The Catholic - a man without a party

[Note: For anyone so sensitive as to be offended by the gender-inclusive use of the masculine term in the title, it is meant to be an allusion to Edward Everett Hale's novel by a similar title. (Anymore it's like having to explain the punch line of one's jokes, isn't it.)]

This is from one of our readers, and I thought it too good to leave in the Comment Box:

From Ann Coulter, "Iowa Shows Republicans Determined to Beat Obama," January 4, 2012:

"Santorum is not as conservative as his social-issues credentials suggest. He is more of a Catholic than a conservative, which means he's good on 60 percent of the issues, but bad on others, such as big government social programs. He'd be Ted Kennedy if he didn't believe in God.”

Coulter's quote reveals a little more than she meant it to. For her, Catholics are 60 percenters. There is considerable cleavage between Catholicism and her brand of "conservatism."

Surely, the 60% agreement consists in opposition to such social innovations as gay marriage, legalized abortion, stem cell harvesting, etc. BUT – none of these positions were ever bedrock republican establishment issues. Rather, they were Catholic / Evangelical etc issues coopted by the Republican establishment to bring in votes that were not necessarily republican to begin with.

If anything, Wall Street loves abortion because it gives the drug companies and health providers new products and service lines. It prizes stem cells, harvested from the bodies of aborted children, for these could become huge moneymakers once the moral qualms are swept aside. And gay boys and girls are piggish consumers of fashion, toiletries and other flags of self-indulgence. Disrespect for life and respect for sexual perversion is good business.

Clearly then, Wall Street, and its political arm, the Republican Party, have no abiding interest in the moral values of Catholics or any other religious group. There's no money in them. The alliance between Catholics and Wall Street republicans can be regarded, within the inner sanctum, as temporary exploitation, valid only until a better deal comes along.

And that is exactly what Coulter, a journalistic strumpet of the republican establishment, reveals in her sarcastic flip-off of Santorum.

It would be nice if the democrat party had something to offer besides socialism and secularism, but it doesn't. Catholics do not have a home in either party. They should understand that, to the extent that they persist in their faith and the traditional teachings of their Church, they are pariahs in The Land of the Free.

[Hat tip to R.R.-D.]

Even Clint Eastwood is concerned . . .

. . . but apparently doesn't know exactly which way to go, except that we should all pull together, because "It's Halftime in America." But, of course, it's also a Chrysler commercial.

Septuagesima

Today. Heralding Lent.

Pres. Obama to Catholic Church: "You may kiss my . . ."

A cartoon by Michael Ramirez, courtesy of Tom Peters via Fr. Z.

Inspirational Beauty: The Stained Glass Photos of Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.

Tridentine Community News (February 5, 2012):

Stained Glass is an art form where even the most inexperienced observer can recognize quality when he or she sees it. The best examples can tell a story with their rich color and detailing.

British Dominican and Extraordinary Form advocate Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. has spent several years compiling a photo library of some of the finest examples of stained glass imaginable. Not only are the examples themselves moving, but Fr. Lew’s sharp photographic skills help to convey their full beauty. He has licensed the photos under the Creative Commons, permitting their re-use for non-commercial purposes provided Fr. Lew is credited.

Along with some other interesting photos of pipe organs, church ceiling art, and life at Blackfriars, the Dominican Priory in Oxford, England where he is based, Fr. Lew’s stained glass photo set is available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/

We have and will continue to feature some of his photos relevant to certain Feast Days on our weekday Mass Propers Handouts. With thanks to Fr. Lew for producing this important and inspirational set of images, here are some examples:


The Miracle at Cana, at Burgos Cathedral in Spain


St. Paul encountering the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus
and being called to be an Apostle, in
St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh


Christ in Gethsemane, at Cropredy parish church

Next Mass at St. Albertus
The next Tridentine Mass at St. Albertus will be in two weeks, on Sunday, February 19 at noon.

Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

Mon. 02/06 7:00 PM: Low Mass at St. Josaphat (St. Titus, Bishop & Confessor)

Tue. 02/07 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Assumption-Windsor (St. Romuald, Abbot)

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@stjosaphatchurch.org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat bulletin insert for February 5, 2012. Hat tip to A.B.]

White House Misrepresents Its Own Contraceptive Mandate

From the USCCB, something extraordinarily incisive.

[Hat tip to E.E.]

"Pride" mass in London

"La crisi della Chiesa è una crisi dei vescovi - A Londra, la messa 'Pride'" (Rorate Caeli, February 4, 2012):

"Eminentissimi signori Cardinali! Eccellentissimi signori in Curia!

Guardate questo video...."

(The linked video is on the apostles of gay sex in the Westminster Archdiocese of Archbishop Nichols in London.)

Showdown: Catholic Military Chaplains and Obama Administration

Fr. Z: "Pres. Obama is at war with the Catholic Church" (February 4, 2012):

"In Catholic churches across the country, parishioners were read letters from the pulpit this weekend from bishops in their diocese about the mandate from the Department of Health and Human Services giving Catholics a year before they’ll be required to start violating their consciences on insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs. But not in the Army.

"... On Thursday, January 26, Archbishop Broglio emailed a pastoral letter to Catholic military chaplains with instructions that it be read from the pulpit at Sunday Masses the following weekend in all military chapels....

"The Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains subsequently sent an email to senior chaplains advising them that the Archbishop’s letter was not coordinated with that office and asked that it not be read from the pulpit....

"Archbishop Broglio and the Archdiocese stand firm in the belief, based on legal precedent, that such a directive from the Army constituted a violation of his Constitutionally-protected right of free speech and the free exercise of religion, as well as those same rights of all military chaplains and their congregants.

"Following a discussion between Archbishop Broglio and the Secretary of the Army, The Honorable John McHugh, it was agreed that it was a mistake to stop the reading of the Archbishop’s letter. Additionally, the line: “We cannot — we will not — comply with this unjust law” was removed by Archbishop Broglio at the suggestion of Secretary McHugh over the concern that it could potentially be misunderstood as a call to civil disobedience."

Precisely.

Update: "153 US Bishops have protested Pres. Obama’s blatant attack on Catholics" (WDTPRS, February 3, 2012). That's over 80% of bishops who head dioceses who have spoken out against the Obama/HHS mandate.

Catholic Church Rejects Surrender Terms from Obama

Cliff Kincaid (Accuracy in Media, January 30, 2012):

The issue is what the Catholic Bishops have called a “literally unconscionable” edict by the Obama Administration demanding that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception be included in virtually all health plans.

[Hat tip to Roger Lessa]

Related: As Mike Liccione (or was it Marcel LeJeune?) says: "It took Obama's Administration to get 100% of the US Bishops to agree. Even the Pope can't do that."

Mark Shea in trailer of movie based on Chesterton's "MANALIVE"

[Hat tip to K.K.]

American war casualties

[Hat tip to J.B.]

Christopher West is back ...

... allegedly "with a vengeance," and comes in for some heavy criticism HERE and HERE.

[Hat tip to J.M.]

Peter Kreeft's conversion story

Maybe you have to be a convert yourself to be a sucker for conversion stories, but there are some I've always enjoyed hearing or reading. Peter Kreeft's is one of them.

Get it?

[Hat tip to Fr. Z.]

The transvaluation of liturgical values

[Regarding the suppression of the traditional Mass by Paul VI]

"A community is calling its very being into question when it suddenly declares that what until now was its holiest and highest possession is strictly forbidden, and when it makes the longing for it seem downright indecent."

-- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Salt of the Earth, tr. Adrian Walker
(San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997), p. 176.