https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/history-comes-short-face-presidents-caprice MGB:
To accept responsibility allows one to take action. Trump is a coward who knows any action he takes will likely be wrong, but is afraid to make decisions from his better informed advisers. He is no moral leader. CEOs are trained to take personal advantage, which makes them amoral (although they do resign if they break the 11th Commandment - Don't Get Caught). That is exactly the opposite of what a President needs to be.
British PMs can quit easily. Their party will simply replace them and the Queen affirm them (even if in her heart she knows better). President's resigning will give a like-minded VP the office, but will due long term harm to his party. Groups never take responsibility, whether the Tories or the Republicans (or their opponents). That is why the leader is the scapegoat, although in this case the leader is the whole problem and the GOP is the scapegoat. He has no love for his party.
Donald Trump is probably considering exit strategies. Not to think so is a failure of imagination. He might stay in Argentina, since they do not extradite. He just needs to resign when the Secret Service is not there. If his children are with him, it is even more a possibility. If were sure that Mueller will not touch Pence, or that the Senate would not remove the VP, he may wait until January 20 at noon to allow Pence to run for a second term (as if the could even get a first term - even without pardoning Trump, he has no chance of election in his own right). If Pence can't dodge his responsibility for lying to the American people and covering for Flynn, et al, then Pelosi or Clinton become POTUS after January 4th. Ryan would become POTUS up until that point. That would really be an accidental presidency.
Friday, November 30, 2018
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Ascension Health commits structural sins of income inequality, capitalist excess
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/ascension-health-commits-structural-sins-income-inequality MGB:
The Lord said that evil done in the dark will not survive the light. Surely this applies to this story. Kudos to MSW for highlighting this issue. Publishing these salaries to a larger audience may well shame Ascension Health's Board of Directors to cut executive salaries. Missouri is unlikely to do anything because it wants businesses to locate there. Until the Sisters who allow them to maintain their non-profit status, Catholic Health, or the USCCB demands a reduction, nothing will happen. The capitalist labor market for CEOs will never do so.
The root problem is not Ascension, it is Capitalism, not as free market but as the despotic rule of executives over workers, their ability to control prices and to give themselves high wages with only boards filled with their suggested membership to stop them. The answer is employee ownership, with executives bidding for positions in open auction (leading to lower compensation)/ Al wages would be paid at living wage rates with additional compensation for families, likely with government support through tax policy. The free market for wages won't do this, although cooperatively owned systems where consumption is internalized can do so without such assistance.
The Lord said that evil done in the dark will not survive the light. Surely this applies to this story. Kudos to MSW for highlighting this issue. Publishing these salaries to a larger audience may well shame Ascension Health's Board of Directors to cut executive salaries. Missouri is unlikely to do anything because it wants businesses to locate there. Until the Sisters who allow them to maintain their non-profit status, Catholic Health, or the USCCB demands a reduction, nothing will happen. The capitalist labor market for CEOs will never do so.
The root problem is not Ascension, it is Capitalism, not as free market but as the despotic rule of executives over workers, their ability to control prices and to give themselves high wages with only boards filled with their suggested membership to stop them. The answer is employee ownership, with executives bidding for positions in open auction (leading to lower compensation)/ Al wages would be paid at living wage rates with additional compensation for families, likely with government support through tax policy. The free market for wages won't do this, although cooperatively owned systems where consumption is internalized can do so without such assistance.
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Links for 11/28/18
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-112818 MGB:
Until the Mueller Report is revealed, the future of Donald Trump is in doubt. The question is whether Pence is implicated or if the Senate allows Trump to be removed but lets Pence ascend as part of the deal. Impeachment is a political question, not a question of justice. Of course, if Pence is implicated then it is best for the GOP if he and Trump to resign and make Ryan President before Pelosi takes the Speakership. Neither Pence nor Ryan can win against any Democratic contender, provided that contender attacks the Pro-Life movement as a Republican fraud rather than defending abortion.
Christ the King is no longer counter-nationalistic in the same way that the Prayer for Peace in order to end World War I (it did not unless the US was the answer to their prayer) rather than having anything to do with St. Francis. Bosnia is not about nationalism anyway. It is about religious differences being inflamed by reactionary voices, although that is close enough to be nationalism not to matter.
Big money in politics helped the Democrats gain the House, while the lack thereof doomed the Republicans. The problem is not campaign finance or Democratic hypocrisy, it is Capitalism. Until Capitalism is occupied by workers demanding both democracy and economic security at all levels,which will start in employee owned firms, campaign finance will not change.
If memory serves from my ex-wife-s time in Catholic Charities USA, most of the social justice organizing at the parish and charitable levels are bi-national. It makes sense that the reactionaries will attack them in both countries.
The judicial and legal cultures in the United States is moderate conservative, including the Republican and Democratic appointees from the Supreme Court to the Districts. This is why Republican appointed judges ruled in favor of gay marriage and against efforts to outlaw abortion. They all stand on precedent and the Constitution. Only aberrations like Roy Moore depart from this culture. The problem is that because the law is capitalistic, so are judicial rulings regulating it. The one place where there is still partisan is over voting rights and affirmative action, although this is mostly a problem of bad legislation.
Voting Rights law was allowed to slide in mock consensus. It is past time to renew the prior clearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Any state that practiced voter suppression, which should include both Pennsylvania and North Dakota, must be included in that group. As for affirmative action, the only realistic solution is random selection of those on the wait list. All Stars should always be admitted or promoted and the unqualified referred to Community College (legacies and the boss' children included). If that were the culture of the workplace, we would never have had Donald Trump as President.
Because Trump, Ryan or Pence are such easy targets in 2020, everyone with an ego and pulse is running on the Democratic side, assuming that the Republican Party even survives its internal divisions and the Democrats hold together rather than splitting into Wall Street and Socialist camps. In that case, the question of where ethnic and female voters will go. I suspect Abortion and Gay Rights will be non-issues in this division. If this happens, an anti-Capitalist may win, especially one who successfully occupies Capitalism (see above).
I will not argue the point that there are many reactionaries in the pews and the donor class who keep the despots in the USCCB in power. The rest of us, however, have both the Holy Spirit and Francis on our sides. The Church will renew as it always has, this time rejecting Medievalism and going toward more democratic norms of governance. We will occupy the Church as well. This will forever silence reactionary voters on both homosexuality and legal abortion, though resistance to abortion using economic means will cleanse the Pro-Life movement in the Church.
Until the Mueller Report is revealed, the future of Donald Trump is in doubt. The question is whether Pence is implicated or if the Senate allows Trump to be removed but lets Pence ascend as part of the deal. Impeachment is a political question, not a question of justice. Of course, if Pence is implicated then it is best for the GOP if he and Trump to resign and make Ryan President before Pelosi takes the Speakership. Neither Pence nor Ryan can win against any Democratic contender, provided that contender attacks the Pro-Life movement as a Republican fraud rather than defending abortion.
Christ the King is no longer counter-nationalistic in the same way that the Prayer for Peace in order to end World War I (it did not unless the US was the answer to their prayer) rather than having anything to do with St. Francis. Bosnia is not about nationalism anyway. It is about religious differences being inflamed by reactionary voices, although that is close enough to be nationalism not to matter.
Big money in politics helped the Democrats gain the House, while the lack thereof doomed the Republicans. The problem is not campaign finance or Democratic hypocrisy, it is Capitalism. Until Capitalism is occupied by workers demanding both democracy and economic security at all levels,which will start in employee owned firms, campaign finance will not change.
