Better to die for Christ

than live for the World.

What will happen?

Will I die for the Faith, or live to be 80 and see Australia become a truly Catholic nation?

The LORD knows.

When I read things like this, I am certain that I shall get into trouble with the authorites one day.

When I read things like this, however, I'm reminded that God is all-powerful.

It could go either way, folks. Nothing is certain, except that Hell shall not prevail against the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Either way, our duty is clear:

Pray, fast, give alms.

Make disciples.

Homosex: bad for your bum

Just a little reminder.

I like to review this article once in a while.

I do not believe that all same sex attracted people are perverts. I do believe there is something deeply perverted about the Gay Scene. (They call it a "community"). I also believe that if a man or woman, who is same-sex attracted wishes to be valued as a person rather than a collection of bits to fiddle with, or a washed up has-been/never-was, s/he will do almost anything rather than get involved in the Gay Scene. Joining a gardening club would run rings around it. Joining a Church group would probably be even better.

So, ladies and gentlemen, when you're tired of being a sex object, or being ignored b/c you're not hot enough (or past it), follow Christ. He is calling you.

In fact, just do it any way.

Beating the Barbarians in Tasmania

Suffer in yer jocks!

GREENS leader Nick McKim has vowed keep fighting to legalise euthanasia, after his Bill was voted down last night.

The Lower House voted 15 votes to seven against the Dying With Dignity Bill after a passion-filled four-hour debate.

Good.

A day in the life of Louise

This is a day in my life. It is not a typical day, for Nick has taken all the kids down to Hastings Caves. I am here in joyful solitude.

I am eating slices of toast with Promite (akin to Vegemite) and drinkning a cup of coffee for lunch.

And I'm blogging, as you can plainly see.

I have a load of washing in the washing machine so I feel as though I am working!

The bed is made, I had breakfast a few hours ago and I am dressed (in workclothes) to the shoes (a la Flylady). Unlike my reader, Clara, however, I am not wearing lippy. Partly because I have not even thought of it and partly because it doesn't fit with my projected activities this afternoon, which include a planned 30 minutes sanding the hutch of our kitchen dresser in readiness for varnishing.

I plan an afternoon of alternating leisure and chores by the "you can do anything for 15 minutes" Flylady mantra.

You may be wondering why I am not planning a whole afternoon of leisure and indeed, in my own mind, I deserve it! Nick was away for 16 days recently, but I deserve a break anyway. Heh!

But the main point is that not having to constantly be aware of the kids and issuing instructions, commands, requests and resolving disputes etc is a profound kind of holiday in itself. I do enjoy the kids, of course, but the mental work is relentless. Good, and satisfying, but relentless.

I'm alternating typing with eating and drinking and so am progressing through the afternoon happily.

I also decided to listen to music. I'm pretty tired of pop music right now.

I had thought to listen to some jolly Baroque (Handel and Bach in particular) but when I went to my stash of CDs, there was Mozart's Requiem. "It's November! Perfect!" I thought. I'm up to "Confutatis."

I hope life is good where you are. I've finished my toast and coffee. Will progress to some chores shortly - nappies on the line first.

God bless you, dear reader.

UPDATE

Well, in less time than it took to listen to the Sanctus and Benedictus, I hung out the nappies on the airer on the deck. This saved me going down to the line. While hanging out the nappies I recalled this absurdity.

It's long been a matter of public knowledge that almost every "homeowners' association" in the United States forbids its members from hanging their clothes out to dry. Hanging clothes outside? Allowing the sun to dry them? Surely only the riff-raff engage in such foolishness. Use an electric dryer, or move to a trailer park!

Demented.

I also commented at David's:

Am currently listening to Mozart’s “Requiem” and trying to wrack my brains to recall all those great musical and artistic works based on Atheism!

Why I hate Feminism

Ever since Hilary posted this very touching post about the horrid effects of Feminism upon her mother, I have had it in the back of my mind to jump on the bandwagon.

I have come up against it in a personal way more recently and then again online the other day.

Anyway, the comments online had these remarks:

1. ...I benefit from feminism, and I wholeheartedly tell you that I'm made quite happy by it. I like being able to work outside the home, and being judged by more than my uterus.

A feminist is a person who answers "yes" to the question, "Are women human?" Feminism is not about whether women are better than, worse than or identical with men. And it's certainly not about trading personal liberty - abortion, divorce, sexual self-expression - for social protection as wives and mothers, as pro-life feminists propose. It's about justice, fairness, and access to the broad range of human experience. It's about women consulting their own well-being and being judged as individuals rather than as members of a class with one personality, one social function, one road to happiness. It's about women having intrinsic value as persons rather than contingent value as a means to an end for others: fetuses, children, the "family," men. (Katha Pollitt)

...

2. Actually, I would love to be autonomous, without being forced to involve anyone else in my private business. I chose to involve friends, family and partner in my life, but I certainly don't have to; I have no obligations to do so. Appreciation of those things is voluntary, and entirely dependent upon their individual value in your life. I value and appreciate my partner, and my friends, because of their value in my life.

I believe the rights of a born woman trump that of an unborn, unformed, incomplete fetus. By forcing a woman to be a mother, you ARE denying her the broad range of human experience. By forcing a woman to be second to her uterus, you ARE making her less than human; she becomes a body part, a walking womb. Personally, I feel that pro-life feminism is a contradiction in terms.

...

3. No, I said pro-life feminism is a contradiction in terms. To be pro-life is to be willing to take away abortion rights from other women. Not everyone is willing to undergo an abortion, and no one should ever, ever force them. Women should, however, have that choice for themselves--they shouldn't have it made for them.

Not sure where you get the idea that I'm not social. There's a difference between being autonomous and being anti social.

