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Perspective, Political

Freedom to eat

From the AP: Chicago overturns ban on foie gras in restaurants

CHICAGO (AP) —” Dining on foie gras —” a delicacy made of duck and goose liver —” will soon be legal again in Chicago.

The City Council on Wednesday repealed its two-year-old ban on the gourmet dish, drawing dissent from animal rights activists who consider foie gras cruel because the birds are force-fed to make their livers bigger.

But there were no worries in chef Didier Durand’s restaurant, Cyrano’s Bistrot.

“All of us are so excited,” Durand told reporters as he held his pet duck, Nicolai, named after French President Nicolas Sarkozy. “People miss it. They used to go to the suburbs to get foie gras and stopped going to specifically French restaurants.”

Durand was one of a coalition of restaurateurs who started Chicago Chefs for Choice, a movement to overturn the ban, which went into effect in August 2006. He said Wednesday that he would begin serving foie gras again as soon as the repeal goes into effect later this month.

“You might disagree with serving foie gras, but you don’t do a ban and forbid everybody to have foie gras,” Durand said. His restaurant was one of many across the city that held foie gras dinners in the days before the ban took effect…

Amen chef, Amen! The government looses control over one more aspect of our lives. If you don’t like it, don’t eat it. Protest against it. Use your mind and your wits to convince others of your argument, but don’t put me in prison because I disagree with your perspective.

Perspective, PNCC

Who’s that man in a dress

…and why is he dancing with that little girl?

Deacon Jim and daughter

In New York’s Capital Region we have several public access TV stations. One of the stations carries a Polka show (I think its called Polka Joe – but I’m not sure). Anyway, this gentleman travels from Polka event to Polka event and films the events. The events are later broadcast via public access. It’s a niche demographic.

A week or two ago one of my staff members caught up with me to tell me that her mother-in-law was watching this Polka show and saw this guy in a dress dancing with a little girl. She called her over to see a scene filmed at my parish’s annual PolishFest. My staff member looked closely and saw that it was my daughter and me.

Q. Who’s that man in a dress?
A. He is a deacon at that church.
Q. Why is he dancing with a little girl?
A. It’s his daughter.
Q. Why is he wearing a dress?
A. Clerical attire.

All sorts of hilarity ensued.

When I attend a public event – especially at the parish, I wear a cassock and cincture. I also have a biretta, but that only comes out for liturgical events. What I found most interesting is that the person asking is probably old enough (and Roman Catholic enough) to remember cassocks, birettas, etc.

I was born just prior to Vatican II and remember my pastor walking his dogs wearing a cassock and biretta. I remember the way he came to the altar wearing the biretta, and then removed it as he ascended the steps. The priests of that day may have worn a “dress” and a funny hat but they were men.

I personally hope that their use becomes more prevalent. Beyond the basic message the cassock conveys (remember at tonsure you are reminded that you are no longer adorned in the fashion of the world – ab omni servitute saecularis habitus hunc famulum tuum emunda, ut dum ignominiam saecularis habitus deponit, tua semper in aevum gratia perfruatur), wearing a cassock make the balance of the liturgical garments a clergy member wears look far better. The lines are cleaner and you don’t look messy with pant cuffs hanging below your opaque alb (bleh…).

Just a little story outlining the things lost in the twilight zone called V-II.

Perspective, Political

Who is a conservative?

An interesting post from Albany Catholic: Is Obama the True Conservative?

We at Albany Catholic do not endorse candidates. We do however, like to keep our readers well-informed. With that in mind, we pass along the following item. The March 24, 2008 issue of The American Conservative had an interesting article entitled The conservative case for Barack Obama by Andrew J. Bacevich

Young Fogey… any thoughts on the Bacevich article?

Perspective,

Genealogists, the LDS, and the Vatican

From Kimberly’s Genealogy Blog on About.com: Vatican Orders Catholic Parish Registers Off-Limits to LDS Church

A recent letter issued by the Vatican Congregation for Clergy directs Roman Catholic dioceses worldwide to keep The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from “microfilming and digitizing information” contained in Catholic sacramental registers, according to a report in the Catholic News Service. The reason give for the move is to prevent LDS Church members from using the records to posthumously baptize Catholic ancestors by proxy.

The Vatican directive says the purpose of the policy is to:

“ensure that such a detrimental practice is not permitted in [each bishop’s] territory, due to the confidentiality of the faithful and so as not to cooperate with the erroneous practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

One of the core tenets of Mormon faith is that the dead can be baptized into the Church to offer them the opportunity to accept the faith in an afterlife and achieve salvation. Many Jews and Christians have been upset by this practice, and see it as usurping the memory of their departed relatives. Some of this has been due to such names appearing in the International Genealogical Index (IGI) which does include the records of temple work submitted by member of the LDS Church, but also includes names extracted from civil records as part of a Records Extraction Project. In other words, just because a name is in the IGI, doesn’t mean the individual was baptized into the Latter-day Saints faith after their death…

I’m often asked if I’m a Mormon when people first learn of my interest in genealogy, but in actuality I’m a Catholic – and on just about every branch of my family tree. I just spent some time this week researching some of my French Catholic ancestors in 17th century parish registers – online, of course! I can’t even begin to imagine how long this research would have otherwise taken trying to compose letters in French to request copies of baptism and marriage records for which I did not have an exact date. Without those Catholic parish registers there would have been few, if any, surviving records available to help me piece together my family tree.