If memory serves from my ex-wife-s time in Catholic Charities USA, most of the social justice organizing at the parish and charitable levels are bi-national. It makes sense that the reactionaries will attack them in both countries.
The judicial and legal cultures in the United States is moderate conservative, including the Republican and Democratic appointees from the Supreme Court to the Districts. This is why Republican appointed judges ruled in favor of gay marriage and against efforts to outlaw abortion. They all stand on precedent and the Constitution. Only aberrations like Roy Moore depart from this culture. The problem is that because the law is capitalistic, so are judicial rulings regulating it. The one place where there is still partisan is over voting rights and affirmative action, although this is mostly a problem of bad legislation.
Voting Rights law was allowed to slide in mock consensus. It is past time to renew the prior clearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act. Any state that practiced voter suppression, which should include both Pennsylvania and North Dakota, must be included in that group. As for affirmative action, the only realistic solution is random selection of those on the wait list. All Stars should always be admitted or promoted and the unqualified referred to Community College (legacies and the boss' children included). If that were the culture of the workplace, we would never have had Donald Trump as President.
Because Trump, Ryan or Pence are such easy targets in 2020, everyone with an ego and pulse is running on the Democratic side, assuming that the Republican Party even survives its internal divisions and the Democrats hold together rather than splitting into Wall Street and Socialist camps. In that case, the question of where ethnic and female voters will go. I suspect Abortion and Gay Rights will be non-issues in this division. If this happens, an anti-Capitalist may win, especially one who successfully occupies Capitalism (see above).
I will not argue the point that there are many reactionaries in the pews and the donor class who keep the despots in the USCCB in power. The rest of us, however, have both the Holy Spirit and Francis on our sides. The Church will renew as it always has, this time rejecting Medievalism and going toward more democratic norms of governance. We will occupy the Church as well. This will forever silence reactionary voters on both homosexuality and legal abortion, though resistance to abortion using economic means will cleanse the Pro-Life movement in the Church.
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Weigel sustains intellectual whiplash under Francis' pontificate
https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/distinctly-catholic/weigel-sustains-intellectual-whiplash-under-francis MGB:
First of all, anything Weigel says or writes is not news. Second, he is a reactionary looking with nostalgia at the time of St. John Paul (when he got more attention). They also defend the capitalist status quo against all things liberal, especially Pope Francis. He may or may not be neoconservative. Neoconservatives are reformed liberals who now favor a muscular foreign policy in the Middle East, particularly in support of Israel. You can find them in The National Review and Peter Berkowitz of Real Clear Politics. Michael Sean Winters quotes them approvingly and, in fact, is one. Finally, the reason for anti-American rhetoric, both in Rome and elsewhere in the world is Donald J. Trump. I could list all the ways he is a dangerous moron, but by now only his reactionary sycophants would argue the point.
First of all, anything Weigel says or writes is not news. Second, he is a reactionary looking with nostalgia at the time of St. John Paul (when he got more attention). They also defend the capitalist status quo against all things liberal, especially Pope Francis. He may or may not be neoconservative. Neoconservatives are reformed liberals who now favor a muscular foreign policy in the Middle East, particularly in support of Israel. You can find them in The National Review and Peter Berkowitz of Real Clear Politics. Michael Sean Winters quotes them approvingly and, in fact, is one. Finally, the reason for anti-American rhetoric, both in Rome and elsewhere in the world is Donald J. Trump. I could list all the ways he is a dangerous moron, but by now only his reactionary sycophants would argue the point.
Monday, November 26, 2018
Was Rome wrong to block U.S. bishops from voting on sex abuse proposals?
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/was-rome-wrong-block-us-bishops-voting-sex-abuse-proposals MGB:
It is interesting that more than a century ago, Rome was leery of an Americanist heresy, which was not about modern foreign policy but about the fear that our democratic habits would affect how the bishops dealt with the moral issues of the time. The bishops went to great pains to disabuse the Pope of that notion. Perhaps, in light of current events, they were not so wrong. Indeed, the USCCB probably has its roots in answering Rome's suspicions.
As an Argentinian, the Pope likely knows full well about the cultural dominance of America on modern culture, especially the export of both our capitalism and our media - how it evolved from sheltering the Church from criticism to being its chief critic. More importantly, he has to have noticed the fissures in the American episcopate, as they include the strongest dissidents against his papacy and against the government taking real action to help the poor. Caritas meets in Rome and I am sure the Pope is interested and that Catholic Charities USA likely shares how some bishops hinder their response to poverty through their Republicanism. The nuns on the bus likely underline that view, as well as their action to oppose health care reform and their petty response to the sisters who broke with their opposition. The BBC does a very good job of covering the world, especially the United States. It may be more trustworthy than the American corporate media.
The fact that the proposals presented in Baltimore were a compromise with some of the bishops and resulted in what must be characterized as weak tea was not lost on the Holy Father, who was likely informed of these by the Nuncio and some American Cardinals (both Cardinal Sean and Cardinal Blaise, both of whom are close advisors to Pope Francis). That many nations would follow the American example is a justified fear. The cravenness of the worldwide hierarchy is not just an American phenomenon. Rather than let them do an end run around his authority, he is taking control over the conversation.
He is justified in doing so, which is better for the cause of the victims, who thrive on this as an unresolved issue. An action in Rome that ends debate is not good for those who have made continuing victimhood their life's mission. They do not like to be told that forgiveness is the only thing that will solve their continuing attempts to keep themselves in the center of the conversation, especially when they are so good at doing so. At least they have taken abortion off the table.
I suspect that Cardinal Cupich has proposals for change that are much stronger than those he made to his audience in Baltimore. Additionally, this Pope likely believes that cultura. change is not enough to resolve this issue. I expect organizational changes from the coming gathering. I am quite sure that the American conservatives will not like the results coming out of this meeting, nor the Church advocating that Rome not be exempt from the responsibility for its part in the scandal. Francis lives simply. For such a priest, being surrounded by masterpieces that could be sold to compensate victims and make diocese whole would be an abomination. so the Curia will not be happy with the result either. Those who do not expect such things are suffering a failure of imagination. Wake up!
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
'Fake news' is not new, but Catholic media needs to avoid it
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/fake-news-not-new-catholic-media-needs-avoid-it MGB:
Fake News is in the eye of the beholder. Generally, it is any news that challenges cultural biases or politics. Despots believe that only what they say is news and what others say is false or sinful. That applies to many bishops. Egalitarians believe that the establishment is lying to protect itself. Libertarians believe you make up your own mind and that lying is permissible. Hierarchists rely on the party line.
On the other scale, Reactionaries truly believe that we are better off in the past, which is almost always a lie (although some of us yearn for the time of Obama). For the Catholic Press, this means everything since Vatican II, with the exception of their favorite counter-revolutionary, St. John Paul, who was a dissident at the Council. Reactionaries believe that stretching the truth is fine if it helps the cause. So do radicals. Conservatives believe that things are fine now and if they are reactionary, hide it by speaking the language of change (see St. John Paul again). Indeed, discordant information cannot be true, so anything bad in the papacy of JP had to be related to Francis. Moderates are either no one or both the conservative and liberal sides.
Reality has a liberal bias because some change is always required, albeit they draw the line at radicalism. Radicals will shade the truth by demonizing the reactionaries and those who oppose them. Some radicals are more radical than others. True revolutionaries speak out against religion. Others simply avoid it unless it opposes them. It is not mentioned in the far left journal Jacobin, or at least I have not seen it. Regardless, MSW ignores them back, although it might spice up his analysis to read them occasionally.
