Posts

Showing posts with the label Obama

Obama, the children, and the meaning of Christmas

My father was a primary school headmaster and, like everyone in the profession, had some good stories of how children can upset the planned direction of a lesson. One one occasion, a well-meaning priest went into a class to talk to them about grace. He wanted to use petrol as an analogy so he asked the children "What makes a car go?" One bright lad waved his arm frantically and, on being selected, said "Please, Father, the internal combustion engine." I have had plenty of such moments myself. Here is one with President Barack Obama: Here's the transcript with my comments in red : THE PRESIDENT: I think one thing that's important to remember is that, even though there's a lot of fun at Christmas, you know, you got -- especially when it's snowy like this, so it's pretty outside, you got the Christmas tree, you got the Christmas cookies, you've got presents. You know, I think that the most important thing is just to remember why we celebrate Chr...
Read more

Good Osservatore article on Obama peace prize

Image
President Obama was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, as you have probably heard. Many Catholics immediately protested for various reasons - not least his support for abortion which the Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta described as "the greatest destroyer of peace in the world". Many commentators have cynically (but perhaps realistically) pointed out that he received it simply for "not being President Bush. Catholic bloggers were astonished when the Vatican Press Office speedily released a note of congratulation. Now L'Osservatore Romano has, Deo Gratias , published an article by Lucetta Scaraffia which is critical of the award. Perhaps the various Vatican media operations need to sign up for the increasingly popular course on Rocket Science.
Read more

Archbishop Chaput rips into the Tablet

Image
Archbishop Chaput of Denver has written a strongly worded condemnation of the recent Tablet editorial urging the US Bishops to support President Obama's healthcare reforms and not to focus on the "specifically Catholic" issue of abortion funding (see my post Tablet on Newman and Abortion ). The article, hosted at the website of the Archdiocese of Denver, is headed " Health care and the common good ". Speaking of the Tablet editorial, Archbishop Chaput says: The editorial has value for several reasons. First, it proves once again that people don't need to actually live in the United States to have unhelpful and badly informed opinions about our domestic issues. Second, some of the same pious voices that once criticized U.S. Catholics for supporting a previous president now sound very much like acolytes of a new president. Third, abortion is not, and has never been, a "specifically Catholic issue," and the editors know it. And fourth, the growing mis...
Read more

Tablet on Newman and Abortion

Earlier this month, the Tablet had an editorial article on John Henry Newman, suggesting that his Catholicism would be a divisive matter both ecumenically and for the nation, and that therefore the Beatification should be principally a celebration of Newman's "Englishness." The website for the cause of Newman's canonisation offers a response that is surely a model of restraint in the circumstances. The article includes this excellent paragraph on truth and peace: Must Newman’s Catholicism in fact be divisive? ‘Challenging’ seems a better word. Whatever we call it, however, we cannot evade Newman’s conviction that the Gospel puts ‘holiness before peace’, and makes the Church independent of every worldly configuration of power. Pope Benedict has recalled this imperative in Newman, his refusal of every secularising alternative so as to (in Newman’s own words) ‘detect and to approve the principle on which … peace is grounded in Scripture; to submit to the dictation of tr...
Read more

More on L'Osservatore

Image
George Weigel has published an article about L'Osservatore Romano in National Review Online. (See: Parsing the Vatican Newspaper. It doesn’t always speak for the pope .) Fr Z commented on the article a couple of days ago. (See: Weigel on L’Osservatore Romano’s “fideist credulity” ) Weigel takes the line that although the newspaper is published by the Holy See, it "does not speak authoritatively for the Church in matters of faith, morals, or public-policy judgment", and that it is middle and lower-level officials who are enamoured of Barack Obama. He also discusses "the Vatican", saying that it is a confused bureaucracy and that "what counts is what is said by the Bishop of Rome." This is fair enough up to a point and I can only commend George Weigel's loyalty to the Holy Father which I entirely share. Nevertheless, I think that this series of pro-Obama articles show that there are serious problems at the Vatican. L'Osservatore is the officia...
Read more

Criticism of L'Osservatore Romano builds

Image
L'Osservatore Romano recently published an article which was astonishingly favourable to President Obama. The other day, the Editor, Gian Maria Vian gave an interview to Paolo Rodari of Palazzo Apostolico, justifying the article. Catholic News Agency has a report in English . Vian astonishingly says that Obama "is not a pro-abortion president." Concerning the commencement address, he says: “His speech at Notre Dame has been respectful toward every position. He tried to engage the debate stepping out from every ideological position and outside every ‘confrontational mentality.’ To this extent his speech is to be appreciated.” Vian plays down the opposition of "a few bishops", simple faithful and pro-lifers, presenting them as though they were one of two sides in a debate which is observed impartialy by L'Osservatore Romano . Here are links to further comment: Fr Z: Rodari interviews Vian on what he is up to with L’Osservatore Romano LifeSite News: Vatican ...
Read more

Obama messiah quotes

Image
In the combox of the post Save us Obama , de Brantigny gave the link to his post Obama The New Messiah . He has put together a good collection of quotes from true disciples of The One. Halle Berry will pick up paper cups from the ground to clear his path; Chris Matthews considers that this is the New Testament; Oprah feels that we are evolving to a higher plane... choose your favourite.
Read more

Save us Obama!

Image
"In fact, scientists calculate that Obama has four years in which to save the world." From a short piece in which Newsnight's Science Editor Susan Watts talks about "the environmental challenges President Barack Obama faces." (The Watts What blog has much of the piece transcribed with other comments.) This piece is a true classic from the BBC. Obama is going to save the world from destruction unlike that nasty President Bush who ignored scientists and listened to religion instead, leading him to oppose stem-cell research and thereby encouraging people not to accept science but to believe in the bible instead of evolution. But the scientists are now free again. Huzzah! Some helpful points: President Bush did not have a distaste for stem-cell research. He opposed embryonic stem-cell research which involves the destruction of human embryos. You do not have to be a religious person to oppose embryonic stem-cell research, simply a person who does not agree with th...
Read more

Popular posts from this blog

Saint Gabriel

Image
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...
Read more

Our Easter Faith: Not a Pious Crème Fraiche

Image
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,...
Read more

Blessing of the New Painting of St Bede at Clapham Park

Image
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...
Read more

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...
Read more

Portiuncula indulgence tomorrow (and indulgences generally)

Image
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...
Read more