Is she serious? "Judged by more than her uterus?" What the...? So, what, I'm the mother of five children, therefore I'm judged by my uterus? My uterus??? There are five kids running around now - if I'm judged, surely it's by my children, or my mothering. My uterus????

Why am I doing this? It's like trying to refute a parrot.

Do Feminists realise just how stupid they sound? The most privileged group of women (and indeed humans) ever to have existed on the face of God's Earth are this deranged? Dear God in Heaven - they actually believe they are victims!

She likes to be able to work outside the home? Why? It's not as if her employer would give two hoots if she died - he/she would just employ some other minion.

She says,

A feminist is a person who answers "yes" to the question, "Are women human?"

but then expands:

It's about justice, fairness, and access to the broad range of human experience. It's about women consulting their own well-being and being judged as individuals rather than as members of a class with one personality, one social function, one road to happiness. It's about women having intrinsic value as persons rather than contingent value as a means to an end for others: fetuses, children, the "family," men.

The word "family" needs quotation marks? Why?

Well, I certainly believe women are human, but I'm no Feminist, b/c I do not believe that a woman has a right to have a broad range of human experience. That's right, there is no right of any human being to have "a broad range of human experience" or if there is it comes way down the list and it certainly does not trump the right of a very small human being to live. Obviously. Where they get these ideas?

If she wants to be an individual then let her be an individual. Let her eke out her own living without an employer, education, customers. Let her build her own dwelling from scratch with her bare hands. Be an individual then sweetheart, or else get back in touch with Reality. No human being is or can ever be completely autonomous.

What does she mean "one road to happiness"? Does she really think that some of us believe that women must marry and have babies to be happy? Certainly protestant Christianity lends itself to this idea, but never was this the understanding in the Catholic Church. I assume she is bucking against protestant theology. And paganism and most other religions and world views for that matter. Secularism and other more modern ideologies simply think the woman should be an autonomous individual for labour and consumption - not for relationships at all. Producing babies is okay as long as they can be raised by the State. The mother-child bond must be kept weak.

I value and appreciate my partner, and my friends, because of their value in my life.

This is not a woman I would like as a friend. This is not a woman I would like to have a 5 minute conversation with. That's about all I have to say on that point.

I believe the rights of a born woman trump that of an unborn, unformed, incomplete fetus. By forcing a woman to be a mother, you ARE denying her the broad range of human experience. By forcing a woman to be second to her uterus, you ARE making her less than human; she becomes a body part, a walking womb.

Hmmm. There's that whole uterus on legs theme again.

Feminism. It's demented.

Take the piss out of atheists and watch the sparks fly!

It would be a pretty rare thing to go to a party full of secularists (whether atheist, agnostic or just sort of lapsed Christians) and hear jokes being made at the expense of atheists. Not so rare to hear incoherent diatribes, insults, off-colour jokes or even fairly coherent arguments against Christianity and Catholicism in particular.

It's certainly not rare to hear of send ups of Christianity during the lead up to Christmas.

I've yet to see a main stream movie or play which pokes fun at atheism, or secularism.

So, when I have a really good laugh at this rather hilarious article in one of our major rags, I think I can be forgiven, in all honesty.

And I think the guy who wrote it can be forgiven.

For as far as I can see from the comments, nobody addressed his issue about the heavy anti-Catholic strain in our society. I say anti-Catholic, but mostly because Catholics seem to cop the brunt of anti-Christian sentiments.

I will say that, in general, I disapprove of the current fashion in charging people with "hate."

Can we just can the "hate" rhetoric?

I think it would be tolerably easy to show that if there is any hate for persons in the West, it is more on the side of the secularists against the Christians. However, I think we should just ditch it.

I will certainly, happily and readily confess to an absolute hatred, loathing and despising of secularism, which in my view is just a big heresy against The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Church. Yes, I hate secularism. I also hate this New Atheism - you know, the frothing-at-the-mouth atheism.

But it does not follow that I hate secularists or atheists or any one else I disagree with. I might think them to be Barbarians, for their ideology is certainly barbaric, when it's not just being irrational. They are Barbarians, in my view, because of what they believe, but it doesn't follow that I hate them. So, let's ditch the "hate" talk. And let's not legislate against it, okay? It should not be against the law to "hate" people. How do you even prove such a thing? You can't. You can only prove that people have been inciting violence, or commiting assault etc. Nobody has a legal right not to be "hated."

And check out some of the comments:

[Catholics believe in] Some invisible God.Atheists have more belief as they believe in the real.

Of course. Only things we can see are real. Air is not real. Sound waves are not real. Blah blah blah.

But this comment was the best of those I bothered to read:

The emotion you are picking up on Greg is not hate, but exasperation.

Aha! Yes, this commenter does, in fact, hit the nail on the head. For if the article is not exactly academic and intellectual (it does mostly just take the piss out of the New Atheists and I readily admit it's good fun to be on the other end for a change), it actually conveys the emotion of exasperation among many Catholics, who are now very weary of having our religion pilloried day and night in the media and our beliefs distorted and misrepresented for the sake of a laugh.

It's not much comfort to be thinking that some of these people will be laughing on the other side of their faces when they go to Hell, because (mark this) I do not wish them to be lost. That's right, I wish for all people to be saved. Let me repeat - I wish for all people to be saved and to live in happiness with God for all eternity. So do most Christians.

Gosh, I'm mean. I can't get over how mean I am.

Meanwhile read the rest of the comment:

Exasperation that the tenticles of catholicism ( and other religions ) are still able to tickle the towers of govt and deliver discrimination in public policy under the cop out of "religious freedom".