The tragedy of Donald Trump is that he tries to control the narrative, but he also believes in it. This presents a quandary for Fox News, since they want to advise the President and possibly inform him, although real information would ruin their brand identity. The most inconvenient ideologue is one who believes his own propaganda, which fits Trump to a tee. It also fits many bishops and their staffs.
Fake News is in the eye of the beholder. Generally, it is any news that challenges cultural biases or politics. Despots believe that only what they say is news and what others say is false or sinful. That applies to many bishops. Egalitarians believe that the establishment is lying to protect itself. Libertarians believe you make up your own mind and that lying is permissible. Hierarchists rely on the party line.
On the other scale, Reactionaries truly believe that we are better off in the past, which is almost always a lie (although some of us yearn for the time of Obama). For the Catholic Press, this means everything since Vatican II, with the exception of their favorite counter-revolutionary, St. John Paul, who was a dissident at the Council. Reactionaries believe that stretching the truth is fine if it helps the cause. So do radicals. Conservatives believe that things are fine now and if they are reactionary, hide it by speaking the language of change (see St. John Paul again). Indeed, discordant information cannot be true, so anything bad in the papacy of JP had to be related to Francis. Moderates are either no one or both the conservative and liberal sides.
Reality has a liberal bias because some change is always required, albeit they draw the line at radicalism. Radicals will shade the truth by demonizing the reactionaries and those who oppose them. Some radicals are more radical than others. True revolutionaries speak out against religion. Others simply avoid it unless it opposes them. It is not mentioned in the far left journal Jacobin, or at least I have not seen it. Regardless, MSW ignores them back, although it might spice up his analysis to read them occasionally.
The tragedy of Donald Trump is that he tries to control the narrative, but he also believes in it. This presents a quandary for Fox News, since they want to advise the President and possibly inform him, although real information would ruin their brand identity. The most inconvenient ideologue is one who believes his own propaganda, which fits Trump to a tee. It also fits many bishops and their staffs.
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Links for 11/19/18
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-111918 MGB:
It seems that at least half the older voters wanted the government's hands off their Medicare - the government being the Republicans. The remarkable thing about this election is that the younger voters are solidly Democratic, which is a generational change that dooms the GOP.
It is not NARAL that swings the election. They are a rather small organization, even with grass roots support. It is the NEA which has sway in the Democratic Party, which is why the Church does not let teacher's organize (as if joining the union suddenly makes one pro-choice). Again, the Church goes for appearance over reality.
Pelosi is unchallenged. Until someone runs against her, say a pro-life Democrat, the opposition to her is largely theoretical. I suspect that this particular faction wishes to stay hidden. The Bernie forces need to wait their turn. The only possible option, and only if Pence is dead to rights in the Mueller probe, is Hillary Clinton. Of course, if that is the case, Trump and Pence may both resign before the new session, making Ryan the President. Clinton or Sanders would make the GOP squirm, but there will be no pro-life hero.
In both cases, the bailout and the hurricanes, it is an incompetent Governor that is the problem.
Corporate structures would be good for the Church - at the parish and diocesan levels. The days of episcopal lordship have passed (as well as the influence of the sheriff as local lordling in certain southern states). Capitalism is not objectionable because of markets, but because it is authoritarian. Letting the economic libertarians take over would be Animal Farm.
I could think of worse things than a Wuerl - Cupich plan, although the plan must be for the whole Church, not just the USCCB, and it should involve selling some paintings to capitalists.
On Silk, there seem to be many ways to be born again. Maybe they should ask about infant baptism or authoritarianism - although the latter may move Catholics into the evangelical column. I am not sure that the religious estimate even matters anymore. Only the hardest core Southern Baptists are anti-Catholic, save for pro-choice NEA members who see funding parochial schools as union busting, which it probably is.
It seems that at least half the older voters wanted the government's hands off their Medicare - the government being the Republicans. The remarkable thing about this election is that the younger voters are solidly Democratic, which is a generational change that dooms the GOP.
It is not NARAL that swings the election. They are a rather small organization, even with grass roots support. It is the NEA which has sway in the Democratic Party, which is why the Church does not let teacher's organize (as if joining the union suddenly makes one pro-choice). Again, the Church goes for appearance over reality.
Pelosi is unchallenged. Until someone runs against her, say a pro-life Democrat, the opposition to her is largely theoretical. I suspect that this particular faction wishes to stay hidden. The Bernie forces need to wait their turn. The only possible option, and only if Pence is dead to rights in the Mueller probe, is Hillary Clinton. Of course, if that is the case, Trump and Pence may both resign before the new session, making Ryan the President. Clinton or Sanders would make the GOP squirm, but there will be no pro-life hero.
In both cases, the bailout and the hurricanes, it is an incompetent Governor that is the problem.
Corporate structures would be good for the Church - at the parish and diocesan levels. The days of episcopal lordship have passed (as well as the influence of the sheriff as local lordling in certain southern states). Capitalism is not objectionable because of markets, but because it is authoritarian. Letting the economic libertarians take over would be Animal Farm.
I could think of worse things than a Wuerl - Cupich plan, although the plan must be for the whole Church, not just the USCCB, and it should involve selling some paintings to capitalists.
On Silk, there seem to be many ways to be born again. Maybe they should ask about infant baptism or authoritarianism - although the latter may move Catholics into the evangelical column. I am not sure that the religious estimate even matters anymore. Only the hardest core Southern Baptists are anti-Catholic, save for pro-choice NEA members who see funding parochial schools as union busting, which it probably is.
Monday, November 19, 2018
Change is not the enemy of theological truth but its companion
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/change-not-enemy-theological-truth-its-companion MGB:
The key question in moral theology, which the review and likely the theologians cited ignored, is who is the beneficiary of natural law? The evolution of this question, which is the ultimate in theology, is how our concept of God has evolved. For that, you need Hegel and Theodicy (which could be renamed TheOdyssey for its mythical implications) The punishing God of the Old Testament is replaced by Jesus, who identifies with and as a Man, as well as being divine.
Our understanding of Jesus has evolved. The view in Hebrews (whose authorship is not known - my guess is Peter) is likely the source of St. Anselm's view of Jesus as bloody sacrifice to a Father whose Justice must be satisfied. That view is abhorrent to many in the current generation. The Nones simply fled the Church, where many still hold that view. The modern view (or at least my view) from a look at both the Synoptic and Johnian text is that the Crucifixion was and is a vision quest that culminated in the call to God of abandonment,, This is completed by drinking the fruit of the vine (I thirst), which the Last Supper says will only happen in the Father's kingdom. The alternative view can only be that Jesus sinned by consuming the fruit of the vine and that Emily Litella wrote the Gospels (Never mind).
For the purposes of moral theology, the new understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus is in his teaching that he is gentle and humble of heart. His yoke is easy and his burden light. Translated into ethics, that means that whatever moral law there is must come from an understanding of man, not God, and that the moral law is for this world, not the next. No impossible choices to please God are necessary.
This turns our sexual teaching on its head, as well as the teaching on late term abortion when the fetus has no chance of surviving until birth (so it has no interest in not being aborted for the sake of his mother's health) or that of the cancer patient who will die horribly and seeks a compassionate end. Homosexuals need not stay pure to satisfy a divine demand for chastity, although avoiding promiscuity is still very current, not just because of HIV but because it tears at the soul.
Contraception is complicated. Evolving doctrine is that it is a symptom of inequality and poverty rather than (or in addition to) being an evil in and of itself, as Caritas in Veritate makes clear. In a more humanist morality (which can include both modern science and Jeremy Bentham's good for the greatest number), the woman who needs sterilization because she has congestive heart failure so that pregnancy would kill her can undertake the procedure and still have a sex life. The answer for most people, however, on both contraception and abortion is to end poverty by fighting for a just family wage (which is more than a living wage and the fight for $15).
