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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
'Against The Grain' has moved!
At long last, Against The Grain has relocated to a new blog address: christopherblosser.blogspot.com
The move was occasioned in part by Haloscan's announcement that they had been bought by JS-KIT and that they were giving all users two weeks to either pay for an "upgrade" [or] download their comments, subject as they were to impending deletion. Some are taking the news rather badly. As for myself, while I certainly don't fault a company for trying to survive (there's no such thing as a free lunch, and Haloscan couldn't survive indefinitely as a free host) I think JS-KIT was a tad overbearing with today's Personally, I don't need all the bells and whistles of JS-KIT and it's ability to "turn my static pages into a real-time stream of diggs, tweets, comments, and more. " A basic commenting system is enough for me, so I've taken this as an opportunity to graduate my 'classic' template to the New Blogger. Hopefully y'all -- what few readers I have -- will understand.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
'Nuff said.
Matt Talbot, Vox Nova:
I wish Catholic priests and laity would stand up more often against this sort of thing.Kurt (in response): I really have better things to do that stand up against the fact I could drive around in a densely populated urban area and see my country’s flag every five minutes.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
First anniversary of the passing of Avery Dulles
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf reminds us:
It is a long tradition to pray for the dead on the 3rd day after death, 30th day and 1st year. Related
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Which is scarier?
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
How much has really changed over the years?
Never before in the history of the world was there so much knowledge; and never before so little coming to the knowledge of the Truth. Never before so much straining for life; never before so many unhappy lives. Never before so much science; never before was it used so for the destruction of human life.-- Bishop Fulton Sheen, 1933.
So here's the deal -- my financial situation is somewhat tight at the moment (much like, well, 90% of the country?). Donations would be appreciated, but I'm really not the type to bleg for handouts w/o offering something in return, and given my technical skills I'd like to contribute something to the exchange.
I do web design and am fluent w/ HTML, CSS and Photoshop. I love to build blogs and/or websites -- you can see the examples of a few by the banners in the margin, and of course there's the Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club. Most of these blogs I've turned out in the space of 2-3 days. If you're looking for help w/ a website and/or would like somebody to fix you up with a blog (Blogger or Wordpress), with graphics customized to your taste, or if you just need a blog-header or banner advertisement, I'm your man. Rates are negotiable.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
New Online Journal: "The New Jesuit Review"
[From the website]: The New Jesuit Review has as its goals the recovery of Jesuit spirituality from its authentic sources and reflection by contemporary Jesuits on its significance for their lives. The writings of St. Ignatius and the First Companions, the lives of Jesuit saints and martyrs, and classics of Jesuit spirituality are examined in the spirit of Perfectae Caritatis, the Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life of the Second Vatican Council:
It redounds to the good of the Church that institutes have their own particular characteristics and work. Therefore let their founders' spirit and special aims they set before them as well as their sound traditions -- all of which make up the patrimony of each institute -- be faithfully held in honor. (Perfectae Caritatis, 2)
Saturday, December 05, 2009
"Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments will hum about my ears and sometimes voices."[Aldous Huxley, Brave New World]
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Saul Alinsky and Jacques Maritain
Following the manifold scandals involving the Catholic Campaign for Human Development comes a twofold discussion by the blog Cosmos, Liturgy, Sex -- the first getting to the root of the problem, the second on the "spiritual paternity" of Saul Alinsky and Jacques Maritain (the latter post engaging Alinsky's son in the comments). An excerpt:
... But herein lies the troubling question of Maritain’s Catholic alliance with Alinsky, which would serve as a model for the post-conciliar Church in the U.S. and which should call the whole socio-political strategy of the post-conciliar Church in America into question. How could Maritain not have seen that Alinsky’s community organizations, his “buffers,” were in fact ordered to becoming functionaries of the State, its repressive arms of authority? Like all American agitators whose work operates in the trajectory of Marx’s nihilism, Alinsky awaited the day when a fully socialist political power would reign in the nation’s capitol. That day has now come, of course, as Saul Alinsky’s spiritual grandchild, and his heir to control of the community organizations in Chicago, Barack Hussein Obama, has now ascended to the presidency of the United States. Community organizations and “buffers,” such as SEIU, have now become potential instruments of governmental coercion.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Kierkegaard on Luther
Lutheranism is a corrective, but a corrective made into the norm, the whole, is eo ipso confusing in the next generation (when that which it was meant to correct no longer exists). And as long as this continues things get worse with every generation, until in the end the corrective produces the exact opposite of what was originally intendedAnd later: Luther: your responsibility is great indeed, for the closer I look the more clearly do I see that you overthrew the Pope and set the public on the throne[!]-- Journals of the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard
"The Debate is about Authority"
Witnessing the continued implosion of the Anglicans and the ELCA over matters of Christian morality, I am intrigued by the way present circumstances have inspired renewed consideration of tradition, authority and obedience.