Of course, because:

1. Catholicism and all other religions are the same.

2. Only secularism should continue to have the right to discriminate.

Excellent.

But your attention is too frimly focused on the few of us that actually stand up and openly criticise you flawed belief system.
Your real fear should lie in the punters that are voting with their feet and leaving your churches empty. The same parents that are not enroling their children in religious education at school.

He cares about our support base? I doubt it. Must be something else happening. Ah yes, crowing over the opponent's (alleged) demise. Let's see, he can't stand that the Church would continue to proclaim the good news that God loves us and has saved us from our sin and that we can be happy with God now and in eternity.

And we're the wowsers?

Are you not worried that the sham has been unveiled and that in the very near future your cash reserves may run dry?

What sham? More to the point, what cash? LOL!

Imagine how little you will have left when we begin asking your business to start paying tax like the rest of us?

I guess that will happen at about the same time that all those other lucrative businesses and global corporations like the Bothwell Glee Club, the Clarendon Vale Philatelic Society, the Blue Rinse Embroiderer's Guild and the Flowerpot Tennis Club all start paying taxes, right?

Is he serious? We're worried about CA$H?!

How are your finances, Dude? Worried much?

As I say, should the Church die out in Australia, the losers will be all the poor secularists, who in all likelihood will end up in Hell. After all, you're a long time dead. I'll bet this guy converts in the Nursing Home.

Anyway, the article was good for a laugh at the opposition's expense for a change. Here's how it starts:

FROM time immemorial, this world has been troubled by plagues. From bogong moths in Canberra to frogs in biblical Egypt, unwelcome and unlovely creatures have the awkward habit of turning up in bulk.

Just now, we are facing one of our largest and least appealing infestations. Somewhat in advance of summer's blowflies, we are beset by atheists. Worse, they are not traditional atheists. These tended to be quiet blokes called Algie with ancillary interests in nudist ceramics, who were perfectly happy as long as you pretended to accept a pamphlet in Flinders Lane.

No, the new hobby atheist is as brash, noisy and confident as a cheap electric kettle. They want everyone to know that they have not found God, and that no one else should. Their particular target seems to be Catholics. On the surface, this is odd, as there are plenty of other religious targets just waiting to be saved from a vengeful, non-existent deity. Smaller herds, such as the Christadelphians or the Salvation Army, might seem more manageable. But the Catholic Church has two incomparable advantages as an object of the wrath of proselytising atheists. First, it is the biggie. Taking out the Catholics is the equivalent of nuking the Pentagon. Guerilla bands of Baptists and Pentecostals can be liquidated at leisure.

Read on and... enjoy!

(Thanks to my HHC for sending in the article. Please say a prayer for Mrs. HHC, who has just had an operation).

PS
What's the infestation he's talking about, btw? World Uncouth Day? The XXIII Boorish Olympiad?

All Souls Day

For details of Indulgences related to this day, see David's post.

[picture]

Went to see Nick's paternal grandparents at our local cemetery. Tried to light a candle in a glass box, but the only very slight wind kept blowing it out. Never mind.

Prayed for the poor soul who wrote this sweet song about St. Dominic.

Lord, have mercy on us all.

May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.

Dear Traddies

I appreciate that you've had a hard time, which is why so many of you are bitter and twisted.

If you want to advance your cause and gain support, may I suggest that you stop acting like pigs.

Also, you could be a little less gauche, although I suppose you might not be able to help that. For example, if you decide your daughter's dresses and skirts are not modest enough, don't then offer them to other people's daughters - you might as well just call them sluts and be done with it.

Of course, if you just want to stick to your little cliques and be smug over your superiority - I congratulate you! Enjoy your reward.

But if you were thinking of actually, like, attracting people to your spirituality and the EF of the Mass then you might wish to revise your behaviour.

Thanks.

"The Last Green Thing in the World"

At lunch the other day, a young adjunct in my department, whom I was meeting for the first time, said a few things that showed a remarkable insight into the loneliness of modern life. He reminded me that C. S. Lewis had noted that in the late Middle Ages, after the climate had gone bad, people fantasized about food -- almost, you might say, pornographically. Certainly in a bawdy poem like The Land of Cockaygne there's more voluptuous fascination expended upon roast geese flying through the air, and things like that, than upon nuns and monks ready to go at it. But it is hard to find, in all of medieval literature, a reference to someone's being lonely. Life was too full of the proximate bodiliness of other people. Besides, even in bad times, you had your family, your neighbors, your guild, and your church.

My companion said that he thought that the emphasis upon sex in our own time is a function of our alienation, one from another. He didn't know it perhaps, but he was picking up on something that Josef Pieper said about eros in Faith, Hope, Love. Pieper, like Gabriel Marcel and Romano Guardini, decried the regimentation and institutionalization of modern life; its substitution of the weekend and the vacation for the holiday; its hatred both of solitude and of community, giving us instead the loneliness and anonymity of the crowd, the functionality of the workplace, and the false celebration of the debauch. Pieper said that in such a world, man will inevitably look to eros as "the last green thing," the last hope for truly human contact.

It's a sad society when even the cartoon women are sluts

I shop at a little grocery store near our house for those emergency items - bread, milk, chocolate etc. They have a neat little display of $1 greeting cards in the window, but there are a couple, which picture cartoon women wearing outfits that would make a prostitute blush.

Now, I have to say that things are not as bad as this - yet - with real women, but I mentioned this today to two other mums, who all of a sudden began to lament the slutty fashions we see everywhere at the moment.

These two mums are fairly standard secularists, except that they are very committed to marriage and also have more than the 1.8 children "that statistics have laid down for our guidance." One has four sons and the other has four sons and a daughter. All of us have children ranging in age from about 2 to 13. And I'll here add that I've known "K" since our first children were newborns and she has known her friend "L" (my newish acquaintance) since they were Sweet Young Things, so our common fecundity is not the specific reason we are friends, although it is certainly a blessing.