At some point, we must also ask how the schosticist moral law came about. The answer must be in the ontology of those who promulgated it, which brings us to the question of eunuchs, some of whom are born this way and some who chose it. Of course, the reality is both. While the modern clergy is said to be half homosexual (although this will decline with gay marriage), we can no longer assume that the other side is hetrosexual. It is more likely that they are asexuals who personally shrink back from adult sexual relatedness to either gender (and who are more prone to pederasty due to their absent sexual development).
Asexuals in the clergy consider their state of life as holy and set apart, rather than outside the norm or as Benedict would say in his non-PC way, objectively disordered). They believe gives them a superior view of human sexuality. It also is the key to understanding the resistance to the ordination of women and the married of all gender identities. There is no natural law reason not to do so and every reason to proceed to clean our moral house.
Humane Vitae has shown that this view is distorted, not privileged. Modern media showed what had previously been hidden to most before modern communication. Most never had access to papal encyclicals and their wider circulation showed how out of touch they had always been. An aspect of this distance from reality is the view of women as unclean which comes, not from the Gospels, but from the Neoplatonism which St. Augustine brought to Catholic doctrine, leading to Sacred Continence. There has been no evolution of sexual doctrine - it was mere hidden from view. Now that it stands naked before the world, like the emperor of childhood stories.
Historicism is not needed, merely history. This yields better fruit than a simple review of theologians that most have never heard of (outside of Fr. Curran) in an analysis which is truly inside baseball.
The key question in moral theology, which the review and likely the theologians cited ignored, is who is the beneficiary of natural law? The evolution of this question, which is the ultimate in theology, is how our concept of God has evolved. For that, you need Hegel and Theodicy (which could be renamed TheOdyssey for its mythical implications) The punishing God of the Old Testament is replaced by Jesus, who identifies with and as a Man, as well as being divine.
Our understanding of Jesus has evolved. The view in Hebrews (whose authorship is not known - my guess is Peter) is likely the source of St. Anselm's view of Jesus as bloody sacrifice to a Father whose Justice must be satisfied. That view is abhorrent to many in the current generation. The Nones simply fled the Church, where many still hold that view. The modern view (or at least my view) from a look at both the Synoptic and Johnian text is that the Crucifixion was and is a vision quest that culminated in the call to God of abandonment,, This is completed by drinking the fruit of the vine (I thirst), which the Last Supper says will only happen in the Father's kingdom. The alternative view can only be that Jesus sinned by consuming the fruit of the vine and that Emily Litella wrote the Gospels (Never mind).
For the purposes of moral theology, the new understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus is in his teaching that he is gentle and humble of heart. His yoke is easy and his burden light. Translated into ethics, that means that whatever moral law there is must come from an understanding of man, not God, and that the moral law is for this world, not the next. No impossible choices to please God are necessary.
This turns our sexual teaching on its head, as well as the teaching on late term abortion when the fetus has no chance of surviving until birth (so it has no interest in not being aborted for the sake of his mother's health) or that of the cancer patient who will die horribly and seeks a compassionate end. Homosexuals need not stay pure to satisfy a divine demand for chastity, although avoiding promiscuity is still very current, not just because of HIV but because it tears at the soul.
Contraception is complicated. Evolving doctrine is that it is a symptom of inequality and poverty rather than (or in addition to) being an evil in and of itself, as Caritas in Veritate makes clear. In a more humanist morality (which can include both modern science and Jeremy Bentham's good for the greatest number), the woman who needs sterilization because she has congestive heart failure so that pregnancy would kill her can undertake the procedure and still have a sex life. The answer for most people, however, on both contraception and abortion is to end poverty by fighting for a just family wage (which is more than a living wage and the fight for $15).
At some point, we must also ask how the schosticist moral law came about. The answer must be in the ontology of those who promulgated it, which brings us to the question of eunuchs, some of whom are born this way and some who chose it. Of course, the reality is both. While the modern clergy is said to be half homosexual (although this will decline with gay marriage), we can no longer assume that the other side is hetrosexual. It is more likely that they are asexuals who personally shrink back from adult sexual relatedness to either gender (and who are more prone to pederasty due to their absent sexual development).
Asexuals in the clergy consider their state of life as holy and set apart, rather than outside the norm or as Benedict would say in his non-PC way, objectively disordered). They believe gives them a superior view of human sexuality. It also is the key to understanding the resistance to the ordination of women and the married of all gender identities. There is no natural law reason not to do so and every reason to proceed to clean our moral house.
Humane Vitae has shown that this view is distorted, not privileged. Modern media showed what had previously been hidden to most before modern communication. Most never had access to papal encyclicals and their wider circulation showed how out of touch they had always been. An aspect of this distance from reality is the view of women as unclean which comes, not from the Gospels, but from the Neoplatonism which St. Augustine brought to Catholic doctrine, leading to Sacred Continence. There has been no evolution of sexual doctrine - it was mere hidden from view. Now that it stands naked before the world, like the emperor of childhood stories.
Historicism is not needed, merely history. This yields better fruit than a simple review of theologians that most have never heard of (outside of Fr. Curran) in an analysis which is truly inside baseball.
Friday, November 16, 2018
Links for 11/16/18
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-111618 MGB:
When Vigano' was appointed as Nuncio, I thought he would fire the offenders who did not implement the Dallas protocols, largely because of his work cleaning up Vatican finance. He went the other way and jumped into the political web of Chaput and others. I am glad he was removed. As for his family troubles, it is none of our concern.
Paul VI was probably not gay. Instead, he was probably asexual. Ottaviani surely was, given his eagerness to tell the rest of us how to have sex while recoiling from it himself.
With margins this thin in Congress, the pro-life Democrats have outlived their usefulness as the useful idiots of the pro-life movement (sorry Michael Sean), since the movement is about Republican politics and certainly not the seamless garment, which would demand a family wage level Child Tax Credit. This is a bridge way to far for the Republicans in the movement.
The Mueller Report will kill the Republican chances for 2020, even if they dump Trump. Pence is about as attractive for POTUS in his own right as the bucket of warm spit his current post is worth. At least people liked Gerry Ford. Expect a repeat of 1974 and 1976. Auditions are now open for the Jimmy Carter role.
Melinda is only scratching the surface. I disagree with her decision to leave. I prefer to stay and fight. Sadly she is beating a dead horse. The current scandal has no new information, although the demand for more public records is not new, but newish. There are better reasons to leave the Church. Her article is not the 95 Thesis of Luther. Start with the hidden asexuality in Catholic sexual teaching and how it prevents the ordination of married, out and proud gay and female priests (and combinations of the above). We need a married lesbian as the American Matriarch installed in a Latin Mass. A demand for anything less is about the same bucket of warm spit that Pence is.
Temporary Protected Status is what immigrants who are currently working in slavery at Tysons Food et al can get by proving they were trafficked. Sex workers have the same right. That Trump would favor the employer side in both cases is no surprise.
New Ways does good work and the article is spot on. The LGBT side is not wrong nor are their grievances at the hands of the hierarchy not minor (and stem from the hidden asexuality mentioned above). Sadly, without funding, no one seems to listen to my argument outside of a few of my fellow commentators on the NCR Facebook page.
When Vigano' was appointed as Nuncio, I thought he would fire the offenders who did not implement the Dallas protocols, largely because of his work cleaning up Vatican finance. He went the other way and jumped into the political web of Chaput and others. I am glad he was removed. As for his family troubles, it is none of our concern.