As I wrote a few months ago ("On the troubles within the ELCA" American Catholic September 7, 2009): "What is interesting, at least from this Catholic perspective, is the extent to which the critics of recent decisions recognize the seeds of their present troubles woven into the very fabric of their tradition." In a recent post to First Things' "On the Square", Rusty Reno described the crisis of those experiencing "the agony of mainline Protestantism" thus: One either recommits oneself to the troubled world of mainline Protestantism with articulate criticisms, but also with a spirit of sacrifice, as he so powerfully evokes. Or one stumbles forward-who can see in advance by what uncertain steps?-and abandons oneself, not to “orthodoxy” or “true doctrine” or “good theology,” but to the tender care of Mother Church.As Joe Carter (First Things) noted, as with the Anglicans, so a faction of Lutherans have chosen a third route -- forming a new Lutheran church body separate from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Meanwhile, it appears that the homosexuality debate is fanning faculty and student protests at Calvin College -- the furor instigated by a memo reminding faculty that they were bound to the confessional documents of the Christian Reformed Church: [F]rom an historical point of view, there was nothing in the least bit controversial about the trustees' memo. It merely reminded the faculty of their confessional commitments to a traditional Christian and Reformed understanding of sexuality and marriage, commitments that had been in place for centuries and are, in some quarters of the Church being challenged.As author Jim Tonkowich observes: Just as the debate in the Protestant mainline are emphatically not about homosexuality, the debate at Calvin and at other evangelical schools is not about homosexuality either. The debate is about authority. And that debate goes back to the roots of Protestantism.
InsideCatholic's Double Standard
InsideCatholic readers are well aware of their standard guidelines for commenting, clearly posted a the bottom of every article:
1. No name calling or personal attacks; stick to the argument, not the individual.One has to wonder why certain authors themselves are exempt from such rules?
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Abortion, capital punishment and war -- One of these things is not like the other.
[Cross-posted to The American Catholic]
Ed Stoddard of Reuters' religion blog Faithworld carries a roundup of the skirmish between Congressman Patrick Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, has claimed that Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin. In conclusion, Stoddard asks: This leads to a question about the consistency of views in the U.S. Catholic Church leadership. The Church opposes abortion and therefore liberal politicians who support abortion rights risk being refused communion. The Church supports a healthcare overhaul that would make the system more equitable. So does a conservative Catholic politician who opposes this reform risk being denied communion for ignoring the Catholic social teaching that justifies it?The author's questions reveal an elementary ignorance concerning the moral issues in question and their relationship to varying levels of Church teaching. While I am disappointed by his answer (Faithworld is generally one of the better and more educational "religion blogs" in the secular media), it is understandable -- as even many Catholics find themselves confused on this matter. The basic difference between abortion and capital punishment (or the waging of armed force) is that the Church has firmly and explicitly taught that the former is an intrinsic evil: the direct taking of innocent human life to be opposed everywhere and at all times, while the moral worth of the latter two measures are contigent upon specific criteria and circumstance. In the case of capital punishment, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church's discussion of the fifth commandment, specifically the matter of "legitimate defense" (sections #2263-2267); on the matter of the waging of armed force, the Catholic tradition's criteria for a "just war" (sections #2307-2317). But is it not true that the Church has explicitly opposed contemporary instances of capital punishment or war? -- If so, why have the Bishops not sought to impose similar restrictions on communion on those officials in public life favoring the use of capital punishment, or expressing their support of U.S. foreign policy in Iraq -- a conflict on which both Pope John Paul II and even our present Pope (then-Cardinal Ratzinger) made their opposition known? Aren't such figures not in open dissent and in a state of obstinate sin against the Church as well? It seems to me that the response lies in the following teaching of the Catechism on the delineation of responsibility: With regards to the determination of moral criteria, the Catechism maintains "The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good."As to the nature of "prudential judgement", Russell Shaw -- himself a vehement critic and opponent of the Iraq War -- provided the following explanation in "Iraq, Weigel and the Pope" (Catholic Exchange. March 31, 2003 -- defending the 'Catholic neocons' legitimate right to disagree with John Paul II): The notion of prudential judgment may need explaining. “Prudential” refers to prudence, and prudence these days has a bad name with people for whom it signifies lack of courage and failure of nerve. In the tradition, however, prudence is one of the cardinal virtues upon which other virtues depend. The function of prudence in this sense is to keep us in touch with morally relevant facts.I believe that such an exercise of prudential judgement could equally be made in the exercise of capital punishment -- where, for example, a Catholic public prosecutor might be compelled to respectfully disagree with a bishop on the means required in legitimate defense of society. It is presumed that in such cases those who disagreed with the Pope on the justness of the Iraq war or the exercise of capital punishment were not disputing Catholic principles governing the dispute. George Weigel or the late Father Neuhaus, for example, while differing with the U.S. Bishops' reading and application of just war criteria, could not be described as seeking to challenge or dismiss the criteria altogether. Likewise, as Avery Cardinal Dulles pointed out in his response to Justice Scalia, John Paul II's opposition to capital punishment was prudential in nature and should not be construed as an overturning of 2,000 years of Catholic tradition. Contrast this with Rep. Kennedy's disparaging remarks about the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for their recent letter to the House of Representatives, reminding them of the Catholic Church's opposition to any legislation in health-care reform that would include funding for abortions or fail to include conscience-protections for health-care providers -- a position which he explicitly ridiculed (warranting Bishop Tobin's response). In such a case, the words and oftentimes legislative actions of Kennedy (or like-minded figures as Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden or Kathleen Sebelius, to name a few) stand in clear and direct opposition, in what is aptly described by Tobin as an obstinate rejection of Church teaching on abortion. As then-Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, put it succinctly in a 2004 letter to the U.S. Bishops articulating "general principles" on the distribution of communion: Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.In light of which, it would appear that Thomas Tobin was fulfilling his obligations as a Bishop of the Catholic Church in responding to Senator Kennedy in such a manner.
