eVangelizing

The online No Spin Homilies of Father Dan Volkert of St. John the Evangelist Church in nearby Greenfield are the subject of our Archdiocesan weekly's Year of Priests supplement concluding article.

Connell rips, vans, winkles, U.S. Bishops audits

Father James Connell just looked at the procedures set up in the U.S. Bishops 2002 Dallas Charter and found them wanting.

"I actually feel somewhat deceived by the bishops conference," he said.

Compare blogger "Diogenes" at Off the Record in this post from over seven years ago.

Kermode and Moffat on Forster

the Forster in both these books comes across as covertly sophisticated. If his novels have not got the self-conscious “art” of Henry James, it is because Forster wished to connect with the vagaries of human experience rather than to create a separate aesthetic universe.

On beauty, The Economist, review of 'Concerning E.M. Forster', by Frank Kermode, and 'A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E.M. Forster, by Wendy Moffat

Hello Dalai

The lama said, “That sounds cool.”

I nodded and Bethany said, “That reminds me. The Buddha talks about the Five Aggregates as form, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness. Sometimes I feel fat even though I know I’m not. Is that feeling or perception?”

The lama said, “I have no idea but you’re definitely not fat.” Then we all laughed because she wasn’t.

One More for the Path, by John Kenney, The New York Times

Anty hero

Midway through the novel, and comprising a fifth of the whole, is a self-contained novella, "The Anthill Chronicles", which purports to be an undergraduate biology thesis by the protagonist of 'Anthill', about the rise and fall of four ant colonies in a tract of forest in southern Alabama. Happily for the reader, these chronicles bear no resemblance to student reports...

It's a bug's life, The Economist, review of 'Anthill', by E.O. Wilson

Anti-social

when used as a modifier, “social” means “not”; e.g., social justice, social security, social worker, etc.

--social scientist Jeff Milyo at The Volokh Conspiracy

Cosmopolitan Tocqueville

...Tocque­ville’s responses to America were more perceptive and appreciative than those of other European travelers, like Frances Trollope and Charles Dickens. These visitors made pungent, informational comments about America but showed a provincialism that Tocqueville rose above. The fastidious Trollope portrayed America as a nation of boorish tobacco-chewers, bellowing revivalists and swaggerers. Dickens complained about the grunting pigs and screaming newsboys on the streets of Manhattan. For Tocqueville, such excesses were part of the liveliness and brashness of an ever-changing democratic society.

Tocqueville: The Life, by David S. Reynolds, The New York Times, review of 'Tocqueville's Discovery of America', by Leo Damrosch

Confirmed reports

In the bishops' column in the latest Milwaukee Catholic Herald, Bishop Sklba reflects on this latest Confirmation season.

It might be helpful to explain to candidates why weekly attendance at Mass is a perfect experience of everything of importance in Catholic spirituality.

In the Year of Priests supplement to that same issue, an article on priests' jubiliees recounts Fr. Gerald B. Hauser's 65 years.

Fr. Hauser began his priestly ministry as a third assistant curate at St. Leo, Milwaukee, 1945-1946 where he recalled that 6,000 people attended Sunday Masses, 5:30 a.m. to noon.

Almost makes one wonder how they explained weekly attendance at Mass to get that result.

Coetzee's censors

These South African censors were scholars — academic peers who, Mr. Coetzee came to suspect, listened to Mozart on the hi-fi as they read Austen and Trollope at home and thought of themselves “as doing a good job.”

One secret reader, Mr. Coetzee recalled, invited him to tea “and we had a long discussion” about literature. “I had not the faintest idea that she was one of my censors.”

The Censor and the Censored, Linked by Literature, by Alan Cowell, The New York Times

Thoughts and Ponderings: The Sequel

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's report posted November 14, 2009 that Listecki named Milwaukee archbishop included this.

Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests cited a study for the U.S. Conference of Bishops saying the La Crosse Diocese sided with priests over victims in 64% of cases, compared with the national average of just under 10%.

If only Father James Connell read the newspaper, or its website.

Polish Fest Mass with Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki

Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki will celebrate Mass at Polish Fest at the Cultural Stage Pavilion.

That's at Maier Festival Park on Milwaukee's downtown lakefront, 10:30 a.m., the Archdiocese of Milwaukee announced.

Polish Fest says 10:15 and

The reading and music will be in English and Polish.

Gates for the mass will open to the public at 9:30 am and will close at 11:00 am.

All are invited for the musical prelude at 10:00 am.

Ever hear that Milwaukeeans like a bargain?

Tickets into Polish fest are only $4.00 after attending the 10:15 am Mass.

If I recall my Milwaukee history, beer after Mass was more associated with Milwaukee's German heritage, but as you can see

Tyskie Polish Beer will be available this year at Polish Fest!

Looks like the rest of the Fest Mass is in English, so to also go to Mass entirely in Polish you'll have to go at 5:30 tonight.