Paul VI was probably not gay. Instead, he was probably asexual. Ottaviani surely was, given his eagerness to tell the rest of us how to have sex while recoiling from it himself.
With margins this thin in Congress, the pro-life Democrats have outlived their usefulness as the useful idiots of the pro-life movement (sorry Michael Sean), since the movement is about Republican politics and certainly not the seamless garment, which would demand a family wage level Child Tax Credit. This is a bridge way to far for the Republicans in the movement.
The Mueller Report will kill the Republican chances for 2020, even if they dump Trump. Pence is about as attractive for POTUS in his own right as the bucket of warm spit his current post is worth. At least people liked Gerry Ford. Expect a repeat of 1974 and 1976. Auditions are now open for the Jimmy Carter role.
Melinda is only scratching the surface. I disagree with her decision to leave. I prefer to stay and fight. Sadly she is beating a dead horse. The current scandal has no new information, although the demand for more public records is not new, but newish. There are better reasons to leave the Church. Her article is not the 95 Thesis of Luther. Start with the hidden asexuality in Catholic sexual teaching and how it prevents the ordination of married, out and proud gay and female priests (and combinations of the above). We need a married lesbian as the American Matriarch installed in a Latin Mass. A demand for anything less is about the same bucket of warm spit that Pence is.
Temporary Protected Status is what immigrants who are currently working in slavery at Tysons Food et al can get by proving they were trafficked. Sex workers have the same right. That Trump would favor the employer side in both cases is no surprise.
New Ways does good work and the article is spot on. The LGBT side is not wrong nor are their grievances at the hands of the hierarchy not minor (and stem from the hidden asexuality mentioned above). Sadly, without funding, no one seems to listen to my argument outside of a few of my fellow commentators on the NCR Facebook page.
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Amateur hour at the bishops' conference
https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/distinctly-catholic/conclusion-meeting-question-remains-bishops-credibility
MGB: I suspect that the wiser bishops gave those who spoke nonsense enough rope to hang themselves. The Nuncio was surely taking notes. They won't become Cardinals anytime soon,except under the anti-Papacy of Ray Burke, a dubious honor. I won't argue the insanity of their drivel, but will say that the charitable thing would be to out many of them as unconscious Asexuals, first to themselves. Then we can safely remove them from teaching the rest of us about a sexuality that they know nothing about, except through Scholasticism, which was penned by the greatest asexual of them all, Thomas Aquinas. (Yes, I know this troll bait).
MGB: I suspect that the wiser bishops gave those who spoke nonsense enough rope to hang themselves. The Nuncio was surely taking notes. They won't become Cardinals anytime soon,except under the anti-Papacy of Ray Burke, a dubious honor. I won't argue the insanity of their drivel, but will say that the charitable thing would be to out many of them as unconscious Asexuals, first to themselves. Then we can safely remove them from teaching the rest of us about a sexuality that they know nothing about, except through Scholasticism, which was penned by the greatest asexual of them all, Thomas Aquinas. (Yes, I know this troll bait).
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Day 2 of US bishops' meeting: Institution still trumps the mission
https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/distinctly-catholic/day-2-us-bishops-meeting-institution-still-trumps-mission
MGB: Claude Rains has the best quote for both the bishops meeting and MSW's reaction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME
The abuse of children is endemic to asexual clergy. While we think there are sufficient safeguards, no one seems to be sure, as the bishops are policing themselves. What is also endemic is the culture of asexuality in the priesthood (which invites abuse) and the secrecy in the hierarchy of the Church, from parish to palace.
Part of secrecy is self-delusion, including Vatican II's contention that bishops are not Vatican employees. This makes the Vatican art fair game in demanding settlement from the Church. Indeed, two of the three pictures hanging behind the dias at the meeting are culturally relativistic and the originals should be sold. Jesus and his family were not white and a Church professing sacred poverty (which is more radical than sacred continence) should not hold onto such things.
Regardless, neither procedures and policies nor conversion will have the desired result for any issue facing the Church. Localizing authority and an openness to both realistic sexuality (including by priests and bishops) are the radical changes the Church needs, especially the ordination of women. An openly gay Bishop McCarrick could not arrange the sleeping arrangements at a retreat, but could have a relationship with a seminarian if all is in the light. Admitting the misogyny behind all of the Church's sexual teaching is also essential. Such honesty is necessary to clean the inside of the cup.
MGB: Claude Rains has the best quote for both the bishops meeting and MSW's reaction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME
The abuse of children is endemic to asexual clergy. While we think there are sufficient safeguards, no one seems to be sure, as the bishops are policing themselves. What is also endemic is the culture of asexuality in the priesthood (which invites abuse) and the secrecy in the hierarchy of the Church, from parish to palace.
Part of secrecy is self-delusion, including Vatican II's contention that bishops are not Vatican employees. This makes the Vatican art fair game in demanding settlement from the Church. Indeed, two of the three pictures hanging behind the dias at the meeting are culturally relativistic and the originals should be sold. Jesus and his family were not white and a Church professing sacred poverty (which is more radical than sacred continence) should not hold onto such things.
Regardless, neither procedures and policies nor conversion will have the desired result for any issue facing the Church. Localizing authority and an openness to both realistic sexuality (including by priests and bishops) are the radical changes the Church needs, especially the ordination of women. An openly gay Bishop McCarrick could not arrange the sleeping arrangements at a retreat, but could have a relationship with a seminarian if all is in the light. Admitting the misogyny behind all of the Church's sexual teaching is also essential. Such honesty is necessary to clean the inside of the cup.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Bishops' meeting bombshell: Vatican says no voting on abuse crisis
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/bishops-meeting-bombshell-vatican-says-no-voting-abuse-crisis
MGB: The Pope is as smart as he is holy and this act is the best way to shut up his critics in the USCCB. It also will serve to create a worldwide solution to this affair, or at least publicity about what may be largely historic abuse. The traditionalists cannot fight back, as at heart they are untramontainist and cannot publicly resist the office for much longer.
The question is, what will happen in February. What you project depends upon where you sit. Rome could decide to control the situation more (including how it appoints bishops). This would mean,however that it would have to start selling the artistic property it now considers held in trust for future generations (even though, while beautifully composted, is culturally relativistic - and not in a good way).
It could go the other way and behave more like the Anglicans (not the congregational protestants) and give local clergy and the people not only a say, but control over the election and elevation of bishops and archbishops. Even further, it could let the bishops of a province elect their own metropolitan, as well as letting the metropolitans elect a local autocephalic national or linguistic patriarchs, further eroding the papacy to just another such patriarch. He could also do both. I would not put it past him.
MGB: The Pope is as smart as he is holy and this act is the best way to shut up his critics in the USCCB. It also will serve to create a worldwide solution to this affair, or at least publicity about what may be largely historic abuse. The traditionalists cannot fight back, as at heart they are untramontainist and cannot publicly resist the office for much longer.
The question is, what will happen in February. What you project depends upon where you sit. Rome could decide to control the situation more (including how it appoints bishops). This would mean,however that it would have to start selling the artistic property it now considers held in trust for future generations (even though, while beautifully composted, is culturally relativistic - and not in a good way).
It could go the other way and behave more like the Anglicans (not the congregational protestants) and give local clergy and the people not only a say, but control over the election and elevation of bishops and archbishops. Even further, it could let the bishops of a province elect their own metropolitan, as well as letting the metropolitans elect a local autocephalic national or linguistic patriarchs, further eroding the papacy to just another such patriarch. He could also do both. I would not put it past him.
