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Showing posts with the label Global warming

Global warming dissent

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Christopher Booker had an article in the Telegraph recently, reporting on a major conference which questioned the consensus on global warming. ( Climate dissent grows hotter as chill deepens ). He refers to an interesting blog by Anthony Watts: Watts up with that . Booker comments that last year, Watts forced Nasa's Goddard Institute to correct a fundamental error in its data on US surface temperatures, to show that the hottest decade of the 20th century was not the 1990s but the 1930s. Watts is a meteorologist who promotes energy saving and alternative energy generation and puts this into practice with a solar array on his own home. It's just that he wants to look at the figures responsibly - and has the expertise to do so. The picture is from the blizzard of the last week which reached as far south as Texas and Arkansas.
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More on global warming "hysteria"

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LifeSite News reports today on a speech given by the Czech President. The article begins: The general appreciation for taking care of the earth's resources, of being stewards of creation is being exploited to drive a political and even mythological system of environmentalism. The President of the Czech Republic spoke at the Cato Institute Friday calling "environmentalism" a "religion", and warning against the hysteria being generated by 'global warming' enthusiasts. "All of us are very much in favour of maximum environmental protection and protection of nature," said President Vaclav Klaus during a follow-up interview for a Cato podcast. "But it has nothing in common with environmentalism, which is ideological and practically attacking our freedom." Read the full article There was also an article in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph, Scientists threatened for 'climate denial' , reporting on death threats issued to global war...
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Fr Sean Coyle

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Fr Sean Coyle recently posted a comment on the importance of our respect for the integrity of creation. This was in response to my rather flippant post about the Tablet's characterisation of global warming denial as morally wrong. George has also posted a good comment - he makes the case that although global warming is a fact, it is not caused by CO2 emissions. Fr Sean tells the sad story of how 5000 people died in Ormoc City, Philippines in flash floods probably caused by people filling the dried up streams with rubbish during the dry season. He also points to God's blessing of the work of Louis Pasteur and of those who eradicated the London smogs. You can find more about Fr Sean and his work over at Misyon online.
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Global warning denial: the eternal consequences

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Do you "gamble with the survivability of the planet" on the basis of your doubts about global warming? Then you're in danger of being warmed up globally - in hellfire! According to the Tablet, such gambling is "gravely sinful" and global warming denial is "morally wrong". (As we all know, if you die in a state of grave sin, you go straight down the ' ot place. - cf. CCC 1035) Tablet: Editorial, 10 March 2007 "Ethics of Global Warming" for those who get the print edition (I don't.) Article 9460 for online subscribers (I'm not.) I was alerted to this fearful consequence of political incorrectness by an email I received with the text of a letter sent to the editor of Junkscience .com . Dear JunkScience .com, You may be interested to know that the Tablet, an "international Catholic weekly" of liberal bent, has declared that presuming against man-made global warming in favour of development is "gravely sinful", an...
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Saint Gabriel

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The angels call for our veneration and awe as part of God’s creation. Part of the destructive modernism of the 1970s included advice to Catholic school teachers that they should not talk to children about angels. This wrought lasting damage which continues to need rectifying. We should include in our prayers a heartfelt recourse to our own Guardian Angels. The Archangel Gabriel “God is my strength” would be terrifying were he to appear to any of us. Our Lady was “troubled” at the word of Saint Gabriel and wondered at the manner of the salutation. Immediately, according to his mission, the awesome messenger explained himself. Modern retelling of the event is often reduced to the jejune “Mary said Yes to God”. In fact, she said “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word”. This conveys more accurately the flawless faith and trust of the Immaculata. In the infinitely wise providence of the Father, we now know the structure of the event in even more detai...
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Plenary indulgences not impossible

Dilexit Prior in Letters from a Young Catholic asked some useful questions today about indulgences. I thought it would be best to do a post here especially to cover the controversial question of detachment from venial sin. But first the other questions: The conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence Pope Paul VI set down a number of norms relating to indulgences at the end of Indulgentiarum Doctrina . Norm 7 states: To acquire a plenary indulgence it is necessary to perform the work to which the indulgence is attached and to fulfil three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. It is further required that all attachment to sin, even to venial sin, be absent. If this disposition is in any way less than complete, or if the prescribed three conditions are not fulfilled, the indulgence will be only partial, except for the provisions contained in n.11 for those who are “impeded.” It is worth reading the other norms bec...
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Portiuncula indulgence tomorrow (and indulgences generally)

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Tomorrow, 2 August, you can gain a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions ( see below ) by visiting a parish Church and there reciting the Our Father and the Creed . This is called the Portiuncula indulgence and goes back to St Francis of Assisi. Fr Z has the details . Don't forget that you can also gain a plenary indulgence by visiting a Church on the day of the titular feast, and there reciting the Our Father and the Creed . I made a list of other indulgences: please see the post Plenary indulgences for particular days which has a link to the list. The post has some background information which you may find helpful since indulgences are not well understood today - which is not surprising since indulgences are not included in most Catholic education curricula, and most priests never preach about them. Therefore many Catholics are left with whatever silly, half-baked, ill-informed nonsense about indulgences happens to be current. If you want to understand the theology...
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Our Easter Faith: Not a Pious Crème Fraiche

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In public life, some basically well-meaning figures have the graciousness to wish us well at Easter and to recognise the importance of the Christian feast day. Perhaps they might assure us that their thoughts are with us at this time. That is kind of them and in Christian charity we should thank them for their kindness, but Easter should be a great deal more than that for us. We must believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the grave, in the flesh, and lives for eternity. We cannot treat Easter as a jolly holiday that heralds spring, or the remembrance of a significant event from the past. It must change us today and every day, change who we are and what we do. The Christian faith cannot be a mild custard or blancmange of religiosity. (I am showing my age. Nowadays, I should say that it cannot be reduced to a pious crème fraiche .) We bow down and adore the King of Kings, risen from the tomb, who, “[…] continues for ever,...
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Blessing of the New Painting of St Bede at Clapham Park

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This morning, the parish priest at Clapham Park, Fr Marcus Holden, blessed a new picture of the parish's patron, Saint Bede, painted by James Tildsley. It is sited over a recently installed side altar near the rear of the Church. The altar itself was acquired from Antique Church Furnishings . The website gives the information that the altar was built and carved by a nun in a convent near Liverpool. It is a beautiful piece of work and it is always a joy when such works of art find a suitable and dignified home. The inscription on the gradine is AMANS AMATUS AMOR. The sellers translate this as “Loving is the object of love” which is a reasonable stab at “dynamic equivalence”. Today the parish's relic of St Bede was exposed for veneration in its distinctive brightly-coloured reliquary. After the blessing, there was High Mass with Fr Holden as celebrant, Fr Littleton deacon, and myself subdeacon. That gave me the enjoyable task of chant...
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