Anyway, it is a sad commentary on our times (and I said so) that whenever one wishes to lament the lewd fashions/behaviour we see, one feels the need to begin, "I am not a prude, but..."

When I was at school, I once acted in a few scenes from "The Real Inspector Hound." One of the lines some of us used to repeat to each other as a common jest was: "I am not a prude, but I fail to see any reason for the shower of filth and sexual allusion foisted onto an unsuspecting public in the guise of modernity at all costs."

Quite.

Our in-joke as teens in the late '80's is my commonplace observation today.

We each agreed that women who chastise men for ogling their breasts while taking every care to expose at least a mile of cleavage must be idiots. We further observed that since breasts are aesthetically pleasing to virtually everyone (including gay men) - it is next to impossible to keep one's eyes focussed on a woman's face if she is spilling out of her blouse all over the place. You'd have to be inhuman not to like breasts.

On many occasions I have had to fight the urge to say to some woman in public, "watch out, or you'll poke someone's eyes out with those, " or, "look, sweetheart, if I want to look at boobs, I'll go home and stand naked in front of the mirror," or "you don't have anything I haven't got - put 'em away, will ya?"

I like to dress well for Sunday Mass, in honour of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King and also on other special occasions. I like to be as easy on the eye as I can, without drawing unnecessary attention to myself. I like to dress in a way that is as beautiful, modest and classy as I can on our household budget and I like to do this in honour of the people who have to look at me. This is probably reasonable and hopefully not too vain. It's a hard thing to dress well without giving in to vanity - at least, it's hard for me.

I'm tired of cleavage and bum cracks in my face. Both are inherently good things, but not in a fallen society, especially a sexually over-stimulated, but harsh, unloving, alienating society.

Put 'em away, girls, and get a bit of dignity.

Please.


(Say what you like about the Queen, at least she knows how to dress).

Today's headline:

Italian Priest Beautified!

Heh!

I really must publish here all my letters to the editor that are never published (which is most of them by now). This was sent in a few weeks ago after someone started pontificating about Tasmanians not eating enough fruit and veg.

Who says Australians are not religious? Even the atheists are too busy worshipping reason to bother using it. The remainder of secularists worship money, sex, power, choice and health. Indeed, the high priests of Health are very concerned that Tasmanians are fat. Health is a jealous god and is greatly displeased at the lack of consumption of fruit and five veg. Also, the lack of daily exercise regimes angers him greatly. Watch yourselves, Tasmanians, or High Priestess Lara* will have to install cameras in your refrigerator, the guvvermint will restrict your health care and in the end, Doctor will have to put you down, like a dog.

Yours &c.

*Giddings, Health Minister

This *is* Good News

Deo gratias.

this is probably the largest and most significant act of Christian reunification since the Big Split.

I have made a decision.

I will no longer debate the issue of homosexuality in the church with John Shelby Spong.

(Which is just as well, b/c I stopped reading him in 1990).

Yes, I actually said this today:

"Get that thing off that... THING!"

For Some Reason

this

reminds me of

this.

So the guy in the second link tells us to laugh at the people in the first link.

People will always form status hierarchies, and human beings will always have a strong desire to conform to moral codes. The question remains whether or not the present status hierarchy based on crossing the road into traffic will last long enough to see us all run over by a renewable energy hybrid bus, or if such behavior will be laughed into deserved oblivion. The latter is the only way out I can see. It worked on the American ruling class in the 1960s. Laughter is probably the best weapon we have against numskulls. It’s also a heck of a lot of fun.

Laugh, if you want the madness to end.

Obama dialogues with wildfire

Obama To Enter Diplomatic Talks With Raging Wildfire

via Mark Shea

"There is no charge for Awesomeness"

- Po, Kung Fu Panda

Also,

"When small men cast long shadows, you know the sun is setting."

--Lao Tzu

See that Shroud?

Fake.

Interesting.

Interesting that my faith does not depend on the Shroud of Turin's authenticity (though I'm still inclined to believe in it) but the agnostics and atheists still work very hard to prove it's fake.

Oh well, keeps 'em busy!

UPDATE Hilarious!

The People of Stupid

An Inconvenient Question:

A comment on Xt3

I posted this just now in response to the story of someone wanting to remove a cross in public blah blah blah...

Let us suppose that a separation of Church and State is even ideal. Why would that mean the complete absence of religious (especially Christian) symbols in public?

I would advocate a distinction between Church and State rather than a separation, for as we can see, what most people mean by a separation is the completee exclusion of religion, including in the formation of morals, from the public sphere. This is unacceptable in an absolute sense and ought to be unacceptable in any society that calls itself "pluralistic."

I think in reality however, that the State is always a moral person (it certainly seems to act like one) and therefore there will always really be a State sanctioned World View (currently Secularism in Australia). In other words, the State always is confessional, I think. The Church used to teach this explicitly, but this has largely gone out of fashion.

The current shenanigans of our politicians and especially the media should make us rethink this theory of a supposedly "neutral" State. I don't think it exists in practice.

And I'll add this; any Catholics who are shy of such concepts will just have to put up with living in a Culture of Death. How can we possibly expect anything different when our ruling class has such a different concept of justice than the Church?

If anyone mentions bloody Constantine in the combox I'll scream!

"Broken Rites"; scumbags

As Mark Shea likes to tell us from time to time,
just because you are a victim doesn't mean you can't be a jerk as well.

This basic principle can also be generalised further and apply to everyone:
just because you are right about something, doesn't mean you are right in how you behave.