Monday, November 12, 2018
What's left of bishops' moral authority is on the line this week
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/whats-left-bishops-moral-authority-line-week
MGB: Just on the title, it is bizarre that Friday's column was about constitutional legitimacy being based on democracy, while today we are worried about the moral authority of the leaders in a despotic system. The latter is the last place to find moral authority, since that comes from seeking the truth, not in preserving the organization, which leads to moral consistency, the enemy of the search for truth. Sadly, MSW and our anachronist commentators can't appreciate the irony. Indeed, they think that pointing this out is a scandal.
Moral authority would be to seek the truth about homosexuality and the end of mandatory celibacy, including for LGBT priests (male and female). It would also be renouncing the 13th Commandment (don't get caught). Experience has shown that the USCCB and its staff can do neither. It would be organizational heresy to even consider these questions. Neither will their staffs, who actually write their immoral screeds, thus protecting the party line. To even run for bishop, you have to be more self-righteous than the Pope (holiness is off the table). Not even Ivereigh goes far enough. Indeed, what he proposes is deaf to the culture of the bishops and all despotisms. Unless the structure is changed, the error will persist. Conversion is not enough.
The Church will not die. The bishops have been trying to kill it for 2000 years and have not succeeded. This crop is not nearly that talented. The question is when, not if, the Holy Spirit will prompt the rest of us to insist on change. It will not come from the bishops of any nation.
MGB: Just on the title, it is bizarre that Friday's column was about constitutional legitimacy being based on democracy, while today we are worried about the moral authority of the leaders in a despotic system. The latter is the last place to find moral authority, since that comes from seeking the truth, not in preserving the organization, which leads to moral consistency, the enemy of the search for truth. Sadly, MSW and our anachronist commentators can't appreciate the irony. Indeed, they think that pointing this out is a scandal.
Moral authority would be to seek the truth about homosexuality and the end of mandatory celibacy, including for LGBT priests (male and female). It would also be renouncing the 13th Commandment (don't get caught). Experience has shown that the USCCB and its staff can do neither. It would be organizational heresy to even consider these questions. Neither will their staffs, who actually write their immoral screeds, thus protecting the party line. To even run for bishop, you have to be more self-righteous than the Pope (holiness is off the table). Not even Ivereigh goes far enough. Indeed, what he proposes is deaf to the culture of the bishops and all despotisms. Unless the structure is changed, the error will persist. Conversion is not enough.
The Church will not die. The bishops have been trying to kill it for 2000 years and have not succeeded. This crop is not nearly that talented. The question is when, not if, the Holy Spirit will prompt the rest of us to insist on change. It will not come from the bishops of any nation.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Constitutional legitimacy needs democratic legitimacy to survive
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/constitutional-legitimacy-needs-democratic-legitimacy-survive
MGB: The Democrats in the House will be doing there job, checking the power of an out of control executive. This may include impeachment if the Mueller investigation goes where it must - or has already gone. So far, Mueller is keeping his powder dry, but it is likely there is at least a draft report ready to go. All it needs is pushing the send button.
If Trump does survive to 2020, he will likely be primaried, removing him or at least dividing the GOP base. Either way, social libertarian issues will take a back seat to corruption. Pelvic politics, like GOP racial code, are a get out the vote strategy. While health care may go stale, corruption is the gift that keeps on giving, even after the offending POTUS is gone. Just ask the ghost of Gerry Ford. Corruption includes gerrymandering and frustration over it certainly drove the activists, if not the voters.
The representation in the Senate is a rising meme, but in national politics the only way around it is regional government - with each region of equal electoral vote strength sending two (maybe five) members to a national caucus while retaining the current members in a regional one. Unless the large states are to dominate the small ones in reach region, we still will have use of the Senate. The straw man regional map I set up has a northwest region that goes from Minnesota to Washington and down to Missouri.and Kansas. There are no really large states but there are 22 Senate seats, isolating the problem of rural states having an outsized influence.
Such a proposal does not need a convention or an amendment. Indeed, it should first be tried out without one. It will only take some party or POTUS candidate making it an issue so that Congress cannot resist going along by having regional caucus boundaries match the executive one, which were put in, not by law, but by an executive order by Richard Nixon.
MGB: The Democrats in the House will be doing there job, checking the power of an out of control executive. This may include impeachment if the Mueller investigation goes where it must - or has already gone. So far, Mueller is keeping his powder dry, but it is likely there is at least a draft report ready to go. All it needs is pushing the send button.
If Trump does survive to 2020, he will likely be primaried, removing him or at least dividing the GOP base. Either way, social libertarian issues will take a back seat to corruption. Pelvic politics, like GOP racial code, are a get out the vote strategy. While health care may go stale, corruption is the gift that keeps on giving, even after the offending POTUS is gone. Just ask the ghost of Gerry Ford. Corruption includes gerrymandering and frustration over it certainly drove the activists, if not the voters.
The representation in the Senate is a rising meme, but in national politics the only way around it is regional government - with each region of equal electoral vote strength sending two (maybe five) members to a national caucus while retaining the current members in a regional one. Unless the large states are to dominate the small ones in reach region, we still will have use of the Senate. The straw man regional map I set up has a northwest region that goes from Minnesota to Washington and down to Missouri.and Kansas. There are no really large states but there are 22 Senate seats, isolating the problem of rural states having an outsized influence.
Such a proposal does not need a convention or an amendment. Indeed, it should first be tried out without one. It will only take some party or POTUS candidate making it an issue so that Congress cannot resist going along by having regional caucus boundaries match the executive one, which were put in, not by law, but by an executive order by Richard Nixon.
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Links for 11/8/18
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-11818
MGB: The Democratic Party has its tribes too. We have ethnic Democrats (Black and Latino), Wall Street Democrats and Social Democrats. Social and Ethnic would gladly unite with populist Republicans were it not for the whole racism thing. Of course, not all Republicans are racist, but they seem to be comfortable in a party which has a racist undertone. The answer to bringing them in is cash and prizes - but to do that, the Social Democrats must Occupy Capitalism - literally subvert it from the inside, making war with the Wall Streeters from the Democrats and GOP and winning. As for the Republicans who actually are racist and take that racism to church? Let them languish outside of politics and any ecumenical efforts. Devil take them, because the rest of us don't want them. (Actually, he has them already)
Exactly what do Asexuals like Barron have to do with masculinity? Methinks I see some wannabes. They are in the closet, even to themselves. Now how would anyone know I would go there?
Too bad that legally the military cannot arrest the militias. It may be time to test that law for sanity.
MSW knows nothing about Texas politics. The Democratic base is entirely unmotivated, or was, because they have lost so badly they do not bother. It was a self-fulfilling prophesy, until now. Note that Beto's strength was in the border counties. How does that square with abolishing ICE being a bad meme?
The target at Tree of Life was Jews, but in particular Jews who helped migrants. This was a MAGA hate crime. Color me not surprised that MAGA can easily be both anti-semitic and migrant without difficulty. Ditto for Acton. They are not worth covering.
Gun politics is driven by the useful idiots who support gun manufacturers. A DoD policy that prevents such firms from selling AR-15s or handguns commercially if they want to sell to the military would take care of this problem nicely. Suddenly the toxic funding for their view of the second amendment would vanish overnight.
