Parish As The Key to Resisting Secularized Culture, Says John Paul II
If you get a chance, check out my reflections on the role of parish life in responding to the current Troubles in the Church. They are in the sidebar as Catholic Communalism

In Retrospect

I've been following the dialogue between Ono and Dylan re: Racism in America...

In all of this, one question teases me...

The original (1950's) civil rights movement was epitomized by Dr Martin Luther King. Like Gandhi's movement, it was based on a Christian mindset and it was effective in eliciting a Christian response. Well before King's death, Malcolm X became the voice of the civil rights movement. He changed the dialogue from one based on individual rights/obligations to one based on group identity. (This group identity paradigm became the model for subsequent 'rights' movements in America.) Today, watching the various dialogues between cultures, I wonder how much of this model has been fashioned by an "Islamic" paradigm.

It is also possible that the linkage exists in reverse as suggested by "How Marx Turned Muslim

Either way, I wonder if there is a greater commonality between an Islamic frame of reference and the paradigm of the American Left than meets the eye.

The sixth book written, you're nevertheless the first chronologically. You not only describe the creation of Narnia and tell where the White Witch, the lampost and the wardrobe came from, you get to bounce between worlds with the help of Uncle Andrew's weird magic rings.


Find out which Chronicles of Narnia book you are.

You are an angel.

What legend are you?. Take the Legendary Being Quiz by Paradox

Love Among the Ruins

One of the deeper truths of God is that he can turn all things to good. For example, so many people complain about the reality that the good (or sometimes the merely innocent) suffer from the effects of evil in our world. They think that there is something unjust about a God who will allow his sun to shine and his rain to fall indiscriminately on the good and the bad. They reject the claim that we are called to emulate God in this.

Evil is indeed heartbreaking. And yet, in the indiscriminate suffering that evil inflicts, we find a deep and lasting truth. We are all one Body in Christ. The evil that one of us does is in effect a corporate evil. The good that one of us does is a corporate good. The punishment and the rewards, the effects of sin are also corporate.

Sometimes I dwell on this truth. If the good could not suffer for the sins of others, there would be no possibility of Salvation. An Innocent suffering the sins of the guilty in reparation for those sins is the very loophole of our salvation.

Each time, some one argues that innocent suffering refutes a loving God, I am stunned anew at how innocent suffering is the definitive act of our loving God.

A good article on the new Norms

Revising the Norms on Sexual Abuse by Clerics

Mark Shea over at Catholic and Enjoying It has an excellent posting on what may be for some Catholics, The Toxic Phase of the current Church Troubles.

With regards to the latest episode of The Practice, I have asked several bloggers the following:

I was wondering what you thought about the juxapositioning of Bobby's indignation over the Church 'protecting serial pedaphiles" with his equally emphatic insistance that his firm protect a serial murderer.

I haven't gotten any responses but, trite as it seems, this is something that I am really curious about. The twin story lines were deliberately set in a single episode. This isn't real life where coincidence might explain the simultaneous appearance of these events. This is a deliberately constructed scenario.

I know that, since I've stopped posting, no one stops by to visit. After all, why should they? But if you do visit and you saw the episode, I would really be interested in your take on this.

The big advantage of NOT blogging is that you have time to visit other people's sites.

I couldn't stop reading this blog More Like Mary, Less Like Martha

With only two postings,it's too soon to tell, but On the Ragged Edge ... also looks promising. It is definitely a blog with attitude!

It's that time again ---

PRIESTS FOR LIFE: Election Aids
More candidate info can be found at Where Do Your Candidates Stand

Every day more Americans are killed through abortion than were killed by terrorists on 9/11.
Let's stop "giving aid and comfort to the enemy".

BE PRO-AMERICAN! -- VOTE PRO-LIFE!!!