Thoughts and opinions from a Priest in the PNCC
EXTREME SARCASIM WARNING
It looks like Israel is showing the U.S. the way to rid itself of its immigration problems: Israeli air raids kill 40 civilians in Lebanon
One Israeli air strike hit a farm near Qaa, close to the Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley where workers, mostly Syrian Kurds, were loading plums and peaches on to trucks, local officials said. They said 33 people were killed and 20 wounded.
They blew up the migrant farm workers…
God have mercy on us all.
The Buffalo News is reporting on two faith communities in Buffalo that are doing the right thing. They are reclaiming a portion of the city most people have written off as drug and crime infested. They are restoring value to a portion of the city where people who own homes have to abandon them. They cannot sell, as many of the properties have a negative value.
Check out the article: On the East Side, growth is at home: 3 new housing developments may be able to transform some moribund neighborhoods
Three new housing developments are popping up in an unexpected place – Buffalo’s East Side.
One development involves the transformation of one of the city’s oldest public housing complexes into a mix of rental properties and market-rate homes or townhouses.
Another plans the transformation of a 16-block area around the Masjid Zakariya mosque on Sobieski Street.
And the third – being built without any government subsidies – includes the construction of 40 suburban-style homes around St. Stanislaus Catholic Church on Peckham Street.
Religious institutions are centerpieces of two of the housing initiatives as faith-based groups get more active in revitalizing neighborhoods.
The projects also are within a mile or two of each other in a part of the city where such activity – no matter who sponsors it – has not been the norm.
Municipal labor unions are at it again in Buffalo, New York.
The unions, the inheritors of cushy contracts and high wages for their members (as well as plush jobs for union officials) are upset because their workers have not been granted wage increases over the past few years.
The unions met the other night and discussed staging a combined citywide strike, crippling the city and endangering the health, welfare, and safety of the city’s residents (including school children), all because they haven’t gotten what they want.
The wage freeze that is in effect in Buffalo is the result of actions by a Municipal Control Board instituted by the State of New York. The Control Board was necessary as Buffalo was so far in the red that it was about to go bankrupt. Buffalo politicians and their union supporters were so lost in the woods that someone had to come in and rescue them.
A dying rust belt city, Buffalo’s population and tax base has steadily decreased since its peak in the 1950’s. Wikipedia has an excellent article about Buffalo. The population chart shown there indicates that a city that once boasted nearly 600,000 residents now tops out at a little more than 280,000 residents.
The problem is that while the city declined, the unions grew. Their wages grew, their slots grew, and the politicians handed over more and more power and money to the unions in exchange for their support. No one had the courage to turn off the faucet.
A friend once told me that Buffalo is the perfection of communism, one-third of the people working for the government, one-third on the public dole, and one third actually working to support the other two-thirds.
The unions, and the politicians who have fed them, are the problem. They need to be reigned in and they need to be brought down. Work together for the city and improve everyone’s life, get rid of the fat, and work a full day for an honest wage. Do you really need a union if you are confident in your ability to work and succeed?
As to the strike proposition, I think there is a term for harming the innocent to get what you want —“ and I think it is called terrorism.
For more on the story, check out the Buffalo News’ series of articles on the story: Unions discussing citywide strike and Strike could hurt workers. An excerpt from the second story appears below:
Meanwhile, a Common Council member who is on leave from his job as a Buffalo public school teacher says unions have blundered by floating the strike trial balloon.
“I understand their frustration,” said North Council Member Joseph Golombek Jr. “But I represent some neighborhoods where the median income is $16,000 a year. If they’re looking for sympathy, they won’t get it in many of my neighborhoods.”
In October 2004, the control board released a study indicating that the average city worker earns 180 percent more than the typical Buffalo resident. Union leaders attacked the study for using distorted numbers and accused the control board of being obsessed with abolishing union contracts.
Boże, któryś zasługami i nauka błogosławionego Dominika, wyznawcy Twego, kościół Twój uświetnić raczył, spraw za jego przyczyną, aby nam nigdy nie brakło pomocy doczesnych, i abyśmy duchownem wsparciem zawsze wspomagani byli. Amen.
