Dolan's Waltz

Cardinal Timothy Dolan is to close the conventions of both political parties. By playing to either side of the aisle, he has helped make himself -- and the Catholic Church -- irrelevant to both.

The conventional wisdom is that by attending both conventions, he is demonstrating that he is nobody's servant; that he is not beholden to any political party; that he is above partisanship.

What's he's really done, of course, is try to appease everybody, which is why he satisfies nobody.

Yet I should qualify that last remark. He has not satisfied those who are on the front lines fighting the tyrannical HHS Mandate (e.g. this open letter). What he has done, however, is given approbation to people who would seek to benefit from the good name of "Catholic" without bothering to honor its principles.

This is what happens when you give priority to being politically savvy instead of just doing the right thing: the souls doing the good work are betrayed and demoralized, while the characters who despise you simply exploit your weakness.

How significant is Cardinal Dolan's actions? It's as if St. John the Baptist left off the sermons so that he could waltz with Salome. Quo vadis, Eminence?

NYT Has a Liberal Bias?

Source

The recent public editor for the New York Times, Arthur Brisbane, observed in his final column that:
* NYT staffers "share a kind of political and cultural progressivism" that "virtually bleeds through the fabric of The Times."
* Times reporters approached liberal issues "more like causes than news subjects."

Executive editor Jill Abramson took exception to Brisbane's remarks. Said she:
* "The Times sometimes reflects its urban and cosmopolitan base."
* "The way we view an issue in New York is not necessarily the way it is viewed in the rest of the country or world."

Indeed.

In any event, one is reminded of Bernie Goldberg's 2003 magnum opus.

Petra - With Video

In this post I described a brief trip I made in the ancient city of Petra in Jordan.

 

To arrive at the Treasury Building, you walk through a very high and narrow narrow canyon -- more of a rift really. Here's a brief video snippet of what it looked like.

 

Petra - First Look at the Treasury Building

Keep Holy the Sabbath

One keeps holy the Sabbath by refraining from servile work and by adoring God in worship that pleases Him and is worthy of Him. Ages ago the Church in Her Divine Wisdom decided that the best way to accomplish the latter is to celebrate the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

The new Mass deprives God of a good owed to Him in justice — specifically, by failing to offer a sacrificial form of worship worthy of His dignity and majesty. Instead of giving back to God something He desires, it substitutes a shabby and banal imitation. Even when the new Mass is valid, it lacks the integrity, the decorum, the fidelity that God demands and deserves in a sacrifice.

Plenty of people in the modern Church are doing the best they can, and they do not comprehend or fully realize that their own clerical leaders have taken them astray by providing a simulacrum. God knows how to make allowances for their good will exercised in ignorance.

For those of us who do realize that the modern Church is trafficking in a counterfeit sacrifice, however, we avoid participating in or favoring a form of worship that deprives God of what is His due. Thus, we do not attend the new Mass, which does not honor God the way he deserves, which fails to state clearly the Catholic Faith whole and entire, and which tends to erode and diminish the Catholic Faith of those who do attend.

We do God more honor on a Sunday by refusing to attend an unworthy form of worship than by attending. He gave us His very best, and we owe the same in return; we will not short-change Him.

Rather than view this as a shocking refusal to fulfill the Sunday obligation, take it as an indication of how shocking an affront the new Mass is to the Almighty. Refrain from servile work; pray the Propers of the day and a full Rosary; spend extra time in spiritual reading; but avoid the new Mass at all costs.

Gunman who Attacked FRC Worked for LGBT Group

Source: http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/15/report-suspected-family-research-council-gunman-volunteered-at-lgbt-center/

A politicially-motivated domestic terrorist tried to shoot up the socially conservative Family Research Council (FRC) headquarters. He was stopped by security guards, one of whom was shot in the process.

From the article: "Gunman Floyd Corkins II from Herndon, Va., had been working with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community center for six months, according to The Associated Press."

Not surprisingly, this fact -- along with the fact that ther incident even happened -- is receiving only anemic media attention.

The gunman also had what are being described as "Chick-fil-A promotional materials" in his backpack. Chick-fil-A had given the FRC a $1,000 donation in the past; as a result, the Souther Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reported that Chick-fil-A supports a "hate group."

Did the SPLC put the cross-hairs on the FRC for Corkins? I think it's a fair question.

Job 19

19:25. For I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth.

19:26. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God.

19:27. Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another: this my hope is laid up in my bosom.
CommentaryVer. 25, 26, and 27 show Job's explicit belief in his Redeemer, and also of the resurrection of the flesh, not as one tree rises in place of another, but that the selfsame flesh shall rise at the last day, by the power of God, changed in quality but not in substance, every one to receive sentence according to his works in this life.

Credo

On Sundays the priest sings the Creed at Mass. This profession of Faith was drawn up in the councils of Nicea (325 AD) and Constantinople (381 AD) as a response to heresies that denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost.

The Credo
I believe in One God (Hebrews 11:6)
The Father (1 Corinthians 8:6)
Almighty (Apocalypse 1:8)
Maker of Heaven and earth (Exodus 20:11)
And of all things visible and invisible (Colossians 1:16)
And in One Lord (Acts 10:36)
The only Begotten Son of God (John 1:14)
Born of the Father before all ages (1 John 4:9)
God of God, Light of Light (John 1:4)
True God of true God (John 5:18)
Begotten, not made (John 8:58)
Consubstantial with the Father (John 10:30)
By Whom all things were made (John 1:3)
Who for us men and for our salvation (Matthew 1:21)
Came down from Heaven (John 3:31)
And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:35)
Of the Virgin Mary (Luke 2:6-7)
And was made man (John 1:4)
He was crucified also for us (Mark 15:25)
Suffered under Pontius Pilate (Matthew 27:26)
And was buried (Matthew 27:60)
The third day He rose again (Matthew 28:6)
According to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 5:4)
And ascended into Heaven (Luke 24:51)
Sitteth at the right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19)
And He shall come again with glory (Matthew 25:31)
To judge both the living and the dead (2 Timothy 4:1)
Of whose Kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1:33)
And I believe in the Holy Ghost (John 14:26)
Giver of Life (Romans 8:2)
Who Proceedeth from the Father (John 15:26)
And the Son (Romans 8:9)
Who, together with the father and the Son, is adored and glorified (Apocalypse 4:8)
Who spoke by the prophets (2 Peter 1:21)
And in One (John 10:16)
Holy (Ephesians 5:26)
Catholic (Romans 10:18)
Apostolic Church (Ephesians 2:20)
I confess one Baptism (Ephesians 4:5)
For the remission of sins (Acts 2:38)
And I look for the Resurrection of the dead (Romans 6:5)
And the Life of the world to come (Matthew 25:34)

Amen.