News from around the Diocese

Amy Pawlak returns to the Milwaukee Catholic Examiner with "a brief round-up of this week's news from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee".

She'd returned to her blog, too.

Double vision

Rocco Palmo's report at Whispers in the Loggia on A Wisconsin Round-Trip: Milwaukee's Callahan to La Crosse included this on conditions there.

while most dioceses facing the ongoing waves of church closings execute a realignment plan within a short-term timetable following its announcement, the prior bishop and his team undertook the task in an uncannily creative way: crafting a new pastoral matrix that would reduce the number of parishes from 165 to 75, but keeping it as a "contingency" that would be implemented gradually, and only as future circumstances require.

If I recall correctly, Archbishop Listecki has Milwaukee's Vision: 21st Century plan under review, perhaps to compare it to the La Crosse plan.

Markedly twain

his reputation was hardly as slight as he liked to pretend. In London he and Charles Darwin were both abashed when introduced to each other as “great men”.

More than just a phunny phellow, The Economist, review of 'Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens', by Jerome Loving

A new translation of 'The Second Sex'

In this passionate, awesomely erudite work, Beauvoir examines the reasons women have been forced to accept a place in society secondary to that of men, despite the fact that women constitute half the human race.

Dispatches From the Other, by Francine du Plessix Gray, The New York Times, review of 'The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir, translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier

P.S. Virginia Postrel on Progress and Decline

Du Plessix Gray's review also demonstrates with parallel translations just how needlessly ugly and opaque the prose employed by academic humanists (notably including academic feminists) has become.

(via Althouse)

Extra ordinary

For the return to Ordinary Time our pastor's bulletin column includes this.

I suspect that it will be easy to tell that we are now in the “ordinary” time of the church year. The environment is changed, the music is simplified, the prayers less complicated. The great Easter season and related feasts are over.

Yet, ordinary time does not mean dull. Just like in our lives, liturgically we cannot sustain “highs” all the time. We need a quieter time to reflect on our faith. We need a time in which to grow quietly in appreciation of our beliefs. Take advantage of this “ordinary time” to do so.

I hope this doesn't turn out to be a longer way of saying the Gloria is being omitted to emphasize the ordinariness of the season. That has been the latest explanation.

Callahan promoted to La Crosse

Pope Benedict XVI Appoints Bishop Callahan 10th Bishop of La Crosse our Archdiocese of Milwaukee announced.

On October 30, 2007, Bishop-designate Callahan was appointed auxiliary bishop of Milwaukee. He was the first Conventual Franciscan to be named a bishop in the United States.
...
On April 20, 2009, the College of Consultors elected him to serve as the administrator of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee until Archbishop-designate Listecki was installed as archbishop of Milwaukee on January 4, 2010.

(via Annysa Johnson at JSOnline)

Update: Brian Olszewski reports at the Milwaukee Catholic Herald.

Reading the screens of the times

Bishop Gabino Zavala voices concerns about blogs, at the at 2010 Catholic Media Convention in New Orleans.

the confounding of license with liberty, the passion for discussing and pouring contempt upon any possible subject, the assumed right to hold whatever opinions one pleases upon any subject and to set them forth in print to the world, have so wrapped minds in darkness that there is now a greater need of the Church's teaching office than ever before, lest people become unmindful both of conscience and of duty.

Wait, that's Pope Leo XIII on Americanism.

Here's Bishop Zavala.

As I talked with brother bishops in preparation for this presentation, there was consistent agreement that one aspect that is most alarming to us about media is when it becomes unchristian and hurtful to individuals. For example, we are particularly concerned about blogs that engage in attacks and hurtful, judgmental language. We are very troubled by blogs and other elements of media that assume the role of Magisterium and judge others in the Church. Such actions shatter the communion of the Church that we hold so precious.

(via Whispers in the Loggia)

Want any wine with that?

In last Sunday's bulletin column our pastor observes,

Today the liturgical calendar has us celebrating the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. This feast previously was called Corpus Christi and was observed on a Thursday. In keeping with contemporary cultural situations, it was moved to Sunday so more of us could celebrate this event.

He goes on to discuss Church teaching on the Eucharist, the need for a proper disposition when receiving, and some issues of form, including,

While a person has a right to receive Communion on the tongue, receiving in the hand seems to be more in harmony with Jesus’ command when he said, “TAKE and EAT.”

On the other hand, lining up at one of many distributors, receiving standing and in the hand, then walking over to the cup, do have some resemblance to the contemporary cultural situation of a fast food restaurant.

Sheep futures

Our Archdiocese's capital campaign, Faith In Our Future tops $94.3 million in pledges, 90% of its goal. Our Archdiocesan weekly reported on the campaign's board of trustees' statement, which included that

the Faith In Our Future Trust will make grants in the future directed at strengthening Catholic education and faith formation for the 700,000 Catholics in our area.