Św. Szczepanie, męczenniku! wyjednaj mi u Chrystusa przebaczenie grzechów moich, i wyproś mi łaskę potrzebną, abym kochać mógł Boga z całej duszy mojej. Obym przez resztę żywota mego żył tak, abym przy śmierci cieszył się, ze wkrótce zobaczę Zbawiciela w niebie. Przez Chrystusa Pana naszego. Amen.
Is Mel Gibson a sinner?
Uh, yes, because the ‘I’m going to answer a question with a question.’ question is: ‘Is Mel Gibson a human being.’
I have empathy for Mel and I pray for him. Alcoholism is a terrible disease. There are all kinds of drunks: mean, happy, sleepy, and funny. Nevertheless, they are drunks. They need to heal their addiction with honesty and humility.
I think we’ve learned enough as a country and as a people to know all this. Twelve step programs and addictions are talked about incessantly in the press and in the news.
I found it very unfortunate that a person’s disease, and recklessness, became the fodder for hate mongers.
Those with a prejudice against Mr. Gibson, and his work, saw the opportunity. Let’s pile on.
What really took me aback was not the fact that people were offended by his tirade, for the prejudicial statements on his part were indeed offensive, but the attitudes I heard from the Jewish talking heads on the news shows. ‘He is an anti-Semite.’ ‘He is responsible for his father’s statements.’ ‘His apology will never be accepted.’ ‘His apology is not good enough.’
Because of God’s own words expressed to us by His son, Jesus, the Messiah, we as Christians have a very charitable concept of forgiveness. Confess your sins, be forgiven. Mr. Gibson did that almost immediately, and did so publicly. I would imagine that his penance is to seek healing for his disease.
Some have stated that the Jewish concept of forgiveness either doesn’t exist or is far harsher. They would be wrong.
Jewish thought on forgiveness is at its root similar to the Christian concept of forgiveness. It is charitable and generous. After all, God laid down the Law for the Jewish people. He didn’t contradict His Law; rather Jesus fulfilled the Law.
The Ethics of Forgiveness from the Talmud Torah Center for Basic Jewish Education states:
Jewish law (Halacha) requires us to ask forgiveness from anyone whom we may have harmed, whether the harm was physical, financial, emotional, or social. Nevertheless, one is required to be gracious in granting forgiveness. The source for this halacha is the Mishna in Baba Kamma 8:7 which says, “From where do we know that it is cruel to not forgive? For it says, “Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech…” (B’reishis (Genesis) 20:17).
It is forbidden to be cruel and difficult to appease, rather, a person must be quick to forgive and difficult to anger and when the sinner asks for forgiveness he should forgive him willingly and wholeheartedly….”
Mr. Gibson was wrong and his words were cruel. He asked for forgiveness —“ so it should be freely and generously given. Then we should pray for and support him so that he seeks the recovery he so badly needs for his illness. That’s what God’s people would do.
Ben Johnson at Western Orthodoxy recently wrote a posting called So’s Yer Mama.
While he focuses on the tragedy of people taken-in by a non-canonical quasi-religious group that claimed to be Orthodox, his points serve as a good primer on why the Church is different.
What sets the Church apart? Why do the sins and human failings of the Church’s members not degrade its mission or its truth?
People very quickly point to someone like me, a cleric, and say: ‘I remember when you were younger you did such and so.’ ‘You once did such and so.’ You have a track record of [name the sin]. They also say things like: ‘Well the Church is just a bunch of men who…’ or ‘I follow God, not the rulings of men.’
You get the point.
What those people are trying to do is state that my personal history and current sins (or that of any believer, the Pope, a bishop, or priests) negate the truth of the Church.
What people on the outside do not see or realize is that the Church does contain the truth.
Her teaching and directives are not of human estate, but are from God. They also fail to differentiate between the sins of an individual (or many individuals) and the reality of what the Church is. They judge the whole, stating that the entirety of the Church must be sick, because all its members are sick.