So, amongst the interesting, encouraging, dismaying and downright dodgy things said in my PP's homily this morning at Mass, when the Archdiocese was marking the importance of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony and the institution of marriage in general, Father told us the following vile anecdote.

Apparently Broken Rites published a book or booklet some years ago containing various stories of child rape by clergy. This was a reasonable thing to do, but allegedly, on the cover or somewhere else in the publication, there was a picture of St Anthony of Padua holding the Child Jesus. This, they said, was proof that the Church has always condoned the sexual abuse of children.*


Of course. In exactly the same way every photo of mothers or fathers holding little children shows clearly that our society has always condoned incest.


I don't think I have ever written a blog post about the clerical abuse scandal, so now I am.

There are a variety of things to say about this:

1. The abuse of children, of whatever kind, cannot possibly be condoned by any right thinking and humane person. Those people who have been in any way abused deserve our compassion and need to see justice done. I pray for all those who have been raped and abused, especially at the hands of Catholics. I pray that God will heal these, His little ones.

2. Particularly repugnant is abuse when meted out by parents, because they are supposed to love and protect their children. Also, parents are the stained glass window through which children see God, so parental abuse also disfigures God in the mind of the children. When the abuse is meted out by Catholic priests it is likewise a grave scandal, since priests are an icon of Christ and even stand in His place on this earth. No wonder then, if people are appalled by the abuse of children by priests.

3. In no way do I, or any right thinking person, condone such behaviour, and I wish to see justice done. Clerical abusers of children ought to be punished in civil law and in Church law and any bishops who have failed in their duty to protect children from such priests ought to be brought to justice as well.

The Code of Canon Law stipulates that priests involved in sexual abuse cases must be "punished with just punishments, not excluding expulsion from clerical state"

4. For the sake of their own hearts and lives and as a commandment from God, the survivors of abuse ought to forgive their attackers. If they do not, they will never be healed.

5. I am a Catholic and I have never condoned this appalling betrayal of trust, nor have I ever enabled anyone to perform such crimes. I am therefore not personally responsible for any of this wrong doing. I will not, therefore, put up with any accusations along these lines by anyone. If people can be kindly towards muslims even though most terrorists are muslims, then they can learn to be kind to Catholics as well. Anything less is a double standard. (We know where such a double standard comes from, however).

6. Most of the people who write about clerical sexual abuse are not concerned for the victims at all, but only wish to beat the whole of God's people with this convenient stick. I will not stand for this. Recent stories have highlighted the extraordinary and repulsive nature of this double standard in the apostate West.

The reality has never been that our elites much care about victims of sexual abuse: they care about having a useful tool to bash the Church, which some pervert priests and (far more) some spectacularly bad bishops have handed them. But the fact remains that, when the Right Sort of Roman rapes a kid, the people who were cursing and swearing about sexual abuse will turn themselves into pretzels to justify it.

7. Since there is nowhere in Church teaching any suggestion that rape etc are acceptable behaviour for anyone to engage in, it should be obvious that all Catholics who perform such abominable crimes are doing so against the teachings of the Church - against those things they ought to believe as Catholics.

8. Therefore, the Church as a whole cannot be attacked for causing these atrocities, even if some members or communities have been responsible.

9. Conveniently overlooked is the fact that most of the attacks on children were on adolescent males. Not much in the media about the heavy over-representation of homosexuals in these clerical abuse cases.

10. Just because you or someone you know was abused by a Catholic, it does not mean you have the right to disrupt Requiem Masses and the like (as I've heard Broken Rites do).

11. The majority of Catholic priests have never engaged in such hideous crimes and therefore they are also to have our compassion, since their exalted vocation is under severe attack from enemies of Christ's Church.

12. Many people are happy to use these crimes to further their own agendas. Thus, it often happens that terrible stories of clerical abuse are reported, one of the first concerns is to ask whether the Church will change its stance on married clergy or women clergy. What the ...?


After all this, it becomes pretty obvious that all Catholics must grow in holiness. How else will the majority of people come to believe in Christ our Saviour?




*If the report about Broken Rites is true, they have committed sacrilege, if not blasphemy. These are completely repugnant.

Fight Radical Islam by Punching Out a Christian!

One of the more entertaining spectacles of the cowardly secular response to Islam is the constant resort to Catholic and Christian bashing as a way of compensating for not growing a pair.

Secularism. Totally useless.

Glory!

Fr. Damien de Veuster, of Molokai will be canonised soon!

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to name Damien a saint on Oct. 11 at the Vatican.

(I was a bit surprised when I first saw Fr. Damien's photo that he didn't look more like Faramir, *sigh*).

Remind me never to say these words:

Don't you know who I am?

A potty-mouthed Tasmanian cabinet minister has been forced to apologise after going on a tirade against a security guard.

In what is being called the Apple Isle's own Iguanagate, Infrastructure Minister Graeme Sturges has uttered the fateful words - "don't you know who I am" - to the guard last Thursday.

Dude, you're a Tasmanian pollie!

Being drugged and sodomised is Hollywood’s way of saying a cheery hello.

From a commenter at Tim Blair.

Entertainers: watch them act and listen to them sing (if you must) but don't listen to them when they speak without a script.

Also, Polanski argues like a criminal.

If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f—ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!

I see. And that makes rape (I mean "rape-rape") okay how?

I Heart My PanzerPope!

All the right people hate him.

:)

By my calculations

There are about 50,000 Catholics in Australia who truly believe in the Church's teaching. There are also about 50,000 Protestants who agree with some of the most important bits including its utter hatred of abortion. In addition to that there are countless numbers of men and women of good will, who also agree with the Church's stance on Sanctity of Life issues, marriage etc.