MGB: The Democratic Party has its tribes too. We have ethnic Democrats (Black and Latino), Wall Street Democrats and Social Democrats. Social and Ethnic would gladly unite with populist Republicans were it not for the whole racism thing. Of course, not all Republicans are racist, but they seem to be comfortable in a party which has a racist undertone. The answer to bringing them in is cash and prizes - but to do that, the Social Democrats must Occupy Capitalism - literally subvert it from the inside, making war with the Wall Streeters from the Democrats and GOP and winning. As for the Republicans who actually are racist and take that racism to church? Let them languish outside of politics and any ecumenical efforts. Devil take them, because the rest of us don't want them. (Actually, he has them already)
Exactly what do Asexuals like Barron have to do with masculinity? Methinks I see some wannabes. They are in the closet, even to themselves. Now how would anyone know I would go there?
Too bad that legally the military cannot arrest the militias. It may be time to test that law for sanity.
MSW knows nothing about Texas politics. The Democratic base is entirely unmotivated, or was, because they have lost so badly they do not bother. It was a self-fulfilling prophesy, until now. Note that Beto's strength was in the border counties. How does that square with abolishing ICE being a bad meme?
The target at Tree of Life was Jews, but in particular Jews who helped migrants. This was a MAGA hate crime. Color me not surprised that MAGA can easily be both anti-semitic and migrant without difficulty. Ditto for Acton. They are not worth covering.
Gun politics is driven by the useful idiots who support gun manufacturers. A DoD policy that prevents such firms from selling AR-15s or handguns commercially if they want to sell to the military would take care of this problem nicely. Suddenly the toxic funding for their view of the second amendment would vanish overnight.
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
2018 Midterm Elections: A blue sigh of relief
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/2018-midterm-elections-blue-sigh-relief
MGB: Democrats held their own in the Senate, despite having the most at stake. The right of donors to make fiscal policy has ended and progressive Democrats in the House will not let it return, which is a repudiation of the Clintons. The House showed that politics can be both local and national, as the freedom caucus increases from 30 to 45 (give or take). We will see if they toe the line set by Leader McCarthy, since now they really have no choice.
Trump will be checked by the new House, but the Mueller report will be the biggest check of all. McConnell knows that Trump in the White House is an albatross around his party's neck, especially as they have many seats to defend in 2020 and will not keep the presidency if Trump is the nominee. The only question is whether he can get Trump to resign, have Pence declare him incompetent or vote with the Democrats on impeachment. He must know he is in a world of hurt, because any ruling by the DOJ General Counsel on impeaching a sitting president has no impact on prosecuting his children or pursuing civil asset forfeiture. Once his kids realize that, they may be on the first flight to Moscow. Of course, Moscow will have no use for them either.
Abortion is a non-issue, except for electoral politics. The Democrats get as much as the GOP, because both NARAL and the NEA are as reliable foot soldiers for them as the right to life movement is for the GOP. A younger crop of bishops will defuse this issue once they realize that if they don't they will be Republican paws. Abortion is not going anywhere and bans never stopped it, but did hurt women. In modern times, we are at the status quo. Any other answer is pipe dream. The old joke is that the Democrats will do nothing about restricting abortion while the GOP will do nothing to help the unborn. It is quite true.
Attacking Pelosi also and old saw for Pro-Life Democrats. It will have no effect on the outcome of the Caucus vote and they dissidents will fall in line on the official vote. They are not stupid. Pelosi will leave on her own terms and if Steny as Speaker for a new generation will move up. Any leadership list that does not put Adam Schiff at the top is unrealistic.
This is the beginning of the drams, not the end, as how Trump will exit is the issue of the day. There are no more pressing problems. We live in interesting times.
MGB: Democrats held their own in the Senate, despite having the most at stake. The right of donors to make fiscal policy has ended and progressive Democrats in the House will not let it return, which is a repudiation of the Clintons. The House showed that politics can be both local and national, as the freedom caucus increases from 30 to 45 (give or take). We will see if they toe the line set by Leader McCarthy, since now they really have no choice.
Trump will be checked by the new House, but the Mueller report will be the biggest check of all. McConnell knows that Trump in the White House is an albatross around his party's neck, especially as they have many seats to defend in 2020 and will not keep the presidency if Trump is the nominee. The only question is whether he can get Trump to resign, have Pence declare him incompetent or vote with the Democrats on impeachment. He must know he is in a world of hurt, because any ruling by the DOJ General Counsel on impeaching a sitting president has no impact on prosecuting his children or pursuing civil asset forfeiture. Once his kids realize that, they may be on the first flight to Moscow. Of course, Moscow will have no use for them either.
Abortion is a non-issue, except for electoral politics. The Democrats get as much as the GOP, because both NARAL and the NEA are as reliable foot soldiers for them as the right to life movement is for the GOP. A younger crop of bishops will defuse this issue once they realize that if they don't they will be Republican paws. Abortion is not going anywhere and bans never stopped it, but did hurt women. In modern times, we are at the status quo. Any other answer is pipe dream. The old joke is that the Democrats will do nothing about restricting abortion while the GOP will do nothing to help the unborn. It is quite true.
Attacking Pelosi also and old saw for Pro-Life Democrats. It will have no effect on the outcome of the Caucus vote and they dissidents will fall in line on the official vote. They are not stupid. Pelosi will leave on her own terms and if Steny as Speaker for a new generation will move up. Any leadership list that does not put Adam Schiff at the top is unrealistic.
This is the beginning of the drams, not the end, as how Trump will exit is the issue of the day. There are no more pressing problems. We live in interesting times.
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
Links for 11/6/18
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-11618-0
MGB: I suspect you will need briefings on both sides - one for prep and one to cover the Dolan crowd shifting toward the Democrats, leaving a few Anachronist true believers alone with themselves.
Second trimester abortions are violent and are likely covered under the exceptions for health after it is known that the baby has no chance of survival. First trimester abortions are all too sanitary. Regardless, most abortions are paid for in cash. You are more likely to fund them by going to the movies or a fast food restaurant as at least a portion of your dollar will fund taking care of an inconvenient pregnancy, paid for by either the father for his girlfriend or the pregnant teen herself. Of course, the matter that is as important is the disaster of letting voters decide on taxes and expenditures. Direct democracy has its limits.
Pro-life Democrats should take the hint that the entire movement is about electing Republicans. When margins are so close, the fiction that this is not true is the only clue you need to know that pro-life Democrats were a prop to show that the issue was not entirely political. This is because, even if such officials could be the margin of victory in Congress to vastly limit abortion, actually doing so is not on the GOP's agenda. They like the issue for electoral purposes, they don't really want it resolved on either side. You have to be a political hack to know this. It was never about saving the unborn.
Suburban voters is another way to say non-white trash voters who would rather not leave Donald Trump unchecked, or even in office. The Democrats are focusing on health issues because they know that the anti-Trump vote is already in the bag.
To know why Certiorari was granted, look at the Justices who signed off on it. They may be close to solving the thorny issue of religion in the public square. It should be easier without Nino on the Court. Comments from the peanut gallery on ancient lawgivers are irrelevant.
Arroyo is part of the Republican movement. He is a propagandist, not a journalist. Don't let him in the room in Baltimore unless you want to create a spectacle.
Sirico was a convert singly loudly in Church. I also know of know promise of chastity for priests. The promise is to not get married, which is now an issue because gay priests could. That may be the final straw in killing priestly celibacy and the fascination of asexual priests with everyone else's sex lives. Sadly, St. John Paul was a member of the latter, raising sexual issues to credal status, or rather leaving them there. The long term trend to do so is a cancer in the Church.