Last I saw, we were down to 643,775 Catholics in our area, which doesn't even round to 700,000. I would have more faith in our future if these membership numbers got the conspicuous and meticulous attention of the financials.

Nobody expects the snappish inquisition

Prior to running for U.S. Senate, Ron Johnson

a Lutheran, sided with Catholic Church leaders in opposing the so-called Child Victims Act before a state Senate committee in January.

Dan Bice's account in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel included this reaction from Peter Isely of SNAP.

"It's interesting they send a Lutheran down to fight a Catholic cause," Isely said. "What would Martin Luther say?"

It's interesting that Mr. Isely is in "any weapon to hand" mode. If, as he says, it is "a Catholic cause" to oppose the "Child Victims Act", is the Act then an anti-Catholic cause? Is he implying that a Lutheran opposing the Act is collaborating with the anti-Christ? Has SNAP set out to test if a cause can be so sympathetic that its proponents cannot overreach?

Moderator in all things

Our Archdiocese's Priest Placement Board informs us Spring assignments announced.

Our Archdiosesan weekly included a sidebar explaining Titles used in the assignments. One title is both Latinate,

In solidum team.

and a little Orwellian.

The pastoral care of a parish, or of a number of parishes together, can be entrusted to several priests jointly in what is called an in solidum team. One of the priests is to be the moderator of the pastoral care exercised by the team. This moderator is to direct their joint action and to be responsible for it to the bishop.

Knocking around with Mickey Kaus

In the print edition of The New York Times today, Janelle Brown's profile of the Democratic challenger for U.S. Senate in California says

For a solitary blogger, Mickey Kaus is astonishingly social and well connected: It’s difficult to find a writer or politico in Los Angeles who hasn’t knocked boots (or opinions) with Mr. Kaus...

In her correction, Ms. Brown tweets

Cripes: Meant "rubbed elbows." Wrong body part/metaphor. ...

At the moment, the Times online version compromises at "knocked elbows".

The origin of everything

If you make a living by inventing scenarios of how natural selection produced, say, xenophobia and racism or the love of music, you will not take kindly to the book.

Not So Natural Selection, by Richard C. Lewontin, The New York Review of Books, review of 'What Darwin Got Wrong', by Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini

Shakespeare as pseudonym

Most mainstream Shakespeareans stand aloof from it. But apparently the claims of Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere and Christopher Marlowe, among others, are on the rise.

Hero or hoax, The Economist, review of 'Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?' by James Shapiro

Austen's aspirations

An extremely canny writer, the most talented member of a surprisingly literary family, Austen read her contemporaries and predecessors rigorously, thinking deeply about her own style, about her aspirations for her writing. Amazingly, Austen came up with technical breakthroughs that would take the novel well into the modern era.

Pride and Popularity, by Sophie Gee, The New York Times, review of 'Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World', by Claire Harman

C. Buckley on the Greek financial crisis

Amid the general murmuring, Cephalus, a Retiree, began to curse so vehemently as to make Hera turn the color of pomegranate, saying that he too had been ill used by the Assembly.

Now they tell me, he said, that I may no longer have free passage aboard the state inter-island trireme for my visits to Mykonos, where I make sacrifice to Apollo Suntan Oil. Am I to pay for transport out of my own purse? Did I not give Athens a lifetime of service, a full 10 years, licensing and dispensing the monthly bonuses to Thessalonian olive inspectors?

The Debt of Socrates, by Christopher Buckley, The New York Times

Fiat Lux Center

Sacred Heart School of Theology establises center for Catholic-Jewish studies, Annysa Johnson reports in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It is "Named for Richard Lux, Sacred Heart's longtime professor of Scripture studies and a founding member of the Catholic-Jewish dialogue in Milwaukee... ."

Vin sent

Group seeks more volunteers for its home visits: St. Vincent de Paul Society tries to raise its profile, Annysa Johnson reports in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

its most important work is done often in obscurity, in parenting and meal programs, in its stores, and in ministering to the needy - who may or may not be Catholic - in their homes, nursing homes, hospitals and prisons.

The home visits "have always been a sort of behind-the-scenes, grass-roots, neighbor-to-neighbor kind of helping," said Gerry Felsecker, who is retiring as executive director after 40 years with the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Milwaukee.
...
"There is not an area in our county, in the 10-county area, where we don't get calls for emergency aid," he said.

My paternal grandfather, I'm told, made a similar observation when he was with SVDP at Christ King parish in Wauwatosa.

As of Tuesday Monday President of MUHS

Marquette University High School announced last Tuesday that Jeff Monday, class of 1984, has been named its new president. "Since 1997, Monday has served as executive vice president of Messmer Catholic Schools and principal of Messmer High School. He began his career at Messmer High School in 1988 and during the past 20 years also served as vice principal, mathematics teacher, advisor and coach."

Caveat blogger

the trouble with blogging is that the more you blog, the less you read. --Niall Ferguson