That's more than enough to
Kill The Soothsayers!

Fate is for sissies!

DO NOT BE A BIG GIRLS BLOUSE

Tell the gods of our Age where to get off!

It's time to flash your moon at Sauron!

Thoughtcrime for the day

Discrimination is good.

Love:

we don't think that word means what you think it means.

Hence, "Dear Hollywood":



I think this is a great campaign!

Quote of the week

I sometimes used to complain about priests who seemed to be stuck in the 1970s, until I realised that most atheists are stuck in the 1870s.

Heh!

Our good mate Henry VIII

wasn't a completely lost cause, you know:

Since First I Saw Your Face

By accident, the brekky DJ played this madrigal:



except that it was performed by... James Taylor.

Just horrid.

See, it was like listening to Sting singing:

Come Again Sweet Love

which ought to sound like this (starts at 0:25):



Dude, stick to pop.

Victorian voters

defend your freedom of religion. Takes only a minute.

MSM: Prochoice Liars

Being selective in presenting important information is the same as lying, when you are the main vehicle for reporting the news.

Over the years a handful of abortionists have been killed for various reasons. The mainstream pro-life movement has always roundly condemned the use of violence in stopping abortion.

But this shooting was different. This time a pro-lifer was shot dead. And one other item needs to be mentioned. Unlike the shooting deaths of abortionists, wherein the mainstream media goes ballistic and runs the story for days, calling on authorities to make pro-life activism illegal, this story has hardly been touched upon in the MSM.

Indeed, not only is it almost impossible to find any coverage of this story in the international media, but where it occurred – in the US – there is also frightening silence. Because this is a pro-lifer who has been shot, the MSM has basically decided that this is not a news-worthy item to carry.

So it is largely the alternative media that has been running with the story. Thus I too will write this up, to allow some more public exposure to this important news item.

Why we need bloggers and alternative news sources.

Irrational Atheists

Another email to The Age:

Dear Roslyn, the online edition of Catherine Deveny's most recent hissy fit is listed under the Opinion section of your paper. If this email needs to go to a different section, would you mind forwarding it to the relevant editor?

Many thanks.

Louise


Dear Editors,

It would seem that the secularist dogma of Tolerance, Diversity and Respect are not to be afforded to people of religious persuasion. This does not surprise many believers any more; we are now well aware that such notions are a mere sham, which is why childish rants like Ms Deveny's are published in the Mainstream Media.

If you ever have a change of heart, you could ask Mr Bill Meuhlenberg, for example, to write a more positive article about Christianity, since he has rather neatly revealed Ms Deveny's article for the toddler tantrum it was:

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2009/09/04/more-atheist-tirades/

This would give your paper some semblance of being balanced.

Yours sincerely,

Louise ...

PS, is there any particular reason you do not publish rants against Allah and his prophet Mahommed?

What a week to take a break from the 'net!

I had a number of interesting items to blog about after I had my several days' break from cyberspace.

Circus Oz

On Saturday 29th August, Mum shouted tickets for Nick, me and the older four children to see Circus Oz. Apart from one or two pretty trivial matters, I thoroughly enjoyed the show, as did the rest of the family.

Mum looked after Linus for us.

I don't think I've been so well entertained in a long time. When I wasn't grinning from ear to ear or laughing my head off, I was gazing up in amazement and deathly silence, thinking "Don't fall... don't fall..."

There were lots of great acts: hula hoops, spinning plates, juggling, a roller skating clown routine (minus the silly clown costumes), amazing rope work, and an act with two acrobats climbing on three chairs balanced on 4 glass bottles on a table, up to the trapeze bar and transferring one acrobat passed another on the trapeze. Then there was the upside down trombonist who was suspended by one leg, held between the thighs of another acrobat sitting on a high swing (I think).

There was the Woman of Steel and the bed of nails act, among other feats and a lady dwarf (currently un-PC, we must now say "Little People") who often walked all over her!

They had their own band through the show and I really liked most of the music, all of which was performed very well.

Several times the acrobats did things which I considered to be physically impossible!

The kids were particularly impressed with the woman who was "stuck" in a chair and eventually cried out, "Get... Off... My... Bum!"

Jocasta Nu

Another interesting thing was that I met again Mum's friend, Alethea McGrath, of Melbourne (originally Launceston). She is a lovely lady, now in her early 90s. Alethea taught in schools for many years, but also did much acting work.

Including a minor role in "Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones"!






Stupid me! I forgot to ask her what Ewan MacGregor is like (I'm a bit of a fan).

Here is the scene:



Wet!

And finally, on a more mundane matter (but actually vitally important in a dry land) I had been thinking for months now, that I've never known Tasmania to be so wet. Cold, yes. Wet, no.

Turns out this was the wettest winter in over fifty years!

Winds and rain have lashed the state this winter with Hobart has enduring its wettest winter in more than half a century.

Hobart has had its wettest winter since 1954 and some parts of Tasmania, like St Marys, has had its wettest winter on record.

Hobart has received a 282mm soaking this winter - the wettest in 55 years since a record-breaking 300mm in 1954.

Things are impossibly green here. And totally sodden. After the dryness of Adelaide, however, I certainly don't mind.

Everyone is wishing they had more tanks!

Just what we need.

Not.

Catherine Deveny spouts rubbish again.

Can't be bothered linking.

Melbournites - cancel your subscriptions to The Age. You have an openly hostile paper on your hands. Hit 'em where it hurts, or don't come whinging to me.

I'll be offline for at least a week

possibly three.

I will be checking my email occasionally, but my IRL friends will need to contact me by phone for anything important.

God bless.

Feeling a bit wrung out actually.

No real reason that I know of.