Mr. Johnson states:
However, the intent of this blame-shifting sleight-of-hand is to place all the focus upon the Church’s human nature and obscure Her divine nature. The Church, as the Body of Christ, is united with Her Head. The divine mysteries are imparted by men at various levels of rebellion and interior brokenness, so the Church in its human expression has never been without scandal and will never be. However, what sets the Church apart from such as the “monks” of Blanco is the divine pledge of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence. St. Augustine of Hippo’s triumph over Donatism affirmed that whatever the human failings of the Church’s representatives, the sacraments still usher the Orthodox faithful into the life of the Trinity (energies). It is only in the holy condescension of Jesus Christ to the flesh, of the His Flesh imparted at the Last Supper, of the perpetual institution of the Eucharist in the Church, and of the sacerdotal ministry’s commission until His “second and glorious advent” that the Orthodox Church may claim preeminence. Not coincidentally, all were gifts of divine grace. “What do you have that you did not receive?”
… The question converts face is not whether they wish to join a church exempt from the possibility of sin, even grave sins. Unfortunately, that option is not open to us … The question each Christian must ask is whether he wishes to remain with sinners in his own denomination — who do not teach what he believes — or join with fallen men in the true Church that affirms his beliefs, has a promise of divine protection, and dispenses the medicine of immortality in the sacraments.
…
The difference between Orthodox and Pseudodox is not that only one groups sins. Orthodox priests are blessed with the charism of the Spirit, and it is only because they are “endued with the grace of the priesthood” that they are able “to stand before this Thy Holy Table, and perform the sacred Mystery of Thy holy and immaculate Body and precious Blood.” God has empowered Orthodoxy to overcome all sin — clerical and lay — with His sacraments, His Spirit, and the pledge that He will ever preserve His Body from the ravages of the world, the flesh, and the devil. We know of no such promise to the “monks” of Blanco, Texas.
I remember reading, some time ago, about some traditional Catholics’ who objected to John Paul II’s continued apologies on behalf of the Church. ‘We’re sorry because the Church did this or that.’
John Paul was not incorrect in apologizing. He just apologized on behalf of the wrong entity. His apology should have been on behalf of members of the Church who engaged in sinful behavior, not on behalf of the Church.
The Church cannot be sinful, wrong, or in any way incorrect. Only the men and women in the Church are sinful.
That’s what we’re all trying to work out, the avoidance of sin through the sacramental (sanctifying) grace and actual grace given to us by God through His Church.
Membership in the Church does not make me (or anyone) perfect. It simply works to bring us to perfection.
That is why people can point and say I am a sinner and that I do (and did) wrong things. That simply does not change the argument. My personal wrongness in no way affects or subtracts from the rightness of the Church.
I remember a few years back, hearing stories about how Cubans in the United States were anxiously awaiting the death of Fidel Castro.
The elite among them were preparing to move right in and resurrect Cuba’s wheeling-dealing days (gambling, prostitution, drugs, and ‘capitalism’) from the 1950’s and prior. They had designs prepared for hotels and casinos. They had backers lined up. They had their boats ready and were anxious to take to the seas and get back first. All that was required was the death of Fidel.
As Fidel Castro undergoes treatment for his medical condition, Miami celebrates. Yet, strangely, nothing in Cuba is changing.
Fidel will be cold in the ground, but there will be no boats, no hotels, no casinos, no 1950’s. It is time to wake-up. It is time for both sides to reject the abject idiots they have put in the fore.
Castro and his dictatorship have done little to lift up the people. The reality of oppression and dictatorship, plus abject poverty, is the antithesis of what the common man would see as the promise of the revolution. It is only about the cult of personality in a very limited way. Mostly it is about the cult of power —“ who has and exercises control.
One of my friends once asked me if I would ever choose to take a vacation in Cuba. I told him I would not. I asked him how he would feel having to kowtow to the tourists if he were a Cuban citizen. He, having come from Poland when it was run by the communists, knew that such tourists simply take advantage of a repressed people. No one wants to support a dictator.
The Cuban nationalists in the United States are crazy too. They want a dream that died in the 1950’s. You can’t go back. You cannot recapture a lost era. They live on Fantasy Island, rather than in the real Cuba.
