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Month: September 2006

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Christian Witness, Current Events, Media

Ralph ‘Bucky’ Philips and family values

Donn Esmonde of the Buffalo News comments about the Ralph ‘Bucky’ Phillips tragedy unfolding in Western New York in Fugitive’s family values perverse.

As you may know, Mr. Phillips escaped from jail several months ago. He is suspected of shooting three NY State Troopers and of killing one, trooper Joseph Longobardo.

In the article Mr. Esmonde highlights the Christian witness of a local R.C. pastor, Fr. Patrick Elis. Beyond that, Mr. Esmonde makes an excellent case in regard to the responsibilities of fathers to their families and to all families. Excerpts follow:

Family? This guy doesn’t know anything about family.

In the stomach-churning saga of fugitive Ralph “Bucky” Phillips, perhaps the most nauseating notion is of this man standing up for family.

That is what a friend of Phillips’ told The Buffalo News last week, after two state troopers on stakeout near Phillips’ ex-girlfriend’s house were shot. Dan Suitor said State Police brought the ambush upon themselves by – days earlier – arresting Phillips’ daughter, her mother and boyfriend for helping Phillips avoid authorities.

“That was like a declaration of war,” said Suitor, who believes Phillips was the shooter. “You do not mess with [Phillips’] family or his friends.”

Pardon me while I gag.

If Ralph Phillips did what police believe, not since Charles Manson led his self-styled “family” astray has one man done so much harm to so many families – including his own. Phillips’ daughter, her mother and his grandchildren all have been put in harm’s way by his actions.

“Nothing he has done [since escaping prison five months ago] has helped his family,” said the Rev. Patrick Elis, who offered his Cassadaga church as a safe surrender site. “Not at all.”

Monday we endured TV images of the widow of slain state trooper Joseph Longobardo as her husband’s body was returned to his Albany-area home. Teri Longobardo, a kindergarten teacher, planned Thursday to celebrate her fourth wedding anniversary. Instead she will mourn her dead husband. In her arms was their 13-month-old son. Little Louis Longobardo will never know his father.

…

Now tell me how much Ralph Phillips cares about family.

The guy spent most of his 44 years in jail. A real family man would have stayed out of stir, found a job and lived up to his responsibilities as a father.

No real family man would ever purposely destroy another man’s family. No one who values the web of a family’s interconnections, no one who realizes how every part – mom, dad, guardian, aunt, child, whoever – is a vital piece of a larger puzzle, would purposely destroy a family. Not for any reason.

…

If Phillips truly cared about his family, he would take up Elis’ offer to turn himself in. Elis says he will put the $225,000 reward into a trust fund for Phillips’ grandchildren. The money gives them a chance at a better life than Phillips made for himself.

…

Everything Else,

They’re coming back…

I received a CM Almy 2006-2007 liturgical catalog today. Since I am not independently wealthy I do not shop at Almy, but I like to look.

I noticed that this version of the catalog has a lot more in terms of dalmatics (some nice traditional styles and some modernist stuff) and they have maniples!

Maniples are certainly used in some PNCC parishes (we have several beautiful sets in our parish), and I know that they are used in traditionalist R.C. circles, as well as by some Anglo-Catholics, but finding them in this kind of catalog —“ well where have I been?

I’ve always been a firm believer in ‘the clothes make the man.’ Too many rush through the process of getting vested, skipping the vesting prayers. Careful attention to detail helps us remember whom we are to re-present and how we are to conduct ourselves. It is also a good lesson for altar servers. I also try to pray with our altar servers before the beginning of Holy Mass.

Here are vesting prayers that are commonly (or uncommonly) used:

When washing the hands: Give virtue to my hands, O Lord, that being cleansed from all stain I might serve you with purity of mind and body.

With the amice: Place upon me, O Lord, the helmet of salvation, that I may overcome the assaults of the devil.

With the alb: Purify me, O Lord, and cleanse my heart; that, being made white in the Blood of the Lamb, I may come to eternal joy.