Can't wait for December (which in Australia means not only Christmas, but also summer holidays and end of calender year - it's a big deal).

Any prayers appreciated.

Lunch with Normal People

Every month, I take the kids out to the country to an Agricultural Show Ground for the monthly homeschoolers group lunch.

We just get together and the kids play while the Mums talk and talk. Have cups of tea. Etc.

It's great. The women are married with lots of kids. And they're religious.

One of my long time friends there has just had her 7th baby. Please say a little prayer for baby Esther Grace, born into this world in late July. We met Esther today - so cute! Aunty Louise had a hold!

Like I say - Normal People. One Day of Sanity.

Thank God.

Tasmanians! Here's another fire to put out.

The Relationships (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2009 amends just two Tasmanian Acts, but the changes are radical, and have wide-ranging ramifications for the rights of children.

The two changes were rejected by the Legislative Council in 2003 when the Tasmanian parliament introduced its relationships registration regime, but the Government believes it is time to revisit its same sex reform agenda.

The Bill is meant to remove discrimination against same sex couples, but tramples upon the best interests of the child by putting the desires of adults above those of children. It amends the Status of Children Act 1974 to remove the presumption that a child has one father and one mother.

Go here to find out how to stop the madness.

Here's mine!

Submission to the Parliamentary Enquiry re:

Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2009

• Marriage has been upheld and supported in most civilizations for the purpose of ensuring that the children of that civilisation receive the best possible care and upbringing. In some civilisations this has included polygamy, while our tradition has only included monogamy. In all cases, however, there was marriage between a man and his wife or wives. Never has there been “marriage” between two persons of the same sex.

• The norm for marriage in society is not affected either by the infertility of some married couples, or the failure of others to rear their children well.

• Because the optimum situation for a child to be reared is within a marriage between his/her mother and father, any poor examples of this do not mean that lesser situations are equally good. No lesser situation can equal a good example of male-female traditional marriage.

• Additionally, our tradition, based upon the Christian teaching of marriage, taught by Christ, as being between one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others until death, has been shown to be the best situation for the well-being of children, surpassing other forms, such as polygamy and serial polygamy.

• Furthermore, any attempts to undermine traditional marriage are either, poorly thought out and based upon the feelings of individuals, which may not take into account the needs of society, or are ideological attacks on marriage and family.

• The vast majority of children would prefer to live with their mother and father and that their parents be married, rather than cohabiting.

• Anything whatsoever which threatens or could threaten the man-woman marriage bond should not even be considered in a civilised society.

• The only “rights” directly involved with respect to marriage are those of the child to have a mother and father and the natural rights of any man and woman to enter a marriage bond and found a family without interference from the state or other citizens.

• There is no “right” to queer “marriage.”

• This is not a question of “equality.”

I hope you're all sending in your submissions

to the Parliamentary Inquiry regarding queer marriage.

Do it now. (Deadline this Friday).

The Age: Agent of Satan!

Yes, okay, that was hyperbole.

But if you thought The Mockery (the Hobart Rag) was bad, you should see the garbage they print in The Age (product of Melbourne)!

Hence:

Sent: Friday, 21 August 2009 2:29 PM
To: TheAge Opinion
Subject: Catherine Deveny's article of 12 August

Dear editors,

I was most dismayed to read Ms Deveny's opinion piece in The Age on 12 August. It was nothing more than an anti-Catholic rant and was the kind of thing one expects on blogs. I thought the press was above such things. Nor has this been the only anti-Catholic article in your paper recently.

I trust you will soon run a series of articles for some balance. Perhaps Ms Deveny might be willing to apply her talents similarly to Islam. After all, why should only one faith tradition cop it?

Alternatively, perhaps you could include positive articles about the Catholic Church, or maybe a Catholic writer could write a critique of the many foibles of secularism?

I would be most glad to volunteer my services for such an article. I could have one sent to you by Monday morning. Alternatively, I know many other Catholics who would be capable of writing an excellent piece for your paper.

I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

&c.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear Louise

As Catherine Deveny's column did not appear on the Opinion page (for which I am responsible) I have forwarded your letter to the editor of Metroplois for consideration.

We did publish a number of letters in the wake of the article so the opposing view has been expressed.

best wishes

Roslyn Guy


Roslyn Guy
Opinion Editor
The Age
250 Spencer Street, Melbourne 3000

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear Roslyn,

Thankyou very much for your reply and for forwarding on my email to the appropriate department.

I am very pleased to hear that you published a number of letters in opposition to Ms Deveny's article. I would respectfully suggest, however, that The Age is heavily biased against the Catholic Church, to the point of routinely publishing nonsense. Letters do not really carry the same weight as articles.

Because the Vatican does not issue fatwas, however, Catholics are not inclined to run riot in the streets every time some secularist has a hissy fit published in the paper. We are far more thick-skinned than certain other subsections of society. On the other hand, continued nonsense such as this tends to divide the community unnecessarily. So much so, that many non-Catholics of good will are going to see, if this continues, that most opposition to the Church is irrational at best and will soon see that the secularist dogma of tolerance, for example, is an empty sham. I will certainly welcome this development, but if your paper were serious about providing something which resembles proper and unbiased reporting, your department and others would examine this issue of severe bias with greater diligence.

Again, I thank you for your reply.

Kind regards,

&c.

Annie Who?

ANNIE Lennox has offered to become Scotland's anti-Aids ambassador and has launched a fierce attack on Pope Benedict XVI after he warned that condoms may "increase" the spread of the disease.

Gosh. Bet he's shaking in his boots.

Urging more focus on the illness, she said that while many churches did huge amounts to help victims, "they can also do tremendous harm".

The hubris!