They are ready to go forward, replacing a communist dictatorship with a dictatorship of the financial interest groups (and by-the-way, they will be pushed aside very quickly, except a few figure heads like Battista was).
Maybe they should ask: Will the people be any less subjugated? Will your penthouse view still look down on poverty? Why are your determinations and dreams so much more important than the determinations and dreams of the millions who live in the real Cuba?
The nationalists are also idiots for lobbying to keep Cubans repressed. They punish their own people by supporting the crazy ‘blockade’ that’s existed since the 1960’s. The only proven record for bringing about political and economic change is engagement.
Nothing will change in Cuba until Cubans see the necessity for change. Nothing will change until Cubans (not South Florida residents) engage in a process of true self determination.
Those who wish to return should return and get to work. Stop the embargo, engage, help lift the people up. Maybe then the people on the street will see that reasonable capitalism will improve their lives. Maybe they will rally behind a leader who will lead them into democracy. Maybe —“ but only if they determine their own future.
For some interesting observations and links, check out Castro’s Cyber Deathwatch: Preparing For Death On The Internet by John David Powell.
…and a stinging indictment of U.S. policy from Patrick Buchanan in Israel is Playing Us for Fools. An excerpt below, but make sure you take a look at the whole thing:
If Israel is not in violation of the principle of proportionality, by which Christians are to judge the conduct of a just war, what can that term mean? There are 600 civilian dead in Lebanon, 19 in Israel, a ratio of 30-1, though Hezbollah is firing unguided rockets, while Israel is using precision-guided munitions.
Thousands of Lebanese civilians are injured. Perhaps 800,000 are homeless.
Yet, whatever one thinks of the morality of what Israel is doing, the stupidity is paralyzing. Instead of maintaining the moral and political high ground it had — when even Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan were condemning Hezbollah, and privately hoping Israel would inflict a humiliating defeat on Nasrallah — Israel launched an air war on an innocent people. Now, 87 percent of Lebanese back Hezbollah, and the entire Arab and Islamic world, Shia and Sunni alike, is rallying behind Nasrallah.
And how does one defend the behavior of the United States?
When Gillerman was exulting in the disproportionality of Israel’s attack on Lebanon, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton was smiling smugly beside him. When the UN Security Council tabled a resolution condemning Hezbollah’s igniting of the war and Katyusha attacks, but also the excesses of Israel’s reprisals, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton vetoed it. When a few congressmen sought to moderate a pro-Israeli resolution by adding words urging “all sides to protect innocent life and infrastructure,” GOP leader John Boehner ordered the words taken down.
Why? Because, says Zbigniew Brzezinski, AIPAC, the Israeli lobby, had prepared the resolution and wanted it passed the way they wrote it. Our Knesset complied. It sailed through the House 410-8.
And yes, it is the munitions made with our technology, by our hands, in our factories, that is killing the children of Lebanon. Thanks Mr. Bush, maybe the up-tick in military sales will offset the slowing economy and the huge trade deficit.
Tip ‘o the biretta to the Young Fogey and Hallowed Ground.
Fr Joseph Huneycutt posted this prayer from St. Ephraim: Prayer to the Theotokos in preparation for the Dormition Fast observed in the Orthodox Church.
O most holy Mother of God, O only Lady who art utterly pure in both soul and body, look upon me, abominable and unclean, who have blackened soul and body with the stains of my passionate and gluttonous life. Cleanse my passionate mind; set aright my blind and wandering thoughts and make them incorrupt; bring my senses to order and guide them; free me from my evil and repulsive addiction to unclean prejudices and passions which torment me; grant my clouded and wretched mind the sobriety and discernment to correct my intentions and failings that, freed from the darkness of sin, I might be worthy to boldly glorify and praise thee, O only true Mother of the true Light, Christ our God; for all creation, visible and invisible, blesses and glorifies thee, both with Him and in Him.
After I read it, all I could think of was that it is a perfect prayer for bloggers to make – asking Our Lady’s intercession. Besides the outward petition for help in freeing ourselves of improper bodily passions, this prayer might also help us keep our words free from prejudice and improper passion, seeking only a clear mind set on the glory of God.