With the cincture: Gird me, O Lord, with the girdle of purity, and extinguish in me all evil desires, that the virtue of chastity may abide in me.

With the maniple: Grant, O Lord, that I may so bear the maniple of weeping and sorrow, that I may receive the reward for my labors with rejoicing.

With the stole: Restore unto me, O Lord, the stole of immortality, which was lost through the guilt of our first parents: and, although I am unworthy to approach Your sacred Mysteries, nevertheless grant unto me eternal joy.

With the chasuble: O Lord, Who said: My yoke is easy and My burden light: grant that I may bear it well and follow after You with thanksgiving. Amen.

With the dalmatic: Lord, endow me with the garment of salvation, the vestment of joy, and with the dalmatic of justice ever encompass me.

Perspective

Questioning faith

Huw Raphael has posted on the question (and questioning) of faith in True Confessions.

There’s not a lot to say about these types of struggles. Everyone faces them in their own way, and with God’s grace (which you cannot see as being there at the time) you get through it. The best we can do is to pray for the person facing questions of faith. Huw, you have my prayers.

From my own struggles, and these are personal to me and may have no relevance to anyone else, I can offer the following:

The key question for me was whether I was able to deny Jesus. Going through my time of spiritual darkness (which lasted about 10 years) I was able to deny and reject a lot of things. However I was never able to deny or reject Jesus. I was tempted, and I thought about it, but I could never make that statement. I could not tell Him to go away.

Faith is a gift from God. Grace is offered to all and some take God up on the offer, some do not. Some get it right away, some never see it (or at least they won’t admit to it). Why one has faith, when another does not, is a mystery. It comes down to whether we can accept our place in relation to the One who is greater than us and the fulfillment of us.

Dark times are times of maturation. Huw comments on this. Do we replace faith in fantasies (Santa, the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny) with faith in a seemingly more adult fantasy? Do we do this while never really maturing? Is faith simply an immature place to be? The dark times are meant to take us from childish (not childlike – which is good), to adolescent, to adult faith. They are a stop in the journey where we are challenged to grow —“ and growth hurts sometimes.

Scrupulosity is a pitfall we all face. I personally think that God is with us on our journey. He is not distant or removed from it. He knows us better than we know ourselves. If we become overly scrupulous in our actions, learning, practices – about needing to definitively know something – we miss the point of the journey. God put us on the journey in the first place. The point is to be embraced by a love that is at once personal and communal. If you must know faith in an absolute sense you will never get it. Faith is a knowing acceptance.

Some ‘adults’ never get beyond childish faith (I believe in God because mommy would be angry if I didn’t and I don’t want God or mommy to punish me) or adolescent faith (I believe because I want to be accepted in the group/community). That is why we need good and holy priests and deacons —“ to reach these people and bring them along. I fully believe that God has higher expectations of some of us. We have been given talents we must use for His glory, and for the building up of the Kingdom. God pushes us into the dark to test us and to allow us to come out on the other side at the next stage of maturity with our talents at the ready. Even when He puts us out, He never lets us go. He will continuously call us back. God doesn’t throw us to the wolves naked and alone. He’s with us the whole time.

For me, faith is the abiding presence of God in my life, a presence I cannot get rid of. Faith pushes me in ways I do not wish to go, and makes me wait for what I desire, all the while drawing me ever closer to my desire, to my love.

Christian Witness, Political

On the right to work

Father Martin Fox writes on Lifting up the Right to Work lightning rod…

He beings with:

Another Labor Day; another opportunity to offer some clarity about what the rights of working people and the dignity of work entail, but which our laws don’t provide for:

And ends with:

* The logic of the “coercion is for their own good” mentality is, ultimately, hostile to self-government. If workers need to be coerced, why stop there? Why shouldn’t people be coerced into religion, for their own good? Why shouldn’t they be subject to a fascist political system, “for their own good?” Where does it end.

These are some of the reasons I am for Right to Work.

I highly recommend that you check out his posting and the comments attached to it. Fr. Fox is not just blowing smoke; he has the facts to back up his assertions.