Addendum
Paul J. Griffiths on Rowan Williams and "Ecumenical Obedience"
Catholic theologian Paul J. Griffiths pens a good response to Rowan Williams on the Catholic-Anglican divide:
This past Thursday (19 November 2009), Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, gave an address at the Gregorian University in Rome as part of an event celebrating the centenary of the birth of Cardinal Willebrands, the first President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. In it, he made a distinction between first-order theological understandings of the Church, on which he thinks that there has been considerable convergence between Anglicans and Catholics since the Second Vatican Council; and second-order questions, the answers to which still divide, but consensus about which, he thinks, is not as “vital for its [the Church's] health and integrity” as is that about first-order questions. See Also
Here and There
An eclectic mix of posts and articles that captured my attention recently -- perhaps yours as well?
Self-Indulgent Scott Hahn Rage-Fest!!!
Arturo Vasquez is seething, SEETHING! -- the author positively enraged over "paying $10, being told to park in an unconvenient/borderline unsafe location, and sitting in bleachers all to be in the wonderful presence of Scott Hahn and sit through a 'Catholicism is Scriptural, now let’s all cheer ourselves' pep rally."
As a commentator pointed out: I wouldn’t expect Hahn to lecture on the nuances of Aristotelian metaphysics re. Transubstantiation, to what is essentially a lay audience. You really need to relax, this type of even was not meant for people like you. Why you went there to begin with is beyond me. He has much more serious "events" like the “Letter & Spirit Summer Institute."
Friday, November 27, 2009
Eliot on Pascal
"The majority of mankind is lazy-minded, incurious, absorbed in vanities, and tepid in emotion, and is therefore incapable of either much doubt or much faith; and when the ordinary man calls himself a skeptic or unbeliever, that is ordinarily a simple pose, cloaking a disinclination to think anything out to conclusion. Pascal's disillusioned analysis of human bondage is sometimes interpreted to mean that Pascal was really and finally an unbeliever, who, in his despair, was incapable of enduring reality and enjoying the heroic satisfaction of the free man's worship of nothing. His despair, his disillusion, are, however, no illustration of personal weakness; they are perfectly objective, because they are essential moments in the progress of an intellectual soul; and for the type of Pascal they are the analogue of the drought, the dark night, which is an essential stage in the progress of the Christian mystic. A similar despair, when it is arrived at by a diseased character or an impure soul, may issue in the most disastrous consequences though with the most superb manifestations; and thus we get Gulliver's Travels; but in Pascal we find no such distortion; his despair is in itself more terrible than Swift's, because our heart tells us that it corresponds exactly to the facts and cannot be dismissed as mental disease; but it was also a despair which was a necessary prelude to, and element in, the joy of faith.-T.S. Eliot (introduction to Pascal's Pensées)
Fr. James V. Schall on reading "Great Books"
I have no doubt that what are called the “great books” should be read. I read Plato and Aristotle every semester with increasing awe.Fr. James V. Schall on "Another Sort of Learning" (The Catholic Thing October 9, 2009 )
"Biggest Shopping Day of the Year"
"The Manhattan Declaration"
Joe Carter (First Things) - What is "The Manhattan Declaration"?:
The Manhattan Declaration is a 4,732-word statement signed by a movement of Orthodox, Catholic and evangelical Christian leaders who are collaborating around moral issues of great concern. Its signers affirm the sanctity of human life, marriage as defined by the union of one man and one woman, and religious liberty and freedom of conscience. The Manhattan Declaration endorses civil disobedience under certain circumstances.You can read the document here; you can append your signature here. Related
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Against The Grain is the personal blog of Christopher Blosser - web designer
and all around maintenance guy for the original Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club (Now Pope Benedict XVI).
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