She added: "When the Pope goes to Africa and tells them they shouldn't be using condoms when we know that HIV is a sexually transmitted disease, I don't think that makes any sense at all. That is very confusing."

Only because you haven't got your thinking cap on, sweetheart.

And what's Annie going to do about AIDS? Sing, of course.

Austin Powers - Soul Bossa Nova

I hated the movie, but I love this opening sequence.

Pass The Partner

kids are the losers, says UK family court judge.

Bogles in Oz

Joanna here.

James here.

On the Eve of the Feast of The Assumption

Olivia Meese at the Newman Association

I have been meaning to put this up on the blog for a few weeks now. I still don't quite understand my own blogging habits. I can be positively desperate to put up certain content (I have at least 10 major posts inside my brain atm that I'd love to put up here), yet when it comes to the crunch, I am very often happier just leaving inane comments elsewhere around the blogosphere (specifically, St Blog's).

Anyway, we recently had young graduate, Olivia Meese, speaking to us at the Newman Association about her 3 years of study at Campion College - the new Liberal Arts College in Sydney. Campion opened its doors to students in 2006, so the first graduating class, of which Olivia was a member, graduated last year. They all now have a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Liberal Arts. Olivia won the College Medal. One of the many things I forgot to ask her (!) was what she had to achieve to be awarded the medal.

She was an absolute delight to hear and stayed with us for the weekend - the kids loved her!

This was part of what she had to say:

I never tire of speaking about Campion College, a place I was lucky to call home for the last three years. We haven’t had a student from Tasmania yet, so it’s great to have the opportunity to spread the word down here.

For a long time Campion was little more than a dream in the minds of Australian students, parents, Catholic clergy… they dreamed of an educational institution that was untried, untested, and unlike any other in Australia. They dreamed of an institution that would educate the whole person, intellectually, spiritually and socially. Needless to say, this kind of institution at the tertiary level at least, was non-existent in Australia. Before the founding of Campion College, one had to travel to America to gain a liberal arts education.

...But in the year 2006, after decades of planning and months of renovating a former Marist seminary in Western Sydney, Campion College Australia opened its doors for the first time. I had the great fortune to find myself a member of the inaugural class, which numbered only 15.

The reasons I made the decision to leave home and family to study at Campion are worth mentioning. In all honesty, and without mincing words, it was the terribly mediocre standard of my previous education particularly at the secondary level which spurred my motivation to study at Campion. In the words of one of my fellow graduates who evidently shared the same experience, upon leaving school, I was a product of the Catholic Education System. My 13 years of religious education had taught me that God loves me, and that I should use my talents. I learnt how to draw pictures of sunsets, to decorate Easter eggs and to act out a nativity scene. I became well versed in Aboriginal Spirituality; indeed I was taught more about the Dreamtime than about the Sacrifice of the Mass.

At the age of six I was told that I am special, that there is no one else like me. Then at sixteen I was told that it’s OK to euthanize myself if the pain of illness ever becomes a bit too much to handle. At six, I was told to treat others as I would have them treat me. Then at sixteen I was encouraged to abort my unborn baby should I fall pregnant.

Classes in ethics just about consisted of instruction on how to receive an abortion, followed by a denigration of the Pope for his unreasonable and outdated stance on contraception. I could go on but I don’t want to depress you. The irony is that the more rubbish I was fed by my teachers the more I believed in the reasonableness of my faith. By the grace of God and with the guidance of my parents, I came to realize that the subjects that I was studying and the “facts” I was being taught by my teachers were of stark contrast to the faith within which I had been reared by my family and friends, the faith which has always been the most integral aspect of my life. Although I was still an extremely naïve adolescent, (and may still be!) I became convinced that I was being cheated out of a real education based on truth, let alone one that actually embraces the Catholic Church rather than vilifies it, as was and is so often the case.

The truth was painfully obvious: I was being hoodwinked; my school, which was Catholic in name only, was not providing me with the true and holistic education for which I longed.


Ultimately Campion was offering me the education I had always sought, one which cultivates genuine freedom of mind by opening it to the discovery and embrace of truth, an education which is in adherence to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

...Unlike secular universities, which so often have underlying biases and proverbial axes to grind, Campion College is concerned about intellectual honesty and the search for Truth. It just so happens that all the teachings of the Church are true and correct, and the great depository of Faith is based on Truth itself, Jesus Christ. So in this sense, the classes are very much taught from a Christian perspective. But if a non-Catholic prospective student were concerned about the Catholicity of the course, he needn’t worry, as long as he is serious about a logical, intellectual search for the truth. Indeed, not all of the current students are Catholics. You would say the course is Catholic in focus, but I’m sure the writers wouldn’t have strained themselves to find ways to include the Church, such a crucial player in Western Civilisation She has been.

...The College has the expectation that many of its students will become leaders in their chosen fields. Our studies in History, Philosophy, Theology, Literature and Science – from ancient times to modern times– provides the contextual basis necessary to adequately and fruitfully examine and understand the state in which we find ourselves today. During their three years of study, students will come a long way in understanding who we are, how we are, and the reasons we have come to be so, an understanding which is no doubt crucial to any attempt to make a positive difference to society in the future.

...Employers are actively seeking graduates who can think on their feet, who understand the world as a whole and who can think outside of the square. In a world of rapidly changing employment environments, these qualities are sought after particularly in the world of business.
Liberal Arts graduates are renowned for their wide range of employment skills, manifest in their ability to be creative, analytical and to communicate with people.

Imagine No John Lennon

I have just discovered on Xt3, that the Alabama Freethought Association is running a campaign of billboard signs of "Imagine No Religion."

Well, go ahead, imagine a world full of conflicting Ideologies instead. Knock yourselves out.