As a past victim of union coercion I am in total agreement.

Current Events, Perspective, ,

The priesthood, women, and a lost shepherd

Father Chandler Holder Jones at Philorthodox had a post on Roman Catholic Acceptance of ‘Womenpriests’.

Quite a few bloggers have been posting on this issue since the alleged ordination of a group of women outside Pittsburgh.

A caveat, Father Jones is a Continuing Anglican priest in the Episcopal Church so his post may be is colored by his watching experience of the headlong slide into wherever it is the Episcopalians are going.

What struck me about the post was not the issue itself, but the way the conclusion was drawn. The conclusion over-reached the facts as they were stated. This is one of the primary problems in the blogosphere. It is a problem I have – so this hits home with me.

On to dissecting the content:

The first issue that needs to be addressed on this whole woman as priests issue is the whole concept of the priesthood.

All sacraments require proper matter and form as well as a proper minister. It’s all very well and good that these women thought they were being made priests, but you can’t make a priest out of a material that cannot become a priest (i.e., a woman). It’s like trying to make the Precious Blood out of water. It’s kind of wet like wine, it goes in a chalice like wine, you can consume it like wine, but it is not wine… It cannot be made into the Precious Blood. The same for women, they are human beings like men, they can wear clerical garb like men, but they are not men… They cannot be made into priests. If there were a valid Bishop presiding at the ordination (I doubt it), in seventy-five layers of the most traditional vestments, the ordination would still be invalid. No Holy Spirit, nothing happening.

Calling oneself a priest, and actually being a priest, outside of the Faith and Tradition of the Church, are two different things.

OK, so these women aren’t priests, and any properly catechized Catholic would know that anyway (and as such making a big deal out of it is basically a lot of smoke and no fire – see the Young Fogey’s comment on the issue and on the posting).

The post goes on to infer that a Roman Catholic parish in the Diocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is going to sponsor a ‘mass’ by one of these women. Thus the Roman Catholic stance against this sort of nonsense is crumbling and the R.C. Church is on the same greasy slide as the Episcopalians.

Fr. Jones states (emphasis mine):

Saint Joan of Arc parish of Minneapolis Minnesota, a parish ostensibly in full communion with Pope Benedict XVI, is sponsoring a ‘Eucharistic Celebration’ offered by Ms. Regina Nicolosi

and he concludes by saying:

Is this the beginning of a new revolution in the American branch of the Roman Communion? The echoes of the simulacrum which transpired in the Church of the Advocate Philadelphia on 29 July 1974, and subsequent events in the Episcopal Church leading up to 1976 and 2003, are ominously unmistakable.

Now, checking out the website for St. Joan of Arc (which the diocese does not link to) reveals the parish to be on the far outer edges of Catholicism. They wallow in some kind of sci-fi weird flower power religion that vaguely resembles Catholicism. However, nowhere in last week’s bulletin did it state that the ‘mass’ would be in their church or that they were sponsoring the event. They were advertising an event at which one of their parishioners was to speak (maybe they thought it was going to be a bratwurst dinner – yeah, right).

In this week’s bulletin Fr. Jim DeBruycker, the Pastor (do a Google on this fellow – you will be incredulous), quasi-apologizes for the bulletin insert. From what I’ve read, in two weeks of checking out their stuff, the good Father has a real problem with being patriarchal – perhaps he’s a father that doesn’t want to be a father?

The funniest line in last week’s bulletin (beside the phony mass thing – and I don’t mean ha-ha funny) was this from the good Father:

In another e-mail someone suggested I was returning St. Joan’s to archaic times. I’m pretty sure that is the controversy over the ‘lord I am not worthy’ phrase before communion. I know to some people that sounds like a surrender to power based on a fear of abusive dominance. I admit if it was me saying this to the church governance I would be reticent to say it, but to me it is admitting am not perfect before God. I can be the abuser, the breaker of the community. I need the help of God. It heartens me to know the pope, the cardinals and the archbishops have to say it too.

It’s almost good catechesis for his lost flock, if only he would have focused on sin and being a “breaker of community.” Instead, he took a teaching moment and used it to denigrate others. Shame shame, patriarchal and judgmental in sheep’s clothing.

Father, be a good patriarch, a good shepherd, and take a positive stand for something. Being against everything, except what you like, makes the Church of Christ into the church of me, myself, and I…

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Current Events

—ž9/11 For NY— Koncert Miłości, Życia I Odrodzenia

Michal Urbaniak & Urbanator are presenting a concert in Warsaw, Poland

—ž9/11 For NY—
Koncert Miłości, Życia I Odrodzenia
(A Concert of Love, Life, and Rebirth)
Warszawa 11 Września 2006r godz. 19.00
(Warsaw, Poland, September 11, 2006, 7pm)

The following is the press release I received:

11 września, w piątą rocznice ataku na WTC, odbędzie się w Warszawie międzynarodowy koncert Michała Urbaniaka zatytułowany —ž9/11 For NY—. Na zaproszenie słynnego polskiego jazzmana, w jednym miejscu spotkają się artyści różnych narodowości. Wystąpią w warszawskim Parku Sowińskiego na Woli.

Wielkiemu koncertowi towarzyszy wystawa Czesława Czaplińskiego (wieloletniego przyjaciela Jerzego Kosińskiego), zobaczymy fotografie wykonane przed i po zamachu terrorystycznym 11 września 2001 roku.

Ten szczególny koncert zainaugurują, Michał Urbaniak z Orkiestrą Kameralną —žAukso— pod dyrekcją Marka Mosia. Wykonają m.in. znany utwór autorstwa Urbaniaka pt.: —Manhattan Man—. Warto wspomnieć, że już w 2002 roku —“ w pierwszą rocznicę ataku na WTC, Michał Urbaniak zagrał koncert ku czci ofiarom tragedii, transmitowany przez CNN. Po raz pierwszy wówczas artysta zadedykował wszystkim nowojorczykom, wyjątkowe wykonanie kompozycji —žManhattan Man—.

Około godz. 20.00 rozpocznie się koncert amerykańskiego zespołu —žUrbanator—.

Artyści poprzez własną muzykę pragną oddać ubolewanie, hołd i współczucie ofiarom tragedii i ich bliskim. Własną twórczością chcą udowodnić, że wciąż pamiętają o tysiącach ludzi, którzy zginęli, a także o tych, których życie rozpadło się w pył z powodu śmierci i zniszczenia, jakie przyniósł 11 września 2001.

Skład Urbanatora:

Michał Urbaniak —“violin
Ladora Knight —“ vocal
Nato – rap
Nick Morach- guitar
Tom Barney-bass
Don Blackman-keyboards
Troy Miller-drums

Koncert poprowadzi prezenter telewizyjny i radiowy Michael Moritz.

Organizatorzy planują zapalenie w finale koncertu dwóch świetlnych promieni symbolizujących dwie wieże WTC.

Warszawski koncert 11 września rozpoczyna trasę koncertową Michala Urbaniaka & URBANATORA w Polsce.

11 września, godz. 19.00 —“ Warszawa, Park Sowińskiego

[Additional concerts:]

12 września, godz. 21.00 —“ Poznań, Atrium
15 września, godz. 20.00 —“ Łódź, Manufaktura
17 września, godz. 20.00 —“ Gdynia, Klub Pokład

Wszelkich informacji udziela Dorota Palmowska, nr tel. 0606 66 75 45

ZAPRASZAMY

Saints and Martyrs

September 4 – St. Rosalia (Św. Rozalija)

Święta Rozaljo, któraś pogardzała światem, i książęcemi rozkoszami, udałaś się w góry i tam ukryta w jaskini bogomyślne prowadziłaś życie, uproś nam u Boga, abyśmy pokus świata unikali a żyjąc skromnie i pobożnie zasłużyli sobie na żywot wieczny. Przez Pana naszego Jezusa Chrystusa. Amen.

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