Congrats on the Quiz show mention. The only way to be sure it will be included is to write the obit yourself, unless you trust that whomever is has all the facts. More topical is the Rachel Maddow show's election night bingo, where vulnerable Republicans are the squares and are covered if they lose. Of course, this is a stunt to keep people watching MSNBC tonight, as if anyone will be watching Fox News. Carl Rove wandering around the studio looking for different numbers on the Obama win was good theater, but embarrassing after the fact. On CNN, no one can watch Wolf Blitzer for the seven hours coverage will go on.
MGB: I suspect you will need briefings on both sides - one for prep and one to cover the Dolan crowd shifting toward the Democrats, leaving a few Anachronist true believers alone with themselves.
Second trimester abortions are violent and are likely covered under the exceptions for health after it is known that the baby has no chance of survival. First trimester abortions are all too sanitary. Regardless, most abortions are paid for in cash. You are more likely to fund them by going to the movies or a fast food restaurant as at least a portion of your dollar will fund taking care of an inconvenient pregnancy, paid for by either the father for his girlfriend or the pregnant teen herself. Of course, the matter that is as important is the disaster of letting voters decide on taxes and expenditures. Direct democracy has its limits.
Pro-life Democrats should take the hint that the entire movement is about electing Republicans. When margins are so close, the fiction that this is not true is the only clue you need to know that pro-life Democrats were a prop to show that the issue was not entirely political. This is because, even if such officials could be the margin of victory in Congress to vastly limit abortion, actually doing so is not on the GOP's agenda. They like the issue for electoral purposes, they don't really want it resolved on either side. You have to be a political hack to know this. It was never about saving the unborn.
Suburban voters is another way to say non-white trash voters who would rather not leave Donald Trump unchecked, or even in office. The Democrats are focusing on health issues because they know that the anti-Trump vote is already in the bag.
To know why Certiorari was granted, look at the Justices who signed off on it. They may be close to solving the thorny issue of religion in the public square. It should be easier without Nino on the Court. Comments from the peanut gallery on ancient lawgivers are irrelevant.
Arroyo is part of the Republican movement. He is a propagandist, not a journalist. Don't let him in the room in Baltimore unless you want to create a spectacle.
Sirico was a convert singly loudly in Church. I also know of know promise of chastity for priests. The promise is to not get married, which is now an issue because gay priests could. That may be the final straw in killing priestly celibacy and the fascination of asexual priests with everyone else's sex lives. Sadly, St. John Paul was a member of the latter, raising sexual issues to credal status, or rather leaving them there. The long term trend to do so is a cancer in the Church.
Congrats on the Quiz show mention. The only way to be sure it will be included is to write the obit yourself, unless you trust that whomever is has all the facts. More topical is the Rachel Maddow show's election night bingo, where vulnerable Republicans are the squares and are covered if they lose. Of course, this is a stunt to keep people watching MSNBC tonight, as if anyone will be watching Fox News. Carl Rove wandering around the studio looking for different numbers on the Obama win was good theater, but embarrassing after the fact. On CNN, no one can watch Wolf Blitzer for the seven hours coverage will go on.
Monday, November 5, 2018
Sr. Carol Keehan, retiring next year, is irreplaceable
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/sr-carol-keehan-retiring-next-year-irreplaceable
MGB: Sister Carol is fearless. She will be missed in progressive Catholic leadership. I hope they have saved a seat for her on the Bus with the other nuns. Her testimony has always been powerful. I am sure that my ex-wife, who was the Director of Membership for Catholic Charities, USA has some good Sister Carol stories. I hope that in her lifetime, sisters can be ordained and that she is. She has earned the titles of both priest and bishop - and maybe Mother or Matriarch. The Church is a poorer place for not considering doing so.
MGB: Sister Carol is fearless. She will be missed in progressive Catholic leadership. I hope they have saved a seat for her on the Bus with the other nuns. Her testimony has always been powerful. I am sure that my ex-wife, who was the Director of Membership for Catholic Charities, USA has some good Sister Carol stories. I hope that in her lifetime, sisters can be ordained and that she is. She has earned the titles of both priest and bishop - and maybe Mother or Matriarch. The Church is a poorer place for not considering doing so.
Friday, November 2, 2018
US bishops are not rushing to Francis-led agenda
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/us-bishops-are-not-rushing-francis-led-agenda
MGB: I would hope that the assembled bishops would protest the process and take nominations from the floor, but that would be too much to ask. Maybe if they indicate that they reject both on their ballots, it might wake the leadership up. They need a constitutional crisis. Eventually God will sort it out, because the old steers will age out or die and the Francis bishops will have a majority. Until then, expect the same kind of drama.
Some of the old steers are hoping that they have a chance to make Burke pope. Francis is too healthy to consider that and more likely to make major changes, making such an election a vote for an anti-pope. I prefer an American patriarch and that it be Sean Cardinal O'Malley, OFM, but only when the Cardinal electors (probably all Metropolitans) are sane.
MGB: I would hope that the assembled bishops would protest the process and take nominations from the floor, but that would be too much to ask. Maybe if they indicate that they reject both on their ballots, it might wake the leadership up. They need a constitutional crisis. Eventually God will sort it out, because the old steers will age out or die and the Francis bishops will have a majority. Until then, expect the same kind of drama.
Some of the old steers are hoping that they have a chance to make Burke pope. Francis is too healthy to consider that and more likely to make major changes, making such an election a vote for an anti-pope. I prefer an American patriarch and that it be Sean Cardinal O'Malley, OFM, but only when the Cardinal electors (probably all Metropolitans) are sane.
Thursday, November 1, 2018
Links for 11/1/18
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/links-11118-0
MGB: All Saints day is supposed to mark not only our future sainthood, but our current membership in the body of Christ, with no part of the body being more or less important than the other parts. Recovering Catholics, like Rosie Perez, do not disagree on Dogma. Rather, it is the sexism and flawed sexual teachings that they find particularly upsetting. They should because they are not based on Natural Law, at least as far as non-asexuals are concerned. God is not the Ogre many in the Church make Him out to be, from St. Anselm to St. John Paul.
Fox News walked back the Smallpox part, but left in play the rest with the caveat "that some believe," which is what they say when they are caught lying. The Hope Border Institute has the facts, although they are apparent from any real news program. Working Class Perspectives reveals that the families of crime victims are also smarter than Fox News and their ilk in the White House.
There are divides in the Democratic Party based on race, gender issues and economic status. When the GOP finishes blowing itself up, the Wall Street Democrats and Republicans will find common cause, with the rest of us adopting a more radical path. How the other divides play out in this context is anyone's guess. I suspect that they will break by age, although the Black Church may go ahead and break bread with those who focus on pelvic issues.
MGB: All Saints day is supposed to mark not only our future sainthood, but our current membership in the body of Christ, with no part of the body being more or less important than the other parts. Recovering Catholics, like Rosie Perez, do not disagree on Dogma. Rather, it is the sexism and flawed sexual teachings that they find particularly upsetting. They should because they are not based on Natural Law, at least as far as non-asexuals are concerned. God is not the Ogre many in the Church make Him out to be, from St. Anselm to St. John Paul.
Fox News walked back the Smallpox part, but left in play the rest with the caveat "that some believe," which is what they say when they are caught lying. The Hope Border Institute has the facts, although they are apparent from any real news program. Working Class Perspectives reveals that the families of crime victims are also smarter than Fox News and their ilk in the White House.
There are divides in the Democratic Party based on race, gender issues and economic status. When the GOP finishes blowing itself up, the Wall Street Democrats and Republicans will find common cause, with the rest of us adopting a more radical path. How the other divides play out in this context is anyone's guess. I suspect that they will break by age, although the Black Church may go ahead and break bread with those who focus on pelvic issues.
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