, Abe Madey, the farm’s dairy manager and cheesemaker, says business is steady. About 100 regular customers, many of whom drive two hours from New York City, purchase up to 7,500 gallons annually of raw milk worth about $45,000 to the farm, he said.

The milk club that Mr. Milgrom-Elcott belongs to, and others like it, is far more problematic, according to Jessica A. Chittenden, a spokeswoman for the Agriculture and Markets department. She says the 41 milk inspectors charged with the monthly testing of New York’s 5,000 dairy farms had not yet turned their attention to the clandestine dropoffs.

“It is under review,” said Ms. Chittenden, adding that the department cited five of the raw milk permit holders for violations in the past year. “Our utmost concern is for public health. We are trying to insure that the safest products are out there.”

What criteria do they use to decide what to regulate and what not to? I wish I knew.

For Your Consideration

An interview with His Eminence, Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, on the topic of Summorum Pontificum.

The Most Interesting Thing You’ll Read All Day

Check out this document from The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

It’s a look at the status of the old Mass through the lens of Summorum Pontificum, and there are quite a few telling statements in there. I’ll give you two (with my emphasis) and then you can, properly motivated, read and enjoy it for yourself:

On 3 October 1984, Pope John Paul II promulgated the Indult Quattuor abhinc annos in which he allowed bishops to grant the Old Mass to those faithful who would request it. An indult is a measure by which somebody invested with authority in the Church can grant, in order to favour the salvation of souls (which is the purpose of canon law, before which all laws must bow), an exception to the law (derogation); it is akin to dispensation, but with a wider scope.

An indult, therefore, presupposes the existence of a law which has to be relaxed, in our case a law which had forbidden or abolished the Old Mass. As we have seen, such a law does not exist, and therefore in this case, strictly speaking, “indult” is a misnomer, since the faithful even today have a right to the Old Mass on the basis of the non-abolished immemorial custom.

[snip]

In this context, it should be noted that the Holy See does recognize the right of the priest to celebrate the traditional Mass; this is borne out by the fact that whenever priests are unjustly suspended for celebrating the Old Mass against the will of their bishops, the Roman Curia always nullifies the penalty whenever the cases are appealed. It is the present jurisprudence of the Church that, upon appeal, any suspension that an Ordinary attempts to inflict on a priest for celebrating the Old Mass against the will of the bishop is automatically nullified.

Oooh. I LOVE the smell of napalm in the morning!