The LDS Church has microfilmed millions of pages of parish registers from all over the world — many of them from Catholic parishes. In doing so, they preserve these valuable records for future generations, and make them available to people all over the world – people of all faiths and beliefs. Restricting access to these records by the Latter-day Saints hurts everyone, and possibly even denies the Catholic church part of its own heritage as unfilmed records are lost to decay, flood or fire. As David M. Bresnahan so eloquently stated in his article Genealogists Need Catholic Records to Find Ancestors – Families Have Right to Family History, “Hopefully Mormons, Catholics, and genealogists of all faiths can unite in prayer that those who are responsible for this decision will reconsider, particularly as the consequences of this policy become manifest.”

As a genealogist I agree with this perspective. The LDS (I am no fan of their beliefs) ensures preservation of records, makes research easy, and gets by hurdles put in place by short staffed parish administrators who have other things to do, more essential than responding to genealogical inquiries. In researching Polish genealogy you occasionally run across unfortunate circumstances where pastors who can only be bothered for a price. I think the Vatican’s response is reactionary and unfortunate. Also, I find nothing to fear from Mormons undertaking odd rituals when we believe they are as meaningless and incantations and spells. As to the privacy of the faithful issue, most LDS records are available for the early 1900’s and prior. They only provide info on people who are deceased, same as government agencies do (e.g., the SSA deceased individuals index).

Everything Else, Perspective

You are a bad…..

From Cyberbrethren: A Lutheran Blog – Not a Bad Lutheran, Just a Bad Person

On another Lutheran blog site, a blogger posted his confession that he does not much like the writings of Martin Luther, the paintings of Lucas Cranach, or the music of J.S. Bach. He asked, “Does this make me a bad Lutheran?” A person responded by saying, “No, it doesn’t make you a bad Lutheran, just a bad person.” I thought this was one of the funniest quips I’ve read on a Lutheran blog site in a long time.

This is really funny. I laughed quite a bit when I read it. I just had to share it with you. It also speaks to a common failure among the faithful – an inability to recognize and honor where we come from.

Anyone want to take a shot at humorous quips for other Churches or faith groups?

Perspective, Political, ,

A nuclear wait a minute here

From the Scotsman (as well as other sources): Clinton: I’ll obliterate Iran if it launches nuclear attack on Israel

THE Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton warned Tehran yesterday that if she were in the White House, the United States could “totally obliterate” Iran in retaliation for a nuclear strike against Israel.

On the day of a crucial vote in her nomination battle with fellow Democrat Barack Obama, the New York senator said she wanted to make clear to Tehran what she was prepared to do as president in the hope that the warning would deter any Iranian nuclear attack against the Jewish state. “I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran (if it attacks Israel],” she told ABC’s Good Morning America programme.

“In the next ten years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them,” she said…

This is really really sick, coming from a person who wishes to be the President of the United States.

This issue first emerged during the last Democratic debate, and I thought it was sick when Ms. Clinton said it then. Now this?

The person elected as President usually tasks a rather reticent approach toward such issues. They make general statements, things like, “We will consider our options,” or “We will defend our allies,” etc. Even our current president, while engaging in a lot of rhetoric that is unfortunate, doesn’t promise actions like this.

For my part, let Israel take care of itself. Israel has nuclear weapons, and tons of military hardware provided by this country. Why should we get involved. Are we, as a county, so bent on defending a foreign land that we would initiate a nuclear holocaust on their behalf?

A 2006 census pegs Iran’s population at over 70 million, with about 10.5 million being age 15 or under. We would kill them all, either in direct nuclear hits or in the radioactive aftermath? Really? The United States would do this? This is what we want from our leaders?

Beyond the obvious meaning of obliterate, we would irradiate the Middle East – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, much of the Persian Gulf, Pakistan (they have nukes too), Armenia, and he former Soviet Republics. Do we think that Russia and Pakistan and India would say, “Ok, you’ve irradiated our populations and now they are going to die horrible deaths, but we won’t do anything about it?”

That radioactive cloud won’t stay there either. We better lay in a big supply of iodine because our sons and daughters, right here in North America, will be dying in their 20’s from bone cancer and leukemia.

Our politics are sick and sad if our leaders can casually say that they will obliterate a country – and no one calls them to account for saying it. I lived through enough of the Cold War to know that living under the specter of a nuclear holocaust was no fun. Living in Western New York meant we were target one in a dual nuclear hit. As a former member of CAP I used to take part in radioactivity monitoring exercises – to prepare for the day. In reality I would have been dead – and even as a child I knew that. No child should have to live like that.

It may take a village to raise a child, but only one crazed leader to obliterate the village.

Current Events, Perspective, Political

Interesting quotes

On the Bishop of Rome’s visit:

“Clearly, they like the pope, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to do everything he tells them,” said Father Thomas Reese of Georgetown’s Woodstock Theological Center. “People ultimately are going to do what they think is right.”

As quoted in the Bloomberg article: Benedict to Confront Skeptics, Scandal in U.S. Trip. I guess that in Fr. Reese’s book Roman Catholics in the U.S. are really Protestants with funny rituals?

On Bush being a closet Catholic:

You can’t be Catholic and un-Catholic at the same time.

From a comment on Bush a “Closet Catholic”? at Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate. I would only differ in saying that yes you can – when you sin.

Christian Witness, Perspective

Called to Ministry?

Found this at Reformed Catholic: Guide for Elder Wannabe’s.

Here are some suggestions for those wanting (or —feeling called—) to enter the ministry. I’ve learned by experience that some of these items would be helpful to candidates and others pursuing ordination. Other items represent what I believe might be helpful. In any case, I offer them up for consideration for students and others to perhaps avoid some of the mistakes I’ve already made and many others have also perhaps made along the way

While certainly bearing a Reformed understanding on certain issues like ordination, on the whole I agree with